Chapter 2: Absurd Hierarchies and Purple Water

As we enter the lab, Mrs. Davidson looked up from her paperwork on her desk. Mrs. Davidson is a stern, but nice teacher. She's in her late forties, with dirty-blond hair and brown eyes, and she wears blue rimmed glasses. She doesn't wear much makeup, and she always has an impeccable sense of fashion, choosing usually to wear long skirts with a loose-fitting blouse and cardigan. She's slightly taller than Belle and has somewhat wrinkly tan skin.

Mrs. Davidson looked at Belle and I and let us in. We're the kids who have the top grades and never cause any trouble, so we are always let in early for our classes. The rest of our classmates would probably have to stand in line for at least two minutes while Mrs. Davidson finished up her paperwork. I sat next to Belle in one of the desks, and we began to take out our notes from yesterday's PowerPoint presentation. As Belle skimmed hers, I examined the classroom.

The classroom ceiling is about eight feet high, and the walls are that same beige color as the hallway. The far side of the room is filled with cabinets and drawers with lab equipment, and there are windows that face the small courtyard in the back of the classroom. The rain had let up a little more, and the sun was shining through, so Mrs. Davidson let the windows open and the fluorescent lights off. There are two doors on the opposite side with the lab equipment, and that wall has a counter and sinks for experiments. There are three columns of interconnecting desks, with chipped wood surfaces and the familiar plastic school chairs. Two people sit at every desk, and each column holds two rows of two desks.

At the front of the classroom is a whiteboard that stretches about a third of the way into the wall, and then there is the screen which takes another third, and the last third of the wall is taken up by another whiteboard. There is an overhead projector in front of the screen, suspended above the front desks. In front of the screen and the whiteboards is the counter where Mrs. Davidson would do hands-on demonstrations, and her desk which is very messy and covered with paper. The classroom always smells distinctly of chemicals and rust, but it isn't too sharp a scent. The class is almost always exciting, so the atmosphere isn't as nearly as dead as it is in the hallway.

As I finished up my observations, including the fact that there were twelve new beakers filled with purple liquid on the demonstration counter, and twelve is the number of desks there are, the bell rang, signaling fifth period. I have all eight periods filled with classes, not including lunch, while Belle has one free period and seven classes. Most of our classmates have two or three free periods, but we have the highest GPAs, with mine as 4.0 and Belle's at 3.865. Belle already had her free period before lunch, when I was taking the highest math courses, so I didn't miss much, as she was in a slightly different math course.

People started to flood in as Mrs. Davidson opened the door. Belle and I sat in the front, since we asked Mrs. Davidson to be put together and away from the jerks. This was mainly Belle's doing, since I can probably beat up any of them at any given time, but she doesn't like to hear anyone saying any bad words, let alone be partners with someone as dirty minded as some of our classmates. Mrs. Davidson spoke, stirring me out of my thoughts.

"Students, open up your notes and be ready to write. We are continuing the presentation on molecular compounds from yesterday," some of our classmates groaned, so she continued, "If you don't know when to take out your notes, look at Vivienne and Belle," I felt the blush that crept up on my face, despite me stoically staring at the board, pencil in a hard grip, and Belle cleared her throat, looking as if she was about to murder someone with her pencil, "They are the perfect role model students for what you should be doing, instead of talking as soon as soon as entering my classroom." She went on to explain how today we were going to finish up our notes and do a small hands-on experiment for our last grade this year. Tomorrow is a party in all our classes, so we couldn't do much.

As we finish up our notes on molecules, someone starts kicking the back of my chair. I know exactly who it was. Noah. A "popular" who refused to leave me alone. I resisted the urge to turn around, grab his foot, and dislocate his ankle. I can't use my self-defense unless I really need it. That was one of the first rules I taught myself. I ignore him throughout the presentation, which takes about fifteen minutes. As I close my notebook, I take my pencil and quickly write on Belle's. She shoots Noah a glare, and out of my periphery I could see him smirk. I really want to punch that smirk off his face.

"Alright, students, now partner up with the person who is sitting next to you," the other students groan, since, aside from me and Belle, all the partners were in such an arrangement that each partner was of the opposite gender as the other and none were friends besides the popular crowd, but Mrs. Davidson marches on, "One person from each group grab a beaker, a piece of scratch paper, and a textbook, and the other grab the lab materials listed on the board." As the other students rolled their eyes, she added, "And the first group to find out what this liquid is earns a free pass for tomorrow!" I should've known. All our teachers were doing this. Every class, they would give one free pass to a student who had completed a challenge, and that made everyone compete extra hard.

I remember last year I was asked to step down for a bit in the competition since no one could match my level. This year, though, they added the rule that there was only one free pass per person. A free pass granted the holder permission to skip without any consequence. They only passed them out for the last day of school since there are only parties during the school day, and since it is a small town we can't really go too far. I'm slightly confused, though, since Mrs. Davidson never really gave out passes. Every year me and Belle would go out to the beach or something since we easily earned them. I look at Belle, who is slightly panicking.

"I haven't gotten my pass yet!" she exclaimed, "What about you?" I give her a look, I always get my pass from math, since it's my favorite subject.

"I already have my pass, from math," she looks a little green around the gills, so to soothe her I calmly whisper, "Don't worry, Belle. I'm in your group right now, aren't I? We'll get the pass for this class." I nod at her reassuringly, and she slowly gets up from her chair. I am already up, so I decide to grab the beaker and the paper and leave Belle to grab the equipment since she needs to calm down. Noah, who stuck out his leg in front of me once I grabbed the beaker, looked a little taken aback when I fluidly leapt over his leg while looking straight ahead. Then, without looking back, I kick his calf with my heel, making sure to leave a bruise. When I get back to my desk, Belle is coming back from across the room. I send a glare to Noah, who is clutching his leg, warning him not to try and trip Belle, who would probably at least stumble.

She got back to the desk without any trouble and set down the equipment. I quickly scan the room. The rest of the groups are still gathering equipment or fooling around. I quickly flip to the pages I had memorized in the textbook, pages 302-354. Those fifty-two pages are filled with knowledge on identifying and analyzing liquids.

"Um, Vivienne?" I look up to see Theo and Haley, a shy and quiet girl who I have stood up for many times. I nod,

"Yes?"

"Which pages should we find identifying and analyzing liquids?" I look at her, then give a glance toward Theo, who is fooling around with some other boys who had stranded their partners. I feel sympathy and empathy for her and write down the page numbers on a sticky note and give them to her. The page numbers aren't in the table of contents. She murmurs her thanks before walking to her desk and working alone. I feel bad, Haley has a friend like Belle, Emma, but besides me and Belle, no one else got to work with a friend besides the "populars".

Finishing my calculations, I discover that from the properties of this "mysterious" purple liquid, it was just water with, not purple food dye, I realize as I looked at it in the light, it is most likely a mixture of blue and red. I hand the vial to Belle, and we both estimate the number of drops of each color. Writing our answers down on the scratch paper, we handed it in. Hmm. We made pretty good time; the presentation took fifteen minutes, gathering the materials took about three minutes, and it took us about ten minutes to figure out the liquid.

Mrs. Davidson looks at the paper, eyebrow raised, impressed, and whispered, "You guys even got the number of drops correct! You guys win, but Vivienne, you already have a pass, so I'll give it to Belle. It works out perfectly!" Belle smiled, and I felt the corners of my lips twitch, but I let Mrs. Davidson know through my eyes that I was happy. She gives me a single nod, and we go back to our desk, after her telling us not to tell any of the others that we had finished, so they could keep working. As I clean up our experiments, Belle wipes the table and puts away the paper and textbook. After our clean up, we watch to see who would figure it out next. Haley figures it out about ten minutes after us, then Emma and her partner, then a brunette named Julie with her partner Alex, a blond.

Right before it was time to pack up, Noah and his partner, Sofie, figured out the liquid. The remaining groups didn't have enough time, so Mrs. Davidson announced that the liquid was water with food dye at the end of class. I took another look at the class as they were cleaning. Haley is a short girl, even shorter than Belle, with jet black hair and brown eyes. She has deep tan skin, usually wears modest skirts to school, and often shows her Japanese heritage. Theo is a jerk, with dirty blond hair and green-gray eyes. He is maybe two inches taller than me, and is an American, through and through. Emma has reddish-brown hair and has big blue eyes and freckles. She is a little taller than Haley. Julie has curly brown hair and has beautiful dark skin, courtesy of her African heritage. She is a little shorter than me and has intellectual dark eyes. Alex is a sort of nice guy, he's blond and has brown eyes, and is about six feet tall. He doesn't tease anyone, but he also doesn't defend them or help them either.

Noah is the typical jock, with dirty blond hair and blue eyes. He is about the same height as Alex, and he has some muscle on him, though he couldn't match up to me. Sofie is the typical queen bee, along with Noah as king, and they are a "match made in heaven". She has platinum blond hair and blue eyes, is a little taller than Belle, and usually is mean to everyone, just like Noah. They both have their group of friends who are the popular crowd, and they often do whatever they ask like mindless puppets.

When I started at this high school, back in my freshmen year, I had gotten pranked and teased by many of them. It's a small town, so all of us have been in the same classes practically since middle school. The time span between when elementary ended and middle school began, I started my training. For many days of my freshmen year, I fought to hold back my strength, but after a week or so, I stood up for myself verbally. After a student pushed me, I made it known that I am a force to be reckoned with. I made practically a speech, in a quiet but commanding voice, and since then, no one ever picked on me or anyone I took under my wing in any major ways. I had protected Belle and keep her by my side, and I warn everyone off Haley. I sigh, thinking of the absurd hierarchy in the kingdom we call high school.