Lab gowns and goggles please! (Open)

[Mason McQueen]

Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Relax dude. Nothing more will go wrong today. It’s him; he’s a special case. It won’t happen again. Despite all his silent chanting and morale upping, as the bell rang and the students of his next class started flooding into his room, Mason could still feel his anxiety rise into unprecedented levels. Elbows propped on his desk, he let out a rather drawn out sigh and rubbed his temples, as if doing so would alleviate the trauma he’s been put through earlier. His co-teachers have warned him about the boy. Heck, even before he was accepted, they asked if he could possibly take on a boy with what seems like a death wish (then again, seeing that the boy’s no smarter than an ant, God forbid, it’s more like he’s just a little too curious for his own good). Back then he thought they were only joking. He should’ve listened to them. Really.

Kicked out of his ‘trance’ by the increasing noise in his room, he took another deep breath before standing up and putting on his (supposedly) warm teacher smile. “Now, now guys, settle down. I don’t want to waste too much of your time this period, ‘cause trust me, you’re going to need all the time you can get to finish this one,” he said, shouting just a bit and clapping his hands to grab his students’ attention. He gave the noisy boy at the back one slightly irritated scowl before continuing with his pre-lab speech. “As you all know, today is the ‘Unknown Analysis’ lab. The culmination of all the qualitative analysis experiments we’ve been doing in the past. You’ll be given a small vial containing a solid of unknown composition,” he grabbed one of the small vials beside him, the one containing a light blue solid, “As expected, you are to determine what ions are in this sample, the cation and anion. (You’re lucky I was in a good mood the other day and decided to only give you two; I was actually considering giving you three each). And please don’t accuse me of favoritism; why do you think I asked you to write your codenames in your vials anyway? Also, dissolve in discretion. I don’t have that much of these solids so if you ran out without figuring out what ions you have in yours, it’s not my loss.”

“Concentrated acids are over there in the fume hood. Careful not to inhale the fumes please?” He shook his head as the image of Vincent bathing himself with the 6M HNO3 flashed through his head. “The centrifuges are at the back of the room, beside the diluted reagents. Please don’t mix the droppers, contamination is a real bit–pain in the butt.” Already he was feeling déjà vu with all the stares he’s getting from his students. Oh Lord please no. “The Bunsen burners are to your left. Remember to only use it if you really need a flame test. We’re always aiming for a blue flame, remember that. And please, make sure to close the air and gas valves first before opening the gas. I highly doubt that you have healing factors as powerful as the infamous Verax, who earlier, aside from spilling highly concentrated acid on himself, almost burned his head off by opening the valves to their maximum while using the burner. Please don’t do that.” He could still smell the scent of burned hair on him. Not good.

Seems he went a bit too long with his intro-speech. The drowsy and restless faces of his students are proof. “So again, be careful. And really, have fun. This is supposed to be an exciting lab. As long as you listened to our past experiments and took down notes, and did a flowchart summary of the procedures like I told you last time, you’ll be fine.” He gave his students one last wink before saying, “Ok guys, time to start. You only have one hour and thirty minutes to finish this one. Grab your vials and let’s go go go.”

“And of course, lab gown and goggles everyone!”


ooc:
Hooray for lab experiment thread! Whee. ^^. As stated, it's an open thread, so feel free to jump in any time you want. I won't be setting any limit to the number of students (atm), and there'll be no strict post order too, so just reply as your heart wishes. Teehee.^^.
Forgive the rather weird choice of lab experiment to do. I had a hard time choosing one really. . So for reference, here's a long and detailed wiki-article, if you want to be very specific and everything, and here's a shorter, easier page with a flowchart in it. Teehee.^^.
And yeah, you get to choose your own ions, for more happiness. =P. Have a nice day everyone.^^.
- Jam

[Rhett Goddard]

Why did biology had to be my first class here? Why not, heck, P.E. or just math... Rhett entered the lab and quickly took the sit closest to the exit. He looked at the teacher, who looked worried, and then examined the other students. At least at first glance nothing really stood up as worthy of a closer examination, or maybe was just the fact that his mood was closer to -I don't want to be here- rather than -I want to know who is here-. He was most definitely going to ask the administration to change this class for something else.

The teacher started to talk, maybe it was the amount of technical information or maybe the fact that he was still not used to the language, but he only understood bits from the speech, yet it was enough to know that back in Kocher, Rhett never did nothing like the experiment proposed this time. Crap.

"Sorry, Mr...." He went went quite for some seconds, trying to remember the teacher's last name. "McQueen? Back in my old school, we didn't do this qualitative analysis ever..."

After talking, Rhett felt looked at. Oh the infamous american judgement of the new kid in school. He decided to not look back, or sideways, just at the teacher. He couldn't judge him, at least not publicly, at least not now. Or so he hoped.

"What should I do?" His voice was steady and strong, he was not to give away his discomfort.

[Mason McQueen]

Well, so far so good. As soon as he finished his speech, his students slowly stood up and grabbed their vials from the table in quite the chaotic manner that somehow, as surprising and paradoxical as it is, became organized. Amazing really. “Now remember to put your name and the vial number on your worksheets so I know which vial is which. You may have identified the correct ions, but since I don’t know what was there in the first place, your effort might be put in vain.” That almost happened to him when he first did this particular experiment when he was a student and Mason wouldn’t want his students to go through the same agony as he did (and mind you, they had three ions back then, and a larger ion pool to choose from).

Three minutes past and no glass breakage, fire outbreaks nor screams of panic can be heard. Awesome. Maybe this lab would go perfectly after all. He just turned on his radio (as he promised his students some relaxing background music as they worked) when he heard an unfamiliar voice from behind him.

“Old school? Are you the new transfer student? Which school did you come from?” It was quite obvious, but hey, one couldn’t be too sure, can he. He waited for a bit as the kid answered his question before sitting back to his chair and checking the school computer for his records. Oh. So he’s supposed to arrive today. Somebody should’ve warned me. “Rhett Goddard, am I right?”

Now he’s at a loss. While he doesn’t really mind the new kid coming along, he’s a bit far behind in terms of the lesson and all that already. Not to mention Mason doesn’t really know what the kid does know about chemistry and what he doesn’t. This is why I really don’t approve of the whole transfer-in-the-middle-of-the-schoolyear-thing Hammel has. He transferred from a sister school when he was a student too (he studied for a year in Eisai), and while the environment was different, starting at the start of the school year did help him adjust more easily than suddenly popping in (it also didn’t hurt that the Japanese school was quite ahead in terms of their lessons and all that).

He did catch Rhett’s discomfort, and somehow, felt that it’s because of his own (that he radiated such a feeling to the kid). Not good. “I’m sorry ‘bout that Rhett, I’m just a little…frazzled,” he explained, giving the boy a sincere smile, “Well, the best I could do for you right now is to let you take the lab in a later date.” He isn’t too fond of having lab time outside of class, but it can’t be helped really. “If you want, you can try your hand at the lab now, so you’d have an easier grasp when you do your actual exam date.”

“But before you do that, I want you to look at our syllabus and tell me what part you haven’t studied yet,” he said as he took a piece of paper from his drawer and handed it to the kid. “So far we’re in Unit3: Solubility Equilibrium. Have you encountered Reaction Rates and Chemical Equilibrium before?” He gave the boy a comforting pat on the shoulder before he continued. “If you haven’t, I’d be willing to help you, but you might have to spend some extra time outside of school for that.” He wasn’t really fond of make-up/remedial classes himself, but if the kid really needs it, he’d be willing to spend extra hours with him.

[Mia Keystone]

"We're playing with acid, and fire." A voice called from the back. Mia Keystone, in her extra large lab coat and goggles with mini camera attached, crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes. Truth be told, she had no clue what the bio-guy was talking about either but she didn't need to know the actual science to know she was being given permission to play with fire. Why would anyone feel the need to refuse to do that?

She didn't like biology, particularly. Mia's interest in how humans worked was limited to, well... it was very very limited. "How come the new kid gets to miss the lab?" she turned an offended scowl to the new kid in question, one eyebrow raised as she ignored everything Morgan was saying. "And why do you want to miss fire? And acid. He said acid!" Why was Mia getting involved in someone else's business?

Ha. Not even a question.

Besides, new student meant he came from a different school. He was pretty old to be a new discovery (there was that albino chick but she was just, well... weird) which meant he might be from one of the other meta schools. Mia wanted to know about these other schools. "You're not supposed to have done it before, that's the point," the tiny girl added, looking up at the two men/boys with disapproval (yes, she looked with disapproval at a teacher. They were mostly used to it)

Then, an idea struck. "I'll totes be his lab partner and shi-stuff," the technopath suggested suddenly, and loudly, over whatever the teacher and student may have been saying. That way, she could question the guy all she wanted about his school, and why he'd moved, and why he was wearing his hair sticking up like that. And anyway, Mia'd downloaded the lab plan off the internet as soon as the topic had been announced, so she could play with the acid and fire while this other person wrote stuff down.

Perfect plan. "You can like, supervise and stuff," she offered to Morgan, with a suspicious glare. Since recent events, Mia was suspicious of all teachers and their abilities to attack psychopaths. "I can tell him about the, ah, Reaction rates and chemical... stuff."

[Rhett Goddard]

"Kocher" Rhett replied softly to the teacher after his question about Rhett's old school, though he seemed to pay no attention to it, deciding, rather, to check him on the school system. "Yes, right."

Rhett turned to see the goggled girl as she approached and attempted to interrupt them. American teenagers tend to be so rude... The teacher continued talking. Missing the lab was not a bad idea at all, he hated the subject, and the fact that there was at least one other student ready to riot about it made it even better.

"I'm not into acids, only pills" Rhett softly said to the girls as the teacher attempted to make Rhett recognize some of the previous topics in the subject to determine his actual level, truth was he didn't recognize any of them, not necessarily because he didn't see it in class, but maybe because he didn't pay much attention. "I recognize reaction rates, yes. Or I think so, I'm still working on my English."

Lies, but it wasn't like Mr. McQueen would notice. But then the girl, who Rhett thought had left already, suggested herself to be his lab partner. Why is she so interested? It made him feel uncomfortable. That option about missing the lab suddenly felt... right.

"Just who are you?" Rhett asked the girl as the teacher proposed a quite worse idea, to have private tutoring in extra-curricular time, so he immediately turned to face him. "You know, I think I can figure the lab while actually doing it. After all, it is in groups, right? Mia can help me."

Her name had suddenly appeared in Rhett's mind without him noticing and came out of his mouth the same way. It was not the first time it happened, but he hated when that sort of thing happened. He just hoped she didn't ask too many questions about and quickly started to think ways to answer if she indeed asked, but the most likely scenario would end up in him improvising. At least, in that sort of thing, he unusually fails.

[Mason McQueen]

“Kocher huh. How are you coping so far then? Hopefully no one’s been giving you a hard time yet?” At least the boy’s not a new recruit. The adjustment would be quite taxing if ever, given that the boy’s more or less an adult already. “And they aren’t teaching inorganic analysis there? That’s weird,” he added, rubbing his chin. Then again, as far as he knows, the school only incorporated the course in the regular curriculum around three years ago (it was just an elective when Mason was still a student), as opposed to Eisai who has been teaching the said advanced biochemistry lab since their creation, and to Grade10 students at that.

He was about to ask Rhett about his background a bit more when he heard a familiar voice from behind him. “Please don’t give Rhett the wrong ideas Mia,”Mason simply said with a smile. While he likes the girl for being on top of things and all that, there’s just something about her that makes Mason involuntarily shiver, no matter how unprofessional that may sound. Maybe it’s because she has this extremely straightforward attitude, or there are rumors running around that the girl spies on everyone, he doesn’t know. He just knows that her incredibly high marks, whether it be in her tests or lab reports, placed alongside her obvious lack of interest in the subject matter gives the man a rather unpleasant feeling. “And please tell me the whole acid and pills aren’t codenames for alcohol or anything.” Call him old, but Mason clearly has no idea what those two are talking about. He wants to blame the generation gap, but he’s not exactly sure if the said words have implicit meanings really.

“You’ve done parts of the lab before Mia. This is basically just a combination of the ones we did before and after the Christmas break,” explained the man, briefly looking around to see if anyone’s up to any kind of trouble. So far so good. “That, and I doubt that Rhett knows the proper way to conduct the flame test, or at least use the centrifuge.” Not that he’s looking down on the kid or anything, it’s just that since he mentioned he haven’t encountered the said topic before, Mason just assumes that such techniques haven’t been taught to him either.

“Sadly, this lab experiment is individual. But you supervising Mia doesn’t really sound half bad.” It does give Rhett a good view of the experiment as a whole, which would make his make-up lessons a whole lot easier to understand, or so Mason hopes. “You sure you’re up for it Mia? I promise I’d give you credit for this one, not that you really need extra credit or anything for this course anyway.”

Leaning back to his table, Mason clasped his hands together and said, with a cheeky smile on his face, “It’s decided then. Mia, be good to Rhett, ok? I’d leave you two together for a bit. Something tells me Thomas is about to burn his face off with the burner.” He gave both teenagers a light squeeze on their shoulders and walked towards the side of the room. “And Rhett, meet me after class to discuss how we’re going to go about your remedial classes, ok? Check on you guys later.”


ooc:
I do hope you don't mind Mason going into the background for a bit. =P. Thanks guys. ^^.
- Jam

[Mia Keystone]

”Of course not, Mr McQueen,” Mia quickly said with a grin, fighting the urges to both kick the newbie in the shins and ask just where he was getting these so called pills. Her grin slipped back to her usual scowl as soon as Rhett (newkid) asked her oh so politely who she was. With a warning glare, she raised her eyebrows. He was new, he didn’t know who she was yet, and so she would not add him to her black list yet but he’d better smarten up quickly. Warning completed, she turned back to her teacher. ”Got it covered, dude, sir. I am ready to rock.”

Extra credit? Her mom would be totally happy with that.

While she did not particularly like having to look out for people who she did not know, new kids were always interesting for at least one conversation. And at the sound of extra credit She nodded at McQueen quickly, gave him a thumbs up with a crooked smile and turned her back on the guy.

”I’m Mia Keystone,” she announced as she led the new kid back to the benches, already pulling data off wikipedia with her phone. The blue solid meant a copper sulfate, so Cu+2 ions... Thank god for wikipedia. Seriously. Back to the new kid. Time to make sure no one had the wrong idea here; last thing she needed was some clingy kid who thought he’d met his new BFF. ”Ok, first off; we’re not friends, I am not a member of the press club who thinks it’s cool to hang out with new kinds, and I think acid is infinitely better than pills as they don’t include concrete or dishwashing powder.”

Alright, now that was settled: Peering at the beaker she’d picked up, Mia glanced back to the person she was now supervising.

”Who’re you? Did they not do Chem at your school? What school did you go to? Also, you mix the acid with this,” she thrust the beaker to her charge, ”then mix it and spray it on the bunsen burner. Can you use one of those?”

Mason had said only do the flame test if really needed, but it was fire. It was gonna be blue fire, once she sprayed the blue acid on it. Chemistry equations were stupid and pointless and, in her opinion, not exactly something that needed to be taught to everyone. She was sure as hell not going to need to be able to tell if weird blue salt had negative or positive ions in any future path she would ever consider.

[Rhett Goddard]

Oh mon Dieu... The worst thing that could happen to Rhett was actually happening, he was the center of attention... well, in a crowd of two people, but it was still too much for him. He felt harassed, he felt just a tiny bit dizzy. It couldn't be good, and so he remained quiet. Let them decide his fate, he didn't care as long as it finish. Fast.

When Mr. McQueen tapped his shoulder, he woke up from the trance and nodded about him wanting to see Rhett later. Great... He then followed Mia to her spot. All the lab stuff... He recognized some but not the majority. Damn what was it that he did during chemistry labs? Well, certainly it was not what he was supposed to.

"Huh? Yeah, whatever..." Rhett replied to Mia's nonsense about friends and pills. "I think you already heard my name. It's Rhett, anyway."

She asked about his school, but he decided to ignore the question as she passed a beaker to him. At first he did as she commanded as soon as the bunsen burner part came, well... What's a bunsen burner? He shivered a bit, he didn't like how it sounded like. He didn't like fire.

"I'm not good around fire, if you know what I mean..." He closed his eyes a little bit while saying that as he passed the beaker back to her. He wasn't really aiming at making her believe anything specific with that, he only hoped she fills the blanks with whatever she felt like. "Feel like changing roles? I can supervise your unneeded flame test."

Unneeded? Maybe he did know a little about this particular lab, maybe he just gained the information at the moment at it slipped through his tongue once again, whatever the case was, he was not going handling a flame.

[Mia Keystone]

”Rhett what?” Mia asked impatiently, a little frustrated he hadn’t guessed they were exchanging last names too. She’d given hers up, after all. Fair was fair. And he was ignoring her? Oh boy. Mia’s jaw clenched as she bit back words expressions just what she thought about people who ignored her. ”Do they not talk at your old school either?” she asked finally, once her temper was controlled. ”Or are you just deaf?”

Pulling the rubber tube of the bunsen burner over the gas outlet, Mia was about to step back when newkid (Rhett) went white and mumbled something about fire. Did she know what he meant? No. Did he honestly expect her to?

"I'm not a telepath, I have no idea why you don't want to go near a bunsen burner," Mia sighed, and with settled down to try turning the gas on and off without touching the switch. No good; the valve was manual. Interesting. She made a note of it and when to strike a match when she glanced and saw the Rhett's stricken look.

"Fuck, fine. No fire."

Her scowl was one of exasperation as she spun a test tube in her fingers and looked longingly at the centrifuge. She could make that spin so fast... the motor would be really useful if she could attach it to a few blades... circular saw times ten thousand! Would made peep holes the work of minutes, seconds even.

”Fuck that,” she said firmly, crossing her arms over her chest and quickly checking Mason wasn’t within hearing. ”I already have the answers for this thing. It’s not exactly bold new territory. Anyway,” with a suspicious glance Mia pulled a stool out and sat down, pulling over the spreadsheets and her workbook, ”You said you hadn’t done this prac. How the hell do you know the flame test isn’t really needed?”

It was all very interesting, and suspicious, and something Mia was going to figure out.

[Rhett Goddard]

"Allexander. He didn't take a second to answer. She wasn't specific about last names and he wasn't going to give it to her. If she wants it so much, she can find harder ways to find it out.

She continued talking, it was starting to make him feel more than uncomfortable. Most definitely deaf, yes. Rhett answered in his head to Mia's question. Out loud, though, he decided to ignore her and looked aside, focusing his apparent attention into what the others students were doing in the lab. She didn't feel the blanks to his open statement, meh... it wasn't that important, she looked like she was going to forget about it pretty quickly and go on with another subject, and as she tried to light the burner, he smiled as softly as he could.

He glanced away once again. To tell truth, it was quite an organized class. Everyone was moving in a very orchestrated way, sharing words here and there but mostly trying to focus in their work rather than wasting time. Did everyone desperately needed a good grade? Maybe the experiment is indeed interesting, or maybe Rhett happened to be in the geek class group. He turned around to see Mia again. No, she was not a geek, but every white sheet has a black spot anyway.

It was by that moment that she inquired about that 'unneeded' word that slipped through his tongue minutes before. She was not an easy prey to fool, he could already tell by the fire sentence, but in this game, Rhett was an expert. Mia was definitely a curious cat, but the one with the information desired always has the leverage. As long, of course, as he keeps control of the game, of course.

"I haven't." He said brilliantly as he pulled a stool next to Mia and sat just next too fer, closer than most Americans would consider polite for a couple of strangers. "But hey, maybe I'm a telepath and read your mind. Or maybe I'm a precog and knew you were going to say you have the answers anyway, which you just did. But maybe, and just maybe, I read the documents the teacher said we were to read before the laboratory and the talking to the teacher was just a way to ditch class." Rhett smiled, white teeth shining at all. "Aren't I fortunate you just said you're not a telepath?" He rose an eyebrow and looked away from Mia. "At least for now, I get to keep my secret."