Chemistry Partners [Maxwell/Robbie]

[Maxwell Aquarius]

Maxwell recovered from his most recent stumble through the unfamiliar chemistry hallway. Feeling the blood rising to his cheeks, he attempted to regain some of his pride and tried on a weak smile, only succeeding in tripping over his untied shoelaces. Having lost faith in his own ability to even walk out of a classroom, he slowly shuffled out, feeling eyes on him, sharp and unpleasant on the back of his head. He wanted to run to a restroom and lean against the wall of a closed stall until he felt better… but he was already late. The hallway was rapidly vacating, and he suddenly noticed just how squeaky his shoes were.

Aside from his everyday nervousness, he found himself even more anxious at the thought of chemistry experiments. His dyslexia would no doubt kick in and have him write not only the wrong compound, but also manifest the corrosive material. Internally, he rolled his eyes. Can’t wait.

Class would begin soon, but there were a few minutes left to waste time by himself while other people talked. He slipped a page out of his backpack and started working on a poem he’d had stuck in his head for a few days. What came next?

He walked with the limp of a long-forgotten war,
Limping down paths he'd never walked before,
Cigarette breath and a raspy tone,
And yet somehow he never limps alone.

In his pocket he keeps his pride and a …

Maybe “coin?” he thought, and wrote the word in his chickenscratch handwriting. As he did, the familiar and terrifying rushes of air whipped around him. It ruffled the papers beneath his hand, but didn’t stretch out further than a foot or so beyond him.

In a moment, they disappeared, leaving a new object on his desk in their wake. He felt the hot wave of eyes watching him again, and knew he couldn’t hide the large golden dubloon that now rested on his desk.

Can’t wait, he repeated to himself, hoping to the gods for a rescue. His only saving grace was that their teacher hadn’t showed up yet.

[Robbie Wilkes]

Robbie was late. He didn't actually like being late to class mostly because he'd end up having to sit in the front and that was not a good place to sit in class because, well...teachers don't appreciate it when you fall asleep in the middle of their spiel about the importance of their subject in all the students' lives. So yes, Robbie hated being late.

So when he arrived at the lab with his stray notes flying around behind him, he just hoped the front seats were at least occupied. And as luck would have it, they were. And fortunate enough, the teacher hadn't showed up either. He found an empty seat next to Maxwell Aquarius. He raised a hand in a wave to the dark-haired boy as he bounded to the empty seat.

Max and Robbie weren't the best of friends. Not like him and Evan or him and Jared or even him and Jonah - but that had a lot to do with the fact that they shared a mutual hate for Math - but Robbie liked Max a lot nonetheless. He was too shy for his own good but that certainly didn't stop Robbie Robbie from befriending the boy. Nothing actually stopped Robbie from befriending anyone.

"Well, Max. We meet again." He plopped next to the boy with a huge grin on his face, slamming his file on the table in front of them, not noticing how everyone was looking at the coin where papers were supposed to be. "Okay, so what're you...doing. Why is there a coin on your desk man?"

[Maxwell Aquarius]

“You don’t want to know,” Maxwell put his face in a pale hand. He was ridiculously relieved to see a familiar face, especially in Robbie. The guy was nice enough, comparatively. Realizing that the golden coin probably warranted a response of some kind, he tried again. “I mean… well, I was writing a poem, and it… God, I just want to die of embarrassment.” His voice got softer as he realized that other people were listening to their conversation far more than he was comfortable.

He moved his backpack a little so that Robbie had more room to move his chair. He even managed to get out his chemistry book without shaking, but when they were expected to take notes… he just couldn’t do it anymore.

Hiding the frustration in his face and his voice, he tried to ask rather calmly, “Robbie, would you take notes for me? I’ve got… carpal tunnel.” It sounded lame to his own ears, but he didn’t care to explain it all to anyone just then. If he didn’t get a hold of his powers soon, he was going to go crazy.

[Robbie Wilkes]

Robbie frowned and huffed, puffing his cheeks out at everyone looking their way. "Did someone play a prank on you?" The blond teen turned to his friend, his frown still intact. If it was one thing he hated more than Math, it was bullying. Although he was nowhere near having a white knight complex about himself, he especially hated it when his friends whom he knows can't or rather won't defend themselves get treated poorly. Max was no different.

He got a little confused when Max started talking about a poem. What did a poem have anything to do with a huge gold coin? "Wait, did someone pay you for your poem or something? Max...isn't that a good thing?" Robbie asked, now sporting a quizzical look on his face.

The weather manipulator grabbed the goggles from the little plastic box and fiddled around with it as Max made his request. "Yeah. Sure." Robbie had surprisingly good penmanship which differed from his overall personality. Calligraphy was a hobby of his and he could go through pages upon pages of it under one sitting. So taking notes was a breeze. It also helped that he had an eidetic memory.

Robbie could have excelled in all his classes easily but the boy just chose not to. He found it was much more fun wasting his time on chasing girls.

The teacher soon came and wrote on the blackboard a bit before explaining their experiment which Robbie tuned out as he used his selective hearing to pick out the words "bunsen burner", "jar", "stirrer" and "goggles". He already had the last item so he reached for the other four and took notes from the blackboard.

"Okay, so you wanna do the mixing and I do the results ooorr-"

[Maxwell Aquarius]

“You don’t want to know,” Maxwell put his face in a pale hand. He was ridiculously relieved to see a familiar face, especially in Robbie. The guy was nice enough, comparatively. Realizing that the golden coin probably warranted a response of some kind, he tried again. “I mean… well, I was writing a poem, and it… God, I just want to die of embarrassment.” His voice got softer as he realized that other people were listening to their conversation far more than he was comfortable.

He moved his backpack a little so that Robbie had more room to move his chair. He even managed to get out his chemistry book without shaking, but when they were expected to take notes… he just couldn’t do it anymore.

Hiding the frustration in his face and his voice, he tried to ask rather calmly, “Robbie, would you take notes for me? I’ve got… carpal tunnel.” It sounded lame to his own ears, but he didn’t care to explain it all to anyone just then. If he didn’t get a hold of his powers soon, he was going to go crazy.
 
"No, no pranks," Maxwell replied. "Just a rough morning. Don't worry about it. What do we need to get?" he asked, and tried to turn his attention back to their instructor.

"Today we're going to be reducing a carbonyl," she began, somber and lackluster. Her voice was just monotone enough to hurt Maxwell's concentration, but he tried to keep his interest piqued. "This is a molecule with a carbon doubly bonded to oxygen..." She went on, explaining aldehydes and ketones and the differences between them. Boring, boring chemistry... it might be better if they didn’t have to do as much math. But honestly, he would much rather spend his time talking about Shakespeare or exploring the library again.

"The other difference is you can combine LIALH4 with a strong acid and it will burst into explosive green flames. Under no circumstances should you add any acid until the reaction is settled. Is that understood?"

The halfhearted responses from students were given, and the teacher's worries seemed to be sated enough that they could start with the reactions.

The class was an early morning one, which made him sleepy after first instructions were divvied out, and the sun filtering through the window didn't help at all. His mind began to wander, even as he attempted to work on their assignment. Robbie was busying himself with the notes for their experiment. Max's pen began to absently make shapes in his hand. H20, he wrote first, and then a few others, just letters put one after the other.

H2S04. Sulfuric acid, his mind absently reminded him. A strong acid... wasn't there something he was supposed to remember about that?

The air rushed out of his lungs. There was a plop into their beaker. An instant simmer. Heat and light. A cry from Robbie, followed by his own.

Green flames.

[Robbie Wilkes]

"Mmm?" he drawled lazily at Maxwell, his eyes still trained on the blackboard before his concentration catched the last words of his friend's sentence. "...need to get?"

Robbie looked down at what they had and then down to his notes. "I think those are good. I think." He scratched at the back of his head with the eraser part of his pencil as his body straightened, enabling him to stretch properly. Class hadn't even begun to start but the weather manipulator was already sleepy.

The heavily droning voice did nothing to capture the blond teen's attention as he continued to copy off the board. He heard the word 'explosive' and Robbie perked up. "Did she...?" Robbie turned to Maxwell with a cheeky grin before shaking his head.

So once he was done with the notes, he put on his goggles, edging the other pair in Maxwell's direction. The bunsen burner was turned on and the beaker was placed over the wire mesh before mixing in the compounds required and Robbie actually started to smile. The end result of this would be epicly hilarious.

But even before he could do any damage to the experiment a drop of a liquid out of nowhere caused the liquid in the beaker to hiss and simmer before a burst of light and green flames shot out from the beaker. Robbie jumped out of his seat and without him knowing, Maxwell had started to pack his things and rushed out of the door when the commotion started, leaving Robbie to tend to the frowning teacher in front. "Uh....oops?" He gave out a nervous chuckle before giggling at the green flames.

Now that was an experiment!

[OOC: Wrapped!]