Andrea entered the classroom labeled "206" and looked around. She gazed upon empty seats and tried to spot a seat assignment. Seeing no assignment or teacher, Andrea just sat down in the nearest open seat. She laid down her books onto the smooth, wooden desk. She placed her glittery binder on top of her other books and opened it up. She unzipped the pencil pouch and took out a cheetah-printed pen. After she does so, she quickly looks to her left and saw a boy who was an inch away from her.
"D'oh!" she shouted out, surprised. She placed her hand on her chest and said, "You scared me."
"Sorry," said the boy, who was clad in a green jacket and carrying a full head of blond hair.
"Who are you?"
"I'm a friend of Kevin. Kevin Christie."
"Oh, I know him. He's my boyfriend."
"Yeah, and I've seen you once and that is frankly not enough of times."
"Well, if you like what you see, don't get too happy. I suppose you're his friend and that would be very inappropriate."
"Uh, I don't know what you're talking about but I am his friend. You are definitely what he says you are."
"Beautiful? Glamorous? Poise?" she grinned.
"No, feisty. Like a dog."
Andrea dropped her grin into a frown. "Dog?"
"In a good way. If he meant it in a good way. Well, it was nice seeing you, Allison."
"Andrea."
"Close."
The boy walked away to his seat which was farther away from Andrea's chosen seat.
"Él es un perro," muttered Andrea.
Soon after, a bunch of students entered the classroom and chosen their seats. Before the school bell rang, the teacher, who was a tall, middle-aged man, had entered and observed all of his unfamiliar students.
"Welcome, class," he began to speak. "My name is Cavanaugh and, well, I am your homeroom teacher."
"Dang, Cavanaugh sure is fine," Andrea whispered to the girl sitting next to her.
"I will be your homeroom teacher for the rest of the year. I have no plans on leaving the school as I have been here for five years."
"Am I in the second Magic Mike movie?"
"I am going to put a syllabus on your desks, but before I do, I would like to tell you a little about myself. When I was thirteen, I loved schoolwork and I had a dream of becoming a teacher."
"Boy, if I was his teacher, he'd be my pet."
"Stop talking to me, please," said the girl quietly.
"I graduated from the University of Education," continued Cavanaugh, "and so far, I have taught in three schools. I have also taught engineering as well."
"If he could teach me anything," Andrea continued to whisper, "it would definitely be chemistry."
"Please stop," the girl ordered, a little louder this time.
"What? I can't make comments?"
"Is there a problem, girls?" asked Cavanaugh, looking at Andrea and her neighbor.
"Oh, no," responded Andrea in her normal tone. "Just making friends here."
"Oh! I almost forgot; since we will be doing tons of experiments for experience, I am going to assign you a lab partner that you will do lab work with until the end of the school year."
The classroom clamored softly.
"Hey, if there is going to be problems, then I will give you an F just like that."
"I'll do whatever you say, Orlando Bloom," whispered Andrea.
Cavanaugh walked behind his desk and picked up a clipboard, clipping onto a printed out piece of paper. "Now, from this chart, I am going to announce who and who are lab partners. After I read this whole thing, you may look for your partner." He started to read aloud from the chart, "Olly Anderson and Sady Zealand; Chloe Chapin and Zeke Davenport; Maya Davis and Leah Messing; Geoff Fowl and Ben Xiang; Andrea Gonzalez and Jessika Ming; Emily Groverfield and Malika Test; Chester Hennessy and CeCe Sheffield; Cory Holmes and Isabelle Rivers; Randall Lowe and Guy Bellamy; Constance Richards and Jace Davis; and Jason Peterson, you are by yourself."
"Aw," uttered a male classmate.
"Now find your partner and get to know them. I'm going to place the syllabus on your desks."
The students got from their seats and scrambled through the classroom, looking for their assigned lab partners.
Before Andrea got up, she asked her neighbor, "Are you Jessika Ming?"
"No," answered the girl.
"Then up out of my face." She got up and walked through the field of pairs. She looked left and right, seeing if there is a girl who is by herself. Luckily, she found her.
"Hello," greeted an Asian girl wearing a green floral skirt and an off-the-shoulder tee. "Are you Andrea Gonzalez?"
"Do crows make noise?" Andrea responded. "You must be Jessika."
"With a K."
"You got a K in your name? Nice!"
"I love your scarf."
"I love your everything."
"I get it from my mama."
"I get it from my grandmama."
The girls giggled.
"I like you already," said Jessika. "We're going to be awesome lab partners."
"Awesome and stylish."
"Yeah!" they both said at the same time. They high-fived and giggled away.
A few days later in the same week, all of the lab partners in the class were together and by individual laboratory counters as Mister Cavanaugh assigned a scientific experiment for all of the students. Andrea walked up to her counter which had Jessika Ming standing by it, reading a fashion magazine. Andrea brought two pairs of goggles and held out one of them towards Jessika.
"Here you go," she said.
Jessika looked up. "No, that's okay. I'm reading an article."
Andrea flopped the goggles on the counter. "No, Jessika. It's for the lab experiment. We must wear safety goggles or chemicals will get into our eyes and make us Stevie Wonder."
"I'm wearing contacts."
"Put on your goggles."
Jessika groaned. She closed her magazine and slammed it on the counter. She picked up her safety goggles and the girls put them on together.
Andrea picked up a plastic shielded piece of paper from the counter and put it up close to her face to read it. "'Fill beaker up with water and place it on the stand over the burner. After you do so, turn on burner to the lowest heat setting'. Okay, I'm going to get water for the beaker. Can you try to turn it on while I'm gone?"
While Andrea was talking, Jessika was flipping through her magazine. She looked up and said, "Uh-huh."
Andrea nodded. She walked away towards the sink across the room, which was blocked by a line of three students. Andrea stood in the back of the line and waited until the line in front of her was gone. When it was, she turned on the faucet to a lukewarm setting and filled the beaker with water half-way. After that, she turned off the sink and walked back to her counter with the beaker. When she arrived, she placed the beaker on the tiny stand but noticed that the heat was not on.
"Jessika," she called.
"Mm-hmm," Jessika replied, still buried deep into her magazine.
"Did you turn the burner on?"
"Of course."
" Usted es un mentiroso! The burner is not on."
"Well, what do you want me to do?"
"I don't know. How about turn it on?!"
Jessika groaned. "Fine." She grabbed the handle to the burner and turned it all the way, making the fire come out raised high.
Frantic, Andrea quickly turned the handle back to its original spot, turning the fire off. "Are you nuts?!" she yelled at Jessika. "The paper says, 'lowest setting'. You could've burned my eyebrows off."
"Well, they're still on your face, aren't they? Probably because you heavily penciled them on."
Andrea's face balled up with anger. She cried a furious yell, not too loud, but still audible, and started to run over to Jessika. She wrapped her hands tightly around Jessika's neck and began shaking her back and forth. Most of the students in the classroom locked their eyes on the not-so-friendly lab partners.
Soon, the teacher rushed over to the girls. "What is going on here?" he asked, putting his hands on his waist.
"Nothing!" responded Andrea, still choking Jessika. "Just making friends here!"
Cavanaugh quickly grabbed the back of Andrea's shirt and pulled her off of Jessika. Jessika nearly dropped to the floor, hanging on to the counter to keep her from falling.
"Is there a problem here?" asked Cavanaugh to Andrea angrily. "Because if there is, I can just give you an F as one of your first grades."
"No," replied Andrea. "Oh, no. There is no problem, sir. I promise I will behave. I'm sorry."
"You better be." Cavanaugh walked away from the lab partners.
Andrea turned around to face Jessika. "I'm sorry, Jessika," she calmly apologized. "Didn't mean to choke you out."
Jessika rubbed her neck. "I guess it is okay. I never realized how fine the teacher is. Whoa! A complete distraction; I'll tell you that."
"Now you've lost me."
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