 one of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries
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Jul. 25th, 2009 @ 10:13 pm 
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It was the fifteenth of May, the day after Kate's fifteenth birthday. She was a freshmen at the Paine Academy, a private school in Manhatten. Derek Meyers, a boy that Kate alternated between really liking and really being annoyed by, shared his second period chemistry class with her. Kate and Derek will eventually have several adventures and encounters. What happened on that day, pushed the ball rolling for the rest that was to come.
Calmly and carefully, Kate set out her supplies in front of her on the lab table. The chemicals were set to her right, all arranged in order of use. The extra glass dropper was set next to the chemicals while her notebook and pen were placed to her left. She'd gone above and beyond the point of organization when setting up for her experiment. Everything was as it should be or so she thought until she went to put on her protective goggles. One of the lenses had a long crack down the center and that would simply not do.
Kate stood up and walked to the back of the class where the extra supplies were kept. On her way there, she was stopped by one of her friends, Elizabeth. She was pulled over to the back of the room for she had a problem and needed Kate's help. They talked in whispers for a few moment, some boys would have been mortified to here their conversation, before Kate finally made her to the supply closet to retrieve a new pair of goggles. When she had a new pair in hand, she walked back to her assigned spot amongst the many other lab tables.
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It took him awhile to figure out exactly what was in mentos candy. What he did know was that the teacher practically mainlined Diet Coke and kept a cache of it in his office. He's put the set up under her lab table. Let her ignore this! Three...two...one...
Kate noticed that Derek wasn't in his seat as she walked. She also noticed that when he returned to his seat he had come from the direction where her assigned lab table was. She narrowed her eyes at him but chose not to say anything.
When she got back to her spot at the lab table, she noticed that some things were off. Kate had left her things and supplies very well organized. Everything had been shifted, just enough to annoy her. "Derek." Kate said and shot him a look that was potent enough to convey her opinion of him. Jerk.
She shook her head and put everything back in it's place. Kate then put on her goggles. A beaker was picked up and filled with the first solution. After it had been set aside, Kate wrote down what she had done. Her next course of action was to pick up a vial of blue liquid. Carefully, she opened the bottle so that she could add it to the beaker.
And this is when the Diet Coke and mint candy do exactly what YouTube says they do...
...Followed by feathers from a pillow in the rafters.
Kate didn't know what hit her. One moment she was going about her experiment, the very next she was shrieking very loudly. Everyone in the class turned to look at her. Some people laughed, some people were appalled or otherwise shocked into silence while Kate's friends kept looking at her with a mixture of sympathy and horror.
She had been coked and feathered.
"DEREK!"
He laughing along with some people that think he's funny and awesome for totally disrupting class.
The science teacher knows better. Security and janitorial show up at the same time for both messes and he's escorted to the principal's office. His only thought is wondering if Kate is going to follow.
Oh, yeah. She was going to follow him but there was going to be nothing civil about it. She was just so damn angry.
Nevermind Derek's personal escort to the principle's office, Kate charged him like an angry rhino that was trying to scare off a predator.
He runs. Kate is chasing him! Whatever they do to him is so worth it. Security has to be stupid and hold her back from him. He has this response about Pepe Le Pew and chasing things on the tip of his tongue but he's laughing too hard to let it rip.
Just as Kate is about to reach him, security grabs her by the arms. "YOU JERK!" She screams at him. Despite being held back, she still tried to take a swing at him which resulted in her being taking to the principles office along with Derek.
"The first chance I get, I'm going to hurt you."
"Oooooo, I like it rough."
The security guard practically picks both of them up, mutters some comment about 'lovebirds', and drops them in the principal's office. In there, they are alone while the guard talks to the principal outside.
He still has a fit of maniacal giggles.
Kate tried to be good while waiting for the principle. She really did try. However, his maniacal giggles were getting on her already frayed nerves.
Kate extended her arm to smack him just as the principle walked into his office.
"Kate!" she barks.
"Now, I've heard what happened from your teacher and the security guard. Anything you'd like to add?"
"Not at this time, your honor."
Kate jerked her arm back but still sent a glare at Derek.
"No." She crossed her arms over her chest.
"Then I'm sending both of you home. Kate, you're going for a week. Derek, you and I have had this talk. Your parents will be in on the next one."
That's her polite way of saying "expelled." No more school. He worried, but only a little. This has been coming for awhile. Sure, his parents could fight for it, but they won't.
"Cool." His voice belies his bravado.
"A week? A week?!" Kate's mind was boggled by this. That was so unfair. She hadn't done anything wrong. Well, technically speaking, she hadn't done anything wrong. Derek deserved it.
"But..." It was a mark on her record, a blemish. Her record wasn't completely perfect but it was close. "He..." She looked over at Derek. She would miss a week's worth of assignments. You couldn't make it up while expelled, that was the point.
"This is so unfair."
"Fighting the security guard -" the principal adds dismissively. "Once he shows up, the fight's over. You can have the office call your folks."
He smiles at her. "I can walk you home." They live close enough to one another.
On the inside, Kate was fuming. On the outside, she still was fuming but it more toned down. "Yes ma'am."
Kate glared at Derek. "I don't think so."
After being excused, Kate left the office. She had to call her mother and that was one awkward conversation. The problem was that her mother was unavailable to come and pick her up. Asking her father for a lift was out of the question. It looked like she would be walking home.
He's already packed his stuff and he's been intently listening in on the conversation.
"Ready?"
What she wanted to do was to wrap her hands around his neck and squeeze. On the other hand, he was really cute which was why he incredibly frustrated and annoyed her. Men.
Kate sighed, "Fine." Someone, a friend, had been kind enough to bring Kate's things to her office. "Let's go."
And they walked and walked... "Were you expelled?"
She's talking to him? Huh.
"Yeah." His hands go deeper into his pockets and he kicks another rock down the sidewalk. Then he brightens. "At least you just got a vacation."
She didn't have a choice, did she? Kate had better manners than him (she didn't always express them well, however). It would have been rude, despite him being a gigantic jerk, to just ignore him.
"What are your parents going to do?" Kate scowled at him. "A vacation? That's a week of assignments and projects that I'm not going to be able to get. It'll be nothing but big, fat, honking zeros." Not to mention her daily planner was going to have to be reworked. "Why did you do that?"
"Nothing." Nothing much. Nothing he couldn't sneak out and around.
"You can e-mail the teachers for it. They'll send it to you. State law."
He looks up. It's such a bright day the moon is showing already. "Because."
Kate looked and sounded dubious. "Okay."
And then she was back to glaring at him. She did that a lot whenever Derek talked to her (or was in the same room). "It's not the same. It's a mark."
Her scowl only deepened. "Because isn't a good enough answer. Because won't save you. There's not any security personnel around to save you so you better think of a good answer and you'd better make it quick."
"Ease up. You're going to get a heart attack before you're forty. Life isn't in grades." He skips another stone. "Just because. There's a lot of stuff that just happened because of it that I wouldn't have gotten to see otherwise." Like a nice sunny day, with Kate on a walk with him with none - well, less - of her regular holy-than-thou, type-A, control freak ways. She wasn't Kate the in-control superstar when she was dripping with Diet Coke.
"Ohhhh, pffffft! It's close enough." If he wasn't such a jerk, a walk with him might have been nice.
"Grades matter, Derek." Kate huffed, she sounded exasperated. Perhaps it was the diet coke that still remained in her hair. Perhaps it was the feathers that she couldn't quite get all picked out. Or perhaps it was just Derek. "The good colleges want good grades along with extracurricular activities, community service, and all those other things. Don't you care anything about that?"
"Bill Gates dropped out of college." He shrugged. "I don't care about it now. I care about doing stuff more then learning stuff." His hand itches to touch her soaked shoulder, but he just gets in front of her instead. "I could tell you exactly why the Diet Coke and Mentos does that because it does something cool. Finding out what makes up sulfuric acid isn't fun. It's not interesting and how I am going to use it in my life?"
"That was Bill Gates. How often does that happen? I mean really, not many people are that lucky. Besides, I'd much rather work hard to get where I'm going." Kate sighed, they were getting closer to her house. "You did something cool?" She stopped when he got in front of her. "No, you didn't. I'm sticky. It's warm out and I think I'm being followed by every fly in the neighborhood." She swatted at something in the air. "I feel miserable. I need a shower and I was expelled for the week. It might have been cool." If I hadn't been the victim, was left off. Kate felt a twitch of guilt for that sentiment.
He shrugs. "There's plenty of people out of college not doing much of anything right now, or they hate what they do. It's all a gamble Kat!" His voice is a mixture of anger and defensiveness with a side of pleading. "Wouldn't you rather look back on your life and say 'I had this guy rig a classroom to explode when I was a teenager just to get my attention,' or do you really want to look back when you're 40 and old and say 'I got a 4.0 and nothing remotely exciting ever happened otherwise?'"
"I---" Kate had the perfect response. However, before she could speak her mind the front door to her building opened and out stepped her brother, Anthony.
"Hey Soapy Cat, your school called. Are you going to tell Mom and Dad that you were expelled or do you want me to do it?"
For the moment her attention was diverted away from Derek. She looked mortified. "I thought you were still in college."
"No. I'm on break." Anthony turned his head to look at Derek. "This the boy you like? Derek?"
But when she turns around, there is no Derek to be found. When he started to walk off is anyone's guess.
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| Date: |
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