"What are you up to? Julia asked as she harshly brushed Vivian on the shoulder.
Vivian threw a sharp and unpleasant look in Julia's direction and muffled behind her nose mask"doing something you also ought to be doing too"
"Toh!" She exclaimed, "highschool chemistry practicals would get you nowhere in life.
"Whatever you say ma'am but try to put on your personal safety costume at least. For your own safety. You may not know this but we're working with highly corrosive chemicals and I'm certain you wouldn't want them to mistakenly get on your skin."
"Self acclaimed Semi-professor and lab attendant Vivian, let me worry about my safety. You cannot tell me what to do. Moreover, you look absolutely hideous behind that mask." Julia said as she walked away.
"Well what can I say? At least I tried," Vivian muttered under her breath.
Mr. Andrew, their chemistry teacher, had warmed them on several occasions about the dangers of walking around the laboratory without personal protective costumes. However, he was going to be running late for the class today so he told Vivian to ensure her classmates were properly geared up.
Julia was termed as the most recalcitrant student in her set. Some even called her the 'class bully' as she never hesitated to prey on the weak.
Vivian kept her eyes on Julia for a while to see if she was up to something fishy, as always, but she seemed okay.
A few minutes after taking her gaze off Julia, she heard a really strange and disturbing yell coming from the corner of the laboratory. As the one in charge, she hurried over.
"My mouth, my mouth!" Julia kept yelling and she fanned her tongue with a piece of paper. Nobody had ever heard Julia scream in such agony so it was indeed an eyeful for the rest of the class.
"What happened to Julia?" Vivian asked Mary who stood helplessly right beside Julia.
Source
"I was just trying to titrate and out of the blue Julia arrived. She startled me as usual and my hands may have jerked in fright. The base was in my hand and a few drops may have gone right into her mouth." Mary reported.
"What! Were you using the concentrated or diluted base?" Vivian asked in fear.
"Diluted".
For a moment everywhere was silent. Vivian heaved a sigh of relief.
"If you indeed used the diluted base then she should be okay in no time. I'd take her to the school clinic for proper first aid so nobody should touch anymore bases or acids. Rita, you're in charge" Vivian said as she walked out of the class with the distressed Julia.
About thirty minutes later, the duo returned to meet a frenzied Mr. Andrew in class. As they walked in, Mr Andrew looked in Julia's direction and started ranting.
"I gave you one instruction, just one! And you mess up. Why didn't you wear your personal protective costume? Your nose mask maybe? What if the base wasn't diluted? Do you know how severe your case would have been? And what were you doing sneaking up on other classmates who were titrating? After this class, I'm taking you to the disciplinary board. They would know what to do to you.
"And Vivian, thank you for taking charge and seeing to the safety of everyone." Mr. Andrew glared once more at Julia before taking back his gaze to the white board.
The rest of the class was really intense as Mr. Andrew was upset. Unlike him, he carefully scrutinised what every student was doing which made the tension in the room grow so much.
After that day, everyone certainly took a lesson or two back home; Julia especially. She learnt the hard wear to always gear up irrespective of how uncomfortable the costume felt or how hideous it made her look.
Love,Wongi ✨