Warning: Volatile Substances Within. Handle With Care.

[Stephen Paulinski]

     The bell rang. Students rushed past Stephen, making beelines to their respective classes. The boy would have done the same, if he only knew where the hell he was going. Stephen attempted to call for help. He saw a boy walk past him. “Hey, um-” Stephen began. Before he could begin to formulate his question, the boy was down the hall. A girl rushed by. “Um, Excu-” Gone. Another boy. “Hey, um-”. Another girl. Hey, could you-”. Every time he tried to speak up, he would end up speaking to the back of someone’s head.

     Stephen began to feel irritated. He hated to be ignored. His irritation began to show in his voice. To no one in particular, Stephen began quietly, “Hey, um… C-can someone...” No one responded to him. He spoke a little louder. “Can someone help me?” Still no answer. A bit louder. “Can someone please help me?” No one was answering. Stephen’s anger rose. “Hey, um...” Still no one turned his or her head. Stephen’s arms began to itch. Alright, that’s enough, he thought with gritted teeth. his voice began to shake with irritation. “Hey, um- CAN SOMEONE F%$&*^G ANSWER ME??!!” Orange flames flashed over his hands.

     The hallway froze, the students fell silent. Stephen could feel a hundred pairs of eyes trained on him. He immediately began to feel self-conscious. He blushed heavily, nervously flexing his damaged hands. “I, duh, um, was, uh, just wondering if anyone could, uh, point me to the Chemistry Lab...” As one, the whole student population in the hall pointed toward a door at the end of the hall. “Thanks...” Stephen said timidly, walking quickly toward the indicated door, keeping his gaze on the linoleum tiles.

     “Ah, Mr. Paulinski,” the teacher greeted Stephen, “Glad you could take time out of your busy schedule to join us.” Stephen still had his eyes trained on the ground. “Sorry,” he mumbled.
“Well,” the teacher continued his lecture, “now that we have everyone here, we can get started.” The teacher turned to Stephen, who was still standing in the doorway uneasily. “What, Mr. Paulinski, do you need an invitation?” the teacher asked, indicating an empty seat at one of the tables. “D’oh, um, no, sir,” Stephen said, walking towards the seat, “Sorry, sir.”

     Stephen sat down in the chair without looking at who was sitting next to him. He was already embarrassed enough, he did not want to see how a fellow classmate was reacting to his tardiness. “So,” the teacher said, “Does everyone have a lab partner?” The class answered, “Yes,” in unison. “Good,” the teacher replied. “Now, I hope you like who you’re working with, because you’re going to be with that person for the rest of the semester.” The students replied with cheers, boos, high fives, and moans. Stephen did none of this. He still had not looked at his partner.

     I wonder if I know my partner, Stephen mused. He chuckled inwardly. Y’know, it would be kind of funny if Camila was in this class and she turned out to be… He stopped suddenly, realizing the severity of this idea. His body went cold; he dare not turn his head. But he knew he had to; it had to be done. Stephen craned his neck ever so slowly. First, he saw a pair of porcelain legs covered in a short skirt. No… Stephen thought, his mind filled with dread. He continued to move his head up. No, no, no. He was greeted by a girl with chocolate brown hair tied up in a ponytail. Her sapphire eyes shone bright with a defiant yet stoic gleam.

     No… It was Camila Reyes.

     He clenched his jaw and tried to keep his face emotionless, locking gazes with the Hispanic girl. You’ve gotta be f%*$#@g kidding me right now...

[Camila Reyes]

It was not uncommon to see the brunette sitting in her classes early. In fact, she was often one of the first students in the classroom; however, her sapphire eyes were not trained on the front board. Instead, she usually had a pair of white earphones wedged in her ears as she scanned the small device in her hand to find a song. When she chose one, she locked the screen of her device and placed it on her lap, occasionally moving her head to the music. She would sing every once in a while as well, though she made sure that no one was around when she did so. As soon as she heard footsteps, though, she turned down her music a little and stopped moving her head and vocal chords, if the latter were moving at all. While it was no secret that she sang, she did not want people to pester her about her voice. She wanted people to leave her alone, and she sure as hell did not want to get noticed. So, she kept the enjoyment of her music and her voice to herself, to ensure that she did not draw too much attention to herself.

Long before the hallway rush, the Hispanic girl was sitting in the lab where she would be using the concepts from her Chemistry class. She found a seat near the front that could still shield her from the stony gaze of the instructor. She slipped her earbuds in and turned up her music, filling the lab with her soft voice until other students started to trickle in. She immediately stopped singing and turned down the music that was playing, her sapphire eyes staring at the tabletop that her porcelain elbows rested on. She examined her skin superficially and almost chuckled to herself. You know, for a girl of Hispanic decent, I look more like a European. Blame the genes, I guess... She pulled a few materials out of her backpack and placed them on the countertop just as the teacher walked in. She started to hum under her breath to herself as a small smile crossed her fair lips; the song that was playing was one of her favorites. Her eyes fluttered closed as she lost herself in the music, not hearing anything else around her. It was only when she felt a sharp poke in her arm did she remove the earbuds and ask casually.

“Que?”

“English, please, Miss Reyes. This is a Chemistry class, not a Spanish class.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and placed the music-playing device in her schoolbag, muttering under her breath to herself. The teacher raised an eyebrow at her and she shot him a cheeky grin, as if to impress him. He simply shook his head and turned around to erase the board. She giggled a little and grabbed a rubber band from nearby, shooting it at the board before flipping through her notebook pages as if to look busy. The teacher saw the rubber band bounce off the board and turned around to look at the class before shaking his head and turning back to his work. After he finished erasing, he turned to look at Camila.

“By the way, welcome back to the world of school, Miss Reyes. I suggest keeping that electronic hidden, lest it cause you more trouble.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, sir.”

After a few more minutes of waiting for other, later students, the teacher began describing the exercise for lab that day. Mid-way through the lecture, a pair of feet stumbled through the door, making the brunette look up from her notebook with a bored expression on her face. She was looking forward to getting this lab done as quickly as possible so she could get out of school at a decent time. She heard the teacher cough and saw him raise his eyebrow at the student that had come in late. Her sapphire eyes rolled as she started to doodle on the page she had written some notes on, though her hand froze when the teacher addressed the late student.

“Ah, Mr. Paulinski, glad you could take time out of your busy schedule to join us…”

Camila’s jaw clenched at the mention of Stephen’s last name. Seriously, was this guy in every one of her classes? If so, her day was going to be even more annoying than she thought. Her private thoughts did not affect the relatively blank look on her face as she returned to doodling. She did not look up as she heard her late classmate stumble around to look for a seat. She had to prevent herself from snickering; it was hilarious to see the other so embarrassed in front of everyone else. When the teacher asked if everyone had a lab partner, Camila simply shrugged as if to say she did not know. It seemed like whoever was sitting next to her was to be her lab partner, judging by the other students’ reactions to their “permanent” lab partner. Honestly, she did not care who she worked with, as long as the person was quiet and did his or her share of the work.

After a few moments, Camila felt eyes boring into her and looked up from her notebook at her lab partner. Her eyelashes fluttered as her right eyebrow raised to her hairline. Seriously? She pursed her lips and let an annoyed exhale escape them. Murphy’s Law was taking quite an effect on her that day and it was really starting to annoy her. She placed her pen down on the countertop, offering a painfully fake smile and extending a hand. When he did not move his hand, she grabbed his and shook it once, giving it a painful squeeze as she spoke.

“A pleasure to meet you, lab partner. And since I feel like being nice, I’d like to remind you that staring is not polite. Especially when you’re not looking a woman in the eyes.”

[Stephen Paulinski]

     Stephen could not believe it. It was just his luck. The one person he never wanted to see again was going to be his lab partner for the rest of the year. Just wonderful. Just f#$%&%@g peachy...

     “A pleasure to meet you, lab partner. And since I feel like being nice, I’d like to remind you that staring is not polite. Especially when you’re not looking a woman in the eyes.” Stephen took a sharp breath, feeling anger wash over him, chilling him to the very core.  Somehow, she just knew how to press his buttons.  First, she basically called him a pervert, and then she tried to hurt him with a firm handshake? That was not going to fly. Stephen returned Camila’s obviously fake grin with one of his own. “A pleasure to meet you, too,” Stephen said, pouring almost all of his strength into his grip, “I’m sorry for staring. I’ll keep that in mind.”

     Stephen let out a fake laugh, forcefully let go of her hand, shoving it back to her side. He had only been there for a few minutes, and already he could feel his arms begin to itch. He placed his elbows on the table, buried his face into his hands, and took a deep breath to steady himself. “Well, this is just f$%*&n’ A,” he muttered under his breath.

     When the itching passed, Stephen slowly slid his hands down his face until only the tips of his fingers covered his mouth. He turned his gaze back to Camila and took another breath. He was about to ask her what the lab was on when he noticed a white mass on the lab table out of the corner of his eye. He picked it up and found that it was the lab packet. Stephen smirked as he came to a realization: he would never have to say a word to that Latina she-devil all semester. He could just pick up the report, do the lab, and walk out without ever having to carry out a conversation with her. Stephen smiled genuinely, humming a little while he set up the beakers, flasks, and burets as instructed.

     Life was good, and Stephen was not about to let this bitch ruin his anymore. He was way past her, and it was about time she knew it. It was time for him to press her buttons.

[Camila Reyes]

Camila was just as thrilled as Stephen was about being lab partners. However, instead of blaming herself, she blamed Stephen. After all, if he had not been late, they would have never been put in this awkward situation. But, of course, he had been late and they were stuck as lab partners for the rest of the semester. Well, at least it’s not for a whole ‘nother year. I would have to kill him and dump the body if that was the case. Heh, maybe they’d even put me out of my own misery for doing that… She let out a soft huff and turned her sapphire eyes to the young man beside her once more, as if trying to scrutinize him in one glance. She let out a soft scoff, just to tick him off a little bit more; after all, it was quite fun to stir the pot. Of course, she doubted they would be dabbling with any illegal plants that she was not interested in anyway.

Her nose wrinkled slightly at the pressure surrounding her hand. Gotta be one of the boys, she thought to herself, A little pain is nothin’, after all! When Stephen was done crushing her hand, he threw it back to her, like a baseball going back to the pitcher from the outfield. She simply quirked an eyebrow at him before grabbing the lab packet on the edge of the table. Camila wanted to do this lab with Stephen and be civil, but the hot-head made it abundantly clear that he was going to be a stubborn a** all the way. Gotta do what ya gotta do, she thought, biting her lower lip in concentration as she read the procedures for the experiment.

Without warning, Stephen reached over Camila and took the lab book, starting to set up the experiment by himself. The skin around her eye twitched a little as she snatched a beaker from his hands. She was alright with him not talking to her, but she was not alright with him interrupting her while she was trying to work. She narrowed her sapphire eyes at the white-haired young man before placing the beaker calmly on the lab bench, keeping her hand around the neck of it in a death grip that turned her knuckles white.

“Didn’t your mother ever tell you it’s not nice to snatch things from other people’s hands?”

Her voice sounded irritated and her tone was clipped as she grabbed some of the materials and started combining them in their respective flasks. The silence was eerie and honestly, it just irritated her more. She located a hot plate nearby and flicked the switch on, humming softly to herself. Two can play at that game, honey, she thought with a devious smirk as she held the back of her hand over the hoteplate to see if it was hot or not. After a few more moments, she placed the beaker with the necessary substances in them on the the hotplate and leaned back in her chair, casually putting her hands behind her head. She noticed the teacher walking by and craned her neck a little, making it look like she was actually paying attention to the slow-to-boil mixture.

“Burnt glucose smells rather unpleasant, Miss Reyes. Please keep an eye on your beaker and don’t doze off. Mr. Paulinski, why don’t you record the measurements for the control beaker and ask Miss Reyes for the measurements of the experimental one once it is done boiling?”

Camila rolled her sapphire eyes and crossed her pale arms over her chest, but nodded in response to the teacher. After a few minutes, she carefully removed the hot beaker from the hotplate with the hot hands and placed it on the black counter. She bent down a little to record the measurements and shoved the paper at Stephen. She muttered to him in an irritated tone while scanning the page to look for another portion of the experiment. Thankfully, there was only one part, but they had to write a “decent” lab report, so she started a new page after she spoke.

“Here. Take the stupid measurements. I’ll give you the revised version of the report when I finish it.”

[Stephen Paulinski]

     A small smile crept over Stephen’s lips. He felt grim satisfaction at the sight of Camila wrinkling her nose in pain. Maybe the bitch will finally feel a fraction of the pain she caused me, he thought darkly.

     For some reason, Stephen felt happy pissing Camila off. He had felt more satisfaction than he had felt in recent days. As he worked, he came to a realization: every negative feeling he had over the past few days was all because of her. With every irritated glance, every annoyed statement, Stephen felt a sense of victory swell up in his chest. It was his turn to string her along, he decided. It was his turn to hurt her.

     “Didn’t your mother ever tell you it’s not nice to snatch things from other people’s hands?”

     Stephen smiled internally. His revenge on “La Bruja” was working out beautifully. Without turning to look at her, the white-haired boy continued to work while simply uttering a curt, “Yeah”.

     “Burnt glucose smells rather unpleasant, Miss Reyes. Please keep an eye on your beaker and don’t doze off.”

     Stephen smirked and let out a small chuckle as the teacher scolded Camila. She’s finally going to get what’s coming to her, Stephen thought with beaming satisfaction.

     “Mr. Paulinski, why don’t you record the measurements for the control beaker and ask Miss Reyes for the measurements of the experimental one once it is done boiling?”

     Stephen pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a annoyed sigh. Just when everything was working out wonderfully, someone had to come along and mess it all up. “Yes, sir,” Stephen mumbled through gritted teeth, still keeping his eyes on the experimental setup in front of him.

     Stephen rolled his eyes as Camila began to take apart the setup the teacher had her watch. She furiously wrote some numbers down on a piece of paper and shoved it in his direction.

     “Here. Take the stupid measurements. I’ll give you the revised version of the report when I finish it.”

     So, she fancied herself a writer, huh? Stephen smiled darkly as an evil thought came to his mind.

     He plucked the paper from her without looking in her direction. “No thanks,” he said distractedly as he was writing down the measurements from his side of the experiment,“I’d rather get a good grade on this lab.”

     What Stephen had actually been referring to was the fact that Camila did not seem to care about school. He had left his final statement vague in the hope that she would misinterpret it as an insult to her writing capabilities.

     Stephen smiled at the thought of her getting riled up at his last sentence. This is going to be good...

[Camila Reyes]

Camila noticed a smirk on Stephen's lips as he squeezed her hand tighter than she would have liked. She simply quirked an eyebrow at him. What's the firebug all smiles about? she thought to herself, placing her hands on her lap and massaging the sore right hand with her left hand. Of course, the movements were not as coordinated or graceful, but that was because she was right-handed and not left handed. She muttered something about being able to use her right hand later under her breath as she gathered the necessary tools for the experiment. The smirk plastered across the white haired teen's face made the brunette shake her head a little and just lean back in her chair. She was not going to let him get to her, no matter how much of an a** he decided he was going to be. We'll see who keeps his cool the longest, she thought, narrowing her sapphire eyes a little.

She simply shrugged, in response to his curt 'yeah' and continued what she was doing, seemingly unaffected by his attitude. When the teacher scolded her, Camila simply let it roll off her back, though some irritation crept in when Stephen laughed a little. She shot him a glare that clearly said 'what's so funny, huh?' Of course, she was hardly embarrassed; she did not mind being called out in front of the class because, hey, at least someone was paying attention to her. She clenched her teeth at the very thought of the people who claimed to be her parents. She shook her head a little, a determined look on her face as she waited impatiently for the water to boil. When she saw bubbles on the surface of the beaker, she removed it carefully (with hot hands, of course) and placed the cooling beaker on the bench. She examined it closely, recorded her results on the paper in front of her and scowled a little. Her handwriting was horrible for a girl, but she figured that she was going to type it later anyway, so she would just leave the scribbling for the present

“Keep your attitude low, Mr. Paulinski,” the teacher chided, glaring at Camila when she let out a dark chuckle, “Miss Reyes, mind your own business.”

“Yes, sir...”

Her tone was noncommittal, as if she planned on ignoring the teacher's request in the future. Once the teacher left, Camila smirked at Stephen before shoving the paper at him. She started to clean up the experiment, happy to ignore him if he decided to prattle. Thankfully, it seemed that they were giving each other a mutual silent treatment, which was fantastic. A small grin crossed Camila's face as she placed the bottle of glucose back in the yellow bin for other groups to use. She was about to dump the boiled glucose mixture down the drain when Stephen more or less took a stab at her intelligence. She placed the beaker on the countertop with a 'bang' that caused the unstable bench to rattle. She whipped her head around to look him straight in the eyes, her sapphire eyes becoming cold as ice as she spoke.

“Excuse me? I don't think you just insulted my intelligence, did you?”

The tone of her voice was sickeningly sweet, yet laced with anger and warning. She had a smile on her face, though an icy anger flashed in her eyes. She reached over and yanked the paper out of his hands, shoving it into her backpack. At this point, she did not care if he had a papercut or not; no one called her stupid and got away with it. She let out a breath before picking up the beaker again,squeezing the neck until her knuckles were blanched. She glared at Stephen, her icy sapphires narrowed as she rested her elbow on the lab bench. She heard footsteps behind her and slammed the beaker back down on the bench, hearing a shattering noise this time. Pain shot through her hand and up her arm as she uncurled her fist to reveal a broken flask. The teacher ran over to the lab bench, huffing when he saw what Camila had done. The brunette kept her eyes closed and her teeth clenched as she felt the blood gushing out of her wound and the glass that had been pressed into it. The teacher looked at Stephen, then Camila, then shook his head before he spoke.

“Mr. Paulinski, please escort your lab partner to the nurse. I will take care of the rest of this for you. Miss Reyes, you should really be more careful when you handle the lab equipment...”

“With all do respect, sir, barbecue boy here decided to piss me off. That's why the flask broke. I get rough with things when I'm angry.”

She rose from her seat, squeezing her injured right hand with her left to staunch the bleeding. Camila tapped her foot a little, waiting for Stephen to get up as well. When he did not get up, she huffed and kicked the bottom of his chair. She hoped that he was not holding a flask, though a darker part of her wanted revenge. After another minute of waiting, she kicked his chair again. When she spoke, her tone was aggressive and irritated and a scowl marred her features.

“Are you deaf? It's clear you want me out of your life, but I doubt even you would be so cruel as to watch me bleed out all over the floor. Can we go, please?”

[Stephen Paulinski]

     “Keep your attitude low, Mr. Paulinski.”

     Stephen had to bite back the urge to tell the teacher to f*** off. That was Stephen’s first clue that something about him had changed. Back home, he never would have insulted authority. Not ever. A little part in the back of his mind questioned his actions as of late. Why am I like this? the little voice wondered, Why am I so belligerent? Why am I being so mean to this girl? It’s not like she did anything so terribly bad. Overall, however, he did not care. He was mean. He was spiteful. He defied everyone. And he liked it.

     “Excuse me? I don't think you just insulted my intelligence, did you?”

     The little voice in the back of Stephen’s head became an inaudible whisper. He was reveling in his dark victory. For once, everything was going his way. He enjoyed hearing the bewilderment and anger in her voice hidden by a sweet overtone. He loved how she tried to cover up her absolute rage with a smile. Finally, Stephen was getting the revenge he thought he so rightly deserved.

     Fear replaced triumph. Shock replaced happiness. His victory shattered in an instant, just like the glass powder Camila now had clenched in her fist.

     He saw the wounds. He smelled the blood. The small voice became booming, deafening, unable to be ignored. It cursed at him; reviled him; threw him to the ground and refused to help him back up. This is my fault! it screamed. How could I?! What did she do to deserve this?!

     She hurt me, the vindictive side of his brain weakly argued.

     Oh, boo-freakin’-hoo! was his rational side’s rebuttal. She flirted with some guy, so what?! Does that give me the right to have her mar herself?! How could I?! WHAT’S WRONG WITH ME?!

     Stephen felt his pulse quicken and his hands begin to itch. He could feel himself being overwhelmed with guilt and anger. He knew that he was going to ignite. He clutched the sides of his head and forced himself to breathe slowly and deeply. Stephen felt the itching subside; he felt his emotions come under control. He began to feel peace. His tranquility was broken by a sudden trembling in his seat.

     He assumed that Camila had kicked the stool he was sitting on. He looked up quickly and saw blood flowing freely and quickly from her hand. Reality melted into blackness.

     Stephen was in a building, a burning building, to be precise. The walls were smoldering; crumbling. Where Camila once stood was a man, with only his left profile visible. “How could you do this me?” Stephen tried to respond, but he found that his voice was lodged in his throat.

     “How could you do this to me?!” The man slowly and laboriously began to turn toward Stephen. If his voice had been working, Stephen surely would have screamed. The right side of the man’s face was gone, replaced with charred flesh and protruding muscles and bones. The man stood before Stephen, screaming in absolute agony. “Why?! WHY??!!” Stephen began to hyperventilate, and the itching in his hands became almost unbearable.

     The whole world shook under the force of an earthquake, snapping Stephen out of his panic attack. The vision before Stephen quickly gave way to reality.

     “Are you deaf? It's clear you want me out of your life, but I doubt even you would be so cruel as to watch me bleed out all over the floor. Can we go, please?”

     “G-go where?” Stephen muttered almost inaudibly. “Please escort Ms. Reyes to the nurse’s office, Mr. Paulinski,” the teacher said in a stern and level voice. Stephen shook his head violently, getting the last of the haunting image out of his head. Stephen would not let something like that happen again. Stephen would make this right.

     He quickly ran up to the teacher’s desk and pulled a large amount of paper towels from the roll. He swiftly handed the bundle to Camila. “Staunch it with this,” he said without directly looking into her eyes.

     His cheeks heated up as he felt the silent eyes of all his fellow classmates bore into his back. Keeping his embarrassed and nervous gaze on the ground, and gingerly putting a hand on her back, Stephen expediently led Camila out of the classroom and towards the nurse’s office.

     If only he knew where the nurse’s office was...