"Don't do it."

"I have to do it."

"Elle," Lucas drawls. "Whatever you're thinking, stop it." he eyes me warily.

I ignore him and begin arranging the apparatus I'll need.

"We're going to get into trouble." he hisses in a hushed tone.

"When has that ever stopped us?" I snort then gesture at our leaflet which contains the details of our experiment. "Aaaand we're done with our lab work. It'll be fun."

He massages his forehead. "That's what you said last week. Remember the stink bomb you created?"

I smile at the fond memory. "Yeah. That was pretty amazing."

He gives me a 'what the heck' look. "You're insane."

"Let's make some magic," I exclaim and push the leaflets to one side.

I place on my safety goggles and strap on rubber gloves. Luckily, I have all the ingredients I need for my experiment. We already have saturated sodium iodide solution from the experiment we were assigned earlier on in class. And I snuck hydrogen peroxide from the cupboard, while Mr. Williams was busy. Now all that was left was the dish soap.

I check to make sure that Mr. Williams isn't looking, then quickly pour 2 ounces of hydrogen peroxide into a large graduated cylinder.

"Psst. Psst. Lucas," I nudge him "Be a darling and grab me that bottle of soap." I point at the bottle sitting by the sink.

He shrugs and lazily gets up to grab the bottle.

Could he walk any slower? I'm on a schedule here.

Once he brings the bottle, I take it happily and prepare myself for the final step.

"What are you doing?" he asks.

"I'm creating an avalanche," I say and add a maniacal laugh then pour a little dish soap into the cylinder.

"Ready for magic?" I ask Lucas. "Say the magic word."

"Try not to burn your eyebrows again," he says in reply. His eyes remain plastered on the cylinder, an expectant look on his face.

I nod and lean back a little, Lucas following my actions. He, however, drags his seat a little away from me.

As soon I pour the sodium iodide, the entire mixture rumbles. Suddenly tons of white foam erupt from the cylinder, landing all over the lab table. Multiple heads turn around, trying to figure out the source of the noise.

"It works!" I clap and laugh, high-fiving a stunned Lucas. Some of my lab mates are staring in awe, sharing whispers between each other.

"What is all this?"" Mr. Williams booms, suddenly appearing in front of my lab table. Once he sees the mess, he sighs and pinches the bridge between his nose.

"Ms. Bloom, I should've expected this. Why do you always carry out your personal experiments, during class hours?" His eyes are trained on me, frown lines appearing on his forehead.

"Cause it's innovative?"

"Principal's office now," he says "You too Mr. Fields."

"Come on! I didn't even do anything today," Lucas cries out, throwing his hands up in despair.

"You should've stopped her," Mr. Williams says, obviously not willing to deal with us again.

Lucas grabs his bag and strolls out, I hurry behind him. Before leaving the class, I drop the papers on Mr. Williams desk. Lucas ignores me half way to the principal's office, and glares at me the rest of the way there.

"What are you so mad about?" I question, not really understanding his sudden behavior.

Lucas is my partner in crime in the chemistry lab. Every time I see an experiment online, he helps me smuggle chemicals and execute it. A few times he tries to stop me, but that doesn't stop him from enjoying it; Today is an example of such a day.

We normally visit the Principal's office during the end of every Chemistry period.

Lucas sighs. "Principal Thompson warned me not to step foot on his office again, after the whole smoking incident. I think I may get suspended this time."

I grab both his shoulders and shake him, which is easier said than done. The boy is as flexible as a ruler.

"Chill dude, when have we ever gotten into trouble?" I say confidently, causing the corners or his lips to turn up slightly.

"How could I forget; the princess always gets out unscathed," he says. I note a hint of bitterness but choose to ignore it.

"Not totally... remember when the old man made us clean the pool?" I say, referring to the principal.

That was the first and last time he made us do such menial work. After my grandparents heard and cut out their funding temporarily, he never punished me again. I have never gotten detention since that time, and that was during Junior year.

Lucas lets out a sound of disgust "That was nasty."

We reach the principal's office and greet the secretary. Once she sees us, she shakes her head and chuckles. The secretary is actually Principal Thompson's niece, so she's quite young. She relates to most of the students well.

"Lab problems again?" she asks and we nod "Sit down. I'll let him know you're here."

We wait for a while for the secretary to alert the principal of our presence. We enter once she gives us the signal, immediately meeting Principal Thompson's stoic face.

Principal Thompson, is a tall lean man, with graying hair and hard, brown eyes. His lips are set into a permanent scowl as his long fingers rhythmically tap against his desk. We stand awkwardly for a while, before he gestures for us to take our seats.

Lucas sits lazily with his legs spread out in front of him; I take the more ladylike approach and cross my left leg over my right, placing my hands over my knees.

"Noelle Bloom and Lucas Fields," He begins in his flat voice, employing his mannerism of using full names "I expected you two to surprise me this week... what happened this time?"

Principal Thompson darts his eyes between us in scrutiny, but we remain cool and collected. There's only so many times you get punished that it becomes monotonous.

"We had a small mishap during chemistry period," I begin, faking an innocent look. "I'm afraid I may have miscalculated the quantity of chemicals to use." The corner of my mouth twitches as I try to hold in my laughter.

"Lucas, is that correct?" He asks Lucas, who shrugs indifferently.

"Like she said, it was a simple miscalculation," Lucas says, a bored look on his face. I glance at him to see his feet tapping against the tiles.

Principal Thompson sighs and leans back in his seat, lacing his fingers against his stomach.

"This is the thirtieth occurrence... Either you two have a knack for miscalculating, or this is deliberate. Naturally, I should suspend you for your actions... Especially you, Lucas. However, you two are brilliant students who contribute to this school greatly."

Lucas snorts beside me and I roll my eyes. That's just a fancy way of saying he didn't want to piss my grandparents off again.

"However, I have a more fitting correction for your behaviors this time. Have you heard of the tutoring club?"

Lucas shakes his head as I freeze. Please don't say what I think you're trying to say.

"I've seen posters around, but I never read them," Lucas says, ceasing the foot tapping.

"It's a new initiative brought up by one of our very own. An opportunity for the academically gifted among us to help those... less gifted, for lack of a better word."

Principal Thompson stands and walks around his desk. He then leans against it in front of us.

"I would like the two of you to join, and use your academic standing in the right manner, and not to inevitably burn down the lab." Principal Thompson says, searching our faces for any signs of reactions.

"Principal Thompson, with all due respect, I'm afraid I'll have to pass on this," I say trying to keep my grimace to a minimum.

The only way I'd join that stupid club, is if my credit cards are taken from me, and the only way to get them back, is to comply.

"This will look good on your college application and transcript. Aside that, a few of your influential classmates are in the club... like Parker Van Every and Emily Johnson"

"Sir, Parker and I get on as well as water and fire." I plead, practically sitting at the edge of my seat.

"What she means to say is, this will be a great opportunity to challenge ourselves," Lucas says hurriedly. We lock gazes and I give him a glare.

"But... but—" my protests fall on deaf ears. I'm so going to kill Lucas.

"That's great! They have a meeting after school in the lounging area. I'll inform Parker of your participation." Principal Thompson announces, ignoring me further.

"Sir—" I try again, but Lucas cuts me off yet again.

"Thank you so much Principal Thompson. See you next week Wednesday," Lucas says quickly as he drags me out of the office, preventing me from speaking.

As soon as we're back in the hallway, I begin hitting his shoulder. "What. The. Hell. Was. That." I say as I hit him with every word I speak.

"Calm down, it really sounded great." He says, trying to reason with me.

"You just accepted because of Emily," I accuse and jab my finger into his chest. His hard chest just hurts my acrylic nails.

He smirks and pinches my cheeks "That's true. But it's more payback for getting me into this mess."

"But Parker is going to be there," I frown deeply and begin imagining ways to get out of this predicament.

Lucas swings an arm around my shoulder, as he guides me to entrance of the school. "Yeah, yeah. He's your rival or whatever. Let's get some food in my belly first, then you can rant all you want. You have free period right?"

I huff, and throw his hand off my shoulder. This day is going to have a horrible ending.

Especially if it involves Parker Van Every.

A/N

I hope you liked this chapter. If you did, show it by commenting your thoughts and clicking that nice star :)

Till next time.

Abby