Hi!
Here's chapter three. We never did learn about the consequences of mixing chemicals wrong in chemistry, and this is what I found.
"Always pour acids into water. If you pour water into acid, the heat of reaction will cause the water to explode into steam, sometimes violently, and the acid
will splatter. "
I exaggerated a little when I wrote it. . .
If someone who's more experianced/knowledgable on the subject could correct me, that would help.
What am I talking about?!?! Read on. C&C is very much appreciated. (I'll take anything)
"O-Tomodachi"
Chapter Three
"Saotome-san, I need to talk with you after class,"
Motsuko-sensei said. Ranma squirmed. He'd handed in the
reports yesterday after only a cursory effort. He knew
that the news wouldn't be too good. He nodded. "I'll be
there."
"Now Akane's gonna yell at me again, and just make fun of
me," Ranma thought angrily. "It's not my fault. I just
don't like science. It's so stupid, a bunch of numbers and
facts to memorize that don't mean anything in the real
world. . ." he ranted on and on in his mind, almost walking
into a wall.
The bell rang. "Chikusho," Ranma swore. Akane walked up
behind him.
"Hey, Ranma! Let's go!" She waved her books.
"I. . .uh, I'll catch up with you later! I gotta. . .talk
with a friend!"
Akane shrugged. "Then I'll see you later!" She turned
around and started chatting with a few friends. Ranma
sighed and waited for her to be out of his sight range.
Then he looked around and walked to the science teachers'
office.
"Hai, sensei?" Ranma asked, a bored tone in his voice.
Motsuko-sensei glanced at him. "I have a meeting today. I
forgot all about it. But I really have to talk with you.
Ah. . .wait in my room. Hindono-sensei will be there with
the weekly regional science club. You can stay there." He
shut the door in Ranma's face.
"Kono onore. . ." Ranma muttered under his breath. "Now
I'll be real late home, plus. . .I hafta stay in a room
full of nerds and geeks. . .oh, this'll be REAL fun." He
grumbled to himself as he went back to his biology
classroom.
Hindono-sensei was in there, writing something. "Saotome-
san? Can I help you? Your report wasn't so bad, you
know."
"Oh. . .um, no, Motsuko-sensei told me to wait here for
him." That was a surprise. Well, he'd spent two hours on
the chemistry report and thirty minutes on the biology one.
"I see. Go right ahead. The science club is going to be
here in a few minutes, though. Care to join us?" The
teacher actually sounded sincere.
Ranma wanted to retch. "Uh, no thanks."
"All right, no problem." He went back to work.
Ranma sat down in a desk, flipping through his math book
absently. There was a test tomorrow, and Ranma barely knew
the terms of that chapter.
People started coming in. Ranma recognized a few people
from his own chemistry and biology classes. There were
plenty of people from other schools. He noticed that they
were all boys. They actually didn't look all that geeky.
Sure, a few did, but more looked rather normal. They
started to put on lab aprons and goggles. Most of them
thought that Ranma was joining and were not opposed to the
idea. Ranma had to keep explaining why he was there.
"We'll be starting in a few minutes," Hindono-sensei said
as he looked at the clock.
Ranma groaned softly. What was taking that teacher so
long? More importantly, how was he going to survive?
"I'm here!" A familiar voice called from the doorway.
Ranma's head jerked up.
A petite girl in a sailor fuku was standing in the room,
holding a schoolbag. She walked over to a lab table,
opened it, and started to take something out.
"Himeko-san!" Somebody called. Ranma spun around. It
_was_ her!
"Konnichiwa, minna!" Himeko called cheerfully. "Hindono-
sensei! I saw the most interesting thing the other day in
a magazine. Here, I brought the article. It's in my. . ."
Setting down her jacket, she glanced at the lightly falling
snow outside and looked up.
She found herself looking Ranma straight in the eyes.
His eyes. How blue, how deep and dark, how unusually
beautiful. How mysterious, and just plain gorgeous. . .
She tore her gaze away with difficulty and found her
emotion turn to shock and surprise. She wasn't
hallucinating. It _was_ Ranma.
He was even cuter than she'd remembered. He has a fianc�e,
she reminded herself sternly. It's not your place to
interfere. Control yourself.
"Saotome-san, o-genki desu ka?" She asked cheerfully.
Ranma was too surprised to say much.
Then she looked down. "I. . .as long as we're both here, I
want to apologize for hitting you in the park. It was
completely out of line and very rude of me. Sumimasen."
She bowed low to him.
That was surprising. After how he'd grabbed her, and the
way she'd treated him, he was surprised that she hadn't
flattened his head on the spot. Maybe he was getting too
used to Akane. "I'm . . .I'm doing great! And. . .it was
my fault, too." Not really, but didn't hurt to apologize.
That was one thing Akane had taught him. He stood and
bowed.
She nodded. "So. . .what are you here for?"
"Well, my teacher kinda made me. . .I have to talk with
him." Ranma said airily. "You? Do all your friends come
here?"
"No. . .I don't have that many friends. And they're not
interested in science." She shrugged.
Ranma felt sympathetic. "I'm sorry."
Himeko shrugged. She walked over to a lab table and
slipped on an apron and goggles. Her hair was tied back
with a yellow ribbon. Ranma idly thought about touching
her hair. It looked soft and silky, shimmering in the late
afternoon light. The apron was bulky and heavy, and Ranma
watched her struggle to put it on. He laughed into his
hands. The stupid thing was much too large for her to
wear. Finally she gave up and put on a lab coat.
At the lab table, Himeko's badly trembling hands were
fumbling badly with the simple apron buttons. Usually, she
could get ready in thirty seconds. Why was she taking so
long? Her heart was racing, and she could feel her hands
start to turn numb and shaky.
"Deep breaths. Control yourself," she thought sternly.
Curious about the experiment, Ranma went up to her. Himeko
glanced at him, then she handed him a pair of goggles.
"Here."
"Thanks. What are you making?"
"You'll see," she said. "So, you like science?" She asked
hopefully. If he liked science, they'd have something in
common, and they might. . .
Ranma shrugged. "I'm only here because the bio teacher
wanted to discuss something with me."
"Hmm," Himeko said. She turned back to her work and didn't
look up. She was completely silent for the next ten
minutes.
Motsuko-sensei still didn't show up. Ranma gritted his
teeth.
Himeko opened a bottle and took some liquid out. She
started pouring it into a test tube, which had flakes of
metal on the bottom. Ranma glanced at her. The metal was
obviously reacting with the liquid. He saw foam forming.
Himeko put a stopper on it, and pushed a glass tube through
the stopper. She connected the tube to some other
glassware. Quickly, Himeko set the tube onto a holder,
positioned it above a Bunsen burner, and waited.
"Hey, can I help?" Ranma asked. He was becoming very
bored. He also noticed that Himeko was working alone,
while all the boys had partners.
"Sure," she said with a smile. "You know your chemistry?"
"Uh, sure!"
Himeko smiled and decided to trust him. She slid over a
bottle of fuming red nitric acid, 95% pure. "Dilute 250 ml
of this with 100 ml of distilled water," she said.
"Arigatou."
She turned back to her work, but her hands were shaking
again.
"He's so nice," she murmured softly and quietly, even her
breath coming shaky. "It wasn't his fault there, and
still he apologized. Now he's helping me." She glanced
over at him. He had the water in a beaker, and had the
acid in another large beaker.
She smiled. His braid looked so cute, bouncing a bit as he
walked. . .she stifled a laugh. He looked a little
awkward. Well, at least he had his goggles on. Besides,
what could go wrong? It was just diluting acid. . .wait a
minute. If he wasn't into chemistry, maybe he didn't know.
. .
Ranma came over with the two beakers. He picked up a
stirring rod. "Here we go," he announced. . .
. . .and he poured the water right into the acid. Himeko's
eyes got wide.
"Something wrong?" Ranma asked.
She spun around, faced Ranma, and threw herself between him
and the table. "GET BACK!" She yelled. Her arms swung
around, knocking a dry test tube and her schoolbag off the
lab table. The tube shattered and three books went flying.
As soon as she covered him, Ranma heard something
spluttering, then there was a "boom" and the sound of
shattering glass. Steam was rising from a pool of hot liquid among a lot of broken glass.
Ranma opened his eyes and saw Himeko in front of him. Her
arms were spread wide. She was breathing heavily, casting
little glances backwards. The hem of her sailor blouse was
brushing his red silk shirt. He swallowed hard. Her
collar was sliding just a bit. . .
"Um. . .did I do something wrong?" Ranma asked as he
stepped back.
She hadn't noticed their close proximity at all. Himeko
had her head bowed, as she stared at the floor. "Hold on.
. .let me. . .catch my breath." She steadied herself
against a table. "Ranma, never do that again." She
grinned. "But at least you have guts."
"What did I do?" Ranma was confused.
"Water first, THEN acid," Himeko explained. "Acid and
water can react. And when you have something strong like
*that* acid, it's very dangerous. Reversing the order, and
just dumping the water in. . .that's why it blew up." She
brushed her bangs out of her eyes and glanced at the table.
The beaker was shattered and acid was beginning to eat
through the tabletop. "Oh, great. I'll be brushing glass
shards out of my hair for a week." She pulled her dark hair
over her left shoulder. Ranma could see little sparkles of
glass in the glossy locks. She tried to get one out and
pricked her hand.
"Sorry," Ranma said. He played with his hands a little.
"I'll help you clean up. . ."
Himeko had a wry look on her face. "That's all right. I
think you'd better re-read your chemistry book first."
"Gomen ne," he mumbled sheepishly.
"Daijoubu sa," she replied. "All right, then, here's a
lesson. When diluting an acid, always pour the water
first. Then you add the acid, *very* slowly, while
stirring slowly and gently." She folded her arms and
smiled. "Wakatta?"
"Hai, wakatta," Ranma said. He fidgeted a little more.
"You're. . .not mad?"
Himeko laughed. "It was entertaining, and it wasn't
intentional." She tilted her head. "If people mess up on
purpose, then I *really* get mad. But you didn't know what
was going on. Dakara. . ." She smiled.
"Oh. Well, I. . ."
"It's all right, I said. If you want to help, get me that
sodium hydroxide off the shelf," she replied. "I've got to
clean up this mess, but I should really call the teacher."
She went out of the room to find Hindono-sensei while Ranma
found the bottle of base.
Ranma glanced at the mess. At least Himeko wasn't mad. He
was surprised by her reaction. He'd expected her to blow
up at him, yell at him, blame him for the mess. . .but she
didn't.
"Weird girl," he thought. She got mad at him for one thing
and stayed calm for another. He didn't understand people.
Hindono-sensei came back, with Himeko apologizing
profusely. Ranma winced, expecting a lecture. But the
teacher ignored him. Confused, Ranma watched them clean up
the mess. It took fifteen minutes, and the counter showed
signed of damage. He sighed again, and waited for Hindono-
sensei to come over and berate him for damages.
The teacher never did. Himeko went back to her experiment,
which was still standing. Ranma saw that Hindono-sensei
was gone. He went back up to Himeko.
"Takeno-san? Um. . .did you tell him?"
She glanced at him in surprise. "No, I said that I spilled
it. It was my fault anyway, for not warning you. Sorry."
Ranma was taken aback. "But. . .I. . ."
"Stop worrying." Himeko smiled. "Besides, I've made worse
mistakes. Hmm. . .I touched strong acid once. That hurt a
lot. I've broken equipment, set things on fire, made a
beaker explode, spilled chemicals. . ." she shrugged. "So,
why should I blame you?"
Himeko bit her lip hard. She'd taken the blame because she
didn't want him to get hurt. She didn't want him to get in
trouble. . .he'd hate her for sure. He couldn't even
understand it. . .
"Oh." Ranma was _really_ confused now. "You got really mad
in the park."
Himeko blushed. "Umm. . .well, I thought you were trying
to attack me or something. But I know you had good
intentions this time." She smiled again. "My aunt taught
me. . .'if someone has good intentions, don't put them down
for failing. But if someone had bad intentions, feel free
to hit them'." Not that I would ever hit you, she thought
silently.
Ranma couldn't help laughing. "I. . .I see," he said.
Himeko turned back to her setup on the table, her heart
beating fast.
"Himeko, stop it," she thought to herself. "No. . .this
attraction to him has got to stop. . ." She bit her lips
again. She couldn't help herself. Despite everything, she
still wanted to just stand there and talk with him. Her
heart wouldn't stop racing in his presence.
"What's the point of this experiment?" Ranma asked. Idly,
he looked to see whether his teacher was back yet.
Negative.
"To create this stuff," Himeko said. She showed him a dish
of small white crystals. "And I've just finished."
"Congrats," he told her. "Now what?"
"Now I show it to sensei, and I'm done."
Himeko walked off silently, saying no more. She was trying
to fight her emotions. She wanted to talk to him. She
wanted to be near him, to speak to him, and she couldn't
figure out why.
"Himeko, you don't have time for boys," she thought firmly.
"Plus, he's engaged, he's going to be married. You have
other things to do. Forget him."
It wasn't working. Thanks to her confused thoughts, Himeko
was the last to finish, and then the teacher had them start
to clean up the lab.
As she washed her glassware, she was hopeful that Ranma was
going out of the room. She breathed a sigh of relief.
Maybe she could stop thinking about him now. He wasn't
into science, so she shouldn't run into him that often.
"Christmas presents!" Hindono-sensei called out. The
students rushed to his desk, where he had a pile of plastic
bags holding gifts. Delighted, Himeko ran up to choose
one. She came back with two bags of candy. They were in
plastic Christmas packages, with pictures of holly and
Santa Claus. Himeko wavered a little, wrung her hands,
made up her mind, then gave one to Ranma.
What am I doing, she wondered to herself. She looked up to
see Ranma smiling at her. That smile. . .started to melt
her insides.
"Kawaii, ne?" Himeko said, cradling the package. Going
back to the lab table, she pulled the magazine off the
floor absently. She tucked two fallen books and the candy
into her schoolbag. Noticing that Ranma was starting to
open it, she quickly stopped him. "No eating in the lab,"
she said worriedly. "You could, but just be sure they're
not watching. Or, eat in the hallways."
Ranma laughed. "Oh, well." Quickly, he popped several
chocolates into his mouth and hid the bag in his pants
pocket before anyone else saw. "See? All done," he said
with his mouth full of chocolate.
Himeko smiled. "You like chocolate?"
"Yeah," Ranma said. "Why, do you?"
"Um, yeah," Himeko said. "I. . .I want to sit down."
"No problem," Ranma replied. They went up to the front and
sat in the chairs. Ranma looked at her expectantly.
Himeko shrugged and blushed.
"So, what have you been doing the past weeks?" Ranma asked,
breaking the awkward silence. "Doing more experiments like
this?"
"No, I. . .don't have a very exciting life," she said. "I
go to juku, I watched some TV, read a few manga. . .I went
to a movie with Rie-chan. That's it. What about you?" She
asked eagerly, looking at him.
Ranma felt a bit uncomfortable. "Um. . .I've been
practicing a lot, and that's about it. I got a new kick
combination down pat, and that's good, I guess."
"Omedetou gozaimasu!" Himeko clapped her hands. "That's
great! I'm so happy for you! What's it like?"
Ranma considered. "Well, I start like so," he took up a
pose, "and then I strike at one side, kick back for the
other, and," he demonstrated it for Himeko, who knew little
about kempo. She kept her eyes glued to his form and how
he gracefully spun around, keeping himself in perfect
control and balance. He finished in a stance, and she
clapped again. The other students were beginning to stare,
but the two ignored them
"That was awesome," she said nervously. "Um, I mean, it
was really great to watch you do those moves. . .I've never
seen anything so good," she added.
"Thanks, but I could do better," Ranma said loftily. He
laughed. "Well, I learned a lot of tricks. This is just
one of the newer ones."
"Show me another, please," Himeko implored. She was
nervous at the moment, her hands were shaking, her heart
was pounding. She had no idea what to say to him, but she
wanted to talk with him. She decided she'd go along with
any subject he liked. So long as he stayed with her, it
would be all right.
"Nah, I'll probably break something," Ranma decided.
Himeko laughed. "Oh, I'm sure you wouldn't."
"I don't know about that," Ranma said with a shrug.
"Anyway, there's a lot more to the Anything-Goes School
than just combinations. There's a whole philosophy behind
our moves and actions."
"I see," Himeko replied. "I'm guessing, then, that
'anything' can 'go' in that style, am I correct?"
Ranma smiled. "You got it! We don't cheat, but we adapt
our style to suit the situation. Therefore, we can fight
against a master of any style, because we are fluid and we
can change."
Himeko nodded. "That's really interesting. And you've
been training for a long time, I take it?" From his
performance, she was pretty sure.
"Since I could stand," Ranma said with a slightly sad
smile. "It's all I've ever known. Sometimes I wish I
could have a more normal life, but I think it's worth it."
Himeko nodded. "That's. . .what I believe too." She was
blushing. "Please, don't think that I'm too forward," she
said frantically. "But I agreed with you. . .I couldn't
help myself. I hope you don't mind."
Ranma laughed. "Why should I? It's the exact same way
that I feel."
Himeko grinned. "That's good!" She thought for a moment,
searching for another topic of conversation. "What else do
you like to do?"
"Hmm. . .I like to read manga, and movies are nice once in
a while, but. . .no, just that."
"Well, how about. . ."
***
Ranma looked outside. "What time is it? I'd better get
going." Motsuko-sensei had never shown up. Ranma didn't
care anymore. It had been worth it to have a good
conversation.
It was seven-thirty. They'd been talking for two and a
half hours. Ranma was surprised. Himeko was unused to
talking with boys, and it showed. She'd tried hard to talk
about whatever Ranma wanted to, and had succeeded more or
less.
"By the way, I saw Akane-san last week," Himeko said
thoughtfully. "She's a very nice girl."
Ranma nearly swallowed his chocolate whole. "Oh, yeah.
What did she say?"
"Not much. Just asked what school I went to, whatever.
Umm. . .she said you were a really good martial artist."
"Oh." Ranma looked down and smiled. So, Akane _did_ have
some appreciation for his skills. "What high school *do*
you go to?"
"I go to. . .oh, darn it, I have to leave. Nice talking to
you." She waved and started walking out the door. She
couldn't even walk steadily, as her heart was racing and
adrenaline was streaming throughout her body. She didn't
want to speak any more. She wasn't sure she would say what
she meant to say, as though she'd lost all control.
"Ja, Himeko-san."
Himeko stood were she was. Did he just call her Himeko-
san?
She turned around. "Nani?"
"Friends?" He asked. Himeko had really been fun to talk
to, he decided. She was a sweet girl, just a bit emotional
and stubborn. He smiled.
"Hai, Ranma-san," she said. "Ja ne."
End of Chapter Three
**************************************
Thanks for reading.
---Irene
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