Beca surveyed Chloe Beale darkly as she wrote down her answers in her impeccably neat script, head bent over her work. Looking at her deceptively innocent appearance, one would not have guessed what unthinkable acts she was capable of. As a proof of it, Chloe beat her in both the most recent chemistry and biology tests, by margins of two and three percent respectively.
It was unheard of, and the 'ooh's of exaggerated surprise that rippled through the class as Chloe was congratulated for the top mark - an honour formerly hers by default - caused her cheeks to burn and her determination to rise. Her competitive side fumed; she would not let anybody take her place at the top of the class.
It was her own fault, she supposed. She had underestimated the new girl, but then who could really blame her? For one thing, she was not pale and skinny as one would expect a top student (others might use the term 'nerd' but she calls it hardworking and intelligent) to be. Also, she is left-handed. By all rights she should have been an artistic or musical type - not a scientist! And for God's sake, she isn't even wearing glasses! What kind of hardworking and intelligent person do not suffer from myopia? The whole matter was terribly confusing.
"Ten minutes left!"
With a start, Beca started scribbling down her answers, kicking herself for letting the redhead have the extra advantage of time. If she wasn't careful, she would surpass her in psychology as well, and she couldn't have that.
Beca's mood didn't lighten one bit even after three periods. Seething, she carried the equipments needed for their dissection over to the bench. Being assigned as lab partners with the Chloe Beale for the rest of the semester was something she had initially seen as positive as it would allow her to keep a closer eye on her progress, but now she was beginning to doubt. Being as straightforward as she was, she had told her in no uncertain terms that she would beat her in every assessment they had for the four subjects they shared classes in, and would most definitely reclaim her position at the top of the class.
To her surprise and fury, instead of looking scared or apprehensive, Chloe merely looked rather taken aback for a few seconds before - there was no mistaking it - her lips curved slightly upward as though she was trying her best to suppress a smile and was not quite succeeding. "I wouldn't be too confident if I were you," she said and without another word, she had gone to collect the two rats they're going to dissect.
Once they had set up, they both started working quickly on their respective rats, Beca determined to finish faster than Chloe and the redhead keen on not letting that happen. She had the advantage over her as she had done this dissection before at her previous school but still she focused entirely on her rat, determined that she would not let her concentration waver through overconfidence. Beca was similarly intent on her own dissection, except when she looked up to check the other girl's progress.
All was well so far - she was quite ahead of Chloe, even if her cuts were not so precise. She watched - meaning to do so only for a moment - as the bright blue-eyed girl pulled, sliced and poked, and a second later, Beca was transfixed. There was something fascinating and strangely beautiful in the way that her long, deft fingers worked steadily and efficiently. She was handling the rat gently, as if she were a musician playing a soft and lovely piece on a piano, or an artist adding the last few fine strokes to her masterpieces. Or at least that's what Beca thought.
She gasped, making Chloe look up and pause from her work and Beca was almost sorry to see her stop. "What happened?" She asked, looking rather concerned.
Beca wordlessly held her finger up, gashed and bleeding from her careless scalpel. Chloe abandoned her rat and helped her wash it and bandage it, and all the while she was silently kicking herself for losing concentration because she found the sight of Chloe disemboweling a dead rat strangely attractive.
Chloe looked at her bemusedly. In her mind, Beca is a straightforward and abrupt girl who, for the past few days, had thrown herself so deeply into her work that she hardly looked up from her books. Chloe watched as she typed numbers with lightning speed into her calculator, impatiently brushing a stray lock of dark hair out of her eyes. To her amusement, the lock of hair promptly fell back where it was before, eliciting an impatient noise from the brunette as she pushed it more forcefully out of her face. Shee was brought back to reality when the teacher told them to set up the equipments needed to perform a titration. She smiled; nothing had ever distracted him from chemistry before.
Chloe helped Beca set up the burettes, pipettes and the flasks they needed, both of them silent and business-like as they swiftly set up for their experiment. In their white lab coats and large goggles, they were once again in fierce competition.
She concentrated thoroughly, even on the mechanical task of rinsing all the glassware first with deionized water and then with the reactant that was to be placed in them. She couldn't afford to mix things up; after all, the three substances they're working with were all clear liquids. Once she was ready for his experiment, she placed her mouth on the end of her pipette and slowly began to draw up the liquid, carefully bringing it up to the right volume.
Chloe chanced a glance at Beca to check her progress. She was at the same stage as she was: drawing up the liquid slowly, creating a seal with her thumb and checking the level of the liquid. When she realized that it was short of the gradation mark, she deftly replaced her small pink mouth on the end of the pipette. The redhead observed in fascination at the precise and gentle pressure Beca's lips exerted as she gradully drew up the liquid.
Suddenly, Chloe spluttered and started to cough. A mouthful of sodium hydroxide is never pleasant. Beca looked up at the noise and seemed torn between amusement and concern, knowing just as well as Chloe does that sodium hydroxide was corrosive and a gastric and respiratory irritant. Letting the carefully gathered liquid in her pipette drain back into its beaker, she took the slightly taller girl's arm and briskly led her to the emergency was station.
They were both sitting in the front row and Beca had just begun to write down her first answer when a piece of paper landed on her lap. She sneaked a quick side glance at Chloe, not wanting to look like she was cheating. The redhead seemed intent on her paper, except that her lips were curved into the tiniest of smiles.
She looked back down to the paper and with a glance at their teacher, carefully unfolded the paper under her desk.
"Iodine lithiumpotassiumeinsteinium yttriumoxygenuranium."
Beca frowned in confusion and with another look at their teacher, she discreetly scribbled a reply (if it could be called as that) before she dropped the note back into Chloe's lap.
"?"
Chloe rolled her eyes, scribbled her reply and tossed it back to the small brunette.
"Look again," she had written. "Look at their chemical symbols."
She stared at the message again, and then her face broke into a sudden smile.
"Iodine lithiumpotassiumeinsteinium yttriumoxygenuranium."
"I LiKEs YOU."
It was a good thing that she was anal about chemistry and not English grammar, because however much Chloe's grammar might be lacking, her chemistry was one hundred percent correct.
Their hands clasped under the desk, both of them smiling until their cheek muscles began to ache, their test papers largely ignored.
The next week when the top result for the test was announced and the girl who sat in the back row was congratulated, neither Beca nor Chloe minded in the least.