Robert looked down, and down again at the curly-headed boy in front of his desk.

"May I help you?" he said. He didn't have time for this. He had a practical exam to set up and two sets of unknown substances to make before lunchtime without having someone's kid running loose in the lab. "Who are you looking for? Your big brother?"

"Hardly," the child said. "He'd never come into such a place. Not unless the prime minister was giving a speech here, or someone was hosting a reception. He is very fond of tea cakes."

Robert frowned. "I'm sorry but you're going to have to wait outside. Only University students are allowed in the chemistry laboratory."

"But I am a University student," the child said waving an ID card in front of his...navel. He couldn't reach high enough to wave it in front of his nose.

The card showed a scruffy boy with a stupid scowl on his face, this boy. Robert scoffed, "Very funny. This is someone's idea of a joke isn't it. Who put you up to this, kid?"

"I am not a kid! so please refrain from calling me that. No one "put me up" to this. I am here to take a class. This is the chemistry lab isn't it?"

"Yes, this is the chem lab, but we teach university students not primary school ones."

"Primary school was ages ago. As I said, I am a university student. The card is not a forgery. Call the admissions office if you doubt it. It took her forever to convince before she'd make it for me. Hurry up! I don't have all day to do this lab. Mummy says that I need to be home before dark."

Robert smiled and jotted down the ID number. He would look it up later and see who it really belonged to. He handed it back and said. "You know kid, we really can get in trouble for having a child like you among this many dangerous chemicals."

The boy wrinkled his nose. "Citrate! My goodness. I can buy more dangerous chemicals than these in the shops."

"How do you know we are isolating Citrate this week?"

"Honestly? Is this supposed to be a difficult deduction? I am a child, not an idiot. Besides the smell, which is bloody obvious, I did read the lab book before coming to class. This is what I'm supposed to do isn't it? Or are you implying that I am too young to read?"

Robert looked again at the boy. He was a short, pale boy with dark curly hair, not yet having reached puberty. He was dressed in blue trousers and a blazer with a white shirt with no tie. He carried a book bag, and sticking out of it were the lab book, the chemistry text book, and a physics text. He had heard of people coming to uni young before, but not this young. Could this boy be one of them? A prodigy? "Are you honestly a student here?" he asked.

The boy sighed, "Finally! A light comes on. Yes, I am a student. Thus the ID card and the text books. I thought University instructors were supposed to be smart." He crossed his arms and smiled a smug smile.

"I take it this is your first visit to the open lab?" Robert said. The boy rolled his eyes, so he went on. "You'll need to fill out this form. I need your name and the name of your instructor. Who is your instructor by the way?"

"Jones."

"So you're an online student."

"Of course. I wouldn't even be here if this university didn't have the outmoded belief that a student can not prove that they have learned to do chemistry without someone witnessing them doing it. It's not like I don't have my own lab at home, although I am looking forward to using your equipment. Some of it is top rate, or so I've heard. When do we get to use the NMR Spectrometer?"

"Never. Not in this class, at least. This is a beginning chemistry lab. We can't afford that kind of equipment."

"Why of course you can? What else are my University fees for? Besides Oxford Instruments makes a very affordable one that doesn't contain superconducting magnets. I asked Mummy to buy me one, but she said that I'd get to use one here. If you don't have one, then I don't see the point of coming."

Robert shoved the form and the syllabus across the desk at the boy, and then turned away. So now he was a babysitter? This job didn't pay enough to compensate for the hassle it caused. He went to the bench and started mixing his unknowns only to stop some minutes later when he noticed a pair of greenish-blue eyes looking up at him. He placed the blue crystals into a watch glass and went back to labeling the row of test tubes.

"That's Cobalt Chloride isn't it? It's just ...It looks a bit like anhydrous Cupric Chloride, but that's a different shade of blue. I have it in my chemistry set at home."

Robert frowned down at the boy, "How is it that you come by any of these chemicals. They're supposed to have only nontoxic substances in the chemistry kits that they sell to kids."

"You mean the ones with baking soda and vinegar? Pah! I wouldn't sully my hands with them. It was a Christmas gift from Mycroft. He had to import it special from China! They don't sell it here."

Robert poured the powder through a funnel and into the tubes, capping each one carefully before wiping his hands down the sides of his lab coat. He turned toward the boy. "Now, what is it you want?"

The child thrust the form at him. He took it in his hands and read the name written in neat schoolboy cursive.

Introductory Chemistry Lab I
Instructor name: Jones
Student name: Sherlock Holmes

He looked down into the bright excited eyes of the dark-headed boy and knew that this year would be an interesting one.