Chapter 3

Middleton High School's sign often displays something current that relates to life at or around the campus of the school. It can be anything: from what's hot on the cafeteria menu to when the next cheer squad meet is. In this particular case, the sign displayed the words, "Beware of EVIL Chemicals." Obviously, the chemicals weren't literally evil, but the beware-part was necessary, all the same.

As it just so happened, Kim had a chemistry class when she noticed the sign. No, it wasn't enough to make Kim's weirdar go to alert. Inside the classroom, the students weren't surprised that their normal chemistry teacher was sick, probably from the evil chemicals, and was now being filled in by Mr. Barkin. He was a tall and sturdy man, with brown hair and a big chin to go with a deep and drill-sergeant voice.

"Because your regular chemistry teacher is not present today, I will be taking his place and teaching you about the fundamentals about chemistry, otherwise known as the study of how this wonderful world works on a molecular level."

A boy raised his hand and said, "I thought chemistry was the study of reactions."

Barkin's eyes flared and he stomped his foot, "ARE YOU MOCKING ME? That's three hours of detention, buster! SIT DOWN!"

The boy whimpered and cowered beneath his desk. "Now," Barkin continued with a monotone-like voice, "if there are no more questions… what is it, Stoppable?"

"Um, if every teacher showed up to school, what would you do?"

The substitute teacher chose not to answer that out of serious restraint. If this were at boot camp, Stoppable would be flattened like a pancake for making that comment. Luckily, the kid was still in school, so Barkin couldn't really physically harm him… much.

"Okay. For the agenda today, I'm going to read off a list of names. When you hear yours, listen closely, for your partners' name will follow your own. Any questions? Stoppable, put your hand down."

Ron reluctantly lowered his left hand, and Mr. Barkin pulled out a small notepad from his jacket pocket. He made some small circles on the pad, mostly around names. "Matthew Adams, you're with Brick Flagg; Lou Stevens, you're with Bonnie Rockwaller; Helen Finity, you're with Nick Hornacek; Stoppable--"

"Dibs on Monique!" he cried out, grabbing her. Kim and Monique both looked at him in a slightly confused way. Monique and Kim were usually partners. Now, Kim's weirdar was definitely going off.

Barkin sighed, "I'm not even going to argue. Fine, Stoppable. Mary Shelley, you're with Robert Dylan; Josh Mankey, you're with Christopher Cross; Kim Possible, you're with Nathan Porter; Larry Beal, you're with Elaine Benes; Hector, you're with…"

Kim was wide-eyed. Not only was she one of the only last names mentioned, but she had just been paired with Nate! What kind of cruel, twisted world was this? Ron gave Kim a small nudge and asked her, "Are you going to ask him?"

Kim looked at Ron. Did he mean… on a date? "Uh… what?" Kim replied, confused.

Ron cleared his throat and whispered, "Are you going to ask Nate about the camp and last name thing?"

Kim raised an eyebrow, "Probably not. Why do you care?"

Ron just smiled and winked, "I don't." He was so lying.

Then Kim felt someone tap her shoulder. It was Nathan. "Do you think we should begin? Maybe? Yeah, that might be a good idea," he said.

Kim looked around and saw that most of her classmates had already begun working on the assignment, and she groaned at Nathan's comment of sarcasm. "Okay, so what do we have to do?"

"Mix Chemical A with Chemical B?" Nathan shrugged and Kim looked at him. He might not know what he's doing, she thought. The assignment had to be more than just a simple mixing experiment, right? Kim grabbed a Bunsen burner – a common device for heating used in chemistry – and lit it. This was to prepare the chemicals for boiling.

"Possible, what are you doing?" Mr. Barkin asked as he walked over to the two of them.

Kim looked at him and responded with, "Preparing the two chemicals for boiling, Mr. Barkin."

The big man folded his arms and scowled, "The assignment was to mix the two chemicals together. Were you not paying attention?" Kim blushed and lowered her eyes.

"Sorry, Mr. Barkin, it's my fault," Nathan said. "I told Kim we could get some extra credit if we boiled the chemicals first."

"Well, in that case, Porter, I'll take points off your grade instead of Possible's!" And with that, Mr. Barkin stomped away grumbling to himself, "I'll never understand teenagers."

Kim lifted her head up and stared at him. She noticed his features really well this time. Nathan had a cowlick on the right side of his forehead that made his hair look rather odd. She remembered when Monique said that his hair was 'a little whacked up.' Still, it gave Nathan an unusual quality that Kim couldn't put her finger on.

His skin seemed somewhat dry and rough, just from the sight of it. Nathan's face might have been slightly round, but his chin had a chiseled feature to it. His eyes were dark blue, and inside those eyes, there seemed a sense of distress. "Why did you do that?" Kim finally asked. "Why did you stick up for me?"

"Eh. You seem like the person that really cares about grades: the overachiever type, I guess. I didn't want one stupid mistake to cost you a grade letter."

Nathan studied Kim's face as well. He noticed that she had been evaluating his countenance and was subconsciously flattered by the gesture. Most of girls didn't think he was hottie-material, so it was nice that one of them looked at him and smiled. Nathan then shook his head of such thoughts: there would be no way that a really pretty girl like that would ever be interested in him. He had too many flaws. Still, why was Kim looking at him like that? It definitely wasn't an infatuation.

He noticed that Kim was a little jittery, which was pretty obvious to anyone that cared to look. She was giggling a lot and fluttering her eyes slightly, as if embarrassed around him. Nathan thought that maybe all of this was just Kim's way of being nice or friendly. It couldn't mean anything else, could it? Why would Kim even be… no, it's better not to even go there.

Kim was having similar thoughts as well. She mostly questioned why she couldn't control her emotions: she was unwittingly giving Nathan hints that she liked him. This was a bad move, wasn't it? Kim had talked to guys before, so why was this one so different? He wasn't a hottie like Josh Mankey. Theoretically, Kim shouldn't have had any problem when talking to or being around Nathan.

She looked around the classroom, hoping that seeing something realistic would snap her back to reality (and get her head back in the proper thought-process). Kim caught sight of Monique, who seemed to have been watching Nathan and her for the past few minutes, mostly when Kim made her little blunder in judgment. Monique was distinctly giving Kim the 'skunk eye,' showing Kim that she was not happy with Kim's behavior around her ex.

Kim gave Monique an apologetic expression, hoping not to upset her friend any more. Monique jerked her head away, almost as if she refused to look at Kim. Kim wanted to walk over and explain the situation to Monique, but there wasn't time. Nathan was tapping Kim on the shoulder again, "Um, could you stop daydreaming for a second? We need to focus to get this project done."

"Oh, right," Kim replied, uttering a small uncontrollable giggle afterwards. Nathan looked at her in bewilderment and raised an eyebrow. When Kim saw the eyebrow, she continued to giggle. Nathan remained confused. Girls are weird.

Kim Possible was suddenly burnt back to reality with a sharp feeling of pain in her palm. She had been holding the beaker of a blue chemical over the Bunsen burner the entire time she had been staring, thinking, and giggling. Needless to say, it was quite hot. Kim squeaked a little bit and dumped the bubbling liquid into the other beaker, which was full of a chalk white chemical.

Nathan's eyes shot wide open in utter shock, and he cried, "NOT ALL OF IT!" Kim looked at him and then back at the beaker: it was shaking violently. She slowly backed away, and the whole class was watching. The beaker exploded, covering Nathan with the liquid inside. He stood there twitching, "This… is… really… HOT!"

Kim blushed and backed away some more. She soon figured out that Nathan wasn't using the term "hot" to mean "attractive," but rather he meant that the liquid burned like hell. "I'll, um, go get some paper towels," Kim said sheepishly. She was so embarrassed.

Barkin walked up to Nathan and said, "This is why I told you to put the precise amount of liquid into beaker number two. Now, who should I take points away from, you or Possible?"

Nathan just stood there with a look of rage on his face. He shot a fierce look at Barkin and felt like raising a shaking finger to point at Kim. He decided against it, however. Nathan remained silent. Kim giggled nervously and hurried out the door of the classroom. Nathan twitched a few more times; the urge to scream was overwhelming.

"Great," Kim said to herself sarcastically, "should I ask him out now or later?"

Kim's feelings of humiliation and awkwardness were interrupted by a familiar beep. She remembered the cliché of "Saved by the bell" and thought it applied here. Kim pulled out the kimmunicator and said cheerfully, "What up, Wade?"

"I have a lead on where Mercenary is going to appear tonight."

"Good," Kim replied, smiling, "maybe now I can find out what he's up to."

Kim looked at Wade, who seemed to recognize that something was up besides the Mercenary-issue. Was it that obvious that she had been in an awkward position two minutes ago? Wade looked bemused and smug. Kim glared at him and said, "Don't ask."