Fun, fun. Let the good times roll. Let's see how this chapter smoothly runs.

Chapter 3: Mix up

I let out a groan as I woke up from that dream. It was probably the most bizarre dream I had ever had, but I don't remember much of it. I opened my eyes and noticed the clock on the wall across from me. How long was I asleep? I sat up and stretched my arms. I looked to my right and saw a note on the chair from the nurse. I glanced around the room. There were 2 more beds in here, one on each side of the bed I was on. I saw two shelves near the nurse's desk and a small cabinet near the door. A larger cabinet was next to the bed left of me. I took a glance out the window and noticed it was still morning, most likely late morning.

'Hm…'

I got up from the bed, placed on my shoes that was next to the bed, and walked over to the window. I figured it was still class time, since there were some classes outside doing drills or free time. Most likely, it was the physical education class. They were broken into groups and doing separate sports. I was really enjoying the view of everyone participating. It was peaceful. Then, several footsteps outside the door startled me, and it brought me back to reality. I glanced back at the bed and noticed my book bag was not there.

'They probably didn't see it fly toward the staircase. I might as well get it after I go to the office. It was near a science room…I think.'

I found my papers on the nurse's desk, took it, and opened the door to leave. The footsteps I heard had already passed, and I did not see anyone out in the hallway. I looked at the note that I decided to take and flipped it over to find a small map. The nurse probably drew this, since I might get lost again. The arrow pointed down the hallway, take a left, and go into the third door to my right. I walked out the nurse's office, closed the door quietly, and made my way to the office.

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A young brunette boy in a black uniform was walking in a hallway towards the science room when he took a side glance up the staircase. There was book bag at the end of the staircase obviously left behind. He decided to make a detour and investigate the book bag to find its owner. He walked over and picked it up with his right hand. He studied the front with a frown adorned when he couldn't locate a name tag. He flipped it around and was graced with a name tag. He chuckled at himself.

'Hitoshi Misaki…' He thought about all the students and friends he knew and decided that he knew no one who had this name. As he was about to decide to go to the office, someone called out his name.

"Fuji-san." He placed his same smile on and turned around. His math teacher was standing a few feet behind him.

"Yes, sensei?"

The teacher then informed Fuji that one of his teachers, his P.E. teacher, was looking for him. He is to go to the tennis courts. Fuji replied respectfully with an affirmative. Fuji bowed and left swiftly to the courts all the while carrying Hitoshi's bag. He would have someone from his team bring it to the office for him.

Meanwhile in the science room, Misaki was having a tough time calculating how much milliliters of sulfuric acid should be placed in the beaker with sodium hydroxide. She was introduced quickly to the class by the teacher and made enough effort to introduce herself. She was quite nervous, and she's in her last year of middle school! Talk about stage fright. She was quite sure most of the students thought she was an introvert and an outcast. After the introductions, she was told to sit at the empty back row. So here she is, sitting by herself towards the back of the room on the left side. Her classmates were already paired up with the person next to them. Her partner, however, was not here. She was told he had to attend to something regarding his club and had to continue without him. It was only a practice drill. She could not retrieve her bag until it was lunch time which was about an hour away.

--

'Aw man, this is hard. I knew chemistry was hard, just didn't think it was this hard.'

I silently let out a string of profanities from my colorful vocabulary when the mixture was, yet again, WRONG. I frowned at my mess of mixture and took a glance at everyone else's. The classroom had 10 lab tables with five on each side of the room. The walls were the same white walls as the hallway, just covered with many posters pertaining to chemistry. The windows were on the left side of class, so that was good for me. Obviously, the teacher's desk was in center front of the room. Each lab table had beakers, test tubes, a triple beam balance, and other necessities located on the left or right side of the table, depending where the table was at. Next to the table also, there were labeled cabinets to locate the solutions and other equipments. The sink and where to dispose of chemicals were behind me diagonally to my right side.

I took a glance around the room for another moment. Everyone only had minor mistakes, but they all had partners who corrected the wrong. I knew I was doing something wrong, but what? I kept investigating between theirs and mine until I figured out that I miscalculated both chemicals with one another. Happy to figure out my mistake, I immediately scribbled my calculations in the erased portion of my paper.

Double checking yet again, I carefully placed the correct amount of sodium hydroxide in the beaker with sulfuric acid. However, before I knew what was happening, my mixture began to smoke, and it wasn't white smoke but green. It was not a wisp of smoke either, but a lotof smoke was coming from the beaker. I heard a few classmates snickering in front of me while they did their drill. Okay, now I knew this was not supposed to happen. I may be slow in chemistry, but I read all of the directions andpaid attention to the demonstration. I frowned and furrowed my eyebrows. All my hard work went to waste. Displeased at this result, I correctly disposed of my solution and did it again from scratch. But this time, I wanted some help. I raised my hand until my teacher saw me. He saw me and walked past five lab tables until he got to me.

"Yes, Hitoshi-san?" He raised his right eyebrow at me.

"Sensei, I need some help mixing the chemicals. I keep getting a few mix ups, and it won't turn out as how you demonstrated." I was frowning, and my eyes shown sadness.

"Seeing as how your partner is not here today, that will be fine. Can you show me your work?" He stood next to me as I began explaining how I got 10millimeters of sodium hydroxide and 16 millimeters of sulfuric acid. Then, I showed him the chemical bottles I used. He nodded but then frowned when he saw that one of the bottles was mislabeled.

"Wait, Hitoshi-san," he picked up the bottle with 'H2SO4' as the label, "It seems to me one of my students decided to re-label my solutions." He glanced around the room and found that several students were taking quick looks toward the new transfer student.

"Well, it seems you weren't doing anything wrong, Hitoshi-san." I smiled happily at my teacher at this remark. 'Yay! Beat that chemistry!' He then stated that I no longer had to make the mixture and should answer the questions by using the demonstrated mixture he did. I quickly bowed and thanked my teacher for his help. He only smiled warmly back then proceeded to the front of the class.

"Everyone, it is almost time for class to end. I want everyone to dispose of your solutions at the back of class. Also, I want to remind you that the next time you decide to play around with my equipment, I won't hesitate to give you detention for a month." The teacher eyed at a few students who inwardly flinched at his tone and look. Everyone immediately bowed and thanked the teacher. Then, they began to clean up and left as soon as they were done.

I cleaned my almost non-existent mess and gathered my papers on my lab table. It was lunch time now, so I decided to go look for my book bag. After all, it did have my lunch box in there. I sighed at my misfortune when my stomach growled. Just as I was picking up my papers on my table in front of me, someone tapped me on my shoulder. I turned my head to the right to find three girls awkwardly smiling at me.

"Um..hi Hitoshi-san! I'm Hanazawa Rina. My two friends beside me are Suzumi Kairi and Ootori Natsu. We were just wondering if you wanted to join us for lunch, seeing as how you're new and all to Seigaku."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Hitoshi Misaki." I replied and bowed at her greeting.

The girl in the center was the one who talked first and pointed at everyone. Hanazawa Rina was just a few inches taller than me. She had brown shoulder length hair that glowed red in the light. Her eyes were hazel that seemed to glow warmly with her smile. She was wearing the typical attire of the uniform like her two friends, except she decided to have a black tie instead of a pink ribbon. She looked like she was a very out-going person and like a nice person to be friends with. All the while, I wonder if they would let me wear a tie instead of a ribbon too. It looked cool on her, so why not?

The next girl that was on the left of Rina was Suzumi Kairi. She was slightly taller than me by an inch. She had short brunette hair with sparkling green eyes. She radiated happiness off of her. Her smile made everything around dazzling and sparkling. I would probably get along with her just fine. She, too, wore the exact outfit as me, just brown dress shoes instead.

The last person was Ootori Natsu. Her name sounded intelligent just as she looked intelligent. She wore branded rimless glasses that framed her face quite nicely. She had her black hair tied in a low ponytail. Her eyes were a mysterious dark violet color that when she gazed at me questionably, I could not tell what her emotions were. Indeed, a mysterious person. She gave a small smile that reached her eyes, so I knew she was friendly. She wore a light cardigan over her uniform despite how warm it was today.

"Hanazawa-san…" I began to reply.

"Call me Rina-chan." She interrupted quickly with a smile.

"Rina-chan," she smiled even brighter, "I would be glad to join everyone, but I have to look for my book bag that got misplaced near the staircase. Sorry." I sincerely apologized with a small frown. They were such nice people to approach me, and I just had to turn them down. Rina frowned slightly and then contemplated to a conclusion with an enthusiastic smile that they would help me. Her two friends, Kairi and Natsu, agreed with a smile and sigh, so I guessed even if they refused Rina, somehow they would end up doing it.

"All right! Mission to find Mi-chan's bag before lunch ends starts now!" Rina exclaimed with a fist in the air. I merely smiled at the proclaimed nickname, and a new relationship formed. We would begin the search by locating which staircase I lost my bag at. On my way out, I realized something about the class.

'I forgot what my teacher's name is even though he helped me.' I sighed with a lopsided grin and followed my new friends out the door.

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Good? Not enough development? Well about the development part, I'm still working on that. Please leave criticism and reviews. Much appreciated. Stay tuned for the next chapter! Chapter 4: Encounter.