A/N: This is the last chapter I'm posting tonight. More to come tomorrow, maybe!
ENJOY!
Chapter 2:
Professor Z walked up and down the aisle of tables as his students stared with discerning glances at the little neon green and torquise super bouncy balls set in front of them.
"Could somebody tell me what I've given you?" he questioned. A few tentative hands rose in the air, he turned, quirking his head, "Stewart?"
"Green balls," Stu answered and the class broke into giggles.
"Ah…" Professor Z stammered, pushing his glass up the bridge of his nose, "Technically, you would be correct." Stu looked despite himself with glee, "But…that wasn't the answer I was looking for…"
Z crossed over to the light switch, flicking it down. The lights turned off and the room was quickly filled with little colorful glowing dots. The class let out "oh's" and "ah's". After a moment, he turned the lights back on. A few hands were in the air, all belonging to each of the Science Club members.
"Hm…Vaughn," Professor Z called.
"Uh…they're glow in the dark balls," Vaughn replied. More giggles from the back of the room and a few hands still itched in the air.
"Right, they glow in the dark. Very good, Vaughn. And why would I bring in to my science class glow in the dark toys…Marshall?"
"They're phosphorescent," Marshall eagerly chirped, grinning broadly.
"Which means…?" Z pressed.
"Well, a phosphorescent is any substance that has the ability to take in light energy quickly and release it slowly," Marshall explained eagerly, scooping the ball up and bouncing it a few times for emphasis and also, just for the joy of it, "Which gives the impression it glows-in-the-dark."
"Exactly. Excellent, Marshall. Can anyone name any phosphorescent substances for us? Josie!"
"Well…phosphors are usually made up of a host material mixed with an activator to prolong the glowing. Some of the more popular toys on the market are made with mixes such as calcium sulfide and strontium sulfide using bismuth as an activator. Strontium sulfide with europium as an activator produces a much longer lasting glow. But I'm guessing these toys," Josie bounced her own little blue ball, "Use zinc sulfide with a copper activator."
"Very well put, Josie," Professor Z exclaimed, taking a stance at the front of the room once more, "I can tell some of you did the reading. While others…" he walked by and plucked Madison's nail file from out of her hands. She looked up at him annoyed, "Could do well to listen. Now the word phosphor comes from the Greek phosphoros, which is appropriate as it means "light bearer". A long time ago, alchemists were determined to discover the secrets of the gods. Long life, iron to gold, and…" Z picked up one of the glow-in-the-dark bouncy balls, "Eternal flame. So, they did what any good scientist does."
"Have big brains," Stu interjected and laughter filled the room. He smiled toothily at his peers.
"No…" Professor Z told him patiently, "They took a close look at the world around them, and observed. They saw that certain things in the natural world possessed this ability to seemingly glow in the dark. Firefly larva, certain types of jellyfish, different kinds of minerals and plants. They ran experiments, extracted the glowing component from these different creatures, and eventually led the way to the discovery of phosphors. Which are used in CRT displays meaning your older televisions and computer monitors, they're used in florescent lights, and…toys. Today we will be using zinc sulfide to make glow-in-the-dark slime. Now let's get you with your assigned partners."
It didn't take long before Professor Z had his students paired off. An uncertain Corrine with Josie, an unhappy Lucas with Vaughn, and an even unhappier Marshall with Stu. Professor Z had passed out the materials and tools they would be using to make the slime and their instruction sheets. He was in the back at the time being, talking to Madison and her partner about not polishing their nails during experiments as it presented the opportunity of cross contamination.
"Alright, it says here we need 40mL PVA solution," Josie read off the paper, looking expectantly at Corrine. They poured the solution into the plastic bag provided to them, "This is kind of boring," Josie muttered, turning when Lucas brushed her arm with his hand just as Corrine was opening her mouth to reply. Josie smiled sweetly up at Lucas, a little pink tinge to her cheeks, "Hey. Boring, huh?"
"Yeah," he agreed, "A little too elementary school for me. Here's the zinc sulfide."
"Thanks," Josie told him softly, accepting it, and brushing her hair loosely behind her ear, "So…hey…after classes, did you…maybe…want to meet up in the Rec-room? Play a game of chess?"
"Definitely."
"Uh…Josie," Corrine cleared her throat in annoyance
"Yo, Lucas," Vaughn called, a slight hitch of aggravation to his voice.
Josie and Lucas both flustered, turning back to their science partners, bashfully apologizing.
"What are you and Lucas up to later?" Corrine asked, trying to sound disinterested, but doing a bad job of hiding the force in her tone.
"Just going to hang out, play some chess maybe," Josie answered casually with a slight shrug, sifting two scoops of zinc sulfide into their baggie.
"Right," Corrine said between clenched teeth, "So I take it you won't be studying with Vaughn tonight, then."
"Huh?" Josie scrunched her nose.
"I mean," Corrine shrugged, though the bitterness in her voice was evident, "You did agree to tutor him."
"That's not until much later tonight…like at six. I have time to hang with Lucas," Josie argued, narrowing her eyes at her friend.
"But are you really being fair to the both of them?" Corrine argued, "Are you going to rush a game of chess with Lucas so that you can meet Vaughn on time? Or are you going to completely blow Vaughn off for Lucas?"
"Okay…what is your problem, Corrine?" Josie demanded. Corrine shook her head.
"Nothing," she muttered, reaching for the baggie, "Give me that, if it's so boring. I'll make the slime."
"No. We aren't done," Josie snapped, not noticing how slowly the conversations around them were dying out and the two girls were quickly becoming the center of attention, "What is this about, Corrine? What does it matter to you if I'm late studying with Vaughn or don't spend enough time with Lucas?"
"It doesn't," Corrine hissed, "Can we just work on our project?"
"You started this," Josie retorted, tugging the baggie back towards her.
"Well, I'm finishing it! Give me the slime."
"No way! Just answer the question, Corrine!"
"It doesn't matter to me, alright, Josie? It, does, however matter to me if you hurt my friends' feelings, but…"
"Is that what this is about?" Josie cried in disbelief, and Professor Z started over slowly, eyes wide.
"Uh…ladies…"
"Do you…do you think we should break them up?" Marshall asked tentatively, and slowly Vaughn and Lucas gave him looks that said simultaneously, "are you insane?" and "do you have a death wish?".
"I can't believe you! This is about my date with Lucas," Josie spat. There were some whispered comments on that accusation and Vaughn looked to Lucas strangely.
"You went on a date with Josie?" he questioned and Lucas turned to him a bit flabbergasted, flustered from Josie's announcement.
"I…what? Maybe…yes…why?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, Josie."
"It is. First you give me a hard time before I'm even out the door with him and now this?" Josie yelled, "Why don't you tell me what you really think…what you really feel about my date with Lucas!"
"Uh…Corrine…Josie…now is not the time," Z attempted again.
"You want to know what I really think?" Corrine demanded, "Alright. I think you're using him to make Vaughn jealous!"
"Oh, I'm making someone jealous alright," Josie hissed.
"Oh please," Corrine sputtered, "Me? Jealous of you out on a date with Lucas?"
"Ouch," Marshall commented.
"Thanks, Corrine," Lucas murmured sarcastically.
"No. You, jealous of me on a date!"
All the while the girls had been tugging the baggie back and forth until suddenly it tore in half and the mixture inside splattered up on both girls. They dropped the bag, jumping back and giving screams of surprise, neither noticed the purple sizzle of electricity that shot between them.
"That's just great, Josie," Corrine growled, looking down at her ruined uniform in disgust, before fixing the redhead with a glare, "People don't just forget feelings like that. You like Vaughn! And nobody's so blind that they can't figure that out!"
"Well, I'm not so blind I can't see how green your eyes are," Josie shot back, tearing out into the hall and slamming the door shut behind her. Corrine didn't waste time following.
"That's…good girls," Professor Z called after them, "Go get cleaned…" the door banged shut behind Corrine, "Up…alright." He looked to his remaining students and cleared his throat.
"That was a little…unpleasant," Marshall spoke up, then noticed the awkwardness between Lucas and Vaughn and fell silent.
"Um…why don't we get things cleaned up," Professor Z was saying, trying to talk over the excited chatter about the recent commotion, "And then we can…"
"I can't believe you went on a date with Josie," Vaughn sneered. Lucas met his glare before rolling his eyes and starting to clean their experiment. Vaughn watched him for a moment, before storming out of the room as well.
END A/N: That's all for now...I hope you guys like this story. I really do.
Please excuse any grammatical or typing errors and REVIEW!
Thanks for reading.