Lab Day

[MurderWeasel]

It was third period, the start of chemistry class, lab day. Nicole was prepared. She had her notes in order. She had done the pre-lab homework. She understood the material. She was ready to do this. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for many of the other students in class. Given everything she'd learned in her time on student council, it shouldn't have been any surprise that many of her classmates didn't care in the slightest about academics, but science lab made it clearer than any other class.

What made it all worse was the teacher's habit of assigning their groups randomly. Nicole suspected it wasn't quite as random as Ms. Jones claimed; she tended to be partnered with several of the particularly poorly-performing kids. In all likelihood, the teacher was hoping Nicole's work ethic and ability in the subject would rub off on them. In reality, though, it meant Nicole often not only had to do the lion's share of the work, but also had to put a lot of attention towards keeping the others on task. This was nothing like the tutoring she did. It was impossible to help people who did not want help, and redoing their work to protect her own grades rankled. The only thing that stopped her from complaining was a desire not to be seen as a whiner. She'd had enough trouble in the past as a result of standing up for her rights, and this time no one was actually being hurt by the inconvenience. She'd learned to pick her battles, to not make big deals out of the little things.

Nicole rolled her pencil over in her hand, resisting the urge to click out unneeded lead. She'd gotten there a couple minutes early. Few of her friends had science classes at this time of day, and she hadn't met anyone on the way here. There wasn't enough time to get anywhere in a book or make any progress on other homework. Ms. Jones had just walked into the room and was fiddling with her laptop at the front of the class, getting the projector fired up to display the groups.

Nicole looked at the others in the room, hoping she'd get lucky, hoping that she'd get a good group for a change. The class had plenty of high achievers, plenty of smart people. Their task was basic. It was just a matter of weighing and mixing different substances before and after chemical reaction to figure out if state changes had occurred. On her own, Nicole could probably finish it in a bit over half an hour. With good help and delegation, maybe a touch over twenty minutes. While acting as manager for everyone else and trying to see to it that they actually recorded the data correctly, finishing in the fifty-minute period and getting it all cleaned up on time would be a stretch. That was assuming she had any success in stopping them from just laughing it all off and joking the whole time, something which had occurred during several past labs.

It wasn't like she would fail the class if she got a bad grade on a single lab. It wouldn't really affect her achievement to any notable degree. It was more the principle of the thing. Nicole was in class to learn. She wanted to do well because she knew she could and because she felt that, as a representative of the student body, she had to set a good example. She actually took school seriously, since it was the gateway to her future life. She just wished the others could see things that way.

She set her pencil down, flipped her lab book open, and reviewed her preparations. She couldn't count on having anyone to check her work against. Everything seemed to be in order, though. Most of the class had trickled in. The projector came alive, and Ms. Jones straightened, clicking on the file labeled "Groups". Nicole took one more look around at the faces, wondering which she'd be working with this time.

[Courtography]

(Benjamin Latimer continued from Waitin' on a Bus)

Ben was pretty darn pleased. Lab day. A day where he got together in a group to work on stuff. He didn't have to take notes off a screen, well he did have a data table, but still that was pretty easy. Plus, there would be help. Honestly, he didn't know a whole lot about the chemistry they were doing right now. He payed attention in class, sure, but he hadn't done a lot of the homework. There had been an English paper due earlier in the week, and he'd been working more hours than usual.

So as to be expected, he would need some help in the lab. As annoying as some of the know it alls were in labs, especially ones where he actually needed help, he would need one in his group this time. Plus he would try to help, he could measure, and he could follow directions easily enough, just the math for calculations would be weird. And hard.

Then Ms. Jones had her folder labeled "Groups", why she needed an entire folder for that was a mystery to Ben, but whatever. Now he just needed a good group.

[CondorTalon]

Dougal had walked into class early, carrying all of his things in his bag. Lab day. Dougal liked labs. It was a way to put things he learned into practice, to break free from sitting in a desk for over an hour, and to work with others. It was an easy lab, regarding state changes. It wouldn't take long at all, if he got a good group. He looked around the class, looking at his classmates. There were a quite a few people he wouldn't want to work with; being with them would ensure no work would actually be done. Otherwise, Dougal would be fine working with anyone in the class who was willing to at least put some effort into it.

Ms. Jones was standing at the front of the class, working with the laptop to get the groups displayed. Dougal didn't understand why she needed the computer for labs. Wouldn't a handout be just as effective? Although, Ms. Jones was really stingy about paper, she was really environmentally conscious.

Anyway, Ms. Jones had gotten her computer set up, the projector on, and now she was getting ready to display the groups. Dougal tapped his fingers on the desk. Now, to see who he was working with today.

[Lord_Shadow]

((Jennifer Steinman continued from Bitches Lovve WWhales))

Jennifer was prepped and ready for the lab that day. Though she wasn't the best when it came to such a math-heavy class, she found it just fun enough to put herself into it. There were plenty of people she wanted to work with this time, and plenty of people she didn't want to work with. Though, Ms. Jones did have a random enough system that Jen could be sure she'd always have fun in the assignment. The projector turned on, the groups file was clicked, and there were the groups.

She scanned for her name. There she was, same seat as always. While Ms. Jones was certainly good at randomizing groups, the same could not be said of seating. Well, she would at least get a new partner. And it looked like this time, it was Benjamin. Good ol' American-boy Ben. Out of all of her friends, that guy was one that she felt she could really trust.

And, as luck would have it, they were sitting close by right now, before everyone moved to their spots. "Psst. Ben. Looks like we're partners." she whispered. She didn't know why she whispered. Maybe it was a habit from talking to her other friends in other classes. But not English class. For some reason none of her friends sat anywhere close to her, so she never had any boy, err, anybody to talk to. "Why did I just think that?"

[MurderWeasel]

Mrs. Jones got her folder opened, showing everyone the groups to which they were assigned. This was supposed to save paper or time somehow, but mostly it made the students strain their eyes trying to read the small text projected on the screen. The news was not what it normally was, though. Nicole was partnered with Augustus MacDougal, and they were sharing a lab table with Benjamin Latimer and Jennifer Steinman. This was actually not as bad as it could be. Dougal was one of the responsible people. Ben and Jennifer weren't as reliable, but they also weren't too terrible. It seemed that, for once, she had caught a lucky break. The rest of the class had filed in by now, so they would be starting momentarily.

Sure enough, Mrs. Jones told them all to go to their stations. Nikki picked up her lab notebook and pencil and threaded through the other students, managing to avoid bumping into anyone despite a boy cutting her off while simultaneously walking and sorting through his backpack. Arriving at the table, Nikki paused for a second, looking over the provided equipment. It looked like they had everything they needed: a hot plate, a jar of ice water, various vials and beakers, and a few small containers of chemicals. Nothing in this lab held much potential for danger, unless someone got careless with the hot plate. She remembered very clearly when a boy had tried to toast an eraser on one of them during freshman year, resulting in a pungent plume of smoke that set off the fire alarms. They'd all been forced to watch another lab safety video after that incident.

She set her lab notebook down and waited for a moment longer, hopefully enough for the others to arrive, get settled, and get any fidgeting out of their systems. Then she said, "Hi, guys. Everyone do the prelab?"

It was best to get this out of the way now, rather than have someone screw up the experiment due to having no clue what they were doing. It wouldn't take too long to prime anyone who had neglected their homework on the proper procedure, and it could save a lot of time later. Nicole had learned the value of having a plan of action from her time in student council. Everyone understanding the agenda was absolutely key to getting anything done. Science class was the same, in many ways. She just hoped any slackers among them would at least have the decency to admit it rather than trying to bluff their way through the project.

[Courtography]

The groups were up, it took him a moment to find his name on there. For some reason he looked in all the wrong parts of the screen first, but there was his name, but before he could check his partner he heard a whisper. "We're partners, sweet deal Jennifer." Hell yeah, working with a friend in a lab was even better, heck the potential for seeing something on fire wouldn't hurt either.

They were sharing a lab table with Nicole and Dougal, which was okay, he supposed. Nicole asked about the prelab. Uh oh. "I did part of it," he showed the half completed front page. He hadn't had a lot of time, having done what he had done on the bus to and from work. Hopefully someone had done the whole thing, well besides Nicole, she had obviously done hers.

He grabbed the safety goggles from the table and put them on. He didn't need to get an earful from Ms. Jones for not wearing them.

[CondorTalon]

((I'm so, so sorry for the lateness.))

Dougal looked up at the projector when the groups were finally displayed. He saw that his partner was Nicole, which was good, because that meant the work would be done really quickly. They were sharing a table with Benjamin and Jennifer, which wasn't that bad either. Benjamin grabbed his things, weaving his way in and out of the groups of students headed to their own tables. The equipment was really basic, and the only real thing that could cause a problem would be the hot plate. Well, the chemicals too, but nobody would put that stuff in their eyes or try to eat it... Well...

"Hi, guys. Everyone do the prelab?"

Dougal opened up his notebook to the right page and set it down. Sure enough, all of the answers were completed, all the blanks filled in. It's not like he had much trouble with it. Ben said that he did part of it, and opened up his notebook, showing the half-completed page. Dougal took a look at the page. Well, it was better than nothing, and as long as Ben knew the procedure they'd be fine, and it wouldn't take too long to explain it if he didn't.

[Lord_Shadow]

((Apolgoies all, but I'm pulling out. Sorry.))

Well it seemed like everyone was ready to get to work. Jen couldn't argue with that. Best to use the time given to do the work required. She could work with that. For the rest of the period, Jen was on autopilot. Courteous, but not as chatty as usual. The lab would get done, and that was what mattered. She smiled to herself once or twice. It was times like these that reminded her that she enjoyed school.

((Jennifer Steinman continued in Window Shopping Is No Fun...))