Damage Control [closed]

[Amarkov]

Morgan looked down at the printed class schedule in her hand with quiet dread. She wasn't sure why, but something had given her the deeply misguided idea that college would be different from high school. It was accepted that, in high school, students had to take subjects in which they had no interest and scrape by with barely passing grades in things like European History and Calculus and Statistics. Why she'd thought she could leave all that behind in college was beyond her, but here she was, 19-years old and about to set foot into her Chemistry 100 class for the first time. The only difference was that now, if she failed, it was her own money going down the drain in wasted tuition dollars.


Morgan slipped into the room, triple-checking her paper to make sure it was indeed the right place, then snagged a desk in the back row. She dropped her overstuffed backpack on the ground and glanced around, taking off her black-rimmed glasses and cleaning them (badly) on her green turtleneck. Her short-cut black hair was still in the process of growing out (she'd shaved it into a mohawk during her high school grad party on a dare.) Now it was in a short pixie cut, finally starting to look more normal again. People still gave her the occasional double-take though.


Just please let there be no group work or actual experiments in this class, she begged silently as she put her still-smudgy frames back on.

 

[SuiKaFTW]

"Right." Nikki replied, glaring at one of his friends. "Oh, come on, dude! It will be fun! Think of all the ladies!" The friend tried to persuade him. "I'm not going!" He stalked down the hall towards his chemistry class. His friend had wanted him to accompany him to a local club, but Nikki hated those places. The noise was intolerable and the sickening stench of alcohol usually followed him everywhere he went. He ran his hand through his messy, wind swept, blonde hair. His vibrant blue eyes landed on the handle of the door, and he entered the classroom, swiftly sliding into an empty chair.

 

[Amarkov]

Morgan glanced up as newcomers filtered in along with their instructor. He was a large man, going gray at the temples. When he spoke it was with a heavy German accent.


"Alright, class. I am professor Reinhardt, and this will be a fun class if you work with me. The first thing we are going to do is form groups for your first assignment in your lab later today."


Morgan was floored by the knowledge that they would have not only group work and lab work, but that it would evidently be happening sooner rather than later. She yanked out her crumpled schedule and swore under her breath. Sure enough, what she'd thought was a registration error was instead the hard truth: after this class was a Chemistry Lab 101 that apparently accompanied this lecture hall class.


Feeling mutinous and hoping her partners knew more about math and science than she did, Morgan turned to the people beside her and lifted a hand in greeting. "Hi. I'd like to jump in on that, if you've got room for one more in your group."

 

[SuiKaFTW]

Nikki yawned, uninterested. It seemed that this was going to be a long day. His eyes traveled down to his sneakers, as if they were the most interesting thing in the world. He lowered his head into his hands, once again focusing his attention towards the front of the classroom. He didn't feel like doing anything today. It's not that Nikki was particularly lazy, he just didn't really adore school. To him, it was annoying. He usually spent his days at school all alone, so being forced into this "group work", well, that was just frustrating.

 

[Amarkov]

Once the back-row students had made a little gathering amongst themselves, Professor Reinhardt continued. "Exchange information and make sure you know one another," he said. "You will be working with these people for the rest of the semester."


One girl with blonde hair pulled back in a braid and wire-frame glasses grinned at Morgan and the blond boy who had also been roped into their group. "Hi! I'm Ashlee, pleased to meet you!"


This girl was entirely too enthusiastic about chemistry, but Morgan was grateful for her presence. At least she seemed like she knew what she was doing. Morgan reached across the table to shake her hand and nodded. "I'm Morgan. I'm also really, really bad at this class, so... if you want to run in the other direction, I understand."


It was a weak attempt at the joke and apparently it worried the girl. She gave Morgan a nervous look, but turned to the boy for his introduction. Morgan's face heated up a bit as she realized her joke had totally missed its intended effect, but she cleared her throat, leaned back in her chair and also looked at their third group member.


((I figure Ashlee can be a sort of confidant and helper to both Morgan and Nikki after the chemical disaster, since she's more savvy about chemistry in general. She can help them try to figure out how to deal with the symptoms and come up with a cure.))

 

[SuiKaFTW]

(That works )


Nikki watched as the two girls introduced themselves. The one girl, Morgan, had attempted a joke, but it had failed. Nikki didn't understand how it was supposed to be funny. He stared as the girls waited for him to introduce himself. His eyes were half-lidded, and his eyes traveled away from the group. "...Nikki..." He said, keeping it simple.

 

[Amarkov]

Morgan sighed under her breath, trying to keep her exasperation inaudible. This group would be just like the ones back in high school. She had the over-achieving one who would expect more of Morgan than she could give and the uninterested one who wanted nothing to do with them. She only hoped they could all get along.


The professor spent the lecture going over the syllabus and explaining how the labs would be run. Lab took place once a week and would have a junior professor as the supervisor. When class was dismissed Morgan went with Ashlee to the first lab, which took place right after.


"So you... don't like chemistry?" Ashlee asked in an attempt at conversation.


"Not... really. But I'll do the work, of course," Morgan tried to assure her. She glanced back to see if Nikki was following them. "Wonder what the first assignment will be."

 

[SuiKaFTW]

Nikki yawned, barely paying attention to the professor. He didn't particularly care about this class. He closed his eyes. The girls went to the lab, so Nikki decided to join. He stood, stretching. He stalked over to his group, ignoring the girls' conversation.

 

[Amarkov]

((Bargh. I've got some real life issues popping up at the moment, but I'll try to keep posting regularly. The next few days are going to be sort of a mess though, so I'm not sure how often I'll have time to devote to writing :\))

 

[SuiKaFTW]

(Same here. Sorry...)