Chapter Text
Date: 02/01/2026 Time: 08:30
Leo didn’t like his science classroom. It wasn’t the subject itself that peeved him. In fact, he quite enjoyed science, especially chemistry. But school had a knack for sucking the joy out of everything.
His sentiment remained unchanged as he shuffled behind his fellow peers into his first lesson of the day. Voices tangled together into a tangled mess that squirmed its way into Leo’s ears. He wanted to turn and run back the way he came, but his feet kept carrying him forward despite his own internal protests.
Leo looked up at the ceiling, squinting at that one flickering fluorescent light that he had hoped would have been fixed over the Christmas holidays. His fingers reached into the inside pocket of his blazer, brushing hesitantly against the sunglasses hiding away there. They had been a well meaning gift from his parents to help him cope with the god awful lighting at school. For a moment, Leo considered taking them out and using them for their intended purpose, but after a few seconds he withdrew his hand and made his way to his seat.
Mr Aymes, the Year 11 chemistry teacher, was setting up some equipment at the front of the class. Leo recognised it from his revision guide; a polystyrene cup placed into a large beaker containing cotton wool. Mr Aymes picked up a bottle labelled HYDROCHLORIC ACID, 0.5 MOL/DM^3 and cleared his throat loudly. Leo yelped, and felt his face grow hotter immediately afterwards.
“Now, have any of you seen Breaking Bad? Anybody?”
A bluebottle fly landed on Leo’s desk. He stared at it, watching it rub its front legs together. They always looked so human to him when they did that. The fly’s abdomen shimmered in the stark lighting.
“…Well, *this* hydrochloric acid is for a less violent purpose, and is much less concentrated. Now remember, an acid being dilute doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s weak. When we talk about the strong acids, we’re actually referring to how they ionise completely in water. Take hydrochloric acid, for instance, hydrochloric acid produces H+ and Cl+ ions…”
Leo’s eyes tracked the bluebottle as it flew over to settle on the top of the whiteboard, where “Exothermic and Endothermic reactions” had been hastily scrawled, alongside the date from last term, which hadn’t been fully wiped away yet. His attention drifted from the fly to the chewing gum stuck to the ceiling. How did someone even get high up enough to do that?
The roaring sound of a bunsen burner brought Leo back into the subject at hand.
“Before I demonstrate the energy transfer from a neutralisation reaction between hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide, I want to make sure everybody’s on the same page about what we covered on energy changes before the holidays. I know better than to assume people remembered anything school related over the excitement of Christmas! What we have here is a combustion reaction. Ollie, can you tell me whether combustion is exothermic or endothermic?”
Exothermic, Leo thought to himself. His eyes were fixed on the orange flame. A safety flame. Easy to see and not as hot as a roaring blue flame. But it could still reach temperatures of up to 300 degrees. Enough to burn. Enough to hurt. Leo glanced down briefly at the backs of his hands, covered in blisters of varying sizes and ages, before his vision was inevitably dragged back to the bunsen burner. Mr Aymes was talking excitedly, but Leo couldn’t quite make out the words over the roar of that flame and the ringing in his ears and the sound of his heartbeat-
A chorus of surprised yells rang out across the classroom as the flame increased dramatically in size. Mr Aymes leapt backwards, pressing the emergency stop button that was meant to cut off all gas supply. Despite this, the flame continued to rage for at least 30 seconds afterwards.
“Ok, everybody stay in their seats! That includes you too, Rebecca-“ Mr Aymes ran his hand through his hair, staring in confusion at the bunsen burner. “Ah- right- so- there must be an issue with the gas taps- I’m going to call maintenance to check on this- nobody panic-“
A voice piped up from the back of the classroom. “Does this mean we get to go home, sir?”
Leo closed his eyes, clasping his hands together. He felt a familiar coldness settle over him, alongside the throbbing pain in his head that was only partly from the lights. The ringing was subsiding into a quieter hiss, but the excited chatter all around him still felt unintelligible.
After a few seconds, Leo began to rest his forehead against the desk. It was going to be a long day.