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Because the engineering department wasn’t very big, it was no wonder why most of them were good friends.
Rocky and Simon got along especially well, so they could often be found together in the engineering wing of campus- not to mention the times he actually went over to Simon’s house to hang out.
And fix things. Compulsively.
They were walking together down the sidewalk on the way from class- discussing some project they were working on together- when Rocky suddenly stopped and waved above his head.
“Grace! Over here, Grace!” he called out.
Simon looked toward where Rocky was waving in time to see a blonde man in an oversized hoody turn around.
A lopsided grin appeared on his lips as he waved back at Rocky and headed over toward his friend.
“Hey, bud!” he greeted once he was close enough, one hand stuck into the pocket of his sweatshirt.
“Grace, this is friend Simon, from engineering,” Rocky introduced excitedly.
“Oh! Nice to finally meet you, Simon,” Grace said politely, smiling and reaching out his hand.
Simon reached out, shaking his hand and smiling back. “Likewise, Grace. Rocky talks about you all the time.”
Grace chuckled and smiled over at him. “I hope he isn’t annoying about it, at least.”
“Rocky never annoying! Grace is rude,” Rocky said with a huff, crossing his arms over his chest and looking up at him.
“I think it’s sweet,” Simon said playfully, patting Rocky on the shoulder.
“Agh! Worse! Rocky not sweet, Rocky manly, statement!”
Rocky clutched his chest as if wounded- looking betrayed at his friends.
“Why can’t you be both?” Grace teased, grinning over at him.
“Ugh, why Grace must be so mean today, question??”
“What, I can’t just be in a good mood?”
“Grace got to blow something up today?”
A wide, lopsided grin appeared on Grace’s face.
“The lab professor didn’t have a plan for today so she was just letting us throw chunks of sodium and potassium in beakers full of water.”
“What happens when you do that?” Simon asked curiously.
Grace’s expression brightened further. “Would you like to come see?”
“Would that be okay?” Simon asked- having to admit he was curious.
“Rocky have a class now, you two go do science stuff together,” he said, nudging Simon toward Grace.
Simon stumbled forward at the push, but managed to catch himself before crashing into him. Grace held his hands up as if ready to catch Simon if he lost his footing.
“Are you alright?” Grace asked, a soft, yet concerned, smile on his lips.
“Yeah, I’m alright,” he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck and turning to scold Rocky for shoving him, but he was already walking away.
“Don’t bother, he comes and goes as he pleases,” Grace said, chuckling fondly at his friend before looking back at Simon. “Don’t feel like you need to come see. I understand if you’d rather wait til another time when Rocky can come, if you’d feel too awkward or something.”
“Wh- oh, no I don’t mind!” Simon said quickly, looking over at him. “I was just taken off guard.”
“Oh, good! Then let’s go,” Grace replied excitedly, grabbing Simon’s hand and rushing off toward the science department without a second thought.
⋆☀︎.
When they arrived at the lab, Grace greeted the professor (who was between classes) and got permission to show Simon the ‘experiment.’
“Make sure you show him how to wear the PPE right,” the professor said, but otherwise motioned toward the equipment cabinets.
“Thanks, Professor Shapiro,” Grace replied with a wave, bringing Simon over to the PPE cabinets and pulling out the appropriate equipment.
Grace made sure to show him how to wear everything right, as well as other safety basics that had been drilled into him before every science experiment he’d done since high school.
Simon paid careful attention, steadily getting more worried about whatever the hell they were about to be doing.
He was beginning to think they were going to be pouring all sorts of chemicals together to cause some kind of huge explosion or some intense acid to dunk things in.
Grace filled a wide, shallow container with water and handed it to Simon to carry. He went to a cabinet filled with carefully arranged white jars and bottles and grabbed two of them.
Once they had everything they needed, Grace led Simon out the back door of the lab- which led directly to the parking lot for quick evacuation.
There was a table already set out, as well as a board where Grace directed Simon to put the water.
Simon watched Grace take a few pieces of soft looking material from one of the bottles he’d brought out with them, using a knife to cut a smaller chunk off.
“This is potassium. It’s a highly reactive alkali metal,” Grace explained.
He walked closer to the water- but still kept his distance. He looked over toward Simon and grinned.
“Ready?”
“Ready,” Simon said with a nod.
Grace carefully tossed the soft chunk of metal into the water.
Simon jumped in surprise when the metal started throwing up sparks, popping and fizzling on the surface of the water.
“Woah-”
“Cool, right? Potassium like this has an extra electron that really doesn’t want to be there, so it reacts violently with anything that can take it- like water,” Grace explained, walking back to the table with a wide grin.
He made sure the leftover piece of metal to it’s bottle.
“And this one is sodium!” Grace said excitedly, tapping the lid of the other bottle. “It’s technically less reactive than potassium, but it’s a good example of why that can be misleading- in my opinion, at least.”
“Oh?” Simon asked, watching Grace with a curious look.
“Ready?” Grace asked, poised to toss the chunk of metal.
When Simon nodded, Grace carefully dropped it into the water and jumped back- just as the chemical reaction caused a loud POP- sparking and setting off a jet of smoke as the reaction exploded and almost immediately fizzled out.
Simon jumped again at the sound- jerking back at the loud noise. It sent his heart stuttering in his chest, but Grace turned to him and grinned brightly before the panic could truly take hold of him.
“Some of my classmates think the sodium reaction is cooler, but I like the way the sparks fizzle when the potassium reacts more, I think.”
The relaxed, even excited energy the budding scientist exuded was enough to halt Simon’s reaction to the gunshot-esque sound the reaction had made.
“Yeah.. me too,” Simon chuckled, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. “But, if sodium is so.. reactive with water, how does salt water exist?”
“Because the sodium in salt water isn’t pure sodium metal. The sodium we usually think of as salt is sodium chloride. Since it’s not pure, it doesn’t have that pesky extra electron to get rid of. And, funnily enough, chlorine is actually extremely reactive too. But when they bond they’re basically inert.”
Grace was growing more animated the more he explained. Simon was actually asking questions and showing genuine interest. He was so used to people brushing him off, he couldn’t help but get more excited the more interest Simon showed.
Chemistry wasn’t something Simon was generally interested in outside how it applied to engineering, but it was hard not to when someone explained it as enthusiastically as Grace.
His energy was contagious, that was for sure.
Simon could see why Rocky was so fond of him.