CHEMISTRY
Maria walks into her least favorite class: chemistry. She waves hello to Liz and sits next to Alex, who looks rather perturbed at the moment. "What's up?" she asks. "Massey has decided to assign new lab partners. And, well, she has made some interesting, shall we call them, pairing," Alex explains. "Don't tell me, she paired up Max and Liz and now we are all going have to watch them Romeo and Juliet it up every day. Don't worry about it Alex, I'm on it. They'll be fine in no time," Maria says confidently. "If only it were that simple, you see..." Alex begins to explain but the chem teacher has turned around from what she was writing on the board and addresses the class. "Ms. DeLuca," Ms. Massey begins, "how nice of you to join us. Now, I hate to break up the lab team that has brought up countless explosions and trips to the school nurse, but, alas, I feel new pairings are needed to help everyone learn better. Everyone, go with the new partner I assigned you to before Ms. DeLuca graced us with her presence." Maria turns to Alex, "Little help, please." "You got lucky, you and Max are together, I'm with Kyle, the real trouble is over there," Alex tells Maria. She follows Alex's gaze and sees, to her horror, that Tess had slid in next to Liz. Maria moves and takes her place next to Max. Before Maria can ask Max if Massey has totally lost her mind, Tess sticks up her hand and whining. "Ms. Massey," she begins, "I think my old lab partner and I were more compatible." She looks over and winks at Max. "I would say not, ever since you and Mr. Evans have teamed up, he seems to have caught all sorts of bugs, he has been absent for a record thirty classes." Maria looks at Max, smiling, "Good boy." "Besides, I think that with her vast knowledge of all things chemical, Ms. Parker can help your dismally bad grades." Tess's mouth drops open at this statement, she begins to protest but Ms. Massey cuts her off, "Tess, we have all seen the way you work and let's not pretend that what I say is false. Ok, kids, have fun with the work that I have left for you. Now, in total West Roswell High fashion, I am going to leave you totally unsupervised for the next few minutes." With that, Ms. Massey leaves the room. Tess is grumbling to herself and smashing things around on the table. "So," Liz begins reading off of their assignment page, "fun with acids and bases. Do you want to start with the litmus paper or...." Tess cuts her off, "Listen, Liz, I don't need your stupid help to play with some stupid chemicals, I can handle it myself. So, you can drop your little 'I'm so smart, I know how to read the periodic chart' crap. Just stay out of my way and everything will be fine." Tess's voice has been gradually getting louder. Across the room, Max must physically restrain a very upset, cursing Maria while making sure she does not spill the dangerous chemicals all over their desk. Kyle leans in to speak to Alex. "OK, in a cage match, I'll take Liz any day. Sure, she looks all sweet and innocent, but you know under all that, she's a bad, bad girl." "Kyle," Alex says, "can we keep your night time fantasies to yourself, please, for the love of all that is good in the world?" Liz takes a deep breath and mutters, "Whatever you say, Tess," under her breath. She becomes engrossed in her work. Next to her, Tess is haphazardly mixing things. "Tess, you may want to be more careful, you could....", Liz begins. "Listen, stop your incessant yapping, ok?" A few seconds later, Tess ducks as a Chem book comes dangerously close to knocking her head off. "Oh sorry," Maria's sarcastic voice floats across the classroom, "the book just got away from me." Liz notices that Tess has picked up the two beakers on their table. One an acid, one a base. As she watches, Tess begins to pour them together, Liz begins to open her mouth. "I told you", Tess says, "just keep your mouth shut!!!" "No problem," Liz answers, as she takes cover below her desk. She hears the pouring of the liquids and then an explosion. She comes out from under the desk, picks up a lock of fake blonde hair and throws it in the trash. Ms. Massey, hearing the explosion, comes back into the room. "What happened?", she demands. Liz, Alex, Maria, Max and Kyle answer in unison, "Nothing." Ms. Massey, being an adult Roswellian, believes them and leaves the room again. Maria leans towards Max and whispers, "Looks like someone is going to need a new lab partner." Her eyes sparkle with mischief. Max looks at her for a second, then smiles broadly. The end