Don't Kiss the Messenger (Edgelake High School, #1)(40)

“Stand back,” she told Bryn.

CeCe opened up a cabinet and grabbed some supplies. “Professor Roth always keeps a few experiments on hand to impress prospective students,” she told us.

CeCe used the synthetic gloves inside the hood to set up the experiment. I stood over her shoulder and watched her add a reddish-brown liquid to a long test tube secured inside a metal vice. She grabbed a foot-long coiled roll of aluminum and set it inside the case and sealed the cover. She asked Tuba to cut the lights.

Tuba snapped off the lights and the room was bathed in darkness, except for a lone table lamp on the other side of the room that shed enough light so we could see inside the fume hood.

CeCe motioned to Bryn. “Want to do the honors?” she asked her.

Bryn shrugged and walked over to the glass partition. I stepped back to give her room.

Bryn looked skeptical. She stuck her hand inside the glove and placed the aluminum inside the vial. She pulled her hand out and squeezed her eyes shut. Everyone backed up, anticipating an immediate explosion.

I looked over at CeCe. A clever smile played at her lips. What was she getting at?

“Well?” Scott asked. “Is something going to blow up?”

“The chemicals are more subtle than that,” CeCe said. Her voice moved around us in the darkness. “They understand the allure of a slow buildup.”

I smiled in the darkness. It sounded like one of Bryn’s emails. I looked over at Bryn and pulled her closer, wrapping my arm around her side. She leaned into me, her lips drawing closer to mine in the dark. They were inches away. I felt their magnetic pull. Speaking of chemistry.

“Something’s happening!” Scott said.

We turned and the liquid in the vial started to cloud up. Another second went by. The liquid turned a darker, thicker brown.

“That’s it?” Scott asked.

A second later a red electric sand storm erupted in the vial, illuminating the entire glass case in blinding red light. Shooting sparks fired as loud as gun shots. Everyone jumped back, except CeCe. She smiled at the close-up view of a contained, exploding firework.

Red lightning erupted inside until the glass vial couldn’t take the heat and shattered with a violent fit.

Bryn screamed and covered her ears.

“Holy shit,” I breathed, when the reaction subsided.

Smoke flooded out of the gray chimney inside the hood. I walked up to see the ashy remains.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Bromine mixed with aluminum,” CeCe said.

She looked over at Bryn, who was standing next to me, her eyes wide with shock.

“Never underestimate the power of chemistry,” CeCe told her.

…

CECE

Ten minutes later, we headed out to the cliffs behind the Chemistry building. I stood at the edge of the rocks that looked over the lake and pulled supplies out of my pocket. The professor, who was a self-diagnosed pyromaniac (a common trait in chemists), had told us stories about doing this experiment but warned us never to try it at home.

I handed Emmett the black silicone gloves.

“I assume you have the best throwing arm,” I said. Emmett didn’t question what we were doing. Like an obedient pupil, he tugged on the gloves, which fit a little tight on his massive hands. I opened a box and inside were two silver pieces of magnesium, about the size of a golf ball. Scott, Tuba, and Bryn stood around us in a tight circle. Bryn must have felt a momentary rush of bravery because she reached her hand out and asked for the lighter.

I set the ball of magnesium in Emmett’s hand and Bryn inched her way between us. I backed off.

She set the flame close to the metal, but she was too hesitant and it didn’t catch. She tried it again. The reaction wouldn’t ignite. She finally set the flame directly on the metal and it still didn’t catch. I watched with surprise. The magnesium was supposed to ignite immediately.

“Must be a dud,” Tuba said.

Bryn frowned and handed me the lighter.

I set the second piece in Emmett’s hand. I cupped my hand underneath Emmett’s arm to keep it steady. My fingers tingled touching his arm, feeling his muscles flex under my skin.

I stalled and Emmett and I locked eyes for just a second too long. He gave me a questioning look that turned into a smile.

I lit the magnesium and it instantly flared into a ball of blue fire. Emmett watched it glow for a second in his hand, and then he pitched it over the cliff, into the lake. It sailed down, like a burning star. The instant the magnesium hit the water it erupted into a blue sparkling explosion, shooting flames and smoke into the sky. I stood next to Emmett, watching him watch the fireworks show. The lights reflected off his face in a flickering glow.

The electric light popped and crackled with blue strokes of lightning before it fizzled out. A cloud of smoke rose up high into the sky, momentarily blocking the stars.

Tuba and Bryn hooted and cheered when the reaction subsided.

It would never cease to amaze me at what some elements, under the right conditions, were capable of doing. How just one combination, one meeting, could produce such a storm of energy. But you needed the right combinations for a reaction to occur.

The same rule applied to people.

We walked to the edge of the grass and looked over the cliff at the shining water reflecting the path of the moon in a silver trail.

“What are you thinking, captain?” Tuba’s voice asked behind me. She knew me well enough to guess that the night’s antics weren’t over yet. She knew I came alive at night, that I was at my best in the darkness.