Eager to Love Read Online Free

boring, but
meticulousness is the heart of good chemistry. That, and careful
notes. With these two things, you can work magic.”
    Raising Canes guy laughed and shook his
head.
    “You’re laughing at me,” Marty said, more a
statement than a question.
    “Magic?” Raising Canes said. “Now I know
you’re messin’ with me.”
    “I’m serious,” Marty said. “Take this current
experiment. Pieces of solid iron are actually becoming a part of
the liquids you’re soaking them in. The iron is becoming a
completely different material, and so is the liquid. Chemistry is a
science of transformation. And, what’s more, the control and
guidance of that transformation. When you can control the way
something behaves, the way something becomes … Why, that’s
the closest thing to magic we have.”
    “Dude, you need to get laid ,” said
Canes.
    The class burst into laughter.
    Marty pushed up his glasses again, his face
bright red. He clearly didn’t know how to defend himself against
such an attack, and I felt sorry for him.
    Cane’s guy just sipped from his drink
smugly.
    “All right, all right,” said Marty, motioning
for everyone to calm down.
    Eventually, they did. And the experiment,
which—magic or not—was still very tedious, continued. Lab lasted
four hours. After the first two, Marty called a break to let
everyone go to the bathroom or grab a snack.
    When we got back, everyone just wanted to
grind through the rest of the experiment and be done. Now we were
increasing the temperature of the various liquids with Bunsen
burners, in part to learn how to use different kinds of lab
equipment and practice good safety procedures. The documentation
part of the activity was just as mind-numbing as the rest. I’d been
working in a zombie-like daze for the last twenty minutes or so
when a blood-curdling scream erupted from the back of the
classroom, shocking me into wakefulness.
    It was Cane’s guy. He was gripping his wrist
and screaming as he stared at his hand, which was splotchy and
bright red and already starting to bubble over with blisters. Those
closest to him rushed in to help, but the rest of us stood frozen
and staring.
    Marty closed his book and stepped quickly to
Cane’s guy, his eyes wide and exaggerated through his glasses. He
rushed Cane’s to the emergency station and turned on the faucet,
which poured cold water all over the guy’s burned hand.
    Cane’s guy screamed with new agony.
    “What happened?” Marty demanded of his lab
partner.
    “I don’t know,” the girl said. “I looked over
and he was just holding his hand in the flame!”
    “What?”
    “I don’t know!” she said. “He must have zoned
out or something.”
    I pushed against my classmates to get a good
look at the burn. It seemed pretty bad. Bad enough to make my
stomach wrench. Although, in earnest, I felt a quiet inkling of
satisfaction to see that jerk get his come-uppance.
    Marty called the campus infirmary to come
assist, and he let the lab out early. Once everyone else had left
and Marty was filling out paperwork related to the accident, I
approached his desk.
    “Mr. Laveau?” I said.
    He looked up from his paperwork and gave me a
haggard smile, his glasses grotesquely magnifying what would have
otherwise been very pretty baby blues. “Some first lab, huh,” he
said. “Please, just call me Marty.”
    “Uh, okay,” I said. “Mr. Marty, I’m sorry to
give you more paperwork, but I have a condition that may affect my
performance in this class. I have to ask you to sign this
acknowledging that accommodations can be made for my disability, if
necessary.” I handed him a form. “I don’t need you to sign it
immediately, but I need it back as soon as you can. I already spoke
with Dr. Giacomo, but I thought—”
    “Ah,” he said, cutting me off and looking at
me with new interest. “Seager, right? Giacomo told me about
you.”
    I stiffened and swallowed hard. A paranoid
flicker darted through my brain about what