Turns out Monday's were not as great as ... Well, no one ever advertised. Mondays sucked, generally. But my Monday was extra bad because the science teacher Mrs Smith was having one of those 'group assignment' days. 

"Today's experiment is going to be about magnesium," Mrs Smith began, "I am randomly assigning you into groups of three. Make sure you all participate in the experiment. This experiment counts as thirty percent of your grade."

I looked up from my sketch and caught Mrs Smith's eyes as she rattled on about my supposed group partners. I looked at Talia beside me and smiled. Talia was friendly enough to not ignore me without prodding into my business. The only thing other people seemed to not like about her was the fact that she was a perfectionist. This typically meant if you were prone to screwing up she wouldn't let you near the tubes or chemicals. This was fine with me because I didn't understand half the stuff we were supposed to be doing so I was happy to let her do the work. 

However, it wasn't fine with our additional group member Sarah. I had worked with Talia plenty of times and we had a system but this was Sarah's first time so the system was unfortunately not working. 

I didn't hate Sarah but I wasn't fond of the way she liked to poke her nose into everyone's business. Case and point her peering over my shoulder to glare at my new recent sketch of Baring. I snapped my book shut and turned to glare at her. 

Sarah smiled at me and twirled her braids around, "Whatchu got there, Josiah?" 

"Sarah," Talia warned as she measured some chemicals into the beakers. 

"What? You won't let me participate so I thought I would make some friends instead," Sarah's voice was sickly sweet.

Talia pushed the open textbook towards Sarah, "Read the instructions out loud." 

Sarah scoffed and folded her arms. We all knew Talia had the whole experiment memorised, and she was just trying to get Sarah to stop being annoying. I rolled my eyes and shoved my sketchbook into my backpack. There was no way I was going to finish my sketch. At least not with Sarah looming over my shoulder. 

I pulled the textbook towards me and looked at the listed chemicals. I looked up at Talia and smiled at her. I wasn't going to read the instructions out loud but I did peruse through the experiment so I could get some sense of direction. I looked past Talia and watched as Baring and his friends pushed each other off the table. They barely managed to save a couple of glass beakers but that didn't stop them from laughing and going back to fighting over something I couldn't see from where I was. 

Baring turned and our eyes met for a brief second. He smiled at me despite having someone's head in a headlock. I looked away hiding the small smile that was creeping up on my face. I flipped through Talia's textbook glancing at the colourful pictures. 

I was halfway through the book when a weak sooty smell wafted towards me. The smell was faint and barely present but its effects on me were strong and sudden. What hit me first was the smokey scent of burning paper, from there everything got muddled up and a fog seemed to have settled around me. 

I slid off my lab stool and glanced around me furiously. I caught glimpses of my classmates mixing chemicals and taking down notes, it all seemed normal and yet something felt wrong. I could feel it in the depths of my bones. A bittersweet feeling rose to fill my lungs as the smoky scent of fire choked me up. My mother's smile danced in my mind's eye as I remembered her last good night to me. It shouldn't have been pretty but it was and it made my heart constrict despite the smoke that was clogging up the memory. I stepped away from my stool trying to step away from memories. All I managed to do was bump into lab equipment that sat on the counter behind me.