It's Monday-- a new week.

I walk inside my class and I see Kaoru. He gives me a shy smile and motions me to sit next to him.

The class was set up for A science lab, glass flasks and beakers, and the rectangular black tables replaced our standard desks.

As I sit down, Hikaru and Haruhi seat themselves at the table at my right. Haruhi gives me a little wave and I returned the gesture.

"Alright class, please be seated." The teacher calls. "Listen up, since we are currently studying density, I give you this challenge. In front of you, there is red-colored water and regular tap water. Your goal is to create a 'candy cane' by making layers of the red and regular water with the test tube at your table.

"Use the salt in the custard-bowl to alter the density of the tap water in order to create layers. Use the beaker and spoon to mix the salt in. Make sure all of the salt is dissolved.If you don't, the water will blend with the red and mess up your candy cane. So make sure your bottom layer is really dense!

"If you manage to create two layers, show me and you will get your passing grade for the class period. Start your layering with the red. Good luck!"

"I'll mix, you hold the test tube." Kaoru hands me the glass test tube.

"Okay." I take it, feeling the cool glass under my fingertips.

Kaoru works expertly, mixing the red water with lots of salt in the beaker. After mixing for a while, he uses the eye-dropper to put it in the test tube. Then, he gets the tap water and pours in about the same amount of salt, mixes it in, and he drops it in.

"Uh-oh," I say as the layers were blending.

"Whoops, I think I needed to use a little less salt."

"Try again." I say, getting up to dump out the water. When I came back, we tried again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

"Maybe you should try this time." Kaoru pushes the beaker to me. I giggle,

"Okay." I repeated his process for what seemed like the hundredth time and dropped in the red. Then, I did the process again with the tap water. I drop it in and finally this time, the tap water stayed on top.

"Whew." I sigh.

"Well, look at you! Earning us an easy A! And the first one too."

"Thanks." Kaoru went up to show the teacher our test tube. She nods her head and sent him back to the table.

"We're good! Want to dump this?" He turns towards the sink.

"Um... I want to keep going actually." I say.

"Oh, that's fine too. You can do the mixing though, I'm good." He blushes with embarrassment. We both laugh.

"

We manage to make it to four layers so far and we're about to do our fifth.

"This is great! But I think after this one we can only do one more." Kaoru says, observing the test tube.

"Yeah, I think so too. But this is fun." I say, holding the beaker at eye-level to make sure the salt has dissolved enough.

"I'm glad I'm doing this with you." Kaoru says. I smile,

"Me too--"

"Hikaru!" I hear Haruhi exclaim.

"What? If you weren't moving so much we could've gotten our third layer! And it was hard enough to make it to two!" Hikaru scolds.

"If you weren't trying to make me laugh and dodge so much, maybe it wouldn't have been a problem!" Haruhi snaps back.

"Oy vey." I mutter.

"Precisely." Kaoru says.

"He's not as serious as Haruhi when it comes to grades."

"And Haruhi still works with him?"

"Well, yeah. She's fine with it... most of the time." I watch the two spar over the beaker.

"Give me the beaker!" Haruhi makes a wild grab for it.

"I'm good, shortie." Hikaru teases.

"What did you call me?" Haruhi makes another wild grab, but thanks to the water that was spilt on the floor-- credits to Hikaru-- Haruhi lost her footing.

"Aah!"

"Haruhi!" Hikaru uses both of his hands to prevent Haruhi from falling.

"The beaker--!" Too late. Once Hikaru lost hold of the beaker, it crashed onto the floor, glass flying everywhere. I use my arm to block any glass from flying into my face.

"Hitachiin! Fujioka! Office! NOW!" The teacher shrieks. They quickly walked out of the classroom before the teacher said anything else.

"Is anyone hurt?" The teacher looks around. I lower my raised arm and--

"Ow!"