A Thousand Ways to Love

Insatiable

KatieIt takes a minute for me to get up. I've never spoken more than two words to Colin, now we are supposed to be lab partners? When I do get up, I tie my hair in a high ponytail and see the back of his tall figure with messy light brown spiked hair with tapered sides, already at a station, and I walk over to him.

“Hey,” I say, coming up beside him, my hands in my back pockets.

“Hi,” Colin says flatly, not looking at me.

“So I guess we’re lab partners,” I say. I wait for him to say something, but he just continues reading the lab on the desk. “How many Grade 12 courses are you taking this term?”

“Can you grab the equipment from this list?” Colin says, throwing the lab sheet in my hands.

“I think I can manage.” I glare at him.

“Good,” he says. His green eyes look down on me as if I’m nothing to him. He may be a Grade 11 ‘genius’, but I couldn’t care less. “I’ll grab the chemicals.” And then he walks past me to the front of the room.

“Arrogant ass,” I say under my breath. And then I grab all the equipment we need and come back to our station and Colin is already there.

He looks through everything to make sure I didn’t forget anything. Must be surprised that I didn’t. But then he puts on his goggles and starts the experiment.

“Hey! Wait!” I say, grabbing the lab sheet. “What are we even doing?” I start reading it.

He grabs it back. “I know what we are doing,” Colin says.

“Well, that’s great,” I say, “but I don’t.”

“Just record the data.” Colin points to the table on the sheet.

“I’m not letting you do everything,” I say annoyed. He doesn’t want me to be a part of this. He thinks I’ll slow him down.

“Just record the data,” Colin says. “It’s faster this way.” I glare at him, but he doesn’t see it. “12.3,” he says but I don’t write anything down. “Did you get that?” Colin says. After a moment I grab the pencil and write the number in the table.

“Don’t forget your goggles, Ms. Ryder,” Mr. Banner says as he walks by. Annoyed, I put on the goggles but not before I see the slight grin on Colin’s face.

“13.4,” Colin says, and I write it down, suppressing my anger throughout the rest of the lab.

40 minutes later, we finish the lab before everyone else.

“Dump these in the chemical waste bucket,” Colin says, handing me two beakers filled with pink liquid.

"Thanks," I say, and walk away. I clean out the beakers and come back to Colin cleaning all the equipment.

"Anything else, partner?" I ask with an emphasis on partner.

Colin smiles at me. “You can put everything back where you found it,” Colin says and then he walks by me to go to his seat.

He’s lucky we are in school or else I’d break this beaker over his head. But I do put everything away and when I’m done, I walk over to Colin’s desk in the front and see that he is already starting the questions on the lab.

“No.” I pull the lab away from him.

“What the hell?” Colin says back.

“You are not doing this whole lab yourself,” I say.

“Don’t you have a guy to hook up with or a puck to chase?” Colin says, and then he grabs the lab back.

“Arrogant ass,” I say.

"Dumb slut," Colin says back. I grab the piece of paper he was writing on and rip it into multiple pieces on his desk. "Dumber than I thought," he says, looking at the torn-up paper.

The bell rings and people start putting away their equipment and leaving the class, but Colin and I just continue to glare at each other. “Split the questions up,” I say to him. “Evenly.”

“Fine,” Colin says. “You can do the last ten, I’ll do the first.”

“Great.”

“It’s due next Tuesday,” Colin says.

“Perfect,” I say and then take the lab sheet to take a photo of the data with my phone. “Here.” I give him the lab and then grab a copy from the front.

“When do you think you’ll be done?” Colin asks.

“Before it’s due,” I say coldly.

“Let me know if you can’t handle it,” Colin says and then he grabs his books and leaves the classroom.

“That was dramatic,” Eleanor says behind me.

“He’s a jerk,” I say.

“A handsome jerk,” Eleanor says, and I glare at her. “What? He is! Why don’t you let him do the lab? He wants to do it himself. And you’ll get a great mark with no effort. It’s a win-win.”

“He thinks I’m some dumb jock,” I say annoyed. “And that I’m a slut.”

“Try not to bite his head off,” Eleanor says as she leaves the class.

I hate him. I truly hate him.

I grab my stuff from my desk and leave the class fuming. But just as I walk out the door into the hallway, I feel someone grab my ponytail from behind and pull me back.