Eruption Of Conflict

Lucas sat at his desk attentively, his hands stayed perfectly folded as he listened along to the teacher's lecture. His ears flicked up upon the announcement of the new project, psyched about an opportunity to raise his 96 to a 97, maybe a 98 if he was lucky. When the teacher told them to pair up, he sprung out of his seat, scanning the room for prospective partners. He was pretty well liked among his grade, it should have been no problem to recruit someone who wanted to exceed just as badly as he did. Luck had other plans. The runner up for science whiz - since that title had already been taken by his sister- was absent, dashing his hopes of an easy A. He liked his classmates, he really did, but Lucas had to scour the room for another catch of a partner because he was going to get stuck with all the work if he didn't. Just as he was about to walk over to the teacher to see about doing the project himself, he was approached by the new girl. Judging from the glares alone, she was trouble. After the frog prank, he was surprised they even let her set foot in a science classroom. She was probably a nice girl, so Lucas hid his disappointment with a polite grin.

" Not at all, Tomomi! " He chirped, reaching out to shake her hand. It was the polite thing to do, they basically were stuck together, so he might as well make the best of it. She seemed nice, it was hard to believe that the other students were being rude to her, even after the frog prank.

" And sorry about the other kids." His eyes trailed towards the rest of the class apologetically. " They'll warm up to you eventually, I'll make sure of it!" There was a positive energy that kind of just radiated as he spoke. He even followed with a wink, not the flirty kind, rather the kind a higher up would give because clearly, connecting with classmates was shady dealing.

" My shirt? Nahhhhh." She was onto him. As a straight laced kind of boy, he was conflicted. His struggle was visible, his ears twitched and any trace of a poker face had already slipped.
@EmiRose

So far so good.... until she got closer look. " Yeah, so maybe Cluckers made a sick crib out of my polo." Lucas confessed in a quiet exhale, peering down his uniform polo to check on said chicken.

While it was pretty awesome, carrying around a chicken in his shirt meant that he looked like he had some kind of parasite living in him. Anyways, the girl was willing to take the blame for him, that would be too nice. Lucas shook his head, he could not have that happen, he was the nice one after all.

His jaw almost literally unhinged when he heard that the girl was failing. Sure explained a lot, but the word 'fail' just didn't fit in with the rest his vocabulary, being paired up with someone who was ok with that was a recipe for disaster. " No way! " He quietly exclaimed, making a stop motion with his hand. " You're not gonna fail... at least with me. " A cheesy grin forced its way unto his face.

" How about this? You don't tattle, and I'll walk you through step by step?"

@EmiRose

Lucas scratched the back of his ear. It was pretty obvious that she was a newbie to this school. With the kind of reputation he had earned over his thirteen years of life, it was pretty weird to be told off by another classmate, and even weirder, he didn't really mind it. He gave a patient nod to Tomomi while she continued to give him an earful and began to set up the equipment they would need for the next thirty minutes.

" Alright, alright, I won't baby you. Just don't get mad if I lose you a minute in." He chuckled to himself.

The beaker of vinegar was placed close to the edge of the table while the baking soda was supposed to stay to the left, this way there was zero chance of the two mingling and making a mess before it was time. He tried his best to mimic how the teacher had set it up during the demonstration, minus all the small spills she made along the way of course. It was going to take a minute or so to set everything up, he thought to ask her a question in the meantime.

" How did you get here from, uh, from wherever you're from? Boat? Train? Flying saucer?"

He seemed particularly excited about that last one.

Lucas shrugged, he knew she was right. In fact, it took a lot of hard work and patience to be this liked; he was going to need that last part to deal with Tomomi. He tried to blow off the scoffs and spills, soaking up the droplets of vinegar with the end of his shirt.

Lucas grinned eagerly at her, hoping for the alien answer, because that would be sick... and a reason to let the way she was acting slide. His ears drooped down for a moment when she made it clear that she was not an alien, what a bummer. " Oh, come on! This experiment is lit, we're learning about how real volcanoes erupt!" He exclaimed, tail wagging, coming awfully close to knocking down the set of beakers on the table behind them. A classmate exchanged an annoyed, but forcibly polite grin to Lucas, before resuming their own experiment. " My bad." He replied under his breath, sheepishly grinning.

" Japan is cool too." He commented, more focused on filling the beaker correctly more than everything. " You said it a second ago, I'm half boy... half chicken." Lucas joked, pausing before quickly following it up with a "Kidding."

" So yeah, my dad is a werewolf, so I guess you could say that. Half dog... and, uh, the other half... not a werewolf, but I definitely look like a dog, don't I? African wild dog to be exact."

Not even Lucas had enough self control keep him from rolling his eyes to roll his eyes. " Hey, Miss 'I'm failing science'." He said, scribbling some data down onto a loose leaf paper. " You just played yourself. Geography is actually a science too." He finished, with a smug grin because he came up with it himself. Stupid was a strong word, but it sure did suit Tomomi.

'Fuck' was also a strong word, the kind that he would get grounded for. His ears stood straight up and he covered his mouth like he was the one saying it. " Tomomiiii... You can't say that around here. You'll get in trouble." He warned, eyes darting to from one end of the classroom to the other as he lowered his hand.

But was hard to stay mad at Tomomi. She knew how to poke all the wrong buttons, more literally his ears, but she was kind of fun to be around, even if it meant he would have to settle for a 97. He reached up to cup his ears protectively, as his way of saying 'yeah, don't do that again' before doing some finishing adjustments on the beakers. " They do?" Lucas asked, playing along, even doing the head tilt that dogs do when they're confused.

" Alright! Everything's measured out so all we have left are the fun parts, like making the volcano." He grinned, carefully ripping the packaging of the polymer clay they would be using. After getting a look at some of his friend's projects, especially the few who had used magic to decorate, he came up with a suggestion that would hopefully make up for his lack of cool powers.

" I was thinking... let's give it a face." The clay made a loud slapping sound on the table when he emptied the bag by turning it upside down. " I know, real volcanoes don't have faces, but I think the teacher would understand."