Falling For Amelia Manning

"If you say the words, simple reaction, one more time. I will shove this pencil in your eye, Edan."

Backing away from the chem lab table, Phoebe watched carefully as Amelia scribbled, erased, and wrote in a few numbers that she saw were starting to go in the right direction. Keeping her eyes on the paper, Amelia tried to process the equation that Phoebe tried to shove down her throat moments ago, she just wasn't getting the hang of it and getting more frustrated by the second.

Busying herself with a box in her bag, Phoebe pulled out a few pieces of candy and the crinkle of the plastic alerted Amelia to her rummaging.

"If I wasn't frustrated enough, you have to make that noise. I can't believe you still eat those." Amelia turned her nose up at the little red candies in her hand. Forgetting that she used to share them with her in grade school, Phoebe reached out to offer her one. It took a few seconds, but Amelia met her hand and took a strawberry candy from the palm of her hand. Creating her a crinkling noise, before popping the sweet strawberry candy in her mouth.

"I don't see how this is going to help someone like me," Amelia mumbled under her breath, but they were close enough to each other that Phoebe couldn't ignore it. "What do you mean by that?" She asked, carefully. "I mean, I'll never use this. I don't plan to become a chemist when I leave here. I have no clue what I'm going to do, and it sucks that this is the year I have to make that decision." Phoebe blinked a few times to make sure she was looking at the same person as before.

Never in her life has she heard Amelia Manning sound so human, so much like her and James, they talk about this stuff all the time.

"That's what school is for, I guess. We are the future, and they want that future to know a little bit of everything." She shrugged before putting her attention back on the candy wrapper in her hand.

"I get that, knowing a little bit of everything, but I would rather learn about taxes, banking, life in between school, you know?" Amelia didn't look up from the work in front of her, but Phoebe knew what she was talking about. "My mom teaches James and me about finances on the weekends when she doesn't have to be at work. James' dad helps us with home stuff. Like if a pipe bursts, carpeting a room, stuff like that. It should be taught in school; I might be good at this stuff but that doesn't mean I'm going to be a chemist either when I leave here. If anything, I'll use it to help stop grease fires in my kitchen later in life." Phoebe shrugged again and looked up at Amelia this time who had a weird look on her face.

"What does this have to do with a grease fire?" Phoebe stifled a laugh in her throat, she didn't feel like getting punched in the arm, and they seem to be making progress.

"It's a chemical reaction," she watched for the glare that was promised minutes ago but didn't see one on her face. "You can't just dump the oil out of the pan, and you can't douse it with water, it would make it worse. A lot of people think flour would smother it enough, but flour can catch fire too. Do you know what compound would stop it?" She asked her, hoping a bit of what they've been going over would click in her head.

Amelia looked down at the paper and was lost in thought for a long while until she opened her mouth again.

"Baking soda. Right?" She asked, cautiously.

"Right, throw some baking soda on it and it will take care of the fire," she told her before throwing the trash in her hand back into the bag on the stool next to her. "See, that's practical chemistry. If stuff was put like that, I would understand it better." Pausing, Phoebe had an amazing idea, but it wouldn't work this session, she needed time to prepare it. Amelia had to pass a test when the tutoring sessions are over, maybe if she was able to convince Ms. Jenkins to let her write the questions, she would be able to put her plan into action.

Forgetting about that for a moment, she realized how late they had been in the lab.

"What problem have you gotten to?" Phoebe asked, offhandedly.

"Seventeen, can we be done for the day?" Amelia asked, with a hint of whine to her voice. Phoebe couldn't believe her ears but when she looked up from the lab table, Amelia's face was stone straight as it usually sat. Sucking back the bright strawberry flavor in her mouth, she looked at the clock on the wall and decided she wanted to get some laps in before going home.

"Yeah, this is a good place to stop. Next session is Friday, see you then, I guess." Phoebe shrugged on her bag before turning for the door, Amelia didn't say a word, just as the last few weeks have gone. The sound of pencils and paper being scooped off the lab table and a zipper moving up and down were the only sounds she heard as she passed through the chem lab doors.

It wouldn't take her long to get to the field. She texted her mom quickly and told her to start heading her way. She would get as many laps in as it took her mom to get to the school. Usually, that was about four, which was good enough for tonight, she thought.

The crisp night air hit her lungs the moment her sneakers pressed into the cold grass. It was getting chilly each day; fall had been covering their town for the last two weeks. It was her favorite time of year. James would say that she had to cover herself too much for her liking, but it was also cute sweater weather, so it made up for that. Thinking of James, she remembered talking to her mother about the medication issues she was having. Unfortunately, she couldn't do anything about it, just as Phoebe figured. There was another plan swimming around in her head, but she didn't know the first thing about robbing a bank and getting away with it.

Leaning down, she tightened her shoelaces before starting in a jog around the field. Following the parallel white lines that curved around the track with the black asphalt, she picked up the pace until she was in a comfortable run. The cold air brushed past her as she pushed and pushed herself for the last and fourth ring around the track. When she saw her mom's headlights she slowed to a job before heading toward the locker rooms to grab a few things before heading home.

Something she's always told James, anyone else hearing it would think she was weird, but she loved the locker rooms at night. Aside from them being quiet and the smell of sweat was replaced with metal and a hint of rust and rubber, there was no one to push into her as she made her way to the locker near the back.

Tonight, the silence around her was mixed with the muffled sound of someone taking a shower in the back. It was odd, she'd admit that, but anyone can use the showers if they have a student ID card, the scanner would let them in. But no one showered this late at night and she didn't see anyone else on the field with her or in the locker room before she entered it. Pulling her bag and stick from inside her locker, she carefully closed it, as to not let it bang. Walking slowly to the back showers, she listened for something telling her who would be in there, but when she heard singing, she had no clue who it would be.

It wasn't until her eyes fell on the back of Amelia's head that showed just above the shower curtain that she knew exactly who it was. Again, it wouldn't be that weird for her to shower here, but it was so late in the day that it became much weirder. Ducking away from the showers before she turned around and saw her over the shower curtain bar, Phoebe rushed out of the locker rooms.

She kept her mouth shut and hurried to her mom's car. Aside from answering the few questions, her mom asked, she didn't speak. Even when she got home and had her cell phone in her open palm while she sat on her bed, she didn't call James and tell her what she saw, she didn't say a single word about it.

"It's not that weird, there's nothing to look into, stop being obsessive!" Phoebe criticized herself before taking a shower of her own and falling into bed afterward.

Despite not saying a word to James, during the morning car ride, she knew something was up with Phoebe. James let it go, for the time being, but she would get it out of her eventually. Phoebe didn't know why she was harping on this so much. It was just a student using the showers before they left to go home. It wasn't until they both headed into the locker rooms that morning to leave a few things did she realize something off about her locker, something that hadn't been there last night.

"Uh, Phoebe, did you paint your locker?" James asked as they both stood in front of the once blue, taller than Phoebe, locker that now had green paint coming from the bottom of it, as well as, the little vents at the bottom. Someone filled her locker with paint and when she reached out to open it, that paint poured out all over the floor surrounding her sneakers and the benches bolted into the ground in front of the lockers.

James jumped up to a bench the second she was able to, she didn't want to ruin her new shoes. When other students showed up for the day it didn't take long for people to gather in front of the locker and even sooner for the head coach to find out what happened. All Phoebe could do was stare at the green paint all over her old jacket that stayed in there at all times, her uniform from the B team, and a spare Crosse for emergencies. She was lucky it didn't get the little shelf at the top where she kept her digital watch and some spare candy.

"Who would have done this, Pheebs?" James asked from the bench. The paint spread all over the floor and the only other things she could hear, aside from James' question, was the chatter of the other students and the coach called for a janitor. The rage boiling under her skin started to fill her ears, she knew exactly who would do something like this.

"What day is tomorrow?" Phoebe asked James, taking her off guard.

"November 14th, duh. It's your birthday," James reminded her thinking it was obvious that she wouldn't know the answer to that. Slamming the locker door shut she carefully turned to James on the bench. The sound of paint slopping around her sneakers was the only thing heard since the coach cleared out the room.

"Every year, like a damn prank present, someone does something to me. Do you know who that someone is?" She asked through her teeth. When it hit James, she went white. "But you're helping her now, wouldn't that null her hate for a little while?" She asked but Phoebe just shook her head and looked down at the green paint settling on the tile floor.

"Manning, this means war," she declared with a firm scowl on her face. She would get her back, one way or another, she would get Amelia back.