Ignore Jake, He’s a Loser

Jake’s a wimp. He probably just wants you over so he can ogle Jess and Sam better. He’s practically eye-stripping the girls from his spot at the front of the room. There’s no chance that you’re going to let him interrupt the quality time that you’ve gotten with these two babes, so you ignore him, turning to face your team instead.

“So I tell the boys, no shot we’re following those tools to their so-called ‘bumpin party,’ we got real clubs to hit, and what do you know, the big guy turned out to be real sensitive. He gets up real big, winds up, and then throws a punch right here,” Chris says, pointing to a spot on his shoulder.

“Oh my god,” Sam says, putting a hand up to her mouth. “That’s so scary!”

“Tell me you roughed him up good,” you say, from your spot by the hood.

It’s time to start adding in the propionyl chloride, but as with everything in this lab, it’s got to be done dropwise, and you’ve been taking turns dropping it in and refluxing. You and Jess are next to each other by your hoods, enjoying Chris telling his story.

“It wasn’t even a fight,” Chris laughs. “He punched me first, but I thought he was playing. I barely felt his fist! Then I hit him back, right on the shoulder, same as he did to me, and he went down. That was that.”

“I could never do that, I would freak out so much,” Jess says, glancing at you, and then Chris.

“You could have done it too, if you felt that first punch,” Chris laughs.

“No way! I would’ve been totally gone! I would need somebody like you or Alex to protect me,” Jess says, grabbing your arm.

“Nah, that dude wouldn’t even have gone for Alex. Just look at him,” Chris says, nodding at you.

“Only because I wouldn’t shit-talk his mom like that,” you say, and everyone laughs.

“See, now that’s smart,” Chris says. “I’ve got a big mouth, that’s the issue.”

“If we ever need some muscle next time we go out,” Sam says, and then she nods at you and Chris meaningfully. “We’ve got a new plan A.”

“Pity there are no good clubs in town,” Jess says. “By the way, switch off?”

“We’ve got the ice baths prepared,” Sam nods.

You and Jess both pour the precipitated mixture into the ice bath, the brown solid hissing slightly as it cools.

“What’s next after this?” Sam asks.

“Wash with brine and cooled toluene,” Chris says. “We should prep that now.”

“Then we dissolve into boiling water with decolorizing carbon to absorb, and it’s filtering time,” you say.

“Another round of concentration and ice bath cooling after that,” Chris says, scratching his chin.

“Then it’s just purifying,” you say. “Suction filtration, rotary evaporation, repeat the boiling and ice cooling to try to extract a couple more points of yield…”

“We’ll be out of here in no time,” Jess says. “By which, I mean another eternity.”

“Why did I want to be a chemist again?” Sam groans, a worn smile showing on her face.

Jess +15
Sam +15
Chris +15
Jake -30