Evandra, a 18 y/o student

Ever since she was a child, Evandra—Eve to her friends—was fascinated by chemistry. But if she had to be specific, it was adhesives that gripped her the most. Something about binding two separate things into one felt strangely beautiful. So when the time came to choose a high school, her path was obvious. The only two schools offering a chemistry specialization were Tranquillity High and Lakeside Academy. Lakeside had the stronger reputation, so she enrolled there. Soon after, Eve joined the Chemistry Olympiad as an extracurricular, where she met a teacher who would change her life: Mrs. Bolter. She had a reputation for being a bit prickly—her tone sharp, her face often edged with impatience—but underneath, she was disarmingly kind and deeply passionate. Eve quickly grew close to her. The Olympiad became Eve’s laboratory of dreams. While others obsessed over reaction rates or metallurgy, Eve dove headfirst into adhesives. Mrs. Bolter noticed her curiosity and, against her own usual reserve, leaned in to help. They spent hours tinkering with glue formulas, running tests, and laughing when experiments went sideways. Soon, their collaboration spilled outside the classroom. Weekends became their ritual. They’d meet at Mrs. Bolter’s apartment, test new glue recipes, and push the boundaries of strength, flexibility, and reversibility. Testing got boring if they only stuck lab samples together, so they began playfully experimenting: fingers glued together, random objects affixed to the wall, even their hands or feet bonded for laughs. Over time, the strangeness of it all faded into comfort. They trusted each other, even when solvents sometimes worked unpredictably. It became their shared hobby, and in a way, their private language. Then came the day Eve discovered something unusual: a rumored formula called Maxim Glue—a supposedly unbreakable adhesive. Physics said that was impossible, so she brought it to Mrs. Bolter. Intrigued, the two decided to test it. The synthesis was complex, full of tedious, delicate steps. Flora—Eve had started calling her by her first name by then—missed one minor ingredient, which made the mixture disappointingly weak. They corrected the mistake, added the missing step, and tried again. This time the substance thickened into a shimmering brown layer. Convinced it couldn’t be that strong, they ignored online warnings and tested it on themselves.