He can't stay too long

“Karen!” He shouted down the hall. “Wait up!”

Karen arms and legs freeze up and she comes to a screeching halt. “What the…!” She cries. She squints down the darkened hall “John, is that you?”

Karen was about the only person in the entire school, faculty included, who John would consider to be an intellectual equal. The two of John have had spent many a lunch hour arguing over scientific theory. Her eyes go wide as she sees Maria standing with him. “Maria? What are you two doing here?”

Maria blushed and John quickly said, “Uh, Ms. Furr asked us to stay after some extra credit work.”

“Extra credit? I wonder why she didn’t ask me? I told her that I was always…” She shook her head, “That doesn’t matter. I’m glad you’re here John. Hurry! We have to get the bio labs!”

John and Maria sprint down the halls after Karen. He dashed into the lab door and ran into Karen, almost knocking her over. “Sorry,” he said drawing in deep breaths, “What’s the emergency?”

Karen is looking around the lab furiously, “I set up a web cam so that I could monitor the experiments I sent up here form my home. Well, after school I checked up on things and I saw Rachel going through some of the equipment. She opened one of the vials! I couldn’t see which one and I had to get over here as soon as I could.”

“Why would she open one of these?” Maria said reaching out to the rack of beakers.

Karen quickly slaps her hand away. She blushed and apologized immediately, “Sorry Maria, but some of this stuff could be dangerous. As for why Karen would open one, I don’t know, all I saw was her looking through them and I raced over as soon as I could.”

John began to inspect the vials, “Athenatonin, Metisatonin, Sekhmetanen…Brain chemicals? What are these Karen? He never mentioned them to me.”

Karen sky blue eyes look at you from under glasses, “I have a theory that higher brain functions could be artificial stimulated by selective chemicals introduced by retrovirus. I was going to test these on some lab rats tomorrow.”

Maria asks, “So what if Rachel opened one? Would it hurt her?”

“No” said Rachel, “As long as she didn’t get any into her body she’d be fine, but it could ruin the experiment.”

“That’s what you were so worried about?” asked Maria, rolling her eyes.

Karen looked at the floor, “Well, it’s important to me.”

John looked up from the vials, “I can’t tell which one she picked. Does the computer here keep a copy of the web cam’s activities?”

“No,” said Karen, “but my computer at home does.”

“This sounds very interesting,” he replied, “Can I come over and look through your research?”

“Sure!” says Karen cheerfully, “I was hoping to keep this to myself, but I’m glad you know now. I’d love to get your opinion on things.”

Maria returned, “Well, I guess I’ll be going home. See you later, Karen. And I’ll definitely want to see you later John” She ran her finger across hischin and walked out.

“What was that about?” asked Karen incredulously.

“I’ll tell you some other day.” He blushed. “Look Karen I want to help you out, but I didn’t think to call home or anything and my mom will be getting home soon. I will help you but I should get home soon. Call me ok?” Karen reluctantly agrees. He hurry out to the empty parkinglot. He notice one of the cars, other than your own, has not left and a figure is running back, heading back toward you. He fix his glasses, as he did he recognized the runner as Sarah Sorayama.

She was waving her arms and calling “John! John!
John...Doe!” They were not close but she was his lab partner, thus he would wait for her. She finally reached him. “John, I’m so glad your here. My car just completely died. Can I ,please, bum a ride from you?”

John looked into her deep soft green eyes. The sent of lavender drifted from her long black hair. It was a very pleasant scent. And despite his previous activities there was a slight stirring within the boy.