Intentional Reflection

“Are you friends with him? I asked, my gaze drifting toward the boy across the room.

Pretty much,” she replied, her voice tinged with a hint of delight. “He's my brother.”

“Your brother?” I asked, glancing between the two of them. “The hair color definitely makes that obvious.”

“We both actually dyed it around the same time,” she explained.

“Are you the older one, or is it him?” Anon asked.

“I'm the older one,” a sudden voice chimed in.

We turned to see Oberon walking toward us, casually taking the suddenly vacant seat in front of Kira.

“Pretty convenient having your seat right in front of your sister,” Anon remarked.

“It's not his seat," Kira said sharply. "Class is just over.”

The room had grown quiet, but we didn’t fully grasp the extent of it until we looked around. Oberon and Kira, however, didn’t need to, both had already noticed.

“Anyways, want to grab lunch?” Oberon asked, pulling a boxed lunch out of his bag.

“We have another class, Oberon,” Kira said, standing up and gathering her things.

“For real?!”

Dejectedly, he put away his lunch and stood up, mirroring Kira’s movements, but with a bit more of a shuffle in his step.

“Let’s get moving, new guy!”

Oberon grabbed Anon’s hands, pulling him up before guiding the two of them out of the classroom. Their footsteps grew fainter as Anon let out a string of surprised exclamations, probably tossing in a “help!” for good measure.

“Your brother’s…they're pretty eccentric,” I said, carefully choosing my words.

I wouldn’t exactly call myself introverted, but I’m not like Anon, who’s much quieter than I’d realized. Still, I wouldn’t say I’m some extroverted girl either. Oberon’s behavior is definitely outside my comfort zone, and I can’t help but worry about Anon.

“He sure is,” Kira said, giving a slight nod. “But he's a good person. Anon will be fine. I'm pretty sure Oberon’s just being friendly with him right now.”

I couldn’t shake the image of Anon’s confused rants, or the fact that he’d pretty much been kidnapped, in a way.

“Let’s hope so,” I muttered, still a little uncertain.

I grabbed my things and stood up, following Kira as she headed out.

“Wouldn't want to keep the boys waiting too long,” I said, catching up to her.

“Don't you mean, you don't want to keep Anon waiting too long?” Kira teased with a smirk.

“We're just friends!” I shot back, feeling my face heat up a little.

“Don’t worry, princess, I’m just teasing,” Kira chuckled. “You two definitely seem comfortable with each other, whether there are romantic feelings or not.”

“I guess the situation just called for it,” I explained. “Can’t really hate or act weird with each other if we’re stuck together. Plus, after sleeping in the same bed, you get a pretty good sense of each other’s personality.”

As we walked toward our class, I didn’t think much of what I had said until I realized Kira had stopped walking beside me. Turning back, I saw her face was completely red.

“I didn’t think you’d take it that far…and so soon,” she muttered, still flushed.

Her words echoed in my mind as I suddenly realized what I had just said.

“!!!”

I flailed my arms around in a desperate attempt to explain, my mind racing and my mouth moving, but no words came out. The silent panic only made my face burn even hotter.

“I-I can explain! It’s just…listen! It’s not like that!” I stammered, my words tripping over each other as I tried to make sense of the mess I’d created.

“I-Its okay. I won’t ask any questions,” Kira replied, her face still flushed, though she gave me a teasing smile.

She quickly made her way to the class door, barely holding back a laugh as she entered.

“I swear, it’s not like that!” I called out after her, feeling my embarrassment skyrocket.

I entered the classroom behind her, spotting Oberon and Anon at the back, laughing together. The teacher hadn’t arrived yet, and their casual banter filled the room.

He gets to laugh while I’m over here flustered. And to make it worse, he’s never laughed like that with me!

We both made our way to the table, which was arranged in a square with two chairs on one side. Anon sat with his back closer to the wall, while Oberon took the opposite side. I naturally walked to the side Anon was on and sat down next to him, while Kira settled near her brother.

“You sure took your time getting here,” Oberon teased with a grin.

“It was like a two-minute walk,” Anon remarked, sounding a bit exasperated.

“A-anyway, did the teacher come in at all?” I asked, quickly shifting the focus away from the awkwardness.

“He said we’ll go through this once he gets more copies,” Anon explained, reaching for one of the packets on the table and handing it to me.

I skimmed the first page of the packet. “So we’re just doing a practice experiment?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Maybe we’ll be able to make something cool!” Oberon said, practically bouncing in his seat with excitement.

“Don’t forget, we’ve got to keep a low profile today,” Kira remarked, her tone serious as she glanced around.

“Why’s that?”

“...”

We never really got the chance to explain it to him. He was just so natural with everything.

We then gave a brief backstory of everything that had happened, filling him in on the events that led us here.

“I see!” he said, slamming a fist onto his palm. “I was wondering if the two of you were hanging out together. I’ve, like, never seen you two talk before, yet now you're getting all buddy-buddy with each other.”

Leaning forward with a grin on his face, he added, “But you know what? A friend of Kira’s is a friend of mine.”

“Speaking of friends,” he turned toward Anon, “Wanna be a buddy and open the window a bit for me? It's kinda warm, and a slight breeze would be perfect right now.”

His tone was a lot calmer this time, but that was to be expected, I suppose. It's hard to keep up an energetic vibe all the time. With a nod, Anon simply did as requested, cracking the window just enough to let in a slight breeze.

A little while later, the teacher walked in and handed out the rest of the packets, signaling the start of the lesson.

“Attention, everyone,” the teacher said, his tone serious. “For legal reasons, I have to warn you that we’ll be using chemicals. Everything before you is stuff you can find in your household, but that doesn’t make them any less dangerous. So please, don’t eat or get anything in your eyes. Be sure to wash your hands thoroughly when you’re done with everything.”

Looking at everything on the table, it was pretty obvious, but rules are only made when someone does something that forces you to create them.

“The packet gives you instructions for everything on your tray, just make sure you write down what you observe,” he explained, “Consider this a practice test before we use the actual school-approved chemicals.”

After giving us that warning, it was time to get to work, and Oberon was the first to speak up.

“It’s a shame you won’t be here for the real thing," Oberon said with a shrug. "This stuff’s only fun with the right group of people.”

“I think that can be said for anything,” Kira remarked, glancing at Oberon.

“You’re so right!” Oberon exclaimed, as if a lightbulb had suddenly appeared over his head, metaphorically, of course.

“Anyway, what exactly do we have here?” I asked, glancing down at the items scattered across our table.

“Nothing beyond stuff you could find in a house,” Anon explained. “Things like different kinds of soap and lotion. At most, we've got hydrogen peroxide to spice things up. And four different food dyes.”

“Easy enough,” Kira said, nodding. “We just need to see how they react to one another so we know what we’re doing.”

“It’s kind of boring when you think about it in retrospect,” Anon added, his tone thoughtful.

Anon wasn’t wrong, but at least it was something to get us moving and thinking. Kira naturally took charge of everything, which worked out well since Anon and I were fine with it. Oberon, on the other hand, seemed bored. So, he started talking about whatever popped into his head, making jokes that were just funny enough to get Anon to chuckle.

That was honestly the cycle of the whole class: observe, write, and talk. The entire session went smoothly, with Oberon eventually excusing himself to go to the bathroom, leaving the three of us together once again.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had this much fun,” Anon said, a smile still lingering on his face.

I hadn’t seen him smile this much around anyone before. It was a new look, especially up close.

“Did you not have many friends or something?” Kira asked, her tone casual but curious.

I’d been meaning to ask that too, but I never really got the chance, to be honest.

“Well…not really, to be honest,” he said. “I went through both elementary and middle school without a single friend, no childhood friends, no best friends, not even once.”

He hesitated for a moment, then spoke again, his voice carrying a bit more energy.

“That was until yesterday. In short, it seems a friend group started befriending me just before I arrived.”

“What are they like?” Kira asked with more curiosity.

“They seem nice from what I can tell. Three of them are on the boys' soccer team, and one helps out. I was helping them too, so I guess they figured I was friendly enough to talk to.”

“So, you've got yourself the boys,” I chimed in with a grin.

“Pretty much, I guess. Though, one of them is a girl.”

“...”

“...”

The sound of clanking echoed in the background, but I paid it no mind. Kira, however, seemed to pause in her movements upon hearing it.

“What's she like?” I asked, a sort of curiosity creeping into my voice.

“I get the feeling I said something wrong,”

“I'm curious as well!” Kira quickly added, letting out a forced laugh to lighten the mood. Then, leaning over the table, she whispered in my ear, “Maybe you can get an idea of his type.”

True! If she's anything like me, then I-

My face suddenly grew warm, heat creeping up to my cheeks before I could stop it.

Why do I care?! What was I even about to say next?!

“Well, she's about my height, has blonde hair, and if I had to sum her up in one word.it'd be ‘bubbly.’”

“...”

“...”

“What's her skin tone, at least?” I asked, my mind feeling oddly defeated.

“...pale.”

My face dropped onto the table with a soft thud.

“Are you okay?!” Anon asked, his voice laced with concern.

“I'm…fine,” I mumbled, though tears streamed down my face like something straight out of an anime.

She's literally the polar opposite of me.

“I just want something to blow up at this rate,” I muttered. “Maybe that'll take my mind off this.”

“On it!”

A sudden voice rang out, revealing Oberon standing over a scientific beaker. In one hand, he held a small container filled with what looked like brown powder, and in the other, a beaker containing a strange mixture of various substances. All our eyes locked onto him, which he took as his cue to dump the brown powder into the beaker.

“Where did you get the yeast mixture?!” Kira exclaimed, eyes wide with shock.

“I did some exploring while I was out,” Oberon said with a shrug.

“When did you even get back?!”

“I wasn’t exactly quiet about it,” Oberon said with a smirk. “There was a bit of clanking from the stuff in my hands.”

“What did he do?” Anon asked, a hint of worry creeping into his voice.

“It's elephant toothpaste,” Kira said, taking a cautious step back from the table.

Anon and I quickly followed her lead, stepping back, while Oberon remained seated, completely unfazed.

Won’t this cause trouble?!