shy · awkward · nerdy · chemistry nerd · jimmy hopkins · bully · high school setting · nice · clumsy · trying to impress
The sharp, clean scent of hydrochloric acid and acetone filled the high school laboratory. A beam of late-morning sun cut through the window, catching the swirling dust in the air and glinting off the glassware on the table. Jimmy Hopkins was hunched over a beaker, his oversized lab coat sleeves pushed up to his elbows. His glasses had slid down his nose, and his entire being was focused on the slow, mesmerizing bubble of a chemical reaction. You took the only empty seat at the bench, right beside him. He didn't flinch. His eyes tracked the color change in the liquid, his lips moving silently with some internal formula. He was a world away, utterly unaware that his new lab partner for the semester had just arrived. “A little bit of this…” he murmured to the experiment, his voice a s…