“This is so stupid I tell her.” She looks at me with squinting eyes and mimics me but with a slight change of pitch that suggests I sounded like a child.

“Whats the the big deal its gonna work.” voilet says.

I have 3 cans of this shaving cream stuff covering my face, now you want me to light a match.

“You put Vaseline on first right?” she asks almost concerningly if it wasn’t for her rushing attitude.

“Yes.”

“Then you’ll be fine stop whining and light it already.”

She says this with confidence yet im in her parents basement mudroom and shes on the other side of a door closed holding a fire extinguisher. I dont think ill blow up more of just fire on my face yet shes acting as if I am going to explode in front of her! She eggs me on again and out of pure frustration I light the lighter. Pure white light blinds my eyes then its gone a few seconds go by and when I say a few its more like 30 seconds before I can see and even then I have a few overly saturated spots in my vision.
Thankfully my skin isnt burnt and i still have my brows some of my hair was singed but im grateful nonetheless.
“Look at what you made me do!” I scream
As I take another breath I recall why she made me do this, my anger subsides.
She peaks inside, “Are you okay”
‘Yes’ I say begrudgingly, part of me wants to not be okay so i can prove to her how stupid this experiment was. Is that crazy? Mom said Im overly competitive. Is that what she means?
“Does your forehead smell?” I snap out of my thoughts and take a big sniff. No its gone, its actually gone! I start smiling and my heart finally relaxes to its fullest, senior year saved.

“Okay my turn”, as she opens the door, blanketed in shaving cream. I kid you not cracks of door illuminate when she lights herself! For a full 3 mins she must have looked like the sun. After three minutes its quiet, I begin to fret, is she okay? Is she actually dead this time what do i do? My phone still isnt charged. Then she opens the door, she looks like she was in front of a big a fire but shes fine and safe and I can finally go home.

“You can go home now” breaking me from my thoughts

“What!?” I say in surprise.

Yes i want to go home but thats for me to decide theres still a whole bunch of questions I want answered.

“You cant expect me to leave after that? Thats all you wanted my help with?

“Yes” Voilet says unsure why im so disquiet.

“You used me as a guinea pig”

“I did but you really had no choice”

I pause for a moment, there has to be something I can do to stay just a bit longer

“Whats in the briefcase” I manage to say. Yeah I had nothing on her, but maybe geniu-

“None of your business” She blurts out

…

“Fine ill just go around telling everyone that I saw Violet Sutters Hop into the pond last night”

“They wouldnt believe you”

“And that she came out with a black briefcase”

“OKAY”

I win. Yeah mom was right I am overly competitive.

She beckons to come near, opening the briefcase I see 2 pieces of paper and small vial and a USB stick of i dont know what.

“What is it?”

“Told you its none of your business”

“Tell me.. Please” projecting the biggest sincere face i can muster

She exhales
“The papers are the only documents left in the whole world that mention chemical 5-C1 and its gross toxicity levels when it interacts with organic matter. The Vial is a sample of 5-C1. And-

“How do you know that?”

“Its a long a story, whats important is that this document and vial can save this town from becoming chernobly part 2”

“ITS RADIOACTIVE”

I yell maybe a littel too loud,

“SHUT IT, no its not radioactive, but it is dangerous.

“Yeah I get it, so what do we do?”

From the stairs We hear a voice, “Voilet? that you sweetie?”

“Crap my dad” shes panicking. Then she hits me I guess for being too loud.

“I guess thats my cue” as i rub my shoulder.

“Yes, hurry, Ill find you tomorrow”

“I literally live down-”

“I know now go”

The next morning mom asks me where I was, I didn’t want to lie to her so I told her the truth. Note to self lie when the truth involves diving into the toilet bowl pond, going to a girls house and lighting shaving cream on fire and a toxic chemical that can ruin the environment. I dont know what was more unbelievable the suite case we found or me with a girl that wasn’t 2D.
I waited all day for her to get a hold of me, I checked discord Instagram nothing she was a ghost. I started to believe I was dreaming. The more I sat alone the more my thoughts started to go against me. It had to been made up a secret suite case, a kid my age who knows more about chemistry than a high school teacher. None of this made sense. I tried distracting myself played a few games of apex, read a book dad got me  nothing worked. I needed answers.
-CLACK- -CLACK-
I was in a middle of an intense match of league yes I know I tried everything to keep myself busy and league was unfortunately working when I heard something outside my window. I pulled my headphones down the chatter of my teammates still bleeding through the earmuffs turning my head to the sound of what seem to be rocks tapping against my window screen. I walk over pulled blinds up and there she was black suitcase in hand. My heart rate increase 10 fold, she begins to mouth something at me, “”Pet the pig?”” I say out loud. Her face is already annoyed, she gestures to the lock on the window. She wants me to let her in, as I reach for the lock my heart skips a beat a girl who isn’t family is gonna be in my room. This is so cool.

“Do you not know how to fold clothes? When was the last time you checked underneath your bed its a mess” This isn’t cool, its actually the opposite of cool, getting roasted for how unkempt my room was is my moms job not for an uninvited guess.

Defending myself “I wasn’t expecting visitors”

“Probably because they know how messy you are”

“Whatever.. are we gonna continue our conversation from yesterday and why did you take so long it’s already the evening?”

“I had to clean up the mess we made it left black dust everywhere, cleaning have you heard of it”

She gestures to the pile of clothes in corner, she really wants to get kicked out.

The pause in her banter gave way for me to change the subject back to whats been on my mind for the past 12 hours. I look down and notice a backpack shes has kept close to her stomach.

“Is everything in there?”

“Whats it to ya?”

This time im annoyed. She’s here because of whats in the bag whats it to ya???

“Voilet, you came to ME” I emphasized the “me” in that sentence.

Another pause hits, im use to pauses im socially awkward i run out of things to say or say the wrong thing at the wrong time but the silence is different, there’s no unwanted tension the urge to spill nonsense to break the air. I feel as if i can wait forever on her response. I want to know.

“Yeah- everythings in here.”

Her posture changed her guard is down my guard is down. I smile. “So how do you know about all of this?” I lean against my bed signaling to her that I want the long story not the short.

Violet explains how her mom worked at a chemical plant in norther Colorado she was a chemist tasked to fine a new wonder material that can replace plastic. She did.

“My mom was a brilliant scientist but more importantly she a kind human, she found the new material what would be called new plastic and believed in a couple 15-20 years would be ready for mass market. Her boss and friend at the time wanted to speed things up. He arranged for a private testing of the material built homes replaced bottles marketed it as a new wonder plastic that can even be used for grafting. Of course all this was in third world countries where people were desperate and obviously my mom did not know. She was waiting to see how this product degraded over time and what by products were being pushed out as it degraded. She found that as the product degraded over the course of 2 years carcinogenic byproducts are released. And any fire retardant layers it had disintegrates leaving a fire hazard like how California is. She found out because 5 years into her research she was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. By then Eddie Mason CEO of Standing Castle Materials has tested “New plastic in over 30 lands and was fully aware of the dangers Eddie didnt care. He also knew mom would fight back all he had to do was wait. He waited to respond to her claims after she passed. Paid off of a few investigators and politicians and this case was gone. He framed mom for everything painted her after her death as a corrupt scientist, unethical inventor everything that he was. He destroyed her reputation and made standing castle the victim of her work all he had to do promise he would scrap new plastic and any investigation was terminated.”

“But that isnt true?

“Mom’s life after she died was ruined and there was no way to reverse that till now a whistle blower leaked a document that eddie had sent to the labs teams where mom worked calling for a “Rebranding” of new plastic.”

“Wouldnt whoever is in charge of regulating this stuff find that its the same?” I ask.

“They would if they had a sample of new plastic, before mom died an informant inside company said eddie scoured the globe for anything new plastic related payed off anyone who was sick cause of it, planted evidence for the fires and destroyed any evidence that new plastic was there by the time and government official came to check it out eddie and his company were gone. Standing Castle claimed they lost the recipe when mom died.”

“Did they?” I know shes going to say yes but i guess this was my way of showing that i am listening, man is this what mom does?

“My mom did destroy the recipe but not before eddie made a copy of my moms computer.”

“So how did the briefcase you found end up here?”

1 year back the reddit page my mom founded in order to bring people who were effected by new plastic together became active again a user by the page of Daphnie878 started posting these long threads about Standing Castle mostly how she hated working for Mason Her last post was claiming that new plastic and eddies next big breakthrough were going to be “similiar, too similar”
At this point violet pulls out her phone, its the new flip phone everyone’s been crazing about, you can still see the crease.
DaPhnie878 Standing Castles new breakthrough is similar too similar to new plastic from ive been hearing. I cant stand working for this shady company anymore, after what happened to Denis this isnt what I was promised. I heard the last sample of the original formula is lost somewhere in Brookridge a fight between Mason and Vienna.

Zaphir- Evidence like? New plastic evidence and why does it matter he has the recipe?

DaPnie878- Overheard our cry baby CEO complain to the staff who have been working on the new product, something about the old product being better. My guess he has parts of the formula but not the whole thing or if he does have everything its a messy puzzle he has yet to fully solve.

I look up from reading the thread. “So you just took a guess in hoping into the pond?”

“Do you really think im that crazy?”

I stare at her welcoming the silence

She closes her mouth, “Fair point, Moms notes mentioned a meeting by the pond right when her and mason started this legal battle. I mentioned the sample and papers but the USB its moms formula and evidence against mason.”

“Why did they meet here why not at a starbucks or anywhere but here?” I ask confused

“Mom is from brookrige and so was Mason what I can tell they were always friends.”

Before either of us noticed an hour passed and for a brief moment I felt normal again. Violet and I both were on my carpet floor only an arm stretch apart. For someone who just roasted me about my dirty room she acted comfortable more than I. She rose quickly once she noticed the time or something i couldnt tell you.

“We need to get to the Dr Hudgins lab!”

“Mr hudgins our chemistry teacher?”

“we need to go now hes waiting”

“Mr Hudgins is in on this too?” I ask

“Kinda sorta, Ive been telling DOCTOR (emphasis on the doctor) Hudgins about my theory for weeks hes familiar with my moms case and the product new plastic. Last night after you left I emailed him, he agreed to let me in his lab today but i needed to be there an hour ago.”

As gamers we dont usually run fast nor have the best lungs for running but for some reason we ran and when violet couldn’t run anymore I carri- she kicked my shin and said she rather die then let a herself be carried so we walked the last few miles. Inside I was happy, was it because I can finally run 5 miles and not be exhausted my pokemon go hunting can now finally be declared a success? Or was it that I had her next to me?

We arrive at the school, empty with Mr. Hudgins car parked in the front I can here the sigh of relief coming underneath violets breadth relieved that hes still here waiting, the steps to finally fulfilling her moms last fight for justice was about to be over the energy was pouring through our faces slowly.

Just as fast as it came, it went.

The lab was a complete mess papers spread across the floor liquids splattered on tables and chairs. I wouldnt want to be bare footed here.
“What happened here” I said under my breath. I turned to violet who was beside me she was bewildered to say the least.
“No- no- nooo” is all she can find words for
“Wheres Mr. Hudgins?” i asked
“Not here obviously” as if my i do admit dumb question snapped her out of her freakout
“We need to leave now”
“You sure this was meant for us?”
“Yes”
“How” I contested
“The only things that are damaged or missing are research papers and any vile or container the usb ports are all damaged too. If my only reliable trait was brute strength and strangling people I would take anything that looked “sciency” for good measure. Anything of real value is still here, school laptops, the projector heck even Dr. Hudgins car is worth more than Hydrochloric Acid”

Without drawing too much attention to ourselves we speed walk to the closest public space with people, Penny’s Diner

Since I was a little taller I naturally had a wider stride which meant i was ahead of Voilet, so i kept looking back to make sure she we keeping up. You could tell she hated that, I recall violet skipping gym class more times than I could count. A block away from the diner it hit me, Mr. Hudgins is really missing, he wasnt my favorite teacher, granted i never was the best student but i didnt dislike the guy either chemistry isnt my favorite subject thats all. I turn again to violet with a worried expression this time.

“I dont know” she already knows what I was going to say. “Mr Hudgins is okay… we are the ones who are not”

I swallow my throat and keep walking. We arrive at the diner where Mrs. Berchner is always at eating her oatmeal and reading a book and being the only wholesome source of laughter left in this town.
“Damien? Is that your girlfriend” Her voice so innocent with a subtle scratch to it only this scratch isnt as innocent. Mrs Burchner was a sharp as any knife and knew my life like a second mom. Unlike my real mom Mrs. Burchner loved a good laugh. She got it, I didnt need a mirror to know how red i must gotten. Violet was probably too worried to hear what she said. We sit down and I order us to floats its 11 am but I need something to relieve this stress. Sitting in silence for a solid 20 mins wondering what to do next I was halfway done with the float when Voilet bobs her head down. I stare across the table to what appeared to be a now empty seat, she is crazy i think to myself. When she kicks my shin. I kneel down too in pain.
“There is a guy in a black suite across the street.” She whispers.
I stupidly lift my head back up and peak, he turns my direction which i immediately look back down.
“You are an idiot” She whispers again with a slight hiss
“What makes you think that is the bad guy?”
“A black suit, sunglasses, hello classic evil henchmen trope”
Before I can argue we hear the door chime, its him.