Meisha:

Wow, I can't believe it's been a year since I began writing this story. After I reread some of the chapters of this story I decided it would be best to go ahead and finish it up. It was my first fanfic written for this site and I hope it served its purpose of entertaining you.

Over the past week or so I began editing points in the story. Nothing critical; just minor changes in dialogue. The overall plot of the story is still the same. Oh, and I happened to change the title. "Chemistry Project" was just too bland.

.::. Chemical Equilibrium .::.

Chapter 9: Presentations

"I've been anxious the whole day. I can't believe we're going to be presenting tonight!" Luna exclaimed to Shinn as they passed Lacus and Cagalli in the hallway. "Good luck, you guys!"

"Best of luck to you as well," Lacus called after. She turned her attention back to Cagalli who was gathering her books from her locker. "Are you nervous?"

"I should be, shouldn't I?" Cagalli looked to her friend. "For some reason I'm not though."

"I'm sure we'll do a good job since we've been preparing. The project is only worth 40% of our grade anyway," she said, a little too brightly.

Cagalli gave Lacus an amused smile. Only half our grade? Lacus gave her a curious look but Cagalli simply waved her hand.

"What are you going to wear, Cagalli?"

Lacus was met with a blank stare. She shook her head in disapproval.

"Professor Ramius said this is a formal presentation so we have to dress up. Ah! You should wear the dress we got at the mall!"

Cagalli crinkled her nose, but immediately realized her mistake when she saw her friend's crestfallen expression.

"Oh, you really didn't like that dress…"

"N-no, Lacus! It's a really nice dress; it's just that I'm not a fan of dresses in general. I wasn't insulting your taste in fashion or anything; it's just that—"

"So you'll wear the dress then." Cagalli knew it wasn't a question so she simply sighed in defeat. Lacus beamed with joy. "Okay, I'll see you at 6 tonight!" she waved as she lifted her backpack and made her way to the exit.

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"Cagalli, aren't you going to be late?" Kira called as he kept his eyes on his laptop.

It was already 5:30 and he hadn't seen her for the past hour or so. Maybe she was doing some last minute practicing. But it was too quiet for that. And a quiet Cagalli was never a good sign. Still, he continued typing away on his laptop, waiting patiently for her to come by.

"Kira?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you in the family room?"

"Yep."

"Can you go away?"

He stopped typing and turned to where the voice was coming from. She was still upstairs, talking to him from down the hall. He raised an eyebrow and asked why.

"Because…"

She sure was acting strange.

"I'm working on a paper; I can't leave it." He turned his attention back to his laptop.

"Okay… um… then just don't look at me."

Now he was really interested.

"Why?"

"Just don't… please?"

"Fine fine, whatever," he turned back to his paper. He didn't have time to play such strange games with her.

He heard her coming down the stairs. There was some shuffling, but he ignored it as he continued typing. Finally he heard her close the door. He turned around to make sure she was gone. A white bag caught his attention.

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Success! She had made it out of the house without Kira noticing her all dolled up like a little girl. She unlocked the door and was about to get in when she heard the familiar voice.

"Hey, you forgot your pur— "

She froze. She didn't want to turn around and face him. She knew what look he'd be giving her. She just waited for him to burst out laughing.

When it didn't happen she slowly turned around. She was surprised to see him smiling at her.

"You forgot your purse." He handed it to her and she nodded in thanks. "By the way, you look nice."

She searched his face for sarcasm. When she was satisfied that his answer was honest she smiled back at him.

She felt incredibly silly for her actions.

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"All right, are all the stations set up? Judging will begin as soon as the representatives arrive."

Cagalli had arrived on time and she, along with the others, had successfully arranged the presentations in the cafeteria. Why they did this in the cafeteria was a mystery to her, but apparently it was a tradition.

She glanced around the room and noticed that everyone was dressed nicely. She was thankful that the other girls had also chosen to wear dresses or skirts. She had expected Lacus to wear one, and of course the girl looked beautiful in her simple, frilly white dress.

Cagalli took the seat next to Lacus. On their left were Luna and Shinn and on their right were Meyrin and Auel. The atmosphere became quiet as the students' nerves began growing.

"There's no reason to be so tense." The professor chuckled as she glanced at the scattered expressions.

Suddenly, the assistant principal had made her appearance. She whispered something to the professor which resulted in a dismayed look. When she looked to the students she knew they knew something was up. "I'm afraid the Chemistry Department of ORB will be unable to make it tonight. They had some sort of incident in their virology lab—"

"Well, I'm out." Shinn stood abruptly in an attempt to leave. A hand on his shoulder not only caused him to stop in his tracks, but also to jump slightly.

"I'm afraid not, my boy." Somehow Mr. Flaga had appeared behind him. "Murrue, I have an idea about judging the students. Can we speak privately?"

She nodded and the two stepped into the hallway.

Minutes later they returned. The professor was smiling once again.

"We were able to make special arrangements. The judges will be here as soon as they can." Cagalli couldn't help but groan along with some of the others. She had really thought they would get out of this place early. She tugged at the bottom of her dress in frustration.

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A good twenty minutes had passed with no indication of judges appearing. Rather than manning their posts, Cagalli and the others had decided to wander around, helping themselves to the refreshments when the professor wasn't looking.

It had begun raining once again. It was harder than earlier in the afternoon, but nothing too bad. Cagalli was chatting away with Stellar and Lacus when Luna's words caused her to stiffen.

"Athrun!"

The others turned to see if Luna was speaking the truth. And sure enough Athrun, along with Kira and two others had come down. He smiled and Luna, along with her sister, had run over to him.

"I wonder what they're doing here," Lacus mused aloud. "Let's speak with them, Cagalli," she added as she turned her attention back to her friend.

But Cagalli wasn't there. She looked around in confusion and finally saw her friend sitting back behind the table.

"Cagalli?" Lacus had a feeling her lab partner was trying to hide for whatever reason.

"Um, it's fine. I'll just hang out here. I have to review these notes anyway." She flipped through some index cards.

Lacus would have questioned her, but the professor had cleared her throat, attempting to get their attention.

"All right, instead of ORB's Chemistry Department, we will have the top two groups from last year judging the presentations from this year. I'm sure you all know Kira, Athrun, Yzak and Dearka." She moved to the side and motioned to the four boys who had recently walked into the cafeteria.

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Judging had begun. Each judge would go to a separate project and listen to what the lab partners would have to say. While it was encouraging being judged by peers, it brought a sense of intimidation as well.

"Kira!" Lacus exclaimed as he walked over to the two girls.

"Hey Lacus, how are you?"

"I'm fine. How are things with you?"

"Pretty good, but a little stressful, I have to admit."

"Oh, that's not good. I heard you are taking calculus now. I'm sure it's challenging. I'm a bit nervous to take it next semester actually."

"There's no reason to be nervous. I'll be there to help you." He smiled and she returned it.

Cagalli cleared her throat and the two looked at her. They looked back at each other before Lacus decided to stare at the floor and Kira nervously scratched the back of his head. Cagalli shook her head in amusement. Kira took notes on their procedure and methods and nodded before moving to the next group. Dearka had come by next.

"Hey, Cags."

"Never call me that again." Cagalli glared at him and he laughed.

"Just wanted to try it out. OK ok, so you guys did something with pH?" He glanced at their poster presentation before sighing. "Man, I never understood this stuff. The only reason I did well was because Yzak was in his competitive mode to try and beat Athrun. All I know about pH is that it results in some pretty colors."

Lacus giggled at his honesty and Cagalli just rolled her eyes.

"Oh, Dearka, I wanted to introduce you to Lacus." He looked at Cagalli with confusion and then turned to Lacus. Lacus was also slightly confused. "Remember, Lacus? We met Miri at the mall and she talked about this dope?"

Lacus's eyes widened at the memory as she nodded, while Dearka pouted at the term Cagalli used to describe him.

"It's nice to meet you," Lacus said as she stood and curtsied.

Dearka attempted to curtsy as well making the girls laugh again.

"Well, I'm going to go get one of those sandwiches again. So I'll see you guys later."

They waved goodbye to him as he walked over to the refreshment table.

While waiting for the next judge to appear, Lacus noticed a streak of lightening pass by the window. She pointed it out to Cagalli who in turn peeked out the window and confirmed that the light drizzle from earlier had become a full on downpour.

"This is stupid."

At once Cagalli knew who was heading over to their stand.

"Nice to see you too, Yzak," Cagalli said, nudging Lacus slightly. Her friend just smiled at the boy who was wearing his trademark glare with his arms folded.

"They only asked me to come judge so they could rub in the fact that I lost to Athrun."

"Again," Cagalli reminded.

He glared at the girl who gave him an innocent smile.

"Score… negative 35."

"Hey, you can't do that!" Cagalli exclaimed with sparks of rage.

Heads turned to see what the commotion was about. Lacus immediately reached to the girl's arm in an attempt to pacify her. She didn't think they needed the extra attention they were getting. Eventually people began minding their own business, but the glaring contest between Cagalli and Yzak didn't seem to abate.

"I'm the judge, remember?" Yzak broke the glare and plastered a smirk on his face.

Cagalli resisted the urge to tackle him.

"I hardly think it's appropriate for a judge to allow personal matters to distract him or her from making an objective decision."

Cagalli and Yzak turned to Lacus with their mouths hanging agape. Their expressions were rather comical, yet Lacus didn't falter. Yzak managed to mumble something unclearly before turning his attention to the evaluation sheet in his hands. He looked up and met Lacus' gaze before walking away. Cagalli, on the other hand, was still staring at the girl.

"I think it's safe to assume that he will judge us fairly."

"Yeah…" Cagalli said slowly as she turned her attention to Meyrin and Auel's presentation.

From what she could hear it seemed that Auel and Meyrin had compared several types of liquid elements to water.

"And water was somehow special?" Athrun questioned, readily taking notes on what the lab partners were sharing.

"Yes, for example, most of the compounds boiled within the first minute. The water, however, had to rise to a much higher temperature in order to boil," Meyrin explained, pointing to a picture of their results.

"And why would that be the case?" Athrun asked, looking up from his evaluation sheet.

"Well, we did some research and found that water has some unique characteristics. It boils at a much higher temperature because of the hydrogen bonds present, which are more difficult to break due to the sheer number of them," Auel explained.

After exchanging several more questions and answers Athrun thanked the two for their presentation and made his way over to Lacus and Cagalli.

"How are you ladies?" Athrun politely asked. Cagalli scoffed slightly, but Lacus responded in an amiable fashion. "And what did you focus your project on?"

"Our project was designed to distinguish good pH indicators from those that didn't work," Lacus explained.

"Could you explain what pH actually is and how pH indicators work?" Athrun asked.

"Well, pH actually stands for the power of hydrogen. The solutions we experimented with were either acidic, like lemon juice, or basic, like soap. When a pH indicator is added to a solution it'll change color. The specific color corresponds to the solution's level of acidity," Cagalli explained before turning to Lacus.

"Our results told us that red cabbage and rose petals were good pH indicators, while sunflowers were not. Unfortunately we were unable to perform the experiment with red apple skins," Lacus finished.

"Yeah, since someone got hungry," Cagalli muttered, glaring daggers at the boy to her left.

"Ah, the infamous Shinn incident," Athrun commented, chuckling slightly. Cagalli then turned to glare at the young judge. "Ahem… anyway…"

Sensing that the conversation would probably take a turn for the worse Lacus decided to change the subject.

"Athrun, isn't the dress Cagalli's wearing simply lovely?" Cagalli immediately became self conscious and attempted to sit down, but Lacus had swiftly moved the chair away. Cagalli had almost fallen over.

"It certainly is," Athrun agreed. "Is this the one Miriallia had picked out for you?"

"Yeah, unfortunately…" Cagalli mumbled.

"Athrun, Athrun, come look at our presentation! We found out that pennies made after 1982 were no longer made of copper!" The trio turned their attention to Lunamaria, who was bouncing up and down like an excited puppy.

A sudden rumble of thunder startled the students before the door to the cafeteria flung open revealing a drenched auburn haired girl.

"Miriallia?" Cagalli said in disbelief.

"That's right!" the girl exclaimed. "Didn't expect to see me, did ya?" Miri replied as she set a big bag down by her side.

"Not really. Especially since you don't go to this school," Kira mentioned, walking over to his childhood friend.

"Well then, it just happens to be your lucky day," she said cheerily, poking Kira's collarbone.

"Miri, what are you saying! I thought you came all this way for me and now you're saying you're in love with Kira!" Dearka cried dramatically.

"Dearka, you're such a dork," Miriallia said rolling her eyes. "Anyway, I'm on official business to take photos for your yearbook."

"Why would you take pictures for our yearbook?" Cagalli asked.

"Because your yearbook staff sucks," Miriallia said bluntly.

Cagalli couldn't disagree with that so she shrugged her shoulders in acceptance.

"Now then, could I get all of you to line up over there?" Miriallia pointed to where Cagalli and Lacus were standing. After the students were aligned, Miriallia asked them to step to the left, then back to the right, and then backwards.

"Miri, just take the picture!" Dearka complained.

"Be quiet. I want this to be perfect," she reprimanded. "Okay, everyone… smile!"

But just as Miriallia was about to take the photo, lightening flashed and before anyone realized what had happened it was pitch black.

"Oh my god! I'm blind!" Dearka bellowed.

"Quit yelling in my ear!" Shinn hollered back.

"Will you both knock it off!" Cagalli rebuked.

"Stellar wonders who turned the lights out," the innocent girl pondered aloud.

"There's a snake!" Flay shrieked.

"Stupid blackout," Sting commented as he took a step to the side.

"Athrun, I'm scared!" Luna cried.

"Eek!" Lacus squeaked, tripping over something.

"Ow, my foot!" Auel shouted.

"Are you all right, Lac—?" Kira asked worriedly, attempting to check before falling himself.

"Someone, turn on the emergency lights!" Athrun exclaimed.

"Who the hell is touching me?" Yzak howled.

And as suddenly as the blackout had occurred the lights flickered back on and Miriallia's camera shuttered.

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Once everyone had calmed down the judges gathered together, while the remaining students began cleaning up their areas.

"Well, first of all I would like to express how proud I am of each and every one of you and it is truly a shame that ORB's Chemistry Department was unable to make it. The representatives from ORB's Department of Chemistry were supposed to award a first place winner based on successful achievement, but since they're not present we will need to make special arrangements. Honestly, the projects presented today were so exceptional that we will need more time to choose a single group. If everything goes according to plan your final grades will be available by Friday."

With Professor Ramius' ending remarks made, the students began packing their things and heading out. Miriallia began packing her bag when she noticed her camera was still turned on. She glanced at the device momentarily before laughing hysterically.

"What's her problem?" Shinn murmured just loud enough for her to hear.

Rather than turn around and yell at him as expected, she continued laughing before handing the camera over to the group that had gathered.

The display screen revealed a priceless and uncomfortable looking picture that no one in the room could contain their laughter over.

This year's chemistry presentations sure would be a memorable one.

"Things that are hard to bear are sweet to remember."

Meisha:

And that's "Chemical Equilibrium". I wanted a more appropriate ending, but I suppose this will do. I truly appreciate those of you who have followed this story till the end and I hope that you continue to support me in my writing. It means a lot.

Until next time!