This is a just desserts type of response to the six-sentence story prompt of the week, which is ERUPTION. This follows an unnamed first person narrator, and her ongoing interactions with that jerk, Clay.
My mother always told me to be nice to people, that sometimes they might be going through something you can’t see, and while I agreed with her most of the time, I knew deep down that Clay was just a jerk.
He had friends, a good family, played sports, did okay in school, but he was one of those guys that if you were just the least bit better than him in something, you would live to regret it.
He never hurt anyone, not really, but he played jokes, spread rumors, and just picked at you until you started to think that getting the top grade on the math test wasn’t actually worth it.
I tried to rise above it, help him out here and there, and I even spent the better part of a term trying to become his friend in 5th grade, but it was pretty much hopeless.
So 6 years later, when Clay was assigned to be my lab partner for chemistry, it became the class I dreaded going to, until he went to far, until the day of the magnificent eruption.
I tried to tell Clay that he was making a mistake, that those were the ingredients to two different experiments, but I gave up, taking cover when he dropped the sodium cube into the sulfuric acid, and I felt a little guilty for the rest of the year at the relief I felt from never having to see that guy again.
Anne McSommers' Writing Nook 
Some people can’t be taught, and that’s sad.
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At least you warned him that he was making a mistake. That is all one can sometimes do.
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Upon first read Clay seemed like an extra bad pimple that needed to be expunged. But it kept coming back. Not remembering much high school chemistry, I searched with your words “sodium cube into the sulfuric acid” and up came a four minute video that explained how to easily remove the offensive thing. Thanks!
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I can fully appreciate the mixed emotions at the end. What more could you have done?
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… and so all that as left was the feet of Clay?
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yeah, what a heel that guy was!
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🙂
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Oops. Sometimes it’s best not to think you know everything… I rarely get that chance, Anne… just saying! 😀
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Some people never learn… good job
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Probably the most evil of human foibles, the desire to make others feel bad that they might feel better.
Nice ending.
Clay?
Too bad, too sad.
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I’d say a bit of karma was comin’ round!
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And karma is a …beach, full of turquoise waters!
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Oh yay!! I love a good “just desserts” (justice) story–well done!!
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You can always tell a stubborn lab partner.
But you can’t tell him much!
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