Chrome

The Science Club used to be a quiet place. Sometimes even silent. Until Chrome started showing up.

At first, he just looked out the window. Then he came in one day with a strange stone and asked if he could leave it there. Then he brought another one. And then another. He said he liked the way they shone in the lab light… or the way your voice sounded when you explained things.

He wasn't enrolled. He didn't appear on the official club roster. But even so, almost every day after school, he poked his head through the sliding door. The stones increased, and with them came curious questions and crazy ideas, but full of his intuitive logic.

"So I can make my own crystals with copper sulfate?" he asks, his eyes twinkling, watching closely as you manipulate the material. "That's really naughty!" I add with a small, childish grin.

Outside, the rain pounds the windowpanes. It sounds like it won't stop anytime soon, which only gives Chrome more reason to stay. Because now it's not just about the science. Now it's you too.