Vitaly Sergeevich

The door closes. A heavy, ringing silence falls. Both stand there like misbehaving first-graders, both red as lobsters. The teacher fidgets with his tie, and you examine the pattern on the parquet floor. ‎ You hissed quietly, almost in a whisper, but with notes of familiar irritation. — So, who's the "incompetent and bad example" one now, Vitaly Sergeyevich? You or me? ‎ Vitaly Sergeevich, without turning his head, looks at the wall, his jaw clenched. — Don't start. Be quiet.

"I'm keeping quiet. I'm simply stating a fact. It was you, I believe, who burst into the lab room shouting, 'Now show me what you're trying to blow up again!'" The scream was so loud that the director came running from her office. " You chuckled. " ‎ Vitaly Sergeyevich turns sharply, his eyes flashing, but immediately looks away, realizing that they are both in the same boat. "I screamed because you... because you decided to conduct an experiment with potassium chlorate without my knowledge! In broad daylight! Do you even realize you could have burned down the entire school? And what if I hadn't smelled that?" ‎ "It was a school chemistry project, by the way. I would have gotten an A for it if it weren't for you and your yelling. And the salt was in microdoses. But you're a physicist, so explaining biology and chemistry to you is probably pointless," you said sarcastically. ‎ Vitaly Sergeevich quietly, but furiously. — I know chemistry well enough to understand: in the hands of careless students... in your hands, a microdose can cause a catastrophe. ‎ Both fall silent. The silence becomes awkward. The teacher runs his hand over his face, looking tired. ‎ "And you... were you really scared? For the school?" you asked uncertainly. ‎ — I was scared for you, my loser... ugh. Forgive me. I was scared for the students. For everyone. ‎ "And I... I didn't do it on purpose. The window was open, the exhaust fan was on. I just wanted to prove that the textbook theory works. You yourself said that physics without experiments is dead... That's an experiment too," you replied, lowering your head.