FicWad

Not Quite Chemistry
Chapter 1 - An Unexplained Slumber
While it is a commonly accepted belief that history class is the most boring experience a student can go through, chemistry certainly gives it a run for its money. The horrific boredom that can be experienced in chemistry class is only heightened by the addition of a very old teacher that regularly falls asleep when not writing illegibly on the overhead projector.
It is this sort of chemistry class that we find our main characters. They are all nearly finished their second year of senior high, each about 17 years of age, and not exactly your standard example of the high school female. Rosann, the oldest and considered the most serious of the group, sits to the rightmost of the table in the center of the room. She is probably the most normal person you will meet in this story (aside from innocent bystanders), with long, neat brown hair, tasteful makeup, and a perfectly normal style of dress. She is kindhearted, quasi-logical, and possessed of incredibly large cleavage. Sitting in the center of the trio, Nicole is the smallest and probably the farthest removed from the normal workings of society. Easily the most tomboyish, she is an aspiring pilot and is perfectly comfortable sleeping on the ground in a shelter constructed of a tarp and some branches. She has exceptionally long brown hair, is never seen in a skirt, and is deathly allergic to chick flicks. The last of the three is Natalia, hard core otaku and brilliant artist. She is the only one with short hair, which is currently a deep purple (it tends to change without warning or explanation). Her dress is best described as chaotic, her lip color changes daily, and she is often pointing out that bunnies should be purple, George Bush's face is to small for his head, etc.
Now, while chemistry class can often be deadly in its level of boredom, our three heroes have a greater chance of survival today. For today is the life-saving, sanity preserving day of Friday. People from all callings, all religions, worship this magnificent day of Friday. While you may not have an alter, or offer prayers or burn incense to the great and powerful forces that created the Friday, you must admit that Fridays bring a special joy to your heart. There is a ritual about Fridays, a sort of happy release that occurs every week. The three, not-so-standard high school girls are eager for this ritual to begin.
The Friday ritual of this particular high school involves being released from the dull environment of the classroom at approximately midday. Nicole, Natalia and the affectionately named Rosa-chan joined the shuffle to the exits of the drab, brown stone building. Suffering momentarily blindness when exposed to the bright light of freedom, they hurried across the field before it was taken over by the school soccer team. It was mid-spring; the sky was blue, the birds were chirping, and you could almost hear the ground screaming as cleats dug into it.
"Do the football players come out in spring too?" Rosa asked, glancing at the assortment of adolescents running laps around the field.
"I shall confer with the next football player I meet, why?" Nicole replied, adjusting the straps of her backpack. Rosa took a moment to think about that backpack. Nicole's backpack was the incredible 'black hole' of backpacks, appearing to have an infinite amount of space. Consequently, Nicole had stuffed it with what appeared to be random knick-knacks, but she insisted that they all had their own special purpose. They would be a time, she would often say, for the duct tape, the tin foil, and the spatula.
"Tight pants," Rosa replied, looking at Nicole like she was silly to ask such a question.
"Ah yes, the wonderful world of spandex and spandex-like clothing," Natalia mused, "but alas, the men they are attached to are not within my small circle of acceptable companions. We should put collars on them.
"We should put collars on all men," Nicole corrected. Rosa laughed,
"I pity the poor guys you date, Nicole," Rosa laughed as they began crossing another field. This field did not belong to a highschool as the previous one had. This one belonged to an elementary school, and Nicole increased speed to get through it. She didn't like small children, and being swarmed by them was one of her greatest fears. Rosa and Natalia were caught between laughter and worry when she tripped and fell flat on her face. However, they quickly caught up with her and made the discovery that she was not getting back up.
"Nicole?" Rosa asked, looking past the girl's backpack to see if she was okay. Natalia was having difficulty coming to grips with the seriousness of the situation. She kept thinking about how much Nicole looked like a turtle with her backpack as the protruding, rounded shell.
"Natalia, Nicole's sleeping," Rosa pronounced the verdict of her amateur - performed medical examination. Natalia looked at her,
"So she's a sleeping turtle?" She asked.
"Yes, what?" Rosa gave Natalia her best confused look, "no, we have to wake her up."
"Oh," Natalia replied, and promptly gave Nicole a good kick in the ribs.
Nicole didn't move.
"I think she's a dead turtle," Natalia answered Rosa's astonished expression.
"You just kicked Nicole!" Rosa exclaimed.
"Well, you told me to wake her up. She's pretty tough, she can handle a good kick to the ribs."
Rosa considered this, along with the fact that Nicole was still fast asleep, and decided it would be okay to give Nicole another good kick. She did so, and when Nicole did not awaken as expected (it had, after all, been a good kick), she turned to Natalia to report her observations.
Let me take a moment to give you a little background information on what happens next. Sleeping is a human's most relaxed state. However, the body is far from inactive during this time. Instead, it uses this time to digest everything you have shoved into it during the day. It takes the energy from your food and feeds it to the rest of your body, causing it to grow. It also takes all the waste from all the greasy, nasty things you have swallowed and converts them into waste to be disposed of later. The work of the digestive system is the reason why some people wake up in the early morning hours really needing to pee.
However, the processes and effects of the digestive system is not what I intended to focus on. I included it merely as a matter of curiosity. The department of sleep that really has relevance to this story is the particulars of sleeping positions. I will not go into the intricate details of the different positions you can achieve while laying down, I simply wish to point out that humans usually lay down to sleep. Humans have also been known to sleep while sitting in chairs. Sleeping in chairs often happens quite accidentally, with people performing some other activity for awhile, such as travelling, studying, or watching images projected from a box of various sizes. While they begin occupied with these activities, they often end them by falling asleep. The presence of a desk in front of the individual seems to almost double the chances of them falling asleep. So, if humans can sleep laying down or sitting, one must take a moment to consider if they are capable of sleeping while standing up. Being bipedal creatures, humans often spend a great deal of their lives upright on two legs. Standing on two legs comes so easily and naturally to grown humans that they can do it subconsciously. Theoretically then, they should be capable of sleeping while standing up. Strangely, I have never observed someone doing this successfully.
Natalia, however, has just managed to accomplish this. Rosa stared at her for some time, then looked around for someone else to report her observations too. Seeing no-one, she decided it wasn't that important anyway and turned back to stare at Natalia again. She had become very hypnotic, swaying back and forth like the thin branches at the tops of trees. It has already been mentioned that Rosa is quasi-logical (an improvement from the other two members of the group) and as thus has decided that there is something not quite right about this situation.
To solve this problem, she came up with the standard solution of the adolescent girl. She immediately pulled out her cell and called her mom. She had just managed to say hello when she flopped onto her back and lost consciousness.