Saun 21, 714
Padraig chose heat. And he'd deliberately remained behind because he worked better on his own, and without distractions. Besides, everything he needed was here in this well turned out laboratory. While the other students in his class had hustled, some of them, through their experiments, Padraig had spent a lot of time thinking and jotting down ideas in his notebook. And once he'd chosen the way forward, he realized that he didn't need much in the way of materials. All of them were easily found without needing to look elsewhere. A few glass beakers, squat and wide at the bottom with taller necks and wide fluted tops, the burners, some water, and a cork. He'd opted for simplicity rather than anything complex. All the better to clearly demonstrate heat, expansion, contraction, and the resulting movement he hoped to achieve.
He'd fired up the burners, filled the squat bottom of one of the beakers with water, and placed a cork securely in the neck when a voice drifted in from the doorway. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize anyone was here. I only thought they'd left the light on. I can come back." It was the cleaning lady. Peg, if Padraig remembered correctly. Somewhere in her sixties, plump, gray haired. The mild case of rosacea on her cheeks and nose made her appear jolly. She wasn't, particularly, but she seemed friendly enough.
"No need," Padraig said. "I'm not bothered." He was. But just a little. He'd have preferred to work in perfect solitude, but he knew that if she waited for him to be done, she'd be late getting home to her family. If she had any. "If you're sure then?" Peg replied, and smiled as she came in with her broom, her rags and her mop.
She left him in piece for a few precious moments, while she went about her work, and he went about his. "So what is it you're doing there?" she asked, edging closer as he placed the prepared beaker on the burner. He resisted the urge to groan aloud. "It's an experiment in thermodynamics. Heat," he explained. "As the water in the flask heats up, you should be able to see the water level rising." Peg loomed closer, as if eyeballing the contents of the beaker as if she expected to see it rising already. "Why would it, if you don't add any water?" Because, he explained, as liquids grew hotter, the particles in them expanded, and they were reduced to gasses which would fill the rest of the space inside the beaker. That would cause the level to rise.
While he'd explained, largely quoting from his textbook, the water continued to heat up, the glass grew foggy and indeed, the water level rose. He smiled, Peg marveled...and then the glass shattered, water droplets flew in multiple directions at once and puddled on the workbench and floor along with broken shards of glass and a cork. "Was that supposed to happen?" Peg asked. No, he explained while looking down at his shoes, splattered with water. There'd have been pressure, as a result of hydrogen filling the space that the expanding water didn't, and it all being contained with nowhere to go.
He'd only underestimated how much pressure, the glass was thin and he'd put the cork in too tight. Lesson learned. But it did give him an idea and he was off searching through the lab's supplies, eventually returning with two, small rubber balls. "And what are you going to do with those now?" Levitation, he told her, while grabbing two more beakers to fill with water.
For structure, each time a different character speaks you should start on a new line. Speech Marks were also missing for Padraig and at one point I couldn't tell if he was talking or thinking. These things aside, I enjoyed the story and his process of trial and error.