Chemistry
“Don’t you think you’re being a bit too tough on your students?” Winry asked as she placed the clay pot on the stove to start making lunch.
Only Edward decided to make a final check of his work on Sundays.
“Winry, this is college level, meaning tests can’t be as easy as people expect them to be,” he answered as he re-read one of the last questions on his exam.
“You should spend more time on the subject. Moles are difficult.”
“Moles are moles: the atomic mass of an element,” he added. “It’s not that hard.”
“The concept is easy,” Winry said as she placed the frozen chicken she had washed into the pot, “but when you go in depth, or from the way I’ve heard you lecture, it’s confusing.”
“It’s complicated,” Ed admitted. “But it’s not impossible.”
“People would beg to differ.”
Edward noticed two golden heads as they entered the kitchen and smiled. They looked curious.
“What are you guys doing, daddy?” Nina asked as she walked toward him and tip-toed to see what her father was working on.
“Mommy’s making lunch and I’m writing the solution to a problem on the test I’m going to give this week,” Ed answered as he kept writing, aware that his ten-year-old daughter was observing with wide, blue eyes.
“Chemistry?” his son, Ed, asked. He had also walked to where his father sat and began to read what he had written.
“Yep. Let’s see how ready my students are with moles,” Ed grinned. His mood was ironic, though.
“It depends if they study, I guess,” the boy commented.
“Yeah, but I’m not making these as difficult as they should be,” Ed cleared up. “I want them to be able to pass.”
“Your questions aren’t that hard,” the boy said.
“That’s because I’ve been teaching you this since you learned how to read and write,” Ed said. “Do this one.”
The man handed his son a blank piece of paper, his pen, and the test he had finished composing.
The boy sighed. “Moles,” he mumbled as he looked at his father. “Can we learn about biology right now, instead?”
Ed reconsidered. “Alright. By osmosis, or law of diffusion, this should be implanted in your brain,” Ed stated.
Nina giggled. “Haha, you get a test!” she said as she pointed at her brother.
Ed stuck his tongue out at her. Her father got another blank sheet of paper, another pen, and another test and placed it in front of her. “You can work it out, too, kiddo. I’ve been teaching both of you the same things.”
Nina’s incredulous look cracked her brother up. “You get a test, too, shorty!”
“Shut up!” Nina exclaimed. “And you’re short, too!”
“I’m at least taller than you!” Ed said smugly as he began to concentrate on the problem at hand.
“I’m going to beat you,” Nina mumbled as she sat down and gripped her pen.
“Are you challenging me?” her brother asked with disbelief.
“You’re no challenge,” Nina answered. “You’re twelve.”
“And you’re ten. So you’re less than a challenge,” Ed shot back as their foreheads met and both saw each other eye to eye with menacing stares. They ‘grr’ed at each other so much it was comical. Their father smiled as he tried holding back his laughter.
Winry shook her head. “What have you done to them?” she asked.
“I’ve created geniuses,” he answered as he sat back and observed his kids.
“What, Elric?” his son asked.
“What, Elric?” his daughter answered.
They looked fierce, as if they wanted to literally kill each other, but they had their referees in the kitchen with them. After a few seconds of tension, they began their test. Ed wondered who would get the answer first. If it was his son, the boy would be so proud. He would think he knows more than his sister because he’s older. If his daughter figured it out first, it would crush his son’s pride, and she would think she’s smarter than her brother. Her pride would go up. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea, but Edward had led to this without stopping it, so he would see what he had really created.
Winry tapped his shoulder. “While they work,” she pointed at the table, “you help,” she pointed at the clay pot.
Ed rolled his eyes and stood to follow his wife’s orders. He would very much like to not have a wrench meet his head that day. He kept an eye on his kids’ progress and Winry had to stop what she was doing to do so as well. To her surprise, they were actually working it out. How the hell do kids work out chemistry problems? With moles? It was irrational and unlikely, yet she did see the logic in it all. After all, their father had taught them. Who wouldn’t like to have him as a teacher…well, other than his current chemistry students? She swore she could see some smoke coming from he pens the kids gripped because of how quick they wrote.
She reeled back when she noticed the pot boiling with the defrosted chicken. Now she could start with the rice. Although Ed was ahead of her; he was already cutting the tomatoes in half and had retrieved the spices from the pantry.
“Done!”
The couple halted their actions as the kids showed their papers to their father.
“Check mine first, daddy!” Nina chirped.
“No, mine! I started first!” Ed interjected.
Edward took their papers in his hands and checked each one thoroughly. The steps went from mass to moles to particles, and the trick was that they had to go back and divide to lead back to the requested mass in order to find the answer.
He knew they didn’t cheat off each other, but they both had the same solutions and answers. The scratch work was neat and orderly. Winry walked toward him to look at the papers and her eyes widened. She had thought that only Ed and Al could be able to do such things, but it seemed that their brains could be passed down to their kids. It just didn’t seem fair that Ed took all the credit for creating their geniuses.
“Wow,” Edward mused. “See, what did I tell ya?” he asked his wife.
Winry was speechless. She just knew that her kids could be able to work out moles. “Just so you know,” she began, “we both created geniuses.”
Ed blushed. He didn’t realize his comment led back to those thoughts, but he smiled anyway.
“If you would have been in my class, you would have gotten this right,” he told his kids.
“What!” Nina asked.
“What’s wrong?”
“Which one of us got it right?” Ed asked.
Their father blinked. “Uh, both of you.”
“No fair!”
“Really?”
Edward looked from one child to the other. “Yeah.”
The kids pouted. They were evenly matched.
Edward returned their papers to them for keepsakes. “If it’s any consolation, you have more brains that my college students.”
“I guess,” Ed mumbled as he placed his chin on the table.
“Are you going to rub it in that we can do stuff they can’t if they fail?” Nina asked. She was more devious than Edward and Winry thought.
“Of course I am,” he reassured.
“For now, you will all help me make lunch,” Winry said as she began to clear the table. She made sure to make her wrench visible so her husband could flinch and so her kids could know where to pay attention now.