8. Cauldron
"Mark?"
"Hm?"
"Should the cauldron be... floating... like that?"
"...no."
________

Mark and Jack sat in Mark's classroom after school, Mark grading papers whilst Jack was trying to recreate something Mark did. Jack was a relatively new teacher and wasn't very good at some of the more complex tricks, so when he wanted to create something, he always turned to Mark's numerous notebooks, filled with steps for spells and concoctions.

Mark had fairly neat writing, so it made thing ten times easier, but when he came across a word he had never seen before, he figured Mark misspelled Plakill, and added a table spoon of that. He continued on with the steps, well, that was until he couldn't reach to put stuff in the cauldron.

"Mark?" Jack asked, almost sure he was doing this wrong. Mark didn't look up from grading a test.

"Hm?"

"Should the cauldron be... floating... like that?"

"...no." Mark said, looking up from his papers, a cautious look on his face. "If you're trying to make the one that makes things with not a lot of density float, yes, but anything else should not be floating.

"But I'm trying to make the one that makes confetti come out of the faucets when you mix it with water." Jack replied, eyeing the floating cauldron that was three feet about the table.

"Let me see," Mark said, getting up, looking at his notes, and then looking at the ingredients Jack used. Mark narrowed his eyes and grabbed the cauldron, saying something under his breath to make the cauldron empty immediately, making the concoction end up spilling into the sink, like it went through a worm hole and ended up somewhere else.

"Jack, you used Plakill. This says to use Pirend." Mark said, pointing to the word on the page.

"What's Pirend?"

"It's what makes things the confetti texture. If you didn't add it, you would just get sparkly paper. Adding that much Plakill to this recipe will just make anything using Pounit float." Mark said with a sigh, acting as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Are you sure you finished college with a bachelors degree in teaching?"

"Shut up, I know the basics, not this advanced shit."

"What do you want with that anyways?"

"....for your birthday...."

Mark looked at him with a dumbfounded look. The two had been going out for three months and as soon as Jack found out Mark's birthday was soon, he immediately wanted to make the concoction ahead of time. It was Friday and Mark's birthday was Tuesday, so he was hoping he could make it and hide it successfully. Clearly that did not happen. Mark smiled softly. "Thank you. Now let me help you with this, I really don't want my class to explode."