“And I'd like you to give a warm welcome to our new teaching assistant, Mr Ford!”

Ethan waves from the corner of the lab. There's a murmur of greeting from the students, but they don't pay much attention to him. Of course they don't – it wasn't that long ago that Ethan himself was a pupil in this very lab, and he never payed that much attention to the TA.

The teacher explains a simple experiment, mixing some chemicals and bringing them to the boil to see the solute, designed to get these new students acquainted with the labs. Ethan remembers doing the same experiment.

He moves between the tables, offering little tips and answering questions, and keeping the students safe from themselves. “Those tongs are metal, they'll get hot if you leave them there” ; “This reaction takes in energy, so we need to add heat” ; “If you stir it it will dissolve, rather than settling at the bottom”.

His eyes catch on one student who seems to be struggling. Her fingers keep slipping on the beaker she's holding, and she fumbles it, and it smashes on the table. Her fingers are shiny with some kind of lubricant. Ethan strides over quickly. “Hey,” he says softly, “don't worry about that, I'll get it.” He starts to clean the spill up, and everyone else gets back to work. “It might be easier for you to hold a conical flask than a straight sided beaker,” he says, “here.” And, with no one watching, he picks up a beaker from the side and quickly warps the glass into a conical shape. Her eyes widen with understanding. He just smiles and lets her get on with the experiment.

Later, he learns her name is Millie, and her spark came in just over the summer. He looks out to make sure she can get on with all the tasks in labs, and pushes admin to add her to the list of students who take notes on laptops, to save her from having to grip a pen.

She becomes the first student who's favourite teacher is Mr Ford.