☣☣The Virus☣☣ (ON HOLD)

Infection

Infection

Lillian's Point of View

I poured the vial of liquid into the beaker. I looked up and smiled at what I saw. I was surrounded with people, all around my age, in an advanced biochemistry class. When I heard of this class, my heart soared. I would get to do what I loved without being made fun of; without being teased for being a nerd. "Um Lil," I heard a voice say. I whirled around to see Zack, my lab partner looking at me. "What did you just pour into that beaker?"

Why was he asking such a stupid question? He, being the smartest kid in the class, obviously knew. "It's amoxy..." I began, "Wait! No it's not!" I looked down at the vial. Traces of the liquid I just poured were used to strengthen vaccines and too much could cause disease. What I did could be lethal. I had dumped an entire vial in the solution. We were creating a simple hunger promoting and energy providing medicine but this solution would be absolutely dangerous if consumed. "Oh my goodness, Zack, I better tell Professor Perkins," I gasped. He nodded. I raised my hand and Professor Perkins glared at me. "Not now, Lillian, not now." I sighed. I had to tell her or I could kill somebody. "Professor..." I began.

"I said, not now!" she shouted. I shook my head and looked down at the terrible solution. It looked the same as before; a translucent pink solution. Such an innocent looking drink, yet so deadly. "Lillian, you know that waste swamp that they are in the process of demolishing?" Zack began. I nodded. "Yeah, you should pour it there. Nobody is going to eat the granite and it is all going to get built over anyways."

"Are you sure? You never know what it could come in contact with," I said.

"You know that it is only lethal if it is consumed, transferred through blood or the saliva of an infected organism just as many other similar viruses are," he said.

"True. Good idea, Zack. Thanks a bunch," I said.

"No problem," he answered.

"Class is over for the day!" Professor Perkins said in her nasal voice. I waved goodbye to Zack as I threw my canvas bag over my shoulder and pulled my navy blue hoody over my head. I slowly ambled outside, where I saw Amber waiting for me as usual. She smiled, a bright excited smile. The wind blew her blond curls into her face. How we were best friends, I had no idea. Amber was the stereotypical blonde; she was perky, sweet, popular, a cheerleader and volleyball player, sometimes stupid, and obsessed with fashion. I was as similar to her as a protist is to a biped. I had stick-straight brown hair which I tied in a simple ponytail. I wore glasses, was an absolute geek, had absolutely no athletic ability, and my only friends were Amber, Zack, and two other kids named Cil and Sheema. But I wasn't a loner. Having Amber as a best friend had some advantages. Not only was she the kindest, happiest, and sweetest friend in the world, she also cared more about you than herself. And if her reputation got ruined by dragging the school geek to her cheerleader table to eat lunch, she didn't care. And so every day, I ate lunch surrounded by dozens of bubbly blonde girls. And today, like every other day I had attended this class, she was patiently waiting for me in her red convertible. Every morning, she would drive me over to the university, go home, and return in the afternoon to pick me up. I told her googolplexes of times that I could just walk home, she insisted and was there everyday to drive me. I was already sixteen and a half, old enough to have a driver's license. In fact, I had taken the test seven times and failed every time. I have absolutely no sense of coordination. Everyone joked that it was the only test I had ever taken that I hadn't aced. I gave up on the whole driving thing. I knew that next year, when I went to college, driving would be a good thing to know, but I decided that I had easier, more interesting and important things to focus on for now, such as AP Physics, Calculus, and this awesome BioChemistry class. I walked into Amber's car. As usual, she was blasting music as loud as it could get from her iPod. "Mind turning the volume a little lower?" I wondered.

"Come on, Lil, it's their new album!" Amber chirped. Whose new album? I didn't ask because I didn't want to sound like an idiot. "Awesome," I mumbled.

"So how's it going Lilli-Hilli?" Amber asked.

"Okay. How about you?" I asked.

"Great!" she chirped, "I just bought a new dress for the Autumn Dance. It's so cute! It's bright orange and really long! I'm so excited!"

"But Amber, it's summer! School hasn't even started yet!" I said.

"Yeah, but it will soon," she said, "And it's always good to be prepared."

"You should tell that to yourself before a test," I groaned.

"I don't care if I'm prepared for tests or not. My goal is to become a pro volleyball player. I don't need school," she said.

"Yeah, yeah," I mumbled.

"Are you alright, Lil? You can tell me if something is wrong, you know. You look do down," she said, sympathetically.

"Amber, I'm fine. I swear. Oh, I just remembered, can you drop me off around the corner, where the new mall is being built?" I wondered.

"Sure!" she smiled and sang along with the song her iPod was playing. I smiled as I looked at Amber. She was so happy, it was impossible to feel sad around her. "Here we are!" she said, pulling by what used to be the swamp.

"Thanks, Amby, I'll be back in a couple minutes," I said. She smiled and gave me a thumbs up. I walked out, relieved to get rid of the stupid thing I had created today. When I was halfway to the swamp, I realized that I didn't have the solution with me. Darn it! I had left it with Amber. I scampered back to the car, looking for the bottle. I couldn't see it anywhere. "Amby? Have you seem a glass bottle with some pink stuff in it?" I asked. I looked up and gasped. She was holding the bottle which was now empty. "This? What is it? I thought it was pink lemonade or something but when I drank it, it tasted much stronger. Is it alcohol? I feel all woozy now. Ooh, Lillian, are you drinking?" she asked.

"No Amber! No! I made that in my BioChem class. It was a failed experiment. You could die," I sobbed. She looked at me with half shut eyes.

"I could die?" she whispered, horrified. I nodded numbly. I grabbed her wrist to see if her pulse had changed rate. It had slowed down significantly. I felt her body go limp. As her eyes shut, she began whispering something I couldn't understand. Then, her head dropped on my lap and the bottle fell out of her hand and began rolling on the car floor.