Guns and Roses

Chapter Ten

Yes. A rat. Which is dead. 

And we were actually supposed to murder the poor rat. 

I turned to my partner as I tried to suppress the ebbing panic in me. He completely ignored me as he pulled on his own pair of gloves.

He was wearing a Green Day shirt under his lab coat. His eyebrows were scrunched up he stared at the poor rat with concentration. His brown hair was in spikes today and I couldn't help but secretly deduce that it made him look better than Jake. 

But just a little bit. 

I cleared my throat as I realised that I was staring. Again.

"So", I said, "I guess you know what to do".

"And I guess you don't know what to do", quipped Ned.

I frowned, "I am new here". He laughed and picked up a small mini-knife kinda thing from a tray nearby. "Nice excuse".

I huffed, "Well, you tell what to do, Mr Know-It-All". He nodded. "For starters, why don't you wear your gloves?", he looked up at me and smirked. Frowning, I pulled on my gloves as I watched him start working on the rat. He delicately pushed the mini-knife into its abdomen and cut slowly till its neck.

I suddenly felt sick. I grabbed the stone counter and firmly shut my eyes. Take a deep breathe, Alexis, I thought, you've seen worse than this. But there was still a churning feeling in my stomach.

"Alexis, are you okay?", said Ned. I opened my eyes to find him staring at me with concern, his eyebrows still scrunched up in that cute way. I cleared my throat and looked down. "Yeah. Just not comfortable with murdering rats", I muttered. 

"Dissecting", he corrected me, "Why don't you...".

"Aah, Mr Baxtor, doing all the work, are we?", said a voice behind us.

We turned and found the Biology Teacher standing right behind us. He looked like a frog, with his bulging eyes and his stomach being a continent in itself. There was even a slight greenish tinge to his skin complexion. His shoes immediately caught my eye. They were huge and a shining black in colour.  It looked as if he had spent the last two hours polishing his shoes. I looked up and found him staring at us sternly, as if waiting for a reply. 

"No, Mr Ross. We were planning to do the assignment one after the other", Ned gave a winning smile.

"Hmph", he grunted, "No matter. Let's see Miss Gomez do the experiment."

All eyes turned to me before I could realise what he said.

"Me?", I couldn't hide the disbelief in my voice.

"Yes, Miss Gomez. Since you have enrolled yourself in this class, we would expect you to do some work." His voice was curt and reprimanding. I was about to give him back a snarky comment but I remembered my parole. I was trapped. From all sides. Fuck this karma.

"Alright. Ned, pass me the mini-knife", I huffed. "A scalpel, Miss Gomez. That is called a scalpel", Mr Frog corrected me. I shrugged at him and took the scalpel from Ned. 

Ned had to push the tray containing the poor rat towards me cause I wasn't willing to touch it and he sensed that. I stood, poised with the scalpel held in my hand like a knife, with no clue whatsoever on what the hell I was doing. Ned looked desperate too. He probably thought that I was going to stab Mr Frog with the scalpel.

No, not yet.

Mr Frog sighed behind me. "Move the small intestine gently and search for the specimen's kidney", he croaked. I mean, said.

I took a deep breathe. The churning feeling had returned to my stomach. Now, it felt as if an entire rat race was taking place in my stomach. My eyes automatically turned to the poor bloke who lay stretched in front of me. Nausea swept through me in waves. My head started spinning and I firmly shut my eyes. Still, I could see the rat dancing the tango in my mind with its guts spilling out of the cut that Ned had made.

"Alex, are you..." I heard Ned speak. But he couldn't finish.

The nausea and repulsion overcame me in one swift moment. I whirled away just in time to spew my morning breakfast of waffles with orange juice all over the floor.  Ned rushed to my side and handed me a small towel. Unfortunately, as I wiped my teary eyes, I realised I hadn't barfed on what looked like the floor.

They were shiny, black shoes. Well, once upon a time, they were. They were now covered with well... my breakfast.

Mr Frog now looked more green than ever. 

As I said, this morning couldn't get any worse.

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