Creepy. Right?

The Host

The Host

  My teacher said while pushing up his glasses and hitting the white board with a pointer,"Today's vocabulary word is the,'Host'." He tapped the word he had written in black marker on the board,"Yes! The host. Is a very important factor to a parasite. Do any of you know why?"

  Susan, the teacher's pet immediately raised her hand but he skipped over her, his eyes scanning the room. His eyes landed upon mine and I stared at Mr. Hawk's piercing blue eyes with a bored look and he smiled,"Anastasia. What about you? Do you know why the host is so important to the parasite?"

  I sighed before resting leaning my face in to my fist,"Urggghhh.....Well, the parasite could use the host for nourishment and shelter, to reproduce other parasites. There are seven different types of hosts, I believe." The teacher stared at me shocked and I rolled my eyes,"Just because I look half-asleep in this class because it's my first class doesn't mean I don't pay attention. How do you think I manage an 'A+'?"

  He shook his head while smiling and stated,"I've never doubted you Anastasia. Just bewildered that's it. Can you name the seven different types of hosts?"

  I looked towards the side to Susan and she was fuming in her seat clenching her fist while staring down at her thighs, her dark brown hair covering her face. I stated from the back of my head,"There's the Host Cell, Primary Host, Secondary Host, Paratenic Host, Dead-end Host, Host of Predilection, and Amplifying Host."

The teacher nodded,"Good, good! Now can you write what their job are on the board."

  I nodded while pulling up my jeans and pulling down my shirt. I walked past him towards the board and grabbed a red marker. I wrote down them in the order I said them and wrote colons after each one. I said as I started to write what they were,"The Host Cell is cell in which a virus reproduces. A Primary Host is that if the parasite reaches maturity, if it can, reproduces using copulation."

I got cut off when someone spurted out,"What's 'copulation'?"

  Mr. Hawk replied sternly,"This is an AP class. You should know this." The student fidgeted uncomfortable and he sighed,"It means sex."

"Oh." The student said.

  I continued," A Secondary Host is a host that only has the parasite for a short transition period where it usually matures or develops a little till moving on to a next host. A Paratenic Host is pretty much exactly the same as the secondary host but it's not needed to help develop the host. The Dead-end Host is in-between host that doesn't transfer the parasite to another host, making the parasite not complete it's development. Humans can be one of these. A Predilection Host is a host most preferred by a parasite since it mainly harbors and nourishes the parasite. Finally, the Amplifying Host is a host that level of pathogen can become high enough that a carrier of the parasite such as a mosquito that feeds on it will probably become infectious."

  I closed the marker and put it down. I walked back to my seat and plopped down while yawning tiredly. Yesterday, I stayed up all night with my best friend Cassy so, I wasn't really all happy because I was down-right exhausted. My teacher smiled happily and stated,"Good Job Anastasia. That's really impressive that you've manadged to remember all of that of them since we just learned them yesterday."

I yawned,"Helps to have perfect memory."

  The bell rang signalling class to be over and I started to get up. The teacher stated before I left,"Anastasia come see me a minute."

  I silently groaned wanting to get out of here so, I could finish school faster, get home and sleep my head off. I walked up to his desk as he sat in his chair and he asked,"Anastasia, you are by far my most smartest student in my class and I have an offer to offer you."