The Power of Anatomy

4

Rose's POV

As soon as I entered the lab a horrid stench invaded my nostrils. "Did someone die in here?" I mumbled to myself, pulling my shirt over my nose somewhat dramatically.

"Thank you for gracing us with your presence fifteen minutes after the bell. Please take a seat and refrain from disrupting my class any further," my professor said, quickly flashing a passive aggressive smile my way.

As I set my stuff down next to my desk, I could hear Jabez chuckling at the situation I'd gotten myself into. In response, I silently flicked him off and he continued to chuckle as he handed me the packet that corresponded with today's lab.

I grazed the top of the packet and read the words: Frog Dissection

My stomach began to churn, "Alright class, as you know, today we are going to be dissecting a frog. Please have one member from your table grab a frog and the other gather the materials listed on your packet," the professor announced gesturing for us to begin.

"Why are you late?" Jabez questioned whilst looking over the list of materials.

"It's nothing, just family drama," I said trying hoping he wouldn't pry too much.

"You okay?" He said in an oddly caring tone of voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Jabez looked as if he was going to say something, but then decided against it. Trying to avoid any invasive questions I decided to get straight to work, "Anyways, I'll grab the materials and you can grab the frog?"

"Bet," he said, walking over to the front of the classroom as I quickly grazed over the materials list. After gathering all the materials I remembered off of the top of my head, I double checked the list to ensure that I didn't forget anything.

Safety goggles? check.

Dissecting pins, needle, and tray? check.

Paper towels? check.

Scissors? check.

Forceps?

"The fuck is a forcep?" I asked myself verbally.

"It's the scissor-looking grabby thing," Jabez said from behind me. He reached past my body and grabbed the grabbing instrument, slightly grazing my waist, "Sorry," he said awkwardly walking to the other side of the table, "We also need aprons and gloves. Can you get that?"

Honestly, I was a little shocked that he was actually trying to efficiently get work done and I looked at him intently for a moment.

"Alright Spritzer, you can fawn over me after you get the rest of our materials," he said smiling to himself without making direct eye contact.

"Sorry, it's just so difficult not to stare at someone so ugly, you know?" I said, waiting for him to look up at me.

He squinted his eyes and cocked his head to the side,"Really? That's the best you got? Come on Rose, you know you can do better than that."

I ignored his subtle roast and went over to the front of the room to collect the remainder of our materials. As I returned to the table I heard him singing the lyrics of "Me You" by Russ to himself whilst dancing with the frog in his hands. When he noticed I was back he looked up and gestured to the frog, "What should we name it?"

"Name it? We're about to slice it open and you want to name it?" I asked, making it very clear through my tonal inclinations that we would not be naming the frog.

"Valid point," he said laughing, "What's step one?"

"We have to determine its sex," I said looking over the paper while I waited for some type of verbal response from him. After a few moments of dead silence I looked over at Jay, who blankly stared down at the frog and then back to me, "...and I would do that how?"