Odd stuffed his hands under his lab apron. What in the world was happening to him? He looked around for Jeremy, or Ulrich, but they were working. Panicked, he reluctantly turned to Sissy just as the crash of a breaking beaker sounded.
Sissy looked more focused than Odd had ever seen her. She was biting her lip to keep from screaming as she squeezed a piece of glass. Crimson drops rolled down the glass, staining her hand the same deep red. She laid the glass on a stool and yanked Odd's right paw out of his apron. Odd yelled in shock.
"Quiet!" Sissy hissed. "I'm trying to help!"
Odd had to laugh. "You?!" he whispered back. "Help me?! That's funny."
Sissy scowled at him, smearing the hot liquid over his wrist. She laid her hand over his wrist and let her lab apron, which she had just untied from behind her neck, fall over his hand.
"What HAPPENED here?!?!" the familiar voice of Mrs. Hertz shouted. Sissy looked up, her face drenched in sweat as she tried not to scream in pain.
"Odd cut his hand, Mrs. Hertz," she explained. "He's cut bad—there's a lot of blood—I think I should take him to the infirmary."
Mrs. Hertz looked at the blood and nodded immediately. "I should go with you—"
"NO!" Jeremy and Ulrich interrupted, and promptly started talking over each other. "I mean—You should stay, Mrs. Hertz—We'll go—We volunteer—"
"I'll stay." The boys broke off as Mrs. Hertz answered. "So will you."
Sissy spoke again. "You know, Mrs. Hertz, as Odd's friends, I think they deserve to be the first to know how he's doing."
Mrs. Hertz looked again at the blood. Sissy's and Odd's hands were both squeezed tight around her wrist, cutting off circulation and slowing the flow; but Sissy's face was pale already. She'd obviously cut much deeper than she'd meant to, or she was in shock. "All right," Mrs. Hertz said. "Go, now."
Odd and Sissy left quickly, followed by Jeremy and Ulrich.
"How'd you cut your hand, Odd?" Ulrich asked.
Odd stopped. So did Sissy. "I didn't," Odd said. He pulled his paws away from Sissy. Ulrich's eyes widened; Jeremy leaned forward intently.
"How…?" he wondered aloud.
Odd was wondering the same thing as his paws dissolved into grids and shrank back into hands. How…?
Ulrich spoke up. "Then where did the blood come from?" he asked.
Which was when Sissy passed out.