The weekend had flown by. To Sarah it seemed like she'd left school on Friday, blinked, and walked back in on Monday. She was still tired, but not from Toby this time. His ear infection was gone, so he had slept peacefully. Sunday nights are always the hardest to get a good night's sleep because you know when you wake up, it's Monday. She grabbed her copy of Much Ado and her math book, then shut her locker just as Fran came up to her. "Hey, how's Toby doing?"
"He's alright. His ear is all better now." she yawned.
"That's good. Man, I hate Monday."
Sarah got her backpack on and they started to walk down to first period U.S. History. "I'm getting that dark feeling that we're gonna get slammed with homework today." she explained gloomily.
"That would really tank. And that's not the only thing that's gonna make this say stink."
"What do you mean, Fran?"
"We have that Bio thingy today. Remember? That doctor's coming to convince us that animal research is alright."
"I didn't hear about this."
"Mr. Carlton sent out a mass email about it yesterday."
"Karen was on the computer all day paying bills or something like that."
"Well, basically, he got this guy that works at the Nether Animal Testing Facility to come in today and talk to us about how what they do is rainbows and sunshine. But I'll tell you, Sarah, I'm not falling for it. I've done a lot of research on this and let me tell you, it's messed up what they do. Medical or cosmetic, these animals are suffering."
"I don't know a lot about it, but it doesn't sound like something I'd agree with."
"Wait for it, Sarah, I'm gonna give this doctor a piece of my mind."
"So nice of you to donate part of your brain to science. You should get a medal for that."
"You're a real pain sometimes, you know that?"
"You know you love me."
"Yeah, but sometimes I wonder why."
"Because I'm amazing."
"...Keep telling yourself that, Sar."
Jareth jumped in the large cage he was in once again as Natas went over another sped bump. He'd never been in a car before much less a large white van. And Natas was certainly driving quickly. The cage he was in was much larger than the other one he'd been stuck in for days. It was just like the trap he'd gotten stuck in, only modified with a lock that could only be opened with a key, like Natasha had suggested. Jareth was still trapped, but he had his plan in mind. It wouldn't get him out of the Nether Facility, but it would ruin Natas's little presentation.
The van pulled into a parking space, and Natas grabbed Jareth's cage from the passenger seat. The High School was a large, brown building full of people of every kind. Natas walked into a large room full of weird scientific posters, DNA models, long black lab tables, and small black stools. He placed Jareth on the front table, full of papers and a mug of coffee. "You must be Doctor Natas." said the short, blonde haired, bespectacled man as he got up from his chair.
"Mr. Carlton, nice to meet you." The two men shook hands and Natas grinned at him.
You bloody performer, you, Jareth snarled. Trying to present yourself as the nice guy to this man and these children. Well, we'll just see how that works for you, won't we?
The bell sounded as the two men talked and soon enough, teenagers began to pour into the room. After the bell rang once again, Mr. Carlton went in front of the desk. "Children," he began. "Today we're going to have a little presentation about animal research. To tell us about that, we have Doctor Natas of the Nether Facility, so I want you all to be respectful as I give the floor to him."
"Thank you, Mr. Carlton. Hello, kids. Well, like your teacher said, I'm Dr. Natas and I work with animal researchers. Now I know when some of you hear me say that, you think of some very bad, possibly untrue things. What I'd like to talk to you about today is what really goes on in my lab, and just try to get all those rumors out of your brain. So...what would you like to know? Go on, ask me anything."
After a minute of crickets, one of the children raised their hand. "How does testing on animals help people?"
Oh, don't get him started. Jareth did his best to tune out Natas's long lecture which to him sounded like: "Animal research has helped find cures for blah, blah, blah, blah, blahdy bla blah. The cure for my giant head and horrible body odor has not been found as of yet, but after this I'm going to kill some rabbits. It won't help find a cure, but it will make me feel better. Animals have similar body systems to people so we slice and dice them without anesthesia only to find that a rat's appendix doesn't help cure migraines. Go figure. Did I mention my body odor?
A few more people asked him some questions and Jareth lied in wait. He had to wait until Natas finally let his guard down. After a few more minutes, he put his plan into action: Undermine everything Natas is trying to prove about the pros to this kind of science.
"Well, the cure for rabies was discovered when-"
Jareth began to violently cough into his wing. Everyone in the room became gravely quiet. "Is, um, something wrong with your owl, Doctor?" the teacher asked after a minute of Jaret's coughing.
"No, no I'm sure he's fine."
But that didn't pacify the children.
"Have you done anything to the owl, Doctor?"
"Is it having some kind of attack?"
"What sort of tests have you performed on it?"
Perfect. Jareth grinned internally. That worked out splendidly.