Disclaimer: S. Meyers owns the rights to and retains all royalties for the Twilight series. I'm just standing in her shadow.
Last time:
"Tomorrow," I answered. I was reaching to shut the door behind him when I felt his chilly hands spark against my left hand. I looked up in time to watch him draw my hand to his mouth and politely kiss the back. Pure heat radiated from my arm and through out my whole body. Our eyes met before he released his grip.
"Tomorrow," he said and turned to his silver Volvo sparkling under the onslaught of a full moon.
The morning dawned fresh and new. Getting ready for school had always been a chore. This morning, I was giddy. I smiled as I brushed my hair. I smiled as I heated up frozen waffles. I smiled as I found my backpack and pushed my books inside. I was surprised when I caught myself looking in the hallway mirror. I was still smiling. I didn't think anything could dampen my spirits this morning.
Even the weather had realized that it couldn't hold a grudge against me any longer and the sun broke free of the clouds as my ancient truck lumbered its way to school. Arriving, I scanned the lot for Edward's shiny Volvo. I didn't see it. I was early today, he's just running late, I told myself and headed for my first period.
I didn't see Alice in the halls between classes. Odd, I thought. I poked my head in the lunch room as the bell tolled but didn't see the Cullens or Hales there. Must be a family thing, I thought. I'd have to find a place to hide in the library for lunch today.
Edward wasn't in Biology and I suffered through another video. I went home longing to talk to my new friend. I thought about calling him but decided I could wait until tomorrow. I fell asleep dreaming of Edward and I driving race cars made of diamonds around and around a huge oval track.
Friday morning was dark and gray. At least the sun came out once! I couldn't adjust to the dank days in Forks. Phoenix had been all sun, all the time. I missed the warmth too.
School continued like the previous days. I was getting good at ignoring the staring and the whispering. I longed for the hour and half I got to spend with Edward each day in Biology. He sat carelessly at our lab table as I entered the room, fresh from the library. I wanted to ask him where he and his siblings had been yesterday but it was then that Mr. Banner came in with another video for us to watch.
Today's feature presentation was on a procedure known as 'pithing.' We watched as scientists on the projection screen strategically placed a needle at the back of frog's head and pushed into the spinal cortex where the brain stem met the spinal column. The frog would remain alive but technically brain dead. Mr. Banner said that on Monday, each group of lab partners would choose a frog from the terrarium in the back of the room and get to pith it.
"Bella, I expect you did this in Phoenix?" he asked. Little did Mr. Banner know I wouldn't be pithing anything.
"No," I answered, steadfast in my resolve. He looked at me quizzically for a moment before I continued. "I don't believe in animal testing or animal experimentation."
"Oh, great another activist on our hands!" Lauren said under her breath. More directly, she turned to face me, "Bella, shut up. We don't want to hear it."
"Actually, I want to hear," Mike said from behind a giggling Jessica. Lauren's face fell.
"Go on, Bella," Mr. Banner urged. "I always like to hear a compelling issue spoken about frankly and I'll let you out of it if you can convince me." I swallowed a lump in my throat. I could do this.
"Mr. Banner, how would feel if I asked you, right now, to take a scalpel and make a cut into Mike's chest?" I asked standing from my stool and walking over to Mike and Jessica's table. "Mike needs a heart transplant, and you've been asked to do the surgery. Pretend for a moment, ok?"
"Without medical training?" he asked raising his eyebrows.
"Let's say you have medical training. But, this is your first procedure while doing your residency. You have never done anything like this and your mentor has been called away for another urgent case. How do you feel?" I asked again.
"Well," he stopped to think. He must be wondering where I was going with this. "I'd have seen other procedures done and would have read about it in text books right?"
"Right," I answered, "but, this would be your first solo operation."
"Nervous," he answered. I knew he was being honest. "And unsure of myself."
"Exactly. You would be doing surgery you were not competent enough to handle yet," I said walking away from Mike and closer to Mr. Banner. I could feel all thirty pairs of eyes in the class staring at my back. "Pithing a frog is very delicate. It takes surgical accuracy to get the needle in the correct spot, with the correct pressure, and sever the cortex. Wouldn't you agree?"
He nodded his head.
"Then, what makes you think that fifteen pairs of untrained high school juniors are going to get each frog perfectly in the right spot with a hair thin needle?" He didn't answer. I turned to the students.
"When you miss the cortex, do you know what happens next?" I asked one student whose name I didn't know. Her blonde hair moved as she shook her head 'no.'
"Nothing. It's impossible to tell if the procedure has been done properly after it's been completed. The frog can't tell you what its feeling, can it?" I asked, rhetorically.
"Mr. Banner, what's the next step on the lab sheet after pithing?" My back remained towards him as I watched the faces of my classmates.
"Let's see," he said holding up a piece of paper with the instruction. "'Step 5: Make an incision from the chin to the groin on your frog.'"
"Cut open the frog," I reiterated. "Remember, he can feel everything that is happening to him because you haven't gotten the needle in the right place. But here, take this scalpel," I said holding up a scalpel from the dissection kit on Mr. Banner's desk, "and place the sharpened blade at the soft skin below his jaw. Slice open his chest. Continue down to his stomach and end at his groin."
I put the scalpel down. Looking around, I could see Angela watching me intently. I knew I had an ally in her. I could count on her to back me up with Mr. Banner. "Step 6," I recited from memory. "'Widen skin flaps and pin to dissection pan.' Step 7: 'identify heart, liver, lungs and kidney.' Step 8: 'Excise those organ.'"
I had begun pacing as I spoke and turned back to Angela. "Angela, how do you think it would feel to have your kidneys, liver, lungs, and heart unceremoniously riped from your body? Just imagine, you can feel every slice of the knife as it ripped through the arteries in your chest."
"I don't think I would enjoy it," she answered with a smug look. I was going in for the kill and she knew it.
"Me neither," I assured her and the rest of the class. "All because someone, without the skill to pith that frog correctly, was assigned to. Mr. Banner," I called to him turning back to the front of the room, "I can not, in good conscious, participate in the death of these frogs."
The class held their breath. Mr. Banner looked at me and then to the stunned students around him. Many of them had the same look of horror in their eyes that I had the first time I learned about animal experimentation from a teacher in Phoenix. He nodded at me, resigned to my position. "I see you've done your research, Miss Swan. You will be excused from the experiment."
Edward looked at me. I could see the astonishment pass over his face.
Mike's face turned pale as Mr. Banner took a frog out of the tank and handed it to him. "Mr. Banner, I can't," he said handing the frog back to the teacher. "Jessica?" he asked, looking at Mike's lab partner. She shook her head 'no.'
"Is anyone planning on completing the experiment?" he asked.
Lauren's hand shot into the air. Realizing hers was the only one raised, she tentatively lowered it, looking around embarrassed.
"Bella, I think you just inherited 20 frogs. You better find something to do with them," Mr. Banner stated, resignedly sitting back at his desk.
"I know of a great virtual dissection we can do online," I told him and he brightened again. Walking back to my seat, I asked over my shoulder. "Do you mind if I give the frogs to the Port Angelus Aquarium? I hear they've got a new terrarium exhibit."
The bell rang loud as he opened his mouth to speak. "Sure, sure," he said waving his hand in dismissal. "Just don't release them outside. They're not indigenous to Washington."
"Don't worry," I said. "I'll be back for them at the end of the day."
Edward waited for me outside the room. He leaned against the wall with his arms woven across his chest. His closed eyes, popped open when I exited the room. He smiled a grin that danced from his lips, passed his cheeks and struck his honey eyes.
"That was amazing," he said. His voice simmered. I couldn't help but smile back. "Will you be needing help to get the frogs home tonight?"
I laughed. I knew all I had to do was call Charlie and he would make the necessary arrangements to get the amphibians to their new home. The Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Aquarium was Charlie's college roommate.
"No," I chuckled. "Don't be late for class."
He smiled but hesitated as I turned to walk in the opposite direction. "Bella," he called to me. "You impressed me in there. Standing up for what you believe in. It takes courage to do that. I wish I had your heart."
I felt a weight inside me shift. My heart? I wish you had my heart, too, I thought. That's not what he meant! Wait … did I want him to have my heart?
He held up his hand to wave 'goodbye' and headed out of the building.
Walking to gym, I bumped into Alice. "Don't forget, Bella," she sang and I sped to class. "I'll be there to pick you up tomorrow at 1, ok? Rosalie, too!"
"Sure thing," I answered and she disappeared into Building 3.
R&R ... if I get enough ... I'll post one tomorrow morning as a Thanksgiving treat!