Alternate Ending
Alex stretched his arms high above his head, his mouth opening wide as he let out a long yawn.
"Hey, you just did a magic trick."
Alex turned his head to the desk across the aisle and gave his friend Damon a confused look. "Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"
Damon rolled his eyes and scoffed. " You made your face disappear, you idiot."
Alex laughed as he rubbed his eyes, then ran his hands through his shaggy blonde hair. "I'm so exhausted! Mom had me up until one this morning. She said I couldn't sleep until I got that stupid concerto memorized. That thing was ten pages long!"
"You know what my mom was doing at one in the morning?" Damon growled, pushing the fallen ends of his long auburn hair behind his ears, then placed his index finger against his right elbow joint, making a movement like injecting a syringe needle into his arm.
The door of the noisy classroom opened and two other teen boys walked in. James had a pencil shoved behind his ear and a pile of books and papers in his hands, which he couldn't see around. His foot caught the metal leg of a desk and he fell faced first into the floor, the books falling around his head. A huge roar of laughter and taunting followed James as he gathered his things and hurried to the seat behind Alex, sinking down to hide the red flush of sadness and embarrassment on his face. The other boy kept his head lowered down, his black hair falling over his eyes as he sat behind Damon, who instantly turned around to face his friend. Jonathan lifted his head up and his friends gasped at the blue and purple bruise that sat under his right eye.
"Did your dad hit you again?" Damon asked, even though he knew the answer was 'yes'. Jonathan shrugged, trying to forget the pain and swelling in his cheek.
"Just call it another punishment for our little running away stunt." Jonathan's voice trembled in anger, and Alex shivered in fear as Jonathan's hands flexed into fists.
The class room door opened again and the noise settled as the gray haired teacher moved to his desk. He adjusted his blue checkered tie, then removed his gray sports jacket and placed it on the back of his chair.
"Good morning class," Mr. Hamilton turned to the chalkboard and wrote the word 'Dissection' in large white letters. A low moan came from the room of students, the loudest one coming from James.
"Now, now, class." Mr. Hamilton wiped the chalk dust from his hands with a wet napkin. "I know what you're thinking, but I guarantee you will enjoy this. I have some excellent specimens that I know you will find very interesting." He moved around his desk and placed himself in front of his favorite students.
"Damon! Nice to see you in class, and before noon too." Mr. Hamilton patted the boy on the shoulder.
"Yeah, well, it's not like I had somethin' better to do," Damon replied in a dry, sarcastic tone, and Mr. Hamilton laughed loudly.
"Class, I want you all to open your science books and turn to page 213." The teacher motioned at the four boys to join him at his desk. He pulled a small silver key out of his jacket pocket and placed it into Jonathan's hand.
"I need you guys to go get the supplies for me. Everything is downstairs in the basement. Be very easy with those specimens!"
The teens eyes each other, then walked out of the classroom and into the empty high school hallway.
"I'm not holding the dead stuff!" Alex shouted after another yawn.
"Man, I hope this is better than when we did those earthworms last year." Damon shoved his hands into his jean pockets, his eyes glued to the black and white tiling under his feet.
The boys rounded another corner and descended down the painted red staircase to the basement. The smells of pesticide and mold hit their nose as they walked into the faculty storage closet. Jonathan placed the silver key into the bronze door lock and unlocked the dead bolt, then allowed his friends to go in before him.
"Phew! Man, what stinks?" Alex held his nose shut with his fingers as his eyes wondered around the dimly lit storage room. "Smells like something died down here!"
"I think we found a place that reeks worse than the locker room," James added as he picked up a black bag marked 'Hamilton/Freshmen/Science2'. He looked inside the bag, taking count of the cutting tools sitting inside.
Jonathan noticed the long metal cabinets that sat in the back of the room and he yanked on the rusted handle a few times before the doors opened. The boys peered cautiously into the cabinet, and they all felt a wave of uneasiness as they stared at the four black body bags inside.
"What kind of specimens are these?" James grabbed the end of one of the bags and realized he couldn't pull it. "They're really heavy! How are we supposed to carry these upstairs?"
Jonathan glanced around, his eyes settling on a metal cart full of basketball and football uniforms. With Damon's help, they emptied the cart and pushed it over to the cabinet.
"Okay, this is going to take a team effort," Jonathan bent down and placed his hands under one of the bags, his friends did the same. "On my count, ready? One, two, three!"
The boys lifted the body into the air and quickly dropped it into the cart. They repeated the process with the other three, then left the storage room. After a long and slow trip back to their classroom, Mr. Hamilton was waiting for them out in the hallway, happily holding onto the door for them.
"Oh, good! I was afraid something had happened." The smile on the teacher's face grew. "You took so long retrieving those. You were very careful with them, right?" The boys nodded in response. "Good to hear! We wouldn't want those things to wake up before we dissect them, now would we?"
Before any of them could ask what the teacher had meant, Mr. Hamilton took the handle of the cart and pushed the boys into the classroom before pulling the cart in himself. A hush fell over the students as they all looked up from their books, whispering about the body bags that sat before them.
"Now, since I only have four of this beautiful specimens, I'm going to have to put you into groups."
Mr. Hamilton did just that and passed out three of the body bags, leaving Jonathan, James, Alex and Damon to be in a group together. The boys pushed their desks together and grabbed the last bag out of the cart, following Mr. Hamilton's instructions to place the bag gently on the desks. As they stood over the bag, Jonathan stared at the grotesque smile on their teacher's face, and his uneasiness was slowly turning into fear.
"Do any of you think Mr. Hamilton is having way too much fun with this whole dissection thing?"
Jonathan turned to Alex and nodded, almost grateful that his blonde friend was feeling the exact same way.
"All right, everyone! Grab those zippers and open up your bags!" Mr. Hamilton's voice rose as he finished his sentence, and he laughed joyfully as a loud gasp echoed around the room.
"Aren't they wonderful? Aren't they the most beautiful creatures you ever saw?"
James took a step back away from the desk, bumping into Damon as he moved. "What is that?" He shoved his trembling finger at the green body inside the bag, his stomach turning in circles as he stared into the creature's pale face. Damon pulled the zipper down farther, exposing the hard yellowish plates on the creatures chest and another set of darker green plates on it's back
"It's a turtle," Jonathan said, his voice in a fearful whisper. "It's a giant turtle."
"Where the heck did Mr. Hamilton get this?" Damon also spoke in a whisper as he eyed their teacher.
"Okay now, if everyone would take your scalpels, which I have already sanitized, and chose someone in your group to make the first cut!"
Alex immediately jumped backwards. "That's not gonna be me!"
Damon also backed away. "Me neither!"
Jonathan narrowed his eyebrows and picked up the scalpel, not even waiting for a response from James. He placed himself right over the creature's head and tried to pay attention to his teacher's words, but he couldn't pull his eyes away from what was beneath him. He continued to stare at the creature's pale green face and his feeling of fear quickly escalated when he noticed a slight movement from under the bag.
"Guys! Did you see that?" Jonathan whispered to his friends, and they moved closer to the body. The creature jerked again, and the four boys jumped back.
"That thing's not dead!"James cried out, his body shivering in fear.
Jonathan rose his shaking hand into the air. "Uh, Mr.-Mr. Hamilton. Our, uh, specimen, it's-it's... still alive."
The creature stirred more and the boys froze in horror as it slowly opened it's eyes and blinked at the bright lights above.
"Where... where am I?"
"Quick!" Mr. Hamilton jerked Jonathan's hand into the air and forced the boy to move the scalpel over the creature's neck. "You must cut into the jugular vein before it becomes fully awake!"
Jonathan tried to pull his arm out of the teacher's powerful grasp, and he froze again as the creature looked directly into his eyes, their brown irises locking together.
"Hurry, Jon!" Damon shouted.
"I...I can't!" Jonathan turned his head away, but looked back as Mr. Hamilton growled impatiently. "I can't do it!"
"Do it! Now!"
Jonathan closed his eyes, feeling his heart rate escalate and the beating of the organ echoed in his ears. He opened his eyes, locking them with the creature once more as he moved the scalpel over the turtle's neck and rested his left palm over the bottom of the instrument to steady his shaking right hand. Jonathan then took a deep breath and braced himself, turning away from the silent plea in the creature's eyes as he propelled the scalpel down in one quick motion.