Chapter 4 Biological Processes

If A.P. Law was a new experience, A.P. Biology was like déjà vu. The same two-chair tables forcing the students into pairs. Friedmann and Glynis were sitting directly in front of Joan, Adam was sharing her table, and Grace and Luke were to her right. In charge was Ms. Lischak, as hystrionic as usual.

"Today, class, we will start to participate in a venerable tradition! Dissecting frogs!"

There was a collective groan.

"Don't feel that way! The field of biology stagnated during the whole Middle Ages, because people would read Galen's description of a frog's innards instead of taking a peak themselves. Only with dissections in the Renaissance could the field revive. Leonardo da Vinci alone did a dozen dissections of human corpses, and said that it not only helped his scientific knowledge but his painting. Did you say something, Miss Polk?"

Grace looked a little flustered. "I just said that I'm glad he put Mona Lisa's skin back before he painted her."

The class burst out laughing at that. Even Lischak looked more amused than annoyed; probably she was memorizing that joke for a future lecture. "Mr. Girardi, will you fetch the supplies from the biology closet? You are familiar with its layout."

"Um, yes," said Luke, looking awkward. His sister and friends knew that he and Grace used the biology closet as a secret meeting place; he was probably trying to figure out how much Ms. Lischak knew.

As they distributed the specimens, Glynis sniffed at the one put before her. "What's that smell?"

"Formaldahyde, to preserve them. If we had not used it, the frogs would have decomposed by now, and smell even worse."

"Ugh, I don't even want to think about it," said Glynis.

Joan reluctantly contemplated her own specimen, and poked at it at Ms. Lischak's dictation, figuring that she would probably better at this than Adam. Suddenly Glynis pulled back from her frog.

"Ack! I can't-- can't --" she choked, then threw up on the floor.

That got everybody's attention off of the frogs. Glynis ran out, her hands on her mouth and stomach.

"Ahem!" said Ms. Lishak, finally recovering from her surprise. "Mr. Rove, would you seek out a janitor, and tell him we have a cleanup job?"

"Yes, ma'am," he said, going out.

"May I be excused to see if Glynis is all right?" asked Joan. Be on the lookout for people needing help, and besides Glynis was a sort-of friend. Ms. Lischak nodded, and Joan went out to look. It was fairly clear that little dissection was going to take place today.

The closest restroom Joan tried was empty, this being the middle of a class period. But Glynis may not have remembered which was closest. In the next one she tried there was a stall door bolted, and the sound of a girl crying.

"Is that you, Glynis? Are you all right?"

"I'm doomed!" wailed Glynis from inside. "After all I've done over the years to make a good impression on everybody in school, all ruined in one afternoon."

"Because you threw up? Anybody could do that. I was feeling a bit nauseated myself, breathing the foam-of-the-hide stuff."

"Formaldehyde. But it's not that," said Glynis. She unbolted the door and emerged, looking around to see if there was anybody there but Joan. "Can you keep a secret? I need to tell a girl."

"Yes."

"I think I may be pregnant."

"WHAT! How?"

"How do you think?" said Glynis with a squeak. Her speech was normally rather breathless; today she seemed on the verge of hysteria. "The usual way. But we only did it once!"

"Friedmann?"

"Of course. Think I'd let some other jerk touch me?"

"No, he's the only jerk I could think of. But have you had a test?"

"No. I don't want to know."

"Glynis, get a grip on yourself." Joan grasped her arms herself, for emphasis. "Glynis Figliola, science girl, not wanting to know something? That's not you. Maybe the test will be negative, and you can stop worrying. Women have misjudged their reactions before." It had happened to Joan's mother a couple of years ago, though Joan was not going to mention something that personal.

The hallway door opened, and Joan hurriedly released her hold on Glynis's arms. A couple ago there had been a brief flurry of rumors about Joan having a lesbian relationship with Grace; the last thing Joan needed was a revival of that. The newcomer gave them an odd look and disappeared into a stall. "Do you know my bookstore? We'll talk there."

Glynis nodded.

----

Waiting for Glynis in the store, Joan brooded. This was Wednesday, the day Grace was supposed to visit the Muslim family, at a time that their faiths were warring on the other side of the world. Joan hoped that she would be all right. Luke had offered to go with her, but Grace had turned him down. She didn't know of the family's hospitality customs, and it might be a bad idea to bring a strange, infidel boy to a girl's house uninvited. Joan told herself that God would protect Grace during a mission, but God's idea of protection was sometimes weird. Joan vividly remembered getting stuck in a junkyard once with a crazy boy with a gun.

The bell from the bookstore door tingled, and Glynis whizzed in with a package in her arms. "I've got a pregnancy kit. Where's the restroom?" she asked breathlessly.

Joan pointed her in the proper direction, and Glynis dashed in, leaving Joan alone again. So Joan's current mission was advising a hysterical Glynis, and Grace's was befriending a Muslim girl. They hadn't heard yet what Luke's mission was yet, but it would probably be pretty heavy.

Glynis came out. "It's positive! I'm really pregnant! Oh, this is horrible! Horrible!" She sat down at Joan's work table and starting crying.

Joan prudently moved her book cart to block the view of Glynis from the door and protect her privacy; the bell would tell her if anybody came. Then she tried to think of something comforting to say. "Glynis, having a baby isn't the end of the world."

"It'll be the end of my world. I won't make it to graduation. How can I balance college and a baby? And for months earlier I'll be walking around school looking like a balloon. People who have never noticed me before will point at me and say, There's Glynis, the fat old cow'. I might as well wear a sign saying 'I've done something stupid.'" To Glynis, being considered stupid was apparently the ultimate degradation. Suddenly Glynis jerked upward. "I'm going to get rid of it."

"Wait, Glynis. Maybe this isn't my business, but you asked my opinion. Right now you're feeling sick and you've had a big shock. Don't do anything you might regret later. Wait a few days, until you're thinking more clearly. A few days delay won't make a difference, legally or medically."

Glynis pondered it. Joan had gambled that the brainy girl took pride in "thinking clearly" and would be aware of her own current mood swings.

"Right. My mind's in a whirl -- and that in itself is scary. I thought I had my life all planned out -- graduation with honors, a prestigious college, a job in the sciences. But now there's this THING growing inside me, taking over my body and my life. What do I tell my parents? They've always been so proud of me! How do I break the news to Friedmann? But they're not insoluble problems, like Unified Field Theory. I've got to calm down and think. I'll wait. Thanks, Joan." She gave a Joan a hug -- something she had never done before -- and dashed out.

Joan stared at the pregnancy kit, wondering what to do with it. She remembered the wild conclusions Luke had jumped to on finding one at the house two years ago: he thought Joan had gotten herself knocked up. Sammy might wonder the same thing if he should happen to show up (not too likely) and found the kit in the trashcan. Joan should probably dispose of it in some anonymous dumpster on the way home.

That problem was minor compared to what Glynis was going through in the next few months. And it appeared that Joan was going to go through it with her.