Uhm, I think I'm going to need another frog [open]

[Zoe Clementine]

Animals were all good and fun, and some of her favorites were the fluffy ones, like bunnies and puppies and kitties and whatnot. Any sort of animal, besides those fuzzy spiders, were good in her book, and she loved them to death. But now, this lab had been the one she'd been regretting most of all. They were to be partnered up with one other person to go over what they'd been studying earlier in the week and put it to practice. She had studied of course, she always did what she could to keep up on her studies, but it was the whole concrete idea of actually going through with what the book had said. The illustration and color pictures were enough to get her nauseated. Who would do that to a poor animal in the first place? Couldn't they use an X-ray machine or something to look inside and find what they want without having to cut it open? She shivered at the very thought of it.

But it was too late now. Professor McQueen was divvying up the class by counting off "1..., 2..., 3,...", and so on and so forth. They went up to eight and started over again. She happened to be number seven of the first set, and waited anxiously to figure out who her partner would be. Hopefully they wanted to do the dirty part. She was already trying to think of ways to get out of the class, maybe if she actually threw up, like in front of everyone, she could go to the nurse's ward and have the rest of the day off. Yeah, .. right.

Zoe gulped as he grabbed her bag and things to move to the center back table where they were assigned to go. She would meet her partner any second now. And if she knew them, then maybe she could plead with them for her to not have to touch the poor thing..

And then there they were. There came the frogs. They smelled really funky, as most dead things usually smelled. But the poor thing laying like that on its back, it was so indecent for the poor little critter, and now what's worse is that they'd have to cut the guy open and play with his innerds! It was gross beyond belief. Now really feeling the sickness from the pit of her stomach rise up towards her esophagus, whilst staring ever so hardly at the frog in front of her, she blinked only for a moment to keep the nasties away from entering her mouth, and then a deep popping noise came from her near surroundings. Oh hell no.

[Estelle Flores]

Estelle, surprisingly, didn't mind dissecting things. She wasn't a science-y type of mind, but she did love school. And as such, she didn't have much qualms about dissecting dead things in the name of science. And the smell of formaldehyde didn't bother her anymore either. Not that she was flipping cartwheels over it either. She was relatively ambivalent towards the whole affair. She was, however, looking forward to meeting her new lab partner.

When Mr. McQueen separated them out, Estelle picked up her bag and trotted over to the table where her new lab partner was sitting. She looked nervous. Estelle put on her best friendly face and stuck out her hand, "Hi. I'm Estelle. Nice to meet you."

She looked down at the frog, "You feeling a little nervous?" She smiled kindly, "It's okay. This kind of stuff is a little intense."

[Zoe Clementine]

Relieved to have her attention driven away from the now missing tendon of the frog..from the process of elimination, it was only the foot..but still, she felt even worse now than before. Not only did the froggy lose a leg at her hand (or mind, really), but it also meant that froggy bits and pieces were all over the desk. At least it wasn't the whole thing...right? She couldn't really count on that not staying the same, but the confident voice next to her sounded like it meant otherwise.

She looked over apologetically at the girl, who she vaguely recognized. Zoe really needed to keep up with everyone, who they were, what they looked like, what they did, et cetera. It would help her a lot in the future if she had these connections down pat, she just knew it. Sheepishly, she responded, "Uh, yeah. Sorry about the frog all over the table. I didn't exactly see that coming...how shall I go about cleaning it up?"

Zoe hovered over the table, as if the wee bits of bone and flesh had a barrier around them so that she couldn't touch them. "Uh... what should I do? I'm sorry, I'm dreadful at all these labs, here or chemistry.. although I think I'd try to avoid chemistry more than even frog dissecting days. Imagine what would happen in a chem lab if I got nervous there too?!" She didn't even want to think about it. But one thing was nice, and that was that her partner in crime here was confident about this whole science thing. Hopefully she'd understand why Zoe'd rather stick to playing secretary or lab assistant than actually doing the dirty work. Maybe things would go up from here...unless they needed that leg. "Should I ask the professor for another frog? I mean... half of it is kind of... lacking."

[Estelle Flores]

"Uhmmm...." Estelle tilted her head to the side, examining the dismembered frog quizzically, "...You know, that is a good question." She giggled slightly, a little amused at the awkward situation, "But it's no big deal, I'm not all that squeamish." She scanned the area until she found a thick roll of paper towels. Snatching them up and dragging over the little trashcan, she gingerly began scooping the frog bits into the trash, "I'm sorry, I am awful at names. What's yours again?" She knew she must have seen the girl somewhere before, but she couldn't, for the life of her, remember her name.

"Oh god, I'm totally bad at the chem labs," Estelle made a face, "I just don't understand it, and whenever we're dealing with a metal it gets a little...awkward." She shifted from one foot to the other, "I mean, one time I accidentally melted a bunson burner!" She offered this in an attempt to make this new person feel more comfortable.

"...Maybe." She giggled, "We might need a whole frog." Their frog was rather decimated at the moment.

[Zoe Clementine]

She was pretty embarrassed, but knew that she need not get too sensitive on the issue, even though this poor froggy died for nothing. She raised her hand up as high as she could, and called out to the professor, "I uh... think we need another frog, professor." She shot her hand back down, trying not to draw too much unpopular attention to herself, and after catching herself turning a bit scarlet, she looked back over at her lab partner, who was totally cool about the whole thing.

When she heard the girl, Estelle, casually talk about her own shortcomings, Zoe felt a little better, not that she found joy in learning about other peoples' weaknesses, but rather that she wasn't completely alone in that matter. She thought aloud, "I wonder how many other students find difficulty with these science labs. And the teachers, they better be prepared for all an untrained student could potentially throw at them, on purpose or not. That must be a lot of pressure." Just imagine what someone could do, especially those pyros and people that blow things up, oh wait, that was her. Maybe she could get a pass out of the lab or something like that until she had adequate knowledge of how to control her power a little bit better.

First, she'd start with learning how to not blow up her lab assignment, then go from there. Grabbing the paper worksheet that they were given right before the frogs came along, she looked over the instructions. "How about I read it and write it down, and you do all the slicing and dicing, how does that work for you?"

[Estelle Flores]

While waiting for the professor to return with another frog, Estelle settled comfortably against the table, listening to Zoe talk. She wrinkled her nose at the other girl’s observations, “Ooof, yeah. You’re right. I bet the teachers have to go through crazy training for this kinda stuff, can you imagine? But I guess this isn’t anything they haven’t seen before. Since, y’know, they used to be Hammel kids too. Most of them, anyways.”

When Zoe suggested job division, Estelle grinned, “That sounds like the best of plans. I am all over that.” When the professor came back with another dead frog, Estelle deftly secured it to the tray and plucked up the scalpel. “So,” she said lightly, trying to distract her clearly squeamish lab partner, “What’s your power, exactly? If you don’t mind me asking. Mine’s metallikinesis. Not nearly as fun as it sounds.” Estelle smiled, but it was a slightly tighter smile than before. She didn’t enjoy her power. It was frightening.

“What year are you in?” She continued, lightly asking polite questions as she made a preliminary incision from the jaw to the lower abdomen. Anything beyond that, and Zoe would have to direct her, “I’m a junior now, which is weird to think about, really.”