Safe and Sound by Laura McHugh

Author:Laura McHugh [McHugh, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2024-04-23T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-FIVE

Grace’s lab partner was tearing up again. Sophie cried every time they got their cat out of the black garbage bag it was stored in and claimed she was allergic to formaldehyde. She averted her eyes whenever Grace reached for the scalpel. Grace didn’t want to dissect a cat either, but she needed another science class on her transcript. The worst part was that it was taught by Mr. Copeland. She’d had him for health freshman year, and when she got the highest grade on the final, he’d told her she was smart enough to consider becoming a nurse. A nurse, not a doctor. It had grated on her. Not that she thought nurses were inferior, but because he apparently did. Everyone knew that Mr. Copeland’s son, Dallas, was going to be Beaumont’s next doctor. Dallas had been talking about majoring in pre-med since middle school, before Grace even knew what a major was. She didn’t doubt that Dallas would make a good doctor—he was smart and driven and knew what he wanted. If anyone could beat her for valedictorian, it was him. She didn’t mind competition either, but now she was stuck competing with her biggest rival in his strongest subject, with his dad keeping score.

Sophie rubbed her eyes. “I’m going to the restroom,” she said. “Be right back.”

Grace knew by now that was a lie. Sophie would be gone long enough for Grace to do the required cutting by herself. Mr. Copeland was lenient on bathroom breaks for girls, and Grace wasn’t sure if he assumed they were all on their periods all the time or simply didn’t notice or care when the girls were gone. More than once, he had literally pushed her aside so “the boys” could use the microscope she was using. “The boys” were his son’s football teammates.

Grace glanced up at the board where Mr. Copeland kept the top five students’ running scores. She’d never had a teacher do that before, and didn’t even know if such a thing was allowed, but Mr. Copeland thought it was good for them, that it would inspire them to work harder. She was in second, trailing Dallas by a whole percentage point. She’d briefly been in the lead at the start of the semester, but then Mr. Copeland had decided to add bonus questions to the quizzes. Conveniently, all the bonus questions were about football, and Dallas had pulled ahead. She started checking football scores so she could at least have a chance at guessing the answers, but even with her competitive nature, she knew she’d never beat him that way. She resigned herself to studying as hard as she could, and if she had to dissect the entire cat by herself, she’d get it done. It wasn’t the worst thing she’d ever had to do.

Today’s lab was starting on the upper digestive system. She consulted the diagram. Mouth, tongue, larynx, pharynx, esophagus. Mr. Copeland was making his way around the room, stopping to explain the difference in tongue papillae between cats and humans and chat with the boys about the upcoming football game.

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