That Monday, Sarah had to go to school again. She had argued about it, telling her mom she had a headache, a stomach ache, that a migraine was coming on, but her mother put her foot down. It seemed that going camping while being out sick meant you weren't really sick anymore. Sarah didn't quite follow that logic, but the conclusion was inescapable. Sarah got into her mom's Camry and rode to school.

The little Toyota pulled to the curb outside school, and before the door opened Sarah heard the chatter and laughing from all the students. A couple of guys were half-dancing to the beats that Sarah heard from their headphones. Sarah stepped out of the way to let a guy zoom by on his skateboard. Some fresh laughter erupted as a school bus pulled up to deposit its load, and Sarah stood for a moment, taking everything in. The fog shone across the school, and Sarah could see a little patch of purple where Alexa must have passed recently.

"Love you!" her mom said.

"Love you too!" she answered before adjusting her bag and walking toward the doors.

She blinked a moment when she walked inside. The fluorescent lights lit the hallway, but it still felt dark after the morning sun outside, so she paused a moment to let her eyes adjust. Before she could get moving again she heard a voice call out.

"Sarah!" shouted Alexa from down the hall. She was wearing long dangly white earrings that were just visible underneath her curly hair. She was trailing two other girls in her wake.

"Hi Sarah," said one of the two. She was wearing matching sweats, and her hair was pulled into a ponytail. Sarah couldn't help but notice that the ponytail was pretty messy, with some strands that hadn't gotten pulled in at all and others that were tangled up in the elastic. Sarah had no idea what her name was.

The third girl, Jill, just waved. Sarah knew the girl, or rather Sarah knew of her. Jill was one of the tallest kids in school, and her disinterest in basketball and volleyball was so legendary that Sarah could even remember her name.

"Morning, Alexa. Jill," added Sarah with a nod.

"Bri," said Bri.

"Sorry," said Sarah, putting her head down and backing up a step.

"Why?" said Bri cheerfully. "It's not like I've ever talked to you before, or been in a class. If anything, Jill should be irritated you knew who she was."

Sarah glanced up and saw that Jill was flushed and was looking away too. She opened her mouth to apologize again, but Alexa cut her off. "Don't let Bri give you crap, Sarah. And don't be embarrassed to ask Jill to get you something from the top shelf, while you're at it."

Sarah shut her mouth. She opened her mouth again but instead of saying anything she just looked at everyone's shoes. Alexa and Jill were wearing dingy grey tennis shoes, but Bri had on really shiny black sneakers with a shiny gold Nike swoop on the side.

Bri chimed in again, "No worries, we're just saying hi, but we've got to run. We've got choir first, and I'm pretty sure the principal hates music. He couldn't have put it farther away from the busses if he tried."

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Alexa nodded, "Yeah, I'll see you in second, right? And you should come eat lunch with us, too. We usually hike back over to the choir room. There's a couple of couches in there, it's nice."

"Ok," said Sarah. It was all she was able to say before the three zoomed off out the doors and towards a separate wing of the school. She turned back to the hallway and began navigating the crowd.

She got to Coach Colway's class just as the first bell rang. A couple of boys had beaten her into the classroom, but her usual seat was still empty so she sat down and set her bag down on the ground. A bunch more came in on her heels and grabbed desks. A few were still talking, but Monday morning had most of them a little muted.

Announcements came on, with a couple of student body members talking about events for the week. And then Sarah heard her name - they announced to the entire school that she was ok and back in class today. Sarah's face felt like it was on fire, and she put her head on her desk to avoid looking at anyone in the room. They announced that Finn was ok too, and had left the hospital over the weekend but wasn't back in class yet.

As usual, Coach Colway was moving around the room before they finished. He put a packet of papers next to Sarah's head, and then after his footsteps moved away she could hear the squeaks of a marker as he wrote on the board. Sarah chanced a glance up, no one was looking at her, they were either following the numbers that Coach was writing or else staring numbly off into the distance. She turned over the packet and saw that it was a bunch of worksheets on it, and big letters in green ink sprawled across the top said "catchup work," followed by "test Monday" in smaller letters below. She flipped through the pages and saw that the sheets he'd given her included what was going up on the board right now, so instead of paying attention she just started working her way through the packet.

An hour later the bell rang, interrupting her work. She folded the work packet in half and stuffed it into her backpack, then got up and left the room. She strode out into the hallway, finding her way through the flow of students on their way to class. She finally spotted the silly tree poster and let herself into the bio room. She had to blink at the sunlight drenching the room, but she smiled at the aromas in the room. Most of the school smelled of harsh cleaning chemicals and various teenage odors, but the air in there was heady and thick. She inhaled deeply, recognizing some of the herbs. Alexa was already sitting down, and indicating a seat she'd saved for Sarah. Sarah started to go sit down, but she was interrupted first.

"Oh, Sarah," said Mrs. Bianchi. The teacher thrust another thick packet into Sarah's hands. "We finished the cell cycle stuff while you were gone, so you'll need to study up on that. Let me know when you're ready and I'll let you take the test. This week we're going to fly through natural selection and review heredity, so the cell stuff shouldn't make much difference."

Mrs. Bianchi paused for a moment, then said, "I'm so sorry, how are you, dear? The grapevine said you were feeling much better."

"I'm fine," said Sarah.

"That's wonderful. Please let me know if you need anything, ok?"

"Actually, I do have a question. It's not really about class, it's just a project I'm thinking of and I realized over the weekend that you might be able to help?"

"Of course!" said Mrs. Bianchi, clapping her hands together. "Let's talk after the lesson when everyone is doing their worksheets."

Sarah couldn't help but wince, just a little, at the thought of standing right where the speakers were pumping out music during study time, but she nodded anyways. She sat down, pulling out her notebook. She and Alexa both took notes in class - Sarah made a mental note to go read more about Darwin sailing around later. There had to be some good stories about his time shipboard. Sooner than later, Mrs. Bianchi passed out sheets of paper for everyone to do. It was just a simple crossword, and Alexa got started on it while soft cello music rolled through the room.

Mrs. Bianchi made eye contact with Sarah, and Sarah got up and approached the stand-up front.

"So, that'll probably sound weird, but it's for a project I'm thinking about," said Sarah. "Do you know how to clean bones? You know, get the flesh and stuff off so they're safe to touch and everything?"