Accused (Hunted book 2)

Chapter 7

On Friday, we did the heart dissection in biology. We were supposed to be in pairs or threes, but since we couldn't divide our table, Ms Simms just gave us two hearts to look at as a group.

Sasha shrank away from the sheep organs. "Can I not touch it, please?"

Riley picked one up with both hands and examined it. "I'll do it if you don't want to."

"Does anyone want to make the first incision?" I didn't have a problem looking at the heart or touching it, but I didn't want to cut into it.

Lachlan nodded and picked up the scalpel. "I'll do it."

He held the heart with one hand while he cut through into the left atrium. When he was done, he held it open so that we could see inside. Hayden took the scalpel and cut into the left ventricle next.

Riley stuck her finger through the cut in the wall of the ventricle and up through the aorta. Sasha covered her eyes. She was becoming very pale.

Hayden frowned. "Are you okay, Sasha?"

She nodded. "I'm fine. I just don't like this."

"Do you want to go outside?" asked Hayden.

She shook her head. "I'm okay, really." Sasha turned away from the hearts on the table.

Lachlan stared at the floor. I could tell he was feeling bad about considering chasing her around with a dissected sheep heart.

Riley got another scalpel and cut straight through the second heart so that we could see the whole inside.

Hayden pulled gently on one of the heart strings. "These are really strong."

"I guess that's why we..." Lachlan trailed off. "Never mind."

I narrowed my eyes. "Why you what?"

"Why we use them to string our bows," he finished quietly.

Sasha gagged and Riley pulled a face. "Real smooth."

Sasha stayed in the corner, facing away from us, until everyone had wrapped their sheep hearts in newspaper and put them in the bin that Ms Simms had provided.

"I'm glad that's over." Sasha shuddered. "I hope we never do it again."

"I'm sure we won't," I assured her.

~

Hayden, Lachlan and I were studying at my dining table for biology. We didn't have a test or anything, but after seeing their exam grades, Ms Simms had suggested that they get tutors. Instead, they had sworn that they would study more, but since neither of them listened in class, they had asked me to help. They had asked if we could start a study group, but Riley and Sasha knew that they wouldn't get anything done and had declined.

I started labelling my diagram of the heart and Hayden and Lachlan watched with interest.

"So what's that thing?" Hayden pointed to one section of the heart.

"That's the left ventricle," I said, drawing an arrow and writing the word.

"Ohhhh." Hayden wrote it in his exercise book, which was mostly full of blank pages even though it was the same book he had used last year.

I rolled my eyes.

Lachlan pointed to the aorta. "And what's that?"

I groaned. "You would know if you paid attention in class!" They weren't stupid. They would do well if they applied themselves.

"That's a long name," he muttered, sticking out his bottom lip and lowering his eyes.

I sighed. "Sorry. It's called the aorta. It carries the blood from your heart to the rest of your body."