What He Heard

Chapter 11

            Willow carefully sketched in the last of her mitochondria on her cell sheet, listening as Mr. Beasley went on about their next project. “The entire cell must be edible. And no, just because it’s possible to eat wax doesn’t make it edible for the context of this assignment. You’re allowed to work in pairs, but I’ll expect a correspondingly higher level of effort if you. The cells can be either plant or animal, and no, you can’t make a hybrid of the two. I expect your projects on my desk in two weeks, properly labeled, with you and/or your partner’s name on it. I will be giving extra points for creativity for this. Are there any questions?”

            Oliver put his hand up. “How big does it have to be?” he asked when he got the teacher’s nod.

            “Big enough I can see that everything looks like it should. I don’t want to have to get a magnifying glass or microscope to see all the parts. Everything also needs to be clearly and legibly labeled. That includes spelling. There is no k in mitochondria.”

            Willow glanced at Rune while Louise put her hand up. “Partners?”

            He grinned. “Did you even have to ask?”

            She smiled back. “Yes,” Mr. Beasley’s voice said, cutting through their conversation. “If you finish early and it won’t keep, by all means, hand it in early. But I won’t be giving extra points for that.”

            “Any other questions?” their teacher asked, sweeping the class with a look. When the only reply he got were murmurs of dissent, he nodded. “Alright then. I’ll give you to the end of the class today to finish your work sheets and start brainstorming for your cells. After that, it’s on your own time. Have at it.”

            Rune turned to Willow. “Plant or animal?”

            “Animal. Plant’s a cop out unless we did the whole thing only out of plants. Which would be way harder. I think we should have a theme in the cell we make. Like the same kind of food or flavour or whatever.”

            “Great minds think alike. I was thinking we should make the whole thing out of candy and baked stuff. Hell, I bet I could make a pretty good lemon or peach Jell-O that we could suspend stuff in for the plasma. Maybe even make the nucleus out of a cupcake or something with a Gobstopper as the nucleolus or something.”

            “Well, I can do the cupcake if we get a mix. I like the idea of the Jell-O, but I hope you’re better at cooking than me or I feel the whole thing will fall apart.”

            He frowned. “What do you mean? Aren’t you in Foods this semester?”

            Willow winced. “Yeah, I took the class because I suck at cooking. I mean, I can chop stuff, and I can roast thing too. My mom’s taken me hunting a couple of times so I know how to butcher an animal, but actual cooking...My dad often says he’s surprised I don’t manage to burn salads.”

            “You, Ms. Chemistry, Ms. Wants To Be A Scientist, can’t cook?” Rune laughed. “Cooking is just really basic chemistry!”

            She could feel her cheeks flare red. “Shut up. I know. I just can’t get it. Something in my brain just can’t wrap itself around the measurements or timing or something. I don’t know. Stuff always burns or is too salty or doesn’t rise or whatever. It just never turns out.”

            “Suddenly I understand why you needed a partner for this. You’re just trying to ride my coattails, aren’t you?”

            “I’ll help. I can do prep work and help measure stuff and cut things, as long as you’re supervising me. If you still want to work together.”

            The grin that spread across Rune’s face matched the sparkle of mischief in his eyes. “A legitimate opportunity to boss you around? To make you do what I want under the guise of getting our project done? And you think I’d pass it up? Perish the thought! And don’t worry, I’ve been doing most of the cooking in my house since I was old enough to work the oven by myself. I’ll have to make you my killer apple crumble muffins sometime. My mom’s forbade me from making them more than once a month for fear she’ll no longer fit into her pants, so you know they’re good.”

            Willow shook her head but smiled. “Be careful what you say. Start boasting about how good your cooking is around my family and they’ll kidnap you to cook for us. We all eat a lot and all like food more than is probably healthy, so…”

            “Savages, the lot of you. But that’s fine. It’s probably better we put this together at my house anyway, since I know my kitchen best and know that I have all the utensils I need. Nothing is worse than when you need a pastry cutter and have to use a fork instead. It’s the reason the kitchen’s become my unofficial domain. Though Mom still does insist on doing the cooking for special occasions or because she just feels like it sometimes. I just clean up afterwards.”

            She laughed. “You sound like you should be a fifties housewife. Please tell me you have a frilly apron too.”

            Rune sniffed dramatically, putting his nose in the air. “I’ll have you know that my apron is a man’s apron. And the greatest chefs have always been men,” he said haughtily. Dropping his chin, he smiled. “But seriously, my mom’s got enough on her plate without having to worry about feeding me and keeping the apartment clean. I took over the day to day stuff years ago.”

            “Aw, that’s sweet,” Willow said, smiling. “You’re a good kid under your cynical exterior.”

            “Man. You mean man. I’m neither kid nor boy,” Rune said, his dramatic tone not quite covering up the faint pink colour of his cheeks.