Cipher

Chapter 12: Lab One

Cindy was excited for their first lab in Advanced Biology. She had been paired with Cipher, which was cool, he was so nice and interesting to talk to, he always said the strangest things. It was less cool that Matt and Joslyn were the ones who would be across the lab table from them. Joss was nice enough, but Matt was a jerk and she could never figure out why. He also had a bad habit of being rude, if not outright mean, to Cipher every time he had a chance to.

As everyone slowly filtered into the room, Ms. Keller was placing one microscope per group at each table. Cindy quickly found her place and took out her materials. Not long after Cipher sat beside her.

"Are you ready for this?" she turned to him with a smile.

Cipher's chin tilted up, "I believe so. Are you prepared as well?"

She nodded, "I glanced over the lab. It looks like basic microscope stuff for our first one."

"That would make sense," he gestured toward the one sitting on the table between them.

"Of course," her cheeks burned, but she didn't feel like he was making fun of her, he was just pointing out the facts.

Matt snorted from across the table, but before anyone could say anything the bell rang and Ms. Keller called the class to attention.

"Okay, you all have the lab questions and procedure in your binders. Please open up to the first lab and get started. Please read before starting with the microscopes, I don't want any mishaps. If you need anything, I'll be roaming so raise your hand and I'll come by." With that she gestured for them to get started.

They took turns reading out the instructions as the other moved and adjusted the microscope answering the questions as they went.

Finally they got to the last task which involved a slide with three strings.

"I have the strings in focus now." Cipher said.

"Okay, now what color comes into focus first?"

Cipher paused, glancing up from the microscope. "Um..."

Cindy looked up from their lab-sheet she was filling out. "Something wrong?"

"I think you should do that part," he said.

Matt scoffed from across the lab table. "Did you fail preschool or something?"

"Shut up, Matt." Joslyn told him flatly. "Focus on our lab, not theirs."

Matt glared over at the alien before turning back to his own microscope.

"Yeah, I'll give it a look," Cindy smiled at Cipher, doing her best to ignore what just happened. She switched places with him and looked through the eyepiece. "Yellow," she declared and Cipher wrote it down. "Is there a reason you wanted me to do it?" she asked a little hesitantly.

Cipher looked down, marks slightly flushed. "I- rather, all Aeolians are considered colorblind by human standards. I did not want to mix up the colors."

Cindy's mouth formed a small O. "That makes sense, I guess." Joslyn also looked intrigued while Matt scowled.

"That's stupid."

"Then it's good we weren't talking to you, Matt." Cindy finally snapped at him, maybe a bit too loudly, catching the teacher's attention.

"Is everything okay over here?" Ms. Keller asked as she made her way over.

The table was quiet for a moment.

"Everything is fine, Ms. Keller." Cipher supplied. "We just need a signature, we have completed the lab."

Ms. Keller didn't look convinced, but glanced over their papers and signed off before moving on to the next table.

The group settled back into their seats for the few minutes before the bell rang, slowly packing their stuff.

"So," Cindy started. "What do you do when you're at a stoplight?"

"I do not drive," Cipher answered as he slid his notebook into his backpack. "But, I can see reds and blues, I think. It is the colors between that get more difficult."

"You think?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"I can only assume." She noticed that he didn't exactly smile but he somehow still seemed to look happy, or at least amused. "I very literally cannot see what you see, so who can say for sure."

"Right," she hitched her bag higher on her shoulder as they left the class room. "So, in the future I'm in charge of all things color related." she gave a small smile.

"Agreed," Cipher glanced down the busy hall. "I have to go before I am late to P.E." he sighed. "Have a pleasant lunch, I will see you tomorrow."

"See you," she waved as he walked away, getting lost in the crowd.

***Author's Note***

If you're curious what I imagine Aeolians' color vision is like, I imagine it similar to Tritanopia (the one with blues and pinks)