Groupings

“How’s school, Kirsch?” Dad asked while we’re having dinner.

“Fine, Dad. It was a tiring day since we had both Biophysics and Biostatistics today.”

“Were those two subjects that hard?”

“Yeah, and you know that physics and I were not good friends,” I even rolled my eyes to make my point and he laughed at my gesture. Mom was just sitting there, smiling while silently eating.

“How ‘bout you, love? How’s your day?” he looked at Mom, holds her hand, and smiled at her. Mom did the same thing and I can’t help but to smile as well.

“It’s fine. Nothing really happened here. I just cleaned the house and listen to some songs for our baby,” and she caressed her tummy.

“Don’t overdo yourself, okay?” And he kissed mommy’s forehead. “And for you my little bud, be good to mommy, okay? Be healthy in there and we all can’t wait to have you.” Dad gave me a glance and I smiled at what he said and turned to looked at mommy’s tummy.

“Ah, Gus when do we visit the OB-GYN?” mom asked

“Oh yeah, I’ll call our OB tonight and schedule your check-up this weekend. You want to come with us, Kirsh?” I straightened my back upon hearing Dad’s question. I’m honestly thrilled to be with them and see little bud but then I looked at Mom and she seems uncomfortable about the idea. Oh. I cleared my throat and looked at Dad.

“Uhm, Dad, I have this school project that I need to do this weekend. I’ll pass.” And I put on a disappointed smile to make it believable.

“You sure? I know you’re excited with this kind of thing. C’mon maybe you can spare an hour or two.” Dad persistently said.

“Nah, just show me the ultrasound copy, Dad. And I don’t want to be third wheeling with you two lovey doves.” I even pretended to disgusted with the thought and he just laughed about it but he has this soft expression on his face.

“Since when did you become a third wheel to us? You’re our baby girl, Kirsh. And you’re our first princess. You’ll never be a third wheel, always remember that, okay?” he said as he holds my hand as to assure me.

“Of course, Dad. I was just joking but seriously enjoy the weekend, ‘kay? Just buy me some pizza.”

“Sure thing, baby would that be all?” he asked to confirm.

“Dad! That would be all. I’ll go ahead.” I wiped my mouth before standing up. “Good night to you all and to you little bud. Love you.” I kissed both of them good night despite of being unsure when I was about to kiss mom.

“Good night, Kirsh. Love you, baby,” Dad said and I just smiled sweetly at him. Before I can even leave the dining room I heard dad calling the OB-GYN.

I’ve been looking forward to that; visiting the OB-GYN. I was imagining lots of things and I even pictured all of us smiling while looking at the screen where we’ll see the baby. Mom might even cry while Dad is holding her hand. But I guess that’ll just stay inside my head. I understand how my Mom feels; she’s being precautious.

I can’t blame her. If I were in her shoes maybe I’ll do the same. She’s a mother and that’s her instinct working. Maybe she’s just scared that she’ll lose her baby, again. I’ll just give her some space and make her feel at ease with my presence. I think I just need to contain my excitement in me.

“So, Germ Plasm Theory of August Weismann stated that hereditary material, the germ plasm, is confined to the gonads. And somatic cells develop afresh in each generation from the germ plasm,” said Ms. Ivy, our Developmental Biology prof.

I really am anticipating for this subject because this might be the most interesting subject this semester. Unlike last year, Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy was fun last semester, we even dissected a cat. It was so cool! I feel sad for the cat though, but the part where we labeled the cat’s muscles, it was so stressful yet fulfilling at the same time. And the time we’re having that activity, passing to the laboratory floor, all you can smell was the formalin smacking your nose like a bitch.

Anyway, we were discussing the definition of Dev Bio, and we were in the fourth one; reproduction.

“Okay, I want you to form your group now for our laboratory part. Make six groups with six members.” Great! Groupings.

“Hey, who would be our group mates?” asked Hernandez.

“Go and find people who want to be in our group. Make better use of your friendly attitude.”

“I’m not friendly can’t you see that I’m only talking to you. I guess they’re scare—“ he was cut short because there two of my girl classmates are currently standing in front of us looking constipated while looking at my seatmate. He awkwardly smiled at them, and he now too, looked constipated.

“Uhm… you see… we’re still in need of one member to complete our group. Do you want to join us, Cove?” and they flirtatiously smiled at him.

“See, we also have a dilemma here. Both I and Sanchez don’t have group mates yet,” he reasoned out as he glanced at me. I swear, if only looks could kill, I would be dead right now; they even rolled their eyes at me. Wow. I’m not even saying anything yet I can feel that they despise me.

“Is that so? I have a solution to your dilemma. Rio’s group is also in need of one member. Kirsche can join their group.” Was it just me or there was an emphasis when they mentioned my name? These girls obviously don’t want me and so for Hernandez not be in the middle of this nonsense, I stood up, “I’ll join Rio’s group. You can have Hernandez,” I said with finality and I didn’t look back even though Hernandez called me.

“Hello Rio, may I join your group? All other groups have complete members.” They all turned to look at me and then Rio turned to look at her members which in return just nod at her.

“Sure besides, we still need a member,” she said with a smile. I smiled back at her to the other members of the group.

“I’ll write our names on the paper,” I volunteered so that I won’t be a burden to them.

“Is it okay with you?” Rio asked.

“Yeah, of course,” I assured her with a smile.

I wrote Rio’s name first since I know her full name but when I’m about to write the next name I looked at them, and they were chitchatting. This is why I don’t like groupings especially when they’re friends with one another.

“Uh, excuse me I would just like to ask for your names since I’m not familiar with you all,” I interrupted.

“Sure, here,” and then a girl classmate handed me over their I.Ds.

I found out that her name was Rachel. She looks serious and quite intimidating but she was polite. We have four girls and two boys in our group. Jhobert, Loui, and Maricar were our remaining members. They looked like nerds except for Rio and it seems that they’re the brainy type. That would be nice; it’s hard to have a group mate who burdens everyone.

“Miss, here’s the list of our names.” Miss Ivy accepted our paper with a smile.

Upon returning to my designated seat, I saw Hernandez warming up with his new group mates, seems like they were having fun. Those two girls seem to be entertaining him. Good for him.

“So class that would be all. I’ll see you later in laboratory time. I’ll discuss the things you’ll need per group as well as the activities we’ll be doing for the whole semester. Goodbye,” was her final words before leaving the class.

“Bye,” I said to my group mates.

“Hey, bye what’s your name again?” asked Rio.

“Kirsche”

“Ah, bye, Kirsche” she said smiling, while waving her hands at me. I smiled at my other group mates and bid them goodbye.

“You seem fine with your group mates”

“Yeah, so do you,” I said nonchalantly to Hernandez.

“Well, yeah. They were not that bad especially Nori and Arianne. They were chatty,” he narrated while smiling.

“Yeah, you were enjoying each other’s company, I saw that.”

“Oh, are you jealous?” he smirked and teasingly looked at me.

“No,” I simply answered to his nonsense inquiry.

“But why do I sense some bitterness? You’re fine with me having girl friends, right?” he carefully asked me. And I stopped walking to face him and make my point clear.

“Do whatever you want with your life, Hernandez. You need not ask for my opinion to whatever you want to do. I ain’t your girlfriend for you to do such a thing.”

“Yeah, I was just joking. Chill,” he said and laughed, “I don’t want to cause a misunderstanding between us making an awkward atmosphere causing you to distance yourself to me.”

“I would really distance myself if this nonsense continues.”

“Okay, fine but you were doing fine yourself a while ago. I saw you smiling a few times to them. Not bad, huh.”

“I need to be polite.”

“I see you can smile and be polite but why can’t you do the same thing to me?” he asked confuse. I answered him with a sneer because the answer was far too obvious.

“Because you’re too loud and pesky,” I directly told him.

“And?”

“And I don’t like loud and pesky.”

“Hence your treatment towards me?”

“What? You’re offended now?”

“Yes! I do the honor of talking then I found out that you can be all smiles and polite? Give me some credits will you.” I just let him be with his drama because I know that he’s just joking.

We ate in our usual spot, the chapel, and just like the previous days he talked nonstop. He told me what he and the two girls were talking about even the happenings in their house. I just let him do what he please because he’ll definitely use the guilt card on me if I diss his stories.

“Okay class, so for the things you’ll need individually for this class, bring a laboratory notebook, make it the big one and I need it to be in the color yellow in order for it to be organized. I’ll be having color coding for each class. Also, your lab reports should be done individually though experiments will be done as a group. You can also share information and results to everyone in your group. And the last requirement will be the examinations and quizzes. We’ll be having quizzes every meeting so expect that.” I took down the necessary things for the subject as she told our other classmates to get some microscopes since we’ll be having our first experiment.

“So our experiment for today will be calibration. I’ll teach you how to calibrate a microscope and you’ll be doing this for every magnification.” She went on and teaches us how to calibrate a microscope. Apparently, the stage micrometer was already calibrated and only the ocular micrometer was the one non-calibrated. There is a micrometer put into the ocular of the microscope and the units are by tens. And the stage constant was 0.01 mm or 10 micrometers. To get the calibration constant, you need to multiply the number of stage units to the stage unit constant and divide it by the number of ocular units. The number of the ocular unit can be obtained when there is a specimen placed in the microscope. Moments later, we’re applying the things she taught us.

“Guys, make sure to take a photo of each calibration in all magnification, alright?” Rio reminded us.

And so we did because it is needed in our laboratory report and laboratory notebook. We document our experiments in the laboratory notebook, and because not all of our microscope’s HPO is working, we were only able to do till LPO.

“Send the pictures in the group chat, I already made one and I added all of you in it. Let’s discuss who’ll bring the materials needed for next week’s experiment.” We nodded at her and go on our separate ways since we were dismissed already after the experiment.