She dived forward. The little ball of fluff was already squirming out of the small mound of dirt. She didn’t want it to escape or hurt itself.
Her fingers closed around it. A sharp pain shot up her wrist as they did so. She looked around, not sure what to do with the baby kesaran.
“Here,” a jar was thrust into her face.
Irene plopped it in without even thinking.
A gloved hand reached out and gripped her hand. She used it to pull herself back to her feet, only to find herself face to face with Eva.
“What’s going on here?” Professor Kines said as he rushed over.
Irene turned to her professor, but another voice answered first.
“I saw the whole thing. Irene caught her kesaran, but set the jar down on the edge of the table.”
Irene spun to find a very smug looking Drew. Her other botany partner swapped places with an almost distraught looking Kristina.
She had done no such thing.
“Irene,” Professor Kines said. She turned back to him wearing a frown. “I warned everyone several times not to leave their jars near the table edge.”
“I did–”
“No excuses,” he turned to face the crowd of students that had all stopped their work at the commotion. “Let that be a lesson to the rest–”
“Professor,” Eva half shouted. “Irene cut herself on the shards of glass. I will take her to the nurse’s office.”
“What? Yes, of course.” He waved his hand off towards the door.
Eva started dragging her away by her hand. She noticed the girl’s firm pressure on her wrist.
“As I was saying, kesaran aren’t like normal plants. They can and will knock over the jars.”
Before they left the greenhouse, Irene saw the professor turn to her two lab partners. “You two,” he said, “sweep up this mess.”
The door shut just as Drew’s protests started.
That was worth a small bit of satisfaction. Drew could go screw himself.
Halfway between the greenhouse and the main school building, Irene tried to shake off Eva’s hand. Her grip was like a vice.
“Eva,” she said, “I can go on my own.”
“You’ve damaged an artery,” the girl said without looking.
“How can you know that?” Irene didn’t even know that. There was just a sharp sting in her wrist.
She brought up her free hand to tap her temple. “You know how they say not to let your eyes blind you? As it turns out, I don’t have to worry about that.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
Eva didn’t respond. She kept her warm hand gripped tightly around Irene’s wrist as they entered the main building. From there, it was a short trip to the nurse.
“Oh dear. What have we got here?”
The nurse pulled Irene’s arm out of Eva’s grip.
When she finally saw it, Irene almost passed out. She might have for a moment. It might have been her shutting her eyes for a long time, Irene couldn’t tell. A deep red line ran from the palm of her hand half way up to her elbow.
“She cut herself on some glass in botany.”
“It’s good that you came to me. This might sting a bit.”
Nurse Post–her name tag had a realistic looking heart in place of the ‘o’–started cleaning out the gash. Irene winced back at the foaming potion that the nurse poured in the cut. The nurse massaged the foam into the cut with her hands. The bleeding seemed to stop and the blood cleared away as the foam was rinsed.
If seeing the cut almost made her pass out, seeing the cut without blood in the way almost made her throw up. The muscle and veins all stuck out, plain to see in the white light of the lamp.
Before she could, the nurse forced two potions down Irene’s throat.
Sure enough, a few minutes later and the cut stitched itself shut.
Irene shut her eyes and tried not to think about it as it did its thing.
A pat on her knee woke her from her mental shutdown.
“You’re all done, kiddo.” Nurse Post’s smile pinched her one red eye shut. Her other eye had a gauze pad taped over it.
Irene opened her mouth to ask. “Thanks,” was all that came out.
She stood up. Her arm looked back to normal save for a thin line of fresh skin over the spot that had been cut. “Do I need to fill out any forms or can I just go back to class?”
The nurse chuckled. “School will be ending in twenty minutes. You might as well be done for the day.”
Irene nodded. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be done for the day. The kesaran would be fine in the jar for a few days, so long as Drew didn’t set it free again. She did have a report to write up about it. No, she could do that at the dorms. Professor Kines would have–
She had to stop herself from jumping back as she walked out of the nurse’s office. Eva stood there, leaning against a window. Irene had forgotten about her.
The black-haired girl almost looked asleep. Her head was tipped down and her arms were hidden under her chest. She looked up as Irene took a step closer. Or turned her head up. She didn’t have any eyes to look.
“Thanks,” Irene said.
That was it. There was nothing more to say. Irene turned and walked down the hallway, away from Eva.
Or she tried to.
Eva had other plans. With a quick hop in those somewhat awkward steps Eva used brought the girl right up to Irene’s side.
“How’s your arm.”
“Better.”
