Of Monsters and Humanity: The Genesis

Chapter 6 - Terra

Sixty-seven days before....

"Nerd."

I glared at her. "You told me to show you what I do in school. Well, this is it."

Flora Mae sat surrounded by anatomy papers and larger-than-life textbooks. All kinds of scientific diagrams were face-up and she looked almost stressed by just looking at my daily homework load.

"I feel like this is more than you actually do," she commented, shifting papers on top of each other in attempts to make things seem halfway neat.

"I wish," I mumbled as I helped her.

It was finally Saturday and I didn't have class. I was relieved to be away from my teachers (like, for example, Mr. Duro) and tests for a day, but almost missed my lab partner. And by "lab partner," I meant the partner in crime who sneaked me into a lab that neither one of us were supposed to be in the general vicinity of in the first place.

"Would you mind helping me with flashcards for an hour? I ask my grandma to help but she can't ever pronounce the words right."

She giggled. "Of course. Don't want you failing medical school."

"I'm not even in medical school."

"Yet," she finished for me, holding a finger up. "And they'd never let you in if you didn't know the...uh...." She started flipping cards around in her hand, her chunky black bracelets shifting around her wrists. "Carpo-metacarpal joint from the, um, metacarpo-phalangeal joint.... Right?"

"Right...?"

She glared at me.

"Actually, do you mind shuffling those around a little bit more? I don't want cards on bones from the same part of the body near each other," I asked.

As I tried to grab them, she pulled away and raised a brow. "What part of the body are they in?"

"The hand."

"Okay, so, what are they exactly?"

"Bones in the hand. Now, give me those."

An hour or so of her quizzing me went by before we both grew bored of medical-speak. Flora Mae completely abandoned the flashcards on the floor and we just laid on my bed, staring at the ceiling, catching up on both of our crazy lives.

"They want to elect me president of 'Women of the World'! I was surprised but at the same time, totally not, since I did more work than Dott Segenam. I honestly don't know how she was president for so long."

It took me a moment to remember who that was. My brain hurt from trying to study, but I eventually remembered her as the girl who made fun of us in middle school. "Isn't she the girl who called us lesbians?"

"Still does."

"We aren't even gay."

"I tried to tell her what I am and she just keeps calling me a prude."

I rolled my eyes. "She won't understand what asexual means, Flora Mae. She can't comprehend how someone wouldn't enjoy the activities that she takes part in every weekend." Right after I said it, I felt like I had conquered something, but as the words processed in my head, I felt terrible. Flora Mae introduced the phrase "slut shaming" to me a long time ago and as I thought more of it and the patriarchy or whatever else, I became more aware of how it took place in society. I felt sick that I myself would take part in something like that. Even before Flora Mae became such an avid feminist, I probably would have still felt as guilty as I did then.