All Four Of Me

Chapter 15

KENZIE

"What came first, the chicken or the egg?"

"The egg."

"It has to be the egg. How could the chicken possibly be born without the egg?"

"Egg, for sure."

"No, it had to be the chicken because the egg would need to be laid by the chicken before it can hatch into a baby chicken."

"But if that's the case then where did the egg come from you dumbass?"

I don't know why Mr Myers thought that asking the class this question would be a good idea. It was bad enough that he split us up into groups at the start of the lesson, forcing me to sit in close proximity to my other class mates, but to ignite a debate between the groups about something so trivial has to be one of the worst ideas I have seen him come up with yet.

"Mikayla, what do you think?" Mr Myers calls out once the rest of the students have quieted down enough to hear him.

I hate it when my teachers randomly call me out to share my answer with the class. After the whole Macbeth mess in English a few weeks ago, I have done everything humanly possible to stay under the radar of my teachers, but Mr Myers has proven to be more difficult to hide from than most of the others. He still doesn't get my name right, but he sure as hell knows that I exist.

"The chicken came first." I mumble quietly, hoping that he will accept my answer and move on to interrogate the next student.

"Why do you think that the chicken was first?" He prompts, leaning against the front of his desk as he waits for my answer. There is no anger or demand behind his request so I don't feel too nervous when I answer the question.

"Because it wasn't a chicken to start off with. It was like every other living creature that first formed on Earth; a microorganism, and over millions of years that microorganism mutated itself and adapted to its environment until it eventually ended up looking like something that resembled a chicken. The chicken as it continued to evolve over the course of time, developed the ability to lay eggs and from there the rest is pretty self-explanatory." I respond with a shrug, not bothering to look up from the desk to see his expression.

"That was a good answer. You really took the time think that through, well done." Mr Myers praises, making me shrink lower in my seat from all the attention.

If I'm being honest, I can't take full credit for my answer. Having occasional access to a laptop has allowed me to do some extra research while I complete my homework and the other night I happened to stumble across a documentary on YouTube about the creation of Earth and the evolution of its living inhabitants. I simply took the theory they used in the documentary and applied it to the evolution of a chicken.

"Does anybody else have any other theories they would like to add before we wrap up our lesson for today? No? Alrighty then, everybody can return to their own desks now and for homework I would like everyone to revise the topic in preparation for the unit test next week." Mr Myers announces, walking back to the correct side of his desk while everybody else scatters throughout the room back to their usual desks.

Shortly after, the bell rings signalling the end of the period and I quickly shove my books and pencil case into my bag so that I can head out towards my lunch spot without being tormented by anyone. Ben told me this morning that he would meet me at our usual tree, and most times when I reach the spot he is already waiting for me, but today I am the first one here.

After ten more minutes, Ben is still nowhere to be seen and I am starting to think that he might have forgotten about me. Deciding that he probably isn't going to show up any time soon, I pull my lunch box out of my bag and crack the lid, silently hoping that Chris had packed my lunch this morning. My hopes are quickly dashed when the contents of the box are revealed and I know instantly that either Nathan or Will had made my lunch today.