SUBJECTBALLS

Poor Babies!

Biology lay in bed, staring at the white ceiling above her.

Had taking the day off been the right decision?

She pushed away her worries; the last thing she wanted to do with her day was spending it fretting.

She picked up her phone, and mindlessly scrolled through her gallery.

The images of her, Chemistry and Physics together were haunting her, taunting her, mocking her...

...Until a specific picture caught her eye.

                                      ***

Chemistry, Physics and Biology were in Chemistry's classroom; Chem was showing off his menagerie of chemically modified plants. Plants were typically Biology's thing, but Chemistry was a massive plant guy; he loved testing how much you could alter an organism's genes using chemicals.

Biology didn't have much hope in his plan, but Physics was highly interested. The boys saw any tiny change in behaviour as something drastic. She wished she could share their optimism in everything they did.

Chemistry had arranged two of the lab stools that students sat on in front of his desk. Biology and Physics sat on the stools, and he presented two plants, both in the same small trough, and a vial of purple liquid.

"I have made a crucial discovery!" Chemistry declared.

"What else is new?" Biology snarked, thoroughly uninterested and staring down at her phone, texting the Teachers' group chat.

Physics gave Biology a playful nudge, and Chemistry carried on.

"I have discovered zan alkali zat allows any two plants wiz same number of ze chromosomes..." he poured half of the liquid into the soil of the trough. "...to merge into ze same organism! Like chimera, but manmade!"

For a few seconds, there were no visible effects. But then, the stems of the two plants twined around eachother, and, within seconds, there was only one stem. The leaves of one plant were now attached to the other. Chemistry pulled the plant out of the soil by its stem, and it has twice as many roots as one normal plant, but every root was attached to one stem.

"Awesome!" Physics marvelled, their eyes wide and glittering. Even Biology was impressed.

"I figure zat, wiz some changes, ze alkali could do ze same to any two organisms wiz same number of ze chromosomes." Chemistry pulled out a lighter purple vial, and then a cardboard box. The box was erupting with squeaks and scratching sounds.

"Are those... hamsters? Are we sure that's ethical?" Biology tilted her head.

"Poor babies!" Physics rushed over to the box, and Chemistry quickly blocked him.

"Don't fret, ze rodents are in a trance-like state, zey won't feel a thing." He assured Physics.

"I think you should stick to plants, Chem." Biology responded, still nonchalantly perched upon her stool.

Chemistry didn't react to Biology's statement, and opened the box, slowly tipping the vial over.

"No!" Physics exclaimed, reaching up to snatch the vial. He jumped to get a hold of the vial, but instead knocked it out of Chem's grip. Chemistry dived to catch it, and Physics dived to stop him. Biology got up to help, but was too late, and the vial shattered, leaving soapy, light purple liquid all over the floor.

And all over them.