Sunsets on the East

Chapter 3

Sam hadn't realized how focused she had been in her reverie until Professor James came to a stop and she nearly ran into the back of his tweed coat. Glancing around at her surroundings, she took note of the familiar entrance to their research team's laboratory.

"Go ahead and get changed, Sam. I have to grab some things from my office, but gather the others quickly— I have some good news to share." James said, and with a nod of acknowledgement from her, he turned the corner and went into his office.

Running a hand through her hair, Sam started in the opposite direction, towards the changing facilities where her locker was waiting for her. The room was quiet when she entered, the smell of chemicals from the laboratory next door wafting in through the air vents. It smelled comforting in a way, as Sam felt most at ease in the laboratory when she had a vial in one hand and a syringe in the other. Her hands deftly slid numbers into the silver lock on her locker, and soon the device came loose in her hand.

The red locker made a loud creak as it opened, revealing two piles of folded, light blue scrubs on the top shelf, an off-white lab coat dangling from a hanger, and small black boots on the bottom. Quickly stripping and throwing on her lab uniform, Sam was soon in her attire. She checked her appearance in a small compact mirror she had hung on her locker door, taking note of the brightness of her eyes and stray wisps of hair caught at the edges of her lips. On the chest of her lab coat, a small nameplate was pinned crookedly with the words Samantha Allegrano and "Undergraduate Research Assistant" engraved on it. She frowned and quickly straightened the pin.

With one last look at the mirror, she tied her hair up in a messy bun and shut the locker door, before making way to the laboratory. Her sanctuary.

"Someone's late," a familiar voice called out in a sing-song voice. Sam cracked a grin and raised her hands in mock defeat. At the entrance to the lab, she quickly sanitized her hands before reaching towards the row of latex gloves, face masks, and safety goggles on the wall beside her.

"Missed me that much, Professor Moore?" Sam replied in a similar tone, strapping a mask to her face after applying a pair of gloves. Her voice, now muffled through the mask, added, "You can blame James for that. That asshole kept our class after for nearly a half hour."

Christina Moore, a petite older woman with a mop of dirty blonde girl tied up precariously in a bun, leaned against one of the many granite tables in the room. She was the Assistant Professor of the Study. Dressed in the same attire as Sam, her pregnant belly bulged against the fabric of her scrubs. Her eyes, a mesmerizing emerald green, watched Sam with a twinkling expression. "Hush," she chided, rubbing a thoughtful hand on her belly. "Don't curse in front of the baby."

"The baby can't hear yet, darling." Miles skirted around the pregnant woman, the saunter of his hips filled with grace and sass. His dark caramel skin was tinted a light blue in the fluorescent lighting, but his dark brown eyes that always shone bright hardly needed the lighting's assistance. He was a rather tall and lean man, who had been working as a graduate student under Professor James and Professor Moore for two years.

As Miles passed Sam, he slapped her ass lightly as he disappeared into the specimens room. Sam grinned and shook her head, searching for the other graduate student that made up their team. She finally spotted Suzuki by the equipment section, her dark black hair pulled into a high ponytail, accenting the perfect circle of her face. Her glasses bulged behind her goggles and she was biting the end of the pencil as she took stock of the team's materials.

Sam drifted to her usual work area, one of the dozen granite tables towards the center of the room. Her lab documents were stacked precariously on one side of the table, while the rest was littered with pens, empty syringes, and post-it notes holding the careful scrawl of her research entries.