Joan of Snark Ch. 15

"Alright class, settle down and take your seats."

Joan slowly lifted a bleary gaze and took in the sight of Mrs. Omen standing at the front of the biology class.

"Where's Mr. Selter?" David asked without even bothering to raise his hand.

"Mr. Selter has decided to take a leave of absence for personal reasons," Mrs. Omen explained.

"Why?" Tanya inquired.

"Well, that's none of your business," Mrs. Omen said.

Aaron turned around in his seat in the front row and looked at Joan. Joan quickly looked away and stared down at the surface of her desk. She could feel he cheeks get hot.

"I'm going to fill in for today until a more appropriate replacement can be found." The older woman flipped open a file folder and shuffled through what appeared to be Mr. Selter's lesson plans for the semester.

"So Mr. Selter's going to be gone a long time, huh?" said David.

"We're not sure how much time he needs off. But that's none of your concern." Mrs. Omen seemed to find what she was looking for and pulled the day's lesson plan out of the folder.

"I hope Ms. Troy takes over as our new biology teacher," David whispered to Tanya and Joan.

"Ms. Troy teaches drama and art, dummy. Why would she teach biology?" Tanya scoffed.

"Dunno, it doesn't seem that hard to me," David shrugged. "Isn't most teaching just reading out of the text book."

"There's a little more to it than that," Mrs. Omen said as she glared at adolescent boy sitting at the back of the class.

"Sorry, Mrs. Omen," David grinned at her apologetically. "You have very good hearing."

Mrs. Omen gave him a disapproving look before looking down at the paper in her hands.

"It's my understanding that you've been learning about viruses?"

"Yeah, like rabies," Tanya volunteered.

"Please raise you hand if you're going to answer," Mrs. Omen chastised. "Well, today, we're going to learn about phages. Can anyone tell me what phages are?"

Aaron quickly raised his hand.

"Yes," Mrs. Omen called on him.

"Bacteriophages are viruses that infect and destroy bad bacteria," Aaron replied.

"That's exactly right," Mrs. Omen approvingly replied. "If you look back at medical history, phages have been used for almost a hundred years to kill all sorts of bacteria. Very bad bacteria. Bacteria which can kill humans or make them very sick. Bacteria like dysentery and salmonella. And strains of bacteria that can cause sepsis," she listed off.

A girl near the front raised her hand. "But doctors don't use viruses nowadays, do they? I mean, now we have antibiotics."

"I can see someone didn't do their homework," Mrs. Omen shook her head and clucked her tongue. "Now more and more bacteria and becoming resistant to antibiotics. So it's becoming extremely difficult to cure certain bacterial infections. So phages play an important role in dealing with super bugs."

As the class continued, Joan's mind drifted elsewhere. She felt a fluttering in her chest as she looked at the teacher's desk situated behind where Mrs. Omen stood. She thought about what took place on that desk the day before. She felt a slight tingling between her legs as she remembered Mr. Selter's skillful mouth on her virginal womanhood.

But then as her gaze shifted over to the back of Aaron's head, she got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach as she remembered her classmate walking in on her and her teacher. And the argument that ensued. She recalled how angry Aaron was and how ashamed Mr. Selter had been. And it had all been her fault.

But what really troubled Joan was the dream she had just experienced. That disturbing nightmare where she had the body of a raven. And she had been just about to killed a man.

And then, when she woke up, she had not been at home in her bed. She had found herself outdoors standing in front of the rectory. Apparently she had sleep walked. Something she had never done before. What on earth is going on with me, Joan wondered to herself.

"So as we can see, viruses have a bad reputation. Because some viruses do harm human beings," Mrs. Omen began to summarize. "But just remember, not all viruses are the same. These pathogens, which are technically non-living, can protect us." She looked around the classroom at her young pupils. "Sometimes another organic living organism is actually more harmful to the health of humanity. And we can use these non-living entities to kill them off, which benefits us."

The school bell rang shrilly, indicating the end of of classes for the day.

"Read the next chapter in your textbooks and come to class prepared tomorrow," Mrs. omen instructed and she gave a warning glance to the girl near the front.

As the students gathered up their books and binders, Joan eyed Aaron making his way toward the door. She swiftly followed after him.

"Joany, where are you off to in such a hurry," Tanya called after her.

"I just need to talk to someone," Joan replied as she hurried after the short boy with shaggy brown hair.

It took her a few moments, but she eventually caught up with Aaron. She grabbed onto the sleeve of his shirt. He spun around and scowled at her. "What do you want, Joan?"

"Did you tell?" she whispered.

"Tell what?" he asked, not bothering to lower his voice.

Joan let out a sigh of frustration. "Did you go to administration? Is that why Mr. Selter had to leave?"

"I didn't say a word to anyone," Aaron solemnly replied. "Mr. Selter must have decided to leave on his own."

"Really?" Joan raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Swear to god." Aaron raised up his right hand as if taking an oath.

"This is all my fault." Joan inhaled as she tried desperately to stifle a sob.

"None of this is your fault!" Aaron protested. "Mr. Selter is an adult!"

"But I'm eighteen," Joan countered.

"But he's our teacher! You're a student. He has power over you. Mr. Selter should have told you 'no'." He looked into Joan's eyes with a serious stare. "He knows that what he did is wrong. And that's why he's taken a leave of absence. Hopefully he's off somewhere getting some therapy."

"I just feel guilty." Joan looked down and slumped her shoulders.

"Don't!" Aaron asserted. "Mr. Selter was in a position of authority over you. He's the one who should be feeling guilty. Not you."

"I guess ..." Joan looked uncertainly at her classmate.

"Are you going to be okay?" he asked, now looking more concerned.

"Yeah," Joan nodded. "Except that this evening my mom is making me visit gross old Father O'Connor in the hospital. Uh!"

Aaron wrinkled up his nose in disgust. "Oh, sorry to hear that."

"Want to come with me?" Joan hopefully offered.

"No way!" Aaron frantically shook his head.

"Come on, Aaron! I know that Father O'Connor can be unpleasant and grumpy. But you you used to be one of his altar boys. He's really sick. Don't you just want to go tell him hello. And that you hope he gets better soon?"

"But I don't hope he gets better." Aaron had an angry defiant look on his face.

"What?" Joan blurted out. "I know that Father O'Connor is a mean old man. But Aaron, you can't possibly mean that!"

"Joan, being grumpy and mean are the least of Father O'Connor's flaws."

"What are you talking about? What did he do?"

"Listen, if Father O'Connor doesn't pull through, I'm not exactly going to be crying at his funeral." Aaron turned around and began walking down the hallway.

Joan stared after her classmate until he turned right, farther down the hall, and was no longer in sight.