Jonni walked into the chemistry classroom to find that lab stations were set. What is this, experiment and lab day everywhere? he sighed to himself. He took a seat at a table in the classroom portion and was quickly joined by Corinne and three girls he didn’t immediately recognize. As he looked around, he realized that he was the only boy in the entire class.
“Good afternoon, girls,” Ms. Huang greeted the class. “It’s lab day, so what are you waiting for? Get your coats on and get to work.” A line quickly formed in front of the rack that held all the lab coats, and since it was so long, Jonni flipped through his lab notebook and saw the names of the rest of the group: Nicole Forsyth, Heather Chenault, and LaShawndra Jones. After looking through the book, he joined the line, grabbed his coat and other supplies, and headed for the lab counter.
“Alright, here are all our supplies,” one of the other girls called out. “I have the instruction sheet here for the titration experiment, so we’ll be able to move quickly.”
“Heather, you want me to prepare the solutions?”
“Go ahead, Nicole. Jonni?”
“Yes?”
“Could you calculate the molarity for the base?” She handed him a sheet with calculations and materials on it.
“Sure thing.” Jonni went off to the side and began working to find the necessary figures. As Jonni worked back at the table, LaShawndra vented.
“Gosh, sometimes you wonder why there’s even a boy in this class. Like, even Ms. Huang agrees, you gotta have boobs to have brains.” Nicole and Heather nodded, while Corinne hung back a bit.
“Everything’s set up over here,” Heather announced. “Jonni?” she called out across the room. “Are those calculations done?”
“Yeah, here you go.” Jonni brought the sheet back with him and showed it to Heather, who promptly grabbed her head in frustration.
“No, Jonni, that’s not going to work. See, we want our results to come out like this.” She pointed to the open textbook. “Not like this,” she gestured at Jonni’s sheet. She sighed, rolled her eyes and glanced at Nicole, who just shook her head in frustration.
“Goddess, why did we get stuck with this lot?” she asked out loud, nodding towards Jonni. “Can’t boys do anything right?”
“Hey! Knock it off, will you, Heather? Jonni’s trying his best,” Corinne interjected, defending her best friend. As much as Heather was her friend, Corinne didn’t like her attitude towards boys; it was almost as bad as the teacher’s. This was one of the many reasons that Jonni and Heather didn’t get along—that and the fact that she was such a bossy bitch, not that Corinne would ever tell her friend that to her face.
“You’re the one who told him to do it that way.”
Heather shot her a look. She grabbed the project and shoved it towards her and Nicole. “Fine, why don’t you and your boyfriend go back to gossiping, or whatever it is that you boys do, and let us real women do all the work!”
“Just because he’s a boy doesn’t mean he can’t do this stuff! Stop tearing into him. This is a group project. At the end, we have to produce one lab report,” Corinne pleaded. “Can we just get through this experiment?” The other girls rolled their eyes a bit. “Let Jonni participate or your grades will suffer too.”
Heather had to think for a minute. "Fine, Jonni,” she spat out reluctantly. “Do those calculations again, but with the right procedure. Can you handle that?"
“Sure thing,” Jonni rushed to add so he could get out of Dodge and just be done with the lab. If girls and boys are so alike now, then why does she think we’re so different?
