When lunch was over, Sarah went with Karyn and Kyla over to the science annex for AP Biology. The class was in the middle of fetal pig dissection week, and Kyla couldn't wait to get her hands on a scalpel again. Day one had been oral prep, day two had been opening the pig up, and today, day three, they actually got to start poking around inside.
Sarah was slightly less thrilled, but with Karyn and Kyla as lab partners, she would be okay. She'd just agree to do more of the written work, and she wouldn't have to get dirty. The questions were pretty basic, and the more complicated vocabulary was all biological terms that Sarah had learned for homework anyway, and mostly derived from Latin, which she could compensate for with her French.
After the girls had gotten aproned and gloved and goggled, Kyla stabbed vengefully inside the pig's chest cavity. Sarah didn't quite understand how the girl could keep such geeky characteristics and still remain popular, but she didn't quite question it. She understood a moment later, though, when a kid from the group next to theirs grabbed his scalpel and mimicked Kyla's move as best he could. Kyla was now a trendsetter.
Sarah looked back at their own pig just in time to see Kyla split open the lungs and cut out the heart, crying "covah your heart, Indy!" The rest of the class laughed at the reference, but Sarah felt herself become nauseous and turned away.
The nausea turned into a headache for a moment, but both went away, and Sarah turned back saying, "Please, warn me when you do that."
Kyla couldn't help but giggle, saying "Sorry, Sarah. I wasn't thinking."
"It's okay," Sarah motioned limply with her hand.
"No, really," Kyla said, "I'll make it up to you." Kyla then pulled her face close to Sarah's and lowered her voice to a whisper, "Here, choose any boy in class and I'll get him to ask you out."
"What?" Sarah said, surprised.
"Oh, come on, you're friends with the most popular girl in school and a cheerleader, and you know how to take good care of yourself," Karyn butted in, "you're a lot more desirable than you think. You just need some self-confidence."
Sarah felt a sort of vertigo. Karyn Black and Kyla Leeson were not only giving her boyfriend help, they were also trying to boost her self-confidence. This would never have happened in the old reality, and it still felt very strange for Sarah. Then something occurred to her. "I don't think Biff can help me get a boy."
Kyla and Karyn burst out laughing. "She wasn't talking about Biff," Kyla said, "she was talking about herself. Duh!" Kyla stuck her tongue out and rubbed Sarah on the shoulder, "are you okay?"
Sarah looked at Karyn, confused. "But you said you don't like sports yesterday."
"When was that?" Karyn asked incredulously, then turned back towards the pig.
That's when Sarah noticed: out of the bottom of Karyn's skimpy skirt flowed a pair of extremely well-toned legs. Her shoulders seemed a bit broader, too. Sarah looked down at herself and saw that she seemed to have an extra layer of fat that she couldn't remember having before. That was it. Sarah, as Sam, had wished to be athletic as a separate thought from being a cheerleader. So Karyn had gotten her athleticism.
But why did that automatically make her a cheerleader? It hadn't done that to Jon. In fact, she'd just turned down being a cheerleader yesterday. Because... Sarah thought... because she wasn't into sports, and because the cheerleaders had treated Sarah badly. But now she did like sports, and the cheerleaders must be okay with Sarah now, because of Biff and Kyla. And Karyn probably shared fashion interests with them. Plus with Biff trying to convince her on top of the regular cheerleaders, she would have to give in eventually.
Karyn interrupted Sarah's thoughts, saying "You don't look so well. You can sit this one out, me and Kyla'll do all the work. And we'll get you a date for Friday," Karyn smirked, "Just point at the boy. We've got you covered."
Sarah heard Kyla pulling up a chair, and fell into it. She scanned the room: Who would she pick?
