“Here we go,” Xander said and Mike leaned in, both of them huddling over a shot taken from atop the dining room table of the entire party. Their eyes scanned the faces and clothes of those attending feverishly.
“Wasn’t she on the red couch?”
“Don’t ask me, I was on the balcony,” Xander reminded him, spitting out the sentence as quickly as possible, as if not liking its taste in his mouth.
“I can’t see anything. It’s too wide a shot,” Mike groaned, turning away and flipping through the stack to find more.
Xander kept staring at the photograph. As he did, the pupils of his eyes enlarged slightly, slowly, until they almost overtook him.
Mike finally noticed, doing a double take. “What are you doing?”
“There,” Xander said finally, the slightest hint of the Womb in his voice. Mike cringed, but looked to where he was pointing. Sure enough it was young Julie Peterson, freckles and big white smile and everything. “I can’t pick out the guy next to her, though,” he sighed, his pupils dilating to their normal size.
Mike smiled, noticing the black plastic jacket their guy was wearing. “I know that fool.”
Derek looked at Cathy from across the lab, watching her stare blankly out the window as he took down Miles’ biology notes for the next class. He hated this ‘theory of evolution’ crap, and briefly considered asking why they were forcing it down their throats so hard. Like they’d ever really need to know about evolution, anyway. The way he saw it, whatever happened, happened. There wasn’t too much he could really do about it.
Cathy still had her jean jacket wrapped around her slender body, her elbows sticking out a little through worn sleeves that added to the jacket’s character. Her hair was perfectly straight, and with the way she had her head tilted he could only see her nose sticking out from beneath her bangs.
He sighed heavily, turning his attention back to the board as Miles’ squeaky little red marker etched a crude diagram showing man’s evolution from apes.
At the back of the class, Tommy raised a hand in question.
“Yes?” Miles responded, poking his head up to see above the taller students, the action misplacing his gold-rimmed spectacles. He re-mounted them onto his nose carefully. “Yes, Thomas?”
“If man evolved from apes, than...”
“Why are there still apes?” Miles finished for him, smiling.
Tommy nodded.
“That’s a point that a lot of people bring up, Thomas, and I’m glad you did. Actually, there are over a hundred different species of ape. One particular species had the good sense and cunning to start to stand upright - to become men - and that particular species is now extinct. Gone from the face of the earth. Some say it’s coincidence... but...”
“There are no coincidences,” someone in the back quoted, remembering that it was one of the professor’s favorite literary quotes.
“Exactly.”
Again, Tommy raised his hand. Derek groaned, rolling his eyes and burying his forehead into his palm. He knew what was coming now.
“Yes, Thomas?” Miles asked again, smiling at the young man’s thirst for knowledge on this subject.
“Will man ever evolve again, like in X-Men?”
The whole class, with the exception of Cathy and Derek, roared into a fit of laughter. Miles chuckled softly, wiping his old eyes. “No... no, not like X-Men. But, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of evolution.”
Derek squinted.
Cathy piped up, speaking for the first time since class had begun. “What would be needed for evolution? For us to change again?”
Miles took off his glasses and started cleaning them with a pearly white handkerchief he always had in his coat pocket. He tilted his head to one side, carefully considering the question. “Well... there’d have to be a need to change for survival.”
“There’s definitely that around here,” Tommy piped up.
Once again there was a class-full of laughter for something that wasn’t funny. Cathy’s mouth went slack, her tongue suddenly dry.
Miles coughed softly to hide his utter amazement at the vulgarity of such a comment, then continued. “Yes, well. After a time, certain members of a species will learn a behavior, or sometimes even grow an adaptation that will allow them to survive their natural or un-natural limitations and predators. These are the beings that survive, and they pass these traits onto their young, until eventually a lot of beings have it and they become a separate species. So, theoretically, if man had a strong enough reason to evolve, he would do so... yes.”
“How?” Derek said finally, his brow furrowed in disbelief. “Where’s the room to change?”
Miles gestured toward him briefly, giving him credit for the point he’d made. “True. But, many scientists believe that the appendix is either something we used and eventually evolved to the point of no longer needing it, or that it’s something that we will grow to learn to use. To change further.”
Derek shook his head and frowned, then stared down at the notes he’d made. He couldn’t see any of this coming in handy on a test. “Can I go to the washroom?” he asked, seemingly out of the clear blue sky.
Mr. Miles looked at him side-on for a moment, not clearly understanding how the conversation had gone from one point to the next. “Yes, of course,” he said after a moment, waving toward the door.
Derek nodded his thanks and got up, walking out the door. Before it closed, he caught a glimpse of Cathy, finally turning away from the window long enough to watch him make his exit.
Derek walked through the halls, keeping a close eye out for Shnieder as he quietly made his way to the men’s room. His shoes scuffing softly against the tile floor and his jacket swishing back and forth were the only things he could hear. He
