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"What is it?"

"You’re gonna get busted for this"

I finished ram, which looked somewhat more obscene than I would have liked I brushed my chalk-dusty hands on my jeans and hopped up to sit on the tall lab bench that served as ht not be too thrilled about this field of study," I said, thinking it over "I didn’t get permission from the school board But I think we’d better take a chance It’s i we don’t know," said Connie Munoz, who had even more holes punched in her left ear than Rita I wondered if this was some kind of secret promiscuity index

"Shut up, Connie!" said Marta (Pearl studs, one per earlobe) "My dad would kill ht I knew this stuff"

"What you do is between you and your dad," I said "Or not Whatever But what you know isyou know into practice, just like you don’t have to go spraying the fire extinguisher around because you kno to use it But if your house is already on fire, kiddos, I don’t want you burning doith it just because nobody ever taught you hat"

Rayain, "Busted" He drew the laugh he wanted

"You knohat, Rayainst my teeth

"What?"

"It doesn’t matter a whole lot what the school board thinks" This dawned onoff my boss at the 7-Eleven, for example, two days before I left Tucson The invulnerability of the transient "There’s nobody else to teach this course," I said "And I only have a one-year contract, which I wasn’t planning on renewing anyway I’ot this provisional certification deal So that’s the way it is We’re studying the reproductive systeion or ize, but please take notes anyway because you never know"

They were completely quiet, but toward the end of the day you really can’t tell what that means It could be awe or brain death, the symptoms are identical

"Miss?" It was Barbara, a tall, thin, shy student (ears unpierced), whose posture tried always to atone for her height She’d latched onto me early in the seh-school persona "You aren’t co back next year?"

"Nope," I said "I’m outta here, just like a senior Only difference between you and etic s personal That’s just my modus operandi"

The kids blinked at this, no doubt wondering if it was a Latin name they needed to write down

"Your modus operandi is the way you work," I said "It’s what you leave behind when you split the scene of a criy II, two study halls, and I also pinch-hit an algebra class for a fellow teacher as frequently absent on account of a tricky pregnancy My favorite class was Biology II, my seniors-Raymo and Marta and Connie Munoz and Barbara-but on that day I had a ave everybody the lecture on baby prevention Barbara, as in ot to hear it three tiine she was the least in need

It surprised me as much as the kids, this crusade, and I suspected my motives; what did I care if the whole class had twins? More likely I wanted to be sure of a ter I erased the blackboard and stood for athe quiet with the bones of my Illinois coave me her silent, wide-jawed smile Here was a resident of Grace who had never hurt me in childhood, didn’t make me rack my memory for her name (she wore it on her pelvis), had thrown no spitballs at est that I belonged in Paris, France, or a rock ’n’ roll band

Froainst the sides of their terrariu soft white bellies This tis in the river; these particular representatives of the aniht this class would have to write Carolina Biological Supply and order those stiff preserved frogs that smell of formaldehyde, their little feet splayed like hands and their hearts exposed