Vital Signs [Ellen Banks]

[Wren Pak]

'Lab,' thought Wren, 'just fantastic. I get to work with a partner today.' Her glassy brown eyes shifted upwards towards the science building with a spark on annoyance as she began slowly walking towards the double doors. Being in Bio 101 wasn't too bad most of the time. The tests were easy, and the teacher didn't mind letting them do cheat sheet note cards if everyone complained enough. It was the group work that really ground Wren's gears. Since beginning the semester, the freshman had mostly kept to herself, opting out of clubs or activities. It had been joyfully absent of any "first year of college" cliches, just how Wren liked it. 

As she made her way down the warmly heated hallway into the lab room, the smell of disinfectant hit her nose like a dive bomb. She quietly scoffed and made her way to her usual seat, near the back corner of the room. Wren looked down onto her small lab write up paper to see who her partner would be this week. 'Ellen Banks...Do I know her?' she stared at nothing for a moment, attempting to think back. 'Blonde...long hair, sits in the back of the lecture hall.' As that mental picture formed, she began to set out the proper supplies listed on the sheet. It was a vital sign lab, meaning one had to be the "patient" and the other the "doctor", checking the patients blood pressure, test reflexes, and such. 'This hopefully shouldn't take too long. Not that I'm hurrying back to the dorms for anything, I guess.' 

As Wren stared down at the tongue depressor, she heard footsteps on the far side of the room, near the entrance. She slowly looked upward to see who had entered the room, and plastered on a quaint, fake smile. 

[Ellen Banks]

Great...Lab partners. JUST what Ellen needed.

Let the record show; Ellen really didn’t mind practical work. Not in the least actually, she relished it. Any opportunity she had at proving that she was on top of the class she took with two hands and refused to let go. There was a grand number of people that put pressure on Ellen’s back namely her father her last name and the idea school it felt like at some times, but no one put more pressure on Ellen to do well then herself. It was what has expected of her after all. Over the years she gained something of a reputation for being…..Well...Proud of her achievements and why wouldn’t she be? She got better grades than most of the school (Or, so she liked to think, it brought her a small amount of comfort to imagine herself the top of the school mathematically, the validity of which she could never prove but she felt it was something of a fair assumption on her part)

If she started falling behind then the rest of the school would have every reason to start hurling their slings and arrows at her, So as long as she kept up her perfect record, they had no validity to their insults.


...That was all the motivation she needed.

So, she knew she could trust herself when it came to work, but her classmates were a different story…She so hated to rely on other people for anything let alone her grade, so...she always thought it was prudent to lay down the law from the outset “Shut up” She snapped at the girl putting her hand up hoping to assert her dominance over her lab partner “Listen. Learn. You do what I say, and you’ll get an A. All you have to do is stand there and follow orders...Understand?”