Cassie opened her box. Immediately the green frog inside made a hop towards freedom. Cassie was ready for this. Shooting out her hand she grabbed the small slimy wet frog.

      "Where do you think you're going froggy?" Cassie sneered as she griped the frog in a vice.

      Holding the frog over the dissection pan, Cassie attempted to use the pithing procedure. Casper had gone over it as they had taken notes. So while the rest of the student with frogs, including Susan waited for instruction, Cassie did not.

      So while Casper was still helping setup the students with laptops, Cassie had begun.

      She took the frog's head and placed it into her palm. Its body was between her thumb and forefinger. The frogs pulsating heart could be felt through her hand. Taking a sharp pin, Cassie opened the frogs mouth. The purpose of Pithing was to severe the spinal cord, and then destroy the frogs brain. This would render the frog, brain dead, that way it would feel no pain. Working on her own farm, she was completely comfortable with the procedure. She had even butchered and eaten her families pigs and chickens, this was no different.

      The frog was against the insertion of the needle into its body. It's legs thrusting, as if against imaginary water in fear. It also arched its back in protest, but clearly Cassie was larger and smarter then it. The needle found its way into the foramen magnum cavity where Cassie, with a vicious thrust and twist, eradicated the frogs spinal cord and brain.

      Flipping the limp frog belly up, she stuck the four pins into its appendages. This would prevent movement during the procedure.  Each pin stuck into a leg holding it down against the wood board in the pan. Cassie was no slouch, she planned to become a vet. So the next process of removing the belly skin was going smoothly.

      "Cassie, you were supposed to wait." Said Susan as she watched her friend gouge at the frog.

      "I know what I'm doing." Cassie said as she started on the frogs abdomen.

      "But we don't even know the assignment Cassie!" Susan raised her voice. With that, Casper caught wind.

      "Susan, it was all clearly in the notes if you paid enough attention."

      Casper walked over to the two girls. "What's all this now?" He asked.

      Cassie went over the details of what she had done, as Casper smiled. "Very good Cassie, you're doing fine. I saw you pithing him earlier as well, very good. Just go grab a lab report sheet. I'm sure filling out the required information for the dissection should be easy for you."

      "Yes Casper." Cassie replied brightly.

      "You will make a very good Vet Cassie, if you keep this up." Casper said as he went to go help another student start the virtual frog dissection on another laptop. "Next time wait for instructions though, okay?"

      "Understood." Cassie replied to Casper.

      "See." Cassie replied as she diverted her gaze back to Susan.

      Without waiting for Susan's reply, she got up and headed towards the front of the room to get her lab report sheet.

      Susan had been rather distracted since this morning, the irregular cruelty of her friend was still hitting home, even the way she butchered the frog. Still she understood that Cassie was pursuing a career as a vet, and she shouldn't take this class in the wrong way. I can do it too, she thought.

***

      Jason was in pitch darkness. A minute earlier he had suffered a horrible dream. Even now he couldn't accept what his dream had been. He wasn't even sure it was a dream. Giant classmates had shoved him inside a large box. Or at least that's where he thought he was. It was so dark and cold, he wasn't even sure anymore. His skin felt clammy and even his body felt completely strange.

      When his heart was finally starting to slow down from his panic earlier, Jason met with a bright light. His heart rate quickened yet again as his classmates Susan's face lit up his entire world.

***

      Susan had not had a clear head when she had been taking notes, in fact, Casper had prepared a demonstration for the students on double Pithing. The lesson plan had entailed teaching the student how to do pithing, and also to draw and map out the various organs inside, including the still beating heart. Of course it was supposed to be done under supervision, Casper accepted Cassie's talent and hadn't disciplined her. Susan had watched Cassie do it though, and she was not going to let her friend get ahead.

      Opening the box, Susan looked down at the frog. Unlike Cassie's frog, it looked stunned and had made no attempt at fleeing the box. Sending down her hand, she squeezed the slimy frog in her hand. With little care, Susan pulled out the same instrument she had seen her best friend use. Stabbing the frog with the needle, she obliterated it's spinal cord paralyzing the small creature. Pulling out the needle in a hurry as she saw her friend returning, she had failed to realize she had left the brain of the frog undamaged.

      Cassie held two papers in her hand as she approached her best friend. Susan was already pinning her own frog, just as she had done.

      "Wow Susan, your almost getting ahead of me. I thought you said you were going to wait?" Said Cassie as she retook her seat.

      "Well I wanted to catch up, and I did everything like you did. Following the notes like you said was easy."

      "Well let's take it slowly together. If I say I helped you, Casper won't have a problem with that."

      "Sure Cassie."

      Working together, they both started the dissection. Susan was a bit more clumsy at times, often claiming she felt the frog move. But eventually they both had finished their drawings. Beating hearts in their tweezers, Susan and Cassie both smiled as they called over Casper to check their work. They had taken extra time the other classmates had not had since they started earlier. Using this extra time the two smiling girls were able to better map out the organs more carefully. By the end of it, Cassie had even shown Susan how to remove some of the Organs for better examination. Susan wasn't very good at it, but Cassie didn't particularly care that much about the brain dead frog anyways.

      With both Frogs heart still beating, to Casper's satisfaction, the girls along with the rest of the class which had done good proper dissections. With class time running out, Casper instructed the class to put their frogs down the sink disposal. Right after that, Casper noted the absence of one of his students before the bell rang.

      "That was fun!" Said Cassie Excitedly.

      "Yeah." Responded Susan, now in higher spirits. But that mood was quickly ruined by Cassie's next demeaning comment.

      "I wonder if Janet had been in one of the stomachs of those frogs we dissected?" Cassie laughed.

      Susan didn't respond to her friend.

      "Or better yet, what if we turned Janet's bitch gang into frogs, like yours."

      "That's far to gruesome Cassie, even for a Joke! Besides Casper said the frogs wouldn't feel any pain." Susan exclaimed.

      "Well that's mostly true Susan, at least my frog felt no pain."

      "What do you mean by that Cassie!?"

      "Well, you botched your pithing Susan. The way it kept twitching like that as you cut it, as if it was desperately trying to get off the dissection board. It was so hard during all of it. I wanted to laugh so badly." She chuckled. "I didn't want us to get in trouble after all. Casper is sure to give you an A on the lab report." Cassie said as she reached her locker.

      "That's horrible Cassie! Why didn't you tell me it was still alive?"

      "It was funny, and it was just a frog, not a horse or cow, or Janet for that matter." She paused for a moment. "Well if it was Janet, I might have burst out laughing, no matter how hard I tried to hold it in."

      "It was Funny!?"

      "Of course it was, and my frog was alive too, it just didn't have a brain. But what's the difference anyways?"

      "There's a huge difference Cassie!" Susan yelled, just as their friend Joel arrived.

      "Hello Joe." Said Cassie, to her other friend, hoping to disrupt the negative atmosphere between her and Susan.

      "Hey Cassie, how'd it go this morning?" Joel asked in wonderment. Her day today had begun with the setup for trapping Janet as a bug. It actually didn't irk her that much, she wasn't even sure if what they said would really happen. As far as she was concerned, she was just playing along with her friends games.

      "Don't interrupt Joel, me and Cassie aren't finished!" Susan grabbed Cassie's arm as she tried to position herself behind Joel.

      "Look I'm sorry about not telling you Susan, but your being very rude to Joe." Cassie put up her hands to fruitlessly block her friends banter. More likely it was just a natural hand gesture.

      "Don't try to change the subject!" Susan shouted. Clearly she was starting to become irate. The way Cassie kept dodging her was enough to infuriate anyone trying to have a discussion.

      "What's wrong with you guys?" Joel asked, still curious of this morning's escapades. Clearly she also saw the argument unfolding around her though.

      "Nothing's wrong Joe, Susan and I are just having a bit of an argument."

      "Ah huh." Joel nodded in acknowledgment.

      "What argument, I just want to know why you think torturing a small frog is funny?"

      "Susan it was just a frog, get over it, it's not as if it was important."

      The two girls were both looking ready to tackle one another, slowly back off, more so in the case of Susan. Maybe Cassie was just preparing to be jumped, it was hard to tell with the lack of information Joel had at this moment.

      "I think I get what's going on." Joel spoke. "Cassie, just tell Susan your sorry, and that she was right."

      "Joe if you think for a second I will apologize over some stupid frog..." She looked over at Susan. Joel was right she realized, Susan just wouldn't see proper logic. "Your right Susan, I was wrong, I'm sorry."

      "Isn't that fine Susan?" Joel said as she pushed the two girls back together.

      "I'll accept it because of Joe. We'll talk later Cassie." Susan said as she was a few inches from Cassie's face.

      "So how did it go you guys? Is Janet sitting in that terrarium in your hand?" Joel asked inquisitively.

      "Funny story Joe, Cassie and me were planning to pin up the bitch in Susan's butterfly collection. Then she disappeared and left her clothes and stuff in the gym. We think she crawled out of there as a different bug. Bet a bird got her by now."

      "We don't know that for sure Cassie. She could still be around somewhere, we should look for her." Stated Susan.

      "No way Susan, it's a waste of time." Cassie said as she swiped her hand through her vanilla smelling hair. "Bugs are meant to be eaten and squished." Cassie grinded her foot back and forth on the ground.

      Joel laughed at this fantasy of theirs. "So you guys coming to lunch?"

      Both the girls nodded as they headed towards the cafeteria. Nothing was truly settled, but they were all hungry.

To be Continued.