“Hi, Pauline,” Leila says politely as she sits next to a dark-haired girl in her science class in the middle row of the room. “I see we’ve got a student teacher today. Oh joy.”
Various materials are laid out neatly on their shared desktop: small squares of thin glass, a bottle of no-name hand lotion, a cardboard box of cornstarch, a doorknob, and a container of clear tape.
“Good afternoon, class,” their regular instructor, Mr. Hayes, begins. “Please welcome our student teacher from Hamilton, who is here for a few weeks … Miss Shetland.” He steps aside and sits at his desk to allow a pleasant young woman with short brown hair to stand in his place.
“Good afternoon, students. I’m Miss Shetland, like the pony.” She grins but nobody grins back. “So, today we’re going to conduct an experimen
