Sunbeams trickled in through the frosted glass windows, and the lab equipment made twisted shadows on the floor. I didn’t dare turn on the lights. I didn’t want to scare Swannie off if she was here. I was halfway through the main lab when Swannie’s door opened and I saw a huge backlit Afro before the light clicked off. She was standing with her back to me, fiddling around with the locks. “Going somewhere?” I said, like a character from a TV movie. She let out a little shriek and dropped something on her foot. “Kate!” She put a hand to her chest. “Oh my god. You scared me.” “Whoops.” “What’s up? I didn’t expect to see you this morning.” “I wanted to check on my cultures.” I looked from the brown paper bag on the floor to the guilty look on her face. She’d taken them. I knew it. “You haven’t seen them, have you?” “Um,” she said, her free hand reaching up to toy nervously with her necklace. “No, I didn’t notice any cultures. Are you sure you ran some?”
