"There is no way in hell that I’m going to cut up a defenseless creature," Claudia Evans declared.

Tom Lindsey stared at his lab partner as if she’d lost her mind. "Listen to me, Claudia. We’re high school students. We do not have the right to exercise free choice. The way it works is this: the teacher distributes our lab assignment. We do it. We hand it in. We get it back with a little red letter in the corner, telling us how we did according to the teacher’s whim or wisdom."

Tom searched Claudia’s face for some sign that he was getting through to her. He didn’t see it, so he stressed his key point again: "There is no free choice anywhere in the process, Claudia. Free choice is not an option."

Claudia folded her arms over her chest. "I’m not doing it."

Tom tried not to be distracted by how beautiful she looked when she was being stubborn. Actually, he thought, she looked beautiful all the time.... He shook himself mentally and refocused on their conversation. "You don’t have a choice, Claudia. And besides, I can’t do it by myself. I need your help. You’re my lab partner."

"I’m not doing it. And you shouldn’t do it either."

"Claudia. We’ve been arguing about this for the past twenty minutes. Please ... can we just get started on our lab?"

"If you do this, Tom, I will never forgive you."

"Claudia! What is there to forgive or not to forgive? Schoolwork isn’t the end of the world."

"This isn’t just schoolwork, Tom. This is a matter of life and death."

"Yeah," Tom agreed. "The frog’s."

"We agree then."

"No, Claudia, we don’t agree. What you’re arguing ... that we -- you and I -- should arbitrarily -- i.e., without checking with the teacher first, not that she would ever let us do this -- decide not to do this lab assignment ... what you’re arguing is crazy."

"No, it’s not crazy. It’s an ethical dilemma. Why are we any better than they are?" she demanded, waving a hand towards the frogs in the glass aquarium near the window. "Look at them. It’s sick the way they’ve just left them there on death row. They’re just waiting for someone to come along and kill them so we can do the rest of the lab and dissect them next week." She pointed at the dead frog in the metal tray in front of them. "There’s no help for this little guy. But the others ... why should they die for our research? Why are we more worthy of life?" She threw up her hands dramatically. "I think we should picket the school to protest this unethical treatment of animals."

"Picket the school?" Tom repeated weakly.

"We can get people to sign petitions. Then we can have everyone march in front of the school entrance one morning later this week before school starts so no one can get in or out. Then while everyone is occupied outside, we can free the frogs. But we have to act fast before they put them to sleep or whatever they do to them for next week’s lab."

"Free the frogs?" Tom repeated. He shook his head in amazement. "What happened to the girl who sat beside me for weeks and didn’t say anything?"

Claudia laughed, as if she suddenly realized that she had never been so passionate or fervent in his presence. She shrugged. "I hang out with my cousin Nicole on most weekends. She tends to rub off."

Tom rubbed his aching temples and sighed. "Do me a favor. Don’t spend any more time with her before biology class, okay?"

"So. Are you going to help me organize this?"

Tom sighed again. "Well, I don’t think I can do this lab without you." He took a deep breath. "Look. Why don’t you tell me why I should help you, then I’ll decide."

Claudia’s slow, gorgeous smile made his knees go watery. She leaned in close so that she could keep her voice low, and began to tell him why he should help.

Within a couple of minutes, she had explained her plan and rationale, and he had missed most of it because all he’d been able to think about was the scent of roses in her hair and the softness of her skin and the curve of her cheek.

By the time she finished explaining everything, he had no idea about what he’d gotten himself into.

* * * *

Alvin Tracy, the principal of West Roswell High School, studied the two people sitting outside his office. They were sitting close together and holding hands. He cleared his throat to get their attention. "Dr. Evans, Mrs. Evans?"

They looked up. "We’re both ‘Dr. Evans’ actually," the man corrected politely.

"My apologies." Mr. Tracy studied them a millisecond longer, then invited them into his office. He shut the door to ensure their privacy and sat down at his desk. When the couple remained standing, he gestured towards the two chairs in front of his desk. "Please sit down."

As they sat down, Mr. Tracy noticed that they were still holding hands. How interesting, he thought. It reminded him of the phrase that the French teacher was always throwing out in staff meetings: plus ça change, plus ça reste la même chose. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Looking at the couple in front of him, he knew truer words had never been spoken.

He recognized them, of course. Liz Parker and Max Evans, two of the brightest students West Roswell High School had produced in the last twenty years. He’d tracked their scholarly careers out of professional interest. After they’d graduated from West Roswell, they’d gone to Stanford University for their undergraduate degrees. After Stanford, they’d both gone to Harvard, Liz for a Ph.D. in molecular biology and Max for medical school. They had done West Roswell proud.

But they were not in his office to reminisce about old times. Not even the time he had caught them making out in the eraser room and had had to call their mothers in to brief them on the situation. He smiled to himself. It always surprised him how true the saying about "what comes around, goes around" was.

This time, he had called Liz and Max into his office to discuss the exploits of *their* progeny.

He flipped open the file folder in front of him. Claudia Isabel Evans, fifteen years old, sophomore. She looked a lot like her mother, he noted, glancing up from the photo attached to her file to the woman sitting in front of him.

Except for the eyes; those seemed to be her father’s. By all accounts, the daughter was brilliant. A star scaling to the scholastic heights reached by her parents. Ivy League schools were already paying attention to her standardized test scores, the guidance counselor had told him just that week.

"Mr. Tracy, could you tell us what this is all about?" Liz Evans asked.

He cleared his throat again. "Earlier this week, Claudia decided to mobilize the student body to protest the dissection of frogs in sophomore biology classes. She and her lab partner freed the frogs." He stopped when he heard what sounded suspiciously like a snort of laughter from Max Evans.

Mr. Tracy frowned at him. Liz nudged her husband, and Max got his face back under control. Mr. Tracy wondered about the reproachful look Liz gave Max, but decided not to get bogged down in their interaction. Instead he continued sternly: "Freeing the frogs is against school policy. Those frogs are an important part of the science curriculum." He frowned at Max and Liz again, trying to gauge their reactions. "I don’t need to tell you that Claudia’s behavior was very disruptive."

Liz looked appropriately disturbed, although there was a funny light at the back of her eyes, almost like she knew a joke but wasn’t telling it. Max looked like he was still trying not to smile.

Unsure about how he should interpret the funny light in Liz’s eyes and Max’s stifled smile, Mr. Tracy decided to ignore both reactions. He tapped his finger on the file folder in front of him. "Your daughter is an excellent student. I wouldn’t want to see any black marks on her permanent record. But something needs to be done about this situation so that she realizes what she and her lab partner did was wrong."

"Wrong?" Max repeated, sounding unconvinced. Out of the corner of his eye, Mr. Tracy saw Liz slap Max’s hand lightly.

"Right." At that moment, Mr. Tracy decided he was completely confused by the Evanses’ reactions to this incident. He shook his head to clear it. "Because of her stellar academic record and because all the frogs were found, the guidance counselor and I are willing to be lenient this situation. Claudia’s only school punishment will be detention every day after school for the next four weeks. The guidance counselor and I agree that it would be best that if any other punishment needs to occur, it should be your decision, and it should occur privately, within your family."

Liz nodded and stood up, tugging Max up with her. "Thank you, Mr. Tracy. We’ll take it from here."

With a confused look on his face, Mr. Tracy watched Liz Evans practically drag her husband out of his office. What a strange couple, he thought. They seemed amused, almost pleased by their daughter’s inappropriate actions. How strange.

* * * *

Later that night, after dinner, Claudia sat facing her parents across the kitchen table. They were discussing her frog exploits.

"Claudi, what were you thinking?" her mother asked softly.

Claudia studied her clasped hands. "I freed the frogs because it wasn’t right that we should be dissecting them. They’re living creatures; they can sense pain. It’s cruel and unusual treatment. It’s what they mean when they talk about the unethical treatment of animals. That’s why I did it." When she peeked up at her parents, she was surprised to see that they didn’t look angry.

If anything, they looked ... amused.

"That’s why you freed the frogs," her father stated, but Claudia knew it was really a question.

"Yes."

"No other reason?"

"No other reason."

"Okay." Her mother got up from her chair. "I’m satisfied. Are you, Max?"

Her father nodded and got up too. "I guess we’ll go to bed." He took her mother’s hand and started to lead her to the kitchen door.

Claudia stared after her parents. They were taking this entirely too well. She’d always thought her parents were cool, but this was ridiculously cool. Nikki would never believe it. *Claudia* didn’t even believe it, and she was witnessing it in real-time. "Wait!" she cried. "That’s it? No punishment?"

Her mother smiled at her over her shoulder. "No punishment, Claudi. You didn’t do anything that couldn’t be fixed. And you’re already going to have to do extra work in detention to make up for the disruption to the class."

"That’ll be enough," her father agreed. "In fact, you should probably get to bed soon, Claudia. You’re going to have a long day tomorrow because of the detention." He stopped and turned back to face her. "Unless there’s something else you want to talk about?"

Something about the tilt of her father’s head made Claudia look more closely at his face, then at her mother’s. That was when she realized that the amusement she’d seen in their eyes was hiding a deep concern. She almost sighed in relief. Knowing her parents, concern was the kind of reaction she had originally expected; the amusement had thrown her. She gave them a small smile, thinking that she should come clean about the entire frog incident. "There was another reason. A stupid one."

Her parents exchanged a look but waited for her to continue.

"I freed the frogs, and I convinced Tom to help me, and I got everyone to march in front of the school, because when I saw those little frogs in those little metal trays all I could think about was that it’s exactly the attitude that allows and promotes the dissection of other species in high school biology classes that makes us Czechoslovakians afraid all the time." She took a deep breath. "And all of a sudden, I couldn’t take it anymore. I thought it was wrong. That the frogs didn’t deserve to die in some lab. That no one should be a martyr to research."

"Oh, honey." Her mother came over to the table and pulled Claudia up from her chair and into a tight hug. Her father was right behind her mother, wrapping his arms around both of them.

Her father kissed the top of Claudia’s head. "We suspected there was something more," he said, "But we didn’t want to plant an idea that might not have been there."

Her mother nodded. "It was your dad’s idea to play it cool." She grinned at Claudia’s father. "I think it’s because I once told him to take a psych class, and he listened to me. One of the few times." As Claudia watched her parents smile at each other over their private joke, she marveled at how sappy they could be sometimes.

After a minute, her father grew serious again. "Claudia, what you did wasn’t wrong. Your mom and I completely understand and applaud your thinking. But there are other ways to do something about the issues of diversity and tolerance than freeing the frogs in your sophomore biology laboratory."

"Diversity and tolerance?"

"Not to belittle the concern about the ethical treatment of animals, that’s what your deeper concern boils down to, doesn’t it?"

"I never thought of that, but I guess so."

Her mother smiled. "And unfortunately figuring out how to increase tolerance for diversity on earth is not something we’re going to be able to do tonight. How about if we talk about it some more tomorrow? When you’ve had a chance to think about it some more."

Her father nodded and kissed the top of Claudia’s head again. "That sounds like a good idea. Let’s all get a good night’s sleep, and then we can talk more in the morning before school."

Claudia almost groaned, but caught herself in time. All of a sudden, she wished they’d punished her. She loved her parents; she really did. But they liked to talk through things like no one else in the world. But then, that was what made them her parents, and she wouldn’t trade them in for anyone or anything.

They loved her, and she loved them ... even if they liked to talk things to death. At least they hadn’t gotten upset about her freeing the frogs.

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