Lucy is used in a demonstration for class

Lucy and Kim hurried across campus.

The university itself was vast, encompassing plenty of wide open green spaces between its stoic brick buildings. It was beautiful in the summer and though the early morning breeze was cool, the bright blue sky above already promised a beautiful day.

The girls rushed into the science building and took their usual seats in class, arriving in the large auditorium with only minutes to spare before Professor Morris started her lecture. Lucy swore the wave of hushed chatter in the room grew quieter when she entered, but shook it off as a coincidence, or just another sign that she and Kim were late.

Professor Morris, Lucy guessed, was in her mid-thirties. Frizzy haired and broad shouldered, she was loud but kind and patient with her students. Lucy thought she looked like she’d have been more at home in the wilds of Africa than a classroom, which, considering the subject, kind of made sense.

“Okay class today we’re reviewing our understanding of Bernard’s principals of Morphology, their uses and limitations in regards to mammalian classification…”

Though Lucy got out her notebook and tried to pay attention to the lesson, she couldn’t get thoughts of the coming meeting between her parents and Max out of her head… would they like him? What if they didn’t approve? What if something went wrong…?

It was only when she felt Kim elbow her softly in the ribs that Lucy realised she'd completely zoned out, and her heart leapt into her throat when she looked up to see Professor Morris staring right at her expectantly.

“Uh…” Lucy felt her cheeks go red as she glanced around, only now aware that the eyes of most of the class were on her.

“I said I need a volunteer Miss Carpenter…” Professor Morris repeated, her voice edged with a sharpness Lucy hadn’t heard from the woman before.

“I… oh… ok…” The brunette stammered unsure, dropping her pen and giving Kim a look of panic before she reluctantly stood from her seat and walked nervously to the front of the room.

“Turn and face the class...”

Lucy felt Professor Morris’ hands hold her shoulders gently as she stood looking at the faces of the other students staring back at her.

“Okay class, so just as a little exercise today we’re going to apply Bernard’s principals of classification to Lucy here…” The professor continued while Lucy felt her cheeks getting hot, unsure as to what was about to happen. “What animal is Lucy?”

“Human?” someone from the class tried.

“No...” Morris scolded, causing murmurs in the room and making Lucy frown in confusion, “You’re using existing knowledge. Imagine you’ve never seen Lucy before… I want you to judge her purely on Bernard’s principals. What clues can we get from her morphology?”

“Uh… she’s bi-pedal…?” a girl in the front row asked, unsure.

“Good!” Professor Morris turned to the board and Lucy could hear the sound of her rapidly writing with chalk, “Sometimes bi-pedal… what else?”

Sometimes? Lucy thought, feeling increasingly self-conscious as her classmates studied her.

“Forward facing eyes…”

“Forward facing eyes, good… what does that indicate?” Morris coaxed.

“She’s a predator?”

“Right! What else?”

“She has breasts!” another girl called out, causing a ripple of whispers to erupt inside the room and Lucy felt her cheeks burning a brighter shade of pink. Behind her she heard Professor Morris’ chalk tapping across the board.

“Breasts! Very good! What can we tell about Lucy from her breasts?”

Feeling the crushing self-consciousness of her breasts suddenly being the centre of attention, Lucy gasped quietly, wanting to reach up and protectively cover her chest with her hands. She couldn’t believe this conversation was happening!

“She’s sexually mature,” A guy in the front row offered, making her heart jump as she squirmed bashfully on the spot. Lucy turned to look pleadingly at the Professor but she was ignored in favour of continuing to call out to the class.

“She is yes, and what estimate can we make to her potential litter size?”

“One?”

“Right! Lucy has two breasts, so we’d estimate an average litter size of about one,” Professor Morris continued with a sigh, “You know this would be much easier if Lucy didn’t have her clothes on…”

Lucy gasped, her hands immediately clutching at her chest over her sweater protectively, even if that was a joke then it immediately made her heart race in panic, “P-Professor?!?”

She was even more stunned as she spotted some people in the class actually nodding! The brunette stared, wide-eyed, at Professor Morris in disbelief; she had expected her to laugh it off but there was a flicker of something in the woman’s eyes that made Lucy feel almost dizzy with alarm… she can’t actually be serious?!

Professor Morris coughed then waved of her hand dismissively, “No, of course… that’s fine... Maybe next time.”

“...I… I don’t…” Lucy stammered wanting to protest as she felt the warmth in her cheeks growing unbearably hot. Next time…?!

“Okay class, I think we have enough to go on from here so let’s move into formal classifications that…” The professor just continued speaking over her, causing the confused girl to bite her lip and meekly glance back at the class. She was looking desperately for anyone else that was acknowledging what Professor Morris had just said as weird, but it was like no one else had even heard it, even Kimberly was just smiling calmly and taking notes...

“We have to look at…” Professor Morris paused mid-sentence as Lucy felt her gaze land on her again, “Oh… I almost forgot… Lucy sit!” the woman's voice was quick and firm, like she was barking an order at a dog and it made Lucy jump on instinct. Feeling like she was being chastised the brunette struggled to think and just obediently scurried back to the relative safety of her seat in an embarrassed haze.

The second she was back behind her desk Lucy slid down in her chair, just wanting the ground to swallow her up. She looked at Kim; cheeks flushed and whispered, “What the hell was that…?”

“Shh!” The blonde hissed, silencing her and just continuing to take her notes, causing Lucy to gasp again in shock. Did Kim seriously think nothing weird just happened?