Stories written by Schulzie

Anything for Science
Written by Schulzie

It was Sunday night. As far as I was concerned, Sunday night is the worst night of the week. It's the most boring night, for sure. There's never anything good on television. But what makes it really bad is that the next day is Monday which means, back to school. But this particular Sunday night turned out to be the beginning of a very interesting experience for me when the phone rang.

"Hello," I said, picking up the phone.

"Hi, Gary. This is Natalie." Natalie is my cousin. Her father and my mother are brother and sister. Even though we live in the same neighborhood, we don't see much of each other except at family occasions, mainly because of our age differences. I'm 17, while Natalie is 13. Four years is a big difference when you're a teenager.

"Hi, Natalie. What's up?" I asked, intensely curious since Natalie has never called me before. Not that we didn't like each other, it's just that with our age difference, we had little in common.

"Not much," she said, "I just wanted to give my favorite male cousin a call."

I laughed. "Natalie, I'm your ONLY male cousin." That was true. I was the rare exception in the Barker family. A male child among females.

"I know that," Natalie said, "but even if there were other boys in the family, I still think you'd be my favorite."

If this were a girl from school laying this bullshit line on me, I'd know she wanted something. Now all I had to do was to find out what Natalie wanted.

But I didn't find out right away. As a matter of fact, we had a very pleasant talk. Natalie was in middle school, finishing up 8th grade, so she would be going to my high school next year. I, on the other hand, am a senior so she and I wouldn't be there at the same time. The only time she and I were in the same school together was in elementary school. I was in 5th grade and she was a first-grader. Like I said, the age difference is a big deal.

The conversation covered a lot of topics, and I had forgotten my earlier suspicions about her reason for calling as we discussed her folks and her younger sister, music, movies and all sorts of things. It occurred to me that she was pretty intelligent for a 13 year old, and maybe in a few years, she'd be someone nice for guys to go out with and be with. Too bad she's younger than me, I thought. And too bad she's my cousin, too.

Well, my suspicions came right back to me when she asked a question I had expected earlier. "Gary, do you mind if I ask you for a really BIG favor?" Here it comes, I thought. Girls always seem to want something.

"Yessss???" I asked, somewhat cynically. My sarcastic tone went right over her head.

"I have this science project," she started, "it's a requirement for all eighth-graders to get a passing grade in science, and I was wondering if you could help me with it?"

It was no secret in my family that science was my favorite subject. In fact, I had already decided to major in science at college, and possibly get into a pre-med program. I was very interested in medical research.

"What kind of help?" I asked. "What kind of project is it? What's your topic?"

Natalie paused. "I wanted to talk to you about it in person...tomorrow, if that's okay with you?" she asked.

I sighed. If Natalie was like a lot of kids her age, my helping her would soon turn into my doing the project for her. Besides, I led a busy life. Besides school, I had a part-time job so I could earn some money for college, and I didn't have a lot of time to spend helping a 13-year old work on some science project for middle school, even if she was a blood relative.

"We can talk about it, Natalie. But I can't promise I'll have time to help you. I'm very busy these days, and..."

"Oh, don't worry," she said, "I'll only need your help for one afternoon or evening."

That might be do-able, I thought. But still, I wanted to hear more about the project. "Why don't we talk about it tomorrow, Natalie? Do you want to come over here?"

"Oh, no. I was hoping we could meet somewhere else. Like maybe at the park near your house. Could we do that? Meet at the park...at the gazebo?" she asked, seeming a little bit nervous for some reason.

"Yeah, I guess so," I told her, "but I can't get there before 4:30. Is that alright?"

"Yeah, 4:30 would be great," she replied. "Thanks, Gary. I'll see you then. Bye, now."

She hung up before I even got a chance to say "goodbye." Kids! What are you gonna do with them?

It seemed strange though, that she didn't want to meet here to discuss her project. Why did she want to meet at the gazebo in the park, I wondered. Oh, well. I didn't give it any more thought as I had something more important to worry about. I had a test in English tomorrow, and I needed to cram for it.

The next day, 4:30 came, and I was waiting at the gazebo. Natalie wasn't there yet. Five minutes passed, then ten. I was about to leave when I saw her coming up the slope. My goodness! Natalie wasn't a little girl anymore. She had actually grown up quite a bit since I last saw her on Christmas two years ago.

"Hi, Gary," she greeted me, giving me a big hug.

"Hi, I said, hugging her back. She really has grown up. She used to have a real tomboy, short haircut. But now, she had long, blonde hair that went halfway down her back. And where she used to be flat-chested, she now had fairly well-developed breasts. For a 13-year old girl, I'd say she had great tits. Her hips had broadened, making her former boyish figure disappear. Now, she was a very young, attractive woman. But what really struck me was her face. It was beautiful. Deep blue eyes, full lips, cute little nose, all set on a face with a clear complexion. She looked like a little angel - a sexy, little teen angel.

"Sorry, I'm late. But thanks for coming. I hope you can help me with my project," she said.

"So tell me about your project, Natalie," I said to her, still checking out how beautiful she had become.

"Well, it's going to be a biology project," she told me.

"Yes, go on, " I said.

"And it will be about reproduction," she continued.

"Uh-huh," I said, nodding my head.

"The human reproduction system," she told me, looking at me, checking for my reaction. I thought to myself, so...she wants to do something about sex. Typical 13 year old. Maybe that explains why she didn't want to discuss this at the house. She might have been embarrassed discussing it within earshot of my folks.

"I see."

She paused. "To be more specific, Gary, my project is on the male reproductive system."

Of course she didn't want to talk about this with her aunt and uncle nearby. I was kind of flattered that she felt comfortable enough talking to me about it. Considering I'm a guy, and I'm 4 years older than her.

"Well, Nat. It just so happens I know a lot about the subject. First of all, I've studied human reproduction in my Biology class, and...I'm a guy, so I think I can tell you something about the male reproductive system." She laughed at the personal reference.

"Well, that actually is quite helpful, Gary," she said. "I mean, that you're a guy and everything."

"So what is it you want to demonstrate in your project, Natalie? How can I help?" I asked her.

"My hypothesis," she explained, rather maturely I thought, "will deal with comparing the effects of an alkaline vs. acidic environment on human spermatozoa."

Quite a mouthful for her to say. Not to mention, a pretty sophisticated topic for a young girl.

"What I want to do," she explained, "is to use the school's microscopic cameras to record the movement of sperm cells in both an alkaline solution and an acid-based solution, then convert the recordings into Quicktime movies so I can display it on a Power Mac when I give my presentation."

Some project, I thought. "So where do I come in?" I asked. Then I asked, jokingly, "What am I supposed to do, give you a sample of my semen?"

Without a moment's hesitation, she answered. "Yes."....(cont)