Read The Eve Genome for Free Online Page B

expression.
                  The BioChem Professor strode in. He stood about six feet tall, with dark hair and horn-rimmed glasses. He quickly nodded to the class before he turned around and wrote his name on the blackboard. Dr. Johansson. Clearly, he wasn’t interested in formal wear, opting for jeans and a t-shirt beneath his white lab coat. The cool professor. The I’m-cool-and-scholarlytype. I could just see him on his recumbent bike, his backpack for a briefcase in the carrying basket in front, pedalling home from his tough day teaching students about stuff they never thought about again after they wrote the final exam.
                  He turned back toward the class, and after awkwardly muttering his name and the title of the class, handed out the course syllabus. Then he launched into a lecture about mitochondrion outer and inner membranes composed of phospholipid bilayers and proteins. What the hell had I gotten myself into?
                  Adriana leaned back in her desk and dug into her pack again where her telephone buzzed. She was looking down at it when Dr. Johansson stopped speaking and glared at her.
                  “Excuse me,” Dr. Johansson said, his eyes narrowing into slits. “You may not care about wasting your tuition dollars, but the other students here do.”
                  A professor with a self-righteous streak and a hot temper. Great .
                  Adriana glanced up and a pink flush crept across her cheeks. She stuffed her phone back into her purse and nodded. “Sorry. I was listening.”
                  “If you were listening, you would know the five distinct parts to a mitochondrion. Can you recite them for the class, please?” Dr. Johansson asked. His face twisted up into a mocking smile. Self-righteous and condescending. Charming.
                  Adriana looked down. “Oh, um… okay. The outer mitochondrial membrane, the intermembrane space, the inner mitochondrial membrane, and…. I’m sorry. I can’t remember.”
                  “The cristae space and the matrix,” I said, levelling my gaze on Dr. Johansson. The professor’s eyes glazed over. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Adriana was looking right at me. She smiled and mouthed, Thank you . I smiled back, lost in this moment, our gazes locked. Until Dr. Johansson cleared his throat.
    I looked up at him and noticed how his expression was somewhat more relaxed. “I don’t think I asked you, Mr…?”
                  “Kane, sir,” I said. “My name is Kalan Kane.”
                  “Well, Mr. Kane. I didn’t ask you for the answer, did I?” Self-importance oozed from the man, but in a schoolyard bully way. I didn’t like him. Not one bit.
                  “Sorry, Doctor,” I said with complete neutrality.
                  The prof’s face softened even further, and a tiny, self-impressed smile tugged the sides of his mouth up. “Fine. Don’t do it again.” He turned back to the board and began to write out the words I’d recited.
                  Adriana half-turned in her seat, her lips tucked together to stifle a smile. Was it possible she was what I hoped she was? Her evocative eyes were the exact hue of the identifying marker. Her waist was tiny, and she had a long torso as well, a probable sign of the other marker. And the sister stuff…  It probably wasn’t really a question of whether she was one. The question was, did she even know what she was?
                  Class ended and the students filed toward the door. I took my time cleaning up and putting lab supplies away, placing my books into my backpack with slow precision, to kill time. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Adriana nod to her friends before they left. When my books were all securely in place, I straightened up. She was looking right at