Still, he glared at the three dudes until the chubby, balding one who’d called Kaci insane noticed him. “She’s fucking brilliant,” Lance said.
The older man gave him a once-over. “Who are you?”
“Just a guy interested in basic physics.” He jerked his head toward Kaci. “Best lecture I’ve ever seen.”
“You enrolled here?” the second dude said.
“He’s here on a cooperative effort with the base, working to bring attention to STEM careers,” the secretary interjected. “It’s a community outreach project.”
First Lance had heard of it, but sure. “Heard this was the best lecture to get started with,” he said.
“If you like train wrecks,” the third muttered.
“Wasn’t a train wreck until you walked in,” Lance muttered back.
Assholes.
Kaci pointed to the girl who’d said the crossbow wouldn’t hit the pig. “Jess, come on up and do the honors.”
The girl jumped up. She had her hair tucked into a baseball cap, and she was wearing a Dr. Who T-shirt. Kaci leaned into her, pointing to various things on the crossbow, then stepped back.
Jess fired.
The arrow thudded into a strip of Styrofoam on the wall four feet below the stuffed pig.
Several students clapped. A few groaned. Some kid called out, “You shoot like a girl.”
Kaci strung the crossbow and pointed. “All right, Blake. You come do better.”
Lance picked the kid out by the way his friends jostled him and jeered.
But Blake didn’t move.
“Come on up,” Kaci said again.
“I was just kidding, Dr. Boudreaux.”
Kaci took up a perch on the table, ankles crossed, legs swinging. “It’s funny to mock your classmates for their gender?”
The room went deadly silent.
“I’m a physicist, not a biologist,” she continued, “but above all, I’m a scientist. And this idea of gender differences fascinates me. Scientifically, can you elaborate on why having a penis might make a person better able to shoot a crossbow?”
The kid shook his head.
“Sounds like some interesting research, doesn’t it?”
A muffled groan went up among the students.
“Anyone who can scientifically prove to me that having a penis directly correlates to superior crossbow proficiency gets an A for the semester,” Kaci said. “In the meantime, this classroom will be a safe and welcominglearning environment for everyone who enters that door regardless of age, race, gender, religion, sexuality, or any other discriminatory factor. Understood?”
Murmurs of, “Yes, Dr. Boudreaux,” echoed off the walls.
She hopped off the table. “Can someone tell me how we’re going to impale this pig today?”
“This is way better than last year’s pig-impaling day,” the secretary whispered.
“Y’all must like this lecture,” Lance said to the three men across the aisle. “You come every year too?”
