Emmalyn’s face immediately flushed. She wasn’t sure if it was more from embarrassment or from anger. ‘I believe you said we could start to carve our pumpkins if we wished. ‘ she nastily said in her head. What did he expect her to do? She had already cut herself and cut her notebook in half. It seemed like a very bad idea for her to be ramming a knife into the flesh of a pumpkin so soon.

Plus, she was having a horrible time paying attention with all of the bleeding and passed out students around her. That, on top of the sickenly sweet pumpkin aroma filling the room, her best hope was to make it out of class before her breakfast came back to visit on the floor. After taking a deep breath to calm herself and deter her from saying something to Professor Noble that she really shouldn’t say, she turned to Alyce. “Sorry I got you in trouble. I do appreciate the help you gave me.”

To further make things worse, he wanted them to do more chopping. Oh how she was ready for class to be over. Very reluctantly, Emmalyn made her way to the foxglove plant. She carefully selected two medium sized petals, delicately removed them, then headed back to her station. With great care, she plucked the petals away from the green sepal, measured out four grams and gently crushed them between her fingers.

Now the chopping. She wasn’t sure if Professor Noble really expected her to try her hand at chopping again. The sour look on his face didn’t inspire her to ask, so she grabbed the blade of terror and placed her foxglove petals on the workspace before her. Deciding her fingers were worth more to her than looking silly, she grabbed the pestle to hold down the edge of the petals, keeping her hand out of danger, and roughly chopped.

She picked up her cutting board and scraped off the chopped petals into her cauldron, then began stirring in a counterclockwise motion until a deep purple color formed. Once finished, she scoured her hands, cleaned up her work area and patiently waited for the next set of instructions.