When the Home Ec class handed out raw eggs to the twelfth–grade girls for a lesson on the fragility of a newborn and the responsibilities of motherhood, some girls knitted tiny stocking caps to pull over the bald white egg shell heads. Some fashioned cribs and strollers cut from egg cartons. They placed their always–quiet children on their desktop next to their books and spiral notebook during civics, history, English and math, gently nested them on the locker shelf during phys ed, worrying a little about leaving the egg untended for fifty minutes. Some of them asked the gym teacher if they could look in from time to time, and when they did, there the egg slept, tucked under a paper towel blanket from the dispenser in the girls bathroom, silent as the moon. They drew faces on the eggs that looked remarkably like their own. They strolled the hallways with their boyfriends, basking in a new–found glow of fertility. The boys became protective, stalking territory in the halls, creating space in the classrooms, though in no way could it be said the eggs were theirs. Still, they babysat from time to time, not as often as the freshmen girls—too young for Home Ec class—who saw their selection as a rare honor, an accomplishment along the road to maturity. And there were, of course, some setbacks: eggs that were lost or stolen; kidnapped and held for ransom, a photocopied picture appearing anonymously on the locker floor, likely secreted through the air vent. One egg left too close to the heater was found the next day hard–baked. But the worst happened when a couple argued in the hallway, the boy grabbing the egg and throwing it against the cinder block wall, crushed yolk and egg white dripping down into a puddle on the carpet. Though the girls huddled in small groups cried and whispered, a hint of desire lingered in their eyes, and though the boys would never admit it publicly, their stares held a suggestion of admiration, even as the Home Ec teacher and principal arrived to lead the boy away by the arms, his voice cracking up and down the hallway, "It's just a goddamn egg!"

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