She shook off her realization, there was still a long way for her to go. She had a few hours to figure out and begin preparing for chemistry experiments before she needed to treat the cells with the DNA isolation kit. Carmen opened the binder on her desk and filed the information she had gathered behind the corresponding experiments. She then reorganized the experiments as the readable ones that she hasn’t completed yet, then the completed ones, and finally the unreadable ones. Then she read through the chemistry experiments. There were two that she knew she would be able to complete before the end of the week. They were both compound isolation experiments that could be done in a day. All the other experiments would take too long and would be too risky to try doing at the same time and she didn’t read through any other experiments after isolating these two experiments.

Just before lunch, Carmen had finished familiarizing herself with the materials she needed for the two chemistry experiments she was going to dedicate her time towards. She also knew that her fungi would be ready soon after lunch for harvest. All the researchers were nervous about what was this special lunch that the teachers were telling them about yesterday was. 

“Okay, now that everyone has gathered in this food-safe room, we are going to play a game. If the researchers can identify who the owner of their lab coat in this room from the group of theorists, then they get a say in who they want to work with, more than usual,” the researcher teacher explained smiling about the entertainment they had set up for themselves.

The researchers were discussing the new situation with each other, and they were so overwhelmed with the experiments already that they had no idea who their lab coat belonged to. 

One of the researchers raised their hand to ask a question, “Are we allowed to guess? I mean would it hurt us if we give you a wrong answer.”

“Well, you are researchers you can’t just guess. There is no punishment, but the theorists might look down on you for just taking shots in the dark, you know. So does anyone have a clue? And you have to explain how you know, the more evidence the more weight we will give your choice.”

No one was saying anything, and Carmen knew that they only had until 12:30 to say something. 

“I … I know who my lab coat belongs to,” Carmen said shyly.

Everyone in the room looked at her. No one seemed to expect anyone to know. 

“Okay, who is it and how do you know?”

“This will be very embarrassing for me to explain, but it's that tall guy there.”

“This one or this one?” the theorist teacher asked while walking over to the two tall guys sitting next to each other. 

“The one with brown hair. I … I know because of two reasons, one the smell on the lab coat is the same and the size would also match, two he uses blue ink pens, which left marks in the breast pocket of the lab coat. That’s how I know,” Carmen explained while blushing. Her whole face was red, and she wanted to disappear. 

“That matches the number we have recorded for you, you are correct,” the researcher said.

“So, you know which experiment is his? Are you working on it?”

“Yes, I’m working on it.”

“How many experiments have you completed?”

“I have completed six of them.”

“Has anyone completed this many?”