When you’re in elementary school, some classes have pets such as baby chickens, fish or snakes.

Class pets are less common in high school, but English teacher Julie Settle has two guinea pigs that she and her class adore.

When Settle’s third block English IV class asked for a pet, she turned to her stepfather. He raises chickens and traded the chickens for guinea pigs.

Settle thinks that even though the guinea pigs can bring chaos to the class they also can bring many good attributes to her class such as calming her kids down.

“Normally the guinea pigs help to bring those kids that are regularly overlay excited to a more calm phase,” Settle said. “However, they can be a distraction when it comes to taking notes or learning new material.”

Senior Savannah Whittemore loves guinea pigs she has one of her own. She is the caretaker of them on the weekend.

“During the week I am the main care giver, but on the weekends, Whittemore will take them home and let them play with her guinea pig, Mickey,” Settle said.

Settle chose to name them Blanche and Sophia after one of her favorite television shows, “The Golden Girls.”

Senior Jarred Barnette thinks that class has changed for the better due to the guinea pigs.

“Class has gotten more fun and interesting since we’ve gotten Blanche and Sophia, but sometimes it calms our class down,” Barnette said.