A student is performing a gram stain of a mixed culture of both

e. coli and s. aureus and he forgets to decolorize with ethanol. what should his slide look like?

If this happens, the crystal violet and the gram's iodine that has been stained in the smear wouldn't be washed out, it could make his slide or smear look like it has a mix color of violet, blue and orange, as well as having the safranin orange stained as the last. The decolorization of ethanol is important because it washes of unnecessary stain that is not essential to the smear, not using it will cause undesired results.