fandomhigh | Interdisciplinary Studies or Whatever, Class 4, Friday, Period 1

Squall was waiting for the class in the Danger room, which was set up to look like the regular classroom. Except for the computer terminal floating in midair near the blackboard.

"Today, class," Squall said, "we're going to talk about the Carpenters." He tossed the sign-in clipboard out to a random student and then walked over to the computer terminal.

Gazing at the class as if he were about to impart some deep and hidden wisdom, he hit a button. A two-by-four appeared in his hand and a picture of logs appeared on the chalkboard. "This," he said, holding the board up for everyone to see, "is wood."

He put the board down on his desk and hit another button, at which point the picture on the board changed to a saw, and a crosscut saw appeared on the desk. "This is a saw. You use it to cut wood." He demonstrated on the two-by-four and then held up both halves to show that it was, in fact, cut.

He hit another button, changing the picture to a hammer and nails, while the tools obediently appeared on the desk. "Hammer," he said. "Nails." He nailed one of the board halves to the wall. "Ta-da."

Another button, and this time the picture was of screws and a screwdriver. Instead of a tool, a yellowish drink showed up on the desk, and he drank it. "Screwdriver. Screws. You screw screws with a screwdriver."

One more button, and the classroom dissolved around them, to be replaced by a wood shop. Each student was supplied with a bandsaw, a nailgun, protective goggles, and plenty of wood. Yes, those are two of the most dangerous power tools, and he's letting the kids loose on them without any instruction. Hey, it's the Danger Room.

"Okay," he said. "Build something. And BE CAREFUL. The safety protocols are on, so you can't actually get hurt, but you will bleed a LOT, and you will bleed bright blue, so everyone can point and laugh at you."

[~~wait for ocd~~ Have at it!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He smiled back at her. " 'M Johnny. Johnny Blaze, 'cause there seems to be a bunch of us with the same names around here."

He picked up a board and examined it carefully. "Th'most important thing about workin' with wood is figurin' out in advance what you want to do. Any suggestions?"

Ino studied the board for a moment, "Something simple, maybe? Perhaps a bookshelf?"

"That'd work," Johnny said. " 'S all flats, so I don' think we'll have to cut much." At least he'd thought so. Their trailer had had a built-in bookshelf, so he'd never had to build on himself.

"I think we can just nail the smaller pieces to th'bigger ones."

"Hopefully it'll be that simple." Ino said, already poking through the wood to find a few of the smaller pieces. She held up two, "Think these would work for the shelf bits? We don't want to make it too big or anything."

"Sure, they look pretty good t'me," he said. "Can you tell if they're the same length?"

She pressed the boards together and set them upright on the ground. One was a inch or so longer. Ino winced, "Not quite the same size."

Ino wiggled the offending board. "Want to cut it? Or search for a better piece?"

"I can do it," he said, grabbing the protective goggles from off the counter and plugging in the bandsaw. " 'Less you've used one of these t'cut before?"

"I haven't," Ino said looking worried, "It's a bit high tech for my world. Do you need me to hold the wood for you?"

He nodded. "Yeah, that'd be great. I dunno that I wanna do this by myself."

Ino knelt and held the boards firmly. Then she looked up at him and said quite calmly, "If you hurt me I'll kill you."

Ino had no intentions of bleeding blue, however that worked.

Johnny grabbed a pencil, and carefully drew a line where the shorter board ended, and made sure that they were pretty solid in Ino's grip.

"I'll try not to," he said. A thought crossed his mind, and he grabbed a second pair of safety glasses off the table. "An' you'll want these."

Ino put the offered glasses on quickly then went back to holding the boards. "Don't take too long, okay?" She braced herself, waiting for the saw to start.

Once Ino had put the glasses on, Johnny fired up the bandsaw. It started whirring, and then launched into a dangerously fast rotation speed. He slowly pushed the longer board forward, making sure to careful watch that the blade was right on the line, just the way has Dad had shown him. The saw sliced easily through the wood, and the extra piece on the end fell to the floor.

He switched off the saw and felt the cut. It was rough to the touch, but more or less straight.

"You did that so easily," Ino said, pushing her glasses up, "Do we just have to find longer boards and nail it all together now?"

"Jus' have some practice with it, 's all," Johnny said, felling some measure of pride at the compliment. "An' yeah, I think we just measure the same spots on both sides, an' nail the smaller ones in."

"It shows." Ino said brightly, rubbing her hands together, "Two longer boards, coming right up!"

She poked through the wood for a bit before tugging out two (matching!) pieces of wood. "Here we are!"

Johnny smiled. "Looks great!" He looked over the tools that they had and the boards in her hands. "Wanna nail 'em in?"

"With the nailgun thing?" Ino asked, picking up the gun and laying the boards on the ground. "It's just point and press right? I should be able to do that."

" 'S about it," Johnny said. "Jus' make sure that you put the gun next to the wood before you press the button, else you're gonna be firin' nails across the room."

"... I really don't want to do that." Ino nodded her head. "Let's get to work then - can you hold the boards steady?"

"So long as y'don't shoot me full of nails, I can," Johnny said. He re-adjusted his safety glasses, and then knelt down to hold the board steady against the floor.

"I'll try not to." Ino told him as she readied the first shot.

Bang!

Ino jumped at the sound, but the nail looked like it had gone in right. Bang! Bang! Bang!

By the end of it Ino was fairly pleased with the nailing part of it. She took a step back, "What do you think?"

Johnny turned the board around to take a better look at it, and gave Ino a thumbs up. "Looks pretty good t'me. You're a pro with that nailgun."

Interdisciplinary Studies or Whatever, Class 4, Friday, Period 1

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!

Re: BUILD STUFF!!!