fandomhigh | American History, Period 2, 01/08

When students entered the classroom today, they would find not one, but two men standing at the front. One of them was probably familiar to some of them, the other one was a new face... Although his wardrobe probably needed a little updating.

"This, boys and girls, is your all-purpose catchup class on the history of the United States of America," the new teacher said, straightening out his brown duster coat as he surveyed the group. "I'm Nathan Algren." A pause. "Captain Nathan Algren. Just call me Algren if you have to call me anything at all. And I imagine a few of you already have a passing acquaintance with my associate and your other instructor for this class, Mr. Durden."

The younger man stepped out with a slight grin and folded his arms. "Right, I'm Tyler Durden," he supplied. "And, just to break all of your hearts, I'm not blowing anything up in class this term. Call me Tyler, Mr. Durden, Sam might even get away with calling me a Stickbug, I am not fussy. Anyhow, as Captain Algren told you, this is American History. We're going to try to get from pre-Columbian times through current events and hit the turning points along the way."

"Because I'm more than a few decades behind the times," Algren continued, "I'll be taking the brunt of the workload for the first half of the semester, covering whatever I can right on up to America's centennial year. Mr. Durden will take it from there, bringing the lot of you up to date." And bringing Algren up to date as well, but he wasn't going to tell that to the class. "But today, we're going to take pity on you all and get introductions out of the way."

"We want to get you started thinking about history as a living thing," Tyler said. "Something you can interact with and have opinions about, not just a set of dates blah blah blah. So we'd like you to stand and state your name, grade, and one historic figure -- and it can be your world's history, if you aren't from the U.S. -- who you would like to confront."

"We're going to be pretty open as to the definition of 'confront,' here. It can be someone you want to tell off for choosing to do things a certain way, someone who you would like to start a coup against, or even somebody who you think needs a punch to the face." Algren wasn't picky, here. "And then tell us why. For example, I'm Captain Nathan Algren, I'm co-teaching this class, and I would personally like to have a long, serious chat with Lieutenant Colonel Custer for not opening his eyes before getting most of his men killed. But we'll get to that in another class."

"The one before your midterms," Tyler added helpfully. "And I would like to have a long discussion with Mahatma Gandhi and see if we could come to an agreement over the necessity of violence." Possibly with hitting, but the class didn't need to know that.

He gestured to one of the students. "You can start. And Ms. Yamanata, see me after class, please."

[OCD is up! Class roster, rules, and syllabus are located here!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Uhhhh...If the Hokage Monument is a big giant mountain with faces in the side of it, then, yes, exactly like the Hokage Monument, Ino."

She flushed. "It's just, when people become the Hokage, we put their faces up on the mountain so that they're... always looking after the village."

...Ino was just going to hope that didn't sound as lame as she thought it did.

Cal considered this, then shrugged. "So kind of," he allowed. "Rushmore's a lot more gimmick-y, and is more this guy going, 'I've got dynamite! Let's blow shit up and make it look like presidents!' I think. I wasn't there, but that's just what I figured it was a lot like."

Ino blinked. "Didn't he have better uses for the dynamite? Though, I guess that's better than randomly killing people 'cause you had it."

Just a bit.

Cal just looked at Ino for a moment on that one.

"I guess he didn't."

She stared back at him. "What? I did say that I guess it's a good thing!"

"I know," Cal said, lifting his hands in a muted gesture of self-defense. "Just a little scary that that's the first thing you think to do with dynamite. Makes me hope I'm in a completely different building entirely when you do have some."

"I wouldn't use it just for fun," she said witheringly. "It's a weapon. And you can use it too for blowing up bridges, and ruining enemy supply lines. Or as a distraction! Look at the building that's in pieces while we take care of the real mission."

Yeah.

"And, really, I did get a detention once 'cause I wanted to know why, if we were blowing up the enemy hideout, why were we warning them to get out first." Ino still thought that was weird.

"...You got a detention for that?" Cal asked.

And then realized, "Well, that's still doing more than the majority of detentions I've wound up with."

"I was disrespectful 'bout it," she said, with a shrug. "So I guess I almost deserved it. But Tyler-sensei likes me anyhow, so it worked out okay."

"How many detentions have you wound up with anyway?"

[Alrighty!]

"Three," Cal said. "That I can immediately recall."

"Oh, come on," she said, "that's not that many!"

"Those are just what I can remember," Cal said, "and I know I only earned one of them, and that wasn't even my fault."

"How'd you earn it then?" Ino asked, considering him.

"Amber was taunting me," Cal said, lifting his chin defiantly. "I had to defend my pride. She gave me mono."

Edited 2009-01-09 01:59 (UTC)

"I'm sorry, but what?"

Edited 2009-01-09 02:08 (UTC)

"She gave me mono," Cal repeated. "In sex ed class. Cullen had these little plushies of STDs, and she threw her mono at me. I decided to keep it; after all, you can't just give mono back, and so she threw up a fuss and we got in trouble."

"I want a plush mono," she said, giggling. "Awwww. And, gee, I think I'm actually on your side of that situation. She threw it at you after all."

"Thank you!" Cal said. "Of course, it's kind of an old wound by now, but it's good being reminded that I'm right."

"Sometimes," she reminded him. "Not always right."

"Well, no one is always right," Cal said, with a roll of his eyes that some simply had better records than others.

American History, Period 2, 01/08

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