fandomhigh | American History, Period 2 01/22

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American History, Period 2 01/22

When students filed into the Danger Shop, they would find themselves in the front room of a large colonial home. Algren, who was, yes, fully clothed thank you very much, seemed almost worryingly amused as he waited for everyone to settle in. He started speaking even as the students were sitting down and thawing out.

"Okay. Last week, we covered pretty much everyone who ever landed in America... Ever. This week, we're going to be nicer to you all. From there, history until about the mid-1770s can be summed up as follows: We didn't like Britain. They were kinda being overbearing jerks. So we wanted out. We fought. We got it. And somewhere in there, to cement our point, we wrote on a sheet of paper to prove that it was ours. It's a pretty important sheet of paper, which states right in the title what purpose it serves. It was the American Declaration of Independence, which was approved by Congress on July 4th, 1776."

Tyler was wearing a t-shirt. It didn't match the surroundings, but he was warm for the first time in a while and he meant to enjoy it. "The reason we're in the Danger Shop today," he contributed, "is so you can watch this lovely -- and completely historically accurate -- re-enactment of the decision to leave the writing of the Declaration to Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. He was young, 33, but he was the best writer in the group that summer. He also didn't manage to talk his way out of it."

He hit a button on the shop console, and five men in Colonial garb appeared in the midst of the students and started to sing.

When they were done and vanished again, Tyler began to read from a sheet of parchment. " 'When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.' That is what Mr. Jefferson wrote."

Algren, arms crossed over his chest, flashed a bit of a grin.

"You will each be given a printed copy of the Declaration of Independence to take home with you to read over the course of the week," he stated, walking across the room to a wooden chest and opening it up to reveal a heap of powdered wigs, enough for each person in the class to have one. "Your assignment today, however, is a more simple one. You are to each take a wig, to help you get into character, of course. We'll be writing our own Declaration of Independence, and you are to discuss as a class what points you would be certain to include."

"And speaking of in character," Tyler added, passing out a thick stack of handouts, "you should each pick one signer to represent. It's up to you whether you want to be John Hancock or Button Gwinnett, with one exception." A specific costume was plopped on the TA's desk. "Ino, you get to be Benjamin Franklin."

Tyler might have still been paying her back for the onsen message.

[OCD is up! Run wild!]

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The snapping caused Cal to arch an eyebrow.

"Bad mission?" he asked.

"I don't know, don't know anything 'bout it," she muttered. "Just nervous, I guess."

"You'll do fine," Cal said, more out of simply having something to say than out of confidence, because it wasn't like he had any idea what a mission would even entail. "And then you'll come back and annoy me by bragging about how bad-ass you were."

That got a bit of a smile. A wee one. "Not much bragging if I can't talk 'bout it."

"Oh," Cal said with a snort of a laugh, "I'm sure you'll find away. And, if anything, you'll probably be preening. You won't have to actually talk about it to think you're all hot shit about it."

Okay, that dragged a laugh out of her. "I don't preen."

"Uh-huh," Cal said, "sure you don't. Let's wait until you get out, and I'll point it out to you and you'll see what I mean."

There was a slight pause.

"Do you know when you'll be back?"

"I don't preen," she repeated, frowning though not at him. "And no, totally no idea of when. Which kinda sucks."

But made sense.

"Yeah, it does," Cal agreed. "Be quick about it; if you're gone too long, who am I going to pester?"

She stuck her tongue out at him. "You could always pester Claire."

And Ino looked entirely too pleased with herself about that.

"No, I can't," Cal informed Ino. "I try not to pester my girlfriend."

Oh! Look who looked entirely too pleased now!

"Ah well," she mock-sighed, and was glad for the silliness, "I guess I'll just have to go and pester her again in your stead."

Smug, smug, smug.

"Again?" Cal asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you actually went out again yesterday just to pester her."

"I needed sweaters," she said, with a toss of her head.

"Cheap, musty thrift store sweaters, right?" Cal said dryly.

In his cheap, musty thrift store everything.

"Yup," she said brightly, "I don't have the money for casual wear from Pixie Dust, and Amber was working at Turtle & Canary so, hey, decided to try a new place."

Ino was way too pleased with herself about that bit of truth. Because it was true, but it also, uh, served as an excellent excuse.

"Amber working at Turtle & Canary means you have to avoid it?" Cal asked, eyebrow lifting yet again. He knew they weren't the best of friends or anything, but he didn't actually think it was to a point where one might avoid the other entirely and intentionally.

Or not enough to take that as a viable excuse for why Things Reborn was the only option Ino had, at least.

She shrugged. "I'm kinda annoyed 'cause whenever I ask Liir what's been going on he says 'nothing' and yet radio tells me that they're dating, so I'm not really enthused about talking to her when my brother's too big a coward to tell me what's up with them."

Cal couldn't help rolling his eyes. Last thing he wanted to do was bring Liir into the conversation, but he supposed he should have thought about that earlier. "Yeah," he said, "Amber's pretty closed lipped about it, too; it's weird."

He shook his head. "But, anyway, aren't you supposed to tell me now how much you hate Claire and she's a big stupidhead and I'm wasting my time?"

She blinked at him.

"I like her," Ino said simply.

And Cal stared a moment.

"Who are you?" he asked. "And what have you done with Ino?"

She frowned at him. "What?"

"I just...didn't expect that," Cal admitted, but he smiled a little. "That's good, though. I'm glad."

"I said you think she's neat, just so you know, so you'd better think so. And she thinks my name is Amy," Ino said helpfully. "She picked it out, by the way, 'cause I didn't feel like telling her mine."

Because even when things were going well, Ino had to at least try to be a bit of a pain.

"Neat?" Cal asked, overemphasizing the word.

Because, really, Ino? Neat? That was the coolest word she could come up with?

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