Fun in the Sun, Monday, Period 4

[doubleohblonde]

Bond had informed his students to meet him down at Serenity Cove, where he waited for them on the sand, flipping a frisbee between his hands.

"Good afternoon," he greeted them. "And welcome to Fun in the Sun, where we're going to be spending the rest of the term playing various games and doing other outdoor activities, so if you're not actually listed for this class, you're welcome to stay anyway."

"Now as is traditional we're going to start off with introductions, but to make things more interesting, we're going to combine it with simple game of frisbee, where we toss each other this disc while we talk." He tossed the disc to a random student and waited for them to toss it back. "Like so."

"Then once we've gotten introductions out of the way, I have some more discs so you can split up and play with each other, ideally while asking each other questions so you can get to know your fellow students a bit better."

He tossed the disc towards a (different) random student. "You first."

[Class Roster]

extreme physical education, period 1, tuesday

[necroslacker]

Sam had never expected to be in front of a classroom full of students let alone at a school he'd graduated from not too long ago. But, Haley, his loving and beautiful sister had submitted a class proposal for him and only just told him a few days ago. Her excuse? To give him something to do. What a great sister she was!

"I'm Sam LaCroix and you've walked into extreme physical education today," he greeted, checking out the different colors of each students without even realizing it. At this point, he couldn't even turn that off. It was just a thing now. "I don't recognize any of you which makes me feel old but I did graduate from this place a little while ago so I know what goes on and how weird it is. Hopefully nothing weird happens in this class."

But, considering what he was, he figured a ghost or two would pop up without warning at some point. He just hoped no one would be able to see said ghost if and when it happened.

"Anyway, I've got some experience in the world of extreme. I've got a half pipe in the backyard of my house in Seattle and I've lived an...interesting life. I do a lot of running."

For his life.

"You might have noticed that we're in the Danger Shop today. A lot of things we're going to try are a little risky so I didn't want to put us in a place where there could be real injuries. You'll still get the experience and adrenaline kick but no trips to the nurse. We'll be covering a variety of different things from water to land to air. Today, we're gonna start off easy. Let's do the typical introduction thing where you tell me your name and something you might wanna try in a class like this. Go wild. After that, we're gonna go really get going with some bungee jumping."

Perhaps that wasn't something that would get the students in shape but it would definitely get their blood pumping.

Arts and Crafts with Friends!!!, Tuesday, Period 2

[locointhecoco]

Class was handwavily notified that their first session was to be held on the rocky bits of Fandom Island. Upon arrival, they would find that someone had set up some precarious looking -- but surprisingly sturdy -- picnic tables amongst the rocks, and covered said tables with paints and glue and bags of googly eyes and pipe cleaners.

And, yes, lots of glitter. It was basically tradition.

Pinkie greeted the class gleefully. "Hellohellohello! I'm Pinkie Pie, and this is Derek, and we're your teachers for this session's funtabulous Arts & Crafts workshop!"

Derek, it seemed, was being shamelessly modded just going to let Pinkie take this one on. Poor long suffering fool.

"And this is Gummy!" Pinkie said, pointing at the tiny little alligator sitting blank-eyed on her head. "He's my pet. It's great to have pets! Almost anypony's life can be improved with a faithful little companion. But not everypony can have every kind of pet. Some ponies don't even want the responsibility of a little critter pet. Some ponies, like my very bestest sister Maude, prefer a nice, loyal pet rock. And that's why we're here!" She flung her hooves out in the traditional V. "Today, you're all going to find a fun little pet rock all of your own! We've got lots of things to decorate your pet rock with and make him or her or it feel real extra super special! And 'cause it's the first day, when you're all set, we'll get to introducing ourselves -- and our new extra special rock friends!"

Now aren't you all glad you signed up for this class? You get rock friends.

Flight and Flying [Tuesday, July 1, 2014, 4th period]

[sith_happened]

If Anakin was in a particularly foul mood, well, blame how rusty he'd been on the flight simulator in the morning combined with sitting on an airhorn in his newly redecorated office.

Bel was one dead, dead demon. Yup.

"I'm Anakin Skywalker," Anakin said, striding into the flight shed with his cloak streaming behind him. Yes, multiple layers in July because that's how Anakin rolled. "This is Flight and Flying. If you're in the wrong place, tough, because you should have thought of that before I arrived."

He pointed to the flight simulator behind him. "This is my simulator and if you do anything deliberately to break it, detention will be the very least of your worries. My galaxy--which is far, far away--has mastered space flight and has been flying between star systems longer than this planet has had intelligent life. I was considered one of the very best pilots ever to exist back home--" which was true, even if it was also bragging, "--and I'm here to help you become better. If you have a particular favorite form of aircraft, let me know and I'll see what I can do to help program it into the system. Today we'll start off slowly in case you're from somewhere that still uses carts and horses to get around: we'll start with X-Wing fighters."

Anakin's idea of "starting off slowly" was not a sane person's idea. "The simulator is set up for the T-65. an older variation than the one currently being used in my timeline," he said. "It's from the Galactic Civil War, and was generally considered to be one of the more indestructible and easy to fly variations of the X-Wing, which get their name from the way the wings split into an X formation for ease of flight and greater maneuverability. I've set up two runs--one that includes shooting weapons at targets while avoiding obstacles, and an easier one that's just pure navigation. Pick the one you think you're most suited for."

After that, he gave a detailed series of instructions about how the ship flew as well as what everything on the instrument panel did. He wasn't trying to set them up for instant fake death, after all.

Satisfied they were as prepared as they could get, he nodded. "Get going."

Whatever 101, Tuesday, Period 3

[vanillajello]

Class was meeting in the Danger Shop, and the simulation looked like the interior of a fancy jewelry store. Dark wood, shiny display cases, expensive looking jewelry, the works. And of course, Kate in a hipstery dress with a polar bear print on it, leaning against the counter. Next to her, there was a case of diamond rings.

She waved at the students. "Hi, welcome to Whatever 101," she said, "where you'll basically be learning whatever strikes my fancy any given week, because my off-island job is still a mess and I had to submit a class proposal at the very last minute. It will be fun, I promise." Fun for her, at least, but she hoped it would be fun for them as well! "Today, we're gonna do introductions, and you're going to learn about how to tell a real diamond from a fake one, because you just never know when you're going to need that skill. Like if a skeezy person is trying to propose to you and you're trying to figure out whether you should at least take the ring."

Because that was so likely to happen. She picked up a ring off the counter.

"Anyway. I'm Kate, please call me that and not Miss Gregson or anything because that will just weird me out and I probably won't realize I should react. Kate's fine." She held up the ring. It had a nice, sizable, glittering diamond on it. "Super basic diamond ring testing. Three options: check the mount, check it with a loupe, or breath on it. That first one's pretty obvious, right? If the setting and mount are made of like some cheapskate metal and not either gold or platinum, it gets preeeeeetty unlikely the stone is real." Duh. She inspected the inside of the ring. "Basically, look at the stamps on the inside of the ring. If it has like a number with K after it, that means it's so-and-so carat gold, and you're doing okay that far."

Now, she indicated to some jeweler's loupes on the counter next to the rings. "Next up, you can use a loupe to look at the diamond close up. It might make sense for you to assume that a real diamond is all clear and totally uniform and perfect, but actually real diamonds have like these tiny flecks of minerals and super slight color changes and stuff, so look for those. Fakes are more likely to look perfect." Seriously, that had surprised her when she'd found out. "And finally, the breathing test. Super easy. If you breathe on a real diamond to fog it up, it stays clear or at least clears way faster than a fake. If you breathe on a fake repeatedly, it's gonna start building up condensation, because that's just its thing."

There were better reasons for that, sure, but she liked to simplify.

"So, there you have it," she said. "That's how you can tell whether that skeezy dude or lady proposing to you at least has an actual diamond ring. Not that I'm advocating getting married to skeezy people, but anyway. Now, I want you all to tell me your names and grades, and then grab a ring and use one or more of the methods I just explained to figure out if it's fake or not." Technically they were all fake since this was a simulated environment, but you know. Some of them were simulating the real thing and some were simulating fakes. Kate nodded at one student from the group at random. "You first."