fandomhigh | Infantry Tactics [Wednesday Second Period]

Today Max was wearing an odd expression, sort of dopey, distracted grin, and he didn't seem to be paying nearly as much attention as he usually did. There was the by-now familiar pile of random gear awaiting the students. "You know the drill," Max waved vaguely. He sounded like he had other places he'd rather be today. While everyone grabbed whatever gear it was they planned on carrying for today's exercise, Max just stood there, staring dreamily off into space.

In fact, he was just going to stand there staring dreamily off into space until someone ~~probably a TA~~ reminded him that he still had a class to teach.

"Oh, right!" Max blinked rapidly, then shook his head like he was trying to clear it. The continued presence of the dopey grin suggested that he was, at best, only partially successful. "Let's go." Fortunately running around with squads of infantry was so second nature that Max could do it without thinking, so distractions didn't really matter. His lecture, however, definitely suffered for it.

"Today we're going to talk about..." he paused, frowning. "Um..." Another pause. He had notes on today's topic back in his office, and he'd even glanced over them (dreamily) before class, but he couldn't remember what they said now. Then inspiration struck! "Today," Max began again, "each of you is going to talk about what you've learned this semester. At least two things that you hadn't known or thought about before. You can also ask questions that haven't come up yet if you like."

Ha! That way he didn't have to know what was going on. Max told himself he'd try to pay attention and offer feedback and answer questions, but... he was very distracted. He wasn't even paying attention to where they were going.

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"He really has been hasn't he?" Ino mused, eyes lighting up at that. "I suppose you could even say he deserves a gift, mmm?"

It was teamwork like this that made them an awesome duo for TAs.

It was also things like this that meant you really ought to make them your TAs only if you knew what you were getting into.

"Especially the way he encourages us to use our gifts," Anemone replied tranquilly. "We really ought to do something for him that highlights our strengths."

There had to be files on all the students somewhere; it was Centurion Max's own fault for not reading them. Really.

It wasn't their fault, at least. They hadn't been anything but themselves all semester.

"But what?" she wondered, the absolute picture of good natured innocence. "There's so many ways we could highlight them for his edification--so he knows just how much we appreciate all he's done for us."

Anemone tilted her head in thought. "Cupcakes?" she offered. "That way, the whole class can enjoy."

Oh.

Oh.

That was too good of an idea for her to even think of passing on it.

"I like it!" she decided, grinning. "And cupcakes mean no one gets to whine 'bout portion."

Or the pain of figuring out how to manage it when someone cut into it. Ow. "I'm thinking heavy on the sparkles, how 'bout you?"

"Everyone likes sparkly frosting, don't they?" Anemone asked innocently. "I'm sure they'll be wonderful treats."

Tyler-se--Mr. Durden would know exactly how delightful anything Ino and Anemone cooked up was. Too bad Centurion didn't have the same experience.

"Sparkles and edible glitter and absolutely ridiculous amounts of frosting!" She grinned, pure mischief. "And chocolate? Think he'd like that?"

Hey, if they had any leftovers, they could always do an encore. Although Anemone was willing to bet that Mr. Durden was smart enough to walk away from unattended pastries at this point.

"And a cherry on top? I think that's pretty much the pinnacle of 'thank you for being our teacher.'"

Except, you know, when the rest of the surprise happened. But they weren't going to talk about that where the squirrels could hear.

Of course they weren't! Right now was for talking about important things like frosting and toppings and such.

"Doesn't this world have something 'bout apples for a teacher though?" Ino hummed thoughtfully. "We could find itty bitty apples, or something?"

Ino didn't even know if they made itty bitty apples.

"I don't know if there are itty bitty apples," Anemone confessed. "OH! We could cut out the core of a regular apple, and make caramel apples! And roll them in sprinkles!"

This could not end well. Or un-stickily.

But it'd be awesome. Of that, she was sure.

"We can't do frosting that way," she mock-sighed. "Or we could, but that'd make them look all weird and be hard to eat. We could use chocolate to match the caramel though--they work well together! And enough sprinkles would make up for the lack of frosting!"

"Between apples and cupcakes, I think that's enough treats for everyone," Anemone agreed. "At least, as long as no one's allergic to sugar or something like that."

"I don't think anyone is?" she said, glancing at the rest of the class. "Otherwise they'd be having issues today, with all the cookies and stuff around."

Anemone nodded. "They made a very good breakfast." What? They did!

"Think the teacher got whapped on the head really hard with one or something?"

"I was wondering that," she admitted, giving him a long look. "He's, erm, well. I don't think he'd notice if we shoved him off a cliff right now."

And what would be the point of that, if he didn't notice?

"What good is a sneak attack if he can't appreciate it?" she agreed. "Either he's ADD from sugar, or he tripped on something this morning."

"Maybe both?" she answered. "I mean, he's really out of it. He's lucky the terrain in here ain't real."

Infantry Tactics [Wednesday Second Period]

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