fandomhigh | Home Economics 1, Fourth Period 1/5

People who hadn't had classes with Mr. Rogers before might be surprised to find that their home ec teacher was a tall, broad-shouldered guy who looked like he'd just stepped out of a military recruitment poster. Or, you know, not. Steve waited until everyone was present to begin his spiel.

"Good afternoon. I'm Steve Rogers--that's Mr. Rogers to you, please--and this is Home Economics, or Home Ec. If you're planning to complain that you didn't intend to be in Home Economics, well, welcome to Fandom High. If you're unaware of what Home Ec is, it's basically how to fend for yourself: cooking, cleaning, that sort of thing. I want to assure you there is nothing to be scared of. We're going to start with the parts that don't involve sharp objects or heat, so you can sort of work yourselves up to that mentally, if you need to. You should each have a syllabus at your work station. Typically you'll be working in pairs, but I'm fine with groups as long as you're not disruptive, and you're welcome to switch partners at any time. Oh, and," he glanced down at his class roster, but no, it still had not changed. "Mr. Stark, please see me after class.

"Now that we've got that out of the way," Steve said, and clapped his hands once, "I'd like for everyone to introduce themselves, giving your name, year, and where you'd currently rate your general skill level, one to ten, in the topics covered on the syllabus. Feel free to elaborate on those basics, if you want. We'll start with you," he said, picking a student at random.

Once they'd finished that, he moved on to, "And now we're going to jump right into cleaning. This will be especially good if you're new, right, you won't have a chance to get your dorm room messy. The first step to cleaning is really just to be tidy and organized," he said, like that was the simplest thing in the world. "Have a place for everything, and put things in their place instead of throwing them wherever. Put books in the bookcase instead of piled on your desk. Put dirty clothes in the laundry basket or bag instead of on the floor, and fold or hang clean ones and put them away. Throw things away or recycle them when you're done with them, instead of letting pizza boxes and old magazines pile up. Sweep hard-surface floors regularly. Speaking of sweeping..." there were ten brooms and dustpans lined up against the wall. "Since I couldn't make you practice tidying up, you get to practice that. If you don't understand how this works--" Steve was ruling nothing out, especially considering he had Emma Frost and Tony Stark in this class "--ask me or one of your classmates for help.

"Oh! Before I forget: this class comes with homework." Steve made a face at them and said, "I know, I know, but if you don't put these things into practice, what's the point, right? So your assignment for the rest of the week is to tidy up your dorm rooms and get organized, creating designated places for things if they don't have them and putting things in their places. If you need organizational supplies and can't buy them yourself right now, I have milk crates, which are great for organizing, clothes hangers, and laundry bags in my office, and you can see me after class, or I'll be holding office hours on Friday, so please, feel free to drop by. And if you know anyone who needs a laundry bag, send them my way, too, I have plenty, they were free."

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"... But I can't see it anymore," Juliet said slowly. "No dust bunnies or anything."

Weep, Tony. Weep.

"No, its still there," Tony insisted, getting down to run his hand over the floor. For science, goddamnit. He held up a dirty hand to prove it correct. "See?"

Shhh, its okay, science. He won't let her hurt you anymore.

Juliet was momentarily aghast, then pouted. Clearly the dirt was not her fault!

"Well, um -- That just came in on your shoes!" she protested.

"It did not!"

"Prove it!"

This was not a shining moment in Juliet's periodic attempts at grace and maturity, no.

She was evil. Evil!

Tony stared at her before pulling his shoe off to show how not dusty it was. "See!"

"Okay, then someone else must have," Juliet insisted. He had nice shoes; probably it had been someone poor. "How did you say I'm supposed to do this?"

Well following that logic, it might have been her shows. You know, relatively speaking.

"You sweep it into a pile and then... throw it away. I think. Maybe we could toss it out the window."

That was eco-friendly, right?

Well, yes, but Juliet was about as good at logic as she was at science.

"Could we?" she asked, tilting her head fractionally to Mr. Rogers. "Do you think he'd mind?"

"Why would he?" Yeah, Tony was totally the best person to ask this.

"Because we're dumping something out a window?" Juliet frowned, glancing to said window. "But ... it is just a little dust."

She was sweeping again, all in one direction this time. It was much less princessy.

"It's bio-degradable!"

That sounded scientific, so Juliet nodded as if she actually knew what bio-degradable meant. "All right," she said. "You hold the little pan thingie, I'll sweep?"

"Shouldn't it be easier than that?" Tony asked, frowning at the pan, but doing as instructed. "Without the other person here, it can't be helpful."

"I don't know, usually my brother is always around," Juliet said. She was sweeping very very slowly. "Sheesh, quit acting like I sweep floors all the time."

"And I have my best friend around usually too, but he's not here." Tony, stop sulking about that.

"That bites," Juliet said, distressed enough that she started sweeping in the wrong direction. "Why couldn't you bring him to school?"

Tony was just going to pretend that made sense.

"He goes to a different school in New York." Oh, the Tomorrow Academy.

"Oh." Juliet still didn't see why he couldn't come to school with Tony, if he was that important to him, but she guessed not everyone was a twin. "So we're both from New York," she said, a bit wobbly on the logic. "Just ... different New Yorks."

Twins were, no doubt, very special.

"Pretty much. I haven't made it to the library about the reasons behind that, but right now there doesn't seem to be any other explanation."

"Jeremy and I kind of thought we were being Punk'd," Juliet revealed. "But I've never seen a prank go for this long. I think this place is for real."

"People are putting in a lot of work if that's the case." A beat. "And I don't think they'd punk me."

Unless they wanted headlines of tormenting the poor orphaned technology scion. Did they? DID THEY?

"We're kind of big deals," Juliet said, vastly overstating the case. "I had a part in a commercial last year."

Which Tripp had paid for, but Juliet was ignoring that. She'd had a line to say and everything; it counted.

"Besides, we just turned 16. It could be like our reality TV debut."

"Wouldn't you want that to be something less... annoying?" Eew. Ashton Kutcher.

"One of the Kardashians stole my sister's boyfriend once." Because THAT was a much less annoying option. "What do you want to get on TV for?"

Re: Sweep the Classroom

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