fandomhigh | Getting Out of Tight Situations- Period 5- Class #7

This week, the students and any kids they brought with them would find themselves on a playground, complete with a slide, swingset, jungle gym, and all that fun stuff. This might have had something to do with the fact that beside Jaina was Chak, who for the record was kind of dying to get to playing. "Hi, everyone," she greeted them. "Happy to see some younger faces that I'm not used to. I-"

"Hey, can I do this part?" Chak asked.

While Jaina wasn't sure what he was going to say, she was sure it wasn't going to be anything bad. "The floor's yours."

Smiling a little at suddenly feeling in charge, he began, "Hi, my name's Chak, and this is my mom. This class is all about getting out of bad situations, like when someone won't share, or you get caught trying to sneak out... Not that I ever did that." Liar. "Or when you have a class planned but Fandom has bad timing. And sometimes getting out of bad situations means saying bad words and ditching the old idea and letting us play."

"You had to tell them that part, huh?" Jaina asked, looking down at him.

"Well, you did!"

"Just don't repeat it," she said. "The kid's right, though. Take the hour to go play, and if you don't have kids here to worry about... Push someone on the swings or something."

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"I was just thinking that selling name tags might be a good hole in the market," Val said, with a light shrug. So no, she didn't mind. "Valentine Skywalker. It felt rude not to say hi."

"I'm glad you did." And because the name was kind of curiosity-creating, she asked, "And who are your parents, exactly?"

Valentine jerked her thumb back at where Ben and Ender were standing.

"This weekend has been a little awkward," she shared. "In the way that mountains are a little big."

"...I bet." Jaina was pretty sure there was a crack in her brain that hadn't been there a minute ago but that was okay. "Kinda seems like you're handling it okay, though."

Well, that was about sixty percent repression, and right now, about forty percent picking a distinctly less freaked out relative to stand near. Too many people were losing it, quietly or otherwise.

Val shrugged. "It's this or hang around the dorms, watching all the kids run back and forth screaming," she said. "That gets a little dull. Have you been here long?"

"A few years. Long enough to have heard the kids running back and forth in the dorms a few times," Jaina told her. "Are you getting to do some fun stuff while you're here?"

There was a moment where Valentine actively wondered if that was a trick question.

"Not really," she admitted. "I'm a little old for see-saws and pancakes, and Ender hasn't left me alone with his 'net connection all weekend."

Because there was a precedent for Wiggins and unrestricted access to the 'nets. They tended to end in civil wars and world-wide coups.

None of which was information Val felt at all inclined to share with a younger Jaina. Get all your advantages while you can.

"So you'd rather be on a computer than anything?" Jaina was definitely curious there, since Anakin had been a lot like that at her age.

"That's the path to all the interesting information, right?" (Okay, Val wasn't actively planning anything, but her namesake had started at eight, too.) "I'm in a whole different time period, and I can't even check the message boards."

"I don't know if it's the path to all interesting information," Jaina said thoughtfully. "I like talking to people better. You get all sorts of clues you can't from a website that way."

Said she who did a lot of investigations. With a side of empathy.

"Well, sure," she said, with a shrug. "Face to face is always going to give more emotional context. But you don't always need it to know what people want, and what might be interesting about that, and what it might mean for what a lot of other people want. If you want to know what's moving in the universe, you need the nets."

Wow. "You know your stuff," Jaina said, more than a little impressed.

She shrugged. "I just want to check my message boards," Val repeated. "I like knowing what's happening."

"I bet you'll get to do it soon," she told her. "It just might take you longer than normal to get through them all."

"Maybe," Val said. She fidgeted. "Thanks, Jaina. Everyone's going a little crazy right now."

"They'll get over it," Jaina said, though she was willing to bet the kids would be gone first. "And if not, I can yell at them till they do."

Getting Out of Tight Situations- Period 5- Class #7

Re: Talk to Jaina. And Chak!

Re: Talk to Jaina. And Chak!

Re: Talk to Jaina. And Chak!

Re: Talk to Jaina. And Chak!

Re: Talk to Jaina. And Chak!

Re: Talk to Jaina. And Chak!

Re: Talk to Jaina. And Chak!

Re: Talk to Jaina. And Chak!

Re: Talk to Jaina. And Chak!

Re: Talk to Jaina. And Chak!

Re: Talk to Jaina. And Chak!

Re: Talk to Jaina. And Chak!

Re: Talk to Jaina. And Chak!

Re: Talk to Jaina. And Chak!

Re: Talk to Jaina. And Chak!

Re: Talk to Jaina. And Chak!