fandomhigh | Tricks, Cons and Bamboozles | Wednesday

Neal had only gotten back to Fandom half an hour before class today was supposed to start. Which meant he hadn't yet seen his office, so he was still in a reasonably good mood. Lucky students.

Becase he had spent a grand total of no time planning today's lesson, and because Peter Burke had a habit of making sarcastic suggestions that actually sounded like really good ideas, class met in the Danger Shop. Where students would find a dark room without any furniture, but with two red buttons on opposite walls.

"So part of pulling off a good con is stealth," Neal said, which would've sounded much cooler except that he was kind of exhausted and had to yawn on that last part. Oops. "You have to be fast and move very carefully to avoid being seen or caught. So we're going to work on that today."

He hit a switch, and suddenly the room was filled with bright green laser beams, starting just feet away from where the students were standing. "The object is to get all the way from here to the other side, and hit that button there, without touching any of the lasers," he explained. "Meanwhile, for every twenty seconds you spend past a certain time, five more lasers will go up near the back wall. So you want to be fast, you want to be precise, and... you probably want to take off any jackets or loose jewelry you have."

If asked, he would run through the maze wearing the fedora and still not touch a single laser. But that was just bragging.

"The board up there will keep track of high scores," he added. "You can run through as many times as you want to to beat your time. Oh, and guys? Don't zap the lasers for your classmates while they're going through. That's just obnoxious."

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"Erm... I think it depends on the camera." He thought about it for a second, seeing no ulterior motives in her questions.

"I know in the future they can and some of the really good cameras can, but most just record a blur." He nodded. "Sometimes there's a streak of light that Max says comes from our Speed Force trail or something. I wasn't really listening."

"SO cool," Kenzi said admiringly. "Speeeeed force. Do you want Mr. Caffrey to know what your top score is? It's cool if you don't, I won't tell."

"Oh. Um. Well, he's a teacher, right? But he's also not a superhero. So he should know because I'm in his class and that's the right thing. But he can't know because that would let him know about my super speed. But if I keep it from him then he'll think I'm some regular kid. But if I tell him then Max will be more upset with me. But if I don't tell him then I might get a bad grade. But if I do tell him, then I might get too good a grade and people might ask questions..."

He really could go back and forth like that for hours unless someone stopped him.

"BREATHE!" Kenzi repeated. "Why don't I tell him you did way better, but not tell him exactly, 'kay? You gotta go with Max's requirements, you know? This is one of those times we were talking about!" she suddenly realized, beaming. "When it's okay to tell a little lie. Swear."

"Oh. Yeah. That could work." He looked at her, thinking for a second.

"I guess if you say it's okay... And Max always says it's for everyone's safety if they don't know about my powers and stuff."

He sighed. "This is just like that time he wanted me to try out for the sports team at school."

"He wanted you to try out but not go your fastest?" Kenzi guessed. "Max is a sadist, isn't he?"

Bart gave a half-smile. "Yeah. He's always wanting me to clean up at normal speed and do my homework at normal speed. It's like he doesn't like being fast and doesn't want me to like it either."

He shrugged. "I keep hearing stories about Max when he was younger, like in the old west and stuff, like how he was a hero and an adventurer. I think he just got old."

"You can always, always clean our room at extra-fast speed," Kenzi assured him. "And yeah. Old. It's not like there's any side-effects from being speedy, are there?"

He thought about that for more than a second, looking serious, then a bit sad, then shook his head to get the thoughts out.

"Not from being speedy, no. Though... Cousin Wally says that Grandpa Barry ran so fast that he died, but that was to save the world, or worlds, I'm not really sure. But Grandpa was faster than any of us and no one really knows what happened to him."

"Aww. I'm sorry," Kenzi said, thinking about that, then poked him. "Don't do that. Not ever."

Bart smiled. "Don't worry about that. I don't plan on running that fast anyways."

Tricks, Cons and Bamboozles | Wednesday | Period 1

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