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Baking: Sweet and Savory | Monday, 3rd period

The students had been warned ahead of time with an e-mail to meet at the causeway instead of the classroom. When they got there, they would find Hannibal and a portal, and through the portal a Land Rover Range Rover Sport with three rows.

Hannibal ushered them all through the portal before explaining. "In my experience, these weeks are very bad for concentration, which means a very bad time for dealing with heat and sharp objects. Because of this, and because a bit of time away from the island can only help, we will be having a field trip today." He waved them toward the vehicle. "Shortest people in the back, please."

As he drove, Hannibal explained. "When you mention baking, one of the first things people will think of is cakes. They're a common baked good, and like the mochi last week, can be made simple or more complex. Today we will be visiting a commercial bakery that specializes in cakes. We will have a tour, and then your class today will be taught by their bakers and artists." Which would involve no pollen, and no students dealing with heat or knives.

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Sparkle was here! He was actually here, even though he'd seriously contemplated not coming to class at all today, but the promise of a field trip to keep him off the island for a couple more hours was too tempting for him to turn down.

He was kind of quiet anyway. But there were neat cakes and things, so he was quiet with distractions.

"You look as though you could use quite a bit of sleep," Hannibal noted.

"I could sleep for about a month," Sparkle mumbled, because if he was mumbling, he wasn't whining. Nobody liked a whiner. "I haven't done that yet. Don't wanna hurry back to the island, though."

Ever, please. Islands were stupid, with their sex flowers and all the bad ideas that came with them.

"Unfortunately, I have no off-island housing to offer you at the moment," Hannibal said.

"S'okay," Sparkle replied with a little shrug of his shoulders. "I don't... I don't need someone coming to my rescue every time I'm not up to dealing with something. This stupid pollen thing won't last forever and, hey, I graduate in a few months and then I can get outta there."

He... kind of had mixed feelings about that, after his talk with Atton earlier.

"If you like. Though you certainly aren't required to do so," Hannibal answered.

"No, I know I'm not," Sparkle replied, frowning a bit. "I... don't know what the hell I want right now, I guess. Maybe I'm just, like, tired."

He was exhausted. He was exhausted in a lot of ways.

"Why would I stay on the island? When it's not trying to kill me, it's pulling this messed-up flower bullshit. And, like, I guess I have jobs and junk but... I don't know."

That was helpful, Spark.

"I would say that now is not the time to make such a decision, but you know that already. Or will when you're better rested. But the island has many things going for it."

"Yeah, I know," Sparkle sighed, "but grad is coming and I'm going to have to make up my mind soon. Like. I can't go back to Canada without going back to Lewis. I just, like... can't. And maybe I go back and play nice long enough for them to shred my record and I start with a clean slate from there."

He wrinkled his nose.

"God, I'm younger in Toronto..."

Thanks, mismatched timelines. Thanks bunches.

"How much younger?" Hannibal asked curiously. "I didn't realize your time ran differently there."

"Enough that I'm over eighteen here, I'll be nineteen when I graduate, but I'd have a little while to go before I'm eighteen back in Toronto after grad," Sparkle sighed. "It wasn't really obvious at first when I came here, but after a few years, I guess it adds up."

Hannibal frowned. "Will they wonder how you graduated so quickly?"

"Sure they will," Sparkle replied, "if I bother telling anyone back there that I did. I mean, it's not really like I'm leaving here steeped in academia, exactly."

Plenty of life experience. Still couldn't write an essay to save his life.

"I'll probably have to, like, take another year of school or something. Get my credits, graduate from the Canadian high school system before I'm considered for any colleges back home or anything like that."

"Well, at least you won't need to worry about repeating classes, I suppose," Hannibal said. "Can you test out of it instead? Would you want to?"

"I might be able to try to test out of the cores that I need to graduate with, but..." Sparkle shrugged. "I always sucked at math, and never gave a shit about English or science, and then there's the social studies stuff..."

He wrinkled his nose a little.

"Three years of high school in three months is a lot of studying for someone who always sucked at it in the first place. I don't even... like... Shit, I wouldn't know where to start."

What he was trying to say here was that 'good study habits' and 'Sparkle' were not two great tastes that went great together.

"If it's something you think you'd be interested in, we could find the requirements, and I could help you study. If you think it would be too stressful, or that you will learn more in the classes, then do that. Just remember it's a choice that you can make."

Hannibal had graduated medical school at sixteen, so. He had Mad Study Skillz.

Sparkle had spent fourteen and his first chunk of fifteen bouncing around youth courts and perfecting fun and wonderful new ways to piss off the guards and counselors in the juvie system. Sixteen to now had been spent on the island, and somewhere in there he was supposed to pick up things like 'work ethic' and 'study habits?'

"I don't know if I could handle studying all of it, even with help," Sparkle admitted, frowning downward. "I was trying to keep up on math for a while. Karina got me the study materials for it and I kept up with it for a few months. But it went into weird algebra stuff and trig and, like, I'm not going to be some kind of engineer and I have no idea how to do math with numbers that aren't even there."

He got lost, got frustrated, had panicked, and had started convincing himself that there wasn't a point anyway because it wasn't like a kid like him was going to make it anywhere after high school anyway. And he knew how stupid that was, but it was a hard mindset to shake, even now.

"Concrete examples might help with that sort of thing, but yes, if you're having difficulties, classes would give you more time to adjust your thinking around the subjects. So long as the teachers are decent."

...Hannibal might have to make sure of that.

"Guess I'm going back to school after I graduate, then," Sparkle sighed, and he almost wound up slumping against a nearby table, but realized what he was going to do and caught himself before he could stick his hand in a cake.

... That would have sucked. A lot.

"There are worse ways to have to spend my time, I guess..."

Like being shot at by the hot Chiss guy, Spark?

Hannibal squeezed Sparkle's shoulder. "But for different subjects. And with fewer invasions, it is to be hoped."

"If I get attacked by fricking sharks in Toronto I'm going to just burn the whole city to the ground," he decided. "That's it, everything is stupid, Toronto doesn't get to keep standing."

Sparkle had pretty strong feelings on that matter. Because augh.

"No sharks. I will send the universe notice," Hannibal promised.

"Well, good," Sparkle decided. "Maybe it'll listen to you."

Because it sure as hell hadn't been listening to Sparkle that morning.

"We can certainly hope," Hannibal said.

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Baking: Sweet and Savory | Monday, 3rd period

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