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geniuswithasmartphone ([personal profile] geniuswithasmartphone) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2016-05-24 05:41 am
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Beat The Heat: Indoor Activities 101, Wednesday, Period 3

Class was not in the Danger Shop this week. In fact, it wasn't even in the school. A message had handwavily gone out to the members of class the night before, telling them to meet up in town, at Fast Eddie's. When they came in, Hardison was lining up a shot. "Six, corner pocket," he called. A second later, the six ball sunk into the specified pocket and Hardison was turning around to greet his class.

"Not every indoor activity has to involve your own home," he said. "Sometimes, you gotta brave the outside world long enough to get somewhere even better. Findin' places to hang out durin' the summer is especially good if your house ain't got air conditionin' or is full of other people. Most public places can't kick you out so long as you ain't disruptive an' make a show of givin' 'em money every so often. In a restaurant, you can do that by orderin' another beverage, which you can also do here--" He jerked his thumb towards the tiny cafe inside Fast Eddie's "--or by playin' a game every coupla hours. Gotta be careful, though. When the place is busy, the staff might come an' kick you out if you're just takin' up a table or a lane in favor of other customers who are gonna pay more. At the same time, a crowd is good while you're in the arcade portion--it's easy to get lost in the crowd. Conversely, it also ain't great when you're the only person there. It's easy to keep tabs on you an' how much you're spendin'. On days when the place is empty, you gotta be real good at makin' sure you're spendin' money at the proper interval to keep folks from botherin' you. Of course, how much money is enough an' how long the 'proper interval' is varies from place to place. A good rule of thumb is to never go longer than an hour before spendin' money on somethin', whether it's a meal or a game or whatever."

Those instructions relayed, Hardison started handing out money; each student got five dollars in quarters. "Now, if you want, you can just settle in for today an' have fun. This place has an arcade, a bowling alley, pool tables. Beat the heat an' have a good time for the next hour. Hit me up if you need more money for stuff." Yes, it would have been easier and cheaper to just program this into the Danger Shop, but this way, Hardison had to walk less. Bonus! "For those of you who want a challenge, I talked to the staff before y'all showed up. They're gonna keep an eye on you an' toss you out if they don't think you're playin' enough. The trick is, you only get to spend your five dollars I gave you. Once it's gone, it's gone--no more. So you got to figure out how to spend a whole hour hangin' out under the nose of the staff with only five bucks to use to keep them from kickin' you out for loiterin'. Good luck!"