fandomhigh | Practical Philosophy, Monday

"Hey," Ender greeted the group, smiling faintly. "It's traditional for my class to spend the first week reflecting on the future, and the last reflecting on the past."

"Specifically," he continued, stretching his legs out in the grass of the dorm lawn, "How much have you changed since you got here? How do you see your future, on the island or off? Has the island been an interruption in your life, to be skipped past and left there once you graduate? Or going by your experiences, do you think it will forge lasting changes that will stick with you in the times ahead?"

He smiled briefly.

"I realize this isn't a particularly philosophical series of questions," he said. "But it's something worth reflecting on, not just with me, but between yourselves. I have a feeling your viewpoints will be as diverse as you are."

He sat back.

"But to pull it larger: do you think there's a shared experience here on this island? Something similar we all take away from it? Or none at all?"

After he let those questions sink in, he looked towards one student in particular ~~if she was there~~. "Peridot? Can you come see me after class?"

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Ender sat forward, considering her. "What changed?" he asked.

"Ain't never had friends b'fore," she said simply. "You live an' work with family with the carnival, an' while stayin' in one place more'n a week still makes me itch, it's th' first time I've ever had friends that like me f'r me, not because we're family."

Ender smiled a little. "Sometimes it happens," he said, a little wryly. "Do you think you'll finish up your schooling here, now?"

"I'd be th' only one in m' age-group t' have finished high school. Considerin' 'm th' one that hated it th' most, that's kinda funny," she said, grinning. "I want t' stay, but they ain't gonna be happy about it."

"We're not exactly a standardized high school," Ender said wryly. "How much do they know about this place?"

"That it's a place for people who don't quite fit nowhere else," Ada said simply. "Which is all they knew when they sent me here. Never told 'em the weirder stuff, even when I wanted t' go home, b'cause they mighta pulled me out an' that woulda put all th' kids at the carnival at risk."

"Now I just don't tell 'em b'cause I don't feel like gettin' yelled at for not tellin' them b'fore."

"How complicated is the situation for kids at the carnival?" Ender asked. "I've never known."

"One of us fails the tests, social services starts takin' a real hard look at all of us," she answered. "Due t' our 'non-traditional home environment' an' all."

"Your parents ain't together, or work different carnivals? They find a complaint that some Townie once alleged you took their wallet, but it was never proven? They don't think th' meal trailer's been serving enough vegetables? Got a girlfriend or boyfriend an' they think you're too young? Or, hell, you passed but barely? You're a target for removal an' they'll toss you in foster care 'til you're eighteen 'for your own good.'"

"An' ain't nothing thrives where it don't belong. Th' ones that get taken? Don't always make it back."

Practical Philosophy, Monday

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