fandomhigh | How to Tame a Willful Wife; Tuesday, Second Period [06/02].

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tame a willful wife

How to Tame a Willful Wife; Tuesday, Second Period [06/02].

Hopefully, everyone had gotten the message to meet in the Danger Shop this week, and, if not, then the inexplicably glittery sign posted on the usual classroom would direct them that way. And once they got there, they'd find themselves transported to an absolutely lovely English country estate, with Summer there to greet them, very much looking the part.

She grinned.

"So you guys might have figured out," she said, "that we're going to be doing something a little bit different today. I highly suggest that you take a moment to use the Danger Shop to get dressed up for the occasion, if you'd like; it'll definitely help get you in the mood for today's activity, and then, once you're ready, we'll meet in in the parlor."

And once there, with tea ready to be served and delightful music being played on the pianoforte, Summer explained. "I've been thinking a little bit about the direction of the class and thought it might be nice to take a little break for something more lighthearted, at least for a couple weeks, so today, we're going to be playing a game, based on one of the best movies ever, Wedding Mr. Marcy. It's a card game, so we could have just played it normal, but it's also a role-playing game, so I figured we could really get into the mood of it by taking it to the next level. The premise is very simple: we are all lovely young bachelorettes in the English country side during the Napoleonic wars, and we are here to court and hopefully wed on of the small handful of dashing suitors at our disposal. We'll each take turn drawing cards that will direct us in certain events or occasions that will take us one step closer...or one step further...from being a marriagable option for these suitors. Many of the scenarios are rooted in classic ideals of etiquette and propriety. Some of them make sense. Some of them are absurd. Some of them will definitely give you a chance to be sufficiently willful, and all of them are definitely tounge-in-cheek. And the more you get into it and start to really get into your character and interact with each other, the more fun it will be.

"The cards will be placed on the center table, and we'll all take turns drawing one and go from there, and, at the end of the class period, I'll tally up the points and we'll see how everything falls into place to see who has managed to become a willful wife and who has wound up a dreaded Old Maid.

"It should be noted," Summer added with a grin, "that, honestly, some of the options for Old Maid are actually way better than winding up with half of these dudes, anyway. But we'll just have to wait until the end to see. So, whom shall take the honor of drawing our first card?"

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Summer made a little bit of a face, because those were pretty good points.

"Alright, then," she said, nodding, as if stealing herself for whatever Nina was going to throw at her, because, honestly, it was Nina, there was almost no preparing for it, "I'll do my best. What's on your mind?"

Nina fidgeted slightly.

Honestly, Tuesdays were the best days to ask these sorts of questions anyway because, like, she did the reporting and could tailor her news the way she wanted to...

"How do you know when you should break up with someone?????????????" she blurted.

Summer's brows lifted, but her answer came almost immediately.

"I'd say right around the time you begin to seriously start asking that question in the first place."

That was... sort of... what she'd thought.

"I thought it'd get better," she confessed.

Summer gave Nina a smile, small and sympathetic.

"And sometimes," she offered, "it does. Most of the time, though? It does't. Not really. And you're way too young to be sitting around hoping it gets better against odds like that."

She said, from the wise, sage position if almost four years older.

It still sounded like pretty solid advice, though?

"Like, it's just............ last night I was teasing Foomy with this singing bird my brother and his best friend made for me and, like, I realized that I was more excited about my singing bird toy," which was totally rad and made her smile every time it sang because that was her dumbass brother singing, "than I was for the fact my boyfriend's planned a fancy date for us later this week.............

"And, like, I don't know that I want to go.............."

"And I'm going to go out on a limb," said Summer, a slight wince in her voice, "and guess it's not the fancy part that's the problem?"

The thought of Nina not being excited about a romantic fancy date was honestly a little disturbing, if she was perfectly honest about it.

Edited 2020-06-02 20:43 (UTC)

She should be over the moon about it but, like, instead she was just very blah.

Which... spoke volumes about things?

"I love fancy romantic things," she said, which was a surprise to no one who knew anything about her, "but, like, I'm just.......... like, I don't think he's doing it to be romantic??????????? I just....... it's not his style??????????? Owen's not big on fancy and he knows he messed up by not asking me to Prom........

"But, like, I don't want a fancy date to be an obligation????????"

Summer nodded slowly. "Yeaahhh," she said. "The last thing you want is to feel like a guy you like feels obligated to do stuff like that..."

Which, you know, doing things because you want to do them and not to fit some other person's idea of what you shoild be doing was KIND OF a theme with this class....

"Have you talked to him about it?" she asked, knowing that was SO much easier said than done.

"No," she admitted, a bit dismally. "Like, I sort of dread it because I know it's going to go terribly for him no matter what I say about it. He told me about this girl he knew for a day and how he hated that she left him behind to go do better things and, like.............."

She'd known him for a day?

"I know, like, beating around the bush is terrible, but no matter what I say I'm going to be The Worst in his eyes or, like, he'll be The Worst Forever and that's not...... not what I mean??????????? I don't hate him or, like, even dislike him??????? I'm just... not happy."

"You can't let his insecurities get in the way of your happiness, Nina," Summer said, with a slight sigh. "Okay, now I almost kind of regret not sticking with the lesson plan, but also not, because this was kind of awesome, but a BIG theme on these books is how a woman has to put aside everything just to appease her man and his massively fragile ego. In a way, if you don't mind me saying so, it kinda sounds like something like that might be happening here, but in reverse? Like, he doesn't want to disappoint you and your, let's be honest, high expectations, but if he's just doing it because he doesn't want to disappoint you..."

She considered Nina thoughtfully. "What if..." she ventured, "you were to suggest maybe some slightly less fancy plans? Something more casual? I know he planned something out, but you know. A little disappointment before a bigger one. And then you guys can talk, without the pressure of any expectations or without, you know, also totally ruining all her plans?"

"I want to see him more than once a month maybe and for him to take initiative to ask me to the biggest dance of the year is having super high expectations?????????????" Nina protested, feeling unfairly stung there. "I mean, like, I adore romance but......... is that really expecting too much????????????"

Summer held up a hand in defense of that not being exactly what she meant, and clarified. "No," she said, "it's not. But those are still expectations he's been failing at, and he probably feels bad about it, and if he's failing at these Not Even That Big Expectations, it's, like, what other bigger things is he worrying about screwing up? And you're a pretty big force to reckon with, too."

She might even be doing the poor guy a favor....

What??

Wow, rude!

"What???????????" Nina said, honestly confused. "I'm not a force at all..."

Summer was just going to look at you for a moment, Nina.

"I mean," she said, "have you, like, listened to your radios?"

"Only if I need to fact-check something and I'm going through archives????????????" she said, frowning a little, unsure of how that correlated. "And that's, like, only if a squirrel doesn't know off the top of their head..."

"So," Summer ventured, folding her arms in front of her and NOT smirking a little, honest!, "you're honestly going to stand there and deny that you have a Capital-P Personality, and then some?"

"I know I'm, like, a bit in-your-face??????????" she tried. "And I'm bad at accepting 'no'??????"

"Right," said Summer, her smirkeaning a little more toward a smile now, "which is awesome, and that's you and don't ever change it. I wish I had even half of that at your age. But you can see why maybe that might not....like, work for everyone? And that's fine, too! Eventually, there's probably someone who matches that, like, perfectly, but there's gonna be failure along the way. Lots of it, if you're 'lucky.' But you'll get there. And it's definitely okay to NOT get there with your first high school boyfriend.

"It's kind of not okay, thiugh," she added, "if you know it's not working but you're still stringing him along. Especially when he's clearly trying to make the effort."

Nina flushed.

"I didn't mean to string him along," she confessed. "Like, I was trying to decide what to do......."

"And I think," said Summer, softening with that sympathy again, "you've pretty much decided, so...you know what you've got to do."

Nina's shoulders slumped.

"I know," she admitted. "But, like, I just.........."

She was scared? Anxious?

"I know," said Summer, with meaning, too. "It's not always going g to be just as easy as hopping to another dimension or blowing up his quarter of the city..."

And maybe that was just her.

"But it'll be good, Nina. And you're an FH student. You've survived shit so much worse than a breakup, but I'm gonna be honest with you, sometimes it really does feel like the end of the entire fucking multiverse. But it's not. And there's, like, so much more out there."

"I'd rather break a bone than break up with him," she admitted, then had to laugh. "That's, like, kind of pathetic, right???????"

But it was true.

Broken bones sucked, then she healed them, and then it was fine.

This was months of agonizing over what to do.

"And, like, how do I even......... do it???????"

"That's not pathetic," said Summer. "That's normal. Broken bones are so much easier than broken hearts. And, I mean, you never did say what you thought about maybe starting to bring him down easy by suggesting something maybe a little less fancy, so that there's less pressure, and then, you know, just...be honest. 'Hey, I really like you and stuff, but I'm not sure this is working out.' Like a band-aid."

She moved a hand over her arm, making a tearing sound like she was removing said band-aid.

"And then march to the ice cream shop and order literally everything."

Or the bar, but she probably shouldn't encourage her students to drink while they were in the classroom.

If they were IN the bar, that'd be a different story, probably.

How to Tame a Willful Wife; Tuesday, Second Period [06/02].

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