Fandom High School

"Well," said Amaya, grinning faintly once the students arrived at the site, which looked not at all like a site anymore at all, but a nearly finished building, "here we are, the last class I think??. And I will say, you guys were really great. I hope, if anything, it wasn't a bad way to spend your summer and that you've learned at least a little something, whether you wind up using it or not. I sort of spent the last week picking up all the little things here and there, so there really isn't much to do today. I'm gonna have you guys walk through an end-of-construction checklist to work as sort of a review, and when you're finished, head on up to the roof, where we'll spend the rest of the class enjoying the time-honored tradition of the Lunch Break."

She grinned a little again, and began to hand out the checklists. "Any questions, I'll be on the roof. But hopefully everything checks, and I'll meet you guys up there to shoot the crap and eat some food. Thanks for all your hard work this summer; it's been really great."

Not too bad, right? Just be glad Amaya decided not to follow through on the first idea she'd briefly had, which was to have them all help her start moving her things across town to the new apartment. Sure, Amaya didn't have much stuff in general...but she did have a lot of weapons.

"Welcome back," Amaya gave the students a little wave once they'd all gathered on the site for this week's lesson. "Sorry about last week; long story short, always take a second to listen to your packages before you open them. If you hear buzzing...it might be bees. But good thing about this stage in the construction process is that it's a lot of work, but it's pretty simple stuff, like the insulation. And, for today, we're going to be working on the lath and plaster method for walls down here in the shop.

"Now, according to my research, this style of wall-building has gone quite a bit out of style; drywall is used more now, because it's easier and cheaper, so we'll be doing that upstairs in the apartment next week. But for the purposes of the shop, lath and plaster walls are more soundproof, which I'm sure the neighbors will enjoy," despite, you know, a good portion of the shop still being open air, but whatever!, "and it's also better for the prevention of the spread of a fire, should anything happen, since a smith deals with a lot of heat and a lot of potential fire hazards.

"It's pretty easy work, too, though, all said and done." Amaya shrugged, reaching for a frame so she could demonstrate some of the steps, with some before and after examples she'd whipped up.. How to nail the boards on, make sure it's clean, smooth on the plaster. And since it took a long time to dry, they'd notice a few walls were already done, and that's where they could work on the sanding on those until the others were dry so they, too, could be sanded.

"Not too difficult, right? But don't hesitate to ask questions. Let's get to work!"

"Morning, workers!" Amaya greeted the students when they made it to the site, setting aside something that looked almost like a potato lamp and brushing off her hands. "Today, we're going to be working on the electrical aspects and wiring of the building, so we'll be working mostly upstairs in the apartment. Now, where I"m from, we don't even have electricity, so I'm not too proud to admit that I think this particular topic is best explained by someone a bit more familiar, which is why were's going to start out with a video, "she patted her hand on the tube screen on a tall roller cart quintessential to any school experience, "and then we'll head upstairs and get to work."

Short and sweet today, right to business! She'd even brought in a bench so they could sit while they watched, and there was an airpot of coffee in addition to the usual giant orange water cooler. She suspected it might be needed to help get them through the dryness of the video; she realized not everyone could listen to people talk about wires and hookups in excruciating detail all day like she could.

Way more interesting than mushy stories about welders who wanted to be dancers, anyway...

Sure, the heat hadn't been bothering Amaya too much...she was, after all, a woman who thrived when most of her day was spent in front of a hot, fiery furnace. But she knew it had been bothering plenty of people, and the heat added to the humidity added to the threat of rainstorms at about the time the class was being held finally pushed her to reluctantly have a class held inside in the school's workshop. There might have been a little bit of grumbling about how it might not be an issue if it weren't for the time change, but even that she figured was probably better for the kids...and the neighbors around the site.

So messages were sent and the students were to meet at the school instead of the site, and at least it was just their first day, so taking it easy might not be too bad.

"Hello," she said, when the students arrived, "and welcome back to some of you, welcome to construction to the others. Glad to see some familiar faces! I was hoping to jump right into it, but let's consider this our first safety lesson: if the weather's unsafe, you'd best take it easy, and we're especially not doing roofing or electrical wiring in the threat of a storm. Hopefully next week's a little more promising, but for now, we'll stick with something simple to get our feet wet. We'll do some introductions, I've got an instructional safety video because safety is something I cannot stress enough, and then I've got a little project for us, too."

With that, her fist pounded into her other hand and she nodded. "So let's get started."

"Morning, everyone," Amaya greeted the class stoutly with a nod. "Sorry about last week, but, as I'm sure most of you have realized, the Island was going through one of its little ...things, and it couldn't be helped. Still, despite the obstacle, you all did a great job. If you need me to go over anything I attempted to go over last week, just let me know, I'll be happy to go over it again, this time even loud enough for you to hear me."

She was smiling faintly, somewhat pained, since fourteen year old her was much harder to avoid the after-effects of than seven year old her had been. She didn't exactly appreciate the forced perspective into her childhood, but what could be done about it? Nothing, so it was best to just move on.

"And today we'll be doing more framing, anyway, focusing now on the apartment upstairs, getting all those walls framed and erected. Second verse, a little different than the first, and teamwork's going to be important here, because those walls are heavy, and we're a little higher up, so the wind's going to play a factor, too. Once you got a wall up...and, of course, I've already got 'em together for you and marked where they go, take turns holding and nailing, and I'll help, too, because an extra set of hands in a job like this rarely hurts."

"Any questions?" she asked, looking around to field any that there might be. "Alright, then," she pounded a fist into her other hand, then quirked her thumb toward the second floor, "gear up, climb up, and let's get to work!"

Apologies to the neighbors; it was concrete day for construction class, meaning Amaya had somehow found the time to rig the Crumbler up as a cement mixer and one thing the Crumbler always managed to do was was be loud.

"Morning, crew!" Amaya greeted the students, voice rising above the tumbling concrete mixing in the clanking machine. She grinned a little as she handed them each a copy of a lay-out plan, then gestured to the boards and rods of rebar and pipes set off to the side. "Big day today, it's time to lay the foundation, but before that, we've got to set the base. I'd like you all to work together on this, since it's just easier, and I'll be overseeing, of course, hopefully to catch anything before it goes too far off."

So she went over the basics: how to set up the forms with the wood boards and stakes, screwing them in, trimming them off, and using the plans she'd given them to lay the rebar and pipe grid. "Now, all the rebar we'll need, I've bent and cut already, but if anyone wants to take a few moments to use the machine to try a few themselves, I highly recommend it. Working with this rebar is where your gloves and your goggles are going to be particularly important; it's steel, it's strong, so it can cut you up if you're not careful, so please be careful, 'specially if you know you're a bit...erm," Beaker, "accident-prone."

Hopefully the others could manage themselves fairly well, because Amaya was pretty sure all her attention would be focused on wringing her hands around Beaker.

Once that was finished and Amaya checked the level on the forms, she nodded approvingly. "Not bad! Now the fun part, the concrete! Everyone grab a bag of gravel, dump it in, and level it with your shovels, then we're going to give it a good spray. And then in goes the concrete! I've rigged the Crumbler here," she gave it a fond little pat in one of the few spots without any moving parts to the moment, "to keep it good and mixed and to pour it for us, so you're job's just to smooth her out. Once we've got a good layer spread out, we'll smooth it further with boards, and get started on water-curing it, which takes a few days, which'll work fine to get us to our next step next week."

"And when you're done with that," she added, "I've got a little slab set aside over here that I'd really appreciate if you all took a second to leave a little something, a name or a mark or a signature, to commemorate you guys for all your hard work. But for now, let's get to work!"

Amaya had sent messages out to her students, but just to make sure, there was a note on the classroom door telling them to meet in town at 6 Unicorn Street, between the Trooper Station and the butcher shop. There was a joke about pigs in there somewhere, but, sadly, Amaya did not know it. And she had to give props to the person in charge of scheduling for putting a construction class first thing in the morning; she was sure the students and the neighbors alike would appreciate it.

When it looked like everyone was there, Amaya nodded a greeting. She already wore a yellow construction hat and goggles, and there was a table nearby with a few more of both of those things, as well as work gloves and a collection of sledgehammers. And if that send a little excitement pumping through your veins, then you were definitely in the right place.

"Thanks for coming," she said, "and welcome to Construction 101. I'm Amaya Blackstone, and I know some of you, but not all of you, and I don't know if you know each other, so we'll definitely be doing the introduction bits today. There aren't many of you, which is good, because that means we can get through that and get to the good stuff,. We'll be meeting here every Friday, rain or shine, cats or dogs, unless you hear from me otherwise. And I want to talk about safety first." She patted her hard hat with a gloved hand. "This is going to be an active construction site, we're not doing any of that Danger Shop stuff, so there's a real chance for injury, and I don't know what's covered under the school's insurance, so let's just avoid it all and be safe. You don't step one foot, not even a wee little biscuit, on this site unless you've got a hard hat, goggles, and a pair of work gloves. We'll keep 'em here at the site so you don't have to worry about losing them, and it looks like we're all generally human-," she flashed a glance particularly a Beaker "-shaped so fit shouldn't be a problem. And if you're not feeling well for whatever reason, don't hesitate to mention it, because someone all geared up but not in tip-top shape can be just as dangerous as someone without their stuff. I'd rather you sit out than push yourself into something dumb, or we can find something else for you to do in the meantime."

Probably a coffee run.

"So!" She clapped her hands together. "Safety first, and now introductions! I'm Amaya Blackstone, I own this lot, so we can do whatever we want to it, but we're going to be building the basics for my new shop. I'm a blacksmith by trade, but I like building anything, as I'm sure you'll find out. Your turn, now. Let's here your name, let me know if you've got any construction or building experience, and then, I don't know, one thing you're looking forward to this summer, doesn't even have to be class-related. We'll just go down the line." She pointed to the first student. "Go!"

Once they were finished, Amaya nodded again. "Nice to meet you all. Let me know if you have any questions at any time, too, but now that all that's over, let's get to work! Now, I don't know what the place was before I bought it; seemed empty for a while, but whatever it is, isn't going to work for my new shop. We're going to start from the ground up, kids, which means we've got to knock whatever's there to the ground. Grab your gear, grab a sledgehammer, and let's get to work. We'll start up on the roof and work our way down to cut down on debris falling on our head; be sure to clear everything out and dump it in these carts here in the street. I've got scaffolding and whatnot already set up inside where I suspect we'll need it. Have fun, but be safe. Let's go knock some walls down."