Fandom High School

The Danger shop had been programmed to look like a gentle landscape of rolling hills today, and several horses were penned in an enclosure near the area where the class gathered. As for the teacher, she was holding the reins of a black mare and lookign as though she wasn't sure what it was doing there.

"Hey," she said. "So today we're riding horses. I hear it's good for you."

She gave the horse a pat on the nose. "I'm not so sure it's good for the horse, which is why we're doing it in the Shop. Now, to ride a horse, first you have to get onto it. You take the reins in one hand like this" -- and here she talked through the steps of getting onto a horse's back, ending up only slightly wobbily atop her own horse. "And then you tug on the reins and dig your heels in the tiniest bit, and off the horse goes."

Her horse seemed to have been waiting for that instruction; it took off faster than Jack had anticipated, and she had to yank on the reins to get it to stop.

"Your assignment for today is to try to keep up with me," she said, climbing down off the horse. "But first, we all need to pick out horses and climb up on them. I'm here to help if you can't do it by yourself."

Class was meeting in the Danger Shop today, which had been programmed to look like a large field with nets on each end and cryptic lines demarking different positions.

"Nice job keeping yourselves alive last week," Jack said, which to her was high praise. "And now ... back to gym class. We're playing field hockey this week."

She tugged on her ponytail. "Look, field hockey isn't actually a thing where I grew up, but some chicks were playing it on this dumb show I watched yesterday and it looked pretty intense. Anyhow, I'm not totally up on all the rules but I know you need to get the ball into the net with the sticks. I'll play goalie and we can learn together." Smoothing her short plaid skirt, she added, "Also, we are wearing kilts. So suit the frack up and let's play."

Everyone else on the island was going crazy, but Jack was ... well, no more crazy than she'd been last week as class assembled in the gym. But she did have a tattoo around one eye that none of the students would have seen before. (Jack would have said she got it on Omega years before.)

Apparently, the universe was only going to mess with her in tiny ways.

"It feels like a good day for pointy things," she said once the students were gathered on a practice mat. "So we're going to try to learn fencing. But don't get too excited. Blunt practice foils only."

She went over the basics of fencing, explaining equipment, footwork and simple moves. And then she held the foil she'd been demonstrating out to the nearest student. "Now, go for it. Pair up if you want, or practice with the dummies over there."

Class met in the Danger Shop today, which had been programmed to resemble a stretch of sandy beach. Three seven-foot-high nets stretched across part of the space, and Jack idly tossed a white ball between her hands as she waited for the class together.

"Hey," she said. "I am not ready for break to be over, so you guys get beach volleyball today. It's kind of like regular volleyball, except you play two on a side and you can get a sunburn doing it." She quickly went over the rules, then tossed the balls to the students.

"Now, pair off and play. I programmed some opponents for you into the Shop." She hit a button on the control panel and revealed pairs of person-sized badgers standing on one side of the nets. Because this was beach volleyball, they were of course nattily attired in swim trunks.

Jack pursed her lips, hit a few buttons. "Right. Looks like we're stuck with the whatever-those-things-are. Play ball."

Jack had no idea what to make of the weekend, and she had chosen the path of putting it in a locked box at the back of her mind and not thinking about it

Class met in the danger shop. There were piles of fitted but warm jackets, gloves and helmets at the door, and then the students could climb into an elevator that would take them to the top of a snowy track.

Once they were there, Jack held up a diagram. "Today we're doing luge," she said. "Which is like sledding down a hill except you can kill yourself. What you wanna do is lie down on the sled, grab the sides, and use your legs to steer the runners down the track. If that's too easy for you punks, you can also do it with two people on the sled. The idea is to go as fast as you can -- no sitting up or dragging your hands in the snow to slow your momentum."

"And remember, this is a simulation so you can't actually kill yourself. Or even break anything." A pause. "I think. Anyhow, go for it."

There was a large, shy-looking dog curled up in a doggie bed by Jack's desk, watching attentively as the students filed in.

"First things first, that's Natasha," Jack said with some pride, indicating the dog with a jerk of her thumb. "She'll probably be hanging out during class most weeks. She's shy but sweet. Just don't make any real sudden moves around her or she freaks."

"Second ... so I dunno if my mind is going or what, but while I was walking her over the weekend I could swear I heard kids playing. Made me think about how a lot of us had some crappy childhoods. Can't change them, but we can have a little bit of fun now. Today we're playing playground games. We got a hopscotch board, a Chinese jump rope set-up, a tetherball, and we're going to all start by playing red rover. If you don't know how to do any of those, don't worry, I'll explain while we go. Now let's play."

The gym had an assortment of trampolines in it today: An individually-sized one for each student, and then a larger one behind them, on which Jack stood (bounced) in place as class began.

"Hey," she said, a jump on each word. "Today we're working on trampolines. A basic trampoline workout has three moves -- bounces, prances, and squats." She demonstrated each of them. "It feels fun until it kills your core muscles. But stick with it until you get comfortable with the way the trampoline moves under your feet, and you can start doing things like this."

And there she executed a perfect front flip, followed by a backflip.

"Those aren't as hard as they look, and I'm here to spot you," she said, then launched into the technical explanation of how to do the flips -- still bouncing the whole time."So, we're warming up with the basic workout in the first half of class, and then you can try out the tricks. Two of you can get on the big trampoline at a time if you try not to bang into each other. Got it?"