Crestmere High

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

Mr. K. continued on with his lecture about the Alemanian Wars, their aftermath, and the subsequent rebuilding of that country.

"So these guys were really really poor when the war was over," said Mr. K, "because they spent it all on weapons and soldiers, so they had to find a way to make some cash. Adalbert had a ton of soldiers who weren't fighting anymore, so he decided, 'Hey, it would be a great idea to give these jabronies new jobs as precious metal miners.' And that is exactly what he did." Mr. K. moved the show forward to a slide showing an Alemanian mining town established around a silver mine. He continued speaking.

"So, a bunch of these mining towns across Alemania pop up, towns based around extracting precious minerals like gold, silver, and platinum, from the ground. Towns which would turn into cities..." Mr. K. then put up a map of current-day Alemania, with several major Alemanian cities highlighted. "Wolfsburg, Koblenz, Trier, Hamm, Osnabruck. Cities whose names we associate with and say 'Oh, that's in Alemania'."

"You know," said Mr. K., now going off on one of his stories, "I actually visited Hamm a few months ago for vacation." Mr. K. pointed to the picture of Hamm's skyline. "Yeah, I was there for this food festival I'd heard about from one of my friends. He was like, 'Oh, Hamm's got really great food, like sausages and stuff'. And I was like 'Alright, sure'. So I hopped on a plane to Hamm, and I got there, and I hung around for a few days." Mr. K. now moved to the front of his board. He continued his story.

"I ate these gigantic meter long sausages called 'zweihanders', which is Alemanian for 'two-handers', which referred to Alemanian longswords. So, I ate a few of those, uh, those longswords. And I'll tell you, they're extremely delicious, if a bit salty. So I just chugged them down with beer." He began chuckling.

[Kurt]

"Oh Mr K!" Svens hand shot up 

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

"Sven-o, go!" said Mr. K., pointing at Sven. He smiled, thinking, "Finally, this kid can shine."

Bohdan and Wladyslaw turned their heads to see this dog with an accent as strange to them as they were to the rest of the class. Korben and Elizabeth also looked to Sven.

[Kurt]

"See" Sven stood up and went to the board "this mine, not like one at home yes?" He pointed at the entrance "Here they use........" he furrowed his brow as he searched for the word "Carts, but only one track. Very slow."

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

Mr. K.'s sight darted between Sven and the board, as the tykeriel was utterly confused with what Sven was trying to convey. He blinked.

"What was that?" Mr. K. asked.

Wladyslaw put his hands behind his head, sat back, and sighed, pitying Sven's embarrassing foray. Bohdan put his head down to grab some sleep. Elizabeth and Korben looked at each other confusedly.

[Kurt]

Sven sighed. Quickly typing into his translator he played what he said earlier. "Those mines aren't like the ones from home. They are only using one track, very slow mining."

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

"Ohhhh!" said Mr. K., nodding his head. "Yeah, mind you, this is thousands of years ago, so they didn't even have combustion engines. They had to do everything either by hand or with pack animals."

"Now sit, Sven," Mr. K. said. "Nobody goes up to the board without Special K's permission."

[Shmibli7]

Vlady gave Sven a look nearly resembling a glare when his episode was over. What had him riled up? And what made him think he could just pop up and start talking instead of the teacher. This Sven was truly an enigma to the jackal. Maybe he didn't want to look into him after all....

As for Mr. K, Vlady was transfixed on him. This man was a genius. An eccentric one, yes, but a genius nonetheless. He had been in this classroom for less than twenty minutes but he knew that K knew what he professed.

[Naza Sutera]

Amelia then placed braided her fingers together and placed her hands on the desktop. As much as she loved a sick'ning high heel, she couldn't negotiate with the face that they were hard on the feet. Discreetly slipping her foot out of her left shoe, she wriggled her toes a little to let her foot breathe before putting her shoe back on and doing the same for the other. Whoever said that beauty was pain ain't never lied.

She thought this Sven character was adorable as he tried to explain the differences between the mines of his home to the mines of Alemania. She liked his accent and his quiet awkwardness. It was indearing and it reminded her of her younger brother.

[Zaphyr Stone]

Over-achiever. Zane thought quietly to himself as he scribbled down notes. It was clear to him that the teacher had taken quite a shine to the new student as well.

Not that it was a problem for him. Just an interesting observation.

[Kurt]

Quickly typing as he sat the speaker on his translator again said. "Neither did we, and yes sir"

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

"So, where was I?" asked Mr. K. somewhat rhetorically. He stood for a few moments thinking before continuing.

"Oh, right, sausages. So yeah, I was in Hamm." Mr. K. kept the show going, with the newest slide being a page from Athalwulf's Code, a series of laws enacted by Athalwulf when he became king of Alemania. "So, all of this nice stuff is called Athalwulf's Code. When the dust settled and Athalwulf was king, he made these new laws, laws that protected the common guys from the nobles in their little castles."

"Athalwulf did this because he knew that while the nobles had the money and prestige, the people were starting to get more and more power. They were being better educated because the Universities became more open, they had more money from the mineral trade, they were being better fed from better agricultural practices brought into Alemania by their neighbors. All in all, things were on the up for the commoners."

"However, this didn't sit well with the nobles. After all, they were the overlords of a lot of the land, and therefore, the people. So, they really didn't like Athalwulf, and plotted to kill him. There were tons and tons of assassination attempts on Athalwulf while he was alive. One of the most famous ones is when members of his own court tried to kill him by blowing him up in an inn." Now at this time, Mr. K. began smiling.

"So, the plotters, which included his marshal, Count Orvar von Goya, found out that Athalwulf would be touring the kingdom and would be staying at an inn called The Lazy Squire. So, they paid off the owner into piling tons of manure into the storeroom below the inn. The hope was that the methane being emitted by the manure would ignite from the candles in the inn to blow it up. So, when Athalwulf arrived and sat down to eat with his entourage, he noticed that the whole place smelled like crap." Mr. K. began chuckling, but continued to speak.

"So, Athalwulf went to the storeroom and found all the crap in there, and coerced the owner into explaining himself. The owner told him that he was paid off by von Goya and others to kill Athalwulf. So, Athalwulf went off on the plotters and had them all tied up and thrown into the inn, and Athalwulf just waited until the inn blew up with the plotters inside."

"That was such a shitty plot!" said Bohdan humorously. Mr. K. laughed.

"I'm giving you candy points, Bohdan!" said Mr. K., throwing a mini R-bar at him. Bohdan, laughing fumbled it.

Mr. K. then moved the show forward to one final slide containing some questions regarding the topics discussed. "Okay, my younglings, work!" said Mr. K.

[Naza Sutera]

Amelia took a red three-ring binder out of her school bag that housed a fancy brand of college-ruled paper that was made of recycled material. It was brown, giving very much a paper bag realness to it, but it was not so dark that the color took away from its serviceability. In short, it was light beige, rather than brown. She also took out a ball-point pen from her pencil case; Papermate Inkjoy, which she swore by. Taking out a few sheets of paper, she looked over the questions on the final slide of the presentation before getting to work.

[Shmibli7]

Vlady gave the questions a long glance, then quickly and violently transferred the information in his head to the paper. In two minutes he had finished answering the questions which had been projected onto the board. He looked his sheet over, checked his answers, and, when satisfied,  put the paper back down on his desk, content with his work.

Vlady looked to where the one called Amelia was sitting. She seemed to be the embodiment of a typical Cornerian teenager, at least in Vlady's semi-slanted view of them. 

I bet those shoes are more expensive than my car. Vlady joked with himself as he further inspected her.

The binder, paper, and pen also divulged further clues about her. All were just a tad bit not expensive than their wholesale alternatives. 

Maybe she's making some kind of statement. He thought as he shrugged. 

"Uhm,  yes, Mr. K?" He said, his linguistics unusually strong for a foreigner. "What exactly is to be done with this once we have finished it?

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

Elizabeth and Korben got to working on the questions, taking out their binders full of notebook paper and writing answers to the questions. As they remembered the subjects discussed by Mr. K. minutes before, they easily breezed through the work.

Bohdan and Wladyslaw, while working as equally hard, managed to sneak in a few laughs and conversations, with their topic of choice being a strategy game.

"I saw you playing Galactic Conquest IV yesterday," Bohdan said to Wladyslaw, finishing up question two. "Who were you?"

"Vlandia," said Wladyslaw, who was just starting to answer question four.

"Why are you playing as them?" asked Bohdan, turning to Wladyslaw next to him. He leaned forward in his chair, while Wladyslaw was sitting back. "They are so weak. They have only one planet."

"Not when I play them," said Wladyslaw. Bohdan looked at him dubiously.

"You cheated, did you not?" Bohdan asked.

"Yep!" replied Wladyslaw conceitedly, with a grin on his face. Bohdan began chuckling as he put his lower jaw on his desk.

"You are so bad! Stop cheating!"

"But Vlandian Earth!"

"I will smack you."

The two brothers chuckled.

Meanwhile, Mr. K. proceeded to ask Vlady's question.

"You just hand it in to me, Vladimir," answered Mr. K.

[Shmibli7]

Vlady paused upon hearing "Vladimir." But then remembered that his name was, in fact, a derivative of the former.

He walks over to Mr. K's desk and turns in his work then heads back to his seat, reach into his coat pocket to retrieve a copy of Yenon tri Comac, a Venomian mob story that was published before the planetary censorship laws. It was his favorite reading material and the only personal belonging besides his clothes that he had brought with him during his immigration.

He runs his hand over the worn cover. The image on the cover of the infamous Tal Vishito, an aging leopard in a silk suit holding a blast-pistol and smoking a cigarette was faded and wrinkled. He opened the book to the page he had saved.

Chapter 22, Christening of the Devil...

 

[Naza Sutera]

Amelia finished up the questions. She had written down each question and followed it with complete clauses as if completing questions for a scholarship or an essay. She made sure her name, date, class, and teacher were on the top right corner of the paper before getting up from her desk to turn it in. Vlady was already at Mr. Kolacsai's desk turning in his work. When Vlady gave his work to Mr. K., Amelia was about to place her work on his desk to when another student, Sven, cut through and placed his work on the desk before she did. Well, excuse ME, Ms. Thing! she thought before handing in her work and returning to her seat.

[Kurt]

Sven struggled with the work, only because it was in a different language. But he persevered and managed to do it to his fullest ability. Standing up and slipping past another student he turned in his paper and began to head back to his desk.

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

Salamon always felt comfortable when his father lectured for obvious reasons, despite the seeming awkwardness of the arrangement. A father teaching his son in a public educational environment would certainly raise eyebrows. Salamon had no questions during his father's lecture, as he was given a sneak peek on the driver over to school.

Salamon began working when his father showed the slide of questions.

[Shmibli7]

Vlady pondered as he read his novel about the pair of dragons who shared the room with him. Where did they come from? 

They resembled the god Kervet of the religion he adhered to. A small, näive part of him believed them to be two of his spawn but the rest of him was against the notion. Kervet was a god and his spawn won wars and defended the innocent. Why would they be here?

No, they were mortal. But what world produced creatures of this kind? 

These would be another group to watch.

As he read of the Tal Vishito's betrayal by the hand of his father his mind drifted to the beaver covered in black. Something about his attire frightened him. It was reminiscent of a rebel provisional.

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

The Chmielnicki brothers, despite fooling around, finished their work and handed it in. Elizabeth, Korben, and Salamon also handed their work in. Iosif and Diana, however, were a bit slower on the draw, so to speak. They were distracted with the Venomian, staring at him coldly.

"Look at him," said Diana, in Balt. "That... thing thinks he has the right to be here. In this school. In this city. On this planet..."

"Yeah," said Iosif, agreeing with his furry friend's thoughts, in Vlach. "They have the audacity to come to this world after the Wars." Iosif then looked to Diana. He leaned towards her and whispered in Vlach. "Wanna jump him at lunch?" Diana shook her head.

"Nah, not today at least," replied Diana in Balt.

[Shmibli7]

Vlady payed no mind to the looks he recieved from some of his classmates and continued delving into the dark tale of the Tal Vishito. 

While he enjoyed Cornerian literature, no book had the affect that this novel did. It connected all parts of him.

His mind drifted back to Amelia. She seemed friendly enough. Maybe he should talk to her.

[Naza Sutera]

Amelia's hand shot up. "Mr. Kolacsai, can I use the bathroom?"

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

"Yes you may, Amelia!" said Mr. K., pointing at Amelia. "But first..." At this moment, Mr. K. took out, from his drawer, a moderately sized tupperware container with a blue lid. On it, in permanent marker, the words "PHONE JAIL" were written boldly.

"Put your phone in the phone jail, sign out, and take the pass."

[Naza Sutera]

Amelia burst out laughing. "Is you for real? I can't even go to the bathroom as an excuse to sneak a text through?!" She genuinely thought it was funny. In any case she was a good sport about it, and she really did have visit the ladies' room. Getting up from her desk, she slung her purse over her shoulder. She walked up to Mr. K.'s desk to put her phone in "phone jail", then she signed out, took the hall pass, and went to take care of business.