Outcasts

Chapter 31: Class Trip

Chapter 31: Class Trip

The Father Daughter dance had been fun, Kankri being a perfect gentleman the entire time, though I didn't expect any less of him. To think, in a few months it would be a full school year and I know him so well now. I feel like I know practically everyone very well by now. The pain of loss, from feeling abandoned by friends I thought knew me, doesn't feel as strong as it did only months ago. Which is strange, honestly. I figured I'd be hurting more than I realize I do.

It's been a week since the dance and everything has been going pretty well. No sudden appearances from ex-friends or their partners, no drama, just the same boring homework and assignments and the occasional perverse hymn sung out of Damara's mouth that would get Vriska and Dirk going on their own little perverted rampage, either through lyrics or not was up to them.

The bell rang signaling the end of fifth. With a new semester starting, new classes came as well. My sixth, which had been theater the semester before, had now switched to a class that had been newly offered over winter break and forced upon us by some strange being that we cannot disobey. It was a strange class, in all honesty, and made little to no sense to someone that had no desire to take it, but nearly everyone had it now at some point during the day. Mine just happened to be last. Luckily I had Eridan and Sollux to share it with, so trying to understand this new subject wouldn't be a total bore.

"What do you think we're going to learn next?" I asked as I sat next to Sollux. The tables, unlike other classrooms, were pushed together in groups of four. It gave me flashbacks to elementary school. "Hopefully we won't have to do anything like last time."

"Learning th'PR wa'th u'thfull, you have to admit," Sollux said. "And now we're all th'ertified. Maybe we'll do actual fir'tht aid thi'th time."

"I still have no idea what this class is for. It keeps teaching us random things we might use as adults."

"I heard that it'th for a new deal with the government," Sollux replied. "Like, teaching u'th the'the th'kill'th to figure out who will be good hitmen and who will be boring teacher'th."

"So it's basically an occupational class, even though it's required?"

Sollux shrugged, and the bell rang just as Eridan strode through the door. He took the empty seat across from me. He looked pretty winded, a slight gleam on his brow as he began to unwrap the scarf around his neck. With February just around the corner (literally, it began next weekend) it was still very cold. It hadn't snowed, not since the beginning of the new year, but with the bite in the air you could almost taste the snowflakes on your tongue at this point. So the heat was cranked up in most of the classrooms.

"What horrors will we be subjected to today?" Eridan asked. "I do not think I could handle another day helping out the nearby preschool." We had done that, again, to learn how to be a teacher. This time it wasn't a punishment, but it felt more like one.

"That's what I was asking earlier, Ampurra," I said. "Hopefully something useful this time that I can use every day."

"You can u'the th'PR everyday if you become a nur'the, Leijon," Sollux added. "Or followed a fainting victim."

I rolled my eyes as the teacher came in. She was a rather flamboyant woman, dressing in bright colors and had odd shaped necklaces every day. Once I swore she wore anal beads around her neck, but I didn't have time to ask before we were forced to follow her to inspect a sanitation truck and made each of us try to throw one of the many school trash bags into the back with some foul smelling gloves given to us.

She told us to call her Miss Aalmers.

"Good afternoon, children," she said, a large smile showing off her crooked teeth. In a way, she was like a very tall and plump Prue Leith. Just with a different accent entirely. "Today we will be working with our school chromebooks for our mandatory occupational education lesson. I believe this will be very useful for many of you," she looked pointedly at some of the students who clearly had money, "and possibly even a truly special experience for others." That time she looked pointedly at Aradia and Sollux before she brought up the slides for the lesson. During this we pulled out the chromebooks and waited for the old woman to begin.