Don't Teach Kids Murder

Class Project Chaos

Five years later...

"Alright, listen up everyone! I've decided that we've been doing a lot of solo work lately, so for the next unit..."

Nora rolls her eyes, already knowing what's coming.

"...we're going to work in pairs." The professor finishes, to the general outrage of an engineering class full of geeky, introverted grade nines furious about being forced to work with, god forbid, another Drone.

Professor holds up a hand for silence amongst the general chatter. "And," he continues, "I have assigned your pairs already, so that there will be no," - he glances at the half-slumped cohort at the back of the class - "distractions during the task." Nora can almost see the quote marks around 'distractions'.

Muffled groans and complaints rise from the class as the order sinks in. No, you can't work with whoever you like. Yes, you have to work with someone who just might be a snob or not do enough work (Nora's had those a few times) or slack off and goof around in class, and you're still expected to get a class project done, and this one's probably going to be boring and unexciting and-

"The project is a wildcard," Professor says, snapping Nora out of her mental rant. "You and your partner are free to work on building whatever you like. Bonus points for an innovative design and neat blueprint sheets. Yes, I mean whatever, Jacob, as long as it won't blow up the class."

Wildcard project? Nora almost falls off her chair. The one time I get to do something fun, and I have to work with someone else?! She stands, hands flat on the desk. "Professor," she calls out, voice tinged with desperation. "There's an odd number of students, and-"

"No, Nora," Professor tells her sharply. "There's a new student in class today. She should be arriving in just a few minutes, so everyone will be working in a pair."

Nora's heart sinks, and she slumps back into her chair, face burning from embarrassment. Perfect. Professor starts reading out the pairs - Jacob and Daniel, Marty and Lillian - and Nora listens with increasing nervousness. Finally he gets to the bottom of the list, and Nora still hasn't heard her name. Is she working solo after all?

"Nora and Addison," Professor finishes. Addison? Who's that? Is that the-

There's a commotion from outside and the sound of several things breaking. Professor glances outside and sighs exasperatedly. "Come in."

The door swings open, and a student topples in, clutching a huge pile of books and what appears to be an assortment of wires, wrenches, gadgets and other typical engineering stuff. The new kid's got messy red hair that falls into their face and orange eyes. Nora squints skeptically. Nerd.

"This is Addison," Professor says tiredly. "Addison, this is our engineering class, which you already know. Everyone please give her a warm welcome."

A few murmurs of greeting fly around the class. Nora stays silent.

"Well, what are you all waiting for? Let's get started, or you're all staying behind after class!" Professor roars.

As the class blows up with discussion, Addison slides into the seat next to Nora with a friendly expression. "Hey! Are you Nora?"

"Obviously," Nora says, disdain dripping from her voice. Addison's already frustrating her. She has to work with a new student, and they just have to be a nerd. And not the quiet type either, evidently - the type that gets in the way all the time, tries to be over-friendly and nice, and inevitably doesn't know enough to help out properly.

Addison blinks, then continues talking, unfazed. "Great! What are we building?"

Nora decides to get straight to the point. "Look, I don't want to work with you any more than you want to work with me." Addison raises her eyebrows, but Nora presses on. "I've been stuck in this stupid low-level engineering class the whole year because the advanced class is 'full'," - she says, making quote marks - "and there's apparently no free spots. You're obviously dumber than me, so let's make a deal. I do the work and build the project, you leave me alone. Win-win situation."

She finishes, leaning back in her chair and taking a breath. Nora eyes Addison, waiting for the  reaction.

Another moment passes.

And then another.

"What's your deal?" Nora finally says. "I'll do the work for you. I just need you to stay out of the way."

"...Okay. So, what are we building?" Addison repeats, almost as if Nora's whole rant has gone over her head. The insufferable nerd's expression hasn't even changed. Nora internally sighs - one of those work partners.

"We're building," Nora says, racking her brain for ideas. Her mind jumps to the one thing she's been thinking about for the past five years. Her older sister's railgun. The one Uzi's spent so long working on and obsessing about that it drove her and Nora apart. The one that took years and years to develop and design, and the one that's finally almost finished, with nothing less than a spectacularly well-crafted model. "We're building a gun, because that's cool and functional."

"Won't a gun blow up the class?" Addison says questioningly. "Unless it's a stun gun, of course, or a-"

"Stun gun," Nora cuts off, jumping on the idea. "I know where I can find blueprints. All I have to do is build off of them, then build the model, and everything's done."

"Blueprints from where? It's not like the WDF shares weapons blueprints out." Addison pauses, then leans in and adds in a whisper, "It's not like the WDF has any weapons blueprints." She straightens up. "Where will you find that stuff?"

"None of your business," Nora snaps, then stops, her attention caught by something Addison said. It's not like the WDF has any weapons blueprints. Another Worker who doesn't hold the WDF in staggeringly high regard? It's a bit surprising, to say the least. Maybe this nerd won't be so boring to work with after all. Nora decides to reveal just a little more information. "Okay. Get this. You know my sister, right?"

"Yeah. Uzi?" Addison says.

Nora feels mild surprise. This nerd actually knows who her sister is - quite a shocking feat, actually, given that almost everyone in Uzi's class completely forgets she's there all the time. With the exception of Thad and Lizzy. "Uh-huh. Well, she's been working on a railgun - which I helped her with initially, by the way - and it's almost functional. Easy job - nick a few blueprints, base a stun gun off them, and we're done."

"That railgun is a magnetically amplified photon converger," Addison says dryly. "There's literally nothing in there that relates to a stun gun at all, unless we dial down the juice and change the power output to an EMP shockwave instead."

Nora stares.

"What?" Addison asks. "Didn't expect me to know anything? Uzi rants about it half the time in the middle of the hallways. It's a little hard to miss. Especially the fact that the power supply isn't working yet, or she's got the wrong power supply, because it's overheating and exploding left and right."

"Okay," Nora finally says. "I've changed my mind, actually. I think you're deserved an apology. You," she points at Addison, "and me," she says, with a dramatic pause, "are going to be excellent partners. Shake on it?"

Nora extends a hand to shake, and Addison takes it.

"So on the subject of building off those blueprints, uh... morality?" Addison says after they shake. "I'm somehow getting the feeling that taking someone else's stuff and developing a design off of it isn't exactly original work."

Nora groans, rolling her eyes. "Did you not hear what I said? I was the one that helped her put those blueprints together! Why do you think I know so much about it? She was struggling on it for four years until last year I finally learned engineering and fixed a whole structural problem she couldn't!"

And then she became over-obsessed with it and became a huge jerk to you and everyone else, Nora's mental voice drones. You know, she was already unpopular before the railgun. "And she's been a huge jerk to me even though I helped her, so she deserves it," Nora finishes.

"Fair point," Addison says unexpectedly. "When do we start?"

"...Now?" Nora stammers, taken off guard. This nerd - Addison - isn't shaping up to be who Nora expected at all. "Yeah, now! As soon as school finishes, I mean. Oh yeah, Addison, what were you saying about that EMP burst?"

"Addie, please," Addison laughs, sweeping a clean sheet of paper into place and pulling a pencil from somewhere. She starts to sketch, and a diagram of a pulse-generating chamber starts to take shape. "I was just saying, if we don't want damaging repercussions, it might be good to dial this down..."