Temporal Exploring 101 - Cultural Immersion

II.19 Getting out of my comfort zone

"The parents' weekend has been an eye-opener for me," our class teacher Ms Jefferson told us. "From talking to your parents, your tutors and your teachers, I understand that, for a variety of reasons, there is a lot of conflict going on among the students in this Upper Fifth. The obvious remedy for that would be for you girls to get to know your classmates better. Not just your friends or the members of your clique, but all of your classmates. In order to give you the opportunity to do so, I have decided that we will all go on an excursion together, a few weeks from now. I have talked to Headmistress Stuart about this, and she agrees with my plan."

"An excursion, Miss?" Mallory asked. "Like, all of us spending another afternoon in London?"

"No, Carmichael, that is not what I have in mind." Ms Jefferson smiled. "We are going on a five- day trip to Wales, girls. We will live in a cabin in the woods, and we will go hiking, rafting and rock-climbing."

Upon hearing that, the majority of my classmates uttered groans of dismay.

"Hiking?" Eleanor Bradford moaned. "But why?"

"Not to speak of rafting and rock-climbing," Jessica Burns added glumly.

"Do we really have to go like, hiking?" Dorothy Barnett complained. "Our excursion ought to be fun, not hard work."

"Oh, it is going to be lots of fun," our teacher assured her. "Incidentally, during your PE lessons I noticed  that quite a few of you girls are badly out of shape. If a student gets out of breath just from jogging three laps in the gym, it is clear that she needs to work on her fitness."

"But we do not actually have to go out into the wilderness to do that," Carol Mellon observed, not unreasonably.

"No, we don't," Ms Jefferson admitted. "The reason why we are going out into the wilderness, as you put it, is that I want you girls to learn how to work together, to rely on each other, to stick together and to stand up for each other."

She glanced around the classroom. I guess our faces showed a marked lack of enthusiasm. Our teacher appeared to be unruffled by that.

"You are going to love it, girls. Just wait and see," she promised.

There was no verbal reply. Just a couple of resigned sighs.

"You need to get out of your comfort zone, girls. In more ways than one," our teacher insisted. "To help you achieve that, I have decided to have you work in teams on a new project."

There were more groans.

"Each of you will be assigned a partner to collaborate with," Ms Jefferson continued. "The task of each team will be to prepare a presentation on a topic in advanced physics, and to give a talk about your results a week from now, in front of the class."

"But Miss, why can't we each of us pick our partner, the way we usually do?" Erin Morgan complained.

"Because I do not want each of you to collaborate with your roommate or with your best friend or with somebody from your clique," our teacher patiently explained. "That's why I myself will set up the teams."

She consulted a sheet of paper that was lying in front of her on the teacher's desk.

"Morgan, you will work with Jennifer Turner. That's right, Turner, you are not going to collaborate with your twin, this time, and neither will you collaborate with Ndemba, Morgan. Ndemba and Lane will form another team. Similarly, Burns and Bradford. Langden, you will collaborate with Carmichael. And Mellon will work together with Fogg."

Natty made a face, but she really had no reason to complain. After all, Carol Mellon had been her roommate, at least for a few weeks or so. Until Carol had been driven out by my friend's insistence on playing the newest folk music on the small record player Natty kept in her room.