Teresa: Stays away from school for a while On Monday, Teresa noted that Jennifer was not present. She was not answering her phone, either. She must be ill, or something. I'll walk over to her house after I get home. But when she got home, she discovered to her amazement that both of her parents were already home. "Mum, dad, why are you both home so extremely early?" "Here, my dear, if you could sit between us on the sofa" said dad. "Err, yes, but why?" "Well, there is no easy way of saying this so I shall just have to be blunt." said mum. She took a breath- "Jennifer was killed in a traffic accident this morning." Jeffery: On Tuesday morning, Teresa was absent. And the teacher of the first class made an announcement. "Teresa will be missing a few days school. Her friend Jennifer was killed in an accident yesterday." There was a momentary shocked silence, and then a low murmuring as the students started talking about it amongst themselves. An astute observer might have noted that James, Rebecca, Pink and Blue did not seem to do any talking at all, even though they looked as shocked as anyone else did. And Jeffery was having a flashback, about his father telling him something- Jeffery, we have to be brave about this. Mum won't be coming home any more. There was a car accident... He looked at Teresa's empty seat with a certain amount of guilt. Pink: The funeral was scheduled to be on Thursday. [I should go since I'm the class rep.] said Rebecca, over the radio link to the other three. [And I would like to go also. Defending her against the class bully has made me feel a certain amount of sympathy towards her.] said Pink. [James and I can easily memorize the lessons you miss and give them to you afterwards.] said Blue. The implant's ability to enhance their studying abilities was an extremely useful extra benefit. Jeffery: Does some soul searching Teresa, looking pale and drawn, was back at her seat on Friday. Various girls and some boys gathered around her desk in between lectures, and consoled her as best as they could. During one change over, Jeffery heard Teresa tell the others how her parents had sat down on either side of her to break the bad news. Another flashback. Jeffrey remember some extra detail; that he had been sitting between his dad and his granny when dad had broken the news. Later that night, lying in bed, he did some serious soul searching. Note: Esmeralda and the others like her love it when someone does some soul searching, and as a result of it resolve to become a better person. It definitely gets you extra points at your final judgment. All four teenagers: Things settled back down to their usual routine within a day or so. Apart from Teresa, of course. In her case things will be taking quite a bit more time to settle. But, anyhow, the classes looked like they always did. And one day, a couple of weeks later, they had a substitute teacher, due to one of their normal teachers having a cold. Substitute teachers know that they are walking into a battle field, without knowing who the enemy parties are, where the mine fields lie, what truces may have been arranged. Unlike the normal teacher who has had the students from the beginning of the year and has thus managed to make some accommodations and arrangements, the substitute teacher is at a distinct disadvantage. Every such teacher has, from experience, put together their own strategy for dealing with a classroom of students they have never seen before. The teacher, a middle aged man, walked into the class room, stood at the teacher's desk, looked at everyone with a baleful glare, and said. "If everyone would sit down now, please. I will be giving you your next lecture in this subject. Open your text books to page 102, now, please." The students, with a reasonable degree of good-naturedness, compiled to these requests. [So, he's one of the strict ones], said James to the other three, over their link. [Probably not the best choice for our only class in civics] said Rebecca. [Well, as long as he sticks to the subject matter of how we are governed, it should be all right.] said Blue. [Hmm, I think he meant page 104.] said Pink. As usual, she had already memorized the book and knew exactly where they had finished last week. The teacher realised his mistake, everyone flipped over the next page, and the lecture proceeded. Unfortunately, towards the end, he did not stick to the prescribed topic. "It is a core principle of our society to be tolerant of the diversity and wide range of people that live together, however this tolerance should not extend to those who infringe upon other's rights to live lives that may differ from what is considered the norm." He was just reading out from the text book. The book expanded on this theme, and, since it was a long section, he paraphrased and condensed it as he read it out in his own words. He finished with- "Of course, there are many other behaviors which should not be tolerated. For example, homosexuality and other forms of degenerate behaviors." [Uh?] said Blue, privately over the radio link. Various other students in the class made an assortment of exclamations under their breaths. [Oh-oh,] said James, [Teresa is starting to go red in the face.] From where James sat, when he looked towards the front of the class he had a clear view of Teresa's face. [I'm not prepared to sit that one out.] said Pink over the link. Out loud, she said [Actually, I think that everyone should be allowed to choose who they like for their partners.] The other students went quiet. The teacher, not being used to being contradicted in class, started to lose his cool. "Such relationships go against nature and are disgusting! Not that you're any better with your ridiculous pink dyed hair job!" [Oh, crap.] said James to his private audience. "Actually, my hair colour is its natural colour. And I like it the way it is!" said Pink out aloud. Pink, being human where it counts, was also losing her cool. "Anybody who loves someone of their own gender is just loving someone who has a deviate and aberrant personality!" said the teacher. At this, Teresa lost her cool also. In fact she smashed it to tiny pieces and fired the remains with an incendiary blast from her white hot anger. She slapped her hands on her desk and screamed out "Jennifer was not an aberrant personality! She was warm and wonderful and loving! Unlike you, you cold hearted detestable man!" Eyes full of tears; she got up and ran out of the room. Rebecca jumped up also, and followed her. [I'm coming too!] said Pink directly to Rebecca. [It's my responsibility for sort of starting this.] So Pink followed them. There was silence in the classroom. Was the storm over? Was anyone going to say anything more? Yes, someone was. A chair scrapped backwards and a student stood up. Jeffery. Who said, as politely has he could manage- "Actually, sir, we have already discussed this in class and have decided that everybody really should have the right to pick whoever they want as their partners, without being harassed about it." Collective gasp of breath from every other student. The teacher had too much at stake, and felt he had no choice but to defend his position. "Listen, boy. It is not up to you, or a bunch of school kids, to decide what is right or wrong! When you face your final judgment, the judge will apply their own rules! If you have a perverted relationship, you will be judged harshly!" At this, Blue couldn't take it anymore. With a surge of anger fueled energy, he stood up. His eyes glared. And Esmeralda must have been sympathy with his actions, since, without his asking, she supplied just a little bit of judgmental glare to his eyes, but without doing any judgment. This time only the teacher could see them. He gasped in horror and stepped back, hitting the blackboard. "When the Angel of Death finally judges your soul, she is interested in who you loved, how you cared for and looked after them, how you kept their faith and how you cherished them. She is not interested in their gender!" Total silence. Then "Good one, Blue!" said James, out loud. Some of the other, bolder, students also made similar comments. And it was now time to finish the lecture. The teacher gave up and left the room, without a further word. They had a little post mortem discussion as they walked home, before they had to split to go to their various homes. "We told Teresa what had happened." said Pink. "She'll probably get around to giving thanks after she has settled down again." said Rebecca. "You know, Pink and I kept on looking forward to when things would get back to normal and nobody would be noticing us." said Blue. "But, it doesn't look like it's going to be any time soon." said Pink. "Hmm," said Rebecca, all to herself. She just had a little idea. Next week the class was given half an hour to decide on who was going to be the next class representative, and preferably pick an assistant class rep also. So Rebecca, in her role as the vacating class rep, stood in front of the class and said- "I would like to nominate Pink as class rep, and Blue as her assistant." "What?" said everyone else. Across their radio link for three of them, and out loud for everyone else. "Well, consider this." said Rebecca. "In emergencies, Pink is capable of taking decisive actions, just witness her saving Blue." “She, and Blue, will take a stand against any injustices they might encounter." “She can influence people to change their points of view." At this she briefly looked at Jeffery, who in turn blushed and looked at his desk. “She has already started to do class rep type things, for example going to the funeral." “She, and Blue, have become much more sociable since Blue's little misadventure with gravity." “And finally, who else wants the position, anyway?" The students felt that these points were very convincing. Especially the last one. Across their radio links, there was a fast exchange- [But, wait, should I really be doing this?] said Pink. [Why not? You really are capable of it. And, also, it furthers Prime's aims of getting more experience on humans.] said Rebecca. [Actually, I suppose it does.] said Blue. [It's not as if you really are going to regain your anonymity, anyway.] said James. So Pink and Blue became the class rep and assistant class rep. Pink and Blue: At their first student council meeting A few days later they attended their first student council meeting. Having arrived early, they found that the president and treasurer were still busy trying to get the books in order. "Damn," said the treasure, "I still haven't worked out where I made my mistake." He was waving around a half a dozen sheets of paper, stapled together. They were filled with neat columns of numbers and descriptions. He put them down on the desk as Pink and Blue turned up. "Hi" said the president. "We know who you are; you're getting to be quite famous, aren't you?" Pink rolled her eyes. "Yes, we are." And Blue picked up the treasure's report and idly flicked through the pages. Prime, reading them through his eyes, obligingly analyzed the numbers and, as soon as Blue had seen the last page, had sent the results back into Blue's short term memory. "Right, here's where you made the mistake, on page three. This figure was added into the wrong column." said Blue. The treasurer and president looked at the numbers and verified them. Then they looked at each other, and the president nodded. Blue ended up being nominated for the position of treasurer. Pink remained as a normal class rep. And about this time Horatio announced that he had cleaned up a loose end. "That bloke that assaulted Molly and tried to kill Pink; I've enacted a minor revenge. He was cooking the books and skimming a little off the top at his work place, so I managed to allow the manager to 'accidently' find out about it. He is now out of work and without references. It's not much, but at least it is a start." "Humph" said Blue. "Correct, it isn't much, yet."