Alive
Chapter Seven
“Sorry to disappoint you all,” Professor Hiller began. “But you have another project to do. This is on the
Gilded Age.”“Is it another essay and presentation?” one person from the back of the room asked, as the entire class
groaned. It had only been a week since their last presentations.“No essay this time. Just another ten minute presentation. This one most people like. You have to assume
the role of a prominent person in the Gilded Age and talk to the class about yourself, your role in the Glided Age,
how you helped either reform it or make it worse.”“Will it be with partners again?” someone else asked.
“Since I want this to be as through as possible, yes. Both partners will be expected to talk, for five minutes
each. One person can talk for the first five minutes, the other for the last five minutes. Or you two can interweave
it, so each person is talking for a minute, then the other goes. Your choice.”She handed out the assignment sheets then, and assigned characters. Since Lance and Faith were sitting
next to each other, they were once again working with each other. The character they had to portray was John D.
Rockefeller, robber baron and oil monopolist. “Great,” Faith muttered, staring at the paper. “This is Raleigh all
over again.”“Who are you talking about?” Lance asked.
“My US History teacher in high school. She was crazy. Gave us a project every week. We had to do all of
these ‘interesting’ things that drove everyone crazy. And her favorite thing to do was give us certain subjects or
topics and make us teach it to the class.”“And that was a normal class?”
“No. It was an advanced placement class.”
“Did you pass the AP test?” (A/N: AP classes earn you college credit, if you pass the AP test with a 3, 4,
or 5, and the college you go to accepts AP scores.)“Yeah, I did.”
“Then why are you in this class?”
“My counselor recommended that I take it again, to review it. It looks better to grad schools.” Faith looked
up at Lance. “Did you take any AP classes?”“Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Statistics, and Calculus.”
“How did you do in them?”
“I passed Physics, Chem, Stat’s, and Calc. I utterly failed the Bio one. What other AP classes did you
take?” Lance asked. He was finally talking to her on good terms. Now all he had to do was not shove his foot in his mouth and he was okay.“English- two different classes, Latin, European History, and a few others.”
“Pass them all?”
“Yeah.” Faith smiled slightly. “Although I hated St. Catherine’s Seminary for Young Ladies, they did
offer a good education.”“That sounds like a private school.”
“It is. Private, all girl, Catholic school.”
“Then how did you become a witch?” Shit, shit, shit, Lance repeated in his head right after he asked. Here
he was, talking to her, and then he has to go and shove his foot in his mouth, just like he’d told himself not to.“I became a witch because of school,” Faith told him, in a cold voice and Lance knew he’d ruined the
moment.“Why are you so defensive?” Lance asked her. “You say that I’m prejudice, and I probably am; I was
raised in an area that takes the Bible literally. But every time I say something about it, like the question I just asked
you, you get all defensive and draw away. You’re not letting anyone in. So what’s your problem?”“What’s my problem?” Faith asked. She glanced around the room. Everyone was working on their
assignment, so they weren’t paying any attention to them. “What’s my problem?” she repeated. “My problem is
when people who don’t know anything about me, the religion I choose to follow, or my friends automatically start
jumping to conclusions that I’m evil, or bad, or some strange being below everyone else that doesn’t deserve to be
treated like a human being. I’m just trying to keep myself from getting hurt. Survival of the fittest and all. If it
means I don’t let anyone in, then so be it.”“People can’t help but think you’re strange and crazy because of the way you dress, your piercings and
tattoos. You’re not normal to them, and not being normal is the same thing as being strange.”“Let me ask you this, Lance,” Faith began, gathering up her things. “What is normal? What is beauty?
You can’t answer those truthfully, because your definition of normal or beautiful or smart can differ from mine.
There is no one true definition of any of those questions because everyone has a different idea of what they are.”
She stood up and walked out of the room.Lance watched her go.
*~*~*
“Lona, you are crazy,” Sarah said, as she watched Elona twist her hair into the Medusa-like hairstyle
she’d taken to wearing her hair in.“No I’m not,” Elona said. “I’m perfectly fine.”
“You spend like an hour or so doing your hair like that then spend another hour taking it out. That’s just
crazy.”“I’m perfectly normal, Sarah. It’s everyone else in the world who is crazy.”
“What a philosophy to have,” Sarah laughed.
“With what I’m like Sarah, it’s the only one to have.”
*~*~*
JC walked into the store, startling Catriona. She was stocking the shelves of the cloth. Medieval
Masterpieces was a large supplier of material to local women who either loved to make quilts or make medieval
costumes.“What do you want?” Catriona asked him.
“Just to say hi, browse the store, see if you have anything interesting.”
“We don’t have anything you’d be interested in, so you can just go.”
“How do you know I’m not interested in anything you have here?”
“We have materials so you can design medieval-like crafts. I don’t think it’s your thing. Actually, I don’t
think crafts are your thing at all.”JC put the bag of small red beads down. “Don’t be too hasty to judge. You never know, I could be
interested in crafts.”“And I could become president tomorrow.”
“Why don’t you like me?” JC asked. “No, wait. Why don’t you like jocks?”
“It’s not necessarily jocks I have a thing against. It’s sheep, followers, like you.”
“Why?”
“Because I disapprove of people not using their minds to make their own decisions.”
“There has to be another reason.”
“If there is- and I’m not telling you there is another reason- I wouldn’t tell you.”
“I’ll get it out of you sooner or later.”
“My life is none of your damn business and I don’t see why you’re so interested in me, anyways.”
The bell over the door sounded as the door opened and another person walked in.
JC turned around and came face to face with Faith.