This takes place before Holly is on the LEP, back when Holly was a student at the Academy. In the Lost Colony, when Holly is tied up, Colfer mentions that when she was at the Academy, she was always the victim in the situation because she was a girl. I immediately thought about how frustrating that must have been for her, so I decided to write a story about it.
Holly Short thought of herself as just another student at the Academy getting trained for their soon to come LEP positions. Unfortunately, everyone else at the Academy thought of her as a girl at the academy with unlikely to be fulfilled hopes of getting LEP positions in the future. Apparently, the 'girl' part meant a lot to everyone else. Holly was always being reminded of her gender by teachers and fellow members of the Academy, and she always told them that she didn't care.
Normally, those people wouldn't really bug her, because she would just wave them off like flies. But, there was one time when the reminders would make her really mad, and that would be when they would Role-Play.
Role-Playing was a game used to train officers and get them to think on their feet. It was very simple game to grasp - the instructor would address a situation, assign certain people in the class roles, and the people in the roles would have to find a way out of the situation. Now, this doesn't really sound like a huge deal, but normally the situation being addressed involves someone being in trouble. It could possibly be a person that has been kidnapped or been held hostage, a person walking home alone, or a bank-teller that is having their bank robbed. Unfortunately, when people imagine these scenarios, they imagine the people in trouble being female figures. Apparently, one of these so called people who believed that the troubled figures should be female was one of Holly's instructors, Sir. No one ranked below him knew his actual name, he just demanded that everyone call him Sir.
"Put this on" said Sir casually as he held out a blonde wig to Holly.
"There is no way in Haven I am putting that on," said Holly, just as casually.
"I do believe you mean 'There is no way in Haven I am putting that on, Sir'" corrected Sir. "Meanwhile, using such language is not the proper way to speak to your superior, Cadet."
Sir called 'no way in Haven' to be foul language? If he wanted to hear language, Holly could give him language.
"Alright, how's this….." concurred Holly, "Why in the name of Frond would I need to put that stupid wig on?"
Sir stepped away from Holly and stood in the center of the room. "Class, today we are going to Role Play," he announced. There was no response, as expected. "We will be holding someone hostage, and you're going to have to find a way to help the hostage escape." This scenario made sense, considering the fact that there was a wooden chair and ropes in the middle of the room. "You will need the skill of helping hostages escape, for in the future, you will need to help hostages escape." He announced this as if he just made the smartest statement in the world and didn't just say something completely obvious and redundant. "Who would like to volunteer to free the hostage first?" asked Sir.
Nobody raised their hand immediately. After a few seconds of waiting, Kelp raised his hand. Kelp was always the brave one. Even though he, like the other students at the Academy, was only a Cadet, he did a good job at pretty much everything he did at the Academy. Everyone at the Academy called him Trouble. It wasn't an official name by any means, and everyone called him Trouble simply because of the fact that no one knew his actual name.
"Ah, it seems as though we have a volunteer," said Sir with a sigh of relief. At least he could start the Role-Playing session with someone who knew what he was doing. "Alright, Cadet Kelp, you can be the hero in this situation." Kelp stood up from his seat and walked to the center of the room. "Now, who would like to volunteer to be the villain in this Role-Play?" asked Sir.
"Excuse me, Sir," Holly blurted out without raising her hand. "Why are we Role-Playing as villains? I didn't think we were at the Academy to learn how to be villainous," finished Holly with a smirk on her face. A few of the people in the class snickered.
"Miss Short," said Sir as he sighed deeply, "here at the Academy, we are not trying to teach anyone to be villainous. I know that you are smart enough to know this, but are just too stubborn to accept it. May we please move on?"
"I suppose," answered Holly. Sir just stared at her, creating an awkward silence. "….Sir," added Holly huffily.
"That's better," Sir bragged with a smile of triumph. "Now, back to where I was before I was interrupted…who would like to be the villain?"
Holly raised her hand. Sir continued to look around the room, as if Holly was not even there. Holly faked a cough, and there was still no response. She knew he would ignore her - he always did. She was just testing him, and so far, he was failing.
"Anyone?" asked Sir again. Holly was still the only one with her hand raised. "Fine, it looks like I'm being forced to choose randomly." Sir used his finger to point at random people around the room. "Eenie, Meenie, Miney…Stewart." Stewart internally groaned when he heard his name had been called. Stewart dragged his feet, but eventually made it to the center of the room. His gangly self stood there awkwardly, as if he wanted nothing else but to not be in the center of the room…which was true.
"Now, we need someone to be held hostage," announced Sir. Just like the first role offered, no one raised their hand.
"Who's going to be held hostage this time, Sir?" asked Holly with a sarcastic grin on her face. She already knew the answer, and so did he. He, once again, picked up the blonde wig and offered it to her.
"Put this on," urged Sir.
"I'm feeling a strange sense of Deja-Vu here. Haven't we already had this conversation?" remarked Holly.
"True, the conversation started the same, but the ending will be different because this time, you will follow my orders," demanded Sir.
"Oh, and if I don't? And why do I need to put on a blonde wig, anyway?" complained Holly.
"Short, why do you have such a huge problem with wearing a blonde wig?" asked Sir with frustration. "It's not that big of a deal….it's only for this class."
"Yeah, this class, and all the other times we Role-Play in this class, too. And it's not about the blonde wig! It's the fact that you always make me the pathetic damsel in distress every time we do something in here."
"So? We need someone to play the captive in our Role-Plays."
"I understand that, but why does it always have to be me?" asked Holly. She knew the answer to this, she just knew he wouldn't say it.
"You're one of our better rescuers, and we feel that you don't really need the practice. We want other people to be able to practice," lied Sir.
"Wrong," retorted Holly. "My last escape test, the judges said that I needed to work on keeping my mouth shut and not use sarcastic banter with the villain, and they told you to specifically work with me. The only thing you've taught me so far is how to sit tied up in a chair, stand behind a counter and scream when the bank gets robbed, and hit someone with my purse when I'm being mugged." There was a large 'Ooooooh' from the class.
Holly didn't really like sharing her test results with the class, but to make her point, it was worth it.
Sir was absolutely furious at this point in time, "How dare you speak to me in such tones, Cadet? I am your superior, and you are to follow my command, so put on the wig and sit in the chair before I report you to the council for misbehavior!"
On any normal days, Holly would have stormed out of the room and taken her punishment immediately from the council, but she knew she couldn't afford another trip. Last week, she had her very first flying test and crashed her pod 6 feet away from her instructor. Her instructor was lenient with the situation and let the whole thing go, but Holly didn't think the council would be as understanding.
"Fine," huffed Holly. She marched over to the chair in the center of the room and sat down making as much noise as possible. "Can I at least be a hostage with an auburn crew cut?"
"Will. It. Get. You. To. Shut. Up?" fumed Sir.
"No," admitted Holly, "But it might keep me quiet for a couple of minutes, if you're lucky." She winked at Trouble, because he too knew that this wasn't true.
"Fine," said Sir. "You can be the loud-mouthed hostage with an auburn crew cut."
Holly threw the blonde wig behind her, sat down in the chair, and let Cadet Stewart tie her hands behind her back.
It was at this point in time that Vinyaya walked into the room with papers in hand. She strolled by with purpose, obviously trying to get somewhere. Sir didn't think so. He didn't really like to be watched by people not in his class when he was teaching. He felt like he was being spied on, even though Vinyaya was just the flight instructor.
"Do you need something, Vinyaya?" asked Sir.
"No," said Vinyaya casually. "I was just walking through to send in the progress reports for my students. It's faster to walk through your room than it is to go around."
"I see….." said Sir, still suspicious. Nobody really knew what Sir was suspicious of…..many people thought he was just a maniac that didn't want his madness to be eyed on. It was also stupid of Sir to be so surprised by Vinyaya walking in. Vinyaya always walked through Sir's room when she needed to send in papers to the office, and every time she did, she was always questioned by Sir.
"Excuse me if I'm being nosy, but why is Short tied up?" questioned Vinyaya.
"We're Role-Playing," answered Sir bluntly.
"I see that, but wasn't Short the captive one the last time I walked in here and you did a Role-Play?" recalled Vinyaya.
Vinyaya's recollection was true. The last time she walked in on Sir's class, Holly was chained to the wall.
"Well, yes….but I don't know who else to make the captive. Short is the only girl in this class and -"
"Aha!" interrupted Holly. "I knew it! You are stereotyping me!"
"How completely sexist of you," agreed Vinyaya. "Holly, are you always the captive in these Role-Plays?" asked Vinyaya.
"Yes. Always," she answered simply and truthfully. She was just so happy that there was someone here who actually understood.
Vinyaya went up to Holly's chair and untied her from her ropes. "Thanks Vinyaya, I was so tired of -" Holly was interrupted by the sound of a click. Vinyaya had reached into her pocket and retied Holly up with plastic bonds.
"What are you doing?" Holly asked Vinyaya. "I thought I was done being the captive?" croaked Holly, obviously very irritated.
"I'm sorry, Sir, but you are teaching these students nothing by having the captive just sitting here. There isn't always going to be someone there to save them. They need to learn how to escape themselves." explained Vinyaya.
"How am I supposed to get myself out of these bonds?" asked Holly curiously.
"Cut your wrists against the sharp part of the bonds, and then aim some of your magic away from your wrists to the cuffs so that they'll melt enough for you to escape."
Holly squirmed, but she couldn't get her hands in the right position to cut them on the bonds. "D'arvit…." muttered Holly.
"Just keep trying," said Vinyaya patiently.
Holly was eventually able to get a cut in only one of her wrists, but used the magic that came to heal her wrist to melt the plastic a little bit on both sides of the bonds just enough to free herself.
Sir was completely shocked. He rarely ever taught pupils how to escape bonds because his methods were too complex for them to understand. He didn't know how it could possibly be so simple.
"Way to improvise," said Vinyaya proudly. "You see, just because you're the female that's made the damsel in the situation doesn't mean you have to be distressed about it,"
"Thanks for the tip," admired Holly as she looked at the plastic bonding which she had just broken. "Next time I hear someone say girls are week, I'll just make sure to tell them where you are."
Vinyaya laughed. This was both at Holly's joke and at the shocked look on Sir's face when Holly broke the bonds by herself. She leaned down and whispered in Holly's ear, "You know, sometimes being the damsel in the situation isn't so bad after all."
For those who are wondering, Vinyaya actually did teach her that trick. It's brought up when Holly breaks herself of the plastic bonds in The Lost Colony. I really hope you enjoyed my story. Please leave reviews! Constructive criticism always welcome.