Study Session: Politics 101
political efficacy: (noun) the belief that one can make a difference in politics by expressing an opinion and acting politically
You will get a perfect score! You will get the highest marks in the class! You will be number one! But most importantly, you'll beat Asakura Yoh, even if it kills you!
Anna read her mantra which she had scribbled down on her notebook like she did every single day before entering the library. While she approached the glass panels that separated the outside world of savages, barbarians and ignoramuses from a realm filled with books, knowledge, wisdom, and so many covert corners that you can make out in a different one every day without repeating during your entire stay at the university, she flips to another page in her small, yet absolutely important notebook. A bible of sorts.
Enter Kyoyama Anna
Age: 19
Occupation: Full Time Student/Part Time Library Volunteer
Major: Political Science
Class Rank: tied for first
Interests: crushing others in political debates (both in and out of the classroom), reading, writing, researching, working in the library, enka music, drinking tea, watching soap operas
She narrowed her eyes as she stepped through those sliding doors. Something…Something
was…
"Off." She crossed her arms in front of her chest as she arrived to face a man, not just any man mind you, but a man with the most obnoxiously, most obscenely large pompadour who was currently sitting on top of the library's front desk.
He frowned like a small child with his hand caught in the proverbial cookie jar: embarrassed but still mad that he was caught. "Hmph." He hopped off the library desk.
Enter Umemiya Ryu
Age: Supposedly 28 but according to his license, 34
Occupation: Full Time University Head Librarian/Part Time Voyeur
Major: N/A but major in college was English
Class Rank: N/A
Interests: women, men, spying on rendezvousing couples and recording and publishing who is making out with whom on the university's daily gossip blog (The Spying Serpent), cooking, sushi-making
She continued glaring at him until he finally cracked. "What are you mad about this time?" he sighed as he grabbed a nearby book trolley from the returns center and began making his rounds.
"Ryu…" she drawled, mock, fake sweetness dripping from her tone, causing the older man to freeze momentarily and then double his speed when he restarted walking.
"Y-Yes?" he asked, not bothering to turn around but so flustered that he shelved a cooking book in the mathematics section.
"Did you reserve the back study room for me from three to five for every day this week starting today?" she asked, her voice freakishly dead on calm. "Like. We. Had. Agreed. On?" She punctuated each monosyllabic word with a dangerously threatening step towards the poor librarian.
"C-Can't you just study in your dorm room?" he squeaked, hurriedly shuffling as to position the book trolley between himself and Anna as a makeshift barrier. "All the kids here do it."
Anna's mouth twitched at the mention of her dorm room.
Enter Kanna Bismarch
Age: 19
Occupation: Part Time Student/Part Time Mechanic's Assistant/Full Time Roommate from Hell
Major: Double major in comparative Germanic literature and mechanical engineering
Class Rank: 154/2,078
Interests: smoking, messy rooms, not opening the windows when she smokes, heavy death metal, motorcycles, undermining her roommate's efforts at maintaining her perfect GPA and being at the top of their class, medieval ages, armor
"Do you understand my roommate situation?" she asked, trying her best not to smile manically. "Do you understand that Kanna will do whatever it takes to make my life a veritable hell simply because I get perfect grades and I irritate her beyond reason because I do so? Do you understand that everything in my room smells like smoke and that she listens to songs like 'Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter' while studying?" Her face broke into a sadistic grin that looked borderline homicidal as her entire body started shaking. "A whole year of this. I've gone through a whole year of this. And all I ask is that you reserve the back study room for me so that I don't fail my upcoming politics final and you can't even do that for me?"
By the end of her tirade, Ryu had resorted to completely crouching behind the book trolley. "I'm s-sorry!" he whimpered. "B-But…" He hesitated.
Anna's ears perked up. Never before had Ryu hesitated. At least, not when speaking to her. "But…what…" Her voice lost some of its edge, too surprised to retain its snarky quality.
"I had to give it to…well…" He twiddled with his thumbs. "I didn't have a choice!"
"To whom did you give it?" she asked, trying to regain her composure.
"I don't…I don't want to say…" He sunk lower behind the book trolley. A ring of keys came flying in her direction. She lazily caught them, snagging the keys out of midair, somewhat akin to a cat with a mouse. "Go check for yourself." And with that, the head librarian, part time voyeur shuffled away in a mad crab walk, using the book-trolley-turned-shield as his only means of defense against the steaming Kyoyama Anna, whose very glare could set the entire library on fire.
Instead of pursuing him, she inhaled and exhaled and turned on her heel, making her way to the back study room. It was, after all, finals week and Kyoyama Anna, tied for first rank, did not mess around during finals week. Goddamnit, she had worked hard for that rank. And first rank at a prestigious university in America, thousands of miles away from her native Japan, was no small feat. She had stayed in Friday nights, studying her butt off for her next politics exam, instead of going out clubbing and partying or just hanging out with her friends. She paused, fiddling with the key ring. Not that that was much of a sacrifice considering in her mad dash to keep her grades up, especially with honors seminars and advanced labs, she didn't really have any time or desire to particularly reach out to anyone. But the constant staying up into the late hours of the morning, the humiliating ingratiating upon her professors so that she could get stellar recommendations from them, the gallons and gallons of liquid caffeine she had ingested…she was not going to let just anyone snag that away from her. Which is why she was determined to kill and gut whoever had dared infringe on her study room time.
She stalked past the array of study rooms, not even paying any attention to them. She didn't care; it was the back study room she wanted, cared about, and needed. It was completely sound proof, air conditioned, had several desks, padded chairs, natural, yellow lighting instead of the harsh fluorescent, and the fastest high speed connection in the entire campus and it was supposed to be hers, no one else's—
"Er, sorry, this room is occupied."
Anna nearly dropped the keys.
A clattering of a highlighter or pen or pencil hitting the desk rang out (Anna wasn't sure which one it was) and the soft swishing of the wooden chair legs being scraped backwards against the plush carpeting preceded the nervous voice. "Oh, hey, Kyoyama."
Enter Asakura Yoh
Age: 19
Occupation: Part Time Student/Part Time Music Store Employee/Full Time Slacker
Major: Political Science
Class Rank: tied for first
Interests: sleeping, napping, being lazy, slacking off, not doing homework, social justice, music, guitar, communing with nature, Japanese history, samurais, food, being the bane of Anna's existence
Yes. Somehow, Asakura Yoh managed to pull down straight A's. Somehow, Asakura Yoh managed to ace all of the honor seminars and advanced labs and midterms and finals from hell that Anna would spend hours upon hours on end studying for just to get the exact same marks Yoh, who as far as anyone knew didn't even own any of the books required for the course and spent all of class time as a continuation of his night's sleep. Asakura Yoh who didn't study at all and still managed to share the number one spot in the university with her.
"What are you doing here?" she spat out acidly.
Yoh blinked. Which, in his defense, was totally justifiable considering they had barely spoken a word to each other before in the past two years. "I…uh…reserved the room?"
"No, you did not reserve the room. I reserved the room as soon as the finalized schedule for our exams were posted. I reserved the room since I work at the library and thus wrote my name down on the sign up sheet for every single day this week from three in the afternoon until five at night. I reserved this room because my roommate from hell insists on smoking those damn cigarettes of hers and playing death metal from her native country that I don't even understand."
He looked at her. And then shrugged. "I just came in and asked and Ryu said it was okay for me to use it."
For once, Anna was at a loss for words.
"Me and Ryu go way back. Old family friends and such."
She scowled. No wonder he said he didn't have a choice.
He observed her once again with a…wait a minute, was that a smile on his face? A smile of amusement? Her situation was by no means humorous or laughable!
Before she could fashion a stabbing device out of her metal ruler and binder rings in her bag, he pulled out an extra chair. "If you're super keen on studying here, then we could share the room! It does have two desks after all."
She narrowed her eyes and wanted to tell him that she usually used the two desks to hold all of her studying materials which she was carrying in her bag at the moment (and seemed to be growing heavier by the second).
He patted the chair next to him. "Come on, I promise I won't be too loud! And besides, we can help each other study for the politics exam coming up, right?"
She snorted. She was Kyoyama (freakin') Anna, for crying out loud! She didn't need or give help. Period. "I can review by myself, thank you very much."
He waved his hand as if to say that it was all good to him anyways. "Suit yourself."
She stuck her nose in the air as she placed her bag on top of the desk and proceeded to unzip it and retrieve from its depths a government and politics book that was the exact same version as the one that was sitting, worn and worse for the wear, on Yoh's table.
"Nice pins."
"I beg your pardon?"
He jutted his highlighter in the general direction of her bag. "I said that I like your pins."
She examined her pins, the ones that she had gotten when voting in the election last year. "As do I."
"Did you go to the rally?"
She sat down and looked at him quizzically. "Rally…?"
"To get the pins. I went to the rally and the speech. He was pretty amazing really."
She frowned at the pins. "I…no…I got them when I voted…"
He nodded but she could sense on some level that he was judging her.
Anna pointed at the multitude of bracelets that adorned his wrist. "And where did you get those?"
He put down his highlighter. "This one," he said, tapping a rubber green and brown band, "was when I attended a demonstration against the deforestation laws that had just been passed."
"So…you were just a participant?" she asked, trying to belittle his efforts.
"Well, yeah…and I also gave the opening speech at the demonstration." He continued. "I got this one from the kids I helped out last summer—"
She pursed her lips together. Tutoring inner city children. She had done that before.
"—in Kenya when I helped rebuild schools and houses there in the aftermath of a flash flood."
The muscles in her face immediately went taut.
He tapped the final bracelet on his arm. "And this…well, this actually used to be a tassel."
She quirked an eyebrow. There was definitely more to Asakura than she had initially assumed. "Any significance?"
He scratched his neck, evidently embarrassed. "I…uh…I got it when I um…wrote that piece on minimum wage and the economically disadvantaged sectors in society and—"
"You won the Lasso Award, didn't you?" she asked snippily, suddenly remembering reading about it in the paper a few months ago.
"Yeah…"
"You are aware that that is one of the highest awards in one of the most widely read liberal political journals?"
"I…am…"
She studied him. "What exactly do you want to be?"
"A lobbyist probably. Environmental and social justice focused, naturally. You?"
"Lobbyist too," she replied curtly.
He looked unsure as if he should ask her what she wanted to focus on. "What issues…?"
"I don't know yet."
He leaned against his arm. "Not even a vague idea?" He shrugged. "Well, I suppose you just have to educate yourself on what's out there…"
This struck a nerve with her. How dare he—! I spend so much of my time educating myself on issues that he…That idiot! "Excuse me, I already am educated enough on current events and issues!" she exclaimed.
"Really? So what exactly do you do to get involved?"
She reddened, frustrated by his question. "I…I join anti- and pro- political groups on Facebook and…and…I follow the politician and interest groups on Twitter that I want to learn more about and…and I wear pins and shirts and…" Her voice trailed off as she realized how utterly lame her impact on society has been when compared to his.
He laughed. "So you're part of the silent generation?"
She clenched her teeth together. "What the hell are you blabbering about?"
"The silent generation. You know, the idealistic, outraged, disillusioned side of the young college student, the eighteen to twenty-something year olds who are so unhappy with the way things are now that they decide to protest and show their support for the things they are passionate about…by, oh God, hold onto your seat, joining Facebook groups and wearing armbands and posting witty, cynical, politicized messages on Twitter." He smiled. "All silently. We're all duped into thinking that a simple keystrokes and clicking around on the Internet will make a difference. That we're…'sticking it to the man' by flaunting our cheap plastic buttons that protest the treatment of child labor laws in third world countries and ironically our pins are made by underage sweatshop workers in Indonesia. We think that we're influencing others, influencing society, influencing how our government works because we're convinced that that is the only way we'll be able to see change. We are instantaneously able to see the reactions we evoke by announcing to the world that we joined 'One Million Strong Against/For Arizona's Immigration Law.' People will be outraged or supportive, perhaps you'll inspire a few to join your group or provoke a few to join an opposing group. And we think that that is enough. Because, really, how often do we see our votes, our voices impacting our daily lives? Impacting us? Never because our government is so distant."
She glared at him, full force. "So you're saying that everything I'm doing will be long forgotten, will have no impact on society? That I should just give up? Is that what you're telling me?"
He avoided looking at her in the eyes. "You…definitely have had an impact."
She crossed her legs and spread her arms open. "Oh, really, Asakura, do enlighten me!" she said sarcastically. "And exactly what did I impact with my silent generation garbage?"
"Me."
"Oh very funny, you're just outright hilarious and you expect me to believe that—Oh my God, you're serious." She drew her eyebrows together once she saw the look on his face.
He sighed. "Let's face it. I'm a legacy kid."
She remained silent.
"And I…am not the most hard working of people when it comes to schoolwork. So I basically am here because my grandparents are one of the biggest donators to the university every year… and…I mean…I guess seeing you work really hard just inspired me even though we've never really talked before and I…uh…yeah, I do study a lot outside of class because I finally found something I'm passionate about."
She smirked at the irony of it: her sworn rival and arch-enemy in attaining first rank was created because of her own hard work. "Funny how things we never even think about are influenced by our own actions that never was meant to influence anything else." She sighed. "And yet when it comes to our actions and activities that are supposed to impact others…they don't."
He laughed. "How can you not expect to influence other people, Kyoyama? You're perfect in every way—" His eyes widened as he realized what had just come out of his mouth. "Er, I mean, it's just like…like…er, the American government, right? Even on a local or state level, the actions of the authorities can have severe implications…all because of the very nature of…of…uh, federalism, right? We're inherently tied to every level of government, even level of authority and we can't expect to act distinctly in one sphere. America was founded on overlapping powers: the overlapping powers of the colonists and the British, then with the overlapping authority of national government and state government, and then with the executive, legislative and judiciary branches…" He had been wildly gesticulating the entire time.
She looked at him in amusement. "Nice save."
The Spying Serpent
location: the back study room
listening to: the sounds of true love blossoming and bearing fruit!
mood: conniving
Hello, university students of all ages (and yes, some faculty members too…I've seen you check my blog in the break room, don't deny it), SS is posting once again to bring you gossip—fresh gossip—straight from the most popular rendezvous point for lovers!
The library!
This time, it is a love, a forbidden romance between archrivals, a man and a woman from opposing sides. Yes, for all of you who saw it coming (that would only be…me! This particular couple has never spoken to each other before but I knew it from the first time they set eyes on each other…It was inevitable. But then again, that's love for you!) the top of the top, the best of the best, the smartest of the smartest have finally come together to form a love bond!
Kyoyama Anna and Asakura Yoh, both tied for first rank in their entire university class!
The resident, brilliant ice queen who will do anything to come in first and the laid back, nature loving king of the campus have finally hooked up.
And what better place for these two new lovers than in the center of where the majority of their studying has gotten done? The back study room of the library (can't really blame them… the room has got air conditioning, plush carpeting, two desks—in case one breaks, you know, and is most importantly…sound proof!)
Kyoyama who never before has expressed interest in anyone…or anything for that matter…aside from her studies has been in that room with Asakura for nearly forty minutes.
For Kyoyama, that is like proposing marriage to Asakura! If she can go that long without killing him, I mean.
Until next time, keep an eye out for this match made in heaven!
-SS
Comments
Posted by Kyoyama Anna
Subject: I will find you
And then I will kill you. Slowly. And then rip out your entrails and stick your bloodied corpse in the front of the library as a warning for anyone else who dares question the platonic nature of my relationship with Asakura. WHICH IS PLATONIC, for everyone who reads this, by the way.
Posted by Usui Horo
Subject: Nice…
lol
Posted by Tao Ren
Subject: How stupid
This is boring. Next.
Posted by Tamamura Tamao
Subject: Oh my
SS, you really should stop…er…please…? What if Anna is really embarrassed?
Posted by Kyoyama Anna
Subject: NO
I AM NOT EMBARRASSED
Posted by Bismarch Kanna
Subject: YES
Hahahaha. By the way, I accidentally burnt the corner of your pillow with my cig. My bad.
Posted by Kyoyama Anna
Subject: …
Why am I not surprised
Posted by SS
Subject: Ah
You are in denial. Don't worry, that always comes before you accept the wonder that is YOUNG LOVE!
Posted by Asakura Yoh
Subject: wow
Um...
Posted by Kyoyama Anna
Subject: Stop. Before I throw up.
I hate everyone.
A/N: Ta-da! Yeah. Basically...I don't even know. It was fun and thought provoking. That's about it. I'm coming out with other separate oneshots like this. TAKE A LOOK-SEE, GUYZ:
Introduction to Statistics: LysergJeanne
Advanced Mathematics 1A: RenPiri
The Art of Discourse: PailongJun
Environmental Science: HoroTam
Social Psychology: FaustEliza
So yeah, these are all part of the Study Session Series, where each oneshot will feature one of my six OTPs (afore mentioned) and their trials, tribulations and triumphs as they study for their upcoming exams (since...you know...it's the middle of AP testing and other people's final exams are coming up...I thought it would be appropriate :) )
So...thoughts? I've been wanting to write about the silent generation ever since we discussed it in my AP Government class. Please leave a review! and check out my contest!