". . . The plaintiffs contend that segregated public schools are not 'equal' and cannot be made 'equal' and that hence they are deprived of the equal protection of the laws. Because of the obvious importance of the question presented, the Court took jurisdiction.
"Our decision, therefore, cannot turn on merely a comparison of these tangible factors in the Negro and white schools involved in each of the cases. We must look instead to the effect of segregation itself on public education.
"In approaching this problem, we cannot turn the clock back to 1868 when the Amendment was adopted, or even to 1869 when Plessy vs. Ferguson was written. We must consider public education in the light of its full development and its present place in American life throughout the Nation. Only in this way can it be determined if segregation deprives these plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws.
"Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments. Compulsory school attendance laws and the great expenditures for education both demonstrate our recognition of the importance of education to our democratic society. . . In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.
"We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other 'tangible' factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does.
". . . We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. . ."
--Brown vs. Board of Education, May 17, 1954
It should have been resolved 49 years ago, but apparently the theory of educational segregation doesn't die so easily. On the evening of October 9, 2003, the Board of Education was meeting once again to decide the fate of segregation in schools. This time was different. The African Americans weren't the target; it was the mutants whose fate was being decided.
Indiana was, by state standard and several citizens' personal opinions, run by a horde of conservative Baptists bent on perfection. Anything imperfect was kicked to the curb. And I mean, literally, ^anything^. From fireworks to magazines, you name it, it was banned or censored.
The man fighting the Board's attempts was known to the locals as Leonard Kasch, or Leo for short. Kasch himself was a mutant, and an infamous one if you dared to dig up his past, which he kept unreasonably hidden. He was backed by an army of lawyers, doctors, and war veterans. But the bulk of his "army" were thieves, pirates, computer hackers, and ex-spies. Everything was so beautifully imperfect.
Kasch didn't like to lose, and he'd play dirty, if that's what it meant for him to win over the Board. So he'd use espionage and sabotage.
His inside agent was known by many names: Brittany Randall (her legal name), Zelda Lorelei (a German name meaning "Gray Warrior from the Rhine River"), Jayvyn Karimah (an African name meaning, backwards, "Generous Light Spirit"), Destry Marlon (a French name meaning "War Horse and Little Hawk"), and the list went on. But her most famous name was Shawnessy Gunning, an Irish name chosen for her specifically for her blood and lineage, which was mostly Irish. Different people called her by different names, depending on where they were from.
Shawnessy was sent into the school after her "disappearance" one week prior. In all actuality, Shawnessy had merely given up on the whole bloody issue and dropped out, knowing full well that the school would never give her a high school diploma anyway. She snuck around the west side, so as to avoid meeting any of her old friends before she wanted to.
Shawnessy's codename was Foxfire. Her mutation has given her. . . fox like abilities: enhanced sight, smell, and hearing, and increased speed and jumping. But, to bring on the torture, her mutation wasn't merely internal. Her long, fluffy, red and white tail and black-tipped fox ears were a dead giveaway.
As Shawnessy approached the end of a particular row of lockers, which included Lexxie's, Hershey's, Kayso's, and Kelso's, not to mention her own, she felt lucky that Kayso happened to have her locker opened, and was now digging through it for a math paper that she'd lost that was apparently due that day.
'Damn,' thought Shawnessy. 'It's Thursday, ain't it? Yay-rah. . . Algebra with the Blair Witch.' The "Blair Witch" was the name given to the students' Math teacher, Mrs. Blair, because she was such a witch. And Thursday meant that Shawnessy and part of her old gang had the Witch for an entire hour and a half that morning.
Miraculously, Shawnessy remembered her locker combination, and angrily wrenched open the thin, metal door. The noise of the metal wobbling brought Kayso out of her locker.
"Shawnessy! You're back! Where were you?"
Shawnessy glared at Kayso out of the corner of her eye and growled sarcastically, "Getting knocked up by my boyfriend!" Kayso's eyes grew wide. "Naw, seriously? Dude, lighten up. I dropped out. I'm here on a mission, and therefore have no need to actually pay attention in Algebra." She carelessly dropped her book in her backpack. "And besides, I broke up with my boyfriend."
Kayso calmed down a little. "Why?"
" 'Cause now I got three guys livin' in my house with me, and Beau got pissy with me about th' looks th' two news guys was givin' me. T'ain't my fault, but he's got issues like that."
"No, I mean, why'd you drop out?"
Shawnessy sighed. "There ain't no use in even tryin'. They gonna segregate th' schools, Kayso, which means mutants ain't gonna get any sorta education that could get us outta this flea-infested rat-hole of a town. Na', don' get me wrong: Avon's great an' all. But there's gotta be somethin' better out there. There's somethin' beyond th' state lines, an' I'm gonna find out 'xactly what ^is^ out there. Without no education, if that's what it takes."
"How do you plan to get anywhere without a job to pay for everything?"
"Oh, I gotta job. I'm a pirate, Kayso. I'm gonna make a livin' offa other folks. That's what I'm good at. An' that's what I'm gonna do. Me an' th' boys. . . we gonna live. No job, no rules. . . and damned if I waste my time learnin' crap I ain't never gonna use again."
"I think you should stay in school," Kayso said quietly.
"Are you implyin' that I'm stupid?" Shawnessy laid her ears back.
"No! Remember: you're smarter than me! You're in ACE!"
"Smarter'n ya, eh? Then why do ye enunciate every friggin' word, huh?"
"Because I don't want to ^sound^ stupid, like you do."
"You ain't worth talkin' to no more," Shawnessy hissed, shoving her face in Kayso's. She stepped back, slung her backpack over her shoulder, slammed her locker door closed, and stomped off to Algebra class, hoping she didn't have to talk to Lexxie for the rest of the day. Lexxie would give her the same lecture.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
Throughout the day, Shawnessy had received reproving glares from many of her more proper friends, congratulations from her rebellious friends, and lectures from her teachers.
"You disappear for a week, and have the nerve to come back without all your homework done!?" was the question from Blair. "Didn't you call Homework Hotline?"
"No."
"Did you ask any of your friends?"
"No."
"Did any of your friends bring the homework to you?"
"No."
"Then I don't want any excuses!"
"I didn't give any. You're th' one screamin'."
Blair's eyes went wide and round, as if she were saying, "How dare you speak to me that way! You are just a child, and therefore I am better than you!" But instead she asked, "Where were you and what were you doing while you were gone?"
"I was at home. An' I don' think you wanna know what I was doin'." There were a few muffled sniggers around the classroom.
"Quiet!" snapped the Witch. "Why didn't you're parents do anything?"
"With all due respect, which ain't a whole lot: my folks are dead. But, if yer talkin' about th' adults who're supposed to be watchin' out fer me, well, th' guys couldn't really care less."
" 'The guys' ?"
"Yeah. There're three guys livin' at my house. There's Beau and his friend from New Orleans, an' then there's Toynbee. We fished him outta the Hudson River in New York a while back."
Blair was obviously not amused. "How old are these men?"
"Uhm, I'd reckon Beau and his buddy, Remy, are early twenties. An' Toynbee's pro'ly mid-twenties."
"And these men are ^raising^ you?" Blair's eyebrows practically disappeared in her bangs.
"Non. They're just sorta. . . there. They don' serve much of a purpose. Just. . . existin'." Shawnessy fought to remain calm, and to keep a straight face. Blair's expression was now somewhere between shock, anger, and disgust. It was incredibly comical, but nobody dared to laugh.
"Do you find this funny, Randall?"
Shawnessy looked Blair square in the eye, her face straight and solemn, and said, "Yes I do."
"Alright then! Detention tomorrow and a Saturday school this weekend!"
"Oh, I cain't come ^this^ weekend. The boys an' me, we goin' to NYC fer vacation. How 'bout a week from. . . never?"
Blair's eyes were blazing with anger, but there was nothing she could do. She'd done her worst, but it wasn't good enough. Never before had a student gone this far. But, then again, those students had parents who kept them in line.
"Lady, I don' like school. I don' like sittin' on these hard 'chairs' and listenin' t' you an' the others ramble on about God knows what! Half the crap you teachin' us now we ain't never gonna use in real life. We don' ^need^ school. I'ss a health hazard, man! We get all stressed an' end up sick, then ya'll got the nerve to tell us off? I don' think so. Not no more. I quit. End of story." Shawnessy stood up abruptly, stuffed her binder into her backpack, and stormed out of the classroom without another word. Forget the damned mission! There was no point in sending the mutants to any school not meant specifically for them! It would never do them any good.
The remainder of the class stared at Blair, who stood, speechless and frozen with fury. "^Back to work^!" she screeched, stomping out of the room herself and heading towards the office.
Meanwhile, Shawnessy had grabbed everything she wanted that would fit in her backpack--which was quite a lot--and snuck into an empty classroom. Many of the classrooms had little holes in the wall--squares about four square feet--that supposedly let straight up to the roof, and were never closed off or locked. Climbing up through one of these, Shawnessy crawled up to the roof, and leapt off into the front parking lot, just out of sight of those in the front office. Keeping close to the edge of the road, she made her way east, back towards her house, where the boys would be waiting. To hell with the School Board! They were getting a jumpstart on their trip to New York City!
Across US 36 and winding through the neighborhood took a good half-hour / forty-five minutes. But Shawnessy was still fuming for some reason, even as she angrily punched in the code to open the garage door. She slammed the storm door open and completely forgot to close the regular door.
"What are you doin' back, cherie?" called a young man from the computer room, which was on the other side of the wall separating the kitchen and meant-to-be dining room. In the wall was a window through which anyone on the computer could watch the garage door and kitchen.
"Screw th' mission!" screeched Shawnessy.
"Awright," replied the man. The young man was Beauregard Raven-Le Papillon, Shawnessy's ex-boyfriend from New Orleans.
Lounged in the living room was a mutant a little older than Beau. A mutant that should've been dead. Mortimer Toynbee had been supposedly electrocuted then dumped into the Hudson River the night of the Ellis Island incident. Beau and Shawnessy had fished him out of the river the next morning.
"Tell me, Toad," Shawnessy began, coming round the column in the center of the house that supported the staircase into the living room, "where's Remy?"
"Out." Mortimer didn't even take his eyes off the television.
"Oh yer so useful," Shawnessy spat sarcastically.
"But you love me anyways."
"Not now, I don't!" She jumped up the stairs two at a time, nearly missing one and falling right back down. Everything was getting back to normal already!
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
I think it's short. I can't tell. I have it on Text formatting. Oh well.
Next chapter: Shawnessy and the boys take on NYC!
Notes:
1. I have changed my friends' names for their protection. I have not, however, changed my Algebra teacher's name, because I hate her and don't give a rat's ass one way or the other!
2. "ACE" is the title given to kids who are put in advanced classes. It is also what the advanced classes themselves are called.
3. Thanks to Harcourt-Brace Publishing Company for the "Brown vs. Board of Education" article.
4. Thanks to http://www.babynameworld.com for their help in finding all of Shawnessy's different names.
5. I do not own X-Men. Marvel© does. I own all originals, like Beau, Shawnessy, Leonard Kasch, and all my friends. (No, I don't actually ^own^ my friends. :p)
6. This ^...^ stands for italics.
Review please. It would be greatly appreciated!
"Our decision, therefore, cannot turn on merely a comparison of these tangible factors in the Negro and white schools involved in each of the cases. We must look instead to the effect of segregation itself on public education.
"In approaching this problem, we cannot turn the clock back to 1868 when the Amendment was adopted, or even to 1869 when Plessy vs. Ferguson was written. We must consider public education in the light of its full development and its present place in American life throughout the Nation. Only in this way can it be determined if segregation deprives these plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws.
"Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments. Compulsory school attendance laws and the great expenditures for education both demonstrate our recognition of the importance of education to our democratic society. . . In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.
"We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other 'tangible' factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does.
". . . We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. . ."
--Brown vs. Board of Education, May 17, 1954
It should have been resolved 49 years ago, but apparently the theory of educational segregation doesn't die so easily. On the evening of October 9, 2003, the Board of Education was meeting once again to decide the fate of segregation in schools. This time was different. The African Americans weren't the target; it was the mutants whose fate was being decided.
Indiana was, by state standard and several citizens' personal opinions, run by a horde of conservative Baptists bent on perfection. Anything imperfect was kicked to the curb. And I mean, literally, ^anything^. From fireworks to magazines, you name it, it was banned or censored.
The man fighting the Board's attempts was known to the locals as Leonard Kasch, or Leo for short. Kasch himself was a mutant, and an infamous one if you dared to dig up his past, which he kept unreasonably hidden. He was backed by an army of lawyers, doctors, and war veterans. But the bulk of his "army" were thieves, pirates, computer hackers, and ex-spies. Everything was so beautifully imperfect.
Kasch didn't like to lose, and he'd play dirty, if that's what it meant for him to win over the Board. So he'd use espionage and sabotage.
His inside agent was known by many names: Brittany Randall (her legal name), Zelda Lorelei (a German name meaning "Gray Warrior from the Rhine River"), Jayvyn Karimah (an African name meaning, backwards, "Generous Light Spirit"), Destry Marlon (a French name meaning "War Horse and Little Hawk"), and the list went on. But her most famous name was Shawnessy Gunning, an Irish name chosen for her specifically for her blood and lineage, which was mostly Irish. Different people called her by different names, depending on where they were from.
Shawnessy was sent into the school after her "disappearance" one week prior. In all actuality, Shawnessy had merely given up on the whole bloody issue and dropped out, knowing full well that the school would never give her a high school diploma anyway. She snuck around the west side, so as to avoid meeting any of her old friends before she wanted to.
Shawnessy's codename was Foxfire. Her mutation has given her. . . fox like abilities: enhanced sight, smell, and hearing, and increased speed and jumping. But, to bring on the torture, her mutation wasn't merely internal. Her long, fluffy, red and white tail and black-tipped fox ears were a dead giveaway.
As Shawnessy approached the end of a particular row of lockers, which included Lexxie's, Hershey's, Kayso's, and Kelso's, not to mention her own, she felt lucky that Kayso happened to have her locker opened, and was now digging through it for a math paper that she'd lost that was apparently due that day.
'Damn,' thought Shawnessy. 'It's Thursday, ain't it? Yay-rah. . . Algebra with the Blair Witch.' The "Blair Witch" was the name given to the students' Math teacher, Mrs. Blair, because she was such a witch. And Thursday meant that Shawnessy and part of her old gang had the Witch for an entire hour and a half that morning.
Miraculously, Shawnessy remembered her locker combination, and angrily wrenched open the thin, metal door. The noise of the metal wobbling brought Kayso out of her locker.
"Shawnessy! You're back! Where were you?"
Shawnessy glared at Kayso out of the corner of her eye and growled sarcastically, "Getting knocked up by my boyfriend!" Kayso's eyes grew wide. "Naw, seriously? Dude, lighten up. I dropped out. I'm here on a mission, and therefore have no need to actually pay attention in Algebra." She carelessly dropped her book in her backpack. "And besides, I broke up with my boyfriend."
Kayso calmed down a little. "Why?"
" 'Cause now I got three guys livin' in my house with me, and Beau got pissy with me about th' looks th' two news guys was givin' me. T'ain't my fault, but he's got issues like that."
"No, I mean, why'd you drop out?"
Shawnessy sighed. "There ain't no use in even tryin'. They gonna segregate th' schools, Kayso, which means mutants ain't gonna get any sorta education that could get us outta this flea-infested rat-hole of a town. Na', don' get me wrong: Avon's great an' all. But there's gotta be somethin' better out there. There's somethin' beyond th' state lines, an' I'm gonna find out 'xactly what ^is^ out there. Without no education, if that's what it takes."
"How do you plan to get anywhere without a job to pay for everything?"
"Oh, I gotta job. I'm a pirate, Kayso. I'm gonna make a livin' offa other folks. That's what I'm good at. An' that's what I'm gonna do. Me an' th' boys. . . we gonna live. No job, no rules. . . and damned if I waste my time learnin' crap I ain't never gonna use again."
"I think you should stay in school," Kayso said quietly.
"Are you implyin' that I'm stupid?" Shawnessy laid her ears back.
"No! Remember: you're smarter than me! You're in ACE!"
"Smarter'n ya, eh? Then why do ye enunciate every friggin' word, huh?"
"Because I don't want to ^sound^ stupid, like you do."
"You ain't worth talkin' to no more," Shawnessy hissed, shoving her face in Kayso's. She stepped back, slung her backpack over her shoulder, slammed her locker door closed, and stomped off to Algebra class, hoping she didn't have to talk to Lexxie for the rest of the day. Lexxie would give her the same lecture.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
Throughout the day, Shawnessy had received reproving glares from many of her more proper friends, congratulations from her rebellious friends, and lectures from her teachers.
"You disappear for a week, and have the nerve to come back without all your homework done!?" was the question from Blair. "Didn't you call Homework Hotline?"
"No."
"Did you ask any of your friends?"
"No."
"Did any of your friends bring the homework to you?"
"No."
"Then I don't want any excuses!"
"I didn't give any. You're th' one screamin'."
Blair's eyes went wide and round, as if she were saying, "How dare you speak to me that way! You are just a child, and therefore I am better than you!" But instead she asked, "Where were you and what were you doing while you were gone?"
"I was at home. An' I don' think you wanna know what I was doin'." There were a few muffled sniggers around the classroom.
"Quiet!" snapped the Witch. "Why didn't you're parents do anything?"
"With all due respect, which ain't a whole lot: my folks are dead. But, if yer talkin' about th' adults who're supposed to be watchin' out fer me, well, th' guys couldn't really care less."
" 'The guys' ?"
"Yeah. There're three guys livin' at my house. There's Beau and his friend from New Orleans, an' then there's Toynbee. We fished him outta the Hudson River in New York a while back."
Blair was obviously not amused. "How old are these men?"
"Uhm, I'd reckon Beau and his buddy, Remy, are early twenties. An' Toynbee's pro'ly mid-twenties."
"And these men are ^raising^ you?" Blair's eyebrows practically disappeared in her bangs.
"Non. They're just sorta. . . there. They don' serve much of a purpose. Just. . . existin'." Shawnessy fought to remain calm, and to keep a straight face. Blair's expression was now somewhere between shock, anger, and disgust. It was incredibly comical, but nobody dared to laugh.
"Do you find this funny, Randall?"
Shawnessy looked Blair square in the eye, her face straight and solemn, and said, "Yes I do."
"Alright then! Detention tomorrow and a Saturday school this weekend!"
"Oh, I cain't come ^this^ weekend. The boys an' me, we goin' to NYC fer vacation. How 'bout a week from. . . never?"
Blair's eyes were blazing with anger, but there was nothing she could do. She'd done her worst, but it wasn't good enough. Never before had a student gone this far. But, then again, those students had parents who kept them in line.
"Lady, I don' like school. I don' like sittin' on these hard 'chairs' and listenin' t' you an' the others ramble on about God knows what! Half the crap you teachin' us now we ain't never gonna use in real life. We don' ^need^ school. I'ss a health hazard, man! We get all stressed an' end up sick, then ya'll got the nerve to tell us off? I don' think so. Not no more. I quit. End of story." Shawnessy stood up abruptly, stuffed her binder into her backpack, and stormed out of the classroom without another word. Forget the damned mission! There was no point in sending the mutants to any school not meant specifically for them! It would never do them any good.
The remainder of the class stared at Blair, who stood, speechless and frozen with fury. "^Back to work^!" she screeched, stomping out of the room herself and heading towards the office.
Meanwhile, Shawnessy had grabbed everything she wanted that would fit in her backpack--which was quite a lot--and snuck into an empty classroom. Many of the classrooms had little holes in the wall--squares about four square feet--that supposedly let straight up to the roof, and were never closed off or locked. Climbing up through one of these, Shawnessy crawled up to the roof, and leapt off into the front parking lot, just out of sight of those in the front office. Keeping close to the edge of the road, she made her way east, back towards her house, where the boys would be waiting. To hell with the School Board! They were getting a jumpstart on their trip to New York City!
Across US 36 and winding through the neighborhood took a good half-hour / forty-five minutes. But Shawnessy was still fuming for some reason, even as she angrily punched in the code to open the garage door. She slammed the storm door open and completely forgot to close the regular door.
"What are you doin' back, cherie?" called a young man from the computer room, which was on the other side of the wall separating the kitchen and meant-to-be dining room. In the wall was a window through which anyone on the computer could watch the garage door and kitchen.
"Screw th' mission!" screeched Shawnessy.
"Awright," replied the man. The young man was Beauregard Raven-Le Papillon, Shawnessy's ex-boyfriend from New Orleans.
Lounged in the living room was a mutant a little older than Beau. A mutant that should've been dead. Mortimer Toynbee had been supposedly electrocuted then dumped into the Hudson River the night of the Ellis Island incident. Beau and Shawnessy had fished him out of the river the next morning.
"Tell me, Toad," Shawnessy began, coming round the column in the center of the house that supported the staircase into the living room, "where's Remy?"
"Out." Mortimer didn't even take his eyes off the television.
"Oh yer so useful," Shawnessy spat sarcastically.
"But you love me anyways."
"Not now, I don't!" She jumped up the stairs two at a time, nearly missing one and falling right back down. Everything was getting back to normal already!
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
I think it's short. I can't tell. I have it on Text formatting. Oh well.
Next chapter: Shawnessy and the boys take on NYC!
Notes:
1. I have changed my friends' names for their protection. I have not, however, changed my Algebra teacher's name, because I hate her and don't give a rat's ass one way or the other!
2. "ACE" is the title given to kids who are put in advanced classes. It is also what the advanced classes themselves are called.
3. Thanks to Harcourt-Brace Publishing Company for the "Brown vs. Board of Education" article.
4. Thanks to http://www.babynameworld.com for their help in finding all of Shawnessy's different names.
5. I do not own X-Men. Marvel© does. I own all originals, like Beau, Shawnessy, Leonard Kasch, and all my friends. (No, I don't actually ^own^ my friends. :p)
6. This ^...^ stands for italics.
Review please. It would be greatly appreciated!