Foreign Languages

"Our next event will be foreign language speaking and comprehension. I will go down the list of languages and all who can speak it will tap their buzzer. Then, one by one, you will all recite the Pledge of Allegiance in that language. Whomever can speak the most languages fluently wins. Any questions?"

Jax raised his hand, before realizing that he wasn't in school anymore and just spoke out.

"Yeah um if we get out can we sit down? I got the feeling I'm gonna need to save my strength for later and also I'm tired."

"Yes, you can sit if you wish. Now, everybody ready?"

And with a chorus of nods, he started.

The competition was fierce and in the end it came down to one language between Kendra and the dark horse, Ray. They all placed their bets on Kendra and were then shocked when Ray came out on top. Later, as they all sat around, they realized they all had a shared curiosity of how the others knew their languages. Kendra proposed another idea.

"Ok so since everybody here is wondering how everybody else knows all the languages they do, let's just all go around in a circle and say what we know and how we know it. Who wants to go first?"

Jax spoke up first. "Well I just know Spanish because of the neighborhood I grew up in and also I took it in high school. That's all I know though."

Mick grunted in agreement. "Same goes for me. I only know Spanish but I didn't learn it in school;prison was the best teacher I had."

Leonard was next in line and he was reluctant to share, but did it anyways. "Well I'm not a poster child for mensa so I don't know 27 languages. I do know Italian though. An old lady in the house across the street taught me. Made a damn good cannoli too."

He decided that he was done sharing and glanced over at Sara in expectation."I don't know many languages but I learned them under less than ideal circumstances so I think I should get some slack. I learned Russian from my cell neighbor in while I was trapped on a prison ship. I learned Mandarin on an island I was stranded on, and I learned Arabic from the League. Grandpa you're up."

"Well I wouldn't call myself an expert but I know the basics- Latin, German, and Japanese."

Jax snorted in response."Yeah in what world is that basic?"

"In the world of science, Jefferson. Germany and Japan are two of the leading countries in science and technology and I decided that it would greatly benefit my career in the long run to know the language. And correct to my hypothesis it has been proven beneficial. Latin on the other hand I just learned out of curiosity."

Mick didn't understand why anyone would learn a language for fun, but spoke up anyways. "Ok so since I lost count, how many did nerdy mcgenius over here win by?"

"2" Ray said.

"And don't worry, it's not any of the hard stuff. Just Spanish, French, German, Latin, Greek, Italian, and Hungarian. I only know them though because I have way too much curiosity and time on hands, also I just pick up languages fast. I'm honestly surprised Kendra didn't beat me, with the whole reincarnation thing."

"I know that seems shocking but I can't open up the floodgates any time I want. I did manage to recall Portuguese, Swedish, German, Latin, and Coptic though. I've never really been good with languages though so it was a new experience for sure."

Leonard stood up first. "Well I can only take so much of you people for one day, I'm gonna leave."

They slowly filtered out, taking Snart's cue, and pretty soon quiet enveloped the main grounds. What amazed Rip though was that none of them forgot. He would walk by and see Mick and Jax talking in rapid fire Spanish, or Stein and Ray switching to German to Latin trying to mess each other up. Down time was spent with Sara teaching Leonard Russian and Leonard teaching Sara Italian. Maybe Kendra was onto something, maybe these games were turning them into a real team.