Monday, December 7, French
"I'm appalled by the fact that, considering how much our tuition costs, this is the kind of support we can expect from our teachers!"
Michael just wanted Lilly to shut up, to shut up and let him get on with his codes and sequences because then he wouldn't have to ask Judith over later to get it done. But, no, she had to go on about her stupid term paper proposal, which didn't even matter anyway because he personally knew she always had three or four proposals as back up in case her first was deemed too inappropriate, which it always was.
Because Lilly always chose the most inflammatory proposal as her first, just so she could get it shot down and prove the 'unfairness' of it all.
She was like that serf from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, pushing to get a reaction and screaming 'Help! Help! I'm being repressed!' when she finally got one.
Why the hell did tuition fees matter to her anyway? Last he checked, Mom and Dad footed the bill, not her.
He was not in the best of moods, and he was fairly sure it was hearing from one of Judith's friends about Kenny Showalter and 'that Mia girl' supposedly Frenching in the corridors that had made him that way.
Kenny was Mia's boyfriend, so why shouldn't the guy stick his tongue down her throat? It certainly wasn't Michael's concern, because if it was then Kenny would have been the one to lose the tip of his tongue to an unfortunate and entirely deliberate ice-skating accident.
"That's not true of Mr Gianini," Mia suddenly countered. "He really goes beyond the call of duty by standing after school every day to conduct help sessions for people like me."
'People like me,' she said, like she classed herself as something completely different, as of less worth. Michael wondered when she would ever wake up and see herself clearly – wasn't Kenny meant to be telling her how beautiful and smart she was? Did she really not know?
Lilly snorted. "Mr Gianini probably only started pulling that staying-after-school thing so that he could ingratiate himself with your mom, and now he can't stop because then she'll realise it was all just a set-up and divorce him."
Good one, Sherlock. You totally cracked it.
Michael glanced up to see Mia's unconvinced frown, but she didn't say anything else. Like him, she knew when his sister was looking for input or when Lilly just wanted to hear the sound of her own voice – unsurprisingly, the latter was a more common occurrence.
"Anyway," his sister carried on, hitting the desk for emphasis. "The real problem with this school isn't the teachers. It's the apathy of the student body. For instance, let's say we wanted to stage a walkout."
Mia questioned Lilly's latest scheme for him. "A walkout?"
"You know," Lilly said, beginning to look more excited. "We all get up and walk out of the school at the same time."
"Just because Mrs Spears turned down your term paper proposal?"
"No, Mia. Because she's trying to usurp our individuality by forcing us to bend to corporate feudalism. Again," Lilly emphasised.
Mia's frown was one of the no-no words Michael had blacklisted inside his own mind in an effort to overcome his suffocating emotions when it came to her – his brain still recognised his repressed 'cute' though.
"Oh," Mia said. "And how is she doing that?"
"By censoring us when we are at our most creatively fertile," Lilly explained, stabbing at the desk with her pointer finger.
Boris then decided to make a sudden appearance from the supply closet. "Fertile?"
Michael didn't want to know why that had been the one word Boris had heard through his closet sonata. Fortunately, Lilly saying Michael's name brought him away from actually questioning the virtuoso.
"Michael, can you send a mass e-mail tonight to the entire student body, declaring a walkout tomorrow at ten?"
He didn't bother looking at his sister like she was crazy, he just continued typing. "I can, but I won't."
Her anticipated shriek was just as loud as he'd thought it might be. "Why not?"
Michael still didn't look up from his laptop. "Because it was your turn to empty the dishwasher last night, but you weren't home so I had to do it."
Not that it was such an arduous task, but in their house, if your name was on the rota then you had to do the chore. He hated it when Lilly skimped out, like she thought his sole purpose in life was for picking up her slack.
"But I told Mom I had to go down to the studio to edit the last few finishing touches on this week's show!" She argued.
He was rapidly losing patience. "Look, if you're having time management issues, don't take it out on me. Just don't expect me to meekly do your bidding, especially when you already owe me one."
Not to mention he had enough on his plate already without having to add Lilly to his list.
Mia cut in over his puce-faced sister. "Lilly, no offence, but I don't think this week's a good time for a walkout, anyway. I mean, after all, it's almost Finals."
"So?"
Mia sighed. "So some of us really need to stay in class. I can't afford to miss any review sessions. I'm getting bad enough grades as it is."
This captured Michael's full attention, stealing him away from his keyboard.
"Really?" He raised his eyebrows at Mia. "I thought you were doing better in Algebra."
"If you call a D plus better," she replied lowly.
He thought back to his help with Mia's Algebra in G&T before he had started working on his Winter Carnival project. Had missing out on his tutoring really affected her that much? He wasn't sure.
"Aw, come on," Michael wheedled a little. "You have to be making better than a D plus. Your mom is married to your Algebra teacher!"
She shrugged. "So? That doesn't mean anything. You know Mr G doesn't play favourites."
Michael seriously doubted Mr Gianini's love of equality was entirely without fault when it came to the only daughter of the woman he had married.
"I would think he'd cut his own stepdaughter a little slack, is all," he finally said.
Mia opened her mouth to reply but Lilly cut in instantly.
"Would you two please pay attention to the situation at hand, which is the fact that this school is in vital need of serious reform?" She practically snarled.
Michael rolled his eyes in relief as the bell suddenly rang and gave him the opportunity to escape his sister's maniacal claws. It also gave him the opportunity to consider how to help out Mia a little more.
It didn't escape his notice that he was unwilling to empty the dishwasher again for his sister, but he wanted to try to make time in his busy schedule to help Mia with her schoolwork – he just simply chose to ignore it.
