Welcome to the Renaissance!
Chapter Two: Trials and Tribulations
~~~
NOTE!!! IMPORTANT!!!
I have a few more points to make supporting the fact that I did not plagarise Lorena's story: One: Her story was much more yaoi-centric...Wufei eventually gets a boyfriend, Heero and Duo are a couple, etc. In mine, Quatre and Trowa are the only homosexual couple. Two: Chirascuro is very much about resisting the system, while Welcome to the Renaissance! is more about finding yourself in an odd place and adapting and growing up. Three: Her story is also rather Quatre-centric, while mine is going to (hopefully! eep) be more rounded.
Thank you for listening/reading.
~~~
Trowa flicked his paintbrush over the golden colour of the angel's hair. He nodded slightly, then swirled the paintbrush in a can of water, dried it slightly, and dragged it through the blob of white paint. He painted a graceful swirling signature in the lower left-hand corner of the painting and then began to clean up. He closed his eyes, listening to the pretty little hymn Quatre and Katia were practicing off on the other side of Block 1's rec room. They were seemingly unaware of the world around them, and neither seemed to notice they'd gone through the song six times already and were started on a seventh. But he wasn't complaining. The song was pretty, and he loved the sound of Quatre playing the violin.
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God
And his righteousness
And all these things shall be added unto you
Allellu, Allelluiah."
He sat down after gathering all his art supplies into a bag, and just listened to the quiet bridge of the song. Finally, Quatre dragged the bow across the strings one last time, and bent to replace the instrument. Katia reached over and gulped down the entire water bottle that was sitting on the table next to her. "I think we're good for the Mass on Friday, bro. Now help me with my History homework, it's the essay tonight. You know, the one about the stupid French court when Marie Antoinette was queen."
It was odd, Trowa thought, how some things simply fit in the world, and this rec room was one of his favourite places in the world. Here he could draw, paint, and sculpt, all while listening to Quatre and Katia making their own beautiful music, Duo and Heero clashing, Wufei studying, Relena and the other girls talking and applying makeup while the boys tried to ignore the giggles.
The door opened and a senior walked in and began stiffly handing out notes from the counselor and principal for detention and counseling meetings. One fluttered to the end table where Trowa had spread his paints, brushes, water, and other materials. He frowned, then picked it up. He snorted. Three detentions for being out of uniform, being late to his D-class, and another out of uniform.
"What do you have detention for?" Quatre asked, peering over his shoulder.
"Out of uniform, mostly."
Duo jumped out of nowhere to land on Quatre's back - a newly acquired habit of his, apparently - and started cackling at Trowa's detention slips. "Man, it's the first damn week of school! Are you still breaking all the rules!?"
Trowa scowled slightly. "Not all the rules." Quatre blinked innocently. The taller boy sighed. "I hate the uniform restrictions...so I don't follow them. I get lost in my art...so I'm late for class, church, altar serving, and my shift at the adoration chapel."
"Oh, yeah, every student and faculty member has a once-weekly hour-long shift in the adoration chapel," Duo said lightly. "Required for your religion class. You don't pass unless you've got the right amount of hours." Quatre groaned.
"Welcome to Catholic school," Trowa said dryly, rinsing his brushes. "Let me see your schedule, Quatre."
"What? Oh - here."
"We've got Latin together."
"Poor fools," Duo laughed. "I'm in Spanish, which is a piece of cake, since I grew up in Southern California, where everybody and their pet beagle speaks at least a little Spanish. It's harder for Heero, I guess, because English is his third language, so Spanish is his fourth."
"What are his first and second?" Quatre asked, intrigued.
"First is Japanese, obviously. Second is Mandarin...then he learned English at about 11, which is when I met him. It was funny, us trying to communicate, at first. You know, 'cause I only knew maybe five words in Japanese and he knew about the same of English. Remind me one day to tell you about the time I gave him a lesson in English profanity."
"Lovely, Duo, really," Trowa said sardonically.
"May I have your attention please. It is now twenty minutes to lights-out. Please return to your dorm rooms. Thank you," the intercom blared. Duo rolled his eyes.
"That's buenos noches, then, to you guys." he tipped his black cap. "See ya in the morning." Quatre waved slightly, and turned around to collect his books while Katia did the same.
"See you tomorrow, then," Quatre said shyly. Trowa nodded.
~~~
The next morning, the G-classes had been cancelled on account of one of the teachers' parents passing, requiring an hour-long funeral at the only available time - early in the morning. Very early. Luckily, only seniors and freshmen were required to attend, as the teacher whose parent had assumed room temperature taught only freshman and senior classes.
In Advanced Algebra II & Geometry, Trowa sat with Katia and listened to the teacher, Ms. Rowler. Or, more accurately, he sketched random classmates while pretending to listen. Algebra was easy, anyway, he reasoned.
A pencil poked his hand. He looked down and saw a note, meticulously folded, lying there on his desk. Cautiously, Trowa eased the note into his lap and began to slowly unfold it. In Katia's odd, carelessly elegant scrawl, the words What'd ya think of my brother? jumped out at him, being penned in bright green glitter gel pen. He blinked several times, and then wrote in his own small, plain handwriting: The same I thought last year...he is good on the violin. He flicked the note into her backpack. She reached down, as if to retrieve her calculator, and casually slid the note into her blazer sleeve, resting her wrist on the desk and letting the note fall into her lap. A moment later, she reached over and dropped it onto his desk. Dork. That's not what I meant. Biii~da! XP Trowa rolled his eyes and scribbled, Fine, you got me. He's cute. and passed it back. Again she dropped it smack dab onto his book. He sighed and read: Fear me, for I see all! Anyhow, just cause he's cute...I get to be protective, k?
As he bent to write a reply, Ms. Rowler calmly walked by and tapped his paper, blank save for the "Assignment 1" written on the top. She winked at him, then bent to whisper, "Save the conversation for break, please. No more notes, or I'm afraid I'll have to add another detention to the one you're getting from me already." At his silence, she smiled slightly. "Your shirt's not tucked in. Out of uniform. Sorry, kid, but them's the breaks."
The bell rang, then, and Trowa hurried off to Honors Latin. There, Quatre sat, setting up book, notebook, pens, and pencils. He looked up and gave the taller boy a sunny smile. "Hello, Trowa." Trowa gave a slight nod in reply, then slid into the seat next to him and studied the teacher.
Mr. Draconis was a tall, athletic man with black hair, slicked firmly against his skull. It was slowly shifting from black to salt-and-pepper, Trowa could tell. The man had thin lips and tanned skin. His eyes were as dark as most of his hair, topped by an unruly pair of eyebrows. His face was rather hawkish in appearance, and his eyes glistened with a hunger for knowledge.
"Welcome to Honors Latin," he said, his deep voice booming. "The first thing we're going to cover today is the rules. Now, I'm assuming all of you have taken at least a semester of Latin. If not, then, you're in the wrong place. I expect all of you to throw yourselves into this class. An A is very difficult to earn. Understand this: I don't give grades, I just finalize them. And my grades are not based on something as concrete as tests, quizzes, prayers remembered, or homework. You're tested on how well you can use Latin in this classroom with both me and your classmates, as well as effort. If you know the material, but your test scores suck, then I'll push your grade up a bit.
"Homework is not accepted late, at all. If you have a request, you must word it in Latin. Use as much Latin as you possibly can. If you don't know a word, ask a classmate. You're here to learn together. You, the sophomore class, are a team, and as such need to work together and help each other out. Quizzes are given weekly, and are made up of one page, on which you will have a simple essay or exercise. Tests pop up whenever we finish a chapter. They'll have a spoken part, a written part, a listening part, and spelling/vocabulary. We've got a whole book to do, one with fifteen decently long chapters, and only a year in which to do it.
"If at any point, this class becomes too difficult for you, talk to Sr. Mary Scolastica and get out. No hard feelings." He paused. "I won't say good luck, because you don't need it if you've gotten this far." He turned and wrote something on the board: PAX. "Who knows what this means?" Katia raised her hand. He pointed to her.
"'Peace'," she said calmly.
"Good. Now, take out a piece of paper and write every single Latin word you know, with its English translation in the margin. This is your homework for tonight. Due tomorrow, and believe you me: I mean tomorrow."
Trowa smiled slightly. Not quite what I'd expected from a Catholic Latin teacher...
~~~
"Mass is tomorrow," Wufei muttered as he sat down. "I hate the welcome-back-to-school Mass."
"Better'n the ones for dead people," Duo yawned. "I had do to the Incense part for the funeral this morning. That woman is evil." [1]
"Which woman? The one who died?"
"Nah, I'm talkin' about Mrs. Radley."
Katia snorted. "Radley as in Boo Radley from To Kill a Mockingbird?"
"No, Radley as in that stupid old lady who assigns me to the weirdest Masses to serve. I mean, really, five a.m.? There were like three people there!"
"Heel, Duo," Hilde chuckled.
"I'm serious!"
"You're never serious," Heero reminded him with a snort.
"Oh yeah, huh? Hey, how come she never assigns you to the stupid Masses, Heero!?"
"Because she likes me, stupid. I don't laugh during the Sign of Peace."
"But it's funny!"
"To you, perhaps," Relena agreed quietly. "However, I doubt Mrs. Radley sees it like that."
"She's just a bitter old woman who wants to make others miserable. Very unjust," Wufei said.
"And you just don't like her because you think she dislikes you just because you're not Christian," Sally accused.
"Shut it, woman."
"Why don't you, Chang?"
"Because you're the one spewing nonsense."
"Calm down," Quatre said, smiling a little. Trowa watched as the pair bickered, with the blonde occasionally breaking in and trying to pacify them. He leaned forward and finished writing his first letter home.
Dear Mom and Dad, it read. School's boring so far, but that's usual and I'll spare you the whining. It's lunchtime on the second official day of school, and Sally and Wufei are already going at it. My reputation for breaking rules, it seems, has only grown over the summer. Really, the only two rules I've ever broken have been the whole tardiness thing, and I've been out of uniform. They just like to play it up for fun.
We have one new student, and that's it. Remember Katia Brenshaw Winner? It's her half-brother. They're sharing a dorm. His name's Quatre Raberba Winner. He plays the violin. He's in Latin with me. I like the Latin teacher, by the way. Very interesting.
That's all for now.
- Trowa
"Short letter," Catherine observed. Trowa shrugged.
"They don't mind."
"How do you know?" she prodded. The bell rang.
"Ah, shit," Duo mumbled. "History next."
"They have sister-in-laws teaching the sophomore History classes," said Heero with a disapproving shake of his head.
"Sisters-in-law, Heero, not in-laws," Duo corrected. Heero nodded.
"Off to the next torture chamber," Quatre said cheerfully.
"We'll break him yet," Hilde said.
~~~
That day, after classes, another assembly was held to advertise the various clubs - Amnesty International, Foreign Language, Art, Music for the Masses, Drama, Science, National Honor Society, St. Francis News, and Prayer. Trowa had already decided on joining Art, simply because it gave him access to better supplies for his works, and Music for the Masses because Katia twisted his arm into it.
Quatre, however, did not have such an easy job choosing. Students that had more than one Honors or two Advanced classes were permitted only two clubs, excluding NHS (National Honor Society) and signing up for tutoring from the Foreign Language Club, which was a bit of a problem for Quatre. He had settled on Music for the Masses, but also wanted to do Foreign Language, Drama, and Amnesty International.
"Stay very far away from Drama," Wufei advised cryptically. "The teacher's a manwhore."
"That's a creative insult," Relena laughed. "Don't listen to him, Quatre. Wufei doesn't like the teacher because the poor man just said he wasn't cut out for acting." The Chinese boy glowered at her.
"Why don't they have a Math Club? They did last year," Hilde wondered aloud. Duo coughed and discreetly bent to rummage through his bag.
"I don't even want to know," Heero said flatly. "For God's sake, Quatre, just do Music for the Masses and Foreign Language. Chang here'll kick your ass if you join Drama and turn out to be a better actor than he is, and Amnesty's a complete waste of time."
"Actually, it takes up the least amount of time," Sally put in. "It's mostly independent letter-writing. I'd say Science takes up the most time."
"Does not," Heero growled. "And even if it did, it's actually important, so it doesn't count."
"Cool your jets, Heero."
"Kiss my ass, Maxwell."
Quatre sighed heavily. "Fine, Heero, Music for the Masses and Foreign Language. Which ones are you in?"
"Science and Foreign Language."
"Jesus, Heero, how many languages do you plan to learn?" Catherine rolled her eyes. "Amnesty isn't a waste of time. I should know, I was in it last year and I'm joining up again this year. That's it for me."
"I'm doing Music for the Masses and St. Francis News," Katia said through a mouthful of rice.
"Same as Heero," Duo grinned ruefully. "Hey, I gotta watch his back. Racial discrimination and all that weird shit."
Relena rolled her eyes. "Amnesty and Music for the Masses."
"Drama and St. Francis News," Sally said. "And let me guess, the woman-hater here is doing Science and Foreign Language."
"Shut it, woman."
Hilde blew hair out of her face. "I wish they still had Math Club, 'cause I'm gonna flunk my Trig class this year. So, I'm not doing any clubs except for Foreign Language, since I learned German at the same time I learned English, growing up."
"Then why the hell are you taking German II?"
"Easy A."
The bell rang. Quatre groaned and stood for the after-dinner prayers.
"May I have your attention please..."
~~~
"Sooo...who wants to be in charge of the Christmas program? I'm in charge of the Mass," Kimi, president of Music for the Masses, looked at the unintrested faces sitting in the music room. "Oh, come on, people, I know dealing with an entire program is quite a job, but really. You all signed up to be in Music for the Masses, and everybody from the sophomore through senior classes are elligible to coordinate something." Trowa turned his head as the door slammed open and a flustered Katia dashed in and took her place in between her half-brother and Trowa.
"What's going on?" she asked breathlessly.
"Katia Brenshaw Winner, I assume?" Kimi scowled at her. "Tardiness isn't appreciated. Excuse?"
"Pull the yardstick outta your ass, Nelson. And I was late 'cause I got held up at Religion. You wanna tell Sr. Teresa that I need to skip the tutoring sessions with her, that's great, 'cause I'm not gonna. Now, what were you talking about?"
Stiffly, Kimi motioned for her to sit. "I need somebody to coordinate the Christmas program."
"Got it. I can do that." The club president's derisive facial expression shifted to skeptical. One hyper-arched black eyebrow slid even further up her forehead.
"Are you sure? Do you have any ideas for theme?"
"I'll think on it. I have an idea, but I need to do some research on it."
"Fine. Have it all ready for the next meeting, or I'll get somebody else." Trowa snorted at Kimi. Idiots. Absolute idiots. "Anyhow," she went on, "I have this sheet I'll pass around. Write your name, then whatever instruments you play, and if you sing, put whether you're soprano 1, soprano 2, alto, etc - unless you'll only sing in a group, because if you just put what level you sing at, I'll assume you're open to solos and duets. If you don't like singing in a small group, put 'choir'. That's it for this meeting. After you've filled out your information, you can leave to go wherever."
Trowa picked up his pencil as the sheet was passed to him. He skimmed over it, reading Quatre's list of violin, piano, cello, choir, and bass. Katia had marked soprano 1, choir, and piano. He scrawled his name carelessly and scritched flute and choir. He nodded to Quatre and passed the sheet to the girl sitting next to him, stood, and followed the siblings out of the cramped room.
"So, what was your idea?" Quatre asked Katia. She looked pointedly at her shoes.
"I wanted to do Christmas Cannon," she mumbled. Quatre blanched. [2]
"You think you can pull that off with only a couple of months to prepare?"
"What's Christmas Cannon?" Trowa asked, confused.
"Only one of the best modern Christmas songs," Katia said, her tone a little edgy. "It's got three choir parts, a violin, and a piano. I've always wanted to try it, even though it's a really difficult piece because of all the different harmonies and such. It's very pretty; I'll loan you my copy of it."
"What block is your dorm?" Quatre looked pointedly at Trowa.
"I'm 2B, room A."
"Alright, you can stop by our block - we're 1A."
"What else do you think you should do?"
Katia chewed on her lower lip. "Um...well, I thought an a capella version of 'O Holy Night' and maybe a duet of 'What Child is This?'. I also think doing 'Silent Night' in as many languages as possible might work."
"Like, say, do verse one in German, two in English, three in Spanish, four in Latin, five in French, and six in...I don't know...Hebrew?" Quatre thought out loud.
"Yeah, that sounds about right. Hopefully all the translations'll work with the melody. I've only ever heard it sung in German and English," Katia said.
"Are you going to Duo's this Christmas?" Trowa asked suddenly.
"Huh?"
"Remember, Quatre, last year I wasn't there because I was at a friend's. Duo's parents let him have a crazy huge-ass party every Christmas, and they've got the space to accomodate all us kooks."
"So you're going, then," Quatre said, wondering if the invatation was extended to him as well.
"Well, yeah, of course. So are you, if you want to." Her brother's eyes lit up.
"It sounds like a lot of fun. Duo lives on an apple farm in California, right? So no snow."
"That's fine, though," Trowa said. "We find enough ways to amuse ourselves, anyhow. Duo's family is huge. Probably bigger than yours. His father's a Mexican Catholic, and his mother's an Irish Catholic, so on both sides of the family, he's got about thirty aunts and uncles, innumerable cousins, and near to a thousand grandparents."
"And a million pets," Katia put in with a bit of a grin.
As he listened to the banter of siblings, Trowa began to reflect on the whole day. And what an interesting day it was...
~~~
[1] For a funeral, there are three parts: Cross, Holy Water/Bells, and Incense/Book. I hate being Incense. You get that God damned myrrh or whatever it is in your eyes and then screw up. Grr. Anyhow, for a Sunday or Saturday Mass, there's five parts: Cross, Bells, Book, Observer, and Candle Observer. For a 'casual' Mass, like the small 8:20's or 6:30's that are held, there are two parts: Book and Bells. The same goes for a memorial. There's two parts for a wedding as well, Holy Water/Bells, Rings/Book. By the way, the difference between a memorial and a funeral is that there's a body for a funeral and there isn't one for a memorial.
[2] Christmas Cannon is one of the best Christmas carols ever. It's done by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra on the CD The Christmas Attic, I believe. I could be wrong. It's a really simple, pretty Christmas song that captures the whole spirit of the season.