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Chapter Seven: Not Political Theory

"Duo! Hey, Duo!" Jeff called to me in the hall. It was before homeroom on my second day of school, and I was standing outside my homeroom, trying to look nonchalant.

"Hey Jeff," I greeted him when he reached me. "What's up?"

"Not much. I like the denim jacket," he said. "Where'd you get it?"

I shrugged. "I dunno. My friend Hilde picked it up for me somewhere. She probably got it at a thrift store or something." I straightened the sleeves while I spoke. I had traded my usual black clothing for something that looked a little more normal for an Earth setting: Jeans, a tee-shirt, and my jacket.

"Cool. You get a lot of your clothes from thrift stores?" Jeff asked as he leaned against a locker.

"Some of them. Some of them I buy new, and some of them I make myself—or at least alter them to suit my needs."

"Huh. That's neat. Didja ask your parents about coming over to my house tomorrow?"

"They're my foster parents, and yeah, they said I could go over."

"Foster parents?" Jeff asked, and I noted that his voice had a slightly different tone to it. "I didn't know you were a foster child."

"Yeah, I am," I replied.

"Oh."

We talked about homework and other stuff until the bell rang, and while the tone of Jeff's speech became normal again, I couldn't' shake the slight feeling that somehow something was different between us.

"So, who has other examples of revolutions that are similar to the American Revolution in the A.D 1770's?" Ms. Collins asked that day during second period History.

I was sitting in a seat that was near the windows. I had followed Jeff's advice and chosen a seat as far from Jericho as I could. The class so far had been boring, and I was starting to zone out as I stared out the window.

"What about the space colonies' revolt against the Alliance?" one girl suggested.

"I don't know, what about it? Was the space colonists' revolt similar to the American colonist's revolt?"

"No. Those two revolts were nothing alike."

I turned to see who was speaking. It was Jericho. She was sitting in a chair in the back of the room, her arms crossed in front of her.

Ms. Collins raised her eyebrows. Obviously that was not the answer she had been expecting. "Would you like to explain your opinion, Jericho?"

Jericho shrugged. "It's pretty simple really. I mean, sure, in both cases the weaker colonies were revolting against a stronger, tyrannical government. But thing this is, with the American Revolution, they could survive without England. They had this huge continent that had forests and soil and waterways and other resources. They didn't need anything from England—they had everything they needed to survive basically at their fingertips, and they had a vast area to expand into. But the space colonies don't have that. The space colonies are an artificial environment, and they have no resources of their own to take advantage of. Anything they need needs to come from earth. Should they have succeeded in their revolt, the space colonies would have basically signed their own death certificates. The way I see it, the American revolution was the only one of the two revolutions that was reasonable. The space colonies' sending the Gundams to earth was a waste of precious resources and man power."

I sat up straight in my chair and looked hard at her. She had no idea what she was talking about. The Gundams hadn't been a waste at all.

My sudden movement caught Ms. Collins' eye. "Duo," she said with a smile. "You're from the colonies. What's your take on Jericho's views?"

"It's a load of bull sh—crap," I said, curbing my word choice just in time. "First of all, we—the space colonies—weren't fighting for total independence like the Americans. We just wanted the Alliance's militaristic hold to be lessened a little, let us live out our day-to-day lives without having to see mobile suits every couple of blocks. We're not stupid; we know we can't survive without earth.

"Secondly, I would like to set the record straight on purpose of the Gundams. They weren't sent to Earth by a unanimous vote by the colonies. They were sent by a couple of individuals who had their own score to settle. Also, the Gundams' target wasn't the Alliance government, it was OZ."

"Oh, right," Jerichosnorted. "And that's why a Gundam attacked and destroyed the shuttle that was carrying all the Alliance leaders."

"An OZ shuttle. How was the pilot supposed to know who was on board?" I demanded.

Jericho ignored my question. "That's another way the revolutions were different. In the American Revolution, the rebels were fighting on their own territory. The Gundams didn't fight in the colonies, they fought on Earth. The British would have suffered from some sort of culture shock when they got over here, what with the different terrain and everything. They were at a disadvantage. The space colonists, who were already the weaker party, sent the Gundams to Earth, meaning the pilots probably suffered from some form of culture shock. I'm sure Duo could tell you that it's a bit of a shock being on earth after living on the colonies all his life."

Ms. Collins looked like she was debating whether to allow the conversation to continue, but she turned to me and asked, "Well Duo, are you going through culture shock?"

"Nah," I replied. "I've been on Earth before. Spent a fair amount of time down here during the war, actually."

"Really?" Jericho said, cocking her head to one side. "I thought transportation to and from the space colonies was severely limited before and during the war. I heard you needed government and military clearance to leave the colonies. How'd you manage to get off the colonies?"

Our eyes locked, and I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I had to think fast. I had to come up with a response that was believable but didn't give anything away. And it couldn't just be anything, because I knew Jericho was smarter than your average person.

At that moment, Ms. Collins stepped in and saved me from a very difficult situation. "I'm afraid this conversation has strayed from the topic just a little too much. To get back to your original statement, Jericho, you don't think the space colonies' revolt was plausible because the space colonies depend too heavily on earth, unlike the American colonists and England."

Jericho nodded. "Exactly. That's why I think the Gundams were a total waste."

"Did it ever occur to you that without the Gundams you'd be dead right now because of Mariemaia dropping a colony on earth or the White Fang dropping Libra?" I demanded, feeling my anger rise

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Maybe if the Gundams never existed, the White Fang would have never formed, or Treize Kushranada would have still been alive."

"Yeah, and with him around, we'd all be living under the totalitarian rule of OZ! Sorry, but I'd take nuclear winter over that!" I said sarcastically. My voice was getting dangerously close to shouting volume.

"Well, if that Gundam pilot hadn't killed all the Alliance leaders, maybe OZ wouldn't have come to power!" Jericho's face was turning red.

"Maybe if the Alliance had spent more time paying attention to their own military than terrorizing the colonists, then the Gundams wouldn't have become necessary!" I was officially shouting now.

"Yeah, well--"

"THAT IS ENOUGH! SIT DOWN BOTH OF YOU!" Ms. Collins ordered us.

I suddenly realized that we had both somehow come to be standing up, Jericho with her arms folded across her chest and me with my fists clenched by my sides. We both seemed ready to launch ourselves at each other and make the argument physical. My face was hot and I was seeing red, I was so mad. She didn't get it, did she? It was because of us Gundam pilots that she was able to sleep soundly in her bed at night.

Neither of us moved.

"Don't make me repeat myself," Ms. Collins said, her voice low and calculated sounding. "Sit down, or I'll call Principal Quigley."

Jericho was the first to move. Her arms dropped to her sides and she quickly and gracefully sat down. I allowed my fists to relax and I just sort of collapsed back into my seat. Looking down at my hands, I saw I was bleeding. I had been clenching my fists so hard my nails had broken my skin.

"I think that will be the end of discussion for today," Ms. Collins said, sitting down at her desk. She took a deep breath before continuing. "Work on your packets for the rest of the period, independently. Duo and Jericho, I want to see both after class."

Groaning, I put my head down on my desk. Knowing my luck, she was going to call Diana and Jon and tell them I had caused a huge disturbance.

At the end of the period, Jericho and I both walked forward to Ms. Collins' desk. She sighed and stood up, putting her hands on her desk. "Jericho, I've told you before—this is not a political theory class. This is history. We don't have time in our schedules to have you starting up debates on topics that are little relevance to the actual course. I like you, and I think your arguments are valid, but this is your last warning. One more unrelated debate, and I'm going to have request that you be moved to a different class. Understand?"

"Yes ma'am. I'm sorry," Jericho said quietly, nodding. I didn't think she looked sorry at all.

"Duo," Ms. Collins said, turning to me. "While I admire your steadfast determination to hold to your point of view, next time something like this comes up, please try to keep it civil. I don't know how things are done on the colonies, but here on earth, Shouting matches are usually frowned upon in a classroom setting. Next time this happens, you'll get a detention. Get it?"

"Yeah."

"Good. However, I am glad to have you in this class. I have a feeling that if you and Jericho learn how to keep debates on topic and at a reasonable volume, you might be able to stir some of your classmates into participating." She smiled and handed us each a hall pass. "You'd better hurry to your next class."

I took the pass and left to room. It was still in the middle of the class change, and the hall was full of students hurrying to their classes.

"Hey Duo! Wait a sec!" I turned to see Jericho hurrying up to me.

I looked around. The halls were really crowded. No doubt someone was going to see me talking to Jericho. I was tempted to turn and walk away, but that would be rude, and the times when I was rare to girls were rare. "What?" I asked her. "I've gotta get to math."

"Well, you, um…you debated well in there. Got me thinking," she said, shifting her books in her arms.

"Thanks," I said, smiling slightly. "Is that all you wanted?"

"No. I was…I was just wondering if you believe the rumors about the Gundam pilots beings teenagers, like us?"

I shrugged. "Who knows? Why, do you believe them?"

She gave me a funny little smile and our eyes locked. "Well, I didn't until about twenty minutes ago. But after debating you, I think my opinions on a lot of stuff are changing." There was something in her eyes that made me worry. She knows, I thought. Or if she doesn't know, then she at least suspects. "Well, I got to get to French. See ya Duo!" She turned and hurried down the hall.

I watched her do for a minute, then turned myself and headed to math class. My brain was working over time. If Jericho suspected me to be a Gundam pilot, or anything like that, then I was in trouble. That information was supposed to stay really hush-hush, or else I would probably get a lot of unwanted media attention. If even a rumor got around that I was a Gundam pilot, then I might have to be relocated. I just hoped that Jericho was one of those few girls who didn't blab everything she knew and heard to her friends.

"Who am I kidding?" I asked myself with a laugh as I sat down in my seat in math. "She doesn't have any friends. Jeff said so, and from what I can tell, no one pays attention to her."

"Talking to yourself, bud?" Jeff asked as he sat down next to me.

I grinned at him. "Somethin' like that."

"Well, you probably should keep it to a minimum," Jeff said, lowering his voice as the teacher called the class to order. "First sign of insanity you, you know."

"Trust me, Jeff. Once you get to know me, you'll realize that my talking to myself is the least of my problems."


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