Title: The History Assignment
Author: Girl Who Writes
Feedback: is beloved if you feel so inclined
Pairing: Angel/Collins, with a little bit of Mimi/Roger and Maureen/Mark, implied Roger/April.
Word Count: 4 550
Rating: PG
Genre: Humour, AU
Summary: The Junior History class is assigned a project, much to the dismay of Maureen, Mark, Roger and Angel, so they plan a study party. With not much studying.
Notes: I know that the last chapter didn't have much action, but I had to break these two up somewhere. I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Special Thanks: to my beautiful rabbits, Harriet and Blossom, who agreed to guest star in this in exchange for some parsley.
Spoilers: It's AU, so nothing much.
Warnings: Language.
Disclaimer: Rent and the related characters are property of the Jonathan Larson Estate and I make no profit from my fan-based ventures. Hazel Dumott and Mimi's brothers, plus all classmates and teachers are mine.

"Woah," Mimi leant over the front seats in Collins' car to stare. "That's Maureen's house?"

"That's the Johnson Estate," Collins said jokingly – when Collins had picked up Angel, he'd swung by Mimi's place too – none of her brothers had felt inclined to give her a ride.

Maureen's house was an enormous white and grey house that sat behind a high black fence. The garden was made up of immaculately trimmed hedges and fountains.

"This is amazing," Angel exchanged looks with Mimi. Both lived in much smaller houses over in a slightly crappier suburb.

"Wait till you get inside," Collins pulled up out the front, behind Joanne's car. "Roger and Mark probably walked over."

"Mark and Roger live in houses like this?" Mimi squeaked.

"Hell no," Collins grabbed his history books that he'd brought around; he'd read some of the history papers written by Roger and Mark, and realized they needed all the help they could get.

It was Mrs. Johnson – "Call me Nancy" – who opened the door. "Maureen's out in the pool house with the others," she smiled. "Straight through that hallway, and out the back – you know the way, Tom."

Mimi and Angel followed Collins though the house in awed silence. All the floors were polished wood, the walls cream coloured, with expensive paintings and mirrors hanging everywhere. They passed a dining room with a chandelier, and a room with a television that took up most of the wall. It was very different from their homes – in Mimi's house, her four brothers shared two rooms, and there was always an argument after dinner about who washed up. Angel's grandmother's home was more than big enough for the two of them, but it was an old home and cluttered with objects from Hazel Dumott's lifetime. This house belonged on the front of glossy magazines.

The back garden was no different – they walked out to an amazing, bright blue swimming pool. Straight ahead was a lawn, with neatly manicured flower beds. Next to the pool was what Mimi and Angel assumed to be the pool house – a square room, with the front wall made of glass.

Maureen, Roger, Mark and Joanne were sitting on the floor of the pool house – which was carpeted in a thick white carpet so soft looking, Mimi longed to kick off her shoes and sink her feet into it. A pile of books sat haphazardly on the coffee table, completely ignored.

"Hey guys!" Maureen beamed at them as they walked in, clutching something to her chest.

"What's that?" Angel frowned at the wriggling, fluffy thing.

"Oh, my Uncle's a vet, and someone dumped a box of domestic rabbits out the front of the surgery this morning – all babies," Maureen held up the soft white bunny, it's little ears pricking up in the direction of Angel and Mimi. "He found homes for all except two, so he brought them over this morning. How cute are they?"

"Can I have a cuddle?" Mimi squealed.

"Uh huh – Roger's got Harriet and I've got Blossom," Maureen held out the bunny to Mimi.

"Oh, they're so precious!" Mimi cradled the bunny in her arms. "I would love to have rabbits."

"I could call my Uncle…"

"Oh, I'm not allowed. I've got a cat," Mimi handed Blossom the Bunny to Angel, and brushed the white hair off of her t shirt, before taking a seat on the carpet next to Roger, sneaking looks at him.

"Are you sure we should have them inside, with this carpet?" Joanne asked uneasily.

Maureen shrugged. "My Mom doesn't care if I bring the other animals inside. The rabbits shouldn't be any different." As if on cue, Harriet the Bunny looked Roger in the eye, twitched her nose and promptly peed on him.

"Oh shit! That's gross!" Roger half tossed the rabbit into Mimi's lap, jumping up. Angel clapped his hand over his mouth at the yellow stain on the snow white carpet.

"Eww," Maureen made a face. "We better put them back in the hutch. I'll tell Mom Roger had an accident."

"MAUREEN!"

"I meant with the rabbit, you idiot. Geez."

It took half an hour for them to settle back down – Maureen promptly introduced the group to her father's two Dalmatians, her mother's Persian cats, her own cat, the goldfish in the ornamental pond and the family's prized finches.

"It's like a farm," Angel said, putting down Paisley the cat. "A really fancy farm."

Collins snorted with laughter, and wrapped his arm around his boyfriend. "It'd have to be – Maureen lives here."

"Shut up, Roger."

"Hey! I didn't say anything!"

"Oh, sorry. I can smell you from here, so I'm just going to blame you for everything, okay?"

"It was YOUR rabbit that PEED on ME!"

"Obviously you were mean to her or something. She didn't pee on me or Mark or Mimi or Joanne. Maybe she just doesn't like people with names beginning with R."

"Or maybe she needed to pee and she's only a baby and doesn't know that Roger's not her litter box," Joanne said soothingly.

Maureen shrugged. "Oh well. But hey, you should probably know, once a rabbit has peed in one place, they consider that to be the bathroom forever and ever. You might want to burn your outfit."

"Fuck."

"Ooh, I know," Maureen's face lit up. "We can go swimming!"

"Uh, history assignment?" Mark piped up.

"Oh, it'll take us like ten minutes. Let's go swimming!" Maureen bounced off.

"Oooh, yes!" Mimi clapped her hands, Angel, Mark and Roger glaring at her. "What? It's not my history project. Except I don't have my swim suit."

"Maureen's got a basketful of them for all of us," Roger replied, perking up at the idea of Mimi in a bikini. "Her mom is like a clinically obsessed shopper."

Roger was right – Maureen hurled out a picnic basket bursting to the gills with swimsuits, sun safety shirts and beach towels. Before long, Maureen had doled out swimsuits to everyone, and then ducked up to her bedroom to get her own.

"Really, who in this world owns this many pairs of spare bikinis?" Joanne said, looking down at herself and shaking her head.

"Someone who must be very, very happy," Mimi sighed, from where she was floating a top an inflatable raft, one leg hanging in the water. "Can you imagine living here?"

"Mimi, if you and I lived here, we would never emerge," Angel said, from where he and Collins were huddled on the pool steps.

Roger and Mark exchanged looks but didn't say a word. In an almost cliché fashion, Maureen had been desperately unhappy as a kid, living in the Ice Palace, as she called it – Maureen had never had many friends as a kid; she'd met most of her friends because of Mark. Mr. Johnson was completely overworked, and Nancy Johnson stretched herself thin with benefits and charity lunches. But Maureen never condemned them – if anything she shrugged and turned to the closest person, usually Mark, to join in with the fun. Mrs. Cohen had always said Maureen would have been much happier if she hadn't been an only child.

Maureen returned in a candy striped bikini. "Mom's gone out, so we have free reign of the house," she said with a grin. "And she's having all the carpets cleaned on Monday, so it's not a huge crime, Roger. Mom thinks you might want to talk to someone, though."

"I promise you, if you make that joke one more time, I will personally wait till those rabbits are fully grown and then turn them into dinner," Roger half growled from his position in a pool chair, admiring Mimi from beneath his sunglasses.

"Fine," Maureen huffed.

An hour later, the group emerged from the pool, and the three girls (and Angel) went off to shower, whilst Collins, Mark and Roger sat in the sun with the textbooks and some highlighters.

"Do a scene with Czarina Alexandra and Rasputin, so Maureen can go all out," Collins advised. "And the peasant rebellion. You'll need a pretty good speech to back all of this up, though."

"Tell me about it," Mark said gloomily, paging through his textbook.

"Hey guys!" Maureen reappeared with Mimi, Angel and Joanne in tow. "Do you wanna go out and grab something to eat? We're starving."

The boys looked down at the books spread out in front of them.

"I could go for a burger," Roger shrugged, standing up. "We can grab some lunch and finish this later on."

Collins and Mark exchanged looks, and shrugged. Food did sound good. And after all, it wasn't Collins' history grade on the line…