"So, is this your first protest?" Jessica asked
"Not exactly. There was that time my high school teachers went on strike"
"And you joined them?"
"Actually, I filled in for them"
"You scab!"
"Yeah, I guess I was. Then there was my English teacher's rally for unity"
"That sounds nice"
"He dressed up as Karl Marx. It was weird."
"Sounds like it"
"And finally, there was the time I got my high school's shady soda contract cancelled"
"You organised a protest?"
"Not exactly. I just visited the education commissioner's office and appealed to his sense of reason"?
"And that worked?"
"Well, that and my principal's breakdown in front of him"
"Good on you for showing initiative"
"If I didn't it no one else would have"
Jessica smiled in approval nevertheless
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Despite her seemingly nonchalant reaction, Daria was shocked to see the size of the crowd. The protest was easily the largest one she had seen.
"Big enough for you, Daria?" Jessica asked
"I suppose" Daria replied "Are those your people?" she asked upon seeing the Democrats on Campus setting up their stall.
"Let's find out" Jessica responded
Jessica quickly realised that, although she didn't know any of them personally, they knew of each other, in a six degrees of Kevin Bacon way. Jessica offered to help them out, and they gave her a stack of flyers and a clipboard for sign ups.
"So, Daria..." she began her pitch "How would you like the honour of being my first sign up?"
"No thanks" Daria replied "But I'll gladly take a flyer"
"Would you like to sign up to our email newsletter?"
"Sure, why not" Daria pick up the pen and wrote down her details "Now, I'm going to find some skinheads" she explained
"Good luck"
"You too"
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The assembled crowd probably numbered in the hundreds. Daria managed to get some crowd shots on her phone, but struggled to get the whole crowd in frame, given the sheer number of people. Off to one side, she discovered the counter protest, which numbered no more than two dozen. They bore banners saying things like "merit not race" and "say no to positive discrimination". Daria got some decent shots, but was sure to keep her distance. However, some protesters from the main crowd were less restrained and Campus security was on hand to keep the groups separate.
Daria got some good shots of the stand off too.
After a while, Daria returned to the main part of the protest, amidst chants, speeches and sign waving. However, this did not stop the army of spruikers from descending upon Daria, much to her surprise. It was rather like campus culture day, a few weeks ago, when every student society would send recruiters to bombard the new cohort of freshman. But this was much worse, given that it was much more crowded, noisy and tense. The vast majority of spruikers were Socialists and/or Communists, all with slightly different names, much like the Judean People's Front or People's Front of Judea from Monty Python's the life of Brian, Daria thought to herself. She eventually worked out a system for dealing with each of them. Take a picture of them holding their sign, sign up for their newsletter, take a flyer and leave it at that. She turned down all attempts to sell her newspapers or magazines. Daria had enough reading to do for class, without adding to the pile.
Also out in force were the Green Party, Sustainability society (Daria wasn't clear on the difference, but didn't bother to ask), Women's and Queer societies and a number of others. She again took their flyers, gave her email address, and bid them good day.
The whole experience made Daria feel, almost hopeful and optimistic. Then she bumped into her classmate, Jason.
"Actually, call me Jay" he said
"And what are you selling today?" Daria asked, pointedly
"Nothing less than total and complete liberation for the entire human race" he said, completely straight faced
"So, no small goals, then?"
"On the contrary, we have a much smaller goal in the short term. A bunch of us are trying to set up an anarchist student society"
"Well, I like the acronym" Daria stated, suppressing a smile
"So, will you sign up?"
"I'll think about it" Daria said, noncommittally
"What can I do to change that maybe to a yes?"
"Well, you could explain to me what you mean by anarchist?" Daria said, she was genuinely curious, but trying not to sound too keen
"Well, anarchists believe that human relationships should be based upon freedom and equity, and we oppose all forms of hierarchy and domination, including, but not limited to..." he trialled off when he noticed the crowd starting to move
"I have several follow up questions, but first and foremost, where is everyone going?"
"I believe were about to march to the admin building and occupy the President's office"
"If this President is anything like my high school principal, I look forward to it, but I need to find the person I came here with. You have my email address?"
"Does this mean I can sign you up?"
"Sure, whatever" Daria said, halfheartedly, but secretly overjoyed she'd made a connection with someone
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"Oh, hey Daria" Jessica said, getting her attention
"What's going on?" Daria asked
"The board meeting has been cancelled, so we're going to march on the President and Provost's offices and try and get some answers"
"Good luck"
"You're not coming?"
"I have some studying to do"
"Well, will you come to the DoC mixer?" Jessica was trying to sound subtle and failing miserably
"What's in it for me?"
"You can ask awkward questions"
"Alright" Daria said, with faux defeatism, and turned to leave
"One more thing..." Daria turned back
"Yes?" Daria raised one of her eyebrows.
"Can you help me out with a project I'm working on?"
"What's the project?"
"Its for linguistics, its about sarcasm and irony"
"And you're asking me?" Daria said, with faux annoyance
"Crazy idea, I know" Jessica said, mimicking Daria's tone
"And what do you need from me?"
"Just a semi-structured interview, a series of short answer question, no more than half an hour"
"You know what my next question is" Daria stated matter of factly
"I'll introduce you to some freshman in dire need of tutoring"
"In Linguistics?"
"And Political Science"
"Okay, deal. See you back at the dorm" Daria said, then turned to leave, taking some final snaps of the crowd as they awkwardly crammed themselves into the corridor of the admin building like sardines. As she did, she could have sworn someone was taking photos of her, but there were so many people, and a several different photographers, she couldn't be sure. The thought it over as she turned to leave. Was she being paranoid or...