"Yes sir?" Jim approached the instructor's desk as his classmates filed out. Matt hesitated near the doorway with a concerned expression. Jim gave him a reassuring smile and tipped his head towards the door. Matt cast one last glance back at their teacher before following Hogarth and Mohamed out the door.

"I did not appreciate you interrupting my class today. Your attitude has been disrespectful and your actions have caused disorder and distraction."

Jim clenched his fist and drew in a deep breath to try and keep himself calm. "But sir, you offered me the opportunity to speak about what I know. I have experience on space galleons, I've been sailing since I was fifteen with-"

"I will accept no excuses, Mister Hawkins. I am assigning you three days of service for your attitude."

"That's whalefilth!"

"And an additional two for your language."

Jim took a deep breath and held it for a count of five. He was not about to get himself into any more trouble. He'd been working hard to keep his emotions under control lately, he wouldn't let himself get kicked out and disappoint his mother again. Not after everything he'd put into this. Not after everything she'd put into him. "Yes sir."

"You are dismissed."

Matt was waiting in the hall for Jim to join him again. The moody teen sighed in frustration. "This isn't fair, Matt, he gave me five days of service for that. Can you believe it? I'm taking this to our head instructor, he gave me permission to teach class! You heard him! This isn't fair."

Matt laid a sympathetic hand on his friend's shoulder. Jim relaxed slightly under his touch. He flicked through the displays on his tablet and pulled up his schedule. He promptly tensed right back up. "He already put the days in! Look at this! Five weeks and my free day is gone! We only get one a week, and he takes it away for more than a month!" He tapped his first day of service to get the details.

Hawkins, James - Service

Detail - cleaning duties in the magical and exceptional animal department

Time - 0700

Reason - Insubordination

"Horse poop. He wants me to spend all day picking up horse poop. Because I can do better at his class than he can. I'm dropping that useless waste of time. I'm finding something else!"

"That's our Jim!" Matt grabbed his friend's tablet. "Let me see your schedule, maybe you've got the same assignments as Braxton!"

"Doubt it. I think the teachers learned a long time ago not to give us the same work."

"He might have overlooked it." Matt protested. "Braxton has service basically every week, it's easy to overlook him when you're too used to seeing his name on there."

Jim couldn't help but grin. Matt always had a way of making him feel better. "Yeah, well, maybe if he stopped getting into trouble, he wouldn't have service every week."

"And maybe if you stopped talking, you wouldn't have it this week." Matt shielded himself behind Jim's tablet to prevent the boy from smacking him in retaliation. "Look! There's my art class, so I have to go as well!" He shoved the tablet back at Jim and ducked off down a different corridor.

"I know where you sleep!" Jim shouted after him, a grin stubbornly refusing to leave his face. "See ya Matt." His friend raised a hand as he ducked into his room. Braxton gave him a fistbump as he headed in, then walked over to join Jim.

"Why are you threatening to get in bed with Matt?"

Jim shoved Braxton and laughed. "Oh shut up. He was making fun of you too." As the two boys headed for their mechanics class, Jim filled Braxton in on what had happened earlier today.

"Sweet! Do you have animal duty every day? I've got it at some point. Don't ask me when, I only check day of. Ain't worth keeping track of it." Braxton stretched his arms over his head and arched his back. "Man, that was a nice nap last class."

Jim rolled his eyes. He reached up and twisted Braxton's antena so it faced down. "No wonder you have to do service every week."

Braxton defensively adjusted the hardware on the side of his head. "Leave that alone, I just got it tuned to listen in on one of the teacher's channels. They've been getting better at hiding or blocking them."

"Anything good?"

Braxton flashed a grin. "Yes. But I'm not going to tell you if you mess with my upgrades."

"I will disassemble your legs if you don't tell me."

Braxton sulked. "I know you're capable of it, but I don't believe you'd do it."

Jim shrugged. "Try me, cyborg." He grinned. "Yeah, you're right. I wouldn't." He stepped into their shop class and let out a happy sigh. This was one of his favorite places to be. He wandered over to claim his usual table. Braxton joined him a moment later with three sets of gloves, aprons, and goggles.

"Thanks man." Jim pulled his apron on over his uniform. "Varian is late."

Braxton shrugged. "I think we're early, actually. Matt didn't really keep us hanging around to talk."

A familiar voice confirmed Braxton's assessment. "How'd you get here before me?" Varian grabbed a set of goggles and settled them on the top of his head. "Is Matt sick today or something?"

Jim shook his head. "Nah, he was being a pest, so he ran away before I could get him back." The heavy leather gloves he shoved into a pocket of his apron. "We can use my tablet for the plans today."

"Alright." Varian barely reached Jim and Braxton's shoulders despite being the same age as them. His mostly black hair was swept off to the side out of his eyes and his usual easy grin was turned up at the other two boys. "I think we're just about ready to start building today! We'll spend the first ten minutes going over our plans, and then let's get started!"

Braxton nodded. "You and Jim confirm the plans, I'll start collecting parts. I'll get the ones I remember, and you can let me know what I'm missing after."

Jim sighed. "I know you like the actual working with your hands part best, but you're never going to learn to read these plans if you don't try."

Braxton shrugged. "Who cares if I can read the plans if I can get things fixed anyway?"

Varian rolled his eyes. "He'll learn once we stop doing group projects. Alright! Let's take a good look at this baby!" Varian snatched up Jim's tablet eagerly. He flicked his fingers apart to blow up a section of their model and rotated it to the front right segment. "We'll start here."

Both boys were proud of the engine they had designed. It was a simple enough project, they'd been given a base to start with. All they needed to do was customize and attach it to the teacher's simple machine. There was a rumor that whichever engine generated the most power would get an extra reward, but the official goal was simply to produce something that worked.

"Let's change this valve here." Jim pointed to one they had debated over before. "I'm not convinced this is the best option, I think it might fail if there's too much pressure on it. I was thinking it over last night, and I believe you're right."

Varian grinned. "I knew you would. Alright, I'll update the design in a minute. Are you otherwise happy with it?"

Jim nodded. "I think so. I wish we'd been able to fit in more pistons, but…"

Varian laughed. "This will be fine, I promise. I know you wanted two more, and as soon as I figure out how to open a pocket dimension without affecting the performance of the engine, we'll add them in. Until then, we don't have the space."

"Is this the right size hose guys?" Braxton set an armload of parts on the table. "I couldn't remember if you wanted this one or the next size down."

"That's perfect, Braxton. Thanks! Come on, I'll help you carry the base over. Varian, go get your step stool."

"I hate you." Varian said. He sounded amused despite his words.

Jim grinned and pulled on his gloves. Now this was what a class should be like. As the instructor wondered between the groups and answered questions, the trio set to work.