Chapter Text
It’s dark in the classroom. The only light comes from the digital white-board in front of the class. It shows a series of pictures, one after the other, rapidly zooming past with barely a pause between.
There is a general murmur of children quietly complaining about a technologically impaired teacher and the sound of said teacher hastily clicking on through a lot of pictures. There’s some grumbling at technology and then the teacher is gently telling the children complaining that they’re being just a bit rude aren’t they, and they should probably just wait until they’re old enough to vote, then there’ll be plenty enough time to be as rude as they want as long as they want.
The digital white-board finally stops at an image of the tip of something that looks like a mountain top poking out of a lot of water. There’s a big ‘PAGE NR 1’ underneath it.
“There we go!” says a victorious teacher who has triumphed over the evils of technology. The class applauds dutifully. “Thank you! Alright then, here we go. Does anyone know what this is?”
There is only silence. And then realization. “Ah. You’re sticking up your hands to ask for permission to answer the question aren’t you. In the dark. Where I can’t see them.”
A soft sound of embarrassed children giggling.
One of the children speaks up.
“Will we get detention if we say anything, or how do you want us to do this, Mx Luca?”
“Well…” the newly identified Mx Luca says hesitantly. “Everyone saying things at once is a big no. But you won’t get detention for asking a very good question, Tara, don’t you worry.” The child sighs in relief. “Right, okay, I’m so sorry, should’ve thought of this before. Don’t worry though, you lot remember your light-up keychains with your names in neon lights on them? Why don’t we use those. Does everyone have their keychains?”
Some more silence.
“Light up those keychains for me, please.”
There’s suddenly a lot more light, and luckily Mx Luca is able to determine that everyone has their keychain and they work perfectly in dark environments like this. Could be used as flashlights in an emergency, really. That’s probably a reason they were handed out, now Mx Luca thinks about it.
“Thank you. Keychains out, please.”
Sudden darkness.
“Alright. Repeating my question: can anyone tell me what this picture is supposed to be?”
At least five keychains light up. Mx Luca chooses one to answer the question.
“That’s a picture of the top of the Ural Mountains” a child’s voice shouts enthusiastically. “Its’ highest peak is about 900 meters above sea level, I think. Mum said so the last time we flew over it.” After a short pause, they add a very soft, “I think it’s very cool.”
Nobody can see it, but Mx Luca smiles at that.
“It is very cool, Jome,” they agree. “Is anyone going to be able to tell me why this very cool mountain tells us a lot about our planet? Yes Lief?”
The child named Lief turns off their keychain flashlight and answers breathlessly, in a rush. “Well Mx Luca! The mountain’s not 900 meters tall at all actually, because, right, underneath the sea it still goes down some 1000 meters to the bottom of the sea if you can believe it, they scanned it, some very impressive technology if you ask me, Mx!”
After that frankly astounding show of some very skilful lungs right there, Lief takes a quick gulp of breath and then continues in about the same speed.
“This is important because the scans also showed a lot of grooves made by the water, Mx, so the scans are actually telling us that a long time ago the planet was not at least 90% covered in water!”
“That’s correct,” Mx Luca quickly speaks up, as it looks as if Lief is about to fire off another volley of words. “Thank you Lief. Sit back down please, I can hear you tippy tapping your feet right next to my seat. Right then.” As Lief returns to their seat, Mx Luca shows a series of pictures and shares some information about these before they come to the next picture.
It’s a comparison of two pictures side by side. Both are of the planet Earth. The one on the left has a 30/70 land/water ratio and the other picture, on the right, and this is just an estimation, has one of 10/90. It could be 5/95 as well, if you squint.
“The one on the right is our current Earth, 2022 A.D. Only landmasses above sea level are mountain ranges, some other high areas and ice masses. The Earth on the left is from nearly a million years ago.”
“Coooool, it’s all land-massy!”
“Yes Jome, it’s all land-massy,” says Mx Luca, who has trouble holding in laughter. “A million years ago, all sea levels rose about a thousand meters with no reason that our scans can tell. Unfortunately, aside from the occasional scan, things like this are very rarely researched and so we may never find out why it happened. Alright, I’ll be turning the lights on again, careful that you’re not staring at the ceiling… In 3 2 1…”
The lights turn on.
The classroom is revealed to look a lot like a classroom you’d find in a school on another version of Earth that we’re much more familiar with. This one doesn’t have windows though, just huge posters of some general knowledge of this Earth.
The seats for the children aren’t that different either, nor the children themselves.
Their uniforms are simple black slacks, comfortable sneakers in all sorts of colours and a short-sleeved white button-up shirt with a breast pocket on the left side.
The thing that is different, is a little nametag that each child is wearing, indicating their name, their age and gender, and their preferred pronouns.
The teacher is wearing one such nametag as well. Their uniform resembles the children’s, although Mx Luca is also wearing a brown jacket on top of the button-up shirt.
As an example we’ll take a look at the teacher’s nametag now. This is what is written on it:
Mx Jaimy Luca
34 yrs old
Non-binary – Agender
Preferred Pronouns: They/Them
Jaimy Luca stands up from their seat and walks towards the front of the classroom, where they turn around and grin at the children.
“There’s a couple more pictures that we can look at in that PowerPoint, but we’re almost to the end of the school day.” Cheers, but also some booing. “We’ll just do that tomorrow. Now, I want each of you to read page 34 and 35 of -”
RUMBLE!
Rumble? Yes, rumble. In a well-executed effort to make it so that the children won’t have homework (or won’t know what their homework will be), the classroom starts shaking. Almost like an earthquake, but that’s not possible here. Maybe it’s a –
“Skywhale-quake! Alright, remain calm,” says Jaimy Luca steadily. “Everyone push your chairs to the side and then crawl under your desk. If we need to evacuate, we’ll either hear it over the intercom or I’ll get a message. Go on now!”
Everyone crawls under their desks, including Mx Jaimy.
The shaking continues.
And then it stops.
Some children poke their heads out from under their desks, but Jaimy waves them back under as they don’t have the all-clear signal yet.
They remain like that. Then there’s a ping, the teacher checks their phone and tells the children it’s safe to come out now.
Everyone does, and Jaimy takes a moment to ensure their students are unharmed. They’re fine.
Chattering excitedly, the children sit down behind their desks again. Jaimy lets them for now, taking out their phone and sending some messages to other teachers to check up on them and probably receiving some as well. The children take the opportunity.
“That scared me!”
“It’s happening every few weeks now, isn’t it? Wonder why.”
“Alright everyone,” says Jaimy Luca, putting away their phone. “Management says everyone can go home, but to keep an ear out for announcements or repeated quakes. Skywhale-quake procedure folders should be in possession of each of your parents, but don’t hesitate to send me a message if it’s missing.”
They smile sheepishly.
“Also, I’m still going to give you homework.” As expected, there’s some disappointed sighs. The teacher ignores it, and finishes telling them what pages of what book they should read before the due date. Then they dismiss the students.
The children gradually move towards the door, grabbing their bags on the way and stuffing their nametags in there.
One child remains, and they bound over to the teacher’s desk. It’s the child that could chat someone’s ear off.
A glance at their nametag shows the following:
Lief Whispers
10 yrs old
Non-binary – Agender
Preferred Pronouns: They/Them
Special Interests: ALL THE THINGS ALL THE TIME
Future Career Wishes: EVERYTHING
Whoa. That’s quite a character we’ve got here.
Lief bounces on their tippy toes in front of Jaimy’s desk, waiting until they notice them. It doesn’t take long, what with Lief making little impatient noises and tapping their sneakers on the floor the entire time.
Jaimy looks up.
“Yes Lief?”
The child surges forward, clutches onto the desk and blurts their words right out.
“Mx Luca, Mx, what causes Skywhale-quakes, Mx, is probably coughs! It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but I tell you now and I bet I’m going to be right, Mx, because my aunt the Mayor told me she’s been posting at least one watchman out there since the last quake that broke off part of the library’s wall, and they’re going to be coming in later, Mx, and tell us exactly what they saw! Just wanted to let you know, Mx.”
Lief takes a big gulp of air. Jaimy blinks.
“Was… was that it?” they ask hesitantly.
“That was it, Mx! Bye, Mx!”
The child about-faces towards the door, and nearly sprints out. Then they come back to retrieve their bag… and then they sprint out once more.
Mx Luca releases the snigger they’ve held in for some time now, and gets on with classroom cleaning and some other after-school work.