Educate me (Safia)

[Marnie Sullivan]

Marnie never knew quite how to feel about class projects that required being assigned a partner. On the one hand, it removed the anxiety that came with not knowing any of one's classmates, or of watching them pair off around you while you debated who would be the easiest to ask. On the other hand, it was a crapshoot as far as how well you and your partner would mesh. If you were lucky, you'd get that classmate whose skill and level and drive matched yours like Penn matched Teller. But such a match was rare, in Marnie's experience. More often, she was stuck carrying the weight for a kid who might as well have never opened a textbook, or worse - stuck being the dead weight for a peer who had no patience for the gaps in Marnie's skill set.

Which was why her nerves were jangling as she waited at a table towards the library's entrance, all the better to spot her assigned partner when she entered.

Safia. Now there was another thing Marnie couldn't settle her feelings about. They hadn't been in class together very long, had certainly never worked together on a project. But as outspoken as Safia was during class participation, it hadn't taken long for her to appear on Marnie's radar. She sounded smart enough - at least as far as Marnie knew - so hopefully they'd be able to pull off a high grade.

The assignment? Choose an influential person, event, or movement from the United States' tumultuous 1970s to research, then prepare and present a report on it. And while Marnie felt pretty good about her ability to read books and write papers, she hoped Safia would have an idea of where to start. All Marnie knew was that she didn't want to be one of the many pairs to pick the conclusion of the Vietnam War.

[Safia Chatterjee]

At least, Safia thought, she hadn't been paired with a boy. She vaguely wondered, as she headed towards the library, whether or not their teacher had done that intentionally, as most people became quite aware early on that the fiery teen did not get along with the opposite gender on even a basic level. Marnie, her partner's name was. Someone she couldn't recall working with before, or even talking to, but hopefully she would turn out to be a bright young woman that would be excited to dive into the topic Safia was already determined to write their report on.

Specifically, the women's liberation movement. A fellow female had to be interested in that movement, right? Of course Safia could be a little flexible and choose a specific woman or even of that important piece in time to agree on, but she really hoped that this Marnie would agree wholeheartedly.

The Indian girl stepped into the library and looked around, eyes landing on the girl whom she'd met very briefly at the end of class after they'd been assigned together. "Marnie?" she asked with a small smile, just to make sure she had her name right. Safia walked over and glanced around, hoping there was an empty table with a computer nearby. "Have you been thinking of ideas for the project?" she asked, in case the other girl had. Safia hoped she hadn't, for the sake of not arguing over their topic. "If not, I had something in mind that I think we could find a lot of information on for a really good report."

Marnie was cute, she thought idly to herself. She had pretty blue eyes. But, Safia reminded herself, they weren't here to flirt. The girl probably wasn't even interested in women at all.

[Marnie Sullivan]

Ah, there she was! Upon spotting Safia from her vantage point near the entrance, Marnie hurried to stand and offer a small wave in greeting.

Weird - it wasn't until the Indian girl smiled and Marnie noticed something loosening in her shoulders that she realized how stiff she'd been. Maybe she'd been expecting Safia to be intimidating? It would be a lie to say the brunette didn't have that impression, and their brief meeting during class had been too quick to help dispel it. And it was still pretty early to cast judgment either way, but it was a reassuring smile all the same.

"Well, I was thinking Watergate might be a safe choice," she replied, and that was sort of true. The scandal was among the two or three ideas she'd jotted down in case Safia didn't have a serious plan for the project either. But truth be told, it was a relief to hear that the other girl already had something in mind, and Marnie was ready to latch onto it if there really was plenty of material to work with. She only made the half-hearted suggestion because she didn't want to start things off with Safia thinking she was totally uninvolved. "But I'm open to whatever. What's your idea?"

Now that they could move on to a proper work area, Marnie collected her notebook and peered around for an open spot.

"Looks like that one's not taken," she offered, pointing to a computer station sitting unoccupied near the corner. "Want to grab it before somebody else does?"

[Safia Chatterjee]

Safia, honestly, could definitely be an intimidating person. Despite her thin build, she was stronger than she looked, but her sharp mouth was what frightened off the most people that she snapped at. Fortunately, her acid words were almost always entirely directed at boys, so any girls that approached her would find that she could actually be quite nice, especially if she thought they were cute.

Watergate? Hmm. "Yeah, I bet it would be," Safia agreed, keeping her tone light but secretly already ditching the idea. That wasn't the direction she wanted to go, and she hoped Marnie wasn't set on it. Fortunately, that didn't seem to be the case, and the Indian girl smiled brightly when she said she was open to ideas. "The women's liberation movement," she replied with passion. "It started in the 60's, but plenty happened in the 70s that I'm sure we could write a great report on." She tilted her head and added,"Does that sound alright with you? If you'd rather, we could probably research one woman that helped lead the movement, but it might be easier to research the entire event." So it would be a broad, informative presentation rather than focusing on just one aspect.

She shifted the backpack that she'd slung over her shoulder and nodded at where Marnie was pointing. "Looks good to me," Safia replied, heading in that direction. She shot a glare at a guy nearby that quickly looked the other way, apparently having met the fiery girl before. She then turned a smile back to her cute partner. "So what would be the easiest way to go about doing this?" she asked, pulling out a pen and a notebook. Assuming Marnie had been alright with her idea, she suggested,"Maybe we should each research a different year or years of the movement. That way we don't overlap."

[Marnie Sullivan]

The women's liberation movement? On the one hand Marnie was grateful that her classmate had an idea prepared, one that she seemed enthusiastic about - that would make studying easier, of course. On the other, /the women's liberation movement/? It wasn't like she'd made it to senior year without hearing a single thing about it, but she honestly couldn't bring much to mind. It wasn't a common subject in class, and she couldn't recall her parents talking about it at home.

So, step number one: Try not to look completely ignorant in front of Safia, she decided as she followed her partner to the computer station they'd chosen.

"Do you mean like alternating years, or like you do the first half of the decade and I do the second?" Marnie asked, after pulling an empty chair from a nearby table so they could share the desk space. Splitting the time up either such way seemed simple enough, but what if while reading she stumbled across something she didn't understand because she hadn't researched the previous years enough? "Or maybe we could start by kind of dividing the whole thing into chunks, like, based on which years had the most happen? Like if one year was just /packed/ but the next two or three not so much." If they went for that idea, that would make the first order of business setting up some kind of outline. Maybe she could convince Safia to start with a bit of reading first, so that she would have something to contribute instead of needing her partner to make the outline herself.

[Safia Chatterjee]

Safia knew that her subject of choice was one that wasn’t often discussed in classrooms, which was why she decided that needed to change. She herself didn’t know a lot of details about the movement, but that was one of the reasons why she’d chosen it – so she could learn more, and hopefully create a feminist or two with her – er, their presentation.

It was alright if Marnie didn’t know much, really; that was the point of research, after all! And Safia didn’t expect every girl in the class to be as into such topics as she was, even if they should be…

“Mmmm… First half and second half might be good,” she mused as she pulled out the materials she thought they would need. “Alternating might get a little confusing with overlapping events, it depends on how deep we decide to get into it, I think.” She tapped a pencil against her chin as Marnie offered her suggestion, and slowly nodded, thinking that that sounded pretty reasonable. “I think that would work. We can make a timeline and see which years would be the best to hit, and go from there.” Safia smiled. “I like it. Good idea.” She clicked open Chrome on the computer and went to a websearch. “Maybe you can take notes of years and events while I search around to see what I can find?” Because whooo teamwork.

[Marnie Sullivan]

Perfect - not only did Safia approve of her idea, but she was opting for the role that would allow Marnie to be useful rather than unknowledgeable. Notetaking was doable, no problem.

"Yeah, that sounds good to me," she confirmed with an enthusiastic nod. On the desk space nest to the computer, she flipped open her notebook to a clean page and neatly labeled it "'70s Outline: Women's Lib." A decent grade began with a decent first draft, after all.

"You said the movement started in the '60s, though, right?" Marnie remembered, tapping her pencil against her chin. "What if we find something really big from '70 or '71, like so big it'd be wrong to leave out, but technically it started in like '68? Do we just kind of mention, 'oh hey this actually was going on before the decade this paper's about,' or do you think we can go into more detail?" Teachers who marked down papers for too much content were rare, in Marnie's experience, at least as long as nobody submitted a novel when the assignment called for just a few pages. But they existed, she knew.

"Either way, I bet we can come up with plenty," she added. Her hand waited, pencil poised over the paper, for Safia's first findings. "Ready when you are."

[Safia Chatterjee]

Safia smiled at her partner as they seemed to agree on the best method to work. “I’m glad I got paired with someone so agreeable and smart,” she complimented with just a hint of flirtation. “It could have been so much worse….” She could have been paired with a guy. Gross.

Although she was really under the impression that most of her teachers knew better than to do that.

At the girl’s questions, Safia tapped her pencil against her lower lip, pondering. “I doubt we’d get marked down just for going outside of the decade a little bit,” she said slowly. “I’d rather not miss something important. That was a good point, though. We can always ask if we’re still not sure once we get this all mapped out.” She sent a smile over at Marnie. “You ask good questions.”

Was she starting to flirt too much? Nahhh…

She nodded in agreement, and hovered her hands over the keyboard, searching first for a general “women’s liberation movement timeline”. And so they began, with Safia clicking around to what seemed the most helpful links and helping Marnie determine what was the most important to jot down so they could remember and look for more details when they had a clearer timeline in their heads. It took a good bit of time, but the Indian girl eventually felt that they’d gathered enough information to at least start with. “That was… Really easy with the two of us working together,” she said as she leaned back in her chair a little and looked over at her partner. “What do you think? Does it look a bit more manageable now that we have a visual?”

[Marnie Sullivan]

Marnie tried to wave off the compliment - her, smart? She wasn't the one who'd come up with the idea for the project - but she couldn't help returning the smile. Why did she expect Safia to be intimidating again?

"Nah, asking questions is the easy part," she replied, once again downplaying herself while still enjoying the attention. "You're the one with the master plan, I just don't want to mess it up." The hand not waiting to write notes drifted absently up to her hair and began twisting a lock around one finger. Wait... was Safia flirting? Probably not - most of the time Marnie was pretty clueless, but since her revelation during the Talk she had become almost overly analytical around other girls. She knew there were lots of gay - and apparent bi, since that was confirmed to be A Thing - students at Hammel, but she had no way of knowing who was among them if they weren't emblazoned with rainbows. Which smiles were flirty, and which were innocent? Which girls in the locker room after track snuck peeks to compare themselves, and who was enjoying the view? Suddenly all of her female classmates had become Schrodinger's Lesbian, and it had Marnie on high alert.

This was stupid. She was overthinking - Safia was just being nice.

Even so, as they worked, Safia exploring the more informative side of the internet and Marnie dutifully scribbling down what she found, there was an undeniable giddiness in Marnie's stomach. Good thing she didn't blush so much as blend - at least she had some control over how much of it showed in her face.

"Yeah, this is a really good start," she agreed, once their work had wound down. "There's a lot to sift through but I feel really good about this."