Chapter Text
The calls of “wake up!” resound throughout the orphanage. Tired and sleepy children drag themselves out of bed for the start of a new day.
“Good morning..” they exchange greetings as they get ready. Every day starts with a hearty breakfast–the grand dining hall with its long tables provide a place for everyone as they sit down to eat. Norman, Ray, and Emma sit together as always.
“G’morninb, Norman, Ray.” Emma yawned and greeted her best friends.
“Morning, Emma.” Norman replied with a smile.
”Morning,” Ray responded.
”So,” Emma said as she ate her eggs and sausage, “I heard something reeaallly cool was gonna happen today.”
“Really?”
”Yeah, Don told me so!”
”Pffffft.” Ray looked skeptical. “Last time Don told you that—“
”That was different!” She stuck her tongue out. “Anyways, he said that we were doing something different for lessons today.
”That’s interesting.” Norman looked thoughtful.
“Yeah, so hurry up and finish eating so we can go see what it is, slowpokes!” Emma wolfed down the rest of her food, earning a chuckle from Norman and a snort from Ray,
The crowd of children made their way through the doors of the classroom. Most of them hesitated a moment before taking their seats.
“What are these?” There were thin, metallic slabs on every desk.
”Settle down, now.” Mama was at the front of the room, gentle and ready to explain everything. “These,” she said , gesturing to the devices, “are computers. Go ahead and open them up. Okay, now...”
“See?” Emma whispered to Ray. “I told you we were doing something special.“
”Yeah, yeah.” he replied.
Mama was still explaining at the front of the room. “And then, go to the box at the top. Now, with your keyboards, type in k-a-h-o-o-t dot i-t. Then...”
”This is pretty cool!” They heard one of the younger kids whisper-shout.
”There! Now, once you put in the class pin, you can choose a nickname.” They watched as people started to join, with names like “connie” and “Lani” and “Nat” and “onionboy”.
”Wait, who’s onion boy?”
Then all hell broke loose until mama threatened that inappropriate names would be deleted and things calmed down a bit. “Okay, now we can start the kahoot!” mama announced, despite the protests of one or two kids who hadn’t joined yet.
The first few questions were easy, and things went smoothly. Then, the competitiveness kicked in and no amount of shouting could calm the class. Kids demanded to know who the person was that they were only 50 points behind, but due to the vague nicknames, could not pin down a target. Constant screams of “I’m on the leaderboard” and “NOoOo” harmed the hearing of many. A few of the younger kids started to cry when they missed a hard question.
Despite the chaos, a few managed to stay on top. Ray and Norman, of course, were first and second and at each other’s throats. The second the question was displayed, they would have already clicked their answer. Emma couldn’t concentrate with all the fuss and fell to third.
Of course, it wasn’t everyone’s goal to win. Lani and Thoma abandoned the game in favor of shouting “secret classroom superpowers??” and “were you toooooo fast” at the crying children.
It was hell. Mama was exhausted by the end of it, and as the kids filed out for playtime, she couldn’t help but wonder if this more modern education method was worth it. But the kids had had fun and happy kids meant good me-—–
Still, it had been quite the experiences, and she had many more fun new things to try with the children.
What a day.