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they want to be nothing except what they are

Summary:

Olivia: Mr Grace said something about Irina Petrova in second period today, shes the one who saw the line on the sun?
Olivia: the one they’re sending that probe out for?
Abby: 😤 he didnt talk about this with 6th period!!!
Rekha: lol u won too many beanbags now ur not his fave period anymore

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The Petrova problem and the Astrophage apocalypse, as told through thirty-four years of communications between six friends from Grover Cleveland Middle School who originally meet in Mr Grace's after-school science club.

Notes:

they say to do things that scare you, and i am very scared of a) wrangling html for an ao3 work skin for a fic like this and b) posting a WIP that doesn't have a significant backlog of chapters already written (although i have this whole story drafted already, bc of who i am as a person).

however, as soon as the idea of "Mr Grace's afterschool science club kiddos and their experiences growing up over thirty years of astrophage apocalypse" hit me, i just HAD to start writing it. and as soon as i figured out enough html to get the formatting right, i just HAD to go ahead & post it so that i've already done the damn thing. hope y'all enjoy! ☺️

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: gcms science club girlies (and max)

Summary:

Five friends from Mr Grace's after-school science club debate adding a sixth member to their groupchat for future women in STEM.

Notes:

Regina and Abby are Grace's students from book canon, while Olivia, Rekha, Max, and Tran (the latter two being names from the 2022 draft script of PHM) are from film canon. Film-canon kids are in Grace's second-period class and book-canon kids are in sixth period.

I'm not good enough at HTML (yet?) to figure out how to make something look like a voice note in this formatting, so just indulge in the fantasy that any text bracketed by 🎤 emojis is the written-out version of a recording.

my typical long-ass BTS author's notes are at the end of the chapter lol

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

GCMS science club girlies
17 November 2020

hmu if anybody wants an extra beanbag to turn in for mr graces friday rewards bc guess who just got SIX
IN ONE CLASS
Trân ✊🏽
noway! 🙌
Regina
it was crazy guys… mr grace had to get an extra beanbag out of his desk for her
Olivia 👓
omg! great job @Abby
leave some for the rest of us who aren’t in 6th period! 😂
Trân ✊🏽
wait is taht the new class record?
Rekha 💃🏾
whoa abby!! thats awesome!
women 👏in 👏 stem! 👏
@Tran i think so for second period…idk about all of mr graces classes 👀
Rekha 💃🏾
well then ig we have to ask mr grace who's got the record at science club after school today
Olivia 👓
Do you think he’ll really tell us?
Or would he not say because he doesnt want the lightning rounds to get competitive?
maybe if we ALL ask him
Rekha 💃🏾
@Olivia ofc he’ll tell us yk us science club kids are his FAVORITES

GCMS science club girlies
18 November 2020

ok guys i have a proposal
tran and olivia already are onboard w this so im really just asking you guys from second period
Abby 🏇🏻
uh oh rekha has a proposal…
is this about the lunch schedule thing
Regina
?
Trân ✊🏽
wait wahts the lunch thing?
Olivia 👓
@Tran remember, we wanted to all email principal Marder for her to give science club members permission to eat lunch in Mr Grace’s room some days?
Trân ✊🏽
ohhhhhhh
Olivia 👓
Because it’d be way more fun than having lunch in the cafeteria and its EDUCATIONAL. So whats she gonna say? “No I don’t want you to do more extracurriculer learning?”
And then we can all hang out ☺️
Regina
:D
Trân ✊🏽
oMG I FORGOT ABOUT THIS YES!!!
🎤Okay, so, Olivia and Tran and I were talking and I know, I know, we made this chat for so it could be like our woman in STEM thing. Buuuuut…we have Max from science club with us in Mr Grace’s second period and we think he’s actually really cool, and it’d be fun to have him in the groupchat. Like he’s the exception, you know, like the girls the gays and Coleman? [laughter] And you guys were saying the other day that he seemed pretty nice and he totally is, plus his mom does something with NASA, which is SO cool, and maybe he could tell us stuff about that? Or I guess we can make another chat if we want to keep this one just us, that’s fine too, but basically, that’s the idea, adding Max to the groupchat!🎤
Trân ✊🏽
btw tihs is jacket max if yall dont alreayd know
like. u know
the guy whos always in that jacket
Abby 🏇🏻
lol jacket max as an honorary girl
as long as he’s cool with ALSO being a woman in stem for gc purposes so we keep passing the bechdel test.
i say that’s his entrance fee
Trân ✊🏽
omggg abby
Olivia 👓
😂
STOP lol max assigned female by gc 💀
Abby 🏇🏻
HONORARY GIRLIE!!!! TAKEIT OR LEAVE IT!!!!
Regina
i say yeah :)
max was the one who let me launch his model rocket when mine didn’t go off for mr grace’s rocket day last month
Olivia 👓
😭😭😭 I forgot! That WAS Max!
@Abby come onnnnn,that’s gotta be enough to let him in!
Abby 🏇🏻
🤔
i bet hed want to get in on the lunch thing too, max LOVES mr grace
Trân ✊🏽
cmon abbyyyyy
Abby 🏇🏻
oh m ygod OK
i'm jk!! i think jacket max is chill

Abby changed group name “gcms science club girlies” to “gcms science club girlies (and max)”

gcms science club girlies (and max)
18 November 2020

Rekha added Max🧥to “gcms science club girlies (and max)”
Rekha 💃🏾
HI MAXXXX
hey 🙂
Abby 🏇🏻
ur a science girlie now max!!!
oh cool lol
👩🏽‍🔬
Abby 🏇🏻
name 5women in stem you admire right now NO GOOGLING 🔫🔫🔫🔫🔫
Trân ✊🏽
adn there she goes
Olivia 👓
Hi Max! 😊
Trân ✊🏽
sry bout abby shes always like this
we’re tryng to fix her
@Abby marie curie, ada lovelace, jane goodall, irina petrova, elena perez gonzalez
Rekha 💃🏾
ok list!!! 🙌
Regina
i haven’t heard of the last one…who’s she?
Olivia 👓
@Abby @Regina Mr Grace said something about Irina Petrova in second period today, shes the one who saw the line on the sun?
the one they’re sending that probe out for?
Abby 🏇🏻
😤 he didnt talk about this with 6th period!!!
Rekha 💃🏾
lol u won too many beanbags now ur not his fave period anymore
@Regina the last one is my mom
Rekha 💃🏾
OH HELL YEAH
Abby 🏇🏻
hang onnnnnn that doesnt count for the list!
Trân ✊🏽
@Abby cmon yes it does lol
dont gatekeep women in stem 💪🏽
i mean she works at nasa? she does stuff for rocket launches
but also @Abby ellen ochoa for number 5
Olivia 👓
Ohhh she was an astronaut right? I remember we learned about her in mr Grace’s space history unit!
yeah and she ran johnson space center too
Regina
cool!
Rekha 💃🏾
^^^ see guys THIS is what i was saying 🧥 🙌
Abby 🏇🏻
ok ok max gets a beanbag now!!!
@Max welcome to the gc girlie
😊

Notes:

disclaimer: i actually worked as a college/career counselor at a high school with irl teenagers from 2020-2022 (it was a wild time, y'all), and worked with middle school-aged kids sporadically before that. so i have some anthropological awareness of youth writing styles from that era (from the many, many, MANY student emails i received and essays i edited. seriously...so many emails. including frantic "it's 11pm on a friday and my college application deadline is tomorrow and i just wrote my essay an hour ago please help me" emails. oh my god i loved all my students deeply but Y'ALL)

HOWEVER i have been a boring-ass adult living under a rock since i was a child and i'm sure i've fucked up countless times in my depiction of how preteens in a non-pandemic 2020s PHM world would talk. i've tried to make it as minimally cringe as possible, but you've been warned!

also, very sharp PHM book readers might recall that there is a kid named Trang in Grace's book-canon class (aka sixth period in this fic's world), while weirdos like me who've read Drew Goddard's draft script for PHM will know that there's a kid named Tran in his film-canon class (aka second period in this fic). Our Trân is the film-canon second period kid, but I do hc that book/sixth-period Trang still exists because having multiple students with similar names in your classes simultaneously is simply one of the irl trials of being a teacher that Grace would realistically have to face. i've had Jacobs, Jakes, and even a Jakeup (poor bastard) all in one year