If there was one thing Robin didn't like when it came to school work, it was group projects. Not because she disliked others or working with them, far from that. But that was precisely the point: she preferred to hang out with others without constantly arguing about who was going to do what when. She'd seen too many friendships ruined by group projects gone wrong and didn't want to be the next one on that list.

Another thing Robin didn't like when it came to school was that teachers didn't care about whether or not she liked their assignments, and so the next group project had been announced that very morning. Yay. A presentation about the Space Race. Well, at least the topic was an interesting one. Apparently, that particular teacher didn't trust them to form groups and had already paired them all up. Robin took a quick look at the list to find her assigned partner. Emmett Reed. Well, that wasn't too bad. As far as she knew he was the class' quiet guy that teachers berated from time to time for "not working to his full potential". All in all, she couldn't say that she knew him, but he didn't strike her as a bully or someone who'd go out of his way to be difficult. So, once the class was finished, she walked up to him with a smile.

"Hi! Seems like we'll be working together for this one."

She may not like group projects, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to do her best to get along with her assigned partner.

Oh it's the 80s, alright! Emmett looked up from his bench, his luscious locks bouncing back to their hairsprayed position so he could examine the arrival of his classmate. Robin something. They shared a few classes, but he didn't think he ever properly spoke to her. Seems so. Was she one of these studious girls that liked to spend all their time in the library? Most people were content to get together with their project partners a few days ahead of the deadline.

So he lived up to his reputation of not being a very talkative guy, which suited Robin. "Got a preference for our focus? There's no way we can cover the entire Space Race in detail in 15 minutes." If he didn't and preferred to sit back and let her make the calls, she would, but she first wanted to see if he was interested in working together, or not at all.

She went all in, and wasn't shy about it. That was also new. It took Emmett a moment to respond as he pondered a few options in his head. Do you have another period or are you done for the day? was all he answered when he finally got up from his chair.

Sure, Robin had seen more enthusiastic than his current reaction, but at least he hadn’t blown her off right away, so that was something, right? "I’m done, what did you have in mind?" Probably a trip to the library, since that was the usual place to start a group project, but you never know.

A trip to the library. Since that was the usual place to start a group project and Robin seemed eager to get this over with. We can brainstorm a few ideas if you have time.

"I’ve got all the time in the world." Well, not really, because she needed to be home for dinner, but she doubted their brainstorming would last that long. Besides, even if it did, the library closed at 6 PM anyway.

That seemed like an exaggeration. Anyone has better things to do than to sit in the school library after hours, right? Wasn't there a Halloween party tonight? Most people he knew already RSVP'd. Well then. He waved his arm forward as to invite her to go ahead and followed suit.

Robin could have made the way to the library blindfolded if necessary, considering how much time she spent there. Not because she was a loner who spent her time reading books (though there was certainly nothing wrong with that), but because the library also served as headquarters of the school’s newspaper for which she was a writer. They didn’t take long to reach their destination, and she made a beeline for the history section.

You seem to know your way around here. She hadn't looked up at the signs. Seemed confident. Sure of herself. Not that that's a problem, he deemed smart to add, feeling like that might've been interpreted as another way to say "you're a nerd".

Of course it wasn’t a problem. Why would it be one? "Yep, welcome to the school newspaper HQ. Well, technically I think that would be closer to the science section, but it’s close enough." She waved her hand in the general direction of that section, though currently their view was obstructed by shelves and shelves of history books and (auto)biographies of important people.

Ah, so she worked for the school newspaper. Why did that make perfect sense? Why'd you join the Newspaper Club? He'd seen them be distributed and displayed around the school, but to be honest he'd never glanced past the cover. Except maybe that one time a kid had vandalized the lockers and everyone was scrambling for gossip.

"Because it’s the best way to know everything that’s going on in and around the school", was the near-immediate reply. A more conventional answer would have been that she wanted to inform her fellow students about important news, yada yada, but in all honesty, that was just a nice bonus, not Robin’s prime motivation. She happened to be a busybody, and being a member of the Newspaper Club allowed her to do some perfectly legitimate and justified busybodying.

I wasn't aware that much was happening, Emmett replied as he leaned against the ladder that was meant to be used to grab the books that were just out of reach. He only half-paid attention as he browsed through the titles on the books' spines, unsure what they were looking for. Something history. Something moon.

"Spoken like someone who doesn’t read the newspaper", she teased. Well, the juiciest stories tended to be scrapped by the teacher in charge of final editing (which was censure, in Robin’s opinion), but still, there were always newsworthy things happening in the school and around it. "Did you know Mr. Atwood got arrested for taking part in a Civil Rights protest once?" Which she had found unexpected when she'd found out, considering that said Mr. Atwood could have his picture placed in the dictionary next to the definition of WASP.

Is that "news"? Emmett asked with a grin. I thought news implied fresh and exciting information. How old is this news you're publishing? Not that he had been aware of Mr. Atwood's rap sheet, but the fact that his once-upon-a-time arrest ten years ago had been labeled "news" said a lot about how exciting their school life was.

"Fair. We were doing a series of interviews with teachers, but I suppose there’s fresher news than that", she admitted. "Okay, more recent then: the principal is currently working on creating a correspondence and potentially exchange program between us and schools in Berlin, now that the Wall’s been torn down. She has already reached out to possible partner schools and all." It wasn’t top secret information per se (meaning she wouldn’t get in trouble for revealing it before the newspaper came out), but to her knowledge it hadn’t yet circulated widely in the school (and her knowledge of school information flow tended to be very good).

Fresher, he agreed. Although he wasn't sure how his family would react to the news of potential German exchange students. His grandfather in particular had pretty strong opinions about the Germans. Also pretty serious. I thought it'd be more general gossip.

"Gossip tends to be censured out as ‘not relevant’. Personally I just think the teachers just don’t want certain information to spread… Not that we’ve come across anything too damning so far." And, honestly, people who didn’t want their private lives to be known about should protect them better.

So what's something that the teachers don't want to spread? Assuming you did not have to sign an NDA, of course. And Emmett strongly suspected this was not the case. They'd perhaps reprimand them for spreading gossip, but besides an afternoon of detention, he could not see any downsides.

"I didn’t, which is really a gross oversight on their part. Very careless", she joked. "Let me think… There was this time last year where Ms. Wright and Mr. Hudson got together and broke up three times in two months which we weren’t allowed to report about. We had even prepared a whole list of famous couples to compare them to!"

I can see why they probably didn't allow you to publish our teachers' dirty laundry. He unwrapped a piece of bubble gum, then offered another to Robin, just to be polite.

"What’s gossip except dirty laundry? You’re the one who asked." She took the bubble gum she was offered with a smile (she was pretty sure that there was a rule about no food or drink in the library, but bubble gum wasn’t food since you weren’t supposed to swallow and digest it, so it didn’t feed you, QED). "Thanks."

Oh no, I wholeheartedly agree with you. Emmett clarified. I'm just saying it makes sense that they don't want to portray their colleagues in a negative light. He grabbed a book off the shelf and turned the cover towards Robin, presumably waiting for her to approve with a glance. We're out of here in two years. They're still stuck working with these clowns for another twenty.

"Unless the clowns do something really wrong, I suppose. Or if they've had enough of teaching, which I could certainly understand." She took a look at the book he was showing her and nodded, before turning towards the shelves too. How the US lost two rounds, but won the Space Race. Bah, propaganda. Kennedy's space program. Yeah, why not. The Space Race from the inside, memoirs from a NASA astronaut. Oooh, that could be fun. She took the book from the shelf.