Queen of Spades (House of Cards Series 1) [Student/Teacher Relationship]

Seven of Cups

Alice stared down at the papers in front of her, trying not to scream or cry. And she was the most calm person in the room. It was lunch time and there wasn't a single senior in the cafeteria that wasn't having emotional outbursts right now. The senior trip was being planned, and it was costing a fair bit of money but what was causing the outbursts was the final bombshell being dropped.

"Are you s***ing me?" Alice finally erupted, just stunned by the news. There were going to be three whole teacher chaperones and nearly a hundred and seventy senior students going. Not all of them could afford the trip, either academically or financially, and there were a few who were prohibited from going even if everything else was clear. Thankfully Alice was free and clear to go, and she could afford the trip, but only because she didn't pay rent to Salali. The nest egg of cash she'd built up was dwindling down, though her increasing popularity as DJ Mask was helping bring in a bit more money. And she flat out refused to touch the money she'd put into a savings account for college. No one had found out about it because she'd opened the account using her fake id, a clever little mock up that looked real but had Alice's mother's name in place of her own, and a different birthdate. It was amazing how carefully saving up for over a year and spending money only on rent, grocieries, bills and necessities. Any time she felt like buying something frivolous, she put the money into her savings account instead. It wasn't enough to cover all the costs of a year in college, but it did mean that when she applied for financial assistance, she could pay off the first chunk of it nearly right away, making her credit start off looking very good.

But it wasn't financial concerns that had the senior students a breath away from absolute rampage; somehow all 170 some odd students were supposed to decide in the next week what activities they wanted to do, and establish their plans so that while down there, the chaperones would know eaxctly where each student was at all times. Alice understood the concept, it made sense to have each students projected timelines and locations plotted out. But what was pissing her off was the little notice that every student will be required to wear a gps tag on them at all times during the trip.

"How is the school even affording this?" she demanded, looking up at her groaning friends.

"Because they're using us as guina pigs! This is a prototype project." Kim whined. "It's so big brother." Justine mumbled. "They want to find us if we're kidnapped." Butch stated, missing the point. "Do you guys think they'll be watching everything we do or just using them if we go missing?" Theresa asked.

Alice let her friends talk overtop each other, by now used to listening to them layer conversations like this. Briefly she remembered back to her first day here and how confusing it was to listen to these people talk. Now she knew to just throw her two cents into the mix, someone was bound to catch it and throw theirs back.

"Do you think we could find a way around the gps thing?" she asked the table at large. Eventually their seperate conversations stilled and they looked at ehr, a little surprised.

"You want to do something you know is a no-no?" Kim asked, eyebrows raised. The others looked intrigued or worried and Alice realized she had to come up with an excuse and quick. She couldn't tell them the truth, 'yeah I wanted to be able to sneak away with my boyfriend, you know the hot english teacher you girls keep drooling over only no one knows about us', somehow Alice knew that honesty was not the best policy right now.

"Well... I mean come on, it's Mexico! Didn't you guys want to get a little stupid and check it out without someone walking you through it?" Alice turned it back on them neatly.

"I'd love to check out their clubs!" Justine announced with giddy joy. "I don't know, I don't think it's safe." Butch warned. "I can think of a good reason to sneak off..." Sammy mumbled, subtly looking at West who was walking passed. "It doesn't matter, only those of us that are 18 or older can sign the waiver to go without direct teach supervision anyways. Says here in hte rules, unless we are 18, we have to follow the teacher's group. Those of us that have parental permission or can sign the form ourselves can flake off, but the rest can't." Kim stated, sutting through the chatter. Most of the group slumped, dejected because their birthdays occured after March, or they knew their parents would never go for it.