Mrs. Crill opened up the discussion, oblivious to Jack's minor stroke. "Okay, so who has read all six books in The War of the Roads saga?"
Almost every single hand shot up.
"And who saw the six movies?"
Every single hand shot up.
"I had a feeling," Mrs. Crill said with a wry grin. "So let's start simple. Who can give me a major contrast between War of the Roads and the Lord of the Rings? Connor?"
"Marcus Ward just had humans in his story. No elves or trolls of anything else."
"Yes, the WOTR saga deals just with humans." Jack cringed at the abbreviated title so many of the fans used when referring to the series. It was like they were saying 'water' but with an exaggerated Boston accent. "What else? Janice?"
"WOTR spent more time talking about money and stuff. I never heard Frodo complaining about tariffs or currency exchanges."
Mrs. Crill nodded. "Marcus Ward grounded much of his story in a realistic setting and that meant economics played an important role in the realm of Guildron, especially during The War of the Roads. And that war was about what?"
"Roads!" one of the students said.
"Thank you, Kevin, that was very insightful. Now maybe you can raise your hand and elaborate a little?"
Kevin's face flushed as he raised his hand.
Mrs. Crill looked at him as if for the first time. "Oh, yes, Kevin, can you tell me what The War of the Roads was about?"
"They fought over control of the roads connecting the seven cities of Guildron," Kevin said.
"Who fought?"
"The Brigands. They were bad guys from across the sea. Traitors, thieves, and bandits who had been exiled to another continent. Lord Kurzon got them all together and invaded Guildron."
"But luckily, there was who? Melissa?"
"King Wayland!" Melissa exclaimed with nerdy glee. "He united the seven cities into a single realm and went off to fight Kurzon!"
"Ah, but he wasn't enough," Mrs. Crill said. "Kurzon's men were ruthless killers. King Wayland was almost defeated. But then..." She held up the first book, its cover illustrated the pivotal scene: a young boy clad in medieval armor crouches at the edge of a shallow pool in the middle of a dark cave. The boys holds a tiny pearl between his thumb and index finger, staring at it in the light of three ghostly blue auras floating above the water. "Melissa, would you like to continue?"
Melissa nodded quickly. "A young squire named Cera escapes an ambush and hides out in this cave when three ghosts appear and say that they are the Ancients, a race who ruled Guildron a millennia ago and knew how to harness magic. That is, until they understood it so well they transcended into another plain of existence. But then they saw Kurzon invade and wanted to help so they give Cera a pearl containing magic. Cera goes back to Wayland's court and the magic spreads to other magicborn."
"How does this magic differ from what we see in Tolkien's work?" Mrs. Crill asked, ignoring Melissa's enthusiastically raised hand. "Micah?"
"Ward's magic was more defined than Tolkien's. When magic is awoken in a magicborn, they're naturally strong in one of four categories: Swift, illusion, force, or...I can't remember the last one."
"Sense," Melissa said. "Swift enhances reflexes, illusion lets you make people see things that aren't real, force let you move objects, and sense lets you diagnosis a person just by touching them."
"Thank you again, Melissa," Mrs. Crill said. "Let's switch gears a little and talk about Marcus Ward. Who can tell us what made him so extraordinary? You've been unusually quiet, Jack."
The whole world seemed to go silent as Jack met Mrs. Crill's encouraging eyes. What could he say about Marcus Ward?
He was a maniacal author whose writing process was, at best, obsessive and, at worst, torturous.
He made life hell for everyone who tried to work with him and drove away every friend he ever had.
He cared more about the make-believe realm of Guildron than he did about his own son.
But as the silent seconds ticked by, Jack strung together an answer if only to make Mrs. Crill move on to the next student. "Marcus Ward introduced lots of new elements and archetypes to the fantasy genre which are still impacting authors today."
"Excellent," Mrs. Crill nodded. "Now, by a show of hands, who thinks that Marcus Ward is a better writer than Tolkien?"
Nearly every hand went up and Jack raised his as well, if only to blend in with the class. He had an ongoing bet with himself for how long he could go without someone bringing up his father's masterpiece. He had been approaching the record of three weeks, but now would have to start all over.
"Does anyone think Tolkien is better?"
Out of his peripheral vision, Jack only saw one red-haired girl raise her hand.
"Excellent," Mrs. Crill said, "Kate, what's your reasoning here?"
Jack paused in his wallowing, focusing his ears without looking over.
"I've never been as big a WOTR fan as everyone else," Kate said.
Jack's interest was officially piqued. Gorgeous, funny, and not a fan of his father?
"Maybe it's because I just read it last year and everyone else grew up on it. I'm not saying its a terrible book but maybe nostalgia is clouding everyone's judgement. I mean, when I was little, I thought The Fox and the Hound was the greatest movie ever made."
Across the room, Kevin scoffed loudly. "That's stupid. Tolkien is so boring compared to Ward."
Mrs. Crill pointed to a sign behind her desk. "Kevin, what does Albert Einstein say about opinions?"
Kevin slinked back in his chair, reciting the quote without even reading it. "'Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment.'"
"And are you smarter than Albert Einstein?"
"No, ma'am," Kevin mumbled.
"Kate has just touched on a fascinating point that segues nicely into your assignment for this week." Mrs. Crill tapped a key on her computer and the smart board's projector hummed to life. "I want you to pair up and each take either Lord of the Rings or War of the Roads. Think about how your own nostalgia has colored your opinions of these works, find some citations to back up your views, and present to the class on Friday. You can take the rest of the period to find a partner and get to work."
The class broke into a cloud of loud whispers as students turned to one another and began pairing off. Jack sat quietly next to Kate, his eyes trained on his notebook, trying to think of the smoothest way to ask her. He didn't want to jump in with "Hey, let's partner up!" and scare her off but he also didn't want to come at it with "Well, I guess we can work together" and make her think he was slumming. Somewhere in the middle was good–
"Well?" Kate said.
"Huh?" Jack said, the word sounding less smooth than he had hoped.
"You're going to ask me, aren't you?"
Jack opened his mouth before his mind figured out what to say. Back in Denver, where everyone had known who he was, talking to girls had never been a problem. In fact, they had done most of the talking. But here, where he was nobody, he felt completely out of his league. "Sorry, I'm not very good at this."
"It's not hard," Kate said, trying to keep a smile off her face. "Ask me if I have a partner yet."
"This is embarrassing."
"It's only embarrassing if it doesn't work."
"Do you have a partner?"
Kate put a hand on her chest. "Me? Why I don't have anyone to work with."
"Would you like to work with me?"
"I suppose," Kate said with a shrug. "See, that wasn't too embarrassing."
"Yeah, I'm sure you'll never remind me of this ever again."
"So, partner, which epic fantasy series would you like to–"
"Lord of the Rings!"
Kate lifted an eyebrow. "I thought you were a fan of Marcus Ward."
Jack leaned in, enticing Kate to do the same. "I lied. Honestly, I can't stand him. Between us, he can come off as a little full of himself."
"No," Kate said with a fake gasp. "Don't let Kevin hear you say that. He might scoff again. Fine, I'll take Ward. I just wish everyone in here wasn't such a WOTR fanatic."
"Oh, one other thing. If we're going to work together, I have some ground rules. Well, really just one rule."
"Yeah?"
"Don't ever, under any future circumstance, use the term WOTR."
Kate couldn't hold back a laugh that wrinkled her nose in the cutest way. "Deal."