Presentation (A Short Fic)
((I have no excuse. I simply couldn't resist. This is something I wanted to happen, and somehow it found its way into fic instead of rp form. I got permission from Georg and Melchior's muns before writing and posting this, though.))
Martha got to her literature class early to set up for the presentation, so she was surprised to see Georg waiting for her at the door. He grinned sunnily when he saw her, coaxing an answering smile from her even though she was nervous. He had that way about him.
"You look proud of yourself," she said quietly, her voice sounding a bit too loud to her own ears in the empty hallway. She peeked into the literature classroom, but no one was there yet -- of course.
"Of course I am! I got here before you." He reached out to squeeze her hand lightly, but didn't initiate any further contact. She tended to get a bit more closed off in school, and he had picked up on that. "I knew you'd get here early."
Martha used her free hand to play with the end of a braid. "Melchior didn't, apparently." Not that she had expected him to, it wasn't like they had planned to or anything like that. Martha simply liked to be prepared, and didn't want to be floundering to set up the PowerPoint after all of their classmates had already sat down.
"But I know you." Georg crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue, nearly earning a laugh from Martha. "Gabor doesn't know anything." He quickly retreated to his default grin, open and cheerful. "Speaking of which, he's part of the reason I'm here early."
"Oh?" Martha cocked her head to the side, curious.
Georg nodded. "Well, I came to wish you luck on your presentation, but also to give you a present." For the first time, Martha noticed that Georg had his free hand behind his back.
"Oh, Georg, you didn't have to -- Wait. What does any of that have to do with Melchior?" Martha tried to look behind Georg's back, and he obligingly brought the "gift" out.
It was a spray bottle, filled with water. Georg's grin was now unmistakably sly. "For if he gets out of hand."
Martha only stared at him for a moment, and then she really did start laughing, releasing Georg's hand so she could clap both of her own over her mouth. When the laughter finally died down enough for her to drop her hands, she shook her head. "Oh my God, Georg, you're -- you're unbelievable."
Georg looked even more proud than he had before as he pressed the spray bottle into her hands. He put on a falsely formal tone. "That is undeniably a compliment, my dear." He squeezed her hands again, becoming a bit more serious. "Good luck, Martha. Do you want a hug?"
Instead of answering, Martha wrapped her arms around him.
When she entered the classroom, she stuck the spray bottle into the teacher's podium for lack of a better place to put it. If anything, she could glance down at it and get a bit of amusement at the private joke. She sat at the professor's computer and pulled the PowerPoint from her flash drive, setting things up on the projector. She was still sitting there when the first students began to trickle in, chattering among themselves.
"You're here." Martha started a bit at the sound of Melchior's voice; she hadn't heard him walk up. Impulsively, she pushed the spray bottle further into the podium.
"Mhm." Something caught in her voice. Martha cleared her throat and tried again. "Uh, yeah. I have everything ready." She gestured to the projection on the board, which was already showing their title slide.
"So I see." Melchior smiled at her, and she supposed it was supposed to be charming or kind, but really it just came off as condescending to her. "You nervous?"
"I'm fine." She made a concentrated effort to speak lower, to avoid any trembling or nervousness.
Melchior reached out to pat her shoulder, but stopped when she immediately stiffened at the unfamiliar and unwanted contact. "Hey, if you want, I can do most of the talking."
Martha suppressed the urge to roll her eyes, right there on the podium. "We already decided who was presenting which slide."
"Yeah, but --"
"I'll be fine." The bell rang just as the professor walked in, nodding to Martha and Melchior that they could stay where they were. "Just stick to what we planned, alright? Only what we planned."
"Mmm." Melchior made a noise that sounded vaguely agreeing, but somehow Martha was not reassured.
When she looked out at her classmates, Georg was looking at her and squeezing the trigger of an imaginary spray bottle. Martha covered her mouth with her hand and looked away quickly.
Most of the presentation went surprisingly smoothly. There was a moment where Melchior tried to compare the female main character of the novel they were analyzing to Gretchen from Faust, but Martha was able to override that and move on to the next topic rather quickly. She was pretty sure Georg gave her a thumbs up at that point, but she was very conscientiously trying not to look at her boyfriend, afraid of bursting into a fit of giggles at the thought of the spray bottle sitting just in front of her.
The discussion questions were the problem, as Martha feared they would be. Melchior kept trying to monopolize the time, hardly giving the students they were supposed to be engaging any time to talk at all. Martha kept having to speak over him, call on other students and attempt to facilitate some type of conversation.
They were almost to the end when it finally happened. Wanting nothing more than to be off of that podium, Martha began, "So, for our final point to --"
"Our final discussion," Melchior interjected, "Is to discuss the oppressive society found in the text, and how it mirrors our society today. You see, you may be quick to write off the plot as mere fiction, but it's actually incredibly --"
Martha didn't even think. If anything would get points docked, it would be to take over the entire class hour when the presentation was supposed to be fifteen minutes, tops. They were already close to their max time and Martha could see Melchior winding up for one of his patented Gabor rants that would take twenty minutes at a minimum and before she even knew what she was doing, Martha had her hand wrapped around the handle of the spray bottle Georg had given her. When Melchior turned his face to her, as if to impart some great wisdom, she pointed the nozzle and sprayed.
It was as if someone had suddenly hit the mute button on a remote. Melchior could only stare, open-mouthed, as Martha slowly lowered the bottle. Looking out at her shocked classmates and professor, she quickly held the bottle behind her back, as if that could change anything. "Right. Well ... Good discussion, yeah. That's all. Thanks for listening."
She quickly clicked through the slide on screen, ending the PowerPoint. The silence from her classmates was oppressive. Martha was seriously considering hiding in the bathroom for the rest of the hour.
At least until Georg started clapping. That seemed to break the tension hanging in there air and a very scattered sort of applause started up among her classmates, until most of the class recovered from their shock enough to join in. Even the professor decided to act like nothing happened, clapping along with his students.
For the presentation, of course.