Abby pushed the books away from her and laid her head on the wood. Nothing made sense in them. There were too many dates and too many people. She had almost failed history last year. The original colonies, all the wars, the new states and laws. American history was not easy to learn. There were too many names and dates. These people were friends during this war, but then they fought against each other in this one. It didn't make sense!

Giving up wasn't what she wanted to do, but it just didn't click like science did. She could almost explain why people touching her skin hurt to the younger students through her knowledge of biology. She knew what happened when she shifted, what allowed her gills to form and how her were covered in scales and fins sprouted. She got science. She could do math. English was reading and she liked to do that. It was history she couldn't figure out.

The little blonde lifted her head off the table and let it fall back down. It stung, but she did it again. And again. And again.

It was silly, but she had never fully stopped helping out at the mansion library. Her time was always precious to her. Focusing on her studies for school always came first. But shelving books and organizing the shelves was relaxing, and it had given her time during her day to go over her plans, think about what she'd studied, and maybe even study some more during downtime. It had helped her get through college. And now, she was using the library to study for the police test.

In her arms, she held a book. It was a study guide for the exam.

She didn't see any sign of Kealey in the library. The blonde was often busy. Another librarian was working today.

Amelia herself wasn't working at the moment. That did not stop herself from noticing a student that looked like she was having trouble with a subject. Children are our future. If she did nothing to help the girl, what did that say about her? That she was not willing to go out of her way to do something to help someone, that was what it said about her. If she truly wanted to make a difference, she needed to live up to the high bar she had set.

The legs of a chair at the table scraped against the carpet gently as Amelia pulled it out. She settled down at the table, across from the young girl. Her book, she pushed down to rest on the table. "Do you need help?" She asked the girl. If the girl hadn't been expecting it, the sudden intrusion might have startled her. After all, she'd approached the table and sat down quietly, like some sort of ninja, then said something from out of the blue. She smiled gently, and waited for a reply.

>>"Do you need help?"

Abby jerked at the interruption to her punishing her brain. She looked up to see an older girl, an adult probably. She looked old enough. The adult-girl had long brown hair. She was pretty too. "Wha?" Then what the adult-girl said registered. "Um, i-if you know any-anything about his-history, yes please." Her stutter was back. She was getting better with that, but it was still hard to speak to new people.  Though now that she had people she talked to regularly it annoyed her more, the fact she stuttered.

"I'm hoping not to fail it next year," the green eyed girl admitted as she pulled her book back to her. She really hadn't liked being told she almost didn't pass her history class. It was hard enough; she didn't want to have to do it again.  So summer studying.

History, huh?

"Yeah, I know some history." She said. "Tell me what you're having trouble with, and I'll see what I can do."

She had taken a history class in college, and obviously, history in high school. Amelia was familiar with US history, as well as world history. If something came up she didn't know, she had a tendency to google it, and look at Wikipedia articles to learn more. And then to check the Wikipedia article sources, and learn even more. She was kind of a nerd, but hey. If you didn't learn from the past, it had a terrible tendency to repeat itself.

The current situation with mutant rights was history repeating itself. Civil rights. All the malice and trouble that came with it.

There were books spread out in front of the girl. A lot of them seemed like they had something to do with American history. She could deduce as well as her wannabe detective brother.

>>"Yeah, I know some history. Tell me what you're having trouble with, and I'll see what I can do."

Abby smiled at the adult-girl. Then she looked down at her book on colonial America for one of her problem areas. "The French helped the colonies in the Revolution. Why were they fighting in the French/Indian War? And why is it called the French/Indian War? It was France and the United States, wasn't it?" Abby actually had a lot of questions. Some of which had to do with dates and why they did things a certain way. But it was better to start at the beginning right? The whole French, Indian, American war thing was the furthest forward she could go.

Ah, that was one area she wasn't 100% fluent in. A pity. She knew more about the first and second world wars, and about the settlement of Africa. She knew about America's colonization, pioneers, and so on, but the French Indian War...

"Let me think," Amelia said. She looked up and off to one side, trying to recall. It took her a few seconds to go over what she remembered. "Well," she began slowly. "A lot of conflicts in history have to do with land. I think that's what started the French and Indian War. It was all about who would hold the most territory in North America... You know? Hold the land, and you have the power. France fought against the British colonists. They were allied with indigenous peoples. Native Americans. Indians. France and its colonists didn't fight the Native Americans. It's called the French / Indian war, because the British colonists named it after the people they fought." History is usually written by the winning side. "British colonists kept North America, and became the big power in the area. And eventually, the colonies left the British Empire, and created a constitution... and they became the United States."

She paused, and whipped out her phone. She cheated. One swift googling, and she had a top result.

The French and Indian War was fought to decide if Britain or France would be the strong power in North America. France and its colonists and Indian allies fought against Britain, its colonists and Indian allies. The war began with conflicts about land.

"Yeah. I'm right. I just checked." She smiled. "Does that help?"

Abby listened to the answer to her questions carefully. She hoped it would make more sense than the books and her teacher. It kind of did. More sense than she thought.

>>"Yeah. I'm right. I just checked. Does that help?"

"So, because France and Britain were both trying to be in the same place, they fought, instead of just sharing. Britain won so they named the war. After all that trouble to keep the land, Britain just gave it away when the colonists revolted? Why would they do that? And why would the French help the people they fought against before?" Abby felt like she was gaining even more questions.  At least she was getting some answers though.

"Yeah. They fought because they both wanted to be the strongest, and have the most stuff." She explained. "And Britain named the war. They didn't give it away when the colonists revolted, though. They didn't want the colonists to break away from the empire."

Now, things would get complicated. She actually remembered all of this stuff. No googling required.

"You see, the British Empire did some things that the colonists in North America didn't like. They charged them taxes for things that were considered a 'way of life', like certain foods. Things everybody uses. They taxed them on a lot of things, to earn back the money they lost by supporting the colonies during that French / Indian war. And some people had a problem with that. The phrase 'taxation without representation' was used a lot. Basically, the colonies wanted their own say in whether or not the taxes they were charged was fair." Was that it? The idea was close to it, at the very least. "One thing they did to protest was dump tea into the Boston harbor. Because tea was being taxed. The Boston Tea Party, they called it. Basically, a group of our founding fathers were terrorists."

Abby gathered the information in her head. There were some things she didn't get. But a lot of what the adult-girl said made more sense than what her teachers said. "What would be 'way of life' like back then? Clothes? Meat? Why tea?" she asked. That part was a little weird. Why was tea considered important enough for people to dump it in the ocean?

Then an idea popped into her head. "Don't we have taxes on stuff now?"

Way of life back then. Hm.

"America was colonized largely by the English. Think of British stuff like," she pulled out her phone and google image searched colonial America. She started showing the girl pictures on her phone. "This. And this. And this." Farming and funny pants and hats and bonnets. Women in dresses. And she moved towards more modern things. "This." The founding fathers. A big room and parchment. And lots of tea.

"There were a lot of farmers and lawyers, and not that many doctors. Life was hard. As they got into city life, things got easier. They ate what they could grow or raise, which meant cows and chickens, wheat... Simple things. We didn't have stuff like bananas and pasta until we started bringing in other cultures foods." Don't eat those two together, kids. Yuck. "Tea was their staple drink. Imported from foreign lands. And sugar. Needed for tea. The whole thing was that they felt tea was a way of life. A right. Something they were supposed to have, and that would be affordable. Tea is kind of a British identity thing, like Americans and football or baseball, and burgers and eagles and the us flag. Think how many people would be up in arms if someone started charging $300 a cup for coffee. I dunno. It's complicated, but that's sort of where the anger came from. People wanted a good reason for why they were being charged a lot of money for things they felt were their God given right as English colonials to drink. They called it taxation without representation, because they didn't get a say in it. They weren't allowed to say "yes we will pay an extra two cents for tea, to repay the war costs for your help." They just got charged."

"Now we have taxes in modern America. But for a lot of things, we vote. That way, we have a say in our taxes. Some say at least. The options aren't always the best, but it's better than not having any options at all. That's a compromise. Some states have different taxes, too. For instance, Oregon state doesn't have a tax on sales if you're a citizen. They probably voted on that."

>>"There were a lot of farmers and lawyers, and not that many doctors. Life was hard... For instance, Oregon state doesn't have a tax on sales if you're a citizen. They probably voted on that."

Abby took in the new information. Some of it she didn't understand. Since the adult-girl was kind enough to answer her questions so far, she figured she could ask some more. "Why didn't we have more doctors? Did people not get sick like we do now?"

She knew there were a lot of illnesses and diseases now. And a lot of the problems with them spreading came from so many people in such a small area. And sex. There were lots of things that spread during sex. She didn't understand why people liked doing something that could get them sick. But that wasn't a question to ask a stranger. She could ask Cafas if it really bothered her, or if she couldn't figure it out herself.

Elliott popped his head around a bookcase and cut into their conversation with an all so helpful answer.

"The doctors back then were all too busy using leeches to drain blood or hacking off limbs because they believed in magic and religion, and didn't have science to back them up. So civil war era doctors were basically men with hacksaws who knew where to cut and how to stop the bleeding."

He had no explanation for why he had been there or why he had felt the need to interrupt their tutoring session with unhelpful answers. Just as soon as he was there, he vanished back around the corner of the book shelf without a good bye.

"Most people died to diseases doctors didn't understand, and if my alien forefathers had been around to help them, maybe modern medicine would be in an entirely different place." A voice called from beyond the bookshelf mystically.

Okay. Maybe that was his parting shot, but in no way was it a good bye.

Okay... A green guy who looked like an alien or some sort of red eyed antenna having bug man had popped out unexpectedly and answered the question she had just been about to answer. What the heck?

"Uh..." She trailed dumbly. Her jaw was down. Dropped. Amelia dis not know how to respond. The whole thing had been highly rude, and then he had vanished, and the worst thing was... He wasn't entirely wrong.

Well. Except for the alien thing he added a moment later from beyond the shelves. That was highly questionable. She didn't stop herself in time. She said it in front of an impressionable little girl. "What the ****?"

Abby jumped at the sudden voice. She hadn't been expecting anyone else to be listening in. Though she probably should have. There aren't many secrets in the school. Not with so many children, teenagers, and different mutations.

>>"The doctors back then were all too busy using leeches to drain blood...if my alien forefathers had been around to help them, maybe modern medicine would be in an entirely different place."

The information he gave answered her question though. It didn't sound like what her teacher said, but it made more sense to her. Leeches were evil little slug things. And though many animals could survive without a limb or two, people did it now.

>>"What the ****?"

"Why didn't they want to know about what was killing people?" she asked aloud, though from the stunned look on the adult-girl's face made it seem like she wouldn't get an answer. Then another thought popped in Abbigail's head. "Why didn't the aliens help?"

From beyond the bookshelves came one reply. "Because they were too interesting in anal probes and leaving orphans stranded on Earth."

Amelia winced.

That guy really needed to stop eavesdropping. And he sounded crazy bitter. And also, crazy.

Damage control was needed. "Ignorance is bliss. Sometimes people don't want to know the real reason. Sometimes, they can't understand it. It goes beyond their belief system. Their scope of the world. When someone said the earth went around the sun, it went against so many peoples reality. The church killed the guy who said that. When someone said the earth was round, instead of flat, people disagreed with him, too. And Darwin's evolution has had endless criticisms, even though he did everything he could to account for them."

"Don't get me started on Darwin." The voice said.

"Do you want to join us?" Amelia was peeved.

"No."

"So, does that answer your question. Um." She blanked on the girl's name. "I didn't catch your name. I'm Amelia." She said.