Poor Man's Fight by Elliott Kay Read Free Book Online Page A

corporations who brought humanity to the stars—and the very corporations who run the highly profitable business of education today.”
    “Tanner, are you seriously watching the news?” broke in a live voice. Swaying somewhat on her feet, the young woman moved into the broad kitchen with an empty glass in her hand and an amused look on her face. She wore an adorable party dress and heels much too high for her obvious level of inebriation.
    He looked up guiltily. Despite treating his sunburns earlier, his face remained quite red from his run to the test site that morning. A shower and nicer clothes made him look like less of a disaster. The presence of friends and a shift from panic to resignation had at least settled his nerves. “I was just gonna be in here for a few minutes,” he said.
    Music and loud, happy voices drifted in from the various exits. Nathan Spencer’s kitchen was bigger than the whole bottom floor of Tanner’s home.
    The presidential hologram kept speaking. “Scoring systems and academic expectations have crept, inexorably and constantly, toward ever-higher requirements. Now mere proficiency isn’t enough. It’s not enough if your essay simply answers the test question and gives evidence. It isn’t enough anymore to communicate effectively, to understand day-to-day math and science. Now it’s only the very top scorers who eliminate their educational debts.”
    Heather Verde pointed at the image of the president as she walked in on wobbling feet. “Turn him down or turn him off,” she ordered. “This is my moment of triumph, and he’s making me sad, and I didn’t vote for that guy.”
    “Our system now puts the expectation on every student to be well above average,” Aguirre said, again flashing his knowing grin. “I look out in this auditorium here and I see an awful lot of people who know exactly what you get when you claim that everyone is above average.”
    The anchor then replaced the president once more. “The president’s speech is already being portrayed by his advisors and leaders of his party as a shot across the bow for NorthStar, the Lai Wa Corporation and other education providers. We have reaction from opposition party leaders and from corporate—“
    “You weren’t old enough to vote for him,” Tanner smirked, cutting off the projection.
    “Well I won’t when he runs again and I am old enough,” she said. “He’s a terrible Catholic.”
    “ You’re a terrible Catholic,” teased Tanner.
    She gasped dramatically. “Don’t say that!” Then she looked down at her glass. “Oh, I am a terrible Catholic. And I’m drunk. I’m still not supposed to drink yet. My mom’s gonna kill me.”
    Tanner started to laugh, but then he saw Heather’s face screw up into a prelude to wailing tears. He immediately came around the island counter full of hors d’ourves and put his arm around Heather’s shoulder. “You’re not, I was kidding. You are a fine Catholic.”
    “No, I’m not!” she argued. “You don’t even know! I’ve had my earbuds in so I could study during mass every time my family went to church for the last three months! And then I didn’t tell the priest at confession!”
    Again, Tanner had to control his laughter. It was a simple fact of life in the Archangel system: one never knew who was a genuine believer and who was simply a cultural Catholic like himself.
    “Hey, don’t be upset,” Tanner said. “You walked out of there not owing a God damn credit, right?”
    Heather sniffled hard and nodded. She also hit him on the shoulder. “Don’t say that,” she mumbled. “ You’re a terrible Catholic.”
    “Well, yeah.”
    Heather nudged his shoulder again in disapproval. “Anyway… you were saying? I did good on the Test, so…?”
    “And you can go confess tomorrow or this weekend or whenever and everything will be okay, right?”
    She sniffed again. “Yeah.”
    “So it was all worth it.”
    “M’kay,” she mumbled. “How did you do?