Inspired by Community S4E1: "History 101."

Jason POV

Jason has a plan. Don't act so surprised; he can be smart when he wants to be!

The plan goes a little something like this: first, he got all his friends to sign up for a history class with him because that's the only required credit he has left to complete to graduate. Second, he convinced them to sign up for a one-hundred-level class called HISTORY OF NETFLIX, where the students get an A for sitting around and watching Netflix. There's no final, no papers, and no tests. He'll only be graded for participation, which includes showing up and not falling asleep during Stranger Things, and doing his homework, which is simply watching the next episode.

Needless to say, spots filled up fast over the summer, and Jason feels very lucky he was able to get himself and all six of his close friends registered.

And needless to say, Jason is quite surprised when he arrives at the classroom only to find it overflowing with students. How many people registered for this class? There have to be at least sixty people trying to get in!

He finds Hazel and Frank in the crossfire of a screaming match between Katie Gardner and Travis Stoll.

"Hey, guys!" Jason calls. "What's going on?"

"You didn't hear?" Hazel asks. "They overbooked the class! At least half the school is signed up for it!"

"It's gotta be more than half!" Frank says.

This can't be happening. If Jason can't get into this history class, he won't graduate on time! He should have never put it off. He can't be a super senior next year. He can't give this school more of the money he doesn't have!

Percy all of a sudden bursts from the classroom and breaks through the crowd. "Guys, get in here! I saved us some seats!"

Frank grabs Hazel by the hand and leads her in, Jason trailing a little ways behind.

Annabeth pulls her backpack off the desk next to her for Jason to take a seat. "Thanks," he says.

"Yup."

While Percy teases Hazel and Frank about holding hands and Leo and Piper do the wiggly pencil trick, Jason attempts to ask Annabeth about her summer.

"So, uh, do anything impulsive this summer?" he teases.

"Yeah."

"What is it?"

She rolls her eyes. "Nunya."

"What?"

"Nunya business," she says before opening a game on her phone.

Jason laughs to himself because that means she likely had too much to drink and did something incredibly stupid that poor Percy will probably hear about in a drunk text.

"Move it, brats! Out of the way!" Dean D shouts.

Mr. Brunner shouts something too, but Jason can't hear him over all the people crowding the classroom.

"Ow!" Sherman Yang yells when his foot is run over by Mr. Brunner's wheelchair.

"Attention students!" Mr. Brunner yells over the crowd.

Dean D sticks his fingers and his mouth and produces the shrillest whistle Jason's ever heard. It's safe to say he's gotten everyone's attention.

"It seems as if there's been a horrible mistake and now the entire student body is supposedly enrolled in this class. There is one other history class being offered this semester: an in-depth seminar-style course on the Trojan War. It was originally designed for our honors program, which many of you are aware was dissolved about ten years ago, but we are fortunate that Mr. Brunner has offered to bring this course back," says the dean.

Annabeth turns to Jason and points her finger down her throat. He gets the point: Gag me with a spoon.

Dean D continues, "If you would like to drop History of Netflix and take the Trojan War Seminar, please head over to the Big House to enroll and pick up your syllabus. If you would like a chance to take the History of Netflix course, get your asses in the dining hall so we can settle this like adults."

✎✎✎

Dean D does not, in fact, plan to settle this like adults.

The tables in the dining hall have mostly been pushed to the side of the room, except for a few tables and chairs that are part of the series of obstacle courses set up.

"This is ridiculous," Piper says to Jason. "Maybe we should just take that other history class."

"No," Jason says. He will not put effort into a seminar class when he could earn points for watching Netflix.

Dean D turns up a dial on a speaker and then the film score from The Hunger Games blasts throughout the school. When did he get the time to change into the Katniss Everdeen dress? More importantly, is the dress going to catch on fire? Jason doesn't think that's such a good idea considering last he knew, the building's fire alarm system doesn't work.

Mr. Brunner steers his wheelchair onto the stage next to Dean D. "Good morning, students, and welcome to... The Netflix Games!"

Jason rolls his eyes. Yeah right, this isn't a direct knockoff of everyone's favorite dystopian series.

"Each of you will have the opportunity to earn a clay bead by winning a challenge. A bead represents one spot in the class, and Dean D only has twenty of them to give away."

There are easily a hundred people in the dining hall. Not everyone can win a bead.

"Your first challenge will be an egg and spoon race," Mr. Brunner explains.

"C'mon, Jason," says Piper. "Let's go register for that seminar."

Of course, Piper would want to register for the seminar. She's good at talking. Jason, on the other hand, would like to earn an easy A.

"No," says Jason. "We're going to do this so I can graduate."

Leo gasps.

"Okay, bro," Percy says. "You go ahead and sign up for that class. I'm going to plan out my awesome senior year."

"Bro?" Jason asks. He didn't think his bro would give up that easily. Percy isn't super good at memorizing historical facts.

"I got my history credit last semester. I aced History of Ice Cream," he explains.

Jason wants to shake this guy. "You took History of Ice Cream and didn't tell anyone?"

"No," he says. "Annabeth took it too."

"Way to throw me under the bus," she mutters.

Jason can't believe this. "Fine then," he says. "I'll earn beads for all of us so we can take the class together."

Percy shrugs. "I wouldn't mind earning credit for watching The Adam Project or something." Then he turns to Annabeth. "Are you still down for senior pranks?"

Annabeth grabs Piper by the arm. "Let's go swimming in the fountain!"

And then Percy, Annabeth, and Piper are off for their super cool and fun senior year while Jason stays behind to provide for the study group like some kind of hunter-gatherer.

Someone taps Jason on the shoulder, and he turns around to find Hazel holding a video camera in his face. "We're filming an episode of Frank and Leo in the Morning about the competition. Any comments?"

Jason crosses his arms. "Somebody get me an egg and a spoon 'cause I am going to win this thing."

✎✎✎

"Here. I got another one," Jason says as he deposits his third bead in Leo's hand.

Frank furrows his eyebrows. "Shouldn't you make sure Lee Fletcher is okay?" he asks.

"What? Why would I do that?"

"Because you just knocked the snot out of him with a pool noodle."

The challenges are getting stranger and stranger, but Jason doesn't care to think too much about that. Thinking about anything other than winning might ruin his shot at earning seven spots in the History of Netflix class.

A little ashamed that he can't answer Frank's question in a morally acceptable way, he asks, "Do you think we should make our popcorn before class, or will there be a popcorn machine there?"

"Ooh," Frank says in wonder. "Hazel, set up a poll on the Frank and Leo in the Morning Instagram account. I want reports on what the people think! Leo, what do you think?"

Leo looks up from the rubber band he's wrapped around his fingers and says, "I don't care. Go for it."

"Oh, that's nice," Hazel says as she tries to hold the camera and use her phone at the same time.

The remainder of the competition is a montage filled with 80s training sequence songs. "Eye of the Tiger" plays while Jason emerges victorious at the top of the climbing wall while Katie Gardner and Ellis Wakefield hang by their ankles after being pushed off their mounts.

"Holding Out for a Hero" plays when Jason finds the clay bead at the end of the maze and laces it through the fishing line necklace he made for Leo to wear.

Leo does not wear the necklace.

Despite there being no on-campus lake, Jason kicks ass during the canoe race, leaving this year's dual-enrollment students spilled out all over the linoleum floor. On his way to his interview with Frank and Leo in the Morning, he whistles "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen.

Another victory involved an arts and crafts project, which was an easy win for Jason thanks to his experience being friends with Hazel. She's probably the only person who could have beaten him in that field. At this point, Jason's seriously considering asking Dean D to turn the Hunger Games film score off and start playing "Break My Stride" because he is on a roll. Sure, he lost the archery competition to Kayla, but she's like a god with a bow and arrow. When Jason makes this joke to his friends, Leo doesn't laugh.

Jason earns his second-to-last bead during a Chick-fil-A sandwich eating contest. He eats way more sandwiches than he'd like, and then finds out that Percy, Annabeth, and Piper replaced the Polynesian sauce with brown paint as one of their senior pranks.

In good news, the pranksters have come to watch Jason compete in the final event. He has to win or else one of his friends won't be able to take the class.

"This is so stupid," Annabeth says when Katniss Ever-Dean takes the stage, "but I can't look away."

"The next challenge will be the Saturday Night Fever disco dance-off!" Dean D announces. "Mr. Brunner will judge because I don't want you losers complaining to me when you don't get in the class."

Percy grips Jason's arm. "Bro, you don't have to go through with this."

But Jason does have to go through with this! Every beat of "Disco Inferno" that passes is one more unnecessary risk he can't afford to take.

"Everyone choose your partner!" Dean D says.

"Hey, Jason," Nyssa says. "Would you like to be my partner?"

"Sorry, Nyssa," he says. "I've got a strategy." Then, he reaches for Piper's hand and tugs her onto the dance floor despite her protests.

"You have to do this for me," Jason says. "Brunner is a shipper."

"Brunner is a what?"

Jason rolls his eyes because Piper should understand where he's coming from. "Silena told me that Mr. Brunner ships members of the study group, and since he's judging, we should dance together."

Piper raises an eyebrow. "How do you know that he doesn't ship you with Percy?"

Percy, having overheard this, gives Jason a flirty wave and blows him a kiss.

The groovy disco base of "Night Fever" fills the dining hall and Jason gets to work, twirling Piper around the room and striking a flashy pose now and then.

Piper claps on the beat and then says, "I think Mr. Brunner and Dean D might be trying to like, sabotage us.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean they don't want us to graduate on time."

Jason can't believe this! They had to set up this silly series of games because this new and extremely popular class is overbooked.

Oh.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, actually. "Okay," Jason says, "but why?"

"Have you ever noticed how wrapped up they are in us? I mean, sure, it's a relatively small school, so everyone knows them, but can you say you've sung karaoke with Brunner?" Piper asks.

"No."

"Well, Annabeth can."

Jason chuckles at the thought of that video. He hasn't sent that to Annabeth in a while. He should do that.

"Shake those tooshes!" Dean D yells, drawing Jason out of his thoughts.

Jason lifts Piper and together, they strike an awesome pose.

Dean D shakes his head while Mr. Brunner sadly hands the last bead to Jason.

"I got it, guys!" Jason shouts victoriously.

And then Leo freaks out.

"No!" he cries, tugging on his hair.

Piper rushes to his side.

"Hey, man, none of that," says Percy. He digs through his backpack for a Ziploc bag full of gummy sharks. "Have some candy."

Leo rocks back and forth and tears a shark apart in his fingers. "We can't graduate! Everything will change!"

Shoot. Jason was so wrapped up in winning and getting to graduate on time, that he didn't think of Leo. Leo can barely handle changing classes at the beginning of a new semester. Jason can't imagine how graduation is weighing on him.

"Leo, I'm so sorry," he says. "I wasn't even thinking about your feelings."

"You should have been," says Piper. Shit, now she's mad.

Jason chooses to ignore her comment and focuses his energy on Leo. "Look, man, I see where you're coming from. I'm scared about what'll happen after graduation too."

Leo snaps his rubber band against his wrist.

"We're all nervous. Aren't we, guys?"

Percy jumps in. "I'm supposed to go to grad school so I can do marine biology, except I have no idea how to apply, and I don't even want to go. At least, not right away."

"I guess you make a good point," Leo mumbles into his sleeve.

"We'll all help each other," says Jason. "We're going to make you a plan so you'll know exactly where you're going and what you're getting into."

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea," says Piper. "For any of us, I mean."

"We can all apply to jobs and internships and things together," Jason says, "and we can even help you look for a new apartment if you want to work in a different town."

Leo starts to say, "Jason-"

"I know of some on-campus resources that'll help us learn how to do job applications and stuff."

"Okay, but Jason-"

"And the thrift store down the street from our apartment gets stuff from the law firm next door. There's got to be some really good clothes for interviews there-"

"Jason-"

Piper hits Jason over the head. "The beads, you dummy!"

Travis and Connor Stoll run off, carrying the string of beads toward the enrollment office.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry," Jason says.

"It's whatever," says Hazel. "We didn't help you win them."

"We can just take that seminar class," says Frank.

Piper chimes in. "Yeah, then we'll have something to study for."

"I'm not taking that," Annabeth says. "I took History of Ice Cream."

"Wise Girl has a point," says Percy. "We may have gotten really bad tummy aches, but it was an easy A and it filled out history credit."

"I'm still not sure how Jake failed," Annabeth says.

"The point is, we'll come to study group, but I can't risk my GPA. It looks really hard," Percy says.

"I think we can remedy this issue," says Dean D.

Mr. Brunner parks his wheelchair and hands the group some forms. "We wanted to apologize for trying to hold you back. You may take my Trojan War seminar if it interests you, but we also decided to offer a version of the same course without the rigor. The final grade is mostly composed of group projects."

"Will you be teaching the class?" Piper asks.

Annabeth rifles through the syllabus, highlighting a line now and then. "Guys, who cares? The midterm is a poster about one hero in the war."

"Okay?" Percy asks. "So why shouldn't I take pottery?"

"Because we get to work in groups of seven, Seaweed Brain!"

✎✎✎

So the group spends their first study session not freaking out over how they're going to meaningfully contribute to a seminar, but casually making sure everyone's figured out how to access the audiobook version of the textbooks on YouTube. In this world, either you're dyslexia's bitch, or you make dyslexia your bitch.

"Wait, so it's just called 'Achilles Slime Tutorial?'" Percy asks.

"Yep," says Jason.

"Oh, that's nice," Hazel says when she finds the video. "Thanks, Jason!"

"Yeah, this thing is going to save me tons of time on days I have swim meets," Percy adds.

Annabeth packs up her books and says, "Well, I've gotta head out, but it's been real."

"Catch you guys later," says Piper.

"Are you guys going to pull some pranks or something?" Jason asks.

"Nah," says Piper. "We've decided to leave that to the Stolls."

"I'm going to take a nap and try to forget about your disco dancing," Annabeth jokes.

Jason winces. "Yeah, not my finest moment."

"I'm going to go try out Hazel's sandwich shop," Frank says. "Anyone else want to join?"

"Count me in," Jason says.

He follows his friends toward the dining hall. Through the window of the history building, he can see the History of Netflix class watching Squid Game.

Yesterday, Jason might have been upset about missing out, but today, he isn't because the History of Netflix class meets for three hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He has a conflicting interest.