10LOVELIES! Another Barricade day gift! The infamous Barricade story that I've mentioned in the Amber universe! This is the start! Hopefully by posting this I'll be motivated to update sooner! So I hope you enjoy! Leave a comment or review! Follow fav and HAPPY BARRICADE DAY!
Warning: So not sure if this is accurate... at all, but it's what i'm going with.
Disclaimer: Still no...
He'd done a lot of crazy things in his life, his social group practically forced him to risk his hide to keep the rest of them out of trouble, but that week was definitely one of the craziest. Looking back, Combeferre realized he probably should've looked over Enjolras's plans and talked the golden leader into some sense before they went through with the his hair brained scheme, but he had other things on his mind.
It was during their senior year of university that the school began to cut back its funding for minorities and scholarship students. They wouldn'tve known if members of their own group weren't directly affected in the cut backs.
It was any normal night at the Musain. The group was lounging on the back couches when Éponine stormed in, a crumpled piece of paper in her hands, a distraught Feuilly lagging behind, and his face unusually pale. Storming past her boyfriend's concerned look and the confused looks of the rest of the group, she stalked over to Enjolras and slammed the paper on the table.
Enjolras, who had been working dutifully up until this moment, looked up, startled and slightly peeved.
"Ép, whatever it is, can it wait until I've finished this article?" He deadpanned, moving his gaze back to his laptop screen.
Éponine, known for her slim to none patience, wouldn't take Enjolras's answer and slammed his laptop down so forcefully, Enjolras nearly squeaked at the thought of it cracking.
"What the hell Ép? My life's stored on that!"
"Yeah, well, I've found something for you to fight for." She seethed, fully gaining the attention of the entire group. Enjolras quirked an eyebrow at this, leaning forward he nodded at her to go on.
"Our lovely university let at least forty-five percent of the scholarship students here know that based on financial cuts in the overall school budget, our money will either be sliced significantly or taken away all together. And since the university doesn't believe Feuilly and I qualify for their scholarship priorities anymore we've been given three weeks to come up with the tuition for the year or leave."
The café was silent. Musichetta held her hand to her mouth, shaking her head in disbelief. Grantaire drowned his bottle and let his head fall unceremoniously into his hands. Bahorel looked ready to kill, Joly worried, Bousset as well. Courfeyac was swearing to himself as tears collected in Jehan's eyes. Combeferre was fighting to keep his blood from boiling over while Enjolras's eyes swelled to new sizes, taking in everything Éponine had just told him.
"You've been given three weeks to come up with over 10,000 euro?"
Éponine nodded solemnly, anger radiating from every inch of her.
"I've only got 10,000 to scratch up, Feuilly, a sophomore who's in a five year program has to scrounge up over 50,000." She spat. Feuilly nodded shakily, visibly calming when Bahorel came over to envelope him into a hug (something the fighter wasn't known often to do.)
"They can't do that, that's not only highly ridiculous and unfair, but I'm pretty sure it's illegal." Bousset supplied, looking warily between the group, fearing what Éponine might do.
"Yeah, well illegal or not, you should hear what the school is planning on doing." Éponine breathed, her eyes now slits. Combeferre rose, trying to wrap his arms around her to sooth her, but she waved him off. The group gasped, Joly and Jehan even squeaked, if Éponine wouldn't accept Combeferre's help, they knew she was beyond pissed.
"Our grand university is planning to build a fourteen million euro athletic center for the health and well-being of all the student athletes who have been coming to the school in the last five years. No funding has been done, nor has there been any advertisements for anything, they simply acquired the money from a less important branch of the school and fed it to a far more 'needy' cause." She finished, her arms crossed tightly across her chest as she glared at Enjolras, daring him to come up with something.
"They took your scholarship money to build a new gym?" He breathed, meeting her gaze, a new fire in his eyes.
"But why'd they take your money? Why not the whole lot?" Courfeyac asked, already cracking his knuckles.
Éponine spun around to answer him, but Feuilly beat her to it.
"They apparently reviewed every scholarship student and their background and determined which students actually needed the money and which ones were, in lack of a better phrase, full of it and could pay for college themselves. The only students whose money remained were the students recruited by the university to better teams and the image of the school."
The group was silent, watching their leader cautiously as he absorbed all the information he was given.
"Apollo?" Grantaire whispered, reaching out to place a hand on his shoulder. The sun god let his head drop, before he slammed his hand on the table and rose, knocking his chair down in the process.
"This kind of injustice can not stand! This institution should be encouraging all students to learn, not take away opportunities for students to better their education, then practically shove them out the door! No, this will not be taken lying down! What did Lemarque have to say about this?"
Professor Lemarque was the oldest and most respected professor at the university. He was the biggest advocator for bringing education to all students and was also trying to persuade the board to eliminate tuition all together.
"Enj, haven't you heard?" Joly asked quietly. "Professor Lemarque's been in the hospital for weeks now, his heart condition acted up again, the cold he had last month took him down hard."
Enjolras processed this for a moment. Grantaire watched his god's internal battle; Enjolras adored Lemarque, the man was his inspiration to fight for justice and his guide in how to go about it. Squeezing his eyes tightly, he massaged the bridge of his nose before speaking.
"Alright, we're going to lead a protest the school won't be able to ignore." His eyes were on fire with passion, and Combeferre should've noticed it right then and there, but he was distracted by Éponine's distress to calm his best friend down.
"What can we do Enj?" Bahorel deadpanned, rolling his eyes. "Every picket line we try to lead they laugh at us, how are we supposed to get their attention?"
Enjolras looked Bahorel dead in the eye and told the group of his brilliant plan.
"We're going to build a barricade."
And here it is! Hopefully there'll be more soon! Leave a comment/review follow/fav and until next time!