Claudine positively beamed at Schmoe. “Thanks again, professor. This is such a fun lesson, by the way.” So thanks for planning it and all… she hoped he filled in those words because she couldn’t bring herself to be all sentimental. As presentations got on the way, the Snakette used her colour pencils to colour her drawings as best as she could. The downside about doing artwork in classes was that there was limited time to work with. This meant that she couldn’t spend as much time as she would have liked on the poster. Still, it came out passable in the end.

When Schmoe gave her his thumbs up, she proceeded to the front of the class where she held up her poster for all to see. Presentations… Claudine despised them. Goodness, there were so many pairs of eyes on her. Her gaze settled on the wall at the back of the classroom.

“The Handy Dandy Computer/Laptop Cleaner. As the poster shows, this neat little device will get dust, food particles, fur and other debris out from between the keys of laptops or computers. Debris is usually a hassle for muggles as they can cause the keys to stick or simply stop working.” Here, Claudine paused to take a huge breath. She’d better wrap it up before she passed out or something. Did everyone know the pressure introverts were under whenever they had to do public speaking?! “As shown here, the device has a sticky pad on the bottom that helps with the cleaning which is easily stuck between the keys by the super thin point to which it is attached. Um, yeah. That’s it.” The Slytherin bolted back to her seat as quickly as she could without breaking into a run.

In the end, Heath decided that there wasn’t enough time for him to come up with a good (or even passable) poster in addition to his skit, so he decided to make a prop out of notebook paper instead. He tore a page from his notebook and folded it until it was about the size of a 4x6 picture frame. He drew a square in the middle with a simple drawing of a landscape: grass, mountains, and a sun shining inside the square to represent the way the FastTrack looked when not in use. Around the perimeter of the paper, he drew eight black circles (one in each corner and one halfway down each side) for the sensors.

He was so absorbed in the task that it took him a minute to register Professor Schmoe’s voice. He smiled, acknowledging the praise, but those questions got him thinking. “Yes.” he replied to the first one. “That way, the user doesn’t have to know which room an object is in to find it.” The other two questions required a bit more thought. He hadn’t initially thought of using the FastTrack in vehicles, but he didn’t see any reason why it couldn’t. The device was small enough to fit into a car. All he’d have to do was modify the wall mount so that it could clip onto a car visor. Actually, he rather liked that idea. Thanks for the inspiration, Professor! “Yes, the FastTrack is compact enough to fit into a vehicle. It includes a clip that attaches to the back so it can clip onto a car visor.”

As for the last question, he had to think for a minute. Based on his own experiences with muggle technology, new gadgets tended to be expensive when they were first released, but the prices went down when they became more commonplace. “I imagine it would be, at least at first,” he said. “Then the price would go down once supply caught up to the demand.” Was that a cop-out answer? He felt like it was!

Heath kept working during the presentations, mentally preparing a script for his skit as he put the finishing touches on his prop. He flipped the paper over and drew the same design on the reverse side, except this time there was no scene in the middle of the square to show the FastTrack in use. He did look up from his work in time to catch Claudine’s presentation. He watched with rapt attention from start to finish, giving her an encouraging smile as she returned to her seat. He knew how hard public speaking was for her! “Great job,” he whispered.

Soon his name was called, and Heath made his way to the front of the room. He took a deep breath, getting into character, and spoke with the loud, booming voice of an infomercial announcer, "Key not where it's supposed to be? Haven't seen your pen since you don't know when? You can search hither and yon, but that important item's gone! Not anymore! Now you can track your lost things fast with the FastTrack!”

He held up the paper model, gesturing to the dots at the corners and sides. “The FastTrack uses sensors to scan and catalogue every object in your home and stores the information in a database. To search a missing item, just type in the name or number, and the FastTrack does the rest.The sensors will scan the room top to bottom to find your missing item, no matter where it may hide.” He pretended to type on the model’s “screen” and held it out so that the following words were visible: ITEM #96000: SCANNING… “Lightweight and compact, the FastTrack can go anywhere - it even fits in your car! And best of all, the FastTrack’s screen displays a calming landscape scene when not in use, perfect to match any room decor!” He held the model with the other size - the one with the drawing - facing out.

“Order now to get your FastTrack for five easy payments of $49.95 - BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! Order in the next ten minutes, and you’ll get not one but two additional FastTracks FREE, just pay an additional processing fee. Hang a FastTrack in the bedroom! Put one in the kitchen! You can even put a FastTrack in the bathroom! To order, call 1-800-555-FAST or visit www.fasttrack.com. Track your stuff fast with the FastTrack!”

And…. scene! Finishing his infomercial skit, Heath bowed with a dramatic flourish and returned to his seat.

All the bread in classes these days was honestly the best thing ever and Apollo would challenge anyone who thought differently. Like HELLO, HUNGRY ALMOST!TEENAGER and GROWING BOY. Although he wasn't sure how much bread did for helping him grow, but at least he never had to worry about being hungry between meals anymore.

He'd been quietly nomming his way through another slice of bread when the avalanche happened, in which the second year rocked back in his chair in alarm. He was fine though. They were fine. It was just apparently Schmoe being ... Schmoe? And quite disorganized from the look of things in his cabinet? Although he supposed it was to be expected - his mother was always going off about him and his messy room. But Schmoe was a grown person so shouldn't he have developed some sense of organization by now? He was picking up random items, half looking for the markers, but not really.... mostly just munching away on the bread.

Oh, naming muggle gizmos and gadgets! Apollo frowned at the male James whom he didn't really know too well being in a different house. Wasn't Ravenclaws supposed to be smart though?? Cause muggle dueling? He was pretty sure that was a scalp massager! Oh, as the Slytherin girl corrected. Good for her. Lots of sharp objects though... but that rolly thing was a pizza cutter!! Cause what twelve year old boy DIDN'T know what a pizza cutter was, wizard or muggle, honestly. You'd have to live in a box if you didn't know that.

Moving on though to inconveniences on their lives that wizards could fix with a simple spell. Injuries and broken bones? Staying awake to study for exams or write a paper, muggles typically had a hard time doing that without overdosing on caffeine, but wizards could just take a pepperup potion. Which, now that Apollo thought about, wasn't really a good example since that was a magical version to caffeine. Oh, the spilling something on one's shirt was a good one though. Or finding lost objects. Or even reaching objects that were outside one's height limitations.

That was the limitation he was going to go with ... given that he hadn't exactly reached his growth spurt yet and hated the fact that Margaret (among others) were taller than him.

SPOILER!!: Apollo's Notes

Issue: Objects are located outside of the height limitations of the individual.
Proposal: Special shoes that allow the vertically challenged individual to jump up safely to reach the item they desire. The shoes would be comfortable to walk in, but act as mini trampolines when needed.

He worked carefully on his poster in hopes to make something eye-catching while simultaneously listening and glancing up at his peers. Once it was his time to go, he carried his posted up to the front of the room

"Ever go walking through a store and realize you need something at the very top shelf but it's totally unsafe to start climbing the shelves and risk falling down or pulling the shelving unit down. So that's where my invention comes into play. Introducing Jumpy Shoes. You wear them like normal shoes and they come in all different styles, but the BEST part about them?? When you need to reach that item that's way out of your height range, you just jump and it engages the trampoline mode so the more you jump, the higher you can go to get what you need safely. No ladders required!!"

Cool, right? Hopefully.

Ooh Schmoe had a good point. And she didn’t want to admit it but she had to give the man some credit. He was quick and could ask the perfect question.

Lisa pouted momentarily and picked up the piece of parchment and started rolling it up. She let it crinkle up and then paused. Hmm….. AHA! She stopped the crumpling of parchment when an idea came to her. EUREKA. “Stress! It’ll work like a gem in procrastinators which is a targeted audience…. and when you’re stressed, you sweat? So your body temperature goes up soooooo maybe the tattoo goes darker?” she said confidently (EVEN WHEN SHE WASNT CONFIDENT). She just supposed that when people got stressed that they got sweaty and then that could someHOW make the ink darker. But she wasn’t exactly sure…. “Maybe that’s the uhhh BETA version….. ?”

Finneas was having a grand ol' time watching each and every presentation. He was sure to show his enthusiasm with a standing ovation each time and two thumbs up. He'd give more thumbs if he had more than just the two.

Er. AnYwAy. In all the good fun, he had lost track of time and with one swift look over at his watch, it became quite apparent that the lesson needed to come to a quick close. Whoops! Time sure does fly when you're in Muggle Studies, amiright!?

The Schmoester cleared his throat, addressing the class as best he could. "Er, it appears as though we've run out of time! Anyone who didn't have a chance to present yet, er, please be ready to do so next class!" He bobbed his head and looked around the room. "You'll have some time to put away your supplies and er.. And anyone who would be willing to stick back and help me organize, it would, er, it would be appreciated!" Was that all? Oh. And also. "Homework will be posted to the noticeboard by this evening. Er. See you next time, everyone."

Okay. THAT was everything. He was sure of it.

OOC: Thanks for such a grand time y'all! I'll leave this thread open for another few hours in case anyone wants to wrap things up!