The ground crew re-patched the runway with a thin layer of correction paint. There was no time to waste; the next plane was coming in three minutes. The workers had established a steady flow of operations; people were tasked to unloading, repairing, shipping, and all the in-between tasks that made such a stressful demand possible. During the forty-five minute blockade, the city of Paperlin's only source of graphite blocks came from one unlikely supplier: the young student.

This was the deciding battlefield. The test that pitted the student against her teacher, to see if she could build Paperlin from the ground up with her current knowledge.

Another plane was coming in, this time marked with EVIDENCE. It landed on the runway. Workers unloaded giant graphite blocks, each inscribed with key terms: "Soviet aggression, "increased tensions in the Cold War," "Berlin Candy Bomber," and—

"Not in that order!" the supervisor barked, horrified.

The ground crew halted. One worker was just about to lay a block on a precarious ledge of the half-built building. After several seconds of panicked rearranging, if one tilted their head sideways, the blocks read: "The US utilized Gail Halvorsen, better known as the 'Berlin Candy Bomber' to promote American kindness fighting against Soviet aggression in the Berlin Blockade, villainizing the Soviets which consequently increased tensions in the Cold War." After all, there was no harm in repetition while explaining. It was like building a foundation, where originality didn't matter as much as function.

"Come in, come in," the supervisor called as eraser shavings whipped through the air. This plane had ANALYSIS stamped on it. Good, good. Now it just had to rely that it would be some sol analysis. If all went according to plan then the city of Paperlin would be nicely built, with most of its foundation in place. It told the story it needed to tell. Of course, nothing could stop the heartless red ink from critiquing their creation, but this had to be an improvement from last time. Hopefully—

A series of cries rose as an unidentified aircraft was spotted. The speck hovered in the gray sky, growing closer by the second.

"A last minute thought?" a worker suggested.

"No," the supervisor whispered. Her eyes flashed with recognition. "Not just any thought. It's a quote."

A single ray of sun leaked through the cloud cover to shine on the curved quote block. Fancy script was inscribed on its surface. It would make the star attraction of any building—given the building didn't collapse because of its fickle nature.

"Look! It's heading to our tower!" someone cried.

The supervisor knew there was no stopping the inevitable. Fate was stubborn. But as the quote drifted closer and closer, it glinted gold.

"What should we do? We shouldn't be parachuting quotes like last time. That'll just ruin all our work!" another worker called.

But goddamn, compared to the rest of their lackluster accomplishment, that quote looked promising. Cited by a historian whose viewpoint perfectly aligned with their own argument....

"Change of plans!" the supervisor called. She started dispatching orders for the building's rearrangement to accommodate the change. "Use the quote as part of EVIDENCE! Move it to—yes, there! Shift the ANALYSIS down—fine, good enough!"

Sentences were dismantled, and words were scrambled into a frenzy. Flecks of eraser shavings and graphite were scattered in the wind. The building they had practised so hard to build didn't look like what they had hoped for, but it was definitely taller than last time.

"Good enough," said the supervisor through an exhale.

As the last minutes of the blockade winded down, everything was polished and drilled into place. Graphite blocks cemented into the final draft. Just as the last screws were drilled in, the blockade ended. There were no special celebrations or cheering. The ground crew leapt back onto the ground, exhausted and disappointed that they couldn't include more. The sky filled with red planes. Pen-wielding minions landed and scurried over to the creation. Crimson ink decorated the paper landscape.

The supervisor watched from afar with the rest of her crew. "At least it didn't crash into the ground right away," she sighed, drinking coffee from her mug. Her fingerjoints ached, as everyone else's did.

"Is it strange that I feel proud of how our quote turned out?" a worker asked, turning to the building. It sparkled in the scarce sunlight.

"It was certainly a feat, considering the quote came out of nowhere." The supervisor scowled at the sky. "I just wish that there was a plan to train for these challenges. Here's to hoping we've improved by the next blockade, yeah?"

They clinked mugs.

Here was the paragraph this story referred to. It was part of one of my 45 minute essays. If the story is unclear, I was referring to the Berlin Blockade that happened when Stalin cut off food and supply lines from the Allied-occupied parts of Berlin, in Germany. There's an emphasis in history to not only know the content but understand the laws of causation and consequence, and explain everything in detail to support your argument. The quote is underlined.

"In addition, the US utilized Gail Halvorsen, better known as the "berlin Candy Bomber" to promote American kindness fighting against Soviet aggression in the Berlin Blockade, villainizing the Soviets which consequently increased tensions in the Cold War. After noticing that pilot Gail Halvorsen gave Berlin children candy during his routine drop-offs, Halvorsen was sent back to America for a press tour and public promotion of the Berlin Airlift effort. By presenting the moving narrative of a kind American pilot gifting starving children candy, it polarized the perpetrator of the blockade, the Soviets, as the indisputable villains that starved children. Lost in their quest for Russian security eh Soviets cruelly starved Berliners while the US presented its "act of heroism....[where] Americans overcame the residual hostility of the occupation," as stated by Kaete M. O'Connnell, effectively buying the Berliners' loyalty. As Germany's future under American rule became more likely, it increased tensions with the Soviets whose priority of keeping Germany under communist control was undermined, leading to the Cold War."