What are the Chances (Adelaide)

[Lani Hunter]

Lani sighed, he had never needed a tutor before. It was a wound to his pride and he would have much rather just dropped the class but it was frustrating that the numbers were foiling him. He had always been good at math and physics. He had literally blow through physics with flying colors, a little bit of his power for consequence but that wasn't really the point. The point was that everyone he's spoken to said that if he could do physics so easily that statistics would be a walk in the park. But it wasn't, not even close. Averages, medians, modes, those were all self explanatory. Root mean square error, probability, and correlation, those were all way over his head. The formulas were easy enough to memorize but he felt like he still didn't know what to put where and why. and they had a test coming up soon. So Lani was swallowing his pride because for once he cared how he did.

He had spoken to someone who said they could tutor him and he was eternally grateful. Lani had been met with difficulty academically when it came to memorizing straight facts and understanding what he was supposed to be getting out of this poem or that. But numbers had always made sense, his pride was wounded and he was stubborn for a long time but a few homeworks where he received and actual plea from the professor to stop by his office of seek further help and that had done it. That was all the more embarrassing. Lani was starting his day out with that and had a bag filled with notes and work and his book for statistics. He had chosen to do this early to get it out of the way, what he was really hoping for was for some magic to happen and for him to suddenly be able to understand statistics, unfortunately he also knew nothing in life worked by magic.

He had a scarf wrapped around his neck and a beanie tucked over his ears as it appeared yet another polar vortex had decided that Vermont just wasn't cold enough on it's own. He was bundled and sincerely hoping that the exposed skin on his face would be able to withstand the short walk from the bus stop to the library where he'd planned to meet Adelaide. He'd emailed her to set up and time and place and he wasn't sure if she would be able to be there on time, but Lani was a tad late because of the bus. He shuffled as quickly as possible into the library and beat the snow off his boots before continuing into the building. He stripped his scarf, hat and gloves off as he walked and he caught sight of Adelaide and gave a little wave. "Sorry I'm late, the bus is moving slow."

[Adelaide McLisk]

Add technically didn't want to tutor anyone. However, she had been instructed to associate with people as often as possible, and the powers that be had made it abundantly clear that this was to be done. Add herself didn't mind overmuch; people were rather interesting in individual instances, though perhaps not as a mass. Too many steps back and someone just became a number; up close, they became an interesting combination of defied possibilities.

That and Add was fairly certain that she wanted to work at Hammel, and having something like "willingly tutored students" on her resume was probably a good idea.

She'd arrived to the library early, as she often did. Even in her short time at Greenview, Add had grown used to the library being her home. Books weren't quite numbers, but there was something to be said for silence and diligence in working. That and the probabilities that dwelt therein were absolutely fascinating.

The polar vortex hit though, and it would have caught Add unawares had she not, well, been able to figure out the math. Enough probabilities could get you anywhere. She'd also half figured that Lani would be late as well, having gleaned a fair amount from his emails and her other communications.

"The weather inversely impacts all such modes of transportation," agreed Add. She looked up at Lani and paused. The probabilities.... there were just... a lot, a whole lot there, flitting about. She could nearly feel a math-coma coming on, so she forced a smile. Information, she needed more to solidify probabilities and variables. "You are requesting help for statistics, yes?" Of course, but she was hoping to nudge him into giving her more information. variables must be solidified; she just had to hope that there wouldn't be more spinning out.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani was glad that he had found a tutor at all and it was nice that she had been able to meet and unlike normal class or power training Lani felt bad taking up this girl’s time without showing up. Even though the weather had made Lani only want to snuggle into his blankets. He’d never actually interacted with Adelaide before he had emailed her with his plea for help. He only guessed who she was in the library because not a lot of people were motivated enough to be lurking around the library on a day like this. At least he was getting help from a fellow student with whom he might be able to exchange the favor instead of having to go to his professor and be walked through the same old thing, yet again, usually in the same way they taught in class which was a whole lot of not useful.

He smiled charmingly at the girl as she spoke and nodded. “Yeah, sorry, I’m Lani, you must be Adelaide?” He questioned though he may or may not have also looked her up in the system. He waited for the answer and flopped down in the chair on the adjacent side of the table and dropped his books on the ground. “It is brutal out there,” he said conversationally as he piled his scarf and other winter gear on the corner of the table away from them and shrugged off his coat giving himself a moment to warm up and for his mind to catch up with what he was doing. Statistics. Right. He fixed the sleeves of his shirt as he bent to retrieve his books and a pencil. As a consequence of his scattered mind his books and notes were just as unorganized. Organization was just something Lani didn’t think he needed. He knew were everything was, who else needed to know?

He flipped his book open and tossed a few pages past to get to the right chapter. “Thank you so much,” he said politely, “I really appreciate it. I’m so lost.” He looked up at her and his eyes were bright and engaged as he waited for her to tell him how she would like to tackle this whole business. This was the first time Lani had been to see a tutor and he automatically assumed that she knew what she was doing both in regards to statistics and how this whole thing worked.

[Adelaide McLisk]

"I am indeed Adelaide McLisk," said Add. She paused for a moment, then asked: "Why else would you have approached me and I have asked you if you were interested in statistics? It is extremely unlikely that there would be another set of circumstances that would yield such results," Add, of course, knew the exact math there, or as close as was possible. The numbers were fuzzy without more data, particularly more data on Lani. Add knew more than she cared to about her own statistical anomalies.

A thanks,  an expression of appreciation, and a proclamation of a fundamental lack of direction; Add took them all with a fairly blank expression on her face, blinking almost owlishly and staring at Lani while he gathered things together. Math she understood, and she had done the tutoring thing before. In truth, working one on one with someone on something that Add understood was probably one of her strongest suits. That didn't mean she knew particularly how to start now. She hadn't done much tutoring in her time at college, mostly because that would have required attending more class than Add had managed previously.

"You are the one requiring my aid," said Add, shifting so that she was slightly closer to Lani, "ergo it makes the most sense if you would tell me what you are looking for from these sessions. I am more than willing to provide you with aid in improving your understanding of statistics and math, assuming that you are attentive," Add paused for a moment, feeling that she needed to let that particular statement sink in a bit. "However, I cannot be certain as to where you are in your studies and how much aid you require." In other words, as always, Add was hungry for information. Solidify the variables, give her mind what it craved.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani smiled and nodded in acceptance of the fact and just shrugged at the facts she spouted. “Or… it could just be the fact that you’re one of the two people in the library,” Lani suggested and glanced around, there were in fact closer to ten people but many were already in pairs or isolated in their own worlds with headphones in and clearly not wanting to be bothered. That left Adelaide to be as she was, she was the only logical choice and honestly Lani would have been rather embarrassed if it wasn’t her, especially since he had looked her up to make sure he didn’t sketchily approach the wrong person. He bit back a sigh as he sat and tried not to roll his eyes, if this was how this whole thing was gonna go Lani was gonna have a hell of a time.

As Lani dug out his stuff he took a moment to measure her and to make a quick catalogue of features out of the corner of his eye. She was pretty indeed but with that expression on her face he wondered slightly if she ever smiled. Lani looked at her again and raised a brow as if waiting for a question somewhere in that speech. A lot could be said in few words, Lani knew, and it was clear, he would work or she would drop him. Fair enough. He nodded and took the last part as a question and flipped through the chapter. “It’s not the math I’m having a problem with, it’s everything else. I can’t figure out where to put what and why,” he said hoping that made some sort of sense. “I just wanna be able to pass this class,” he half sighed, just talking to fill the silence as he flipped pages.

“Here,” he said turning the book a little so she could see it as well, Chapter 2: Probability. “We’ve got a test… next Tuesday? Anyways I mean the ‘u’ looking thing and the ‘n’ looking thing mean absolutely nothing to me and then suddenly there are factorials and ks and I… I have no idea. They throw out names and variables but I can’t figure out where to put anything.” There was a tad of a strain of annoyance and frustration that snuck into Lani’s tone.