A Brand New Outlook [History Class!/Open]

[Morgan Tonaya]

Morgan was starting to wonder if his students would like his long-term sub more than they liked him. Over the past several months he’d been out a lot: first with his immediate injury, then therapy, doctor’s visits, and now a week and a half away with his newest medical happenstance. Though he had to say, this had been the best one yet.

The doctors has always said he might get a measure of his vision back, but they never said when or how much. He was content to wear glasses the rest of his life if it meant he could see the sun leaking in his classroom .

Having regained so much of his eyesight, Morgan felt like a new man. Certainly there were still some difficulties -- his eyes were sensitive in the light, and he had problems reading – but he could hardly complain.

And he definitely couldn’t wait to tell the kids.

[Jared Park]

And Jared woke up late. Again.

This time however, the boy says he has a perfectly ‘valid’ excuse. Unlike those other times when he rushed to class without even getting breakfast or even taking a bath (he argues it only happened once; ok maybe twice), he didn’t stay up late trying to beat Bell in Modern Warfare or trying to rope AJ have a second shot in pranking the snot out of Danicca (he says he knows how to take care of that giant of a brother of hers). Nope, this time the boy says he stayed up late because of his History homework. That it took him all night to complete his four-page essay on the state of the prisoners-of-war during World War I. Sure it has been assigned almost a month ago, that he only started reading the material he gathered two nights ago, but still.

So there the boy went, running as fast as he can from the dorm complex to his classroom – hair barely combed, shirt not properly buttoned, bag carelessly slung over one shoulder and the precious report clutched tightly around his chest. “Ohmigod, I’m so late! Ahh!” yelped the young boy as he bumped into his History teacher, his papers flying all over the place (didn’t have time to staple them apparently). “Oh! Mr. Tonaya? You’re back? You can see me, can you?” Yes, the Canadian also forgot that Ms. Greenfield already said goodbye two days ago.

[Levi Xu]

History was one of the few classes where Levi was with other students his age. He tried to keep it quiet, and said he was in remedial classes because of how much he missed when he was homeschooled. Then it was a joke, instead of the other students knowing that even before he'd been pulled out of school, he hadn't been in regular classes.

But Mr. Tonaya's class--okay, it had been Ms. Greenfield's class for most of the time he'd been a part of it--was different. So much of the information was simply what was covered in class, out loud. Levi could deal with that, and luckily, no one ever asked him for his notes. (They were nearly illegible, and he rarely took any notes anyway. He remembered so much of what he heard, he didn't need them.)

He also liked the class because despite his previous dislike for Mr. Tonaya, he'd realized that Jake had betrayed them both. And the teacher never said anything, even though he knew more about Levi's past than most people at the school.

Levi also had his paper with him, having just printed it out at the computer lab. The teenager was proud of it, and not just because he hadn't stalled on it like so much of his other homework. He'd written the whole thing over the course of several days of sitting at the end of Evan's hospital bed, talking it out with the older boy and letting him offer corrections whenever he needed them. It was a decent paper, if he said so himself.

Hopefully, Mr. Tonaya would say so too. Levi didn't sit at the front of the class, but got a good enough view of Jared plowing into their teacher that he cracked up and started laughing as the papers went flying. He picked up one that floated down and landed by his feet, then held it up for Jared to take. "Nice one, Jared."

[Morgan Tonaya]

Morgan was turning to see who was coming into the class on the cusp of the bell when Jared collided with him. The blonde man stumbled back slightly, chuckling at his flustered student and catching a paper as it floated down near his knees. Holding it out to Jared, Morgan nodded. “Yes, I can see you just fine now that I have my glasses.” Morgan explained, smiling widely. “When you get them all in order, you can use the stapler on my desk to fasten your papers together.”

Looking over the class, Morgan noticed that it looked a bit more bare than he remember. His eyes fell on Levi and he smiled, nodding slightly to the boy. He had been in and out of classes since Levi’s enrollment, but had been keeping a close ear out for news of his progress. He seemed to be doing well, or as well as someone in his situation could be. Morgan didn’t know where he really stood with Levi, but didn’t care to bring up any painful memories.

“Since I think we’re still missing a few bodies, we’ll wait a bit to actually start the class.” Morgan instructed, leaning on the front of his desk and smiling at the class. “That being said, Ms. Greenfield said you all were pretty good, all things considered. Thanks for that.” He commended, nodding softly. “Are there any questions for me before we get started?”

[Jared Park]

And of course he’s managed to make an utter fool out of himself in front of class. As if that’s anything new.

Having done something similar or worse over the past few months, Jared simply shook his head and grinned as the snickering and laughter began. Nothing he can do about it, and well, he’s managed not to let it bother him. After all, it’s not like he’s bullied out of the classroom because of it (they can’t catch a video of him, and thus it’s not that bad).

“Glasses? But I thought you went blind?” asked the boy as he received a paper from Morgan. Seems like tact was one of the few things the Canadian dropped when he fell on his bum. He knelt down and began collating the rest of his paper, smiling widely as Levi handed him another one. “Oh you haven’t seen nothing yet. This is just my dry run,” he whispered with a grin, “Get ready for gym class with Mr. Demidov later. He’d be blown out of his mind.”

All his wayward pages in hand, Jared promptly went to the side of the classroom towards Mr. Tonaya’s desk and grabbed the stapler. He sat on the ground as he organized his essay, thankful that he followed Robbie’s advice last night to put page numbers on them. “Thanks Mr. Tonaya,” he said as he walked towards one of the empty chairs, “Oh I have one. If you don’t mind, that is.” He brushed his hair a bit and arranged the buttons of his shirt as he flashed a huge grin to Morgan. Quite the omen, as it seems. “How’d you lose your eyesight? Or is that a little off topic at the moment?”

Nope. Jared thinks it’s perfectly fine to ask sensitive questions like that.

[Aaron Walker]

AJ was also running late to class. Unlike Jared, he hadn’t overslept. He had a much more valid excuse. He’d been running around the campus looking for his pocket watch. He was certain he’d had it on two or three days ago when he was sliding down the stairs on his mattress, but he couldn’t recall if he’d seen it since.

He burst into the room only a few seconds behind Jared. Having missed the collision between his pal and the teacher, he still managed to figure out from the papers the two were collecting that there was some sort of assignment. Picking up a sheet near the door, he glanced at the heading. “Oh man,” he said as he handed the page back to it’s owner. “That was due today?”

He looked towards the teacher, plans for an elaborate excuse already flying around in his head, when he realized the teacher looked unfamiliar. “Wait…you’re not a woman.” He glanced around the room at the other students, wondering if he’d shown up in the wrong class again. But the faces seemed to fit with what he remembered.

Still wearing a confused look, AJ took the seat next to Levi. “I’m awake right?" he asked, leaning towards the other boy. "Cuz I think I had a dream like this before.” He shuddered. “It didn’t end well.”

Finally, things clicked in his head when the subject of blindness came up. “Did you smear yourself with some toxic ooze or something?” he asked, joining Jared’s lack of sensitivity. “Cuz my uncle sent me this comic and I think some guy did that. Or wait…maybe the ooze made him blind…’

[Danicca Waylan]

[D]A[N]I[C]C!?

Of course Dani was in the class for the subject she hated the most with the two people that hated her the most. They just hadn't paid much attention to that fact, as History was the one subject Dani stayed stone silent in. She hated it. Math, no problem. English, she could do. Really, give her anything but History and she'd be completely fine and even have fun with it.

Despite the fact that she was usually completely silent in hopes of not drawing the teacher's attention too much, Dani couldn't hold in the laughter at the two numskulls' scrambling. As she settled, shifting in her chair in the front row, far corner, she waited for the class to actually start and twirled a pencil around between her fingers, glaring down at the textbook.

She was glad Mr. Tonaya was back, really. He somehow managed to make at least some of this stuff stick in her brain, whereas Ms. Greenfield--no offence to her teaching skills intended--honestly just confused Dani. And even called Dani out on "not putting much effort in" before everyone else had arrived for class one day.

In the end, Dani tuned back into the conversation that was happening. And could not stop herself from smacking her forehead with the palm of her hand. I am surrounded by idiots, She thought dramatically.

[Levi Xu]

Levi nodded back at Mr. Tonaya. Even if he'd never say it, he had a lot of respect for the man. He'd seen Levi at his worst, when he was begging Jake to take him along, wherever he was going, on the run from M.S.A.D. And he'd never taken that out on him. Plus, he really did like history class, even if he didn't talk much during it.

He got up and turned in his paper, already neatly stapled and proofread by his boyfriend. Another reason why he liked this class was that he never felt like he was doing significantly worse than the other students. At his old school, he'd been very aware when his classwork was below standard. Here...well, AJ had apparently forgot the assignment entirely, and Jared's had flown all over the classroom. All together, he felt pretty well-off. So he smiled weakly at his classmate's question and leaned in slightly to answer back, "Nah, I don't think so. In dreams, you can fly even when it's not your power, and I can't." Seemed reasonable enough to him.

When Mr. Tonaya asked for questions, Levi looked down at his desk. He had a lot to ask, but none were anything about class, and he really didn't feel like asking about Jake. If he was still in contact with Mr. T, well, Levi didn't want to know, because the next question would be why not him? Of course, Jared's question was interesting, particularly with AJ's addition. He leaned forward, interested to hear what Mr. Tonaya had to say, completely missing that it made Dani the least insensitive member of the class, by default.

[Morgan Tonaya]

So much for avoiding that question. The smile on Morgan’s face faltered for a moment, betraying how awkward he felt bending the truth around his students. “It’s a little off topic, but I’ll entertain it for now. But only to make sure you kids still like me after I’ve been gone for so long.” He managed a good natured chuckle at AJ.

“That would be Daredevil. And no, I didn’t fall into toxic ooze or anything like that.” Morgan scratched the back of his head, feeling like smacking his palm to his face. Fortunately Dani took over the sentiment for him. “I damaged my eyes after losing control of my power. I was in a situation where the abilities of another meta-human interfered with my control, and I taped into a portion of my abilities that I was never meant to manipulate.” Morgan clasped his hands in front of his lap, hoping to get his vague point across without scaring anyone.

“The brain --- meta or otherwise --- is a powerful thing. Sometimes our bodies lock away things that we can do, but should.” He stood up and adjusted the papers, putting them away in his briefcase. “Otherwise we’ll hurt ourselves! Think of it like a…really obnoxious side-effect.”
He said, shrugging. “But thanks to a miracle and some very good doctors, I can see again.”

Sliding his briefcase next to his desk chair, Morgan faced his students again. “Anything else?”