We all learn (Dryope)

[Mia Bell]

Mia walked out of her dorm and headed down stairs. Today was going to be an interesting one. She was supposed to be tutoring another student and she wasn’t sure how that was going to go. She has never tutored any before, this would be her first; Mia wasn’t really sure how she should be doing their sessions either. She didn’t really give much thought to it. She looked at her cell before she walked through the dorm doors to the outside to make sure the other student hadn’t canceled on her. Half of her was hoping and wishing the student will cancel but the other half of her knew she should really just get this first session done and over with.

Mia took a deep breath as she felt the sun light on her skin. She was glad she was actually wearing shorts this time around. However, she was wearing leg warmers, but they weren’t really ‘warm’. Leg warmers were made out of a thinner material than jeans were. Therefore, she was quite comfortable with her outfit. She walked to the courtyard, walking around it till she found a good tree to sit under that would provide shade. They could more somewhere more comfortable if the girl so wanted to when she got here. But Mia had told her that she would be at the court yard under a tree. She also told her she a bright pink hair, the hair helped when meeting people like this. She knew she was probably one of the rare people with their haired dyed an unnatural color. Now the girl only had to wait, she was getting more nervous by the second as she waited. She kept wondering what this girl was going to be like; appearance and personality wise.

[Amber Krasenski]

Amber was not looking forward to this tutoring session. It wasn't that he had anything against Mia; he had seen her around, even if they hadn't spoken. And she had neon hair, which was cool, even if he wouldn't dye his hair himself; although he didn't go to great lengths to hide his body, he wasn't too keen on calling attention to it, either, even with fun hair colors.

In any event, his only hesitation involved the actual tutoring, and not his tutor. He hadn't been thrilled when Coach Campbell had suggested it, but he had to maintain his grades in order to stay on the soccer team, which was a huge bummer, in his opinion. Who needed school, anyway? He'd already tried tutoring with Payson, and now that she was too busy with gymnastics to spend free time with him he wasn't keen on picking up with someone else.

Still, he really admired Coach Campbell, and wanted his good esteem. As such, he gamely made his way to the courtyard at the appointed time, quickly spying his tutor (not particularly difficult; the last student with pink hair he could recall had graduated a few years before).

"Heeeeey!" He greeted as he neared, slinging his book bag onto the ground before dropping down between it and the other student.

"I'm Amber! So Coach Campbell tells me you're really smart and good at this whole school thing, right? Man, you're so lucky, school is hard. I guess I wouldn't be here otherwise, right? So...yeah. Your name is Mia, right? Do you ever get compared to Mia Keystone? I'm so glad she's graduating, she kind of scares me, but you don't seem scary, even if you are good with numbers and stuff."

He paused to take a breath, then added, "It's nice to meet you."

[Mia Bell]

Mia took out one of her notebooks and started writing random lyrics from random songs that were stuck in her head at the moment. She was waiting for Amber to show up, it was her fault really she was the one that showed up early. She was fine with that though, she liked the quiet time she was having. It also let her get comfortable and relax, trying to let go of her nervousness and anxieties. She had freely signed up to tutor something, but the thing was she knew next to nothing about doing so. She sighed wondering if this was all just a bad idea. She didn’t know anything really about Amber, just that she needed help and her grades weren’t very good. She knew the girl was also on the soccer team, which meant that the young woman’s grades needed to be around the B range for her to keep playing.

Sports weren’t really her thing, she rather be rocking out on a stage with no crowd what-so-ever than in one of the ugly looking uniforms they made you wear. Though she liked playing just to play them, having two brothers sports came up quite a bit in her household. So She knew how to play soccer and basketball, she also knew how to throw a football, they had played tackle and flag football often. So she was a tomboy in ways, sports being one of them, she just liked playing to just play, no uniforms, no keeping track of the score and a lot of playful teasing.


Mia looked up at the girl in front of her and smiled “Hi” She knew she was Amber. Even though she didn’t play, she often times went to the games, just because she had nothing better to do. She watched her place her bag on the ground and then watched the girl sit. She blinked as she listened to the girl talk. Now she knew this was going to be interesting. She smiled when she was done and nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah I know who you are, I’ve seen you play soccer games, You’re quite good. I am good at this whole school thing.” She said with a warm smile. She stopped and shrugged a bit “I guess it depends on the person. But I would love to help it become easier for you.”

She bit her lip trying to remember what else the girl had asked, trying her best to answer all of her questions. “Yes I’m Mia.” She knew her name had probably gotten around school and she knew people probably referred to her as the ‘pink haired girl’ but didn’t mind one bit. She shook her head “No, I can’t say anyone has, considering I have only heard of this girl through gossip. I personally don't like the thought of being compared to someone else.” She heard a few things, mostly gossip around school. But no one had ever directly compared her to this other girl. She was her own person, she had a unique personality, everyone did. She didn't believe in comparing people because everyone is different and comparing people didn't change that. She smiled shyly “Thanks I guess.. I’m glad I don’t seem scary.”

Mia simply nodded and gave the girl a warm smile “It’s nice to finally personally meet you too. “ She took a deep breath. “So am I your first tutor? Or did you have one before?” She was wondering where she should start, if she had a tutor before her than they could just start of where the other one left. Right?

[Amber Krasenski]

"Thanks!" Amber was thoroughly flattered by Mia's compliments; it was rare for any of the other students to bother watching games they weren't involved in. That was, perhaps, the danger of sports that were entirely intramural.

And her reassurance that nobody had ever compared her to Keystone elicited a sigh of relief; he wouldn't want a tutor who behaved like Mia Keystone, even if she was supposed to be brilliant.

"Yeah," He nodded in confirmation when she asked about former tutors. "Payson Hartley. But she got too busy with gymnastics."

That probably should have been easy to predict, given her level of talent there, and the rumors she was going to be in the Olympics.

"We were working on home ec when she left," He supplied helpfully. Granted, that had been because he was skipping classes, but he didn't think that was pertinent to add.

[Mia Bell]

Mia gave her one of her warm smiles. She liked watching sports games; it was just another thing she had to thank the men in her family for. They even watched sports at thanksgiving when most of her family was there; sports were kind of big with the men, not so much for the woman. Till Mia came along, instead of having girl talk with her cousins, aunts, grandmother and her mother she would join the guys in watching the football game.

Mia nodded the name sounded familiar, and she was sure she never met the girl even though she was bad with names. It didn’t really matter, the girl had, had another tutor which made things a little easier for Mia.

She bit her lip, home ec wasn’t her favorite subjects, but it wasn’t her least favorite. There were parts she liked and then other parts she didn’t, the cooking part being the part she didn’t. She was a horrible cook, she could probably send someone to the hospital with her bad cooking. “Alright. “ The question was where should she go from there? “Okay truth be told, this is the first time I have tutored anyone.. So I’m probably going to be a little lame at it..” She hoped she got better as time went on. “Hmm.. What part in home ec are you having the most trouble with?”

[Amber Krasenski]

"That's okay!" Amber reassured Mia hurriedly; he didn't care if she was lame, so long as his grades coasted along at the bare minimum. That was what was important; he wasn't here to learn, what a ridiculous notion.

Her question was very valid, and he had to stop himself from blurting out attending. That would have been entirely too honest, and would have defeated the whole purpose of having a tutoring session.

"Ms. Reynolds was teaching baking and all that beating and...stuff. With the beater....thing."

Perhaps if he had paid more attention to the terminology his class wouldn't have been quite so difficult.

"Umm I think there was....folding. And ummm....maybe I should have brought the recipe she gave us to practice...." He realized.

[Mia Bell]

Mia blinked; of course, it had to be cooking. She mentally cursed herself for sucking at cooking. Her description of what they were learning now didn’t help either. She had a blank face on. Amber was going to have to get another student to help with the cook part… “Uh… Alright…” She scratched the back of her head, trying to figure out where to go from here with that. She raised an eyebrow, folding? Folding what? She shook her head.

Mia looked around “Uh.. Well considering we’re not in a kitchen, I think we should skip the cooking part for now? We can work on the cooking tomorrow?” She would have to find someone who is in this class and knows how to cook to show her a few tips. That or tag along. She strongly believes in following examples, no one really learned if they weren’t given examples or instructions. It was just how the mind worked. Though there were cases where either of those things helped, like with her and cooking. Mia really hoped her excuse worked.

Mia looked up at the sky and noticed grey clouds coming and wondered I it was her or not. She could never tell anymore. She guessed it would help if she actually watched the weather channel. Or got one of those weather apps or her ipod touch. Mia shook her head “It wouldn’t have matter if you did or not… I’m more of a hands on approach kind of girl so I doubt I would be able to help you unless we were in a kitchen.” She really didn’t feel like getting lost to find the kitchen at this time either. Unless the other girl knew where it was; which she was sure she.

[Amber Krasenski]

Amber was relieved when Mia suggested they skip the cooking lessons; fortunately, Ms. Reynolds wasn't particularly stern (unless bullying was involved; then she was downright terrifying) and so if he made a complete mess of everything she would probably forgive him, if not pass him out of pity.

He would take pity.

"Oh, that makes sense. We can skip the cooking," He agreed. Which meant that they needed to come up with some other coursework to spend their time on; not that he was particularly keen on that. He wondered if Mia would notice if he frittered away all their time socializing.

"Well, I do have some Algebra homework you could help me with," He suggested, unzipping his bag and rummaging around for his school binder and pulling out a rather rumpled looking worksheet.

"I don't understand how anyone is good at this." He sighed, staring in consternation at the equations. "Who came up with math, anyway?"

[Mia Bell]

Mia would really need to find someone who knew how to cook and bring them along for their next session. She sighed, when she agreed to skip the cooking lesson. ‘thank god..’ she thought, all she need was to make herself look like a fool. Everyone had something they weren’t good at right? She didn’t know the teacher very well, so she hopped this wouldn’t affect the girls homework or anything if they waited another day. “alright then.”


Now she was glad she brought up Algebra home work. She was good at math, and science, and history, and even English. Cooking was her down fall; Unfortunately. she wondered if Cameron or Jez knew how to cook. She placed her regular number two pencil in her mouth (the eraser side) and started chewing on it as she looked at her homework. No, she wouldn’t realize that they talked most of the time, because she was a huge talker and most of the time never realized it. That was something the blonde girl could get away with.

Mia started giving the girl tips on how to solve the problems and show her the easy ways to work them out. But not giving her the answers to them. She was against cheating and kept telling herself not to accidently give the girl the answers.

Mia gave Amber a warm smile “It’s not hard once you get the hang of it…” Then again she really didn’t know how it’s like on the other girl’s side. She never had trouble with math, or her other subjects. “Uh different cultures and civilizations, the Greeks were the ones to come up with numbers.. . But Al-Khwarizmi was the one who came up with Algebra.”

{OCC: I totally had to google who invented math to get that answer… I’m not that smart. And I hope it’s okay to do tutoring part like what I did.. I suck at math..}

[Amber Krasenski]

((it's totally fine, I am terrible at math too so I don't mind glossing over that part XD ))

Amber squinted seriously as Mia explained how to perform the equations. It seemed simple enough when she was showing him, but it felt like knowledge melted out his ears when he had to answer on his own.

"Al who?" And here he thought that Krasenski was a difficult last name; nope, other people had lengthier ones. He supposed that was a relief.

"I think I got it, though! Thanks!"

The real show of skill would be if he could pass his next Algebra test; answering some homework with the help of someone much smarter was perhaps not the same.

"So how did you get to be so smart anyway?"

[Mia Bell]

Mia chuckled a bit at the girl’s difficulty of saying his name. “Yeah it’s a tough one, it took me awhile before I was able to get it down.” She was glad she could answer the girl’s question, even if it was a rhetorical one. She was just hoping she was teaching the other girl the right way, if there was a right or wrong way. She wanted to help the girl and wouldn’t be doing that if she couldn’t pass tests.

Mia blushed a little at the semi complement. “I guess it’s a gift really…” She didn’t have to try hard at all when it came to school work. It was something that came naturally to her. It made her feel a little weird helping someone who had problems with school work because of that though. Since she didn’t have an understanding of how difficult it could be.

Mia heard thunder and looked up at the sky to see lighting as dark clouds covered the sky. It was sunny just a moment ago; she was feeling a bit sad for reasons not having to do with the girl in front of her but her own personal issues. “Uh.. I think we should go inside now..” Right after she said that it started pouring.

{ooc: hope it’s alright to bring the rain in now. Kind of didn’t know what else to do…}

[Amber Krasenski]

Amber glanced up as clouds began to unexpectedly gather. Funny, it had been so clear when he had first met up with Mia. Had there been expectations of rain? Maybe he should start checking the weather before scheduling tutoring sessions outside....

"Ack!" He began gathering up his things with alacrity the moment the rain began to fall in earnest, drenching the two students. "Definitely a good plan!"

He scurried back towards the school, holding the door open just long enough to allow Mia to follow him in before letting it slam shut behind them.

"Thanks," He offered breathlessly, pushing dank hair out of his face. Maybe if he cut it all off his parents wouldn't say anything....

"That was really helpful. You make it sound so easy. But uhh...I think..." He glanced down at his shirt, clinging wetly to his skin, "I think I need to go change clothes now."

(wrapped)