Maybe You're Right (David)

[Kateri Rivera]

After class was her favorite time of the day. Not that she didn’t enjoy being IN class, but she liked when most of the students were gone and it was mostly teachers, cleaning up and enjoying a quiet cup of coffee. As she was doing now. Between the recent disaster between her ex Ter and her roommate Janice, she needed the break badly. It was quiet, it was peaceful, and it was low pressure.

Perfect.

She was just sitting with the cup of iced coffee in her hand, leaning back in the chair and some math assignments on her desk, when the door opened. She glanced up and offered a friendly smile as she recognized the art teacher. They hadn’t really spoken much but enough for her to recognize him.

“Hello David,” she said, sipping the coffee. “Long day?”

[David Smith]

It seemed like his last class left his classroom in shambles, but honestly, it didn't take him long to clean it up. Really, all he had to do was wash some paintbrushes and clean up the paints and paper left on the desks. Once it was neatened up, he took a small stack of art, his grade book and grading sheets and headed to the lounge.

When he pushed the door open and found Kateri there, he wasn't too surprised. There was always someone there, it seemed. He dropped the artwork on the nearest table.

"Ha, yeah." he said with a smile. "I feel like these kids think art class means they're back in kindergarten sometimes." He shook his head slightly with a sad "what can you do?" smile on his face.

[Kateri Rivera]

Kateri’s lips twitched up into a smile. “You know, you’re probably right,” she said. “I knew I viewed it like that when I was in school. It was the only opportunity I had to have any fun, anyways.” Training had been grueling—she’d pushed herself so hard in order to reach the same level as her father—and the rest of the classes, especially English, hadn’t come easy to her. She was ashamed to admit that she’d definitely used art as an excuse to throw paint around all over the place. “But I bet they enjoy your classes. Mine they just sleep through. We should combine forces. Your classroom would be much cleaner, don’t you think?” She nodded to the seat across from her and nudged it out for him. “And maybe my students would stop groaning through lectures.”

[David Smith]

Yeah... yeah that made a lot of sense. Art was good for relaxing. He just never understood why that suddenly meant rules went out the window. Still, Kateri was right; at least the students were generally awake.

David laughed and took the seat offered. He dumped his books on the table, plopped down carelessly and leaned forward on the table.

"How are we going to do that?" He asked. "Fingerpainting and large sheets of paper?" He imagined rolling out paper in the halls, and the kids using the paint to write out numbers and pictures. Awesome but... a little too young for their students. Still, he said, "That would be fun."

[Kateri Rivera]

Kateri laughed. “That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, no. Did you know you can do art with graphs? We used to do that in my algebra and pre-calculus classes. I was never much good at creativity—I drew a lot of clouds—but it was an enjoyable experience. There’s also the use of geometry in perspective and architecture, but that might be a little beyond our art classes. Anyways, it was just a thought. I like the idea of a long sheet of paper down the hall and finger painting. It’s a shame we can’t do that. We’d probably get into a lot of trouble, but the students would likely enjoy themselves.” She shrugged. “Oh well. So what do you typically do in art classes?"

[David Smith]

As he listened, he nodded slightly and slowly. Although he didn't really have a chance to say it, he was thinking "I had no idea! Weird!" and his face showed it. Slightly furrowed yet raised eyebrows with a small, thoughtful frown.

He wished he had taken the math classes Kateri was talking about. Granted, if he had been IN them, he'd change his mind fast.

"In art?" He repeated, scratching his neck. "Well, in lower levels I have students do projects that experiment with different styles and mediums. Sculpture, painting, pen and ink," he waved his hand in a circle to imply 'and so on,' "and then in higher classes it's more about techniques and references and skill and learning instead of just getting to try new media."

[Kateri Rivera]

Kateri had found most people had no idea that math was in art, but she didn’t worry about it most days. What was the point? She wasn’t much of an artist and couldn’t paint to save her life, so while she knew all about perspective and angles and could make pictures out of graphs, that was about as far as she went. She left the rest of it to the artists.

“Interesting,” she said thoughtfully. “Well, if you ever do a piece or a lesson on Renaissance painters, I can tie that into mine, so we might actually get the students interested. Or more bored than before, you never know.” She laughed and shrugged. “So get any really interesting projects over the years?”

[David Smith]

David laughed along with Kateri at the thought of possibly making the students more bored than before. Truth be told though, he was curious about her idea. Not just whether or not it would work (he'd need more research to figure that out) but, to a point, what she was talking about. He had learned a little about art history, of course, and a tiny bit of that had been about Renaissance artists, and now that he tried to remember, he was sure he had known something about it before she said something.

He had forgotten most of it right after he got out of that class. Maybe he'd appreciate it more now.

She asked him about any good stories though, so he'd ask her later, or maybe look it up himself. Two years of teaching wasn't enough for anything really good yet (although he had plenty about former classmates in college), he still liked to talk about it, so his eyes lit up and he smiled.

"I only have a couple stories. Some students use their powers creatively for projects. A girl with cold manipulation made a wonderful ice statue one time, and another used their alchemy power to turn one sheet of metal into this really beautiful, like... painting, I guess you'd call it. Different elements for different colors, but it was kinda unstable and fell apart. Those are some of my favorite stories, since I find that my power is only really good for art."

[Kateri Rivera]

It was nice having someone to make teacher-jokes with. She always found it extremely entertaining. Why? Well, for one, no one else got the jokes, so having someone who did get them always brightened her day. And for another, she enjoyed the fact that someone else clearly had her bizarre sense of humor. After all, who wouldn’t? She wondered if he’d known what she’d mentioned, and decided that the answer was probably. Why wouldn’t he? He was an art teacher—he’d probably taken art classes on those things. She’d just been interested because her mother—surprisingly—had loved art, and had often taken Kateri to museums. So had her husband, for that matter, although that had startled her too. He’d said it made him feel more cultured.

“Cold manipulation?” She grinned. “Huh. Interesting. And alchemy to paint…” She leaned back. “You know, I’ve made some pretty good cloud sculptures in my time, but I gotta say that I never thought of using those powers for art. How does yours work with art? Do you—what is yours, anyways?” She tilted her head to the side. “I’m weather manipulation. Always fun. Great for party-tricks.”