New "kid" on the Block (Jack Maguire)

[Haven Kensington]

<sup>Haven walked into the English Department Office, holding a roster of student’s names that she couldn’t connect to faces yet. It had been a good first day. The kids seemed to like her and though she wished the classes were a tad bit smaller, she was pretty comfortable up in front of groups. The only complaint she could have was that she would have to get used to being around a large group of Meta again, particularly if a student got too close. Throughout the lessons she had several powers mimicked; this including teleporting to the outside of the classroom and putting up a force field involuntarily and not being able to move past it.


She went to a desk, put the roster to the side and rubbed her temples. Not so much frustrated as she was tired. She had to concentrate and block out the powers like she learned in high school. That’s when she felt something. Curiosity? That wasn’t her feelings. She turned around and realized she hadn’t been alone in the room.</sup>

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[Jack Maguire]

There were a few desks in the English Department, and usually the English teachers (of which there was a shocking amount) had to share offices with each other. Up until that point, Jack had been sharing an office with an empty desk. He hadn’t minded because he didn’t mind much, but he did sometimes miss having company. So when he got to the office in the morning, he was pleased to see that there were some personal effects on the desk across from him.

He didn’t get to meet his new office-mate until later in the day, however. And she didn’t seem to notice him when she wandered in. She was obviously new, and he could feel her weariness the moment she came in. Jack could sympathize; first days were hard, and this certainly looked like a first day.

She looked up eventually, finally realizing she wasn’t alone in the room, and Jack gave her a friendly smile and a little wave. “Hello. I don’t think we’ve been introduced yet. I’m Jack Maguire, I think we’re sharing an office.” He didn’t move to shake her hand; he would do so if she started the action, but it wasn’t really anything he was going to instigate. So he smiled and hoped she wouldn’t mind.

[ooc: hi!! You did just fine XD I'm excited to be threading with you and Haven!]

[Haven Kensington]

“Oh hi.” Haven said, standing up and offering a hand to the man named Jack. Then, thinking better of it, she dropped her own hand. Close contact would not be good. She had to put up a mental block. She had gotten lazy over the years and it was hard to be around metas cold-turkey again. She remembered back to her first year at Kocher that she was a regular sponge for other people’s powers, usually laid up in bed for weeks at a time. At least it wasn’t that bad now.

Jack was obviously an empathist. Mental abilities were harder to block for Haven, mainly because for most of those she copied, the abilities came as naturally as breathing. She wasn’t used to it though and the sympathy radiated off of Jack in waves. Not that it was particularly enlightening. If she wanted to deduce that information, she need only look at his face.

Though these thoughts of hers ran through her head quite quickly, she realized Jack knew none of this, and was still standing there. “Oh sorry-” She moved her hand toward her desk and spilt a cup of pens onto the floor.

The thing about this power was that it seemed to heighten the awareness of her emotions too. Nervousness, shyness, and annoyance that she couldn’t get a handle on this. She took a deep breath. She needed to talk to Sean Neville about this, or perhaps James. She looked at Jack.

“Let me start over. I’m Haven Kensington. I’m the new creative writing teacher. And I’m sorry; I have the ability to mimic powers. I haven’t been around metas in a long while and I’m having a hard time blocking out powers…” He probably thought she was a freak. She looked him full in the face, waiting for his response. Great, he had to be cute too. She felt like she was a school student again. Her face burned hot. He didn’t have to be an empathist to know that she was embarrassed.

{{{{ignore the signature if you see this before i get to it. i know its huge lol trying to fix it}}}}}}

[Jack Maguire]

Jack started forward a little to try to help catch the pen cup, but didn't move very far since it seemed sort of a lost cause. He hadn't meant to make her feel awkward, although that sometimes happened, so he hung back a little bit, allowing her to sort herself out. "It's okay," Jack assured her, meaning both for the slightly awkward long pause and the pens being flung around the floor. "Do you need any help with those?" He gestured towards the pens all over the floor.

Jack listened through her introduction with a sympathetic smile. "It's nice to meet you, Haven. I'm Jack. I teach poetry, mostly. Don't worry," he added reassuringly, "I know what you mean about power difficulty." He understood firsthand how cranky powers could get at times. "I'm an empath, but you may already know that. I'm sorry, I'm not too acquainted with the details of other powers." He gave her an apologetic look. He tried to be aware of other powers and how they worked for the benefit of his students, but everyone was different, and sometimes the same power manifested differently in different people.

"Since we're going to be sharing an office, is there anything I can do to make you feel more comfortable?" Jack offered. "Or, if my power annoys your power too much, you can ask for a switch, I promise I won't get offended." He smiled at her to show his sincerity. Sometimes that sort of thing happened, but the last thing he wanted was to make a coworker uncomfortable.

[ooc: GAH sorry this took so long I sort of vanished for a while D:]

[Haven Kensington]

Haven nodded to the help of picking up the pens, careful not to brush against Jack. Physical contact would enhance the empathy power more than it already was.

When the pens were put on the table Haven sighed and leaned against her desk looking at Jack. She managed, with some difficulty to put up a mental block which lowered the enormous waves of emotions to a low hum. Her face burned. She was never ever not cool calm and collected.

“I’m sorry,” She said, steadying her voice. “I’m not ever like this.” She laughed a little, pushing her hair back. “Your power heightens my awareness to my own emotions as well as yours. It’s kind of odd feeling. I think I have a pretty good block on it now.” Haven said taking a deep breath. She was mentally kicking herself. What emotions were being heightened Haven? Oh yeah, the ones that get embarrased when completely acting a fool in front of a handsome guy, a guy that she will likely see every day because of a shared office. “No,” She said, thinking, despite what he said, that would be very rude. “I don’t want to change offices. I have to get a handle on this eventually right?”

She shook her head feeling very embarrassed and had a red burning face to prove it. “Mostly poetry huh? I guess I don’t have to cover that subject much in my class, when we get to that anyway. How do you like it?”

[Jack Maguire]

Jack scooped up what pens were in his reach, equally careful to not touch her. It would probably work out better for the both of them until they got used to each other. Haven's power seemed quite sensitive, and Jack made a mental note to remember to accommodate that.

"Oh no, it's perfectly all right," Jack hastened to reassure her. "It happens. I know how it feels to have power problems, really." But taking her note, Jack pulled up his own mental barriers-- and act that was as routine for him as putting on a jacket. He had been resting them because he hadn't been expecting company, but he wasn't averse to strengthening them now. He was good at it; he had to be.

Jack nodded. "Well, if there's anything I can do to make things easier, don't hesitate to ask." He meant it, too. It was no trouble, and Jack sometimes had to ask concessions of his friends to accommodate his power. "I mean, it's your space as much as it's mine."

Talking about work was probably a safe topic. "I like it a lot. Fortunately, I don't have a lot of trouble kids in one class." Jack grinned slightly before realizing something. "Oh, I guess we should coordinate office hours, since I usually hold mine and SAT tutoring here. But I can take a different room for the SAT stuff since there's usually four or five kids. Usually I have office hours Tuesdays and Thursdays from one to three-thirty and by appointment. I can do the appointment ones in the library if they interfere with yours. Do you know what times you want to have yours?"

[Haven Kensington]

“Thank you.” Haven said gratefully. That was really sweet. She thought about his question. “I haven’t decided when I want mine yet, but I’ll coordinate them around your schedule. If there is a problem I’ll let you know, but I’m sure there won’t be.”

She hadn’t officially set up a schedule which she probably should do later on today. It would be easier now that she knew Jack’s schedule. Less choices.

“Anyway,” Haven said, trying to make up for her awkwardness. She pushed back her hair again, having chosen to put it down today. “You’re the first English staff member I’ve met. I know there must be a lot if we have to share offices but I haven’t met them.” She then thought of something.

“By chance, do you know a Cee Cohen?” She had been set up to chaperone the kids Halloween Dance and was set up via matchmaking services with a sort of blind date. "He's supposed to be my dance partner date thing for the kids dance." She shrugged. The whole thing was silly and not really her thing, but she figured it would be fun and she could help out with the kids anyway.

[Jack Maguire]

"No problem," he smiled. Jack liked Haven already; he was pleased with this arrangement on the whole. It seemed like it was going to work out well for the both of them. And a new friend! Excellent.

"Yeah, you know, we all end up having our schedules work out just so that we never see each other." He replied. "Which is sort of a shame, but sometimes you can catch other teachers during lunch. We used to have a guy across the hall from us, Jacob Dalton, he was nice, but I think he went back to England." Which was a bummer, he'd liked the older man, despite how he secretly thought Jacob was incredibly esoteric. The students had liked him well enough.

He brightened at the mention of his friend. "Oh, Cee? Yeah, he's a really good friend of mine. I didn't know he'd signed up for that." He grinned a little bit, amused at the prospect. "But he's a good guy, you'll have a good time. Um. He's a little excitable about unexpected things. But in a good way, so it'll be fine." That sounded....like Cee wasn't insane, right?

[Haven Kensington]

Haven nodded having heard someone in class mention a Jacob Dalton at one point so she was familiar with the name.

She smiled at the description of Cee. “Good, I was a little worried about the whole thing.” It was a kids dance, still the word date in anything, even if it was two teachers chaperoning was an embarrassing thought for Haven.

“I hope I didn’t interrupt you grading papers or anything.” Haven said glancing over at the desk she assumed he occupied. She wrinkled her nose and gave a small laugh.

“Proving myself a great office mate already aren’t I?” She smiled a warm smile, or at least one she hoped came off as such. She liked Jack. He was very kind. “I’m actually going to go get a cup of coffee before I start on grading mine so…if I don’t see you before I come back up, it was nice to meet you.”

Then she thought of something. “Are you going to the dance…thing?”

Wow she’s a subtle one. But it was an honest question. He could be a chaperone too.

[Jack Maguire]

Jack laughed slightly. "No, you'll have a good time. He's a good guy." It wasn't as though Cee wasn't extremely likable. The other man was charismatic in his own eccentric way, and his oddities were harmless enough to be charming.

"Not really," Jack shook his head. "Even though the paper grading never ends, so I should be grading." He grinned at her. "But no, I wasn't really doing much of anything. Trying to figure out new and innovative ways to make students care about modern British literature. The eternal struggle."

Jack shook his head at her question. "No, I don't usually go to student social events. A lot of emotions running around. I can go if I take a lot of headache meds beforehand but I don't like to do that so much." He shrugged with a pleasant smile. "It's just a lot of energy. But I hope you and Cee have a good time. If something interesting happens, I'm sure I'll hear about it."

[Haven Kensington]

Haven laughed. “Even I have trouble with British Literature.” She mused at that, finding it ironic, considering that was the literature of her “people”. Then again, Haven considered herself fully Americanized. Even speaking with less of an accent.

“Make them read it with a British accent.” Haven suggested, shrugging. “It won’t make them care but it will help to make it more interesting at least.”

“Something to look forward to I suppose.” Haven said about the grading, ending with an exasperated sigh.

She nodded about the dance, hoping he didn’t feel her disappointment. “I’m actually worried myself about that…well…not exactly what you are worried about but…” She rubbed her eyes, mainly to hide her frustration. “I’m worried,” She restarted. “About mimicking the kid’s abilities, with so many around. So I see what you mean.”

“Well, I’ll see you later then?” Haven nodded. “Or, if you will still be here…do you want some coffee.” She didn’t mind getting him a cup.

{{wrap?}}