Thread Roulette: Extra Credit

[Event !]

Lucy Serrano didn't do well on an English test, and has been assigned a creative writing extra credit. Jack Maguire is on duty in the English office.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Well, this was some straight up bullshit. Lucy reasoned with her bad grade as well as she could, deciding that her choice to write "English is Gay" as the answer to things she didn't understand wasn't accepted as it should have been. Or maybe her answers were a little too offensive. Perhaps it was the fact that she used her ink-manipulation ability to edit in another answer? Well, she found it a little more fitting.

You asked: Even though Tom was afraid of heights, he was determined to face up to it, so he slowly pulled himself up the ladder. What is the meaning of 'face up to something'?
(a) deal with a problem or fear
(b) run away from a problem or fear
(c) create a problem or fear
(d) hide the truth

Lucy circled:
(e) Tom needs to get his shit together and grow some balls. Duh.

"Sir?" Lucy asked, knocking on the open door to the English department office. There was that guy, what was his name? Mr Maguire. "I'm gonna do this creative writing thing. I'm nearly done, actually. But I just have questions. Couldja answer 'em?" She lazily held up a book; pages threatened to fall out and the cover had been drawn on to the point of no return.

[Jack Maguire]

Jack wasn't Lucy Serrano's regular teacher, but he'd heard peripheral gossip about almost every student, and had heard stories about her...more creative essays. And her creative test-taking decisions. All told, she seemed like a bit of a handful.

When she showed up at the office door he shared with Haven, Jack gave her a polite smile. "Of course, come on in." Haven was in class and even though this was more her forte than his, Jack had agreed to help out if Lucy came in when Haven was gone.

"Hello. Lucy, right?" He arranged his papers and nodded to a chair, "have a seat. I'll be with you in a second." He put the rest of the essays he was grading in the correct folder so he could give her his attention.

"All right, thanks for waiting." Jack looked up at her, "Now, I don't have the specifics about your project, so you'll have to fill me in, and I'll do what I can to help you out."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy tried her hand at returning the polite smile; sometimes she did have hints of niceties that people didn't expect, so it wasn't as awkward looking as it felt. And with a grateful nod she walked in, taking a seat at the offered chair. "Yeah, that's me." She replied, placing the disheveled book down in front of her.

While waiting, she idly flicked the pages. A lot of people preferred to type, but for obvious reasons she was the exception to that rule. It was easier to correct pen when you could manipulate it, y'know?

"S'okay." She said, looking over the desk towards him. Her hands pressed to the cover of the book and bit into her bottom lip idly when he talked. Sitting still had always been difficult for the Australian girl, so she felt her feet twitching. She curled her toes in her sneakers to keep herself occupied. "I'm doing this creative writing piece thing to get credit for some test I didn't do well at." She explained briefly.

In the break, she pursed her lips together and looked away at something random on the desk. Eye contact, too, was difficult. "Okay, really the brief was to just write a short story that works in stuff I'm passionate about. So I started writing about how much people annoy me, and then I kinda realised that that was the wrong kind of passion, y'know?" Did he know? That was kind of rhetorical, "Hey, is swearing bad in creative essays?"

[Jack Maguire]

“Okay,” Jack nodded to show that he understood. He cracked a smile at her explanation and subsequent question. “Swearing isn’t necessarily bad in creative essays, no. But, like any other choice in a creative essay, it has to happen for a reason. You can’t just throw cursing into an essay for no reason, but it can serve to enhance the piece. It sort of depends.”

“So let’s talk about this.” Jack folded his hands on the desktop. “Your assignment is to write a short story about something your passionate about. So tell me a bit about things you feel strongly about—things you like to do, things you don’t like to do, people you love. It’s an open-ended assignment, so you have some freedom.”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

"Yeah okay. But like, I do that all the time." Lucy replied. It was true; she was a notoriously horrible curser, and it was a difficult thing to try and shake so she never really did. It wasn't like she was going to write 'Screw Flanders' over and over again to get to the word count.

Though, she did consider it for a solid twenty minutes.

Lucy idly curled one of the pages in the book while he spoke. Anything to keep moving and not sit completely still. After a few moments of silence, she finally denoted something she felt was important; "I like to draw, I guess. Tattoos are pretty awesome. Kinda think maybe I'll do that one day cause of the whole ink power thing. I don't love anyone. But... I am passionately angry." Beyond that, Lucy questioned herself. "Because I had to move to America." Her eyes lit up.

"Can I write about how stupid it is not to have a school in the Oceanic region? Because Switzerland is cold as fu-" She paused so she wouldn't swear. "It's cold there. I think."

[Jack Maguire]

Jack chuckled. "Be that as it may. The best way to curse in an academic setting is to use it sparingly. Also, I don't know your teacher, so you might want to check with them. I don't want to get in too much trouble encouraging students to swear." He grinned a little bit.

Jack listened to Lucy talk about her interests regarding tattoos and her anger about moving to America and away from home. "You can talk freely here," Jack said, "you won't get in trouble here. Although I wouldn't get into the habit when there are other people in the office."

"You can definitely write about that. I'd advise also talking about your home and what you like about it, instead of just focusing on the negative. That way you can have a balanced essay." Jack also hoped it would help her feel a little better. Maybe less angry. "Could you tell me a little about your home? I'm curious and it might be a good way to start organizing your creative assignment if you'd like."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy grinned back at him. Perhaps she read into his words more than she should have, but she suddenly found him very understanding. More so when he said she could talk freely, to which she only nodded.

"It's not easy to ignore the negative." She stated flatly. In fact, she was very used to focusing primarily on it. While she appreciated the advice, and knew that she was stuck where she was, it was easier said than done. But she figured he knew that.

She took a second or so to think about what she was supposed to say about where she was from. "I dunno, it also sucks." She began, though she remembered he said not to focus on the negative. "But everyone I know is there. My friends and family and that kinda thing. It's a really small town where everyone knows everyone, but a lot of people don't think they'll ever get out and do the stuff they really wanna do. So I guess it's kinda like a trap as well, but it's still home, y'know?"

[Jack Maguire]

"I know," he said quietly. He understood that very well, especially when he had been a student there. He didn't offer more advice yet, just let her talk about her home life and her family.

Jack nodded. "I do know. What do you want to do when you get out of Hammel? Do you have a plan for that?" He wanted her to start thinking of Hammel as a transition point, a means to get from point A to point B, and not a prison, like so many kids saw it as. "Do your parents talk about the future at all?" Sometimes kids had parents who hovered, sometimes they didn't, but it was sometimes useful to talk about family.

[ooc: sorry for the late and short reply D:]

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy refrained from answering for as long as she could. It felt like a long time but it probably wasn't. She was mentally thinking over the process in her head, but she still wasn't really sure what to say by the time her jaw dropped. "I dunno what I want to do. Still haven't figured that part out yet." She replied quietly with a defeated shrug. The admittance made her feel like a total dropkick.

"Nah, they just say do whatever you want when you leave." Lucy began honestly. "If I wanna stay, I'm allowed to. If I don't wanna, I can go back home I guess. I don't think I really wanna do that, though. Can't see much point going back."