Tutoring Session - tag Connor

[Thomas Evans]

Tom arranged the books he would be using to tutor a new student. Connor Anderson, the file said. New kid, so he might need to catch up on the syllabus. Tom liked teaching new students. Something about being able to hopefully bring them from being bored to being excited about it spurs him on. He knew that was a long shot sometimes and it was a little bit of a cliche but he really did enjoy teaching.

He fiddled more with his books and cleared his throat, running through the languages he could speak just to identify them. Hopefully, this training would lessen the chances of him rambling on in a language he wasn't supposed to. Which is anything but French really.

The omnilingualist straightened his back and cleared his throat one more time before looking at the door for the arrival of his student. Hopefully he would be too much of a handful!

[Connor Anderson]

Connor was late. Connor was so late. Okay, so it was only five minutes, but it was five minutes for a new teacher. A teacher that was taking time out of his own schedule to do a quick tutoring session. That was no way to make an impression, and his mother would probably have his hide. It wasn’t entirely his fault. He’d been asking questions about an upcoming math project that was due in a few weeks and... might have lost track of time.

He was running down the hallway now, blue eyes vaguely panicked. His bag thumped up and down against his back as he dodged other students in the hall. Mr. Evans was going to be so annoyed with him if he didn’t make it there in the next sixty second –

He nearly missed the door, smacking his elbow into it at the last minute. The familiar sting told him he’d drawn blood, but it didn’t matter. Give him ten minutes, and he’d be back to normal. Finally pausing in his mad dash, he backtracked and slunk into the room with an innocent smile. “Mr. Evans?” He was pretty sure he had the right room, and hopefully the right teacher. “Um, I’m Connor. Here for, uh, tutoring?”

[Thomas Evans]

Looking up, a smile ready on his lips, Tom waved the boy in, laughing slightly at the hesitation in the other boy's words.

"Of course, come on in Connor." Tom's deep rumbly voice sounded in his delicate English accent. "And please, sit down." Tom offered before cracking open a book.

"So we'll be starting with the basics of French. Unless you have a specific place you want to start?" He looked up at the boy with inquisitive blue eyes.

[Connor Anderson]

Connor's head tilted slightly at the smooth English accent he was faced with. He hadn't expected... that. Why, he wasn't sure, but he hadn't. Maybe it was just part of growing up in Kentucky. Though he went to the racetrack with his parents often enough, they hadn't had many horses in big enough races to mingle with the high up people with expensive, successful racehorses from other countries. Oh well.

Still, he smiled back and scooted into the room, sitting down at one of the available desks close by.

"No, not really. My mom thought it would be a good thing for me to learn." They had a few clients from both Quebec in Canada and France interested in their horses, and the relationships seemed to have promise in lasting. Knowing French would come in handy.

[Thomas Evans]

Ah, at least the student was friendly. That was always a good first step.

"Learning new languages is always good." Thomas grinned and slid the beginner's book over to Connor. "This is the basic guide to the French language. Or do you already have a basic understanding of the language?" He asked, opening up a small blue notebook to jot down a few things.

"While we're at it," Thomas added before he unknowingly slipped into Hindi. "Is there any other languages you would like to learn?"

[Connor Anderson]

Connor tended to pride himself on being friendly and well mannered. His mother would have it no other way, and even miles and miles away, he didn't want to disappoint her.

He smiled tentatively as he took the book, glancing it over. It was daunting, the idea of learning something as complex as a whole new language, but he'd promised he'd try. "Um, I don't know any of it, really. Except some of the French words my parents used to name our horses, but it's not the same." He had no idea what their names meant in English. He shrugged. "They keep needing new ideas for unregistered names." Stupid Jockey Club and their rules.

Connor followed the first part of what Mr. Evans had said, but the second part... he blinked. Was that French? He had no idea. Blinking, he offered a confused look to his teacher. "Pardon?"

[Thomas Evans]

The thought of teaching the boy from scratch excited Tom and the French teacher's smile widened. The mention of horse piqued his interest as well. He wasn't a particular equiphile, if that was actually a word, but he did think horses are remarkable animals.

"You breed horses? Wonderful." He remarked.

Tilting his head when Connor looked confused, Tom cleared his throat and next came the Swedish language as he repeated what he said.

[Connor Anderson]

Mr. Evans' sudden interest in Connor's horses made the fifteen year old brighten slightly. They had been his life for so long, he couldn't really picture anything else to do with his life. "Yes," he answered politely. "Well, my parents do. And my dad trains them. They're Thoroughbreds, for racing." And they were very very good at what they were trained to do.

Shyly, but still with some semblance of excitement, he pulled out his phone and pulled up a picture of his gelding, Sona, and turned the screen towards his teacher. "That's one of them. Sona. He's mine." And was sadly never going to race, but Connor had long since come to terms with that. He made for a great pleasure horse.

As he tucked the phone away, he only came to look dismayed at his teacher again. Was he testing him? "Um. Was that French?" He had no idea, and he wasn't sure how much he was going to learn without the translations.

[Thomas Evans]

Immediately seeing the interest light up the young man's face, Tom grinned and noted that maybe he could approach this subject in a way where Connor would best profit from.

Leaning forward to look at the horse, Tom's smile widened. "He's beautiful." He replied in English.

Frowning slightly at Connor's statement, the look of realisation only came later when he cleared his throat. He must have spoken in another language. Well, there went his promise to himself.

"Gods no. I'm sorry. I must have slipped into another language. Omnilingualist." He answered by way of explanation. "Okay, hopefully I'm speaking in English now. Let me know if I change languages. I'm so bad at keeping track." He shook his head grinning sheepishly.

"So okay, let's start shall we?" Tom started his lesson easy, giving Connor tips on how to remember to use what in which sentence and giving him a small dictionary he made for simple words and phrases in French that could be useful.

"I hope that hadn't been too complicated?"

[Connor Anderson]

Compliments about his horse generally put Connor in a good mood. As such, he practically beamed at his teacher. "Thanks! He was supposed to be a racehorse, but he didn't like the track. So my parents let me have him." That was the condensed version of the story, but it was also the one he liked the best. The one that left out the begging and pleading and bartering it had taken.

He cocked his head slightly, dark hair sliding into his face as he did so. (He could probably do with a haircut at this point.) "What's an omnilingualist?" He wasn't even sure he had the word right, but he'd tried. "It's English now," he confirmed with a little nod, pushing his bangs out of his line of vision.

The lesson seemed to make sense to him. Little by little. Some words made sense. Others... did not, but maybe they would come in time. "No, it's okay. I think." Truthfully, he'd probably walk out with one or two words memorized, but that was it.

[Thomas Evans]

"That's a way of acquiring a horse, for sure." Tom laughed lightly, nodding a little.

The question about his ability made him purse his lips. "Well, it's basically me understanding every single language in the world but having no filter or acknowledgment whatsoever that I'm using it. I may very well be speaking in Malay right now and I won't even know it." He explained with a small guttural chuckle.

The lesson went smoothly by and he was well proud of how quick Connor managed to absorb everything fairly well. Or maybe he hadn't but he just kept quiet about it. Either way, he was just glad Connor didn't look too lost.

"Perfect. So...same time next week?" Tom started packing his things and leaning downwards to get his bag.

[Connor Anderson]

Connor had to laugh too, his hand digging into his dark hair. "Yeah. He's my buddy, so I'm happy they let me keep him." Sona was better than his parents or his brother in terms of being able to talk to him and tell secrets to. It was killing him to be so far away for so long.

His head cocked slightly at the explanation of his power. It made sense, and sounded far more useful than his own. "It's English still, promise," he assured. "And it sounds way better than cell regeneration." He flexed his hand out of habit, already dreading his next training session.

At least he was getting some sort of grasp, however small, on French. It was kind of pretty. Who knew? Maybe girls would like it. Not that he would try to use it to pick them up, or anything. Maybe just... impress them. Yes.

"Yeah, I think so. Um. Thank you, Mr. Evans." He smiled at him as he tucked his books back into his bag.

[Thomas Evans]

Tom smiled softly, understanding the need to have at least one friend to depend on. Even if that friend didn't happen to have opposable thumbs.

"Ah, brilliant." The Englishman nodded, grateful that he had managed to talk to his new student in a language they both understood. He narrowed his eyes a little when Connor mentioned his own abilities. He thought it was far more useful to have that then have the ability to talk someone's ear off in a language they won't understand. But he kept the thought to himself and continued with the lesson.

"Don't mention it." Tom cleared his throat before offering his future help to the boy. "If you need anybody to talk to, I know I'm no Sona but I do listen without interrupting." He smiled reassuringly.