When do I actually use this? (Kateri Rivera)

[Judah Linn]

Trigonometry. The worst part of Judah's day. He can't stand math, not in the slightest. He was better off swimming than in math because in math class, Judah is drowning. His grades suffer at a D mark so far into the semester. He could almost guarantee that he was going to fail the semester. Plane trigonometry was far above any place he was in math, but he had to, for the most part, follow his grade level. What about when they redo spherical trig? Judah would have no clue as to what he was doing. Math became hard when the alphabet was added and he had never done well since. 

The 2:22 pm bell rang, dismissing the Hammel students from their day classes. All students whooped and hollered, gathering their belongings from inside desks,"accidentally" stealing pencils and pens from each other as they nonchalantly walked out of the classroom door. This bothered him. Why did people enjoy  the end of the day? He certainly didn't. After day classes, Judah would simply retreat to his dorm to play Civilization V or do homework. Sometimes, he grew so incredibly bored that he would actually study. His roommates are like spirits - coming and going but never leaving a trace. He had Walther, but that was when Walther wasn't busy. Besides, the kid is twelve. It's not the same as having friends your own age, but could be just as good. 

Judah didn't take his time packing his stuff. He shoved all his papers and notes to the bottom of his black backpack. Then his notebooks, filled with far more cartoon and anime sketches than notes, and after that, the two binders that held his homework. Pencils were haphazardly shoved into one of the compartments with a large singe across the fabric. The teacher, Ms Rivera, had been giving him that look all of the period, his reason for being in such a hurry.

I have to get out of here. 

[Kateri Rivera]

Kateri could always recognize when someone was about to make a break for it. You might call it her special talent. Years of teaching math at Hammel had given her that special knack of knowing when, exactly, someone was ready to run out of the class. And that wasn’t good, because she rather had to discuss things with Judah. He was not doing well in trig. It wasn’t an easy class, but she thought she’d been making it simple enough where a D was concerning. Plus, it was high school. People didn’t fail her class.

Well, unless they were Sam Rixon. And even then she’d had to admit that he was definitely creative in his failing.

But in any case, Judah was definitely in the “running” mode. And Kateri wasn’t going to let him go that quickly.

“Judah, a moment,” she called, rising from her desk. Noticing the disarray of things, her brows climbed, and then she rolled her eyes. “And why don’t you take that bee out of your bonnet and pack those things up properly. I want to talk to you about something.” While the other students ran, sensing one of the infamous Rivera lectures approaching, Kateri went around to the front of her desk and sat down on top of it, legs dangling as she watched him with arms folded over her chest.

“Judah,” she said. “Why are you having difficulties in my class? Do you do the homework, are you not understanding, or do you have any interest in trig or maths at all?”

[Judah Linn]

God fucking damn it. Fuck. Fuck this shit. Fuck my life. Fuck everything--

Judah had stopped and slammed his hands on his desk in defeat. She had got him. Everyone else had gotten out before she could start calling them out too. The door shut with a loud bang, as if it had been slammed. Judah was a lone man. Realizing there was no way to get out of this quickly, he began to slowly pack his things in the correct way. Judah shoved papers in folders, folders in his binder, and then he tucked his binder in his backpack. He zipped up his Swiss Army backpack and dropped it to the floor. He slid back into the seat behind the attached desk as he was questioned. 

"... Yes. Yes. I'll be brutally honest with you, I hate this class. I hate it with a passion." He had skipped her first question, hesitating on it. He wasn't totally sure why it wasn't sticking. Probably something to do with the fact he was totally distracted during class. He sketched, he slept behind his textbook, sometimes he found himself glancing at his phone. Yeah. That was it. He didn't want to admit this stuff to Ms Rivera, though. He didn't want to. Not that Judah was a bad student. He didn't do this in any other class. Just in math. It did little to keep him engaged. Can I please leave now? Did I answer all your questions? I want to go relax now. It has been a long, long day. 

[Kateri Rivera]

This poor kid looked like he’d just been put on trial. Kateri hid a sigh by shuffling quiz papers and pulling the ones she’d wanted on top. She folded her hands over them and studied him. He was taking his time, clearly not interested in talking to her, but she would wait anyways. It wasn’t like he was the grouchiest student she’d ever encountered. If this was how he wanted to play it, then so be it. She could handle it. There was a silence after his words, then she tilted her head to the side.

“I think I might be offended,” she said, but her words were mild and there were faint crinkles around her eyes that indicated she felt more amusement than disgust or offense at his words. In fact, she felt little offense at all. So he hated the class. That wasn’t a surprise to her. A lot of students hated math. But that wasn’t entirely it. “A lot of people hate math. There’s a lot of reasons for that. Sometimes they just don’t see how it’s useful. I promise you, everything I teach you is.” Not entirely true, but hey, a little white lie never hurt anyone. “Sometimes it’s because they view themselves as better at a different subject. But normally it’s because they either don’t think they’re good at it, or they don’t understand it.” She leveled him with an even look. “Which one are you, Judah?” 

[Judah Linn]

"Not necessarily.. I still don't know how to balance a checkbook. When are you going to teach us that?" He muttered, probably loudly enough for her to hear. How rude. Judah would probably get detention for having an ugly mouth, but he didn't care. It was the god honest truth. This actually happened. We never learned how to do this in my high school. Very interesting look of confusion from my parents when I told them this. xD He pursed his lips as a somewhat disturbed reaction to what had just came from his lips, then apologized. It was true, though. Managing a bank account was probably more important than trigonometry. Trig isn't exactly practical unless you have a job that requires math.

He sighed gently and contemplated his reply to the rest of her words. The rest of them-- "Uh-- well.." --Something about being bad at math, something about other subjects.. something like that. "I'm not better at other subjects. I'm not good at math. What you're teaching me is not useful in my opinion, and it makes it less useful when I don't understand it all because I'm bad at math. So.. I guess i'm both."