Morning Math Mysteries (Open)

[Kateri Rivera]

Early morning office hours. Kateri resisted the urge to sigh as she opened the classroom door, pocketed her key, and slipped into the room. It was freezing, but she’d expected that. It usually was, and some fool—probably her—had left the window just a bit open. Not that it mattered. Kateri might have been from Ireland and might have gone to the Swiss school, but that certainly didn’t mean that she liked the cold. She was bundled up rather heavily, with a large jacket, gloves, earmuffs and a scarf. To top it off, she had a cup of black coffee in her hands. The best way to deal with mornings, she figured, was to make sure you were comfortable, and had enough caffeine in your system to wake up an elephant. She set the coffee down, closed the window, and turned up the heat. Later, she’d open it again, that tiny little sliver. That way, if she missed the elements—and it did happen, which was part of the quirks of being a weather manipulator—she’d have them within relatively easy access. Once the classroom was sufficiently warmed up, she began taking off the layers, one piece at a time. Earmuffs went down on the table, to be followed by gloves, the scarf, the large jacket, and a sweatshirt. She stopped to examine the pile, which was very nearly at her eye level, sighed, and dumped the whole mess on the ground. There. She felt about twenty pounds lighter, and looked it too. All she’d had under was a light vest, a long-sleeved blue blouse, and a pair of jeans falling over a pair of rather ragged tennis shoes (she’d never learned the meaning of dressing formally for work), with her hair tied back into its traditional braid. She really needed to be less of a cold wuss, she reflected. This was getting ridiculous. She fetched her bag and opened it, pulling out her notes for the day, her computer, and the math books, all to form a neat and tidy stack on the desk that would probably last, oh, until third period. But in the meantime, it looked nice, and she seemed—if one didn’t look behind the desk at the pile of clothes—relatively together.

And in mornings, all she cared about was the appearance of things.

It was an hour and a half before school started. This was a tradition Kateri usually tried to keep up. She knew math was not an easy subject, and she knew that some of the students who actually cared would want more help with it. Or, barring that, they would want someplace to stay that didn’t involve roommates, and might actually be a quiet place to study. Unless she was teaching calculus, however, she didn’t usually get a lot of students coming in. They were too busy sleeping. Kateri couldn’t blame them. When she’d been in school, she’d slept through all of the classes that she could have managed until her parents eventually chewed her out for failing classes. So usually, Kateri leaned back in her seat—uncomfortable, but she’d learned to manage—put her feet up on the desk, and caught that extra hour of sleep that she’d missed by coming to the school early. And if any of her fellow staff members caught her… well, who could blame her? Besides, she didn’t know of that many who actually showed up at this time, and those who did probably wouldn’t go looking for one boring math teacher.

She waited for about fifteen minutes, keeping herself busy and puttering around the room in an attempt to get everything tidy before class started. Then, when she was fairly confident that no one was going to be showing up, she sank down in her seat, put her feet on top of her notes, and promptly fell into a light doze, chin on her chest.

No, this wasn’t so bad at all.

[Rhett Goddard]

Rhett woke up that morning to notice his -sort of- brand new watch had died and, not knowing what time it was and not seeing any of his roommates around, he assumed he was most likely late to class. He decided to leave as soon as possible and took the quickest bath he could, not like he was used to long bath anyways. Not long after, he was walking quite fast through the halls, trying to look for any clock that might tell him the exact time, but oddly enough he couldn't find any. It was, perhaps, the high level of sleepiness he had. Finally he arrived at the classroom, there were no students, only the teacher. Am I late? Too early?

"Excuse me?" He wandered in slowly, noticing the woman was asleep. "Mrs. Rivera?"

[Kateri Rivera]

Kateri’s head lifted as she was addressed, and she blinked once or twice as she stared at the blonde boy in front of her. She could do this, she chided herself. It helped that the boy looked just as confused as she was, probably for the same reasons. Why was he in here, then? Well, perhaps he’d just gotten up after remembering he wanted to speak to her… Did it matter? She resisted the urge to yawn—it would probably give him a bad impression. Teachers asleep? No, that wouldn’t work. She had to be all powerful and all knowing, especially as almost all of her students—including this one—were much taller than she was. That was the annoying thing about being short. The fact that all students were taller than her, and so harder to intimidate, was just a fact of life, and she figured she might as well get used to it while she had to.

“Just Ms. Rivera…” Oh, she knew she had a name… but it was early, and it had been cold, and her brain wasn’t functioning very well…aha! “Rhett. It's my family name.” She made a conscious effort to sit up in her chair, look alert, and offered him a bit of a tired, but still friendly smile. She didn’t stand up. Yes, she knew that it wasn’t helping with the height issue, but at least sitting behind the desk gave her some authority. “Are you here for math help? You’re looking a little lost.” And as tired as she was. “School hasn’t started yet,” she added. “We’ve got some time, if there’s something you need to talk about.” And she’d just try to focus on it as best as she could, for both their sakes. Maybe she should do after-hours tutoring…It would certainly be better for her sanity.

[Rhett Goddard]

Like I care... Rhett sighed a bit and looked away as the teacher started speaking. Maybe I AM lost... He thought, yet he wondered what she was saying. Maybe it wasn't time for class, maybe... no, no maybe, she was just confirming Rhett had woken up too early.

"Merde..." Rhett placed his palm in his head and sighed once again. "No..." He said softly. "I... happened to wake up too early to notice my watch was broken and thought I was running late for class. I was quite wrong, apparently.

He turned around and walked up to a seat, but before sitting, he turned around to face the teacher. Did she say how much time until class? God, I'm asleep...

"How early exactly am I? He rolled his a bit. "Like enough to go back to my room to continue sleeping?" Not like I could sleep now that I just woke up... "Or like enough to just stay here and sleep a bit while class starts?"

[Kateri Rivera]

((Sorry this took so long! Midterms.@_@))

He seemed less than interested, so Kat checked off “here for math help” from her list and settled back down, trying not to sigh in disappointment. She knew she wasn’t really going to get anything unless she taught, say, Calculus, and people were really having difficulties, but she couldn’t help hoping from time to time that maybe, just maybe, someone would actually want to be helped.

Yeah, right. That sort of thing just didn’t happen. Oh well.

“No problem,” she said. “Not like you did me any harm by showing up. I’m here anyways. No swearing in class, by the way. Even if no one else is here.”

She’d never been good with French, but Kateri being Kateri and her old habits being what they were, she could recognize swear words in almost any language. That, and teaching high school kids gave you a marvelous vocabulary.

“You’ve got a little less than an hour,” she added. “I don’t know if that counts as sleep time for you or not. For me, it would, but that’s because I like any chance I can get to sleep. It’s up to you. You’re welcome to stay.”

[Rhett Goddard]

Ms. River was an odd teacher. A good one, but an odd one. Back in Kocher, Rhett's math teacher was an old bald fat guy with the ability to scream as loud as no one could actually imagine. No, that wasn't his metahuman power, but it did seem like. It was weird to know your teacher's meta-power, and it's even weirder if it has to do with the class they're teaching. Why? Well a biology teacher with biological manipulation was cheating, right? Or so Rhett thought, anyway.

"I have this tingle that says you wanted to help some students in the free time..." Intuition? ESP? Didn't matter. "Truth is, I don't quite know if I need help in math..." He seated and crossed his arms. "Do I? I mean, I think I'm doing Ok, but you haven't showed us our grades so far. So...?

[Kateri Rivera]

Kateri eyed him. Tingle? Huh. Well, it was a meta school. She wouldn’t be surprised if he was actually looking in her head. For that reason, she decided not to think about it. Besides, what else would she be doing here anyways? Even if the boy hadn’t been reading her thoughts, it wouldn’t exactly have been a leap of intuition. More like a hop.

“I help students if they want it,” she told him with a smile and a shrug. “Usually, no one shows up. Maybe I should start handing out grades earlier. That might help.” But she was lazy and wasn’t fond of doing the math. Oh well. Might as well start here. She slid her feet off the desk and picked up the pile of papers, rifling through it until she found her grading sheet. She was supposed to do it on the computer, but Kateri wasn’t a technical person, and she was half-afraid that a student would find out more than she knew about what she did in her spare time. Wasn’t that a thought. Besides, she liked doing it on paper. She could actually calculate it out instead of using the computer or Excel. Especially Excel. She hated Excel.

“I seem to be missing one of your quiz grades here,” she said after a moment, still studying the sheet. “If you have it, I can calculate out your grade, and then we can decide. But do you think you’re having any problems?” She glanced up at him. “Is there something you aren’t getting, or is it not that bad?”

[Rhett Goddard]

Rhett pushed his legs away from the back of the chair so he could be in a more comfortable sort-of-laying position. I hate this chairs... While his teacher talked he eyed the classroom around. He had never done so, what a boring classroom. Why is there a multiplication table there? Isn't that for kids? What am I saying, I can barely multiply two numbers...

"Well, I am an exchange student." He replied to Ms. Rivera. "Maybe that quiz was before I got here? I don't remember missing any quiz." Of course, it wasn't like he had any friends on this class that might tell him if he missed a quiz one of the days he missed class just for the sake of missing it, so he couldn't actually know that. "I don't think I'm not getting something... at least not that I remember at the moment. Of course I'm quite new into math, but I already suffered through the crash course on math algebra an calculus in Kocher. All at the same time... While trying to survive teenage life and meta-fueled-headaches." He sighed a bit and changed his position in the chair back to a normal-sitting position. "Believe me, this math course," As long as I don't get echoes... "is a piece of cake. Most of the time, anyway."

[Kateri Rivera]

“Oh, you’re from Kocher?” She sat up a bit straighter in her seat, smiling. “I went there when I was younger. If you survived the math class there, I think you should be fine in mine. And I didn’t think you missed a quiz—” She frowned slightly and looked over at it, then shrugged. “Well, if that’s the truth, then maybe I just didn’t write it correctly.” She crossed out the quiz grade, tallied up the numbers, then looked over it. “Well, I don’t know the exact percentage, but you seem to be doing fine in the class so far. I don’t notice any serious problems so far…” She scanned it, then shrugged and leaned back, pushing the papers away from her. “Yes. It seems fine. What made you decide to come here from Kocher? Didn’t find it to your liking, or did you just want to try something new?”

If he wasn’t here to talk about math, she might as well bring up other topics, right? They were both stuck here, and it was always good to learn more about your students. What you didn’t know could come to bite you later. This was better.

“We can also talk about math,” she added. “But I thought this might be more interesting.”

[Rhett Goddard]

Rhett started to sway in his chair, making it stand only in the two back legs. Definitely showed that he was highly bored, but there was nothing he could do about it. Which is sort of normal, being so early. There was nothing to do about it. More questions about Kocher, he was starting to hate those, but it was partly his fault, he should, by now, stop using his "I'm an exchange student" excuse all the time. Oh but it works so good...

"I heard cafeteria food here was better" He replied Ms. Rivera's question about coming to Hammel. Truth was, however, that he liked Kocher's cafeteria more. It was much more gourmet and he had learned to like that. "I... don't want to talk about math. Kocher, however, is not as interesting of a topic to talk about either. You've been there, spoiled kids all over the place. Unless you were one of them, it can be the most boring place on earth." Rhett had never liked those ambients. He had to steal a lot of money to pass unseen as another rich kid and not be pointed as the poor boy of the class. He did liked stealing, but not with these reasons. "I wasn't one of them, no. The lake parties, though, they were quite good. Skiing, not so much."

[Kateri Rivera]

“It’s not that bad,” Kateri protested, but she had been one of those spoiled kids who liked to party, so she supposed that she couldn’t really comment. That was the problem with leading a full and fairly happy (or at least entertaining) life during teenage years. There were so many things that you weren’t supposed to tell your students. Or if you did, you were supposed to say “don’t make my mistakes.” But that made Kateri feel like a fraud, so she avoided it, and other questions about her past. Better for all involved.

She did, however, sigh a bit when he said he didn’t want to talk about math. No one did. That was part of the problem. At least he was doing well. Unfortunately, that also meant she couldn’t force him to talk about it. That was all right. She liked math, but that didn’t mean she wanted to talk about it more than she wanted to.

“That’s all right,” she said aloud. “No math, no Kocher…hm.” She crossed one leg over the other and drummed her fingers on it. “Well then, I guess we’re back to the absolute basics. How have you been enjoying the weather lately?”

Always a fun question for a weather manipulator. Her father rolled his eyes whenever he heard it. It somehow felt like cheating to talk about the weather, he’d told her. But she’d never thought of it much.

[Rhett Goddard]

"Always a fun question for a weather manipulator." He said immediately after Ms. Rivera asked about the weather. Funny thing was that before that moment, Rhett didn't know she was one. "Quite odd a weather manipulator math teacher." He thought for a moment. He should have thought that one before saying. "Not like powers and proffessions should be related, but once every now and then you see the cliches." It was too late to make that one an intelligent phrase, and so he attempted to continue it instead of erasing it. "Why math? Is it seriously enjoyable? I mean I get how good it must feel to actually know how the world works and... No wait, I'm thinking about physics." Why am I talking so much bullshit? He leaned his chair back a bit and attempted to maintain balance. "The weather has been good, yes. Thanks for asking." I guess...

[Kateri Rivera]

Kateri blinked once or twice as the boy commented on her powers. In fact, that was the exact thought that had been going through her head. Why…? As he spoke, she idly flipped through her papers until she came to what she called as her “cheat sheet,” which was her list of the powers she could guess at for her students. She’d made some notes before for Rhett. Ah, this boy had some sort of mind-reading. Or, so she’d guessed. Ah.

“Yes, well, when it comes to weather manipulation, it’s not easy to find a related job. And I didn’t much fancy being a weather woman or a physics teacher. My da was a pilot, but I didn’t like that much either. So what’s wrong with math?” She smiled. “If you know what you’re doing, you can help with architecture, or physics, or anything. Besides, math does have one right answer. I love that. Why don’t you like math? And, if that’s the case, what’s your favorite subject?”

[Rhett Goddard]

"There's nothing wrong besides math besides... everything." Rhett laughed. "I never get super-powered answers for math, for some reason. So there must be something wrong about math, or maybe there's nothing true about it, or nothing to actually... know." Rhett remained silent for a moment, he had never thought about it. It was a good thing to ponder, yet this wasn't the moment.

He blinked out of his thoughts with his teacher's next question. I... don't have a favorite subject. Wow I'm weird. Or I just don't like school. I don't like school. And they don't let me practice parkour in P.E. I don't like school. Power-training is nice, but so far useless. No, I don't like school.

"Well, so far I don't like any subject." He said as he heard the bell outside ring, it was time to actually start classes in Hammel. "Of course I've only been in school one year and a little. Isn't it awesome how I learned to write and read in one year? I knew how to add numbers, though." He chuckled. The firsts students were starting to enter the classroom.

[Kateri Rivera]

Kateri grimaced. Everything was wrong with math. Yes, she got that response as well. He was doing fine, so she supposed it didn’t matter. Hm. And there were other students filtering into the classroom. Shame. But if he didn’t like math, then she supposed she wasn’t going to convince him in whatever time they happened to have left. Only in school for a year and a half? Well, if that was the case, he was definitely learning quickly.

“Well,” she said, slowly, “I didn’t find out that I liked math until my first year of college, when I actually had a very good teacher. I enjoyed it then. But you’ve got time, and at least you didn’t say lunch. I get that a lot when I happen to ask.” That had always been her response. Oh, what a student she had been. She offered him a smile, then waved a hand. “So you’ve learned all this in a year? That’s…impressive. And where were you before that?” Probably shouldn’t ask about family. A person who had only learned to read and write in a year probably didn’t have a family to talk about…or didn’t want to.