Study Session [tag: Karashi]

[Matthew Fletcher]

The mechanical pencil in Matt’s hand weaved through his fingers; looping and sliding from digit to digit in an expert show of unconscious dexterity. The pencil was needed for the homework he was doing; the math homework; the mind-numbingly-difficult and annoying homework. It wasn’t likely to be near as bad for anyone who liked math, or anyone who was capable of doing it for that matter. Matt wasn’t either of those. He hated math, and to make it worse, he was bad at it. He likely hated math because he was bad at it. Either way, it forced him into trying to find a study-buddy, which he had found in Karashi Usaki: a girl kind enough to indulge his poor math skills, and only average study habits, in an attempt to make sure he didn’t completely bomb the next billion tests and quizzes. The only question was…where was she?

She may have forgotten, or she may just be running late…actually, she wasn’t late at all. Matt had momentarily fallen into a neurotic state just thinking about the next test and arrived some 30 minutes early. He couldn’t really afford to fail it. Matt was performing a balancing act on the thin line between a D and a C, and one bad test could send him over the edge into a bad grade. He really didn’t want to see a D on his transcripts. It would undoubtedly be a blemish on his usually impressive grades. Math had always been and would forever be, until he was old and suffering from the effects cold weather had on his rheumatism, his worst subject. Ina string of B’s and A’s, usually his only C was math, and yet, right now, he was looking at brandishing his own scarlet letter.

He began to tap the eraser end of his pencil on his paper as his eyes moved left to right over the tiny black text of his math book. The ear buds to his Zune were in his ear, playing some exciting House tunes to make the ordeal a little easier – do trust that, to Matt, math was a taxing ordeal. He was hovering over a potential anxiety attack just looking at it. “God, I hate algorithms,” he mumbled, reclining in his seat and opting to take a break…after about 3 minutes of just looking at the book. He looked at the ceiling, and then back down, scanning over his book, papers, and the brown of the wood desk in front of him, designed large enough to have a study-party, and then to his orangish-red shirt with a picture of Neil Patrick Harris as Doogie Howser and the text “Trust Me. I’m a former pretend doctor”. It was one of many t-shirts that catered to his love for pop-culture and witty references. It served to take his mind off his problems, and now waiting for Karashi wasn’t so difficult.

[Karashi Usaki]

Karashi walked quickly. She felt so guilty. She held her math book close to her chest, trying to walk quickly and not run towards the library. She had been doing homework in her room and had lost track of time. She didn’t think she would lose track of time. She was usually punctual. She had been taught that back in Japan, and the policy was that if you were late, then dishonor would come to your entire family, relatives included. She didn’t really care though. She didn’t really have a real ‘family’. Sure, she had a mom and a dad who were separated, but she rarely saw both. She considered her real family to be her aunt who still lived in Japan and her ‘host’ family, the Yukaris. She missed both of them dearly, but she was glad for the freedom as well.

As she thought about her family and her home, she bumped into someone and her books and things dropped to the floor. “Sorry,” she mumbled, her mind not really focused on who she had bumped into. She gathered her things, took the rest of the things that the person had grabbed, and continued on her way. She finally reached the library, out of breath, and stopped at the entrance. She scanned the library for Matthew, the student she was tutoring, and found him sitting at the tables with his Zune in his ears. She frowned. He would never get work done that way. She walked up behind him and pulled one earplug out. “You’ll never get your math done if you keep distracting yourself.” She smiled at him, letting the earplug drop to his shoulder and sat down in the chair next to him, setting her stuff on the tabe.

Words: 293
Muse: Good.

[Matthew Fletcher]

Matt yawned, idly taking his thumb over the touchpad of his Zune to change songs. It wasn’t appropriate for the mood at the moment. Instead, he listen to Mumford and Sons. For some odd reason, he felt they were more appropriate for a calm, albeit boring, library setting. He leaned forward and propped an elbow up onto the table to rest his head in the palm of his hand, and absentmindedly scratch his scalp beneath his head of dark brown hair. To his chagrin, his eyes wandered over to his math book again, and made weary because of it. All of a sudden he found his power inadequate, and thought he had more use for pyrokinesis so he could burn the text book. Yes, he hated enough to want to burn it. Unfortunately, that would cause him more issues than it would solve. He opted to lift the book with a single finger from his free hand. He slid his finger from beneath it and let the book fall slowly back towards the table, using the time to adjust the mechanical pencil in his hand put it where his finger had once been. Finally the book had become useful.

He had arbitrarily discovered some game, focusing on keeping the book from falling to the table, and with the ability to make the book as light as a feather, it wasn’t all that difficult. Soon it became a matter of precision, and increasing and decreasing the weight on the right spots at just the right times, and that in turn developed into an actual exercise. If there was any question as to how talented Matt was as a procrastinator, then it should have been lost right then. It wasn’t unfounded for a student to find something else to preoccupy their time, but to actually develop an exercise to flex his supernatural muscles… that took a considerable amount of dislike for the task at hand to consider doing something else, even after isolating himself from all other forms of entertainment (except reading, but that didn’t count).

He didn’t notice Karashi come up behind him, causing her actions to startle him. The book, balancing on the eraser of his pencil a good ten inches off the surface of the table, fell suddenly, and took his pencil with it. He lost his concentration, and just like that, his grasp over the fundamental force was lost. It caused a distracting sort of “bang” sound as it struck the desk. Matt, embarrassed that he had become the cause of a loud disturbance in the library, shot up and began looking around frantically before his eyes set on Karashi. “Oh my god,” he started, eyes wide with a sense of nervousness in them; he was concerned he’d garnered the attention of the librarian or had disturbed someone. “You shouldn’t startle someone with supernatural powers; who knows what could have happened. You could have been blown up.” He was joking, of course, as seen by the small smirk on his face. When he was new to his powers, he had a problem with involuntary triggering from being startled, but that wasn’t the case anymore…and besides…how unnecessarily dramatic would it be to blow someone up from just startling him (not that he could anyways)?

As far as distracting himself…well that was obvious. To be honest, at this point, he didn’t much mind actually not completing the assignment. However, that was just frustration talking. He moved some of his papers moved about the desk in an unorganized manner to give Karashi some room, and to organize himself better for the sake of actually knowing what was what. Part of his frustration was usually from being overwhelmed, and it certainly looked like he had a lot of work with the way his notes, work, notebook, and text book were thrown about the desk with no discernable system. He was attempting to fix that.

“Thanks for helping me, by the way.”

[Karashi Usaki]

Karashi put her books down and sat down. She moved them around, getting to her Algebra book. She looked at him and frowned. “Put the Zune away or it flies across the room. You need to focus.” She wasn’t really trying to be mean. She was just trying to get him to focus so that he could do better. He wouldn’t need her if he could focus. He seemed to get it once she taught it to him. She thought about that for a minute. Maybe she should become a teacher. She shook her head. Tutoring one student was bad enough.

“No problem. As long as you focus.” She held out her hand, indicating to him to give her the Zune. It was time to focus now, and that would be a major distraction. “I hear you have a test coming up is that right?” She looked at him. She hoped that he was in a learning mood today. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with a rowdy teenage boy, especially one who was a year older than she was. She felt special, having to teach someone who was a year older than she was. She wondered if all Americans were mathematically challenged. She shrugged and waited for his response.

Words: 211
Muse: Ok

[Matthew Fletcher]

Matt couldn’t tell if Karashi was in a bad mood or not, but he chose not to test it either way. She was one of few people willing to help him with math. Were most Americans bad at math? He couldn’t give her the statistic, but he knew most people didn’t like it. He’d never met an American, a German, or anyone else for that matter say they were fond of math, let alone Algebra. Algebra had to be the bane of his existence. There may or may not have been some minor anxiety when it came to handling math, especially algebra, but he wasn’t here today to address that issue.

Karashi extended her hand and asked for his Zune. At first she’d threatened to send it flying across the room, and now she wanted it in her hand. With an ear bud still in his ear, he was admittedly hesitant to give it to her. A displeased look appeared on his face; a sort of “are you serious” kind of grimace. He turned his head and rolled his eyes, handing over the Zune, before readjusting his textbook to line up perfectly with the edge of his desk. She was determined to have him focus; he could only promise to do his best. “Yeah; an exam on chapter 15 on Monday. And it sucks because its not multiple choice.”

His book was already opened to the chapter, a few practice problems scribbled onto his paper with failed attempts at trying to solve some by following the steps outlined in the book. He had a few finished, while others remained blank some 3 or 4 steps away from getting the answer. Matt began twirling his pencil again, absentmindedly sending it flipping through each digit while he prepared for the time to tick by slowly during this study session.

[Karashi Usaki]

She frowned. Apparently this boy had no faith in himself. She was about to change that. She was determined to make this boy learn. She promised herself that she would help this boy to ace a math test, and with this one coming up, now would be the perfect opportunity. She took full advantage of it. “The next time you tutor with me, no distractions ok? Or I’ll be forced to hold them hostage.” She smiled, meaning it to come off as a joke, and not as a threat. She didn’t want the boy to think that she was mean, because she really wasn’t.

She put the Zune in her purse for the time being, and moved her chair until she was next to him. She opened his book and found Chapter 15. “So I see you started on some problems. I want you to finish those. Then we’ll start reviewing for the test. This is where the hard stuff comes in, since it isn’t multiple choice. I have faith in you Matthew and you need to have faith in yourself. I won’t be there with you on test day.” She leaned back in her chair and gestured to the problems. “Go ahead and start. If you have any questions then you can ask me, but I want you to try and figure them out by yourself first.” She knew he could get it done if he really tried. The question was would he actually try?

Words: 246
Muse: Ok

[Matthew Fletcher]

Faith. That was a peculiar word. Matt probably couldn't tell the difference between the sort of "faith" that sparked confidence and the brand of faith affectionately termed "blind faith" for its practically illogical nature. At the moment, however, they were one in the same, because it just didn't make sense to suddenly believe he could do something he's had problems doing since day one. Sure, basic arithmetic was easy, and he got by multiplication -- he even liked some algebra for its simplicity. But, by and large, it was just a pain in the neck, and he didn't like being stressed. Stress was probably his biggest obstacle; adversity in most of its forms were enough to make him simply stop doing something or not try.

Stress...most of the time, it just wasn't worth it...

Now was, without a doubt, one of those times. Math was just something he'd rather not do, even with help. But, alright, he was here, and more than not wanting to do math, he didn't want to hear what Karashi would have to say about him wasting her time; not to mention, he'd just feel bad about that afterwards, which would be stressful as well. Guilt and just feeling bad was the worse of two evils, so...he may as well work. Smiling lightly at Karashi's joke, he proceeded to pull his book closer to him, widening his eyes as if trying to focus them. She directed him, and he complied, pushing through his considerable disdain and accomplishing the tasks set before him, and at a surprisingly fast pace. "<i>Test day,</i>" he repeated in a sort of mocking tone; "<i>its weird -- I can do this... I just can't do it on test day...</i>" A rare admittance of test anxiety...or, rather, <i>math test</i> anxiety.

[Karashi Usaki]

Karashi watched him while he worked. She was a bit surprised at how he did the problems, and how fast he went. The real question was whether he got them all right. She crossed her arms over chest and leaned back in the chair, waiting for him to be completely finished. She could tell that he was working hard and fast, but maybe it was a little too fast. She wanted him to take his time. She heard him speak, and she nodded. She knew what that was like. She had experienced it way too many times not to know how he felt.

“I understand. I’ve been there done that. Ok. I’ll give you some tips after I check this.” She grabbed the paper and the book, and slid away from him a little bit. She didn’t want him feeling claustrophobic. She looked over the paper, and marked a few of the problems with a pencil. She then smiled at him. “You only got two wrong, and they weren’t even huge mistakes.”

She scooted closer to him. “Ok. This one, all you did was drop the negative. And this one, you have to distribute the number to all of them, not just one.” She looked at him. “Fix those, and then I’ll give you tips on how to prepare for your test. You’ll want to write those down for future reference. But for now, focus on these two problems.” She leaned back, indicating for him to get to work.

Words: 249
Muse: Ok