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Post by rilieycox on Jul 7, 2011 15:39:45 GMT -6
Riley was walking down the halls, stretching her legs out after being cooped in her classroom all day, and taking a moment’s rest before she sat herself back at her desk to grade essays. She always liked to get students their paper’s back as soon as possible, which meant she had quite a few nights where she stayed working until the wee morning hours. She’d done the same with her classes back in LA, and even though she easily could have gone back to her room to do the work, she was more likely to get distracted. So instead, she opted to stay in school.
She couldn’t complain about it, though it ate into her spare time, it was a choice she made on her own. Besides, it wasn’t as though she had a full social schedule to attend to in the evenings. As sad as many people would think it was, teaching the kids here was her life. And since it was her first year teaching at Blackwood, there was no harm in making a good impression on the ‘ol boss by putting in the extra hours. If that eventually translated into a raise, well fantastic, she could use the extra income to feed her addiction to shoes.
Riley found herself in the auditorium hallway, which was, as it seemed to usually be, blissfully empty. This spot would do nicely. Most of the students had long since left the school, and she figured if there was anyone left wandering around, they weren’t likely to come here. She sat on the ground with her back against the wall, taking her heels off, before stretching her long legs out in front of her. She’d raided the cafeteria earlier and managed to pull together a few things she’d could snack on in lieu of an actual dinner, and begun to pull them out of her cavernous purse, along with her iPod. She popped her earphones in, pressing play before biting into an apple. She glanced down at her watch, noting the time as she chewed. She’d take half an hour to relax and eat before getting back to work. With a small smile, she cranked up the volume zoned out.[/size]
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Post by Anthony Price on Jul 9, 2011 23:58:06 GMT -6
Anthony had been looking for a quiet place to study. His dorm room had to much traffic, with roommates and Pixel and all. And his english and history class grades were slipping miserably. They already weren't that great. He was much better at math and science then anything else. Some how he had ended up in the hallway to the auditorium. It was also gonna be the place to look over the music book Ellie had let him borrow before his next lesson with her. So basically he was there to study.
Except well someone was already there. It was the lady who taught his social studies class. Hopefully she wouldn't say anything about that last text they took. Ok so he didn't really much care about Native Americans. He thought it was boring and it taught him nothing in how to deal with his current problems. He didn't much care about history, but they made him take the class. And whether people thought he cared about his grades or not, he did. Really. It just never showed in his grades. It really didn't matter how much he studied, his grades in English and History were always crappy.
So he sat on the opposite side of the hallway from her and a few steps away. Then he removed some of his books from his back pack. It was long passed time to be out of the dumb school uniform. He was now wearing dark blue jeans with holes in the knees and a white t-shirt. He didn't much make conversation with teachers. Quite frankly he didn't trust them, Ellie had been the exception.
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Post by rilieycox on Jul 20, 2011 20:36:29 GMT -6
Riley's music was too loud to actually hear anyone walking down the hall, but movement just aways from her caught her attention. She turned her head slightly, and watched a student settling down and pulling out books. Well, so much for the thought that this would be an empty hall. She knew the boy, though it took her a moment to put a name to the face. She tried to get one on one conversations with all her students, get to know them a little, but it took time, and the year had barely begun, she hadn't made all the connections yet.
She pursed her lips slightly as she tried to remember the name. he was in one of her Junior history classes, average marks, though often seemed disengaged in class. Started with an A.. Alex? No, that was not right, Adam? No. Her nose scrunched as she went through the A's in her classes before smiling slightly. Anthony, Anthony Price. That was it.
She smiled at him, taking her earphones out and turning off her iPod and feeling more smug than she really should, having only managed to remember a name. “ Hello Anthony, seems like an odd place to be studying.” .
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Post by Anthony Price on Jul 21, 2011 0:24:05 GMT -6
“ Hello Anthony, seems like an odd place to be studying.”
Crap, was the first thought through Anthony's head. She was actually trying to make conversation with him. He hated most of the teachers around here. A lot of them were snobby. Just because the students had records and they didn't. Most of the probably thought the kids should be in prisons where they belonged. And sometimes Anthony thought the same thing. But he was genuinely trying to better himself. He was going to be a father. So he needed to be better then the scared boy who got him sent to this hell hole.
He'd done his best to ignore her but her eyes were watching him he could feel them. So he let his dark blue eyes move from his book to the teacher for a moment. "Seems like an odd place to be grading papers" He used her own words back at her. He often did that to teachers. Then he looked back to his book. He picked his pencil up with his right hand. Seeing as how he was left handed and it was in a cast this felt awkward. But he had to fill in these worksheets so they were legible That was going to be his current challenge.
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Post by rilieycox on Jul 23, 2011 21:48:13 GMT -6
Riley chuckled lightly at his retort. “ Fair enough. I came here because it’s usually pretty peaceful and quiet.” she said. She wasn’t entirely oblivious, she could catch the less than subtle hints that he didn’t want to be talking to her. And she would leave him alone if that’s what he wanted, but before she did that, she had to try. She knew too many of her colleagues here dismissed these kids without giving them a fair shake, and Riley had vowed she wasn’t going to be one of those teachers.
She watched him as he awkwardly held a pencil in his left hand, looking down at his books. She scrunched her nose at the cast covering his arm. He wasn’t one of her Level Two students, so she wasn’t privy to the ins and outs of his file, and didn’t know what caused him to break a limb in the first place, though if she had to guess, she’d say a fight. “ That looks like it’s going to be a pain. ” she nodded at his arm. [/size]
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Post by Anthony Price on Jul 24, 2011 1:09:47 GMT -6
Anthony stared at the piece of paper in front of him. He couldn't really blame her, he'd come for a place less traveled to study so they were sort of in the same boat. But that did not mean he had to like her because they had the same ideas. He disliked authority figures. They all thought they were better then him. Because they didn't have a record. They 'made something of themselves'. Well Pixel was pregnant now so he had to better himself. And as hard as it was to be an expecting parent with no one knowing of authority and trying to keep his grades up .. one was failing and that was his grades. And now here sat one of his failing grades teacher only a few feet away. This day was getting worse so he thought.
After a few moments of trying to write with his right hand Anthony became frustrated and threw the pencil at the wall across from him. He had anger problems. They probably needed to be counseled out but he hated shrinks more then teachers. And he hated teachers pretty bad. He just had to not care about his grades. If he failed he wasn't gonna get into a college, hell he probably wasn't going to get in anyway with what was on his record. He'd screwed his life over. And one day his kid would know it. He hated that. He wasn't even sure what the point in trying to better himself was.
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Post by rilieycox on Jul 24, 2011 15:48:05 GMT -6
Riley smiled at little when he ignored her comment, if there was one thing she learned to deal with quite quickly when she started here, it was not to take the student's attitudes personally. In fact, she was surprised, given the histories these poor kids had, that any of them managed to be friendly, or not despise any sort of authority figure instantly. She wouldn't push it. He would choose to talk to her, or choose not too. All she could really do was be there if he decided to open up a little bit.
She looked back down to her papers, taking another bite of her apple, getting back into what she was doing. A few moments later, she was startled when a pencil smashed into the wall a few feet away from her. She let out a tiny squeal of surprise, as her hand moved onto her chest, feeling her rapidly beating heart. She looked back to Anthony who was silent, but had a stormy look on his young face. Though she had no idea what caused the outburst, Riley instantly felt a pang of sympathy for the boy. She hated to see a kid in distress. She couldn't care less about why they were at Blackwood, she didn't care that most people saw them as criminals. She only saw them as kids, kids who'd had tough lives. And being a teenager was hard enough as it was, without having the extra BS this place caused.
She stood up, walking over and picking up the pencil before going to where Anthony was sitting. She crouched down in front of him, holding the pencil out. “ These things work much better when you don't toss 'em around.” she said with a smile
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Post by Anthony Price on Jul 25, 2011 10:59:41 GMT -6
Anthony couldn't seem to keep those small out bursts of temper in like usual. Lately they seemed to come out just any time they wanted. He almost felt angry all the time. Maybe it was knowing he wasn't good enough to have this kid. Or that this kid would know what a screw up he was. That it was going to be born in a school full of criminals and psycho's. This was no place for a child. This was really no place for anyone. Sometimes he thought he deserved to go to prison for what he'd done. And got off easy being sent here.
Then Riley was kneeling in front of him, hold his pencil out to take. Truthfully he didn't want it back. He'd rather just fail. What was one more thing to fail at in life? It wouldn't matter. "What's the point? It's not like I can use it" It even seemed like the smallest things like not being able to write because of his hand being in a cast pissed him off. He wasn't sure why but it did.
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Post by rilieycox on Jul 25, 2011 14:07:35 GMT -6
Riley felt yet another pang of sympathy. Poor kid. On top of whatever he had to deal with, he couldn’t even write anything down. She knew how hard it was to feel helpless, and that only served to make her more empathetic. Now it would be easier to let it go, and most people probably would. Not Riley though. Someone was suffering, and like hell she would just turn a blind eye to it, not when she could try to help. She’d done that once before, and it remained one of her biggest mistakes.
She smiled a little, sitting down against the wall, a foot or so away from Anthony, examining the pencil. “ You have a good point. Can’t be easy to write with that thing on your arm.” she scrunched her nose “ The worse I’ve had was a broken finger, and that was enough to have me pulling my hair out in frustration when I was trying to grade papers.” She looked over to him “ Still, it probably is a good idea to complete the homework anyways. Teachers are sticklers for things like that. “ She said with a nod “ How about I help you out a bit. You tell me what you want to say, and I’ll write it down. I was getting bored grading anyways.”
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Post by Anthony Price on Jul 25, 2011 18:13:29 GMT -6
Anthony watched her sit down next to him. His words to her were not an invitation for her to sit down. Yet she was doing so anyway. Then came more uninvited talking. Who did this teacher think she was. Just because she was nice didn't mean Anthony wanted anything to do with her. Getting close to teachers or staff or anyone in a position of authority was a bad idea. Just a bad idea. His dark blue eyes just quietly stared at her hands while she spoke.
Then she offered to write for him. He looked up and frowned at her. It was more of a confused frown then an angry one. No one but Pixel had really ever offered to help him do anything. Then he looked down at the worksheet in front of him. Then back to her. "You wanna fill out .. The worksheet you assigned?" Maybe she just didn't realize how bad in her class he was. He hated history. If he could forget his own history He would love that. He really didn't want to learn about someone else's problems.
[/justify] |
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Post by rilieycox on Jul 25, 2011 19:27:26 GMT -6
Riley smiled at him, taking in his confused looking frown. That hardly surprised her, the vast majority of the students here weren't really comfortable when someone offered them help. Why would they be? Most of them never had anyone sincerely care enough to do it. Broke her heart a little. Well, then again he could be confused because it was an odd offer to make. But Riley had a tendency to read into things a little too much.
She tilted her head to the side, looking at the papers he was clutching “ Ah, it's the homework I assigned?” she said as she reached over to take them from his hands. “ You're in luck then, you'll probably get top marks on the assignment. If I know one thing, it's history.” she laughed lightly. “ Way better than if you'd been working on math, I'm useless at it and would have been no help at all. ” she joked
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Post by Anthony Price on Jul 25, 2011 20:20:57 GMT -6
Anthony watched as she looked down at the papers he was holding. Then she was taking them from his hand. He still don't know why she wanted to help him. No one has ever just wanted to help him because they were able and he wasn't. Except for maybe Pixel. She never had an alterior motive for helping him out. But other people always wanted something in return.
When she said she was good at history but not at math he shrugged some. "I hate history" It was pretty much a simple statement. He really didn't care about a guy who live in another century's problems. They weren't his problems or solving his problems. People back then didn't have to deal with the kind of life that got him sent to a place like this.
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Post by rilieycox on Jul 25, 2011 20:38:05 GMT -6
Riley clutched at her chest with a surprised gasp “ Ouch! How can you hate history? It's so interesting, clearly if you don't see it, I'm not doing a good job teaching it.” she chuckled, though making a mental note to come up with something with more zing. She genuinely hated the idea that someone would hate history. Everything you need to know about life you could learn from the pages of a history text book. She had a bit of a problem, if they had a history lovers anonymous, she'd be the first one there. … or not, since she herself could never admit she was a little too much of a nerd about it.
She looked at the first question on the page, tapping the pencil on the paper. She smiled, she had a special place in her heart for the French Revolution “ Take the french revolution for example, no way a revolution could be bad... and Robbespierre? The man was clearly a stone cold fox” she joked
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Post by Anthony Price on Jul 26, 2011 22:45:19 GMT -6
Anthony watched her while she acted all surprised. How could she really be all the surprised at that. He didn't exactly participate in her class stuff and barely completed her homework and he really didn't do well on her tests either. He thought history was boring. It was something boring to base a class off of. In his opinion anyway. He stayed quiet though. And let her speak. Giving her a slight shrug about how anyone could hate history.
Then she was tapping the pencil on the paper and his eyes moved down and looked at it. Then she said something about the french revolution and someone who's name he knew he probably couldn't pronounce. Nor did he even know who she was talking about. His dark blue eyes moved back to hers. He had a blank expression on his face. It was obvious he knew nothing about what she was talking about. "I have no Idea what your talking about .. Really have you ever seen me in your class?" She had to know he wasn't all that into history just by the way he was in her class. And right now he didn't know what she was talking about.
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Post by rilieycox on Jul 27, 2011 21:02:22 GMT -6
She smiled a little “Ahh, I was hoping that blank expression you have on all the time was because you were so absorbed in my lessons. she said as a joke, though she definitely noticed he was never really engaged in class. He wasn't the only one either. She tried to make the subject as exciting for the students as it was for her, but it seemed that they often missed the point. She glanced at him, huh, actually the blank look he was giving her now was a lot like the one she saw staring back at her in class.
“ Ok, well, how about this. I'll give you some hints on the answers here when you don't know them, and maybe in return you can help me out a little too. I love what I teach, but you aren't the only I've heard say they hate history. What can I do to make the class more interesting for you? I'm up for anything, I shouldn't be the only one having fun in there. she asked him with a smile, suddenly inspired to get his opinion. Heck, if she could get one of the distant kids into it, maybe the rest would follow.[/size]
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