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 Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 10:07 am
Jon had never really liked working in the study hall, but since the incident with that freaky bug-brain-eater-creature, he was even less fond of the idea. For a couple days, this had just meant not studying, indulging instead in some Halo and holing up where it was nice and safe in his room and limiting his drug intake, as it seemed his batch might be tainted.
However, this wasn't a policy that could last forever. Now he had a paper due, research to half-a**, and five chapters of history to read up on, and not enough time to do it all. The math he'd managed to polish up quickly, set out of the way, but the rest of it...
He couldn't work in his room. He couldn't work in the study hall, wasn't sure he could ever go back into the study hall. So the main hall it was: outside some random kid's door, so he wouldn't be tempted to return to his herbs and his television, with a copy of Heart of Darkness open on one side, a handful of pages covered with notes and doodles and distracted wanderings on the other, and his head tipped down into his hand.
How did people keep track of all this stuff?
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Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 10:51 am
The good thing about being gifted in writing is that he scored easy As in English. The bad thing about being gifted is that you spent your time being good at one thing, the rest all went to hell. Math was Rem’s Achilles’ heel, and there was no way he could become a bad genius in time for the test tomorrow. To top it off, he had homework! MATH HOMEWORK!
He couldn’t concentrate at all, and he scribbled out the third attempt at equation number 3. He still had 17 more questions to go and he couldn’t even pass the warm up questions! It wasn’t like he wasn’t trying to make an effort, and he took notes. It was just that hallway through, he was usually thinking of a story or writing something else out. By the time he pulled himself back into reality and told himself to focus, they were on another plant of math that he couldn’t even begin to understand.
In short, Remi was screwed. He was going to bomb the test.
Flipping to a fresh page (the other page completely ripped up in frustrated scribbles), he picked up his math book and headed out the door. He couldn’t work in these conditions!
Stepping out, he turned and saw another boy leaning against the wall. Books were open and stacked around him. His face seemed to say that if he looked at the page hard enough and with enough hatred, it would fix itself out of fear. Still, he seemed studious, and that meant he could be smart.
Kicking some junk back into his room that had toppled out, Remi shut his door and made his way over. “Mind if I join you?” He asked, already flopping down on the ground and looking over. “You wouldn’t happen to be doing any math homework, would you?” Please say he was with a mathematician!
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Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 11:01 am
Jon blinked, shot a look up toward the newcomer, just a little glazed and trying to focus. The page had been starting to blur and he had, perhaps, been drifting off toward sleep propped up in the hall. Had to rub at his eye and straighten to gather his thoughts, trying to ignore the subconscious running of numbers through his head. Twelve steps for Remi to get over to where he sat...
"Uh. No, if only." He reached out to nab the book and held it up to show off the cover, grimacing as he did so. He hated Joseph Conrad, he though, and he never hated anyone. But this book, it had to be an implement of torture. He shuffled through pages, and pointed at his notes in a quick motion, almost stabbing at them.
"Something about existentialism something." So he wasn't all that intellectual, maybe. Not so smart. Just playing at catch up. "You read it?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 1:00 pm
If Only? That seemed promising. Remi was instantly feeling that he might have happened on an intellectual goldmine, and hopefully one that was sympathetic to a student in need. Unfortunately, in exchange for any service Remi might have to offer, the one book he DIDN’T read was show. He dropped his head upon reading the title. It just had to be THAT book. Pick Whitman. Pick Kobe even! Nooo. It had to be Conrad.
“Sorry. That’s…one of the ones I didn’t read.” He reached over and took the book, wishing he had the chance to have this homework other than his math. Opening the book, he felt warmed at seeing words. Familiar friends. They were nothing close to the demanding strangers that were in his math book which was filled with harsh and unforgiving numbers. Ugh, he hated math!!
He handed the book back, before hitting the back of his head against the wall a few times. “We’re gifted students, right? Why do we have to learn other subjects?” Who cared about being well rounded!
"Hey kid. I could probably wing something from what yo got so far if you show me what you know about math. Maybe we can make a deal and both get out of here with a C."
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Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 1:46 pm
Jon was more than happy to offer over the book. Judging from his sour expression, Remi could keep it for all he cared. It was an excellent point. Why did they have to study outside of their specialties? What was the goal of teaching a math genius about politics and existentialism and hyperbole and all this other bullshit, when all he really wanted was sums and right-or-wrong answers?
He hummed, rolling the book over between his fingers to study the back cover, considering. "Or I could just do your math homework, and you could write my essay for me. You good at essays?"
Not exactly right, no, but it'd get them both passing grades. He raised his eyebrows, thinking about it. "I could even fudge some of the answers so that it doesn't look too fishy."
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Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 6:19 pm
Remi closed the book and held his hands together, looking up to thank the almighty powers, whoever they were, that his luck had given him a student without a moral compass. After a series of ‘thank you thank you thank you’, Remi grinned back down at the kid and flipped a fresh sheet for his new assignment. “You have no idea how sweet that sounds. I’m great with essays. I think I can push out enough of the stuff I do know of existentialism to get you a decent grade. Hell, it would be probably get you enough to swing a B if your teacher is impressed with circling around the topic with fancy words. I’m great with that.” You could say very little and make it sound like a whole lot if you really had the talent, and Remi had that talent. Teachers had to grade lots of papers in one go, which meant they read once while checking for mistakes. This usually meant they were only reading with half a brain, and Remi was hoping htat that half was pulling a all-nighter without a coffee buzz.
“Great. Here’s my assignment. One through twenty, rrriiggghhhtt there. You can mess up some of the answers, but tell me which ones. I’ll be recopying it in my own writing anyways.” This was great. Remi would be writing and avoiding math all together, and this kid was getting a paper that would sound halfway decent. “You don’t know how great this is. Barren Pines. Hah. Who thought housing a whole bunch of geniuses wouldn’t lead to just this?” It was brilliant!
“Name’s Remi. I live right there. Have I met you before? You seem vaguely familiar.” Maybe it was the green hair. It wasn’t the first time Remi couldn’t remember a name.
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Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:16 pm
Flexible moral compass indeed -- because what did it matter? So long as he could pass his English and History classes, Jonathan would be out of Barren Pines at the end of the year. Finally. It had taken him way too long.
He should have taken Remi's hand, shaken it to introduce himself, but the math homework was already between his fingers and everything else had narrowed down for a moment. He counted through the problems, looked over the numbers, already processing answers in his head. He couldn't help it. It was sheer instinct.
Jon had to force himself to look up and stop thinking about the answers, how to find them, and how easy these problems were in comparison to his own work. He finally cleared his throat, offered a slow smile, focused. "Jonathan. Or Jon. Whichever. Uh. You in Pneumonia?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 12:03 pm
Jonathan. Jon. Either way, Remi wasn’t going to remember it, and instead gave a smile as his name evaporated from his mind. “Nope. Black Death, all the way! Crossin every border. Infecting every corner.” Though he really wasn’t the type to show any sort of school spirit, you just couldn’t help cheer for a team that made fun of one the world’s most horrendous epidemics. Not the mention all the brainstorming they had with their flea mascot and it’s amazing rat chariot. Screw hornets and tigers! They had the best one by far!
Getting snuggly with the book, he flipped over to scan some passages just for the sake of having quotes in the paper. Explicating a few segments and you were golden with a essay. “Well, Joe. What magic talent brought you here? I’m a writer. Seems I got the stuff to catch this place’s eye, and who can complain with free? My parents sure couldn’t.”
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Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 7:32 pm
"...well, Rich..." There was a dry edge behind his voice; he hadn't actually forgotten Remi's name, but if that was the way the game was going to be played, so be it. He even had one of the easiest names in the world to remember; it was one-syllable, and common. Oh well. He didn't seem upset, just amused.
"...mostly numbers. Shocked the place took me, though, I don't have much of a hand in anything else." Jon shrugged, swiping hair out of his face and leaning back against the wall. He was already relaxing, and considering indulging in a little something. He could do Remi's homework just about in his sleep.
"I mean, I can write a sentence alright, I get grammar and all that, but...you know. No feel for words, not really."
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Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 6:05 pm
Rich? He didn’t remember saying he was rich. Was Jon rich? Remi was temporarily confused why wealth was even brought up, considering that Remi looked like he’d been living under some overpass since had been enrolled. As John, he looked well put together, but even Remi could see the tint of red that made him want to grin with the feeling once got from spotting illegal activity. You didn’t get puffed eyes like that from staying up all night writing out equations, and John didn’t seem the type to have been crying to Titanic.
“Words? I LOVE words. All the rest can go to an editor, but writing is my bread and butter. You can say much with just a sentence and learn just as much from what someone says, even when they haven’t directly said it. Word choice, slang, repetition and alliteration. Sounds that trip off the tip of the tongue – that is pure delicious in my book. Grade-A Fantastic.” Just talking about the subject made him want to tear into the paper and write out a lengthy ‘Ode to Words’, but he doubted that John would get an A. It would deserve it, but it wasn’t part of the subject.
“How about numbers? Does that charge you up? Does it make your hands shake at times when talking about it that you wish other people really GOT what you were saying instead of just going ‘A-huh’ like you really weren’t making sense?”
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Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 6:59 am
Rich, Joe -- same bag, really. Jon watched him in a bemused sort of way, chin settling into his hand and even the math homework forgotten in the moment. It was kind of fun to watch people get worked up into a frenzy over something. He wasn't sure he, personally, was capable of getting that excited about anything....
"Man, I don't know. Not really." He waved a hand in a rolling sort of way, absent, shoulders rolled upward in an absent sort of shrug. "The baffled-when-I-talk part, maybe, but. Uh. Mostly I just do it because I gotta, else it marches back and forth in the back of my head and drives me crazy..."
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 12:37 pm
A pressing grin came over the blue-haired teen as he leaned back and regarded John. It might be insulting to call him Rainman, but part of him really wanted to test out if he had similar abilities. Reaching over, he nabbed his homework from the mathematician and leaned back, using his hand to block the other from peeking.
“So, if I was to say an equation, it would drive you crazy until you solved it? Like, if I were to say..” He regarded the math sheet. “...36 times 9648, you’d know the answer?” If this kid could manage that, Remi would be floored. Could this guy play poker? Did he calculate numbers all around to the point he could possibly solve crimes?!
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 3:19 pm
Jon was familiar with this game, but that didn't make it any less urgent, less important, didn't mean he could just shrug it away. His expression faded out to something blank, distracted, but his mouth went still. This wasn't Mathilda; he didn't have his 9648 times tables memorized, the answer wasn't on the tip of his tongue, but Jon did have methods for working it out.
Forty-five seconds, maybe, before he flashed Remi a grin. "347,328." It came out slow, careful, like he was still working out the last of it as he spoke. Once you had methods in place, it was easy to solve something like that. Especially when it was just multiplication. "Numbers. I'm good at them. Pretty much s**t at all the rest of this stuff, though."
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 4:59 pm
It was like watching a genius at work. While Remi had high regards for his own work, watching someone calculate numbers without a calculator was just amazing. Then again, Remi had problems with simple fractions, and guessed his compliments wouldn’t hold too much weight. Either way, he brought his fists up to his chin and smiled, watching the process work itself through John’s eyes.
“That- is - AMAZING! Why aren’t you sitting next to me in my math class? Oh, what I wouldn’t give to look off your paper!” Then again, someone who could do this level of multiplication was probably in some golden math program here in this gifted school. Still, he FOUND John, met him, and now had a window of opportunity that could work for two of them.
“So, it seems we’re both pretty good at what we do and suck everywhere else. How about this? I “tutor” you in any writing assignment you have, and you “tutor” me in any math problems I have. Sound fair?” For each time he said ‘tutor’, he made large air quotes with his fingers. Neither one of them looked like the teaching type, but they already proven that they were the type to trade papers. It was win-win for the both of them. “It’s not like you’re going to be writing essays when you leave this place, and I’m sure the hell not going to be doing math equations in my spare time.”
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 8:46 pm
"...uh huh, I thought that was the deal." He shrugged off the compliment with a somewhat flustered edge to his expression -- again, not uncommon, but it still made him twitch just a little. He didn't want to talk about it. It was just something he could do.
"Maybe we shouldn't do that in the hall, though, huh?" He raised his eyebrows with just a flash of a smile, and pointed down the hall, making a catty-corner gesture. "I'm down there, and you're here...less suspicious than trading-off papers in the hallyway, I think/"
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