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 Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 4:13 am
Alessa didn’t like asking for help at all.
Now, don’t get her wrong. The girl never thought she could be good at everything and never have to seek help ever. She was pretty average and contempt with that.
No, the problem is that failing suddenly at something made her feel completely useless and not as average. Special, even. The bad kind of special.
(And all kinds of special were bad when applied to her.)
What kind of idiot could get such low grades in biology all of a sudden, seriously? She felt comfort in helping others, not being intellectually babysat. And she didn’t even have an excuse for seeing her grades drop like that.
With badly bidden embarrassment, she went to seek for a senior student whose name had popped up when asking them for help they couldn’t provide. They said something along the lines of him “having some free time” and “being patient” and “good with science” (She should have suspected they actually just didn’t want to spend additional time explaining biology again.)
After classes, holding in her arms a ring binder full of hastily-written notes, diagrams and red marker, she sheepishly ran to a random senior getting out of his classroom. “E-excuse me, do you know where I can find Topher?” she asked, hastily adding “I heard he was good at biology…”
She also should have done her research. And asked someone else than the two classmates who didn’t know him personally.
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Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 2:12 am
About two classrooms down from the frazzled Alessa was Topher. The poor boy was bent over at least 3 different notebooks, haphazardly thrown over two desks he dragged closer to himself. For the stragglers left in the classroom, it was just another kid furiously studying for a Statistics quiz but it was a matter of life and death to him. Each quiz he'd gotten back was a near fail and, if this pattern kept up, he would be making up the credits at a faster pace during summer school. He would never survive.
The chicken scratch writing didn't help either. Looking at his notes was like trying to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs. He honestly swore he saw a drawing of a stork somewhere in there as he went over the day's notes. "How am I supposed to do this if I can't even read my own writing? Did I invent a new language or something while I was in math class? I didn't even think I could get that bored..." The frustrated teen continued to look at the work until he was just mumbling rather loudly to himself about how useless this all was and how he would probably misspell his own name.
"I'm a senior! I can't be held back because I can't figure out probability! I'm not taking summer school!..." By now, the other students were migrating out of the class room in mass. That was normally the signal for when Topher was getting a bit too agitated. Thankfully for Alessa, finding him wouldn't be too hard considering that he was almost loud enough to be heard across campus.
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Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 6:14 am
Indeed, it wasn’t hard to find Topher. Both students’ eyes were directed towards the origin of the agitation, the boy bearing an amused look. He confirmed the girl’s doubt: “I think he’s the guy who’s freaking out in that classroom, over there!” He then walked away, leaving Alessa to ponder whether or not this was the right time to interrupt him.
Her hesitation skyrocketed as she made out the reason for his freaking out. You pretty much had to be deaf to not at least understand the part where he was afraid he’d fail probability (which was a huge understatement from all points of view). Judging from his reaction alone, his problem must be more serious than hers. Although she was a failed test away from freaking out herself.
“Maybe I should come back later”, she wondered.
Oh, it wouldn’t hurt to at least ask. He must be a nice guy. He can empathize with her. Right?
Timidly, she walked inside the almost empty room. A mediocre homework slipped out of the binder; she barely caught it before it had a chance to show its likeness to a dead leaf. “Excuse me, are you Topher? Are you busy?” asked Alessa, ready to add that she should come back later, and she was sorry for making a senior waste his precious time and run away and try and deal with the confusing functioning of nerves herself.
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Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 10:05 pm
By the time Alessa had reached the classroom Topher had thrown himself over his books, head buried in his arms. This was ridiculous. Statistics was actually getting the best of him. And yet, he was still going over the problems in his head over and over again.
The sound of a paper crumbling roused him out of the almost trance like state he'd gotten himself into. Thinking it was one of his, he lifted his head just enough to look over his arms. The same few problems looked up at him with the scribbles he'd made before giving up. "Hmmm?" His gaze shifted up, even messier bangs than normal obscuring his view of the girl in front of him. Did he look busy? Not really. To anyone who just walked in on him, it probably looked like he'd just woken up from a nap.
"Well, I guess I'm not very busy right now." He yawned a bit out a reflex, sitting back up in the chair instead of being bent over the pile of notes he'd been looking over. "What can I do you for? Hopefully it isn't help on math homework..." Topher offered a weak chuckle though he really did hope that she wasn't looking to him for math help or they would both be in the same boat of absolute hopelessness.
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