[R] Biome, Part I [Devi x Vera] [FIN]

[Silent Spy]

Devi was a bright student, but like many high school students, she didn't love being a student. She didn't like that she had to take classes she didn't have interest in - especially not mathematics or science classes. But, she had to take them anyways, and she was lucky enough to get Dr. Westerman as a teacher. Dr. Westerman was a pretty cool teacher, Devi felt, and seemed to really enjoy what he taught and at least tried to make it interesting for the class. Not like her boring math teachers. There's no way to make math fun. No. Possible. Way.

Dr. Westerman had given the class an assignment to do a group presentation on one of the Earth's biomes. Her group's task was to present on temperate broadleaf forest biomes, and she had to work with some girl - a Vera Valentine. She didn't know this Vera girl much, Devi didn't even remember seeing her in the class until recently and they've never spoken a word.

Which was fine as far as Devi was concerned, she wasn't comfortable making new friends anyways. All she wanted was to pass this class, and maybe she won't need to take a science class in her senior year. As the class shuffled about to get into their groups, Devi gestuered her new partner to come over with a flat, bored expression that could as easily say "I'm going to be the person who kills you" as it could say "Hello, lets work together."

Friendly greetings weren't exactly one of Devi's talents.  

[Ithiltari]

Vera admittedly did not particularly enjoy many of her classes - especially math and science. She was, at best, an indifferent student regarding any of the sciences, and pretty much an abysmal failure at math. Dr. Westerman's class was interesting and easy enough to keep her grade above average, however, which was an enormous relief to the pink-haired girl. She might not like school all that much, but she was aware of the impact it would have on at least some part of her future.

Group projects, though, were not really her thing and it was with a sigh that Vera looked around the classroom for her arbitrarily assigned lab partner. Devorah Gellner, which didn't mean much to her. Vera was very self-contained and really didn't pay much attention to other people. Unless they happened to be named Janice Fitzpatrick, but that was really a unique situation.

She was vaguely aware of what the girl looked like, so when the other girl made a gesture in Vera's direction, it was rather easy to figure out what was going on. "Hello," she said politely, taking a seat next to Devi. "I really don't know anything about the biome," Vera confessed, fiddling absently with her ever-present pencil. "But that's almost the point, wouldn't you say?" She was trying to be more social, really. It didn't always go over very well, but trying was the important part. Right?  

[Silent Spy]

Damn, Devi was hoping her partner would be smart and graciously offer to do most of the work. "The point is to get a good grade and pass the class," Devi said solemnly. It didn't matter to her whether or not she learned from the project so long as she gets a decent passing grade. "I don't know much about the biome either, but we can do some research on Wikipedia." Devi knew Wikipedia inside and out, but wasn't too familiar with any other modes of research. She had been to the library recently, but playing with books in the library wasn't nearly as fun as clicking links on Wikipedia.

"Are you new here?" Devi asked rather tactlessly. She doesn't remember seeing Vera in the class since before a few weeks or motnhs ago - but then again, she never looked around much in class, usually just made doodles or wrote her name in boxed letters in her notebook as Dr. Westerman lectured on.  

[Ithiltari]

Vera looked momentarily nonplussed as she assessed her partner's reactions. Well, okay. She could deal with this. Absolutely. "Well, of course?" the pink-haired girl replied, shrugging one of her shoulders in a sort of 'well duh' gesture. "There's also the library, I suppose," she suggested, though Vera had no idea how good the school's library was for this topic; it seemed to her that most school libraries were more set up for the convenience and use of the English departments.

"I transferred into the school in January," Vera said rather shortly; she didn't particularly want to talk about where she'd been before that. In a hospital in a coma because she'd been fortunate enough to 'survivie' Barren Pines - but that wasn't really something she enjoyed talking about. To anyone. "Is there anything in particular you want to research?" It would probably be better if they split up the topics between themselves, since the work would get done faster that way. Hopefully.  

[Silent Spy]

"I can look for some maps that highlight regions with the biome," she said, practically reading off the tasks on the assignment sheet for the project. That should be an easy part, she could probably look for the images on Google. "If you want, you can research the climate, soils, trees, wildlife, and other unique aspects of the biome and write the research paper. And you can help me make a poster."

In science-oriented group projects, Devi was one of those students. One of the student who sat back and let her partner do all the work. She wouldn't refuse to do the work, but it couldn't hurt making the suggestion. "Or however you want to split this up. We should do some part of the work together."  

[Ithiltari]

Vera listened as Devi read off the list of tasks and gave the other girl a very flat stare. "I don't mind doing the writing," she said. "But there's no reason you can't do some of the other research." Even if it all came off the first page of Google search results or Wikipedia, it was better than Vera doing all of the work herself.

"Or at least help with it," she added. If Devi wanted to do a poster, she'd have to look up pictures to put on it. Which meant she'd be looking up this stuff anyway. "Why don't you work on the trees and wildlife?" Vera suggested. Those two areas wouldn't be all that hard to look up.  

[Silent Spy]

"Fine," Devi groaned. She got a pretty good compromise from that, the workload she was assigned wouldn't be too much. That would give Devi plenty of time to work on her screenplay, which she thought was coming along excellently. [Hint: It was s**t.] It would also be able to give her time to go on her date with Damian, without feeling like she was putting off any measure of work. "How much should we get done apart this weekend? Should we meet this weekend to work on the project?"  

[Ithiltari]

Vera had opened her mouth to say something that might have been uncharacteristically waspish, but she clicked it shut firmly. It wasn't really fair to take out her irritations on someone else. "This weekend? Um, I think I've got stuff planned," the pink-haired teen said after a moment's thought. Plans these days were basically patrols with Janice, and very little else.

"I think just some basic research? Maybe rough outlines?" They had a bit of time to work on the project after all.  

[Silent Spy]

"Good," Devi said. All she wanted to know was that they were not meeting that weekend. This weekend would be all about her upcoming date and the last thing she wanted to think about was her project. "I can work on some outlines before and after the weekend. But I don't want to work this weekend. This weekend I'll be doing my date."

She quickly realized her own poor choice of words and immediately started backpedalling. "Not doing my date, I mean I am going on a date. Not..." Her face went red. This was not an area she felt comfortable talking about, let alone with a stranger. Even mentioning her date was an unintentional slip of words. She bit her tongue and thought of a way to get out of the mess.

A question! She heard somewhere that asking questions are a good way to change a topic in a conversation. "So who are you doing this weekend? I mean, what are you doing?"  

[Ithiltari]

Vera had nodded absently in response to Devi's first comments about working, thinking for a moment about when she'd be doing her part of the project. She was not, however, so lost in thought that she missed the other girl's comment, and one eyebrow inched upward in surprise. She didn't know Devi very well, true, but...doing her date? Had she really meant to say that?

She'd been about to ask when the brunette blushed brilliantly red and quickly restated herself. She looked at Devi gravely, trying not to laugh, though her purple eyes sparkled a bit. "Likely helping a friend with another project," Vera answered solemnly, as if Devi hadn't said anything unusual.

The conversation stalled out momentarily, as Vera tried to think of something else to say; Devi didn't seem like the type to engage in idle chatter, which was normally something the pink-haired girl approved of. Luckily for the pair of them, class was dismissed before things got too awkward, each of them leaving the other with a vague reassurance that project work would be done.