21st Howl: After School Numbers Club, Back to School Edition [Action]

[professorwolf]

The first day back to school was usually boring, full of course schedules and new books. So Lyall had made the first day back for the Numbers Club, he hoped, at least a little cheerful. There were decorations as if he were throwing a party, put up in his classroom-- which, really, he kind of was-- plenty of sugary snacks-- most of which he couldn't eat-- and wasn't even putting up the illusion that this was for studying today. There were cards, games, and the desks moved into a slightly more circular pattern for people to mingle.

And he was standing in front of the demonstration counter at the front of the room, leaning back on it casually, instead of sitting behind it letting people do their own thing. This, he hoped, meant he could greet anyone coming in, if he wasn't too busy with someone else.

If they were in this for the long haul, then he wanted to know all his students who were forced to be in it, with him.

Comments

Open

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura peeked his head in the classroom with an impish grin before actually entering into the classroom. "So. Free periods. When do you have them this year?" he asked without preamble.

[professorwolf]

"Same time as last year, why?" Lyall paused, winced as he realized exactly why, and added, "I'm not going to make excuses for you when you ditch class, Bakura, even if it is to come into mine."

He liked the boy, really he did, but sometimes he was just too much.

[shiromadoushi]

"Hey, I'm only making plans to get out of study hall!" Bakura pointed out with a small laugh. "Besides. You don't need to make excuses. Long as you're cool with being my 'designated staff member'" he mimicked a stuffy tone for the words. "it's fine with everyone up stairs."

The "upstairs" being where the 504 coordinator and structured study hall was, of course.

[professorwolf]

"Oh, has it actually been approved that I'm your escape plan?" Lyall sighed, somewhere between resigned and touched that it'd been made official. If that was the case, he'd make do, and not put up too much of a fuss. Just one last warning: "Don't let your grades slip any further because of it, though, or I'll catch hell from your other teachers."

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura snorted at that. "Please, like anyone would blame you for my grades. It's pretty much a given that I'm getting the same report card as last year~"

Near solid Cs except English and History with a B and an A. Or possibly an A and a B, depending.

"Isn't like I did any work up in the study hall anyway."

[professorwolf]

"Is your study hall the same time as my free period this year?" Lyall asked. "First thing in the morning seems like a funny time to pick, unless you're hoping to sleep in or you were planning on me having the same schedule." It was, he thought, probably the last part. It wasn't like he let his schedule change much, if he could get away with it.

[shiromadoushi]

"Iiiii may or may not have asked guidance what your schedule was before I arranged my own~" Bakura admitted with a small laugh. "And since I know the study hall upstairs is always packed 1st, it'd be easier to get out of it."

[professorwolf]

Lyall shot him a vaguely amused glance. "You're probably right. Well, I may wind up putting you to work, if so," he warned, more amiably this time. "Since first period is when I prep labs and things if there are any happening that day. And there's usually at least one class doing a lab."

[shiromadoushi]

"Heeeh, really? So I get to help setting up all the dissections and things?"

[professorwolf]

A little afraid that this might have been a bad idea, Lyall still charged ahead: "Sure, if you can do it responsibly and without making any messes. I don't want another Frog Incident, like Kanti reminded me of the other day." He rolled his eyes, but still amiably.

[shiromadoushi]

"Someone else have too much fun when finding an egg sack~?" Bakura grinned impishly.

[professorwolf]

"No, more like innards slashed across the room," Lyall said, making a face. "It was rather disgusting. But probably not quite as disgusting as dead frog eggs everywhere. I probably ought to desensitize myself to the smells now, before I'm stuck in a class full of things like that...." He hadn't had to do do any dissections in the last weeks of school, except for the AP test lab, and that had been the class full of diligent students.

[shiromadoushi]

"Phh, lame," Bakura snorted. "Just going all slasher isn't even creative...."

He paused, blinking. "...your nose isn't going to be a huge problem with that, is it?"

[professorwolf]

"It wasn't last year, though I didn't have too many dissections I had to deal with, it's true," Lyall said, looking a little at a loss. "The students don't bother me, and I can get used to the chemicals. I just need to be prepared, that's all."

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura nodded. "And they have that stuff you can put under your nose that makes it so that's all you smell too! So you can just keep that on hand and block anything out with something you like better."

Open

[synchronous]

DJ was in biology, but didn't speak up much during class itself. That shit was for learning, not for conversing. However, Aria had mentioned an after-school meeting for members of the numbers club, so he'd figured hey. Why not. Might as well.

He poked his head into the classroom after school let out. Cautiously.

[professorwolf]

Lyall was there, waiting, and he perked up at the new face. Well, sort of new. He recognized the boy from class, but not as much from the network. Then again, he'd lost track of everyone in the "club", these days. "Hello, Dilbert. Looking for something in particular, or just stopping by with a question?"

After all, he might not have been a club member. Best not to assume.

[synchronous]

Oh god.

This was one of the reasons he hated teachers.

"DJ," he replied instantly. And then, "Yeah. I, uh, heard there was a club meeting here?"

[professorwolf]

Though Lyall was vaguely aware of the nickname, he didn't really like it much. He felt like it wasn't any sort of a decent name. But he repressed the sigh and corrected himself: "DJ." He offered a little smile. "Did someone in particular invite you, or did you find out about it online?"

[synchronous]

"Aria told me. Online," he replied. His eyes flicked about the room and he casually adjusted his eyeglasses. "Is this the right room?"

sorry for disappearing :( I'm back now!

[professorwolf]

"It is, it is, come on in." Lyall's smile grew a bit, with relief, though a little disappointment, as well. "There are a lot of us at the school from that particular network, actually."

np!

[synchronous]

DJ's shoulders slumped with relief. He stepped into the room, adjusting his eyeglasses self-consciously. "Sweet.

"So, uh, what do we do here?"

[professorwolf]

"At the moment, eat cookies and get to know the new people," Lyall shrugged. "I'm always hopeful that people will actually study here, but for the most part it's just mingling and card games. I've had some people here with questions, which I'm happy to answer as well as I can. I've been involved in this since it began, as far as I can tell."

[synchronous]

"Great." How meaningful, he thought sarcastically. Then again, it's not like anyone else around here actually knew where these weird memories were coming from. He couldn't juet expect to waltz on in here and find answers.

Open

[scramasax]

Anthony, this time, came in deliberately late - rather, slow, then. He hung around outside of school and outside of sight projecting a fussy guess as to by what time most everyone else intending to attend would already be in and settling, and bided his time another ten minutes waiting for the grounds to look to quiet down just a little further - and even when he did start making his way to the biology room, not a speck of attention on him all the while, he felt anxious. Showing at the school after all, for anything, felt half like doing something that he was supposed to and half instead like breaking a signed-to rule.

He pushed the door open and pulled himself on in with a small sound in loosened tension. He didn't take his hood down - eyes still stung a tad from the sun outside under it, glancing around through it nonetheless from there to spot for "new" faces while he moved to say hello to Mr. Lyall and shuffle to a spot to settle.

[shiromadoushi]

"Heeeey, you made it!" Bakura exclaimed cheerfully, putting an arm around the fledgling zombie and looking as if he were about to deliver a noogie before pausing and thinking better of it. "Oh, hey. Grandma sent a care package, it's in my bag, lemme go get it!"

And with that he disconnected from the not-hug and zoomed over to his school bag to extract a cloth wrapped box. "Mostly snacks, I think!" he explained, holding it out. "and the sweets are made with bottled water because I told her you had to have bottled because of your condition. No giggles in 'em that way."

[scramasax]

Anthony looked over in the direction of Bakura's voice abruptly - and he was stumbled off figurative balance by the gesture, tensing just a reflexive tad as it looked like Bakura might do something, and before he could re-articulate a "Hi" or decide whether or not it might be fitting to move to reciprocate the not-hug, Bakura spoke again, and he was again remotely stunned.

He watched Bakura zip over to the bag and produce the box. When it was held out he blinked at it a couple times - and he wondered for a second then what Bakura's excuse for avoiding tap water had been all this time, unless he hadn't been - and, light with nice, touched surprise compounding in a pang, managed "She -- she really did all that?"

[shiromadoushi]

"Of course she did. This is my grandmother we're talking about. Oh yeah, she also says to tell you that she hopes you're feeling better and still talking with your parents and to feel free to come and visit whenever you'd like."

[scramasax]

"I uhm... -- Tell her thank you for being so kind...!" His voice fluttered in something like a laugh - not even in humor; just ease and a couple kinds of happiness, and the thought that maybe he would have to to tell her that himself for good measure.

" -- What have you been telling them, by the way? ...To avoid the water."

[shiromadoushi]

There was a long moment of awkward silence as Bakura didn't look over. "...I haven't really," he admitted. "I just go hide in my room after dinner..."

[scramasax]

Another awkward, silent moment was dented - not quite broken - at the halfway point by a muffled "Oh." Guilt-hooked and pulled to an drop.

"They don't -- ask... anything?"

[shiromadoushi]

"Only if I'm okay. I think they're used to it by now, to be honest," Bakura admitted with a soft sigh.

[scramasax]

Anthony's eyebrows pulled a tad closer together. He breathed out through his noise faintly, in sympathy and secondhand exasperation.

An area in which keeping company exclusive to others of the network had him lucky.

"Er." A still-rather-guilty glance aside. " -- ...Thank you for... making me an excuse -- ..."

The sentiment was toned as a passive apology, phrased as a thank-you.

[shiromadoushi]

"Easy enough to do with your case," Bakura pointed out cheerfully. "'sides. Wouldn't be a proper gift poisoned with giggles, right?"

[scramasax]

Picking up a wry, sheepish smile and hint of levity. "I don't even really need it as -- much as you - probably do. ... -- It's not like I can't -- I'm not giving anything away if John notices me laughing."

[shiromadoushi]

The white haired boy looked down slightly. "All my flashbacks have been memories, last thing I want is you to have an echo of one that makes you get worse, you know?"

[scramasax]

Little twinge there.

" - I've been fine -- ..." he said anyway, and hoped it sounded adequate and sincere enough in tone to convince any amount it ought to. He had re-experienced "turning" a few times now - it hadn't left him any worse off; he was well-enough convinced that it wouldn't and couldn't happen that way. " -- I uh -- ...understand, though. -- Thank you, Bakura - again."

Subdued and again hopefully enough to do justice to the thought - letting the thanks outweigh any component of guilt.

[shiromadoushi]

"Good. And you don't need to thank me so much," Bakura returned, giving Anthony a pat on the shoulder. "So, what are you doing with school work? Since you haven't been in. You actually care about your grades and all, right? So you have to have something set up, right?"

[scramasax]

Would he rather the thanks, or the "sorry"s?

A quick nod and confirmation of "Right -- everything's fine" felt good enough to give as response. It was also the truth, if still not the ideal one - in terms of the matter of keeping up schoolwork and things as they'd seemed stable for the time being otherwise.

Open

[vetala]

Kanti took biology with Karson last year, and aside from the several dissection-related disasters that are practically prerequisites when they partner up on anything vaguely related to science, it went rather well. Her grades were good and she was competent at it. It's life science, not computer engineering after all. So she knows where the room is and is at least somewhat familiar with Mr. Lyall.

Kanti doesn't so much walk in as she does slide in awkwardly before setting her backpack on a chair and sitting herself carefully on one of the desks. Carefully, because these things always tip. Always. Numbers Club has been good for her, mutations aside. She's talked to more people in the last month than she has her entire time in this school. It's nice.

[professorwolf]

Lyall has been looking for her, since she had said she'd be here, and he recognizes the hair immediately. He lets her get settled before he pushes up from the counter to wander over. "Kanti, right?" he says with a smile. "Welcome back."

[vetala]

Kanti has very recognizable hair. And clothes. And height. And choice in friends. She is generally not the most subtle through no fault of her own, since most of it is unintentional in it's own extremely intentional way.

When Mr. Lyall approaches, Kanti just sort of stares. Then she realizes that that is rude, and so she stares somewhere else. This is more rude, so she goes back to staring at him. Thyen she decides that beating around the bush is stupid and she's not fond of it and never has been.

"Hello. I'm not exactly sure how I'm supposed to be speaking with you, because you are a teacher after all, but you're also a member of the Numbers Club, so this is all very new."