Room 2

Caroline was a bag of nerves. She sat behind her desk, her leg bouncing, clicking her pen on and off, on and off, on and off.

"You're being ridiculous," she said to herself. "There is nothing to be worried about - it's not like these kids can be that different to the ones you've taught before. Just relax." She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, trying to calm herself down.

Unfortunately, no amount of reasoned logic could rid her of the butterflies currently rocketing about in her stomach. She opened her eyes again and flicked a glance at the clock. She regretted it immediately - they'd be here any minute!

She leapt to her feet in a bid to burn off a little nervous energy and picked up a pen. She'd just finished scrawling "Ms. Freeborne, English Literature" on the board when she heard a sound. She turned to look at the door, and with a sudden sinking feeling she saw it opening.

The students had arrived....

Kendall looked up at the sign above the door. It was Room 2 alright, which means that it will be lunch time right after class. Swallowing the lemon-flavoed chewing gum in her mouth, she then dropped a hand on the door knob and opened the door in her usual manner, slowly and quietly. As she walked in, Kendall turned slightly to the desk to find that the teacher, a Miss Freeborne, had already arrived. Apparently the room was just empty enough for the creaking of the door to be heard.

"Should I leave it open?" Kendall asked taking a quick look at the door. Freeborne did not answer immediately, and Kendall also noticed that she had a strange look in her face almost as though she was unhappy or terrified.

OOC: I assume that Caroline would be too nervous to make an immediate response?

OOC: Yeah, that's fine!

IC:

Caroline froze for a moment, feeling for all the world like a rabbit caught in the headlights. Then a surge of adrenaline hit her and she beamed, forcing her heart back down her throat.

"Yes, please," she said at last, after smiling for just a little too long for it to be entirely convincing. "Take a seat, I'm guessing the others will be here soon."

She waved a hand at the empty classroom, and found she was feeling a lot better now that there was someone else here. She knew she'd been being stupid, getting so worked up - seeing the girl in front of her immediately did away with any panicked thoughts she'd been having as it forced her to realise once and for all that these students were just... well, students!

Caroline turned back to her desk, opening the register that was lying there. "So, who're you then?" she asked, smiling at Kendall, somewhat less manically this time.

"Kendall Cyrus," she answered.

All the time, Kendall was looking at Ms Freeborne and could not help but get a feeling of weirdness initially. It did not bother her though, she like weirdness although she had to admit being disappointed when Ms Freeborne seemed to have settled to normal behaviour. Maybe it was her first time teaching and she was being incredibly nervous? In any case she did calm down very fast.

"Kendall Cyrus?" she repeated, thinking it a bit of a weird name, but shrugging it off and marking Kendall present in the register anyway. She flicked another glance at the door and sighed. "Doesn't seem like we're all that popular, huh?" she said, smiling a little but not enough to hide the fact she was clearly bothered by the empty classroom.

Again, she shrugged it off and sat down again behind the desk. She pulled her knees up and sat cross-legged, chewing her lip as the silence stretched out. The excitement that had replaced the nerves when she saw Kendall had dies down significantly now that the promise of more people had been unfulfilled, and her mind had gone strangely blank. She fidgeted a little, tapping out a rhythm on her knees with her hands and humming quietly, staring at the ceiling.

Finally, she broke the awkward silence and looked at Kendall. "So," she began, and immediately wished she hadn't. "Are you... from round here?" She winced inside as she said it. This was a boarding school - no-one was from "round here", that was kind of the point.

Aubri opened the door to her English Lit. class and looked around. Kendall, one of the girls from her Creative Writing class, was here already, along with... the teacher? Sighing, Aubri walked to the second seat in the second row and sat down. She pulled out her notebook and a pink pen and started doodling on the first page of the notebook. Despite the fact that she had no artistic ability, she still enjoyed "drawing" or at least attempting to draw.

She paused and looked up at the teacher. Aubri smiled at the woman, murmured a "hello" and went back to her doodling. Everyone assumed that because she typically was scantily clad she was incredibly outgoing when, in actuality, she was incredibly shy.

As she doodled, she wondered what authors they would cover in this class. She hoped they would go over some of her favorites. Either Jane Austen, George Orwell, maybe Shakespeare or Chaucer, any of those would be fun. She continued contemplating different authors as she doodled, waiting for class to officially begin.

"No," Kendall answered before mumbling under her breath, "Obviously not." Just then she heard someone enter and she turned to look, wordlessly acknowledging Aubri, the girl who was also in creative class and was the one who bumped into her back in the theatre. "I was from Los Angeles and I don't really know why I was sent here but it is defnitely not my conduct," she said turning her attention back to Ms Freeborne. Inside she was wondering whether the teacher found her behaviour strange already, not that she minded people thinking of her that way but she does have a tendency to say a little more than asked.

"What will we be doing today?" she asked.

"Oh, LA. Cool. Never had much time for it myself - I'm a New Yorker, LA always seemed a bit soft for me," she said with a smile. "Pretty decent music scene though, I think," she added, talking more to herself than to Kendall.

She stood up when Aubri walked in and smiled at the girl, pleased to have another student. "Hi," she said when the girl had sat down, and waited a moment for a reply. Seeing that she was clearly more focussed on drawing than she was on Caroline, she shrugged and turned back to Kendall.

"Today?" she said, seeming a little absent-minded. "Oh, today!" Her face broke out into a smile of genuine excitement. "Today, we're starting study on the single greatest writer of all time - Mr William Shakespeare!" she said with a flourish. She climbed back onto her chair and knelt up over the desk, barely able to contain her excitement. "Shakespeare can write like nobody else - his characters are the most human, his words are the most beautiful, his understanding of human nature, his sympathy and intelligence - he's unsurpassed. To quote Doctor Who for a moment, he is "The most human human", an absolute... genius." She finished simply, seeming almost surprised at how well the word fitted. "You hear the word battered about so often now - this singer's a genius, that actor's a genius, what your mom can do with a baloney sandwich is genius. But real, honest, genuine genius? Shakespeare all the way," she grinned.

Aubri had only been half paying attention to the teacher and Kendall talking. Then the teacher abruptly went off on how amazing Shakespeare was. Although Aubri agreed with what she was saying, she had to smile and giggle a little at how passionate the teacher was becoming while talking about Shakespeare.

Smiling she looked up from her doodling. "Aside from learning about Shakespeare's life, which of his works, specifically, will we be looking at?" she asked.

I sincerely hope we're not covering any of his tragedies. They are his most famous works, but still they're just so.... tragic. We should study something like.... A Midsummer Night's Dream or Twelfth Night, something with some humor to it. Aubri thought.

"I'm Aubri, by the way," she introduced herself, "I'm from Raleigh, North Carolina." She thought she'd add the last part since it seemed that that's what the teacher and Kendall had been discussing before Shakespeare.

Kendall gave a clap at Ms Freeborne's enthusiasm for the subject, but just a single one. She felt that repeated clapping made the skin of her palms itch. Nevertheless it was quite a speech and she wondered whether Ms Freeborne had spent time writing it or whether she just spoke whatever came to her.

She then went to settle down in the front row beside Aubri, taking out all might-be necessary materials before putting her sling bag on the floor. Kendall was not surprised that they would be going through Shakespeare though. Every English Literature class always at the very least mention him. As Aubri asked about whether they will be going through any of his works, Kendall nodded and added, "Will we be going through Macbeth?"

"I really love the Three Witches and the play's curse," she said leaning toward Aubri.

Aubri was slightly surprised when Kendall spoke to her, but she overcame her shock quickly. "Macbeth is interesting to say the very least. Though, I've always wondered what would've happened if the Three Witches, and all their double-double-toil-and-troubling, hadn't told Macbeth that he was destined to be king what would've happened. Lady Macbeth and her 'damned spots' are intriguing as well. All of Shakespeare's tragedies are interesting, but I prefer his comedies. The double love triangle in A Midsummer Night's Dream and the love triangle in Twelfth Night are romantic and have comedic relief to them at the same time."

Despite her love of Shakespearean work and reading in general, Aubri rarely revealed that she'd read many of the classics. Her friends at her old school would've have mocked her... or else they would've been so shocked that she'd actually read a book that they wouldn't have said anything. Perhaps here, people wouldn't judge her outward appearance and instead they'd appreciate her for her brain. Still she was embarrassed that she'd given such a long speech and, blushing, she went back to her doodling, hoping that the teacher and Kendall would continue the conversation without her input.

Caroline had been leaning forwards in her seat while the girls talked, ecstatic to see them discussing the subject with such interest. She was not a little relieved to hear Aubri wax lyrical about Shakespeare's comedies following her own little outburst - she'd been at school before where her enthusiasm had been either ignored point blank by her students, or worse, earnt her the label of Crazy and left at that.

"Well," she said when Aubri turned back to her drawing. "Why don't we decide together? I mean, personally I love the tragedies - Hamlet is just... Mmfft!" she laughed. "But having said that, there's no way I want to teach a class where people aren't enjoying themselves. If nothing else, you won't do the work as well as if you really dig it, you know? Sad but true - we only actually bother with things that we'd bother with anyway. If that makes sense..." she trailed off for a second, running the sentence over in her head to see if it worked. She shrugged and carried on. "So. We'll have a debate. Me and Kendall for the tragic, Aubri for the comedy - that ok?"

She felt a little awkward putting Aubri on her own, but to be truthful she'd seen more spark and intelligence out of her than she had out of Kendall - if anything, she was helping Kendall out rather than hindering Aubri. Caroline just hoped Kendall wouldn't notice.

Aubri felt somewhat put on the spot. She'd been hoping Kendall and the teacher would continue talking without her, but apparently her little speech wouldn't be overlooked.

Well that's what you get for opening your mouth. If you didn't want to discuss this stuff you shouldn't have said anything at all. she reprimanded herself.

Glancing up from her doodling, she looked at the teacher. "What about the other students? Shouldn't we wait and see if anyone else has an opinion? I mean it's not just the three of us in this class is it?" Aubri silently hoped that these questions would deter her from having to actually debate. "I mean I guess I can, if there isn't anyone else in the class, but if someone else has an opinion shouldn't we wait to hear it before a decision is made? Besides I like Shakespeare's tragedies, they're intriguing, I wouldn't mind reading them, I've read a lot of them already. I was just commenting that I would prefer to do one of his comedies, that's all."

"A debate?" Kendall repeated and with an amount of surprise. She certainly did not think to engage in debate on the first lesson, and to add she was not very good at such things. And it seems that Aubri was also not too keen, especially when she herself said that she enjoyed the tragedies equally. Honestly, Kendall was not too picky about what they were to go through in the first place.

Caroline shrugged, feeling a little defeated. Personally, she always enjoyed a good debate, and was quite happy to play devil's advocate just to keep one going. But if they really were this unkeen...

"Well," she said with a little sigh. "Fine, if you don't want to. Just thought it might be a bit of a more interesting way to kick things off. Forget it," she said, turning back to the board. She rubbed her name off and wrote "Elements Of Classical Tragedy" instead. She turned back to the two girls. "Right then," she said, sounding a little flat. "We're studying Othello this term, but I want to see how familiar you are with the format of tragedy first. So. Hands up. What are the elements..." she trailed off, tapping the board.

Aubri noted the quickness with which the teacher had turned from having fun and open to what the girls wanted to her now serious tone.

It's probably best if I stay, or get on her good side.

Sighing Aubri raised her hand to define the elements of a classic tragedy. She sincerely hoped this wouldn't just be a repeat of things she already knew. She'd read Othello before, which actually should have been called Iago since he's the main character, but you just didn't name plays after the villain in those days.

"There are five elements that make up a classic tragedy," Aubri began, "First, you must have the tragic hero who is somehow morally superior to everyone else. Second, that hero must have a tragic flaw, in Othello's case it's his jealousy. Next is the hero's arrogance that he can violate some law. I guess that might be having a Moor married to an Italian white girl, Desdemona. You also have the catastrophe, in this case Iago inciting Othello to jealousy over an imagined affair between Cassio and Desdemona. And finally you have the complete reversal of fortunes. That is from Othello being happily married and in love with Desdemona to eventually killing her because he suspected her of having an affair when she was really innocent. Actually pretty much everyone dies in Shakespeare's tragedies. He basically only leaves like some semi-main character left alive to actually tell the story. Like in Othello it's Cassio and in Hamlet it's Horatio."

Mikazuki/Mika walked into the class room. She looked around at the furniture and sat at table staring blankly at the chalkboard.
"So this is my new class" she thought to herself. She knew it would take some time to adjust to the teachers and students

After mister Lancaster his drama arts class, Doreen studied her agenda. "English Literature by miss Freeborne" it said on the second hour. Thankfully her trip to the next class was very short, though already there were some students inside the classroom. Miss Freeborne was also present, Doreen heard her saying something about Othello. She did not know who this person was, but expecting she was in English literature, he had to be a writer. Right? At least she would be learning something new.

She looked for a place to sit and found a table next to a girl she see earlier in the hall. It did not looked like the girl was waiting for a friend because her eyes looked so dazed, but asking if she could sit next to her seemed polite. Doreen moved to stand in front of her. She had already decided that whispering was probably a good thing.

"Hello there" she said, "it appears I am also attending this class. Can I sit next to you?" She smiled at the girl and looked a bit curiously, while waiting for an answer.