**--Paper Grading Time {James}

[Ryanne B. Firth]

Ryanne placed the end of the bright green gel pen she used for grading papers in her mouth as she glanced over one of her student's work on a test question. Her eyebrows raised as she attempted to understand the logic in the student's response. It was obvious that they had no idea what the answer was, so they were just writing down every physics equation they knew. Ryanne bit her lower lip as her eyes scanned the page. She searched for any bit of information that was logically correct pertaining to the problem. She wanted to give her students as much partial credit as they could. Wordlessly, she took the pen out of her mouth and made some remarks on the side of the problem to help the student with future problems, and then wrote the score for the problem below the question. You may be wondering: Why the sparkly bright gel pen? Well. Ryanne believed that receiving points off on a problem was bad enough, so she delivered it with a happy color, rather than the harsh red most teachers normally used.

She placed the pen down after finishing grading that particular student's exam and started filing through the papers. A quick sound of paper slicing skin filled the classroom. She frowned as she glanced down at her right index finger, but within moments what had been a paper cut, was completely gone. Ryanne didn't even blink and continued flipping through the papers. Her expression was close to a frown. Ryanne loved physics, but she hated having to give her students written tests about it. It was one thing to write about the effects of some force on something, but completely another when it comes to actually being able to recreate a demonstration of that force. Sure, the mathematics behind physics is interesting and important, but the students will only really remember the results of hands on minds on experiments.

Ryanne's eyes left the pages in front of her and drifted to a photograph she kept on her desk. It was one of her and her younger brother out on a mountain with their snowboard gear. Ryanne's mask was up on her head and her eyelashes were graced with snowflakes. Ryanne's brother, Colin, has a goofy smile on his face and his giving Ryanne bunny ears. Even though she is a full six years older than her brother, she has become quite close to him and has all the best hopes that he will succeed in life. Another picture on her desk is of Ryanne when she was a little girl. She's missing both her front teeth and her arm is in a cast and she's standing next to her mother. Ryanne knew the cast was just for show, but others viewing the picture may not know that.

The young physics teacher then decided it was best to get back to grading. Page by page, exam by exam, Ryanne went through marking questions right or wrong and making sure to write constructive criticism in both cases. She then pulled out her grade book, which was divided into two sections: one for the gifted students, and the other for the unknowing normal students. Why the division? Ryanne liked to keep track of the gifted students and their abilities using little cryptic notes. If any of them required her knowledge of Physics in order to help control their abilities, Ms. Firth made sure she knew what she could do. One by one, she began penciling in the scores for the student's tests. Why the pencil? You may be wondering. Well. Many times students came up to her to challenge a grade they received, and it was quite unnecessary for her to have to change the penned in grade. It would look messy if she had to cross everything off. As she wrote down the numbers, she began to hum the tune of "Why the Sun Shines" by They Might Be Giants. The monotony of grading papers was always made more interesting when a song was involved.

TAGS?! James L. Kent
OUTFIT?! click here!
WORDS?! 677
MUSE?! spiffy
NOTES?! hope this is okay

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[James Liam Kent]

School was never James’ favorite part of the day. Always as boring as heck, he struggled through the day, keeping his powers in check as well as his temper. If he wasn’t careful, he could break through a wall or two in his anger. However, if school was good for one thing, it would be how much it kept his mind off of his current situation. James was a killer. Sweet as a pea, no one would expect a murderer to come from the seventeen year old boy, yet if psychologists could really read peoples’ mind’s they would immediately come across the bloody mess that became his last memory back in his hometown. Unfortunate enough, it was his girlfriend sitting in a bloody mess before him. Her blood splattered his clothes. Around him was rubble. No one knew what happened and with a quick change and burn of clothes, a new mystery came to be in his quiet little town. James grew up there, never expecting to have to leave. Unfortunately, he eventually did. No one suspected a thing. He moved and changed schools. People missed him without even knowing the truth. He was a killer.

Fortunately though, the thought that he had killed a living, breathing human being didn’t cross his mind at every second of the day. Yes it haunted his dreams, even those in existing in the day, but still, a large majority of his day was filled with things, not of death, but school- thanks to school of course. Thus, he partially thanked school. Mathematics, physics, history and all that junk that everyone believed that students should know, when really, they hardly helped you in life, helped James deal with the pain. Now that he was seventeen, things have changed. His mind had begun to welcome the routine images of a pale, death-struck face. His heart had grown hard to the pain that it had been someone he had once loved (however, there was no doubt that it was beginning to soften once again). He twisted and turned less at night. Thus, James thanked school, happy for its distraction,

Now, homework was a branch of school that reached out to the very place students sought out after a long day of school. It was like taking a mini school without the friends and the teachers. James usually had trouble with homework. Besides, he wasn’t perfect. Adding to that, his test grades weren’t all too good either. Speaking of test grades, James walked briskly down the halls, forest eyes turned downward as he ignored those who tried getting his attention. School was out and now, people were prying to see what others were doing for the rest of the day or to ask what homework belonged to what class. James had no time for that. He needed to see his physic’s teacher.

Turning a sharp right, James padded into Mrs. Firth’s classroom, brightening immediately at the sight of her busily grading tests at her desk. Thankfully, he didn’t have to search far. Clearing his throat, James gripped the textbook tightly under his arm before strolling over to her mahogany colored desk. ”Uhm, sorry to bother you, Mrs. Firth, but I really need to see my test grade.” He paused. ”I-If that’s okay with you… I mean I-I can probably come back some other time… o-or I can wait…” He turned his green eyes away, nervously. Why so urgent? His mother threatened to ground him due to his wavering grades. One moment, he would have straight As. The next, he would have a few Cs. They were not acceptable and seeing that James had an important meeting (date) with Destiny sometime that week, he was not willing to get himself in trouble and lose that freedom, for yes, he loved his family, although he was not all that truthful to them.

Eyes flashing toward the door, he tightened his grip on his text book, now nearly pressing the pages together to make an indent of his fingers into the cover of it. James barely noticed. He was nervous. James pried himself on being as polite as possible to his superiors and women especially. He knew they needed to be treated right. Plus, in order to get a good grade, he knew he had to listen and be polite. It was only common courtesy. Unfortunately, he was as timid as a mouse. He definitely sounded frantic and panicked. Sometimes it scared or annoyed a few teachers. Then, he would turn straight around and flee the scene of the crime. History repeating itself? Probably.

tag; ryanne !
words; ( seven six four )
notes; sorry it’s so short D: I was rushing to get a reply to you ^-^;

[Ryanne B. Firth]

Ryanne's grade book was quickly filling up with the tentative grades for the test. As she looked at all the numbers that got penciled in, she began to feel less confident that the students had understood the material. She crunched the numbers in her head. The average was a 70. Low, but not terrible. She quickly used her laptop to calculate the median grade to see if it was close to 70. The median grade was a 61. The frown that had began to crawl across Ryanne's face was in full bloom. That means only a few people did well, and pulled up the average. Ryanne glanced at the exams once more. Well, she couldn't very well give them another test, that wouldn't be fair. Two things needed to be done: One, the students needed to have the opportunity to receive a higher grade on the exam. And two, the students needed to gain a better understanding of the material.

She had an idea. Perhaps she could hold an after school workshop that would revisit the topics that were covered on the test. If a student in her class attended and participated, they would receive extra credit. Incentive was always the key when it came to getting students to WANT to learn. Ryanne wanted to offer another opportunity for extra credit, and decided that she could look at the tests once more in order to figure out what exactly to do. She pulled out the stack of papers once more and started going through them, this time keeping track of how many points each student got off on each problem. She was lost in the process and did not even hear the footsteps of an individual entering her classroom. She did however catch sight of the person's profile as they walked across the room towards her desk.

Ryanne raised her gaze to meet the pair of striking emerald eyes in front of her. It was one of her students...one of the gifted to be exact. She gave a small smile as she placed the pile of tests back onto the table and listened to what Mr. James Kent had to say. There was one thing that he said that struck a chord for Ryanne. Mrs. Firth? No. Nonono. Ryanne was not married. The man who had proposed to her had disappeared with barely a goodbye. Mrs...? Hah. Ryanne was unsure if she'd be a Mrs. Anything at any point. Despite the internal turmoil that the words spoken by James had seem to ignite, Ryanne was as calm as can be on the outside. "Ms. Ms Firth..."

[/color] Was the first thing out of her mouth. She placed a strong emphasis on the Ms. She also pointed to the name tag sitting on her mahogany desk for some more emphasis. She smiled slightly, continuing to shake off the feeling she had been overcome with just moments before.

"Now. Mr. Kent. You are in luck." She noticed how he looked away, nervous as a mouse talking it's way out of being eaten by a cat. This boy always seemed to be so worried about his grades, it hardly seemed like it was his own fault though. Ryanne had her own theory that some of these parents who had sent their kids to Zeger were far too hard on them. It's funny though, she thought of her students as kids, but in reality some of them were her brother's age. Hell, she taught her brother. James was a year younger than Colin, but there still wasn't much of an age difference. Ryanne sometimes felt odd telling these students what to do, because it wasn't so long ago that she herself graduated with flying colors from Zeger.

"I have just completed grading the exams."[/color] She motioned to the stack of papers she had in front of me. "And I was just in the middle of figuring out ways to get you guys more points."[/color] Her pleasant expression turned into a frown when she mentioned trying to get more points. To be honest, the whole class, besides a select few curve breakers, had bombed. "And usually I'm not supposed to let anyone see their grades until I hand the exams back to the class.. But I could make an exception... As long as you don't tell anyone."[/color] She smiled warmly. To be honest, she wouldn't be breaking any rules if she let James see his grade, but she didn't want hoards of students showing up to her classroom to find out their grades when she was attempting to get work done.

Ryanne motioned to a chair by her desk. "Please, have a seat." She stated with yet another one of her contagious smiles. "I'm not sure what you got off the top of my head... She said quietly as she filed through the tests, looking for the one that belonged to James. It wasn't hard for her to look through, or find anything on her desk. It was impeccably neat. The only things on her desk were the name plate, the tests, a mug full of pens, and three photographs of Ryanne and various family members.

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TAGS?! James L. Kent
OUTFIT?! click here!
WORDS?! 860
MUSE?! xDDD
NOTES?! it was lovely

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