Private Remedial remedy

Ephemral

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Samuel Lutz

Samuel sighed as he stood in front of the copying machine. Today was a bit different to the other days in the sense that he had been asked by a staff member to be a substitute for a math teacher. Sam had been a bit nervous at first as he wasn’t close to prepared to teaching a whole class, but almost immediately was assured that it was only one person he was covering. Zare was his name, apparently, and generally speaking Sam had been warned that there would be some difficulty teaching them.

Sam chuckled as a response to the warning, it wasn’t the first time he had helped a student that wasn’t in the mood or position to learn, and it definitely wouldn’t be the last.

He mutters to himself, “I mean, how hard can it be, I have to study a lot of shit… stuff”

He winced to himself, shaking his head, noting that he was at work and needed to not be using that language where his coworkers could hear him. Remaining professional while at work was an utmost priority when under scrutiny.

Samuel finished copying some material and turned from the copy machine to make his way to the predetermined meeting spot a bit early, a smaller classroom that he had secured earlier as a place of study. He opened the door and pulled up two of the desks, putting them face to face one with the back to the door and the other facing the door.

Sam sat down facing the door in order to greet the incoming student with a smile, but pulling out his notebook to scribble into in the meantime.

Whenever Zare would walk through the door he would greet him with

“Hello! Nice to see that you made it. I’m Sam, nice to meet you. Sit down and make yourself as comfortable as possible.”

 

Romi

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Zare Blakesley

It wasn't that Zare hated school or anything. In fact, quite the opposite: Zare tended to love learning.

The problem was what he was learning about. Zare had learned to read surprisingly fast. He'd mastered early mathematics. There was plenty of stuff that he'd not just learned, but learned quickly and efficiently, without any sort of issue.

But more advanced mathematical concepts? That was right out.

He showed up to class because it was expected of him (and because he'd get in trouble if he didn't), but he was far more focused on getting out of the class than learning.

Which was more directly evidenced by his first words when he arrived. He let Sam get through his opening spiel, and then, without sitting down, looked Sam straight in the eye and said what was on his mind:

"How do I get out of this class?"

 

Ephemral

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Samuel Lutz

Sam let out a weak chuckle

“Well you are certainly straight to the point, sit down and we’ll talk about what you have to do before leaving.”

That response that Zare gave Sam hit Samuel like a truck. While Sam had indeed dealt with students that didn’t want to be there, the ones that were outwardly vocal about it were few and far between. In fact he felt a bit intimidated for a second when his eyes met with the 7 foot tall, purple skinned, yellow mouthed student, but made sure to hide it well behind his smiling face. He steeled himself before continuing whether or not Zare sat down.

“You seem to be here for some remedial math classes from what I understand. I was asked to cover certain pretty difficult and odd concepts, but with hard enough work and willingness to get the concept on your end I’ll have you out as fast as I can. The time you spend is 100% based on the effort you put forward though. Believe me, I honestly don’t want to hold you here but all of this information is necessary to know to proceed, if it was not I would have let you walk out right now.”

Sam shrugged a bit, what he said wasn’t a lie. It wasn’t to the point of Zare had to get the material as, eventually, Zare would get it. That being Sam had to make sure that Zare understood why both of them were there. Not that what Zare was learning was too important or vital to understand in its fullest extent currently anyway.

Sam himself had stopped using it a while ago, but learning stuff like this was a stepping stone to something more complicated…. something more.......useful. That, in essence, was all subjects that was being learned at what Sam understood as Zare's level of education.

Not that his assumptions would be always correct

 
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Romi

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Zare Blakesley

Zare grumbled a bit, but did eventually step over and take a seat. It wasn't as easy as just sitting though, because his tail was large enough it had to be carefully folded through the gap in the back to allow him to sit properly.

"I'll lay things out for you," Zare said, his hands pressing to the desk and spreading out naturally. It showed off his claws and the nails on them, but it wasn't meant as an actually threatening gesture or anything like that: it was just how he moved. "I didn't have any education at all to start. Dark Crystal got me mostly caught up. At this point I'm a senior but I've still got to handle some high level math classes like this one, which have proven..."

Zare reaches up, picking at his teeth with his nail absentmindedly.

"...Problematic."

To say the least.

"Anyway, the point is that I really don't like math. I didn't like basic math like adding and multiplying and all that, but I figured it out. I needed that. But this? I don't need this. High level math doesn't do anything, and I'm not going into math, so a waiver to get me out of it would be best for everyone involved."

Don't show fangs, Zare reminded himself. People were freaked out enough as is.

 

Ephemral

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Samuel Lutz

Sam let out a weak chuckle, he worked quite hard to not to show the slight ebb of annoyance that seemed to start to appear at the back of his mind. He had begun to think, why is this person so special. This isnt something that was so hard that you had to major in it, and even if it was it was clearly evident that this person in front of him wasn't stupid enough to not understand the material. He considered writing Zare the note out of spite to get Zare out of Sam's hair, but then he realized something. One of the few things, the most prominent was a single thing he had told himself whenever he found something he felt he would never need to use.

He put on a slight smile. and rested his arms on the table and he leans forward toward Zare. Nothing that was intentionally aggressive, it was more to make sure that he was in a more comfortable position to be heard.

"I'm going to be a bit frank with you. Nope!" He said in a bright tone, "I will not give you a waiver until you have accomplished what we have come here to accomplish."

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not facetious enough to not know that some of this stuff that you are learning is unlikely to show up later in life, but I can not justify that as a reason not to teach you."

"This type of thing is important, because the school wants to prepare you for as many eventualities as it can before you graduate. General education like this is beneficial because you.... well at least I don't know for certain that you will never use this. That being said, if you have some omnipotent ability that would allow you to see into the future and provide me proof that you will never ever use this topic, then I'll sign you out right now."

 

Romi

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Zare Blakesley

Zare, as Sam no doubt knew, did not have any such power. He didn't have the ability to know it would never be relevant again, but that wasn't really his point, and he was going to argue his case anyway.

"Isn't it the job of a teacher to explain why something matters?" Zare said, looking at Sam with his most skeptical look. "Or are things being taught just because they're hypothetically something that might one day be important?" If so, that seemed pretty stupid to him. The whole idea of getting an education at all had been a pretty tough sell to start, but several enterprising members of the staff had managed to pitch it in such a way that it had appealed to him.

But this? Advanced mathematical concepts?

That was a step too far.

 
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