Teacher's Pet

Naoko would insist to the very end that she was not a teacher's pet, but that didn't stop her from doing a lot of things that only a teacher's pet would do. That meant seeing teachers ahead of time to introduce herself the first time she had them. That meant making sure she had her work done not just before the due date, but often the day things were assigned.

That said, Naoko found she had a much easier time being polite in Japanese, and almost none of the teachers spoke any of it. Japanese was simply a lot more accommodating when it came to being polite. There were a seemingly limitless number of polite honorifics she could use, even if she was most likely to stick with sensei, and English simply didn't cut it. Miss Familyname simply didn't have the same feeling to it.

Naoko grumbled under her breath as she rapped at Aithne's door, still grappling with the problem. As far as she knew, it was just Aithne. No family name. There was no family name on the staff directory, and the lack of a family name made everything a thousand times trickier than it really should have been. Was it Miss Aithne? Did that even sound right, considering Aithne was likely more of a given name than a family name?

Why couldn't everyone just have two simple names and make everything easier?

Naoko's first reaction to the woman's appearance was... confused. Her hair was like a fire, all red and orange but in a way that didn't seem quite natural, and it was the biggest sign that the woman was something other than human.

Well, that was fine. Naoko had grown up among things that weren't quite human, so she brushed aside her initial thought (which was something unflattering along the lines of 'could someone so young be a competent teacher?'), and got straight to business.

Naoko bowed, deep and low, and then straightened up with an overly pleasant smile on her face. The very picture of good cheer, even if slightly faked.

"My name is Tana- Naoko Tanaka," she started, quickly corrected herself. "I'll be in your class this coming term, and I wanted to know if there was anything I should be aware of ahead of time."