Learn from the mistakes of others

[Deleted]

Grace stood just inside the doorway and looked around her classroom one last time. The wall she was facing had been left blank, as she projected her PowerPoints onto it. Her collection of flags was mounted on the left wall, one from every country she had set foot in. Below that was a huge world map that stretched almost from wall to wall. The students’ desks had been arranged into two groups, facing each other and separated by an aisle down the middle, leading straight to the PowerPoint wall. Grace’s desk was positioned in the near right corner of the room, a few personal touches already present. Mostly a corkboard to the right of her chair that housed a collage of her family. Most noticeably, to Grace at least, was the absence of her and any man that might prompt students to ask if it was her significant other.

Physically shaking herself from those reflections, she moved to make sure her projector was in the right position. Not too close, not too far. Then, the bell rang, and Grace felt a rush of excitement. She stood at her door, meeting each student with a smile and a word or two of greeting.

Once the late bell had rang, Grace picked up her roster. “Good morning everyone. My name is Ms. Ackerman. As I call role, please inform me if you have a preferred name, or if I butcher the pronunciation.” She said warmly. After meeting so many people of varied nationalities, she generally didn’t mispronounce names, but you could never be sure. Clearing her throat, she began. When all necessary corrections had been committed to memory-Grace was rather good at that-the lesson began. A flip of a light switch and a press a key launched the desired slides onto the wall. “Alright. You each have in front of you a rather large sheet of paper. I'd like for you to put your history on it. As much or as little as you want. You can write, draw, or even speak it, though if you could keep to under two minutes, that would be great. I won't answer any clarifying questions, but don't worry, it's not graded." She said in an authoritative but warm voice. Her instructions were currently on the PowerPoint wall as well. She was curious to see how each of her students thought of history.

---

OOC:I realized that it might be a little confusing, so if you questions, feel free to PM me!

---

Present:
Adonya van Rutherford
@aedus
Cortney Smit
Elizabeth Toman
Gretchen Holmes
Jayne Doe
John Lewis Ahearne
@adalina2
Luka Mason
Othello Buskirk


Absent:
@calebm
@daretodream
@samanthal
@tempest
@vervain

[Deleted]

Luka kneeled down as he adjusted Bruno's jersey and harness, making sure that everything was secure. There wasn't snow on the ground, and although it was cold, he doubted it would snow. Bruno had a thin skin, and his winter coat would help some, it wasn't enough to keep out the cold. Luka slipped off his thick jacket as well, and put it in his locker, getting out his history books and heading to class. Upon entering, he froze, glancing at the layout. Mentally, he was prepared, but this was something new. Where could he sit?

Slowly, he made his way to a desk in the front, where even though his view was slightly blocked, he might be able to see enough to make sense of it. No use in stirring up trouble. Bruno lay down next to him with a quiet word from Luka, and Luka placed his things on the table. As the class filled, he didn't want to appear anxious, but this was the type of situation where his understanding could seriously be impaired.

He introduced himself, and watched as much as he could as his classmates did the same. As the lights flicked off, and the powerpoint came on, he knew he was in trouble. He failed to catch the instructions, and he raised his hand. Excuse me, Ms. Ackerman. I couldn't catch your instructions, he said, breathing deeply.

[Elizabeth Toman]

Elizabeth walked through the academic building and down the hall. Her posture was tall, even though she wasn't, and though she didn't wear a cheer uniform, the student body still parted for her as they would for royalty. And those who didn't move? They got looked at through narrowed eyes until they jumped out of her way. This freshman didn't move for anyone!

Walking into the classroom where her World History class was held, she strode across the room and sat herself down in one of the tables at the rear of the room, as far away from the teacher as possible and began to get her things out of her backpack.

She listened to the teacher as she introduced herself and when the roll was called, the girl waited for her name. "Present." She spoke up. "And I prefer being called Libby." She didn't mind being called Elizabeth, but it was such a mouthful and she despised being called Lizzie.

She doodled in her folder as she watched the powerpoint slides, yawning in the darkened room. When the lights came back on and they were given their task, she kept her folder on her desk - to be able to summarise what she wanted to put on the big sheet. She then started going through the events of her life; starting with her birth of course. She then put down everything that had happened throughout her fourteen years on the Earth: when she had started gymnastics and ballet, the events she'd participated in and the results, changes of coaches, when she started being home schooled, when she started riding, and the equestrian events she had competed in and the results, her coming to Blue Ridge, joining the gymnastics team here, the events she'd participated in and the results she'd got.

With this all mapped out, she took the sheet of paper out of the folder, dropped the folder onto the ground between the leg of her chair and that of the table, and with the sheet of notes on the side of the table, she began to fill out the events onto the larger sheet of paper, using different coloured pens and pencils to mark out different things.

[Othello Buskirk]

It seemed that after the Christmas break, Othello's nausea had come back with a vengeance. He was hardly eating anything, because he couldn't keep it down, and deciding on what clothes to wear was a chore in the mornings; as the weather was almost below freezing, but the classes were kept warm enough that if he wore too much he would overheat and the nausea brought him to the brink of throwing up.

The boy walked through the hallways that led to the various classes, keeping out of the way of the other students and then walked into the classroom he wanted. Looking around the room, he found it still mostly empty, so he had a selection of tables to choose from, but when his eyes landed on Luka, he made up his mind. Walking over, he tapped on the other boy's desk and then smiled a greeting before dropping into the chair at the next table, shrugging out of his heavy winter coat so that he was only wearing a black tee shirt.

He settled back into his chair as the class started an the woman at the front introduced herself. "Here." He responded to his name. "You can call me Leo."

As the lights were dimmed, he watched the slides that the woman was showing them. He glanced at Luka as the woman began talking again. He could hear her just fine, but with it still being dark, he knew that the other boy wouldn't be able to "hear" the woman as he couldn't see her lips. The opened his folder and scrawled on the paper; What she just said, is what's now on the wall.. He ripped the paper out of his folder and tapped Luka on the arm and offered him the paper, not at all trying to hide the fact that he was giving the other boy a note.

He started working on his sheet of paper, jotting down everything... well most things that had happened during his life. He put down his rock climbing lessons, he even put down the fall that had broken his arm - and almost his neck. He was even game enough to put in that he was expelled from his old school, and that he moved in with his grandparents. What he didn't put down was the fact that after his fall, he had been diagnosed with leukaemia. He knew that the woman had said they weren't being graded on it, but there was too much of a chance of someone else reading his graph, and he knew that a lot of people put leukaemia and AIDs in the same tick box and he wasn't about to alienate himself from the student body.

[Cortney Smit]

Cortney walked through the halls, her uniform easily placing her as a cheerleader, the air of confidence she held labelled her as the captain. She had a bright smile on her face as she greeted the people who called out to her, and the student body seemed to part for her like the Red Sea parted for Moses.

It didn't take her long to get to the classroom she was headed for, and she settled herself down at a table in the middle of the room then started pulling things out of her bag, being careful not to mark the paper that was sitting on her desk.

"Yes." She said as her name was called on the role. She didn't offer for her name to be shortened, as it was just easier for teachers to call her by her whole name when she was in proper classes, sure extra curricular classes and equine classes were good to shorten her name, but not in school.

After watching the slideshow, she looked down at the sheet of paper. Being a cheerleader, people would probably expect her to flaunt up to the front of the room, and talk about her history, but her history wasn't something that she wanted to talk about. She didn't want them to catch the weakness in her voice as she spoke about Myriam. She didn't want to look weak when it had taken her this long to gain the self-confidence she needed to be this strong.

She turned her paper so that it was landscape, rather than portrait and began to draw the base of a line graph on the paper with a writing pencil, lines that she would erase when she had finished. She then began putting dates down the vertical line and events along the horizontal line, still using her pencil. She then began to draw horizontal and vertical lines from each date and event and used different coloured pens to put a dot where each event crossed with a date. After erasing the pencil lines, she began to make the graph look pretty as she added pictures and words to the dots. She pressed her lips together as she saw how much of her past had been controlled by the guilt that had taken hold of her after Myriam's death, how bright her past had been before that and how things were beginning to look brighter again now that she had released the guilt and had allowed herself to move on.

The cheerleader pressed her fingers against the bridge of her nose as she clenched her teeth, fighting the tears that threatened to escape her. This was why she hadn't gone to the front of the room, she didn't want the whole class to see her cry.

[Jayne Doe]

Jayne made her way into her history class. She'd only made one real friend at this school, and Olivia wasn't in this class with her. She made her way over to a seat on the edge of the middle row, a place where she was far enough away from the teacher, but not far enough that it may seem that she was slacking off.

"Present." She spoke up as her name was called. There was no way of shortening her name, it was just the spelling she had to remain some people of, so she said no more.

When the lights were lifted once the slideshow was over, Jayne looked at her piece of paper. She could write her date of birth on it, even her place of birth, but her life was a blank until she was four, which was her earliest memory, other than having bits and piece in her memory of moving around a lot. She began to list dates on the sheet of paper, starting with the year she was born and then from her fourth birthday, she wrote down dates and the families she had lived with. It was only when they were written down that she realised how much she had actually moved over her life. In one of the dates, she even added Emmy, as the pony had been a big part of her life before she had been stolen. The last date she put down, was the date she was sent here to the Academy.

[Deleted]

John entered the World History class and glanced around, noting the number of flags that were hanging, then hearing the new teacher's welcome. He smiled at her and greeted her briefly, then moved to find a seat, sitting down in his own area for the time being. Once seated, he twisted around, taking in the entirety of the room, but once Ms. Ackerman started speaking, he turned his attention back to her. His name was easy, obviously, and when he heard it, he raised a hand and called, "Here."

When the topic turned to their project, he paid attention to what she was asking, not wanting to do something completely off on the first day. As he heard how many options there were, he nodded, then looked down at his sheet of paper. There wasn't really much for him to say, his life had been pretty normal, so he started with the basics, sketching a half-circle on the page and then adding in dates as he thought of them. He started with his birthday, of course, although he didn't have much information on the actual birth. His mother had always skirted around it, for some reason.

Once he had covered that, he moved onto the basic milestones he could remember, when he started riding, his first blue ribbon at a barrel racing competition, and the day he had gotten Lilja. After that, he added in a few other things, specific events he remembered, then finished with a few events that had taken place at the academy, in the past year and a half.

[Adonya van Rutherford]

Blythe would have worn her cheer uniform, but her southern California upbringing definitely hadn't prepared her for an actual winter. Instead, she was wearing jeans and a cheer shirt, with a jacket wrapped tightly around her shoulders. As she entered the classroom she was looking for, she nodded to the teacher and then looked around, spotting Cortney and moving to sit with her roommate with a smile.

When roll-call started, she rolled her eyes when her name came up, "Blythe, not Adonya." It was completely different, and most people had no clue where it came from, but she couldn't be bothered to explain. Her middle name simply worked better for her, that was all. It was a better fit, in her opinion, and she didn't give anyone else a chance to have on opinion on the matter.

When they were introduced to the project, she looked down at the paper, considering what to put on it. Finally, she shrugged and drew a sort of serpentine over the paper, then started labelling points on the line, starting with her birth. Of course, even Lawrence made an appearance on the paper. He might be the worst thing that had happened in her life, but then, it was a major point in her history. Next came the cheer things, the latest her tryout for the Blue Ridge team, because results weren't official yet. Among other things, her fish and Kodak also made appearances, as did Morgan, although she did leave out the party when she had decided that she might have gotten in over her head.

[Deleted]

Kennedy knew she probably attracted a few looks while walking down the hall, but she shrugged them off happily. Afterall, not many girls short of the biker chicks you'd see in bars wore Harley Davidson jackets. It was warm and that's all that mattered to her... of course, she also loved the jacket... but that was another story.

She entered the room after greeting the teacher and took a seat near the front, where she could see. "I go by Kenna, please." She said when the woman called her name. While the woman spoke and showed the powerpoint, Kenna let her mind wander, and when the assignment was given she snapped back to reality, reading the instructions on the wall.

Simple enough, but how to put hers... There was so much she didn't want to tell... well, one major thing, really...

Keeping that in mind, Kenna picked up her pencil and started writing. She wrote the year to the side, then filled in what she wanted to say, like a journal almost. She didn't elaborate or try to go into much detail, but wrote down the important parts... Her birth, her parents, her brothers, her first day of school at an all-girl prep school, her first horseback-ride, visiting her aunt and uncle during the summers (while conveniently leaving out about her uncle's alcohol abuse or the time she witnessed him beat his son), her family moving to live with her aunt (while her uncle was 'detained'), getting Duran and Valerie, having surgery on her wrist after her brothers shot a firecracker off under another horses legs while she was riding, turning sixteen and getting both a truck and trailer and a motorcycle...

By the time she was through, she was pretty satisfied. There was nothing written down about her uncle's prison time or violent temper, nothing written about her being a premature baby, and definately nothing written down about her several-month affair with her cousin...

[Gretchen Holmes]

World History was something Gretchen already knew a lot about, however she was always eager to learn more. She thought history was incredibly interesting! Walking into class, she found a desk as far back as possible before settling in. When she heard her name called she only said, "Here," because Gretchen was just fine to her. The set of instructions the teacher gave her next woried her slightly, as she had a knack for writing to much.

Taking a deep breath, she picked up her pencil and began writing. She tried to keep it basic, mentioning her parents and younger brother. She wrote about Bahir, and how she'd ended up coming here. She also wrote at the end that her favorite time period was the turn of the century, there was something so regal about the victorian and edwardian time periods. Life was slower, gentlemen were actually gentle, and the dresses in that time period were very pretty. She finished off by writing that she was a Titanic expert, and then sketched the ship at the bottom of the page. It would have been easier if she was looking at a picture of it, but she knew the ship well enough to be able to draw it decently without. It was recognizable at least.

Once that was written, she put her pencil down and rested her cheek on her hand, looking up at the power point and waiting for everyone else to finish writing.

[Deleted]

Aedus had been to this class on time as well, and was pretty satisfied with himself. This was one of the first few classes he had taken at this school, and he had already had a "eh" skill whenever it came to using his common sense to figure out where he was supposed to go. It really was not so bad that it was horrible, however. What was horrible was the Monster energy drink that sat in his bookbag, and the way that it captivated his thoughts.

Whenever his name was called Aedus had to be certain she had pronounced it "A-dee-us", as some people liked to overthink the spelling and say "ee-dus". The A in his name was not silent, would never be silent, and that was that. At his last school that had always said his name wrong on the intercom, and it had driven the boy absolutely crazy. He was rather particular of his name, which he both despised and loved in its own little way. It made him feel special. But then, in his own little way, maybe he was special.

As his thoughts slid back over to the monster once again, just barely focusing as he pulled out a piece of paper and absently began to write out a quoted poem, maybe he was special in more ways than just his name.

[Deleted]

Grace nodded at the boy with the Spaniel. Luka, he had said his name was. It matched the name given to her in the email she had received. She grabbed the ready-made packet off of her desk. She saw that another student had given Luka a note, which she assumed explained what she had just said. As her students got to work, she quickly scribbled out a note of her own on a post-it note. Sorry about that. I should've given this to you earlier. She stuck it on the information packet and began walking around. She noted that every student seemed to be writing something, and, without reading too much, kept a tally in her head of how many used words and how many used pictures. This was the real reason she had given the students the task. As she passed Luka's desk, she casually placed the packet on his desk, added his work to her count, and kept going. She whispered her thanks to Oth-no, Leo-. She had no desire to be outright about it, nor did she want to be so subtle that it was obvious that she was trying to be noticed.

When Grace deemed that she had given the students adequate time to complete what she had asked of them, she returned to the projector and spoke. "Alright. You should all have had enough time to finish. Look it over. This is your life. What have you done with it? What will you do with it? If someone was to pen your biography tomorrow, what could you tell them? This is history. People's life stories and how they intertwine with one another." She paused for a moment and glanced at the clock. It was just about time to end the class. "If you would like to, you can put your work on my desk on your way out. I would love to get a glimpse of your backgrounds. If not, that's alright too. For your assignment, I want each of you to pick one person who's actions interest you. Find a biography written about them, read it, and summarize three events you found most interesting. Then, pick one of them and pretend you were put in that person's place. Write at least two paragraphs on what you would have done. Due by the end of next week. Class dismissed."

[Deleted]

Morgan ran through the halls the bell was going to ring any minute and he didn't want to be late for another class. He was wearing a normal sweater the people here didn't seem to notice or mind that he had scars at least the few people he met any way. Or maybe they where just being polite. When he reached his classroom it was in the nick of time. He handed his paper slip that introduced him to the teach and than to a seat in the back. As she began roll he called out "here," when she called out his name.

Once roll call was done she turned on the projector. So far this class was like any other history class he had ever taken. It began to fall asleep by the time the slides stopped and the light came back on he blinked a few times and gave his head a shake to wake up. Morgan noticed he wasn't the only one who had been bored to death by the slides. But what came next made him a little nervous. He didn't want to right about his history especially about the dog attack.

Grabbing a pencil from his bag he began writing about his history. Starting from the time he was born or what he had been told any way. When he reached the time of the dog attack he hesitated wondering if anyone else would see this he didn't like thinking about it let alone talking about it. Finally he decided to put it down but tell the teacher he didn't want anyone but her seeing it. He wrote about the bike ride home from school and how the dogs attacked him and of how he was now terrified of dogs. When that was finished he wrote about the move and how he found Berry and how he raised her and trained her himself and how they came in eleventh place in show jumping. And eventually Morgan led up to how he heard about the school.

When she began speaking again he had just finished writing. He folded the sheet in half so no one else would see it. He wrote down the homework on the first page in his notebook and than grabbed his bag and got up. As he walked he wondered if he should give it to her to read. In the end he figured everyone would eventually find out so he set it on her desk and said goodbye before walking out the door.

Words: 422

[Gretchen Holmes]

Gretchen thought about what the teacher was saying. Why would anyone want to write a biography about her she was so boring! She did consider it anyway though, what had she done in her life? What would she tell someone who for some bizarre reason wanted to write her biography?

She groaned a little internally at the assignment. Not that finding a biography would be hard, she already knew exactly what to read. She just didn't know if she'd only be able to pick three interesting events. How can you only choose three? Then to narrow it down and only think of the possibility of changing one, impossible! Oh well, she picked up her books and began heading out with class dismissed, dropping her paper off on the teacher's desk. She didn't care if she read it, Gretchen had nothing to hide.

The biography she planned to read was sitting on the shelves in her room. She plucked it off and flopped down on her bed, opening it to the first page. Brilliantly, the book was relatively short, as the life of the person she'd chosen had been tragically cut short. Well, perhaps that wasn't brilliant, but it sure made the assignment easier.

[Deleted]

Once everyone was there and the bell had rung the teacher started class. This was Jackson’s first real class and his stomach occasionally did small flips and turns as he sat towards the back of the class. As the teacher called out names, he waited for his name and called out ”Here”, when she said it. Listening to the teacher speak about the large piece of paper that sat on each desk and what they would be used for. His face reddened when she gave the assignment. He knew what this might entail and didn’t really want to do it at all or even think about it.

Even though it wasn’t a graded assignment he thought the teacher would have an issue with him not even attempting it, especially with this being high school. Running over his history in his head, he winced when the memories came back, causing a blizzard of pain within him. Running back through the instructions, he picked out the words, ”As much or as little as you want.”. With a slight pained smile flashing across his face Jackson picked up his pencil and sketched a box at the top of his paper and wrote down his full name in it with the date of his birth.

Drawing three separate lines on the paper, these would help to explain his life, from when he was younger to know. Starting with now, he wrote down when he arrived at the academy and backtracking from there. Phillip adopting him, his adopted father’s court case which involved him in a large way and that was where he wanted to stop. Taking a deep breathe, Jackson wrote down one more thing on his time line, this event was at the beginning of it, which was him being abandoned by his parents. That was all he felt obligated to write down so that’s all he did.

WORDS :: 315
OUTFIT :: here