Nevermore

[Annabelle Archer]

Butterflies bumped around in her stomach, this was her first class all by herself. Of course she had to go through student teaching, but she had the steady hand of the actual teacher to guide her. Now she was out on her own, although she did not doubt herself, she knew that she would do fine. Her lesson was already planned out, she loved to read and wanted to focus on certain authors, especially more notable ones. The one she was going to start with Edgar Allan Poe.

His twisted psychotic, almost, writing intrigued her. Walking into the classroom she had been in the week before to decorate it a bit and made sure the bland walls would pop. She had pictures of the authors that they would be focusing on. Of course Poe but George Orwell and Jane Austen also joined him on the wall along with books they were most famous for, Poe with The Raven and one of Belle’s favorites Tell-Tale Heart, Orwell with Animal Farm, and Jane Austen with Pride and Prejudice.

Pulling a stack of papers out of her briefcase, Belle began passing out one paper to each desk. She kept in mind how many students she had in her class. The desks were set up in three rows with five seats in each row, making fifteen desks, leaving the class to pick from the front nine seats. One thing she realized when she student taught was that she couldn’t stand when students moved themselves to the back of the room. She understood if those were the last seats available but not in this case. The students would have to sit in the front rows, it wasn’t like she spit when she talked or that she had forgotten to brush her teeth.

Her students began filing in, ”Good morning everyone, please find a seat.” Her voice was as cheery as possible, though she knew not everyone thought of the academic side to this academy was as great as she did.

outfit
The Raven - By; Edgar Allan Poe

Calling:
Amelia DeFoe
Cara-Jean Kitchi
@jeanneclaire
Katja Eder
@lacy
@maeve
Serenity Oliver
Stefan Eder
Thomas Oliver

[Deleted]

    Maeve was nervous for her first day of classes to say the least. She'd always done well in her classes back in New York, but this was private school now, and she'd heard that the expectations would be a lot different. Her days at Blue Ridge would be long, but at least she had horses to look forward to after lunch each day.

    After eating a good breakfast of oatmeal and fruit, Maeve headed to her first class, which was Language Arts. She'd dressed simply, as usual, for her first day of classes, in jeans, a plain blue long sleeve t-shirt and ballet flats. Maeve had always been better in the maths and sciences, as they were very logical to her, so she was a bit concerned about Language Arts.

    Entering the classroom, Maeve smiled at the teacher and found a seat in the corner of the front row. She pulled out a notebook and pen, neatly writing in a header at the top of the first page, with her name, the date, the class, and the teacher's name, which she'd found on her schedule. She looked over the paper she'd found on her desk briefly, waiting for the class to begin.        

[Deleted]

    Though academic classes were not exactly Jeanne-Claire's favorite way to spend her time, she had been looking forward to them starting a little bit. All the students that had been away for the summer would be back, and she and Libby would be able to firmly secure their rule now. Besides, classes would add another social dynamic all together, and Jeanne-Claire could hardly wait to dominate that one too. She was, of course, most looking forward to her equestrian classes after lunch, but at least the first day would be interesting, seeing all of her classmates. 

    After lots of primping and breakfast, Jeanne-Claire found her way into the academic building for the first time, and found the Language Arts classroom. Upon entering, she immediately heaved a heavy sigh and rolled her eyes. Of course, the only student in the room yet was Maeve Gallagher, innocently writing in her notebook already. God, she was such a suck up, and she'd no doubt be the teacher's pet if possible. 

     Striding into the room, Jeanne-Claire slide into the seat behind Maeve and leaned forward over the other girl's shoulder to look at what she was writing. Boring. "Hello Maeve, such a lovely surprise seeing you here!" she hissed, sarcastically but with a smile on her face, and quietly, as not to draw the teacher's attention to them.

[Amelia DeFoe]

Amy had woken up far too early for the beginning of school, but that was normal. She'd spent the time giving Wolf a thorough brushing, before she started organizing her bag for the day. Now, everything was in place, Wolf was in harness, and she'd locked her room behind her before heading off down to the cafeteria to grab a piece of toast.

After finishing her breakfast, Amy walked into the classroom and looked at the seat setup, frowning as she saw that only the first three rows had papers on the desks. After approaching the teacher and silently offering her an envelope explaining that if she looked 'zoned out' she probably wasn't, and Wolf's reaction to said absence seizures, she looked around at the seats. Choosing the back row seat furthest from the two girls already in the room, one of whom she recognized from the library and would have enjoyed not seeing again, she looped around to her seat, asking Wolf to sit before dropping his leash and beginning to search through her bag.

After she'd pulled out her notebook for the class, which had a picture of a shepherd puppy on the front, she flipped it to the first page, laying a pen across the front, then rubbing Wolf's ears, before asking him to lay down against the wall.

[Katja Eder]

Katja had managed to take some time to find her classrooms before the day classes started, but the bustle was still strange... Considering that they'd never had switching class periods back home, it was a strange concept for her, but she would manage it. Or, at least, she hoped so. Because otherwise, she really was in trouble.

She couldn't help but find herself sinking into self-doubt as the moment of truth came closer. Yes, she knew basic English, but it had never been her strongest language... And now she was expected to spend the entire day learning in it? She hoped that she wouldn't embarrass herself or her family. She had tried to learn, but even her teacher had told her to just stick to German... At least she spoke enough other languages properly to have some options on where she wanted to go after her scholastic stunt was finished.

Walking into the classroom, she smiled at the teacher, “Guten Morgen, Frau Archer.” The last name rolled strangely off of her tongue, the ch sound soft as a guess. Ignoring the fact that she'd used the wrong language, she found a seat in the front corner that wasn't occupied yet, setting down her backpack before she pulled out a bound notebook and a fountain pen.

After writing the date at the top of the page, she capped her pen again and placed it on the notebook, looking up just in time to see her brother entering the classroom, although she ignored him, looking over at the teacher instead, waiting quietly for class to start.

[Stefan Eder]

Stefan walked into the hallway, looking around with his schedule in hand. He hadn't gone and looked for his classroom, or at least his first classroom, beforehand, and the bustle of people managed to make it even more confusing... And he'd have to do this more than once! Strange system, to him, but he would manage.

Finally, after some help from a passing student, he found the classroom he was looking for. Stepping inside, he was relieved to see that his sister had already found her way there, although his emotion didn't show on his face, but rather in his posture, which relaxed slightly.

With a nod to the teacher, he chose a seat in the middle row, next to a blonde girl. He glanced over at her, “Hello,” before bending down and pulling out his own notebook and pen. He flipped it open to the first page, but didn't write anything on the page just yet, instead looking around at the decorations. Some of the authors were familiar to him, although they had never studied American authors as much as the other children in the room probably had. After all, it wasn't that culturally important back home, unlike it was here.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara left her bathroom for what felt like the hundredth time, blowing out a slow breath as she tried to put on her game face. Yup, she knew that first day of school was going to be as bad as any show, and the stress of it was causing the same reaction. Though it had also messed up her training that morning, so the coach had spent most of the morning yelling at her.

She was now dressed in a slate grey pantsuit with an oyster shirt under it. She pushed her feet into her black ballet flats and picked the satchel off her bed. Her stomach still felt as though she had a flurry of butterflies inside it, but she just pushed the feeling away as she left her dorm and headed toward the academic building.

She walked into her English classroom, she had been a little surprised to find that she had been signed up for Language Arts, but she would strive along as she did every other day. She bowed her head to the woman at the front of the room and, after a quick glance around the room, she chose to sit in the corner desk in the last row with papers on the desks, as the table she would have normally chosen at the front of the room was already occupied and she didn't want to sit at a table in front of a canine. It wasn't that she didn't like dogs, she just didn't trust them in general.

She glanced at the paper on the desk and then set to work setting up her table just the way she liked it; Her folder in the front centre, glasses case to top left, pencil tin top right corner. She took the black, blue and red pens, along with a mechanical pencil and eraser. These she set up top centre of the desk. Opening glasses case, she removed her glasses and slipped them on, she then opened the folder, picked up the black pen and dated the top left corner of the page. Next she moved the paper that had been sitting on the desk to the sleeve of her folder and gave it a little attention.

[Thomas Oliver]

Tommy walked down the hallways, he was excited that classes had started up again, mostly because there was no way of anyone saying he was doing something he should have been if he were in class, it also meant that his days started earlier though so that he could get in barn work before classes. Yes, Ms Carr said that they were exempt from barn work in the mornings during school time, but he knew how much work happened in the barn and he would have felt like he was slacking off if he slept in while the others were working. So he got up early, put a couple of hours work in, showered, dressed for classes and got breakfast.

He turned into the English class and couldn't stop the grin when he saw Maeve sitting at the front of the class. Now, Tommy wasn't normally a front of the room boy, but as the seat was already taken, by a girl who was making Maeve look a little uncomfortable, his decision was made and he walked over. "Morning." He greeted Maeve as he sat down in the middle of the front row and pulled out his folder and pencil case.

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity yawned as she walked down the hallways and pressed a hand against her stomach as it released a very annoyed growl. She'd though that Coach had pushed them hard during the vacation, but that was nothing compared to now the school year had started, and she had slipped from the beam, her best apparatus, that morning and caught her head on the way down. She had shaken it off when asked of she was alright, but had then spent longer in the shower than she should have and because of that had missed breakfast so she could get to class on time. She made a mental note to have a stash of breakfast bars in the cupboard in the common room kitchenette. She also considered that a pain killer would also have been a good idea.

She walked into the class room and saw that it was already quite full. She looked around the room, noting that Tommy had snagged the seat next to her roomie, which left a seat next to Kai or one between Amy and Cara. The decision wasn't that hard to make then, as she knew that Cara would be the less likely one to ask her if she was alright, and the last thing she needed was for Tommy to know that she was, or could be, in pain. "Hey Amy." She greeted as she slid behind the middle desk of that row.

She quickly pulled her folder and pens out of her bag and then looked at the page on the desk. "Nevermore, nevermore." She wailed softly with a grin as she read the title.

[Annabelle Archer]

With the third student that entered her room came a note. Reading it in her head and laid the note on her desk and with a smile nodded at Amelia. Seeing the students interacting with each other, she couldn’t exactly hear the exchanges, but she was glad that some of them knew each other, whether that be positively or negatively.

Belle smiled to her class as the bell rung, ”Welcome everyone, this is Language Arts and I’m Miss Archer.” She wanted to get to know each of her students and so she explained to the class about the quick activity that she would have liked them to do. ”So this is my first day of class and I would like to get know each other you. So could I would like each of you to state your name, your favorite author, and your favorite book from them.”

Listening to her students she smiled at their favorite authors as she favored them as well. Going to college to be an English major she really had to like a wide variety of authors, well she didn’t have to but it did help. When the students said their name Belle marked down that they were here. When they were done she saw that only one person was absent.

”Now you’ll see the paper on your desk is a poem called The Raven. Does anyone know who wrote Nevermore?” She purposely didn’t put the author’s name on the paper so she could see if anyone knew about Poe.

[Amelia DeFoe]

Amy glanced over when Serenity approached her, smiling at the other girl, "Good morning." At least she knew someone in the class well, although she did recognize Tommy, of course, and the girl from the arena... Who probably hated her, as she had taken the furthest possible seat away from her. But there wasn't anything Amy could do about that at the moment, let alone try and make amends... If she could have worked up the courage to approach her in any case.

When the teacher started the class, Amy sighed almost inaudibly. Of course they would have to introduce themselves. It made sense, and yet, she always disliked this part of starting the school year. When it came to be her turn, she frowned down at the table, "My name is Amelia DeFoe. I don't really have a favorite book or author." She read, sure, but there wasn't anything she really liked more than others.

She turned back to the paper on her desk after the teacher directed them to it, her eyes skimming over it. It didn't seem familiar to her, although it seemed like an interesting poem. She hadn't the slightest clue as to the author, however, and shook her head when asked. But then, the teacher would probably tell them soon enough, she was sure.

[Katja Eder]

Katja continued ignoring those that entered, knowing that most of them would be unfamiliar in any case, and only looked up briefly as someone sat down next to her. The boy wasn't familiar to her, however, and soon she turned back to the poem in front of her, trying to make sense of the first stanza.

When the teacher started class, Katja listened to some of the other students before she rose from her seat, "I am called Katja Eder. My favorite authorress is Trudi Canavan, and my favorite book that was written by her is Die Novizen." As Stefan hissed a correction at her, she shot him a glare, refusing to correct herself, especially on her little brother's advice. The books were translated from English, if she remembered correctly, although she didn't really care. They were good in German.

When asked about the author of the poem, she shook her head. Sure, it seemed slightly familiar, she had heard about it sometime during her schooling career and had looked it up, but there was no way she could recall its author. Hadn't his first name been Edward? Edgar? Something of the sort, she thought, but she didn't want to give the wrong answer, and so remained seated.

Die Novizen was published in its original English under the title of The Black Magician Trilogy: The Novice. The books are absolutely amazing of those I've read, at least in German, and if you ever get a chance, I definitely, definitely suggest them!

[Stefan Eder]

Stefan spotted a few familiar faces in the crowd that entered, and grinned easily at Tommy and Serenity, although he felt only the tiniest bit upset when they didn't sit next to him. Of course, they had been here longer, and they would have actual friends that they'd known for longer than they'd known him, and he couldn't help but understand that, with the rational part of his mind. The unrational part? Not quite so easily persuaded, but he pushed it down. At least he wasn't completely on his own, and it wasn't like they'd avoided him... That would have been impossible, given the seating configuration.

He listened to their first instructions for the class, smiling as he considered the books that he could list. Hearing his sister's voice, he grinned and hissed, "Author," to correct her, although he only smiled at the glare she sent his way. It was strange, that English didn't have different nouns for masculine and feminine characteristics, but still. After she'd finished, he rose, "I am called Stefan Eder, although you are welcome to call me Kai. My favorite book is Eisfieber, or rather, Whiteout, by Ken Follett."

He sat again as he listened to the rest of the students finish their own introductions, curious about the books that they listed, which he wrote into a margin for him to look up later. The talk came around to the poem that had been in front of them, and he paused a moment before rising, "I believe it was E. Poe, if I recall correctly."

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara kept her head down as she waited for class to start, silently reading through The Raven. At St Mary's, her class had done a rather good study on the life of Edgar Allen Poe, and he had lived a good life - for the time he lived in - though her favourite of his work was The Tell-Tale Heart.

She raised her head enough to watch the woman through her lashes as Ms Archer introduced herself to the class, though she did lower her head when the woman asked them to introduce themselves, her head lowering even further when they were told to also add their favourite book and author. She listened to the others, and all too soon, it was her turn. "I am called Cara-Jean Kitchi. She pressed her lips together before continuing. "I don't read fiction books." She blew out a silent breath as the introductions continued.

She didn't look up again as the teacher went on with the lesson. She knew who the poem had been written by and was blissfully happy when someone else gave the answer. She closed her eyes as a fist seemed to close around her stomach, but she pushed the feeling a nausea to the back of her mind, she didn't have time for it right now.

[Thomas Oliver]

Tommy looked around the classroom, wondering if he should have sat next to Kai, but Maeve had looked so uncomfortable when he'd entered, took late now, he'd sit next to Kai for the next class... unless of course the woman at the front of the room assigned them to the tables they had chosen, surely not though as this was high school, not elementary, and allow them the ability to pick and choose their seating arrangement, as long as it didn't interrupt the flow of the class.

When they were told to introduce themselves, his listened to those who went before him, his eyebrows shooting up as one girl said she didn't read fiction books - he would need to change her mind about that one! He then rose to his feet and gave a sweeping bow. "I'm Tommy Oliver. I don't have a favourite author, but I thoroughly enjoyed the Shadowdance trilogy by David Dalglish."

Then the topic moved on to the poem in front of them. He didn't know if it was the gothic or macabre style of Poe's writing that caught his attention the most, but Tommy had always enjoyed the man's work, though he was pleased when someone else answered the teacher's question.