Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

[Deleted]

Sitting at his desk, his first class of the new school year had just let out and he was getting ready his next one. This class was triple the size of his pre-algebra class, but that class only had three students registered for it, so the large difference wasn’t that big of a surprise. He drank his coffee; there was some left, but not a lot. Phillip planned on refilling his mug after algebra one and before algebra two.

Getting up from his swivel chair with a fake groan he took the eraser and rubbed away the problems from the last class. Shrugging his shoulder up to his ears he took out his blue marker once again and wrote Order of Operations. Capping his marker he tossed it up in the air and caught it, sitting in back in the tray Phillip walked around the room to make sure none of his students had left anything.

As the next round of students filed in he smiled, ”Good morning everyone. He was glad to see most of them were now awake and ready to pay attention to him and what he had to teach them. He stood at the front of the room and waited for everyone to get settled.

outfit

Calling:
Cassian F. De Fiore
@diana
Elizabeth Toman
Fionn Paquet
@fitzwilliam
@jeanneclaire
@lacy
@maeve
@sierra
@ronan
Stefan Eder

[Stefan Eder]

Stefan fought his way through the bustle of students to find his math class. He had had to guess as to where he should be put, because they were labeled differently than back home, where things had spiraled much more. As such, he was expecting on learning some new things, although others would probably end up being review.

Entering the classroom, he realized that he was the first student. He smiled at the teacher as he walked to his chosen seat, “Good morning, Mr. Mackenzie.” He'd had the man's name on his schedule, after all. It was just right to remember his name, even if there had been more names than he was used to. He picked a similar seat as he had in the rest of his classes, smack-dab in the middle of everything, and sat down before anyone else could claim it.

After putting down his backpack, he pulled out his pen and a graph notebook, flipping to the blank first page, ready to write down whatever they were expected to work out for the day. After that was done, he rested his chin on his hand, watching the rest of his class trickle in, smiling if anyone looked his way, but otherwise just observing.

[Deleted]

    Ronan's first class had gone well, to his relief, and he was now on to Algebra. He excelled more in the arts, and English and History classes always came more naturally to him. However, he wasn't particularly bad at math, so long as he kept his thoughts organized.

    Entering the Algebra classroom, Ronan was surprised to see that he was among the first students to arrive. He took a seat next to another boy towards the center of the room before pulling out his materials for the class and becoming lost in his thoughts again. It was overwhelming, really, seeing all these new people, all with strange faces, and no one he knew. At least being alone didn't bother him too much, and he was quite content to stay on his own for now.

    He only had one more class after this one before he could go to his equine classes, which he was the most excited for. He'd promised to call his father at the end of the day with news of how the classes had gone. His riding training had been rather informal, learning from his father, and going to clinics every once in a while to get professional critic so that he could improve more. Now, he'd have lessons all the time, and he looked forward to improving.     

[Deleted]

    Maeve's Language Arts class had gone well, but she was more pleased to move onto her math class, which was always one of her favorites, and she hoped that it would stay the same here at Blue Ridge. It was always very logical and easily mapped out in her brain, and she was ready to get right back into equations and numbers. She'd brought all her materials for her academic classes with her, so she just had to find the Algebra room, which did take a little while with the crowded hallways.

    Having finally found the room, Maeve entered, glad to find that she wasn't late. She smiled and greeted the teacher upon entering, and took a seat next to a slight boy who seemed determined to keep to himself. No sign of Jeanne-Claire yet, which was good, after Language Arts, where the girl had made a point to acknowledge Maeve. That would be a tough class, socially at least. 

    Maeve took out her materials and wrote in the header for this class in her new notebook, just as she had for her previous class. No one was talking, which was good, and she expected that most of the students in this class would be freshman or sophomores, so some would be new-ish here, like her.     

[Deleted]

    Jeanne-Claire's first class hadn't been a terrible bore, but she was sure that it would develop into one shortly, as expected. And from now on, she wouldn't have her yearly excursion to WEF in the winter to give her a vacation for a few months from normal classes. It would be a long, cold winter without Florida. Leaving the classroom, she took her time getting to her next class: Algebra. The hallways were crowded, but Jeanne-Claire didn't mind much, as she cleared a way through them fairly easily, clearing her throat and issuing the occasional "Move."

    Entering her second classroom for the day, Jeanne-Claire greeted the teacher with a sugar sweet smile and assessed the room, shaking her head in annoyance when she saw Maeve again. It made sense. They were both freshmen in a small school, and they were bound to share classes. This time, she kept her space, already having seen enough of Maeve for the day. She sat down next to a smiling blond boy who had sat next to her in Language Arts. He was a bit too enthusiastic, but ah well. She wasn't going to sit alone like a loser, and it was better than sitting next to Maeve. This way, she had two boys between them. 

[Deleted]

Natalia put all of her things in her bag as the bell rang. Zipping up her back pack she stood up from her class and pushed in her chair before leaving her first class. Walking into the hall-way she navigated through the crowd of students trying to find her math class. Wandering around for a few minutes she finally located the classroom. Walking into the classroom she uttered a "Good morning." to the teacher. She looked around trying to find where she should sit. Seeing as they didn't seem to have assigned seats yet she could sit anywhere. 

She walked over to an empty seat that had unoccupied seats on both sides of her. Setting down her book bag she unzipped the bag and took out her math notebook and a pen. Opening the notebook to a fresh piece of paper she dated it with her name, the class and class period as well as the date. However she didn't date it as Americans would. Instead she dated it the way she did back in Russia. She saw no reason that she should date the paper in a way that she wasn't used to doing.

Once she finished dating the paper in the right top of the paper she set the black pen down next to the notebook so it'd be easy to grab once they started taking notes. 

She fiddled with her hair which was up in a ponytail. Her ruysi colored hair was wavy and she played with the end of her ponytail. Natalia fixed her ponytail so that it wasn't over her shoulder anymore. Glancing around the classroom she didn't see anyone that she knew. Returning her attention to the notebook in front of her she tapped her pen against her thumb for a few seconds ,bored, before setting the pen back down next to the notebook.

[Elizabeth Toman]

Libby sauntered out of her English class and walked down the hall to her maths class. She was dressed in a peach skater dress, which she wore over a pair of white stockings that were almost thick enough to be called tights. She also wore a white crop jacket and on her feet were a pair of kitten heels that matched the dress. She looked down has nose at everyone she passed, which wasn't that easy to so since she didn't exactly have height on her side, yet she managed to do it.

She walked into the classroom and released a sigh, almost as though she were saying; I'm here now, you may start. Her eyes flicked over the classroom occupants and settled on Jeanne-Claire. Walking across the room she dropped into the seat next to her friend and gave the girl the first real smile that she had given that day. "How's things going?" She asked quietly as she pulled the things she needed out of her bag, completely ignoring the board for now, there would be time to read that once the man at the front of the room started talking to them. "Who's she?" She asked, noticing that her friend's attention was on another girl in the room.

[Fionn Paquet]

Finn had been really nervous at the start of the day. The gymnastics training he could handle, it was the start of the school year that had his stomach in knots, and because of this, he had probably eaten twice his weight in breakfast.

He was dressed in a pair of washed-out black skinny jeans, that hugged his hips, a button down grey shirt and a black hoodie that he had left unzipped. He had decided to go without his custom leather jacket that day, and was pleased that he had. With enough to carry in his bag, he didn't need the added weight of the jacket, which he'd have to carry around once it got too hot to wear it.

He hadn't managed to get lost in the hallways for his first class and took this as a good sign as he headed toward the algebra classroom. Walking into the room, he gave the teacher a smile and then looked around the students, only recognising a couple - both from gymnastics - and headed over to take the seat next to Kai, noticing that there were already two girls sitting on the other side of him. "Hey" He greeted softly as he lowered himself into the chair, wincing slightly as his hip knocked the back of the chair but quickly shrugging it off.

[Deleted]

The teen walked to her math class having trouble locating the class room in which her Algebra One class would be in. Locating the room she walked in not bothering to say a hello to the teacher and sat down in a desk that was in the middle of the classroom. Taking out her notebook and other supplies that she'd need for this class. 

Dorothée opened up her math notebook to a new page. She grabbed a pencil out of her pencil case and wrote down the date and class in the notebook. She also wrote down what period her math class was in. Once that was done she looked up at the board to see that three words were written on it. She debated between writing them down or not. She assumed that was what they would be learning that day. After a few seconds she grabbed the pencil again that she had set down on her desk. She neatly copied the words onto the fresh sheet of paper as the title so it'd be easy to find for studying for tests and quizzes. 

The girl had heard about the order of operations before but she'd never studied them. Hopefully they'd be as easy as her math classes had previously been. She could only hope that she'd get the grades that she had gotten back in France. Dorothee wasn't sure what would happen if she didn't get satisfactory marks at Blue Ridge. She wasn't sure about it and she didn't want to find out. 

[Deleted]

    Fitz had arrived at the academy right before classes began, giving him little time to adjust before he was thrown into all his classes, but perhaps it was better that way. His busy schedule gave him less time to think about everything. Unfortunately, it also made him very tired, and he'd woken up late on his first day of classes, jumping out of bed as soon as he'd seen the time on his clock. Apparently that was a down side of not having a roommate.

    He'd thrown on some clothes and run a comb through his hair (leaving first impressions in the hands of his natural good looks), before grabbing a bagel from the cafeteria and running to his classes. Now, his first class done, he had relaxed a bit more, but he was still having trouble finding his classes.

    He entered his Algebra classroom just in time, managing as best he could to look relaxed - there was nothing worse than being the flustered freshman. Taking the first open seat he saw, Fitz slid into the chair and looked around at his fellow students as he waited for the class to begin. Academics weren't his favorite thing, and he tolerated the classes at best, believing that his time was better spent on other activities.     

[Deleted]

Once the bell had rung Phillip nodded, ”Alright everyone welcome to algebra one. We are going to skip over the introduction and I will just call role.” He wasn’t into the whole find something to describe you but the catch is the first letter of the adjective had to start with the same letter your first name did, no no, that was a waste of his time. Phillip went through attendance quickly seeing that only one student was missing, which was pretty good.

”Okay for those of you who have me last year, I’m Mr. Mackenzie or Mr. Mack, whichever you prefer.” Phillip saw a lot of new faces though he wasn’t about to break his rule about beginning of the year games.

”So I would like to get started right away.” He clapped his hands as a way to officially start the class. ”Does anyone know what the acronym PEMDAS or the sentence, Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally stands for?” He hoped that they had learned this before but if they didn’t that was why they were here to learn. Phillip tried to not be one of those teachers that called on someone just because they made eye contact, unless they weren’t it was the third week of class, then he started to do that.

[Stefan Eder]

Stefan looked up at the sound of the bell, fixing his gaze on the teacher as he listened to his introduction. While he would have loved to have gotten to know his fellow classmates, he knew that class was a time for learning, not for socializing, and didn't let himself be bothered by it. The people he was interested in, namely the boy sitting next to him, whom he had greeted with a smile, and the girl that he recognized from Language Arts, who seemed more than confident in herself, always a good trait.

As the teacher called his name, he raised his hand briefly, “Yes,” before lowering it again and folding his hands across his notebook, waiting for the rest of the students to be called and trying to catch some of the names, before the teacher introduced himself and then began the class.

Asked about the acronym, he shook his head, a bewildered expression on his face, although he copied both the acronym and the sentence down. He hadn't even heard of the acronym, or the sentence, although it sounded nonsensical to him. Why were they talking about the man's aunt in a math class? It made no sense whatsoever, but then, it was probably leading into some kind of lesson for the day.

[Deleted]

    Ronan watched silently as the rest of the students filed in, intently watching each arrival (though trying his hardest not to appear at all interested). He'd found, through unfortunate experience, that people, especially young people, didn't appreciate staring, even if it wasn't oggling, but rather staring absentmindedly. Ronan had learned to focus his absentmindedness on safer subjects, like now, his paper. When Mr. Mackenzie went through the class attendance, Ronan raised his hand and spoke just as loud as he needed to, "Present."

    He listened to the names of the others students, but none were of particular interest to him. He noted who responded to each, figuring that he'd have to learn his peers' names at some point. He recognized a good deal of the students from his previous class, which made sense, considering how small Blue Ridge was.

    When the lesson began, Ronan wrote down Order of Operations on his page, followed by the acronym Mr. Mackenzie began with. He knew about Order of Operations from his math class back home, but he'd never heard of the acronym. Perhaps it was an American thing? He shook his head in response, and then looked around at the students around him, wondering if he was the only one who wasn't familiar with it. The boy next to him seemed lost, so at least he wasn't the only one.          

[Deleted]

    Maeve wasn't terribly surprised when Jeanne-Claire entered the room - it made sense that they shared a lot of classes. This time, the blonde kept her distance, and Maeve did her best not to show the relief on her face. Though she always tried to not let Jeanne-Claire get the best of her, Language Arts had been difficult, with Jeanne-Claire breathing down her neck. At least Tommy had been there, which was a welcome surprise.

    When Mr. Mackenzie started class with role call, Maeve waited for her name, saying "Here." when it was called. After he had checked the attendance, he got right to work with Order of Operations, which Maeve had learned about in Pre-Algebra. Her eighth grade teacher had drilled the concept, and Maeve could hardly forget the acronym. When there wasn't an immediate response from the other students, willing to give the answer. 

    When recognized, Maeve spoke, evenly and loud enough for the other students to hear, "The acronym and sentence are used to help students remember the order in which mathematical operations should be performed, so PEMDAS indicates the following order: parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and then subtraction." Finishing, she bowed her head a bit, hoping that she hadn't fudged any detail, or stood out too much. 
    

[Deleted]

    Jeanne-Claire's attention was pulled away from Maeve when Libby sat down next to her, and she turned to her friend, smiling, "Hey! I'm good, all things considered, how are you?" She'd rather have been doing something else at the moment, but her classes weren't particularly bad. "You're looking fabulous, per usual, by the way." Libby had certainly dressed the part as royalty, and Jeanne-Claire had done the same, in white skinny jeans and a berry colored tie neck blouse. It wasn't quite labor day yet, and she wanted to take advantage of the pants for the last time this season.

    Her smile fell to a sneer when Libby asked who Maeve was. "Oh, her? That's Maeve. She was a working student at my barn and - " As the teacher spoke up, Jeanne-Claire raised an eyebrow and her index finger to Libby, in indication that she'd explain later. When her name was called during attendance she raised her hand in a little wave, "Hello." 

    When Maeve answered his first question, Jeanne-Claire subtly turned to Libby, rolling her eyes. Of course. Maeve Gallagher - resident know-it-all and teacher's pet. Maeve had never gone to the same school as Jeanne-Claire and the other barn girls, but she'd proven her place enough as the working student, always the trainer's favorite, and always right.