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Post by christina on Jun 25, 2012 15:19:25 GMT -5
Actually, the Rubik's cube wasn't as difficult as many people thought it was. It looked that way, kind of, to those who were just watching someone else doing it, but the truth was it didn't require that much logic for any amateur to look up the algorithms and do them in order and figure out how to solve the common sense bits. Chris had learnt at some point in high school, and because it was something her hands knew how to do rather than actually memorizing in her mind "bottom turn clockwise, right side turn counter-clockwise, bottom turn counter-clockwise, right side turn clockwise..." it wasn't something she'd easily forgotten. It had given her something to do with her hands anyway, and apparently people thought it was neat and made her look smarter than she actually might have been, so it wasn't too bad of a hobby. Today even, she still had floating around her apartment any number of cubes. Still, for some reason, she'd never really attempted any different cubes, and so it was that while she was supposed to be spending this spare period she had to grade tests and make up lesson plans and such, she was instead wrestling with this stupid four by four cube. Her ninth graders' tests sat there on her desk, basically completely forgotten.
She had gotten the algorithms for the cube online, easy as anything, and she was pretty close too, only a few steps left when -- fuck fuck fuck. She didn't know at what point she had messed up, or if this was perhaps just one of those things that happened sometimes that she couldn't have prevented (because that did happen sometimes, even with the regular old cubes)... and she was sure there was a way to fix this so that she could move onto what the next step was supposed to be, but she didn't know what it was for this accursed cube with 4 squares across each length. She just looked at it for a second, gears working in her mind as she tried to figure out a logical way to do this without having to actually look up the answer, but there was nothing she could figure out. Chris gave it a couple of random turns, this way and that, but she knew that this wasn't really the way to do it, and as expected it only ended up more messed up. Fuck this shit. She had work to do! She shouldn't be fucking around with this stupid toy, anyway. "Stupid cube," she said, not really thinking as she raised her arm and just threw the cube -- hard -- across the room. That'd teach the stupid fucking thing to be solved properly. Ugh. Christina couldn't exactly be considered a very rational person.
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Jun 27, 2012 12:43:33 GMT -5
It was always weird to catch up with old friends and find out they were working in a place that you'd never quite expected to find them in. Josh hadn't experienced that too often in his life but when he'd found out that Christina had taken up a teaching position at the Academy, well, it was pretty weird. One year he was going to school alongside her, admittedly in a year below hers but still, and then in the next she was bumped up to the not so coveted position of faculty and he was busting his ass trying to pass senior year. He'd quit his job at the retirement home, deciding that senior year could be focused more on school work than anything else, and now he was throwing his all into school and finding that he had the occasional hour or two of free time. Such hours were glorious in the busy schedule of a college student studying for medical school. At least I'm not studying for the MCATs any more. Ugh. This thought carried him from his last class of the morning into the hallway and Josh paused in the hall for a moment, adjusting the strap on his bag subconsciously as he tried to decide what he should do with himself. He didn't feel like going home to an empty house and he was a bit bored, feeling like company. His thoughts went to Chris again. He'd bumped into her a few times since the start of term but since she taught the young 'uns and he was a college student, their paths did not often cross. Still, he knew where her class was because he'd asked his sister to point it out for him and he decided it would not kill him to drop by for a visit. Decision made, he started to walk again, strolling the familiar and maze-like halls of the castle until he found himself at the right room.
He was not two steps inside the door when the cube nearly collided with his face and in a moment of respectable reflex, Josh jerked his head sideways to dodge it. He blinked and then straightened again, shaking his head with a small smile. Only she would have such a lovely greeting prepared for him. "Did it do something to offend you, Chris?" he asked innocently as he invited himself into the classroom without further ado, finding one of the desks at the front to be of his liking and hopping on top of it. The strap of the bag was cutting into his shoulder, filled with his laptop and several heavy textbooks as it was, so he shrugged it off and set it on the floor beside him. "What's that you've got there, hm?" Joshua gestured with intrigue toward the stack of papers on her desk. Nosy? Well, maybe a little bit, but it was all in the spirit of friendliness. He was acting like she hadn't nearly caused a Rubik's Cube sized bruise on his forehead and all. Hey, he was all too used to Christina and her antics. They'd been friends for some years, after all. "How'd the day go? I imagine it didn't go as good as mine, seeing as you have to put up with a bunch of listless teenagers that wouldn't know a triangle from a square in Geometry." He grinned. Ah, loads of people hated Math but it was actually one of his favourite subjects. It was so logical and sensible. An answer for everything, no in betweens. He liked that. It was why he didn't mind having to take a senior year Calculus course. He'd never disliked Math at all.
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Post by christina on Jun 27, 2012 14:02:18 GMT -5
Chris, at her most comfortable, was a little bit obnoxious, if she'd be honest -- not in the eating with her mouth full sense or anything, because ew, but she was... outspoken, to say the least. She wasn't the nicest of people either, especially because she knew that most of the people she actually surrounded herself with were pretty adept at handling attitude. Otherwise, well, they probably wouldn't be her friends. If it had been a co-worker or student who'd entered, she might have toned it down a little bit (not too much, mind, just a little) but once she saw that it was Josh who was sassing her, she just narrowed her eyes. "Don't need your attitude, Josh," she said, but for the most part she was kidding. Okay, she wasn't totally kidding because no, she didn't need anybody's sass when she was already pissed at the stupid cube she'd thrown, but she wasn't about to go into a blind rage and attack him. That was probably enough control for Chris, to be honest. (Plus, even Chris knew her own limits. Josh was a fucking brick wall or something, like seven feet tall.) "But yo, actually, yes. Stupid thing got stuck in a dead end." She was smart, but she wasn't the type to sit around for hours figuring out her own ways of solving these things. She lacked the patience for that sort of thing -- her relationship with the cube was kind of complicated.
She didn't mind as he walked in and sat on the desk, though she would have probably half-berted a student for doing so... not too seriously, though. Mostly she just didn't want kids on the furniture because she was likely to get in trouble with other teachers if that were the case. "Huh? Just tests," she answered, raising her elbow off of where she'd been resting it on top of the short stack. She'd gotten through just about five or so before she'd gotten bored. Then there were also tenth grade tests to mark, and tests for the higher grades she'd designated for later in the week. Being a teacher was so not awesome thus far, at least not the marking part of it. Otherwise, it wasn't too terrible. "Grade nine, actually, so it's not even close to interesting." She wasn't going to pretend that most "normal" people found math interesting the rest of the time, though. "Don't imagine you'd want to spend your free time ploughing through this with me." It was a genuine question, whether or not he wanted to do it, but she didn't actually expect him to say yes or anything. Who would willingly volunteer their time to do something like that? Well... at least it was kind of funny how wrong the kids could be sometimes, and it was never hard to mark the smarter ones' tests, but meh, most of the time it was boring. "Day was fine, normal. Half the kids were writing tests," she said, gesturing at the papers on her desk, "Though judging by some of the answers, I actually suspect some of them don't know." She half-glared at him again. He was probably used to it by now. "So glad to hear you had a good day though, did you come here just to rub it in?" she asked, so sarcastic that it was actually almost painful. No, it wasn't really. It was like second nature.
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Jun 29, 2012 8:25:20 GMT -5
Accustomed to Christina's attitude as he was, Joshua did not so much bat a lash as she narrowed her eyes and made a comment on his attitude. "That's too bad for you, then, isn't it?" His tone was cool, almost to the point of being contemptuous, but it was an act and she probably knew him well enough to be sure of this. He was good at playing pretend. He'd had a few of his friends tell him that he'd make a really good actor with how convincing his 'moods' could be but it wasn't something that really interested him at all. He didn't like to watch movies, let alone star in them. "Did it? Hm." He got up from the desk for a moment to retrieve the cube from where it had landed, turning it over in his hands to inspect the damage. Despite having been thrown across the room it did not seem to have suffered any incredible injury and so he returned to his perch and started to play with it, going from where she'd left off. Maybe he should have asked her if it was alright to handle her things but hey, Chris was the one who'd chucked it away. Finders keepers, losers weepers. That was how the childish saying had went, right? He remembered it being used on him a lot when some of the kids in his middle school had stolen his things. "Oh well we found it, so that means it's ours now!" He hadn't liked that at all. "At least you don't have to write them any more," he pointed out, lips curving into a bit of an amused smirk. Writing tests was not a fun experience for most people. Joshua had never minded too much himself but it wasn't like it had been enjoyable. Tests meant increased stress level and that was not fun.
His sister was in grade nine, actually, and in Christina's class as well. He remembered telling Annabel that he knew 'Ms. Smith', that they were friends, and remembered his sister commenting on the fact that it made things weird for her. Josh had simply laughed. "Wouldn't mind at all, actually," he countered, shrugging. He was making a bit of progress on the cube, having messed it up a little so that he could start over again from scratch, but he set it down in favour of looking at his friend. "I'm good at Math, I like it, you could surely use the company..." He trailed off a little bit and raised his brows, wondered if she would catch his drift. "Are you jealous of my wonderful day?" His gray eyes glittered with amusement as he stared evenly at her, not bothered at all by her sarcasm. Those with attitudes could often handle others like them and Joshua was a Fire elemental, he knew all about handling attitude. He didn't have too much of one himself but he had a temper problem and that could be just as bad. Worse, even. "Do you want my help or no? I could leave, but then you'd be stuck here for ages all by your lonesome..." He trailed off with a sigh, a melancholy tone. Again with the acting. Maybe he should try for that, get a degree. He might be able to hit the A-list before he turned thirty. Nah, it wasn't his style at all. An amused smirk played his lips like an instrument as he leaned forward slightly with elbows on his knees, expectant.
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Post by christina on Jun 29, 2012 20:38:50 GMT -5
It was lucky, honestly, that Christina's friends ever put up with her, because she would just be one very fucking lonely soul otherwise. Still, it did kind of make sense. She wasn't a bad person or anything, at least she didn't think so, but perhaps her opinions on these kinds of things were slightly skewed -- she hung around some very decent people but also some huge assholes at times. (Joshua was one of those more decent types.) Whatever, whatever. All Chris knew was that she had her friends and they hadn't totally left her in a ditch or anything, and at this point that was good enough for her. She wasn't going to dwell on the total tragedy of what would happen if they did just up and abandon her. "Then you can get the hell out of my classroom," she said flatly, but it was all meaningless anyway. Perhaps she shouldn't be so candid with someone like Joshua -- a student still, after all -- but he wasn't even a student of hers, and being a college Senior made him quite detached from the high schoolers. "I know there's a way to solve it from that part, I just don't know the actual algorithms," she said as an explanation as he started playing around with it. "What I have doesn't account for that pattern showing up." She rolled her eyes, but hey, that was probably her fault for not looking everything up in full. She was tempted to pull out the regular old three by three just to reassure herself that she could solve one.
No, that was true, she had no more tests to take. She'd never minded tests quite as much as many people, but she'd also hated them more than Joshua had, that was for sure. That was never saying much, though. The guy seemed to live and breathe academia. "I think I'd rather write them at this point," she said, groaning and looking at the tests there with distaste. "And technically I do have to write them, though. At least once." She had to know the correct answers before marking the kids', after all. "But it's so boring. At least when you take a test it's sh-- stuff you've learnt recently so it's kind of interesting." She censored herself this time. Joshua wasn't a student, but she figured that the Academy was her workplace now, and she shouldn't be cursing up and down in any workplace of hers. Someone else could have walked in at any moment. Chris just shot him an annoyed look when he... threatened, basically, to leave her there to mark on her own, but she didn't answer right away, just grabbed what looked like about half of the pile of Grade Nine tests and passed it over to him without a word. Then she tossed a red pen at him. "Since you offered! Oh. I guess if you find Annabel's, just pass it back. Probably shouldn't let you mark hers just in case or something." She didn't really think that he would cheat and give his sister extra marks or anything, but it was best to be sure. Annabel was fairly good at Math, though. She probably didn't need the "help". "And yeah, for the record, I am," she said, but she sounded more matter-of-fact than grumbly now. "What made your day so awesome, sunshine?"
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Jun 30, 2012 8:13:18 GMT -5
Josh smirked at her when she shot back at him, enjoying the return to their usual wordplay. He'd missed hanging out with Chris, really, it had been a little while since he'd been so busy with his life and all that. It was not uncommon for Joshua to vanish unexpectedly from people's lives only to turn up several weeks later insisting that he'd been busy with work, school, life, the works. He would be telling the truth, too. The life of an aspiring doctor physician-scientist was not a lazy one. "Did you wake up on the floor? Even rising on the wrong side of the bed doesn't leave anyone this miserable." He made himself sound like an asshole with his jokes but if he really thought she was going to mind he never would have opened his mouth. Or perhaps he would have. Joshua had never tried too hard to be well-loved by others. "I'll get it," he said with concentration, still staring at the cube as he clicked away. He'd solved a few four by fours in his life once the three by three cubes had become second-nature. Joshua loved puzzles of all sorts, from crossword puzzles to jigsaws to Rubik's Cubes. He liked solving things to prove that he could. It was probably why Mathematics were actually enjoyable to him rather than boring. "Sometimes it's better to just... play it by ear. Wing it." He never looked things up online because then he felt like he was cheating in some way. Joshua was incredibly stubborn and hated to rely on instructions to solve a puzzle. If it could be solved without them then he was going to figure it out, damn it!
He furrowed his brow with a frown. "Don't you have the answer book?" He knew that teachers had thick books full of all the unit work and the answers to all of the papers and tests, at least in his experience. He wondered what she meant by having to write the tests at least once. His lips twitched briefly with amusement when she amended her curse. He wondered whether he'd have the patience to stop himself from swearing all the time, were he in a faculty position. "Doesn't that get annoying?" It was an honest question, not meant to tease her this time around. He remembered saying 'fuck' in front of his father when he was pretty young, once, and Donovan had decided to try out the authenticity of the soap treatment. Never again. "Getting the results back to find you aced it is even more fun," he said with a grin. Joshua loved to do well on tests and the like, it gave him a strong sense of accomplishment. Yeah, he was a dork. Wasn't like he ever tried to deny it. He caught the pen deftly in his left hand and pulled the half-stack toward him, relieved that the first student's name was actually readable and not chicken scratch. Sometimes he wondered how certain kids made it into high school. "Do you not trust me?" he asked innocently, though he was already thumbing through the pages in search. He pulled out Annabel's and slid it over. "Tell me if she does good, yeah? I'm the one who's got to help her study so if she's slacking I'm going to have to crack down." He grinned mischievously. He was a good older brother and guardian, really. He didn't cheat and do her homework for her even though she'd asked him to on more than one occasion, he just taught her how to do things for herself and hoped she did well.
She asked about his day and he didn't answer immediately, busy doing some Math in his head so that he could double check an answer. Finding it to be correct, he checked it in red pen and then glanced up at her. "It was actually pretty average, as days go," he said. "Got top marks for the first research paper of the year, though, so that was a pick-me-up. And I don't have work later." It meant free time that he could spend with Nell, Annabel, or a friend. He didn't like to be idle and he had taken on his job so that he could be productive but now he was so busy that he found it hard to slot in any kind of free time. So a day off where he didn't have to study a whole lot was a nice reprieve.
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Post by christina on Jul 1, 2012 18:45:46 GMT -5
A part of Chris really liked arguing, and she wasn't going to deny it. More accurately, she liked being right, and it wasn't hard to be right in an argument when she looked at some of the people she had to deal with on a daily basis. Seriously, some of them were just truly, seriously stupid. She also liked banter though, and Josh was a pretty intelligent guy -- the back-and-forth was easy and fun, in a way. "Right, the guy who shows up uninvited starts insulting his host, okay," she said, rolling her eyes. Technically the classroom was hers so it was her space, in a way. It wasn't like she rented the place or something, though. She quirked a brow as he played around with it -- she knew literally not a single person who actually played cubes by ear each time. Most everyone used basic algorithms. One person she knew had come up with his own, but he'd been some kind of freak genius or something -- and even then, he'd just memorized his own patterns and used those, rather than making things up on the spot each time. If Josh could do it, though, then more power to him. "Hey, be my guest." She didn't even bother keeping the skepticism out of her voice though, but it wasn't meant as an insult or anything in this case. She knew Josh was a smart guy.
"Nah. I mean, yeah, but the answer book is a cop-out," she said. The Head of the Math Department had given it to her at their first staff meeting of the year or something, back in December, and she'd glanced through it and promptly decided that she wouldn't use any of the tests -- unless of course she was feeling especially lazy or busy enough, but this had yet to happen. "Well, I photocopy the worksheets and stuff for them, and I use the answers for those usually, but the tests and stuff... Nah. It's different for every class, I think." Well, if she had two classes of the same grade she wanted to give them the same test, but she figured that it was the type of thing that needed to be changed semester to semester. It was Christina's way of rebellion in a job that she was aware people thought could be easily programmed into a computer to do, especially with that answer book. She wasn't going to flat-out refuse to use it though, especially in case of situations like she'd though tof before, and she was sure that within the year she'd already find herself too busy or lazy to do it properly. "What, the whole not getting to swear thing?" she asked, grinning a bit. "Yeah, it sucks. But I guess it's no different from not swearing in front of teachers when you're a student too or something. Or not swearing too much in front of your boss." It was professionalism more than anything, but teachers were definitely held to that standard much more.
She was glad for the help, but she decided not to start laying on the thanks immediately or something like that. It was just annoying in her opinion when people started repeating themselves like that, and she always figured that she should wait for people to actually do the favour before heaping gratitude onto them. "I trust you enough to mark tests, that's pretty much one of the most important parts of the job," she pointed out -- it was especially true in Math where she generally couldn't really give marks for things like "enthusiasm for the subject" (in most cases kids didn't give a fuck about numbers) or "finding the deeper meaning" bullshit like in English. "Though it's just in case. Thanks," she said, accepting the test from him -- sure enough, Annabel Dale was written at the top -- and grabbing a pen of her own to go ahead and mark it first. The test had been pretty easy, the kids had told her, so honestly a few perfects wouldn't be too far-fetched an idea, she hoped as she started marking. "Hey, nice. Though I wish I didn't have work today," she said, rolling her eyes. Teachers' days didn't end just because classes did, after all, even if the actual teaching was by far what people saw and remembered the most. "What was the research paper on?" she asked absently, checking the answers easily -- it really had been a pretty easy test, and for Grade Nine after all -- and flipping the page to the reverse side.
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Jul 3, 2012 19:18:14 GMT -5
Joshua also enjoyed arguments to a point, though in his case he preferred a civil sort of debate over a full-blown back-and-forth. His temper tended to get in the way if things became a little more heated and then it spoiled the entire point when he started snapping and snarling. It was especially bad when he lost, for Josh didn't like losing. Pride made it difficult to swallow defeat without complaint. Thankfully in this case Christina was a long-time friend of his and he did not take much of their 'argument' very seriously. "Pulling the alpha female card on me, are you? How classy." He was smirking, though, and appeared amused by their banter. He liked having friends like her with whom he could swap words without having to worry about either side getting too offended and whining about it. "What, you don't think I can do it?" he asked, raising an eyebrow when he heard the skepticism in her voice. "That settles it, then. After I finish helping you out, I will sit here until it's done." He was dead serious, too, and as much could be assumed by the level tone of his voice. Joshua took challenges very literally. If you suggested that he could not do something or otherwise expressed doubt in him, he was hell-bent on proving you wrong. That was how he was looking at things now, sitting with Chris in her classroom and getting ready to tackle a pile of tests. This was a challenge. He was going to rise to it.
Amused by her remark, Joshua chuckled and shook his head. "A cop out? You really are a Math dork." It was said more affectionately than condescendingly, though, because he knew that she liked Math enough to teach it anyway. Why else would anyone pursue a teaching career? It wasn't like they were the best-paid people in the universe. Besides, he was a bit of a dork himself when it came to mathematics... and several other subjects, too. He was basically just a dork in general. A bookworm as well. It was no wonder that he'd turned out intelligent and done well in school. He nodded to indicate that he was following along as she explained her techniques to him. "Of course, forgive me for assuming you'd take the easy way out." He grinned, teasing. Actually, he found that he respected Christina for not relying on the answer book for everything. It definitely proved that she wasn't lazy or anything like that. "That makes sense," he concluded. "And hey, on the bright side, if you ever do swear it'll probably be enough to still the entire room." Since teachers were not allowed to swear, or at least chose not to, the rare times that they did let expletives slip past their lips tended to stun their students into silence. It was less effective with college classes but he remembered a few golden incidents from high school. Kids really were immature, weren't they, gaining amusement from such silly things? Eh, whatever.
He thought about that for a moment, then nodded as if deciding she had a fair point. Joshua did like being trusted, for it helped him to feel reassured that his friends knew he was not a bad guy. A lot of people jumped to conclusions thanks to his temper and initially intimidating demeanour and that made it hard to build trust at times. Hey, he couldn't help that he apparently looked angry when he was deep in thought! "You have the entire summer and winter breaks off with the kids, though," he pointed out. The smirk was back on his lips. "I... don't. Though I'm thinking of quitting my job anyway." He waved his hand as if in dismissal, suggesting that his own job was of little importance. Which, aside from the fact that he did enjoy his work, was true. He did not need the money and he believed he'd established enough trust and reputation with his employers that they'd be more than happy to write a letter of recommendation for medical school. References were quite important. She asked after his research paper and he replied, "Biology, 'course." It wasn't really an 'of course' considering he had two majors, but since it was accompanied by a wider smile it was clear he was cracking a bit of a joke at his own expense, like "what am I always studying?" "I'll be so sick of the damned subject by the time I hit medical school that I bet I won't even want to become a doctor!" He was joking, though. Becoming a doctor was Joshua's calling, his life's dream. Besides, he loved Biology. "Nah, I love it. Though sometimes the studying can get a little intense." That was putting it lightly. He always did put things a little light when it came to school, mostly because he honestly wasn't bothered by most of them. "Well, how've you been lately? Life-wise, like." He hoped she was doing good and all that.
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Post by christina on Jul 4, 2012 22:32:41 GMT -5
Chris had pretty tough skin, really. Sadness was stupid -- she didn't even remember the last time she had gotten sad. It was a pretty pointless emotion to feel when she could just spend that exact same amount of energy doing something productive, like reaching across the table and punching those motherfuckers in their ugly faces. She'd done it a couple of times, too. Chris had never claimed to be a "good person" or anything, but she always did the right thing by her own standard. None of these other bitches' opinions really mattered. "I'm the epitome of class, thanks for asking," she told him, the edge in her voice as it always was in these... conversations, but it was nothing serious. He'd know if she was serious, at least she was pretty sure. "Well, as long as you don't expect me to stay and watch you or something," she said, rolling her eyes. "Some of us have places to be." She knew how busy Joshua normally was, though. He was probably busier than she was, actually, since he still had classes and all that shit too on top of working. Plus, he sort of had people to look after to some degree -- his sister and what-not. Chris just had to make sure she ate everyday, forget taking care of anyone else.
She didn't even feel the need to reply to his comment about her being a Math dork, because dude, fucking look at her. She taught Math. Willingly. There were other classes she was qualified to a lesser extent to teach, she was sure. She really hadn't been joking that day she'd told Asher that she could have probably taught high school Law. Some classes were easy to teach, too. Hell, anybody could tell kids to go run laps. No, she chose to teach Math because she liked it -- much as she had chosen to study it. "Well. I also need people not to think that the whole job of being a teacher can be replaced by a photocopier and some dude who sits far away and writes mass-produced tests," she said, rolling her eyes. It wasn't her lifelong career or anything, definitely not -- she took things as they came anyway, so she didn't exactly have one of those sixteen-year plans or anything -- but it was her job right now, and she had always thought that teachers frequently got the shit end of the stick. Students blamed their teachers for every little thing. Chris wasn't going to be one of those totally useless ones that really could be replaced with a photocopier. "Yeah, and I bet it won't even be a long ways away with some of these kids. Never realized just how much patience it took before." She'd always had a suspicion, but she'd never figured that it was to such an extent.
"There's planning and meetings and shit sometimes still, though," she said, rolling her eyes as if to suggest that these meetings and the like were below her. She did think those meetings were fucking annoying, especially because they did mean that her break was cut off just a little bit early. "Can't just roll out of bed and show up with a holiday hangover or something like the kids." A couple of them had done just that, actually. She would have (and had) done the exact same thing when she attended the Academy. "Quitting your job? Why's that?" He'd always seemed to like his job, so she could think of no reason he would quit unless he really was that busy. She understood how that was too. She hadn't had to work nearly as much as he did, when she'd been in college, and she'd still found it awful, especially Senior year. "What about it?" She sort of actually didn't know anything about Biology, to be fair, but she knew enough to probably understand at least the basics of what he was studying... maybe. She didn't really know these things until she tried them, but Chris was usually down for a challenge. She just liked to fee smart and accomplished and shit like that. Everyone did -- she was just upfront about it. "Well, that'd suck. Lots of years of your live wasted. Dreams shattered." She smirked. There was no real chance of Josh ever really giving it up, from what she could tell. "Okay apart from this whole teaching high schoolers thing." She pulled a face as if gagging at the thought, but it really wasn't that bad. "How've you been?"
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Jul 5, 2012 20:28:36 GMT -5
[Apparently not limiting my muse = my muse likes ramble, LOL I AM SO SORRY PLEASE DON'T MATCH .-.]
Smirking, Joshua said without much pause or consideration, "I don't ask because I don't care about you." It was a twist of the usual phrase which expressed concern, positive rather than negative. She could probably tell that he wasn't being serious as well as he could tell with her. Friendship was a wonderful thing. You learned things about a person through years of knowing them. Some good, some bad, some utterly pointless. Their sense of humour could either be a good or a bad thing depending on how impressive it was. Josh liked to think that his humour didn't completely fall flat, serious about it as he was. He liked to see his friends take amusement from things he said, liked to see them smile or laugh. Alright, so this was less of an attempt to make Christina laugh as it was a back and forth trolling session but hey, he reacted differently around different people!
He certainly did not expect her to sit and watch him, especially because he was not going to be saying much during the period of intense concentration. He could always go behind her back and cheat when she was off at one of her meetings or other obligations but the funny thing about Joshua was that he could consistently be trusted not to do such things. He did not condone cheating and he did not enjoy cheating. It took the satisfaction out of things. It was so intense that the man would actually burn the answer pages in crossword puzzle books so that he was not at all tempted. It also discouraged other people from 'borrowing' the puzzle books. That truly got on his nerves. There was such a thing as asking. "Watching would be a bore. Next time you see the thing after today, though, it will be completed." He finished his convicted statement with a firm nod to back it up. He liked to be sure of himself, was very confident in his own abilities. He had a lot more patience for puzzles than Chris seemed to, though admittedly she was following the algorithms. He was one of those people who, like her dorky friend, liked to find his own patterns. That was way more satisfying than 'cheating' to him.
Yeah, he was pretty much a dork.
He seemed amused as she spoke, pausing in his consideration of an answer to listen to her words instead. "Look at you, being all righteous and shit." It was a mixture of teasing and complimenting. It was pretty admirable that she took some kind of pride in her job but he was also poking fun at her. It was just how Joshua operated, insulting his friends out of love. It was also probably why he did not have a whole lot of close friends but whatever. He had enough of a social circle now that he was entirely comfortable when someone expressed their dislike toward him. Hell, he'd always been comfortable with it. Not like he'd ever been desperate for friends. His desperation in youth had led to his being taken advantage of and nearly killed, he'd learned not to stray down that path a second time. "I guess you're right, though. Really hope medicine doesn't go down that path too much. Artificial Intelligence or not, I do not want fucking I, Robot operating on me." He was not one of those people who thought that robots could develop minds of their own, no. He still didn't like the idea of one malfunctioning while it was cutting him open and operating or some shit like that. The thought made him want to shudder. There were already similar things in place, he just hoped that it did not take over completely. A couple of surgeons operating a machine from miles away was one thing, a completely automated process was another.
Joshua had patience in some areas but he did not know how well he would deal with a room full of obnoxious teenagers that were only taking a class because they had to. Oh, you got the occasional Math geek in with the haters but the latter probably far outweighed. He didn't envy Chris in the least. "It's probably way better if you become a professor," he mused. "Have you ever considered that? Getting a PhD?" He wondered how far into Math one would have to study in order to achieve a doctorate. Christina was still pretty young and she was fresh out of college so it might not be the best idea to consider throwing herself into graduate school so soon, especially considering the costs. At the same time, Joshua was doing exactly that. He supposed it was a bit different for becoming a doctor. He did not have a choice but to attend medical school and get his Masters and his PhD in a joint program in order to go into his field of choice. Then there was residency and the research fellowship. It was hard work. A lot of people simply stared at him when he told them how long it would take to get what he wanted from life and he would shrug it off, not bothered at all. Dreams were dreams.
Meetings didn't sound all that fun. A bunch of people sitting around a table and discussing things, it was group projects all over again. Josh didn't play well with others, at least not when he was expected to share his plans with them, and so the idea of meetings was not his idea of a good time. "Well you could," he pointed out with a smirk, trolling again, "only you'd end up getting fired." Speaking of being fired, the subject of his own job was at least not a negative one. It would have been different if he was quitting because he was feeling really down at work or that his bosses were unfavourable people but he loved his superiors and coworkers and he loved what he did. "Don't have the time," he shrugged, being honest. "It's gotten to the point where I have to sacrifice things if I want to juggle and the job was the easiest to cut out." It was better to get rid of a job that he did not need than to neglect Nell, neglect homework, neglect sleep. He was rich, it had merely been an option to fill his empty summer days that had, well, bled beyond the summer months. "Was fun while it lasted." Well, maybe not fun but at least not terrible.
He was not usually accustomed to going in depth about his studies with people because 'going in depth' usually meant launching off into tangents about how interesting it was and boring the ever-loving hell out of whoever it was had asked in the first place. He blinked. "It was an immunology paper," he said, getting a bit of deja-vu when he remembered having a similar conversation with Sandra about this. Same paper, actually. Only then he'd been studying for the paper and now he'd already recieved the marks back. Following her same style when it came to his reply, he chucked, "Fine apart from having no time. No, really, though, I'm alright. Things have been good." He used to answer questions like this with a simple and flat, "I'm fine." but for his friends he'd started to be a little more reassuring. He didn't want her to think he was lying, for he wasn't.
[Tried to... just... stop rambling near the end... >>]
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Post by christina on Jul 8, 2012 18:36:52 GMT -5
Both of them were pretty tough -- tough as nails, for real, and that was definitely a very lucky thing. Most other people might have left and stormed out or something by now, or at least gotten upset or... stupidly ridiculous things. Chris didn't like those people anyway, though. "Right, must be the reason you came to see me." Chris wasn't much bothered. She knew her friends liked her, her friends knew she liked them, and the world went on. The people she was close to meant more to her than her attitude would suggest, but then she only kept around people if she knew that they would know that she didn't mean much by any tough words. Josh was good for that. Fires usually were either very equipped to handle her, or had such terrible tempers that they never did get along with her. Her temper was probably much along the same vein. "Time yourself or something for me then," she said, smirking and nodding a bit at the cube now in his hands. Well, at least he had no shortage of confidence... or something. She had known that already, though.
She wasn't so sure she would ever use the word "pride" to describe what she felt about being a teacher now at the Academy, but Chris didn't commit to things -- like a full-time job -- without doing it properly. That included this thing that Josh called righteousness, but she doubted he meant anything negative by it. "Technology can be pretty amazing, though," she said thoughtfully. She never ceased to be amazed by the things that machines could do these days -- pieces of metal and shit with wiring inside. "But some things are just better off done by people, I figure. At least until the robot overlords take over or something." Did she think that would happen? Maybe somewhere in the distant future... but they would all probably be dead long before then, and that was a reassuring thought. As it stood though, there was too much of a margin for error for her liking.
"A PhD just to teach math?" she asked, frowning a little bit. No, she couldn't say that the idea was really that appealing, to be honest. "Nah, I don't think so. It's not in the plan right now, anyway." She said it with finality, though, but Chris wasn't vehemently opposed to grad school or becoming a professor or something like that. Nah, it'd be alright, and she didn't even mind school that much, but it felt weird to think about potentially wasting more years of her life (and a ton of money) to do something like study Math for a couple more years. If she wanted to do something like that, the Criminology major part of her would go do law school or something.
As tempting as having more free time sounded, she had no intentions whatsoever of getting fired. If anything, she'd leave as a teacher on her own grounds, thanks, when she inevitably did in the future. Chris wasn't sticking around with these kids forever, definitely not. For now, money was probably the main driving force, and in a way she wished she didn't have to worry about that kind of thing, like Josh. Damn, that would be nice. "Sucks," she acknowledged. "Least you'll have more time to study now though." Chris smirked. Studying was definitely not what most people would consider fun. Even Josh probably couldn't call that shit fun, even if he didn't mind it so much. "Immunology, huh? Can't say I know much about you science dorks and the things you like." At least, she had never liked Biology in general a whole lot. The Math geek in her was pretty alright with slightly more Math-related sciences, though... but she was no Physics teacher or anything like that. "To be expected, it's your last year," she said, nodding. "Look on the bright side, though, soon you'll be done. Only to go to more school." She knew that Josh intended to go to medical school straight away.
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Jul 9, 2012 11:14:07 GMT -5
He nodded when she suggested timing himself. "Will do." He would, too, both for his own curiosity and so that he could have something to show for his efforts when he handed the completed cube to Christina. He liked challenges and he was already itching to undertake this one but he forced himself to set the cube down for now so that he could help his friend with her whole paper grading business. His inner dork was going to have to hold up for a while.
Technology was pretty cool, he had to agree with her there. He respected a lot of things that computers could do as long as they didn't start completely replacing people for jobs that only something that could think, really think, should be able to do. Like a lawyer. Sure, it wasn't too big of a deal to have a self-check out station at a grocery store but it was a lot different when handling the matter of the law. Maybe one day they'd build a robot smart enough but he was skeptical on that front. "True that. Some of the machines they use up at the hospital for life-support and monitoring are pretty advanced. Freaky." To think that a machine could tell if you were going to live or die or that it could sustain the life that might be begging to slip away from you. He didn't think he'd want that kind of an existence if he were injured. Better to die than to become a vegetable. "Robot overlords?" He thought about that for a moment before snorting and shaking his head, amused. "Yeah, though. Robots can make mistakes, glitch out and shit. People are more reliable." It was why it bothered him that some tests were marked by machines. What if the machine decided not to like him?
Hey, some people had done it. He wouldn't have professors in mathematics if they hadn't. Maybe it wasn't Christina's style, though. That was fine. "Guess you have a point. Wasn't sure if you wanted to do the whole professor thing." Physician-scientists were often asked to teach new medical students what they'd learned, being as well-rounded as they were thanks to how long it took to become one, but he didn't think the teaching aspect pulled him quite so much as everything else. He wanted to find a cure and be involved in research and patient care, not only to teach others to do the same thing. "Holding onto what you've got for now, eh? Nothing wrong with that." If it wasn't broken there was no need for fixing it.
He was relishing the extra time on his schedule, really. "And more time to spend with Nell," he said with a sly smile. Alright, so his sense of humour was far from the most innocent thing in the world. At least his friends could say with confidence that he never hit on them or anything like that. He didn't mean anything by it, he'd always been a devious guy when it came to having a laugh. "No, but seriously. It sucks when I only see her for like five minutes in passing." That didn't happen every day but there were some. They had both been attending college, both had jobs, both doing volunteer work on the side. They had other friends, too, not just one another. "And yeah, like you said, more time to study. I really need to focus this year." He was getting into medical school no matter how hard he had to try.
He smirked when she called him a science dork. "But I know all about you Math dorks and your 'problems'." He winked. Puns were tasteful if you used them every once and a while and didn't go too out of your way to come up with them. This one had practically set itself up for him, couldn't blame a guy for using it.
It might have sounded bad to someone that hated school and wanted it to be over with as soon as possible but Joshua didn't mind his current deal at all. Medical school was a big deal. He knew the first year or so would not be all fun and games, it would mostly be the introductory stuff, but then they started getting into rotations and research and hands-on experience. He was excited rather than dreading it. "Then residency, then fellowship. Shoot me now." He said it dully as if it bothered him, then smirked. "Are you glad you're out of it, at least? I mean a job's not too much better but at least you get paid for it." He definitely wouldn't mind being paid for going to school, thank you very much, though Joshua had a lot of money so it wasn't as big of a deal to him as it would be for some.
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Post by christina on Jul 9, 2012 23:07:15 GMT -5
Machines... well, they were pretty cool, all things considered. They were pieces of metal, damn, with wires inside and a whole shit ton of numbers typed in by some dude who got paid to know how to program and code that shit. What did Chris know about any of that? She knew very little indeed, though she knew that it was all binary and so really, it couldn't be that difficult, but fuck damn, she'd go crazy with all those 0s and 1s and... everything. She couldn't even imagine how long it would take to do something like that. Her brain already hurt at the idea of it. "Machines all over the place for sure," she said, frowning, but not in an unhappy way by any means. It was more contemplative or anything, not that she wanted to spend much time dwelling on technology these days. God, that just made her sound old, like one of those crazy ladies going on and on about kids these days and their new-fangled gadgets. "Hey, a robot defeated Ken Jennings. You don't even know what could happen next." She laughed. It was most definitely a reference to those seasons of Jeopardy where said man had dominated so much, and she totally wasn't ashamed to say something like that. Then again, she hadn't actually watched all of that shit. She saw a few episodes of the... trivia (sort of) show here and there. It made her feel smart or something. "In some cases, yeah. I wouldn't consider everyone I know reliable or anything." She shot him a look like hse meant him, but Joshua was actually one of the most reliable people she knew -- responsible and shit, got things done.
"Not worth it right now, honestly," she said, making a face. She had just gone through a bunch of years solid of just studying and learning and going through the motions of classes, and she wasn't going to put herself through more of that just to get promoted to being... a different type of teacher. She had tons of respect for her own college professors, though. Professor Roth came to mind. Even so, she would never willingly put herself in their shoes. "Lucky to have a job at this point, the way things are going," she said, rolling her eyes. "Also kind of lucky I could end up at the Academy, since I guess they can't hire just anyone to teach a bunch of kids with powers." She smirked. It had definitely made getting this job much easier.
Chris rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, you and your fiancée and all that," she said, sounding exasperated. Ugh, look at the two of them, not even out of college and already thinking about marriage. Chris could never tie herself down like that so young, but then again, what did she know about relationships? She hadn't had a good track record. It was lucky if she wound up friends with her exes after... though this wasn't to say that it hadn't happened, especially with relationships from when she'd been younger. Things were never that serious in high school, not as far as she was concerned. "That does kind of suck, though." It was the closest to sympathy he'd get from her, really. She wasn't really one to be able to relate to couples and their couple problems. Chris simultaneously liked being single and hated being lonely... not that she went around moping all day, but she had her moments. Admittedly, most of these moments were because she wanted to get drunk and make out with someone, but then she wasn't allowed to do that shit anymore (at least not if she got caught), and that was just a pity. "How is Nell?" See, though, she wasn't heartless. She cared a little in her own way.
Chris paused in her marking to look up and narrow her eyes at him. Then without much warning, she reached over with her free hand, grabbed a pencil -- new and unsharpened and everything -- from her desk and threw it at his head. "I make the awful puns around here." Pfft... pfft. At least the pencil hadn't poked him in the eye or something. "Sorry, it's probably uncalled for to throw two things at you within like, the same hour. Though the cube wasn't on purpose." It wasn't even a real apology, but it was close enough. It did kind of make her feel better that she was pretty much done with schooling, and Josh had tons more of education and then training and the like to go. It wasn't even that she couldn't or didn't do well -- she was good at what she did. It did get boring as all hell, though, and even when she was doing something she liked, that shit did get tedious. "Let me know when you're done. At the age of like, forty-five." She snorted. "Yeah, getting paid to be at school for a couple hours a day isn't bad at all." There was much more than just that, of course -- things like marking. Speaking of which, she pushed Annabel's test off to the side. "Your sister did fine, by the way. Almost perfect. One rounding mistake that you can totally grill her for later." She moved onto the next test without more commotion than that.
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Jul 12, 2012 16:36:55 GMT -5
Like a lot of people, Joshua was prone to picking up on random facts that he read in the paper or heard through general conversation with friends. He blinked when Ken Jennings was mentioned, certain that this sounded familiar. It took him a second or two and then his lip twitched. "He's that rich bastard from Jeopardy, yeah?" Joshua was wealthy without having to win consecutive rounds of a game show but he figured it would still be a pretty cool way to earn your money. Someone should pay me for being smart. I'd be a billionaire by thirty. The thought was not too serious though he did think that he was smart. Joshua wasn't the type to sell himself short.
He scoffed at her comment. "Flattered. And same to you, by the way." He lifted his chin as if he considered himself above her, holding back the urge to smile. Joshua trusted his friends on a non-personal level. He did not trust anyone with his personal issues except Nell and a couple of his super close friends but he was trustworthy to the people who earned his impersonal level of respect. They might not realise and they might not ever confide in him but that reliability was there, at least.
He could not say that he blamed her for putting off the professor deal. Maybe if he could become a doctor right off the bat he would put off school for a year or two and allow himself to recuperate from all the headaches of studying before he launched himself back into the learning process. Then again, maybe not. Joshua was excited about becoming a doctor and anyone who spoke to him on a regular basis surely knew it. The sooner, the better. "Are you even sticking with teaching?" He wasn't entirely sure what else you could do with a Math degree other than teach other people how to Math but maybe Chris had plans to get a veterinary licence or something equally as unexpected in the future. Then again, one could get into medical school with a Math degree as long as they'd taken the required Biology classes, so maybe something else that she wanted to do had a similar rule. Hopefully. "You did luck out," he agreed. "I've heard the Academy struggles to fill some of their teaching positions for the electives and shit but Math isn't that uncommon." It was good luck that she'd snagged the position up when it was available. "Do you know what happened to the last Math teacher?" He was curious, hey.
Her exasperation didn't offend or concern him, Joshua merely smirking in response and looking smug. He was proud of himself and the place he was at in life. "Your enthusiasm for my relationship is flattering," he said. "What will you do at the wedding, throw tomatoes? Maybe they'll be rotten because we're just that special to you." He kept up his serious, sarcastic demeanour. It was not too hard to avoid laughing. He felt the urge but it was held back. "That's if you're even invited. Maybe I'll shun you." He nodded and raised his brows at her. He wondered what sort of comeback she'd have for that and almost looked forward to it. Josh enjoyed the back and forth between them. It was one of the reasons he got along so great with Chris.
Everyone always asked after Nell. He was used to it, she had a lot of people that were fond of her. "She's great, last I saw her," he said, which of course had been earlier that morning. He didn't know if Nell was as peachy keen as he often told people, being that he was privy to the situations with Rafael and Jane, but he was so used to lying for his own benefit that lying for hers was not an issue.
He didn't flinch when she threw the pencil at him. In fact, Joshua glanced at where it landed after bouncing off his temple, picked it up, and threw it back. "Think you dropped something." Not a lot of friends could get away with chucking things at him but he was so used to Christina's attitude that it barely phased him any more. Which was a good thing, really, because if they had not become accustomed to the respective attitude of the other they would not be friends. I can hardly imagine a life without her. Another sarcastic, melodramatic thought. He could but it was not desirable. He liked his friends and didn't want them discarded.
Grinning, he said, "Hey! Try thirty-five or so." He'd be in his very late twenties when he finished medical school and probably his early thirties once he was finally on his own again. Of course he'd need to take the tests every few years to keep his practice licence renewed. One couldn't stay an effective doctor if they did not keep up with the advancements in medical science since their schooling days. He planned to stay sharp and on top of things. He wanted to be good at everything he did. "Will do," he smirked when she mentioning grilling Annabel. Switching to the next test that he needed to help her with, Joshua scanned the page with lips pressed together. He rolled his eyes after a moment. "I think this one half-assed it. Looks like they went for putting whatever they wanted." He wondered if they'd been drunk or hungover. "And Jesus, their handwriting is terrible. Aren't they supposed to be in high school?" He chuckled dryly and showed her what he meant.
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Post by christina on Jul 13, 2012 23:23:17 GMT -5
She smirked a little. "Yeah, that guy that won for like five consecutive seasons." She knew that it wasn't really the case, not if memory served correctly at least (though oh god, it wouldn't even surprise her), but damn. "Must be nice. I should go on Jeopardy..." She said this mostly to herself, but then she grinned at him. "Pull a Ken Jennings and I won't have to teach for a while." Hey, the dude probably had made way more money than just some high school teacher in her first year... or first couple of years. Yeah, well, she didn't really know what the hell was going on in her life anyway... She wasn't sure how related those two thoughts were. "Glad we're friends," she said sarcastically... though it was more like double sarcasm, or whatever that shit would be called.
His question didn't really cause her to consider at all, honestly. If she'd be real with herself, the answer was no, absolutely not... and Chris was always real with herself, at least she tried to be. She very rarely had difficulty keeping that up, either. "Nah. Job's a job, though." She didn't know what she was headed for after, but fuck the future, she still had the moment to live in and all that shit. "I'll be off somewhere else soon enough, I figure. Though soon could be less than a year. Or it could be a couple." She didn't really know or bother to worry about these things. She had a job! That was already better than, probably, much of her fellow college grads last year. "Yeah, I figure it'd be hard to find someone to teach like, Home Ec," she said, thinking of her co-worker with a roll of the eyes. "And I have no idea, actually. Maybe retired or something... I don't remember hearing about any teachers retiring though. Was it... oh, what's his name, Mr. Brown?" She hadn't yet become accustomed to referring to all the teachers by their first names, and she sure as hell found it even weirder when she'd actually had them as a teacher in the past. If she was right in her assumption that it was Brown who'd left, though, she luckily wouldn't have to deal with that issue.
She snorted. "You make it sound like I have extra energy to expend on being enthusiastic about other people's relationships," she said, deadpanning. "Or the money to buy tomatoes, even." Damn, she'd never buy tomatoes just to throw at couples, even if she hated the both of them -- which she didn't, because she liked Josh enough... She didn't really know Nell, though. "Oh, do let me know in advance when the date is, though. So I can make plans for that day just in case you do decide to invite me." She wondered when the hell their wedding was going to be anyway. From what she knew, Josh had no intentions of throwing it anytime soon... She hoped that she would have heard by now if it was like, next week or something. Damn if that would suck so bad. She'd probably have a bone to pick with Joshua if that were the case. Chris nodded when he said that Nell was great, though. "Cool. Glad to hear it." She meant it too, even if she wasn't particularly genuine -- she just didn't feel that strongly about the girl either way, not being well-acquainted with her.
It was kind of impressive, how completely passive he was about the pencil hitting in the head, for real. "Did I? My bad," she replied, but luckily for her she had kind of seen the return throw coming and she caught it in one hand. She wasn't uncoordinated by any means, thanks... though she wasn't an Olympic athlete or anything, either. Ew, so much work.
Thirty-five was just way too late for Chris to imagine starting what was some kind of semblance of her real life, she thought. Then again, it was possible that she'd just lucked out. Not all college grads got to move out of their parents' places straight away. She liked the independence, though, even while she missed having meals given to her at specific times each day, food available whenever she wanted it -- someone to ask to do her laundry for her if she was busy or even too lazy, sometimes. Chris wouldn't say she took advantage of her own parents' kindness that often, though, and by now she was gone... Even if she wasn't, thirty-five just seemed way too late. "Done at thirty-five? That sounds horrible." Seriously, it did. "Like, half your life gone, right there." She knew that people lived well past seventy nowadays, though. "I guess if they just guess the same number a bunch of times they're bound to get it right eventually," she said, rolling her eyes. Some of the kids were ridiculous, especially in ninth grade, when they were all shoved together. "If you think high school kids are actually supposed to have nice writing, though..." Man, Josh was in for a letdown, in that case.
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