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Post by lucy on Oct 4, 2012 17:40:11 GMT -5
Though she couldn't now remember where she'd heard it, Lucy had somehow found out that there was to be a math test tomorrow. As she tended to daydream the most in that class, she was, to say the least, very lost as to what they were doing and what the test would be on. And so today she found herself in the library, trying to read as much of the textbook as she could while still retaining the information somewhat. It'd help if she understood it.
Now Lucy was a relatively bright girl, so if she'd just get better at not daydreaming during class, she'd probably do quite well. But even Lucy couldn't figure out things if she hadn't been taught them first. Technically, she had been taught- she just hadn't been paying attention whilst that happened, so it really was just as bad as not being taught at all, except for the fact that it was her fault and not the teacher's that she had a significant lack of knowledge in that subject area.
She must have looked rather strange, nose practically touching the pages of the textbook as she skimmed and took notes, trying to retain the information that she was reading, or to understand it. The only problem was, even in the silence of the library, she still just kept getting so distracted! The shuffle of pages, the squeaking of chairs- it was almost as though silence, or near silence at least, distracted her more than constant noise! She let out a sigh and re-read the same paragraph for the ninth time, still just as lost as she was when she'd begun. She was definitely going to fail this test....
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Post by ROWENA AUDREY BENNETT on Oct 10, 2012 13:51:50 GMT -5
Rowena inspected her nails with a thin-lipped scowl. A bloody Math test. Just what I needed. She appeared not to be listening to her dorm-mate, who had informed her of what was now the bane of her existence. Apparently the other girl noticed, for after a pause there was an uncertain call of, "Hey, Ro?" The Thunder blonde glanced up with disinterest, then dropped her hand and shrugged. "Yeh, I heard you." What was she going to do about it, exactly? What was she supposed to say? She wasn't good in classes because she never paid them any attention. Where her sister managed to pull ahead in her grades by being a good student whenever it pleased her, Rowena had been crafted of different stuff. Her talents were restricted to the arts. She could play the piano, she could draw, she could design, but ask her to solve a difficult Math equation and she'd likely give you a long, blank stare.
Still, later on as she heard yet another classmate make a comment about the test and how it was supposedly going to be difficult and make up a good part of the grade, Rowena felt a sense of dread. She knew that she wasn't doing very well that year. She'd had her position as Thunder leader called into question more than once—not by her fellow Thunders, who didn't seem to mind her leadership, but by her professors and the school administration. Each time she'd been called into the office she'd smiled and given them empty promises about how she would improve. She'd ask her friends and classmates for help (and use force or manipulation where necessary) to pick up her grade and as soon as they stopped breathing down her neck, she'd stop her efforts. She was paying for that now. What the fuck am I gonna do about this? She didn't have this particular class with Altair and so it wasn't like she could ask her sister for a bail-out. Skipping the day of the test would only make it so that she'd need to take the test the next time she went. And she couldn't skip from now until the end of the year.
I need to pass and get the fuck outta high school.
It was with that thought that she dragged herself into the library, heels clicking loudly against the stone floor of the hallways but becoming muffled against the carpeting of the library floor. She felt like she'd struck the jackpot when she recognised a classmate with her nose buried in a book. Heh. Probably a teacher's pet. She recalled the girl's name and she strode up to the table with a smile, sitting down across from her. "Hey, you're Lucy, yeah?" There was a lilt to her voice as she spoke the words with more cheer than usual. She was good at being friendly when she needed something. "Think we've got Maths together. Sucks about that test, huh? I lost all of my notes to a Water and their pranks." She sighed and shook her head, blonde hair falling about her face. "I doubt I've got a chance but I guess I have to do what I can. What about you? You look like you have it in the bag." She smiled and nodded at the books. Lucy looked smart. She would be perfect. She would be the key. Rowena just had to play her cards right.
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Post by lucy on Oct 14, 2012 16:47:31 GMT -5
Honestly, Lucy was getting tired of reading and writing down all this material that she had no idea how to use. After all, she didn't understand it anyway, so why was she bothering to write it down? If she were the type to get in such a mood she would probably be frustrated, but she wasn't. She wasn't even annoyed, really- just tired of sitting and reading and writing. Her feet and legs under the table were swinging back and forth to keep at least half of her occupied, and her eyes kept darting away from the book and around the room instead. She was about to just give up for the day when she heard someone speak to her.
Lucy's head turned from where she was looking to the general direction from whence the voice came, and as soon as she made eye contact, her eyes shot away for a few moments, and she swallowed nervously. It was a student in her year, which wasn't the part that bothered her- the part that worried her was that it was a thunder student. She recalled her name, Rowena, as they'd had math class together. Lucy hastily closed her notebook and textbook and shuffled away her pencil and began putting away her books, too, worried that she was in the way of the thunder. She wasn't usually scared of much, but Lucy had a large, though somewhat irrational, fear of thunders, mostly because of her associating said students with her fear of thunderstorms.
She gulped once more before beginning, "Um....", nodding when Rowena got her name right, but never finished, for Rowena began talking to her again about something else. Math class? So perhaps she remembered having it together, too. Lucy tended to be quiet in any class, mostly because she was daydreaming about things completely unrelated. She was glad that the thunder was only talking to her, and in a friendly way at that. Notes stolen by waters? That didn't seem out of place, really, seeing as the waters tended to play lots of pranks. Though Lucy didn't really believe in stealing, she never cared enough about such things to respond to such actions by any student, even if they were toward herself. She would usually laugh a bit and shrug it off, for the most part unfazed. She wondered why Rowena hadn't fought back- she was a thunder, after all, weren't they known for starting conflicts, or was Lucy just projecting?- but didn't worry too much on it.
Rowena told her that she'd probably do well on the test. Lucy wondered why for a moment but quickly realized how it must have looked when she was 'concentrating' on writing notes. Yes, she must have looked as if she were rather intelligent or something. Like the type that actually did their work. "Oh, well, er, t-thanks...." she stuttered a bit as she spoke, still nervous to be around the thunder. "I, er, I'm not so sure, but m-maybe...." she trailed off, her eyes wandering and her fingers fidgeted a bit as she sat. She wanted to be anywhere but there. Perhaps the thunder would lose interest and go away... yes, that'd be lucky. But Lucy couldn't depend on luck alone. Did anyone?
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Post by ROWENA AUDREY BENNETT on Oct 15, 2012 2:17:11 GMT -5
Normally, Rowena thrived off of being feared. She loved to watch people jump up and make room for her in the mess hall if they couldn't match their elemental prowess to hers and she would often go out of her way to be frightening. It was a power trip for a girl that often had problems with her self-image. Making others fear her helped her to feel secure. Now? She realised quite quickly that losing her target wouldn't be the best thing. "Where are you off to in a hurry? I only wanted a chat." Where she might have sounded threatening and cruel on a normal day, Rowena bent her words to sound innocent and friendly instead. She wanted to calm the Wind elemental down, make her feel comfortable. She hadn't a clue about Lucy's fear of thunderstorms and so she didn't know all the right words to say in order to make her stay but she was planning on doing her best to get the answers to the damn test.
Still nervous. Bugger. What was she doing wrong, what could she change to be less threatening? Well, the girl hadn't run off yet and so Ro concluded that it might be a good idea to continue acting as friendly and genuine as possible so as not to alarm her potential victim. This was nothing she hadn't done before. "Oh, come off it!" she said, waving a hand. "M'sure you're brilliant, anyone who spends time in a library's got the test down to the letter I'd bet. S'what the teachers'd have us believe, anyway, and who're we to argue with them?" She hoped the compliments might butter up the Wind so that she was more susceptible to Rowena's ploy to use her for the answers. "Loads better than me, anyway! I couldn't make heads or tails of a textbook if you paid me." She feigned distress at this point—not that it was too hard to fake, considering she would have her high school graduation endangered if she didn't manage to pass. "Might've done half decent if I'd had my notes but the bloody Waters had to pull one of their little jokes." She'd actually had a Water ruin her notes before, though this time it was a lie. She'd zapped the girl until she'd been in tears but that hadn't done her notebook any good. Ro had solved that problem by half-assing the test and totally failing it as a result.
She sighed, then seemed to hesitate before asking, "Say... you wouldn't mind giving me a bit of a hand, would you?" She gave Lucy the choice, for demanding the answers to the test would completely destroy any effort that she'd made thus far to come across as friendly and amiable. Thunders had a bad reputation, albeit not quite as bad as the Fires, and she needed to 'prove' that reputation wrong. "There's no way I'll be able to figure all this out on my own by the day of the test and I might fail the grade if I don't pass. My parents would kill me if I didn't pass." Parents? The parents back in Britain that she hadn't spoken to for years? Rowena's parents were dead to her but Lucy didn't know that. "I mean, if you could even help me figure out the formulas I'd be really grateful..." And she'd reap the rewards of her manipulation. Nothing she hadn't done before.
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Post by lucy on Oct 18, 2012 15:10:47 GMT -5
Even though the Thunder seemed to mean well, being around the girl still made Lucy rather nervous. She just couldn't help it, they terrified her by mere association. And so she still found herself beyond nervous when the girl spoke to her. She seemed so kind- perhaps it was silly of her to fear all Thunder students, but still- and it made Lucy wish she didn't fear her so much. Perhaps if they talked enough, she may be able to get more used to being around her. Rowena... yes, she did seem rather nice. Or at least friendly. Lucy couldn't help but smile a bit at this, albeit still nervously, and nodded sheepishly. "Sorry, I just thought...." she did not finish the sentence for fear of offending the Thunder, but she was thinking of her earlier worries of having her seat taken and an angry student on her heels.
"Oh, well-" she began to argue, but decided against it, ending up agreeing halfheartedly with Rowena on her study habits. "You're right." her sigh was almost inaudible, and yet it was still there. What luck, that she'd come across a situation like this the one time she set foot in the library for study purposes and not just for free time, taking out the dusty, obscure plant encyclopedias or something of the like. She nodded sympathetically as she realized Rowena seemed genuinely upset about her notes, and that she never understood what was going on. Lucy knew the feeling, which was probably why she was so sympathetic. Though it was mostly her own fault for not paying attention- she was sure from the sound of it that Ro really did pay attention, and it sounded as though she'd put a lot of time into those notes. And so Lucy found herself saying, "Well if you want mine, you can have them, I don't need them." it was quite true in all ways- she'd never be able to get all that material into her head at this point anyway, so she may as well give the notes to someone who could. Besides, she had practically copied them straight from the book anyway, so at least she knew they were accurate.
Rowena then asked if Lucy wouldn't mind giving her a hand. Well, normally, she wouldn't. But she really didn't know the material either, and she didn't want to give the wrong answers... but she was still a bit wary of Rowena mostly on the premise of her being a Thunder, and so she didn't want to get on the bad side of her... oh, dear. This was a predicament! Lucy thought for a moment worriedly before replying hesitantly, "O-okay. Sure. Er... I can let you borrow my homework from today too if you want." the teacher had explained that all the answers from the homework would be on the test as well- or the questions, at least, which would lead to the same answers. Lucy had actually done the homework for once, but hadn't had the teacher check it yet as class hadn't begun. She'd been completely lost and had a feeling it was all wrong, but then again, there had been parts here and there where she'd felt as though she were understanding it! Perhaps she was just too worried about it and had actually done fine. She hoped so for Rowena's sake. She took the notes and the homework from her notebook and put them into a pile, offering them to Rowena. Hopefully they'd do her good and not the opposite....
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Post by ROWENA AUDREY BENNETT on Oct 19, 2012 18:10:35 GMT -5
What had the girl though? Rowena wasn't quite sure, although based on reputation alone she could make a few wild guesses. Ro wasn't exactly what could be called intelligent, at least not academically—she skipped class far too often for that—but she was perceptive in a social sense. She liked to know why people reacted to her the way that they did and she noticed that her status as Thunder and then as a leader affected a lot. The Waters had a wary hatred where the Earths were gentle but generally less afraid thanks to their upper hand. The Fires went from treating her like another student to treating her with a lot more respect than she was used to, a perk of being top dog in the opposing alliance. She figured her sister got the same treatment from the Thunder students. So maybe this girl was testing the waters a little bit, unsure of what to think. The Winds were neutral but that didn't mean they couldn't make enemies. She still had no idea of Lucy's thunderstorm fear, though—she could jump to conclusions but she couldn't read minds.
She liked being right, Rowena did, and so the Thunder grinned her victory when her fellow elemental agreed with her. She made a point of not looking too devious in case the alarm bells went off. People could read a lot more into facial expressions and attitudes than the aspiring designer liked to admit. It was why she tried to show as little as possible when she wasn't trying, like now, to manipulate another individual. Her blue gaze lit up when Lucy offered to let her borrow the notes. She liked it when people were more susceptible to false charm, it made it so much easier than spending hours conning the answers to a test out of them. When she had to expend so much time and energy she found it was a lot easier (if a little more messy) to turn to violence and threaten her victims instead. Nothing calmed rebellion like a nice shock to the face, right? The only downside was it increased their chances of tattling on her the day of the test. She didn't like that risk. This way was safer. "You would do that?" She did her best to sound surprised and in awe of Lucy's kindness. Maybe she should consider a career in acting instead. "Oh, god, thank you so much," she stressed. "You're a life-saver, really, you have no idea—" She broke off, shook her head, then smiled again. "Thank you, really. You're sure?" She always hesitated to ask for confirmation in case the other person changed their mind but she figured it would make it seem much more genuine.
Then Lucy went above and beyond by offering her homework, too, and Rowena had the feeling that she would now be able to sail through the test, shock her teachers, and pass the class once and for all. It was a flawless plan, right? Trick the intelligent kid who actually did everything the right way into helping her do everything the wrong way? Flawless. She had absolutely no idea that she was potentially making things worse for herself. "Really, you could? That would be amazing." And I'll barely have to study at all! She'd need to read over things a couple of times to remember some of the answers but it was better than having to try and actually do the problems and figure shit out on her own. No way would she be able to do that, nor was she willing to try. Rowena was lazy, at least academically. School held nothing that she wanted. She didn't want to go to college, either. This was only a stepping stone for her, a stone that was going to sink if she didn't step her game up soon. So this was her idea of stepping the game up.
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Post by lucy on Oct 21, 2012 16:43:46 GMT -5
Oh, what a contradiction... Lucy's fears made her want to run away from Rowena, but the Thunder's kindhearted personality made her want to stay and talk. She wasn't sure what to do and felt rather confused. She was lucky, she supposed, that the Thunder she'd come across was as nice as Ro was, but still, it made her a little bit nervous, which was probably extremely obvious. Seeing as it was obvious, that made Lucy feel bad because she was convinced that being scared of Ro probably hurt Ro's feelings, which made the young Wind feel even more confused and befuddled. What to do... she supposed she'd just wait it out and see what the Thunder did; at least if the other walked away first, Lucy wouldn't have to worry about being rude or hurtful by doing so herself.
The Thunder seemed so very happy to receive Lucy's help, but all it did was make Lucy feel worse when she saw the continuous and ever growing smile on Ro's face. After all, she wasn't even sure her answers were right, or even near being right... what if Rowena failed the test because of her? She'd feel absolutely awful if that happened. Lucy had a conscience after all, even if she was relatively uninterested in most things that had to do with others' emotions. If she were to cause them, well, that would be different, and she'd have to take responsibility. A slight frown crossed her face as she thought of this, and she hoped that Ro would be smart enough to get out of the notes and homework what she needed, and would leave all the incorrect stuff behind. After all, if she'd had notes before, she had to be pretty smart academically right? Right... she would have to be. Lucy refrained from sighing and tried to remove the frown from her face, looking up a bit nervously at Ro as she spoke.
"Y-you're welcome, it's really n-no problem at all." she still found herself stuttering, and hoped yet again that Ro either wouldn't notice or at least wouldn't be hurt or offended by it. "I, er, I hope they help you. I m-mean...." she gave a small sigh, realizing the pointlessness of trying to talk. Oh well. She handed the stack of papers to Ro with finality to make sure she knew it was all right, and realized she probably wouldn't need them back, anyway. After all, she knew she'd fail this test one way or another, so not having the incorrect papers wouldn't make that much of a difference. Perhaps it would help her to not have them... oh, dear, but then that left Rowena with all the incorrect information, or what Lucy assumed was incorrect. Hopefully she'd be proven wrong on that point and both of them would do fine. "I, er, I hope they help you." she said truthfully, quietly. She really did.
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Post by ROWENA AUDREY BENNETT on Oct 22, 2012 6:26:58 GMT -5
The Wind elemental sure was rather quiet, a fact that suited Ro just fine. See, she was a Thunder elemental, and they weren't exactly known for being the most talkative and outgoing students at the Academy. The Thunder knew from experience among her own kind that not every one of them was an absolute anti-social recluse but she also knew that the 'quiet' stereotype was accurate more often than not. So not having to babble like a brook helped her a little in keeping up the act. She found herself grateful for the fact that her unknowing victim had not been a Water, for then it would have been near-impossible to extract the notes from her. Not only did Waters have a biased and negative view against her kind but they talked up a storm. They gave her a headache. They also reminded her of her late sister, Syria, and the less she was reminded of her dead triplet the better. Lucy was a comfort zone. Lucy was the unfortunate victim of circumstance.
Of course, Rowena's manipulation was not out of hatred. She wasn't trying to con the Wind out of her notes because she had some sort of a grudge against her. No, this was the Thunder leader displaying exactly how selfish she was capable of being. The fact that she'd be taking the other girl's notes meant that Lucy would be left without them, likely for good. That meant that she'd no longer have anything to study for the test and that, by the simple act of trying to put herself ahead, Rowena was probably throwing someone else under the bus. Did she care? No. All she wanted was to make sure that number one was taken care of. To Rowena, she and Altair were practically all that mattered. She had very few friends and of them even less that she would do anything for. She wasn't sadistic so much as she was self-absorbed. Lucy hadn't done anything to offend her and yet the Thunder was perfectly happy to sacrifice her chances at doing well on the test.
If only she knew how much of a bitch karma could be.
She noticed the stuttering (it was hard not to) but the fact that the Wind elemental was complying with everything she wanted meant that Rowena could easily overlook it. Why would she be bothered by a speech impediment brought on by nerves when the very thing she wanted had been slid across the table to her? She smiled at the exchange and wondered what Lucy had been planning to say. You mean what? She didn't ask this aloud, just waited with a half-curious and half-blank expression on her face. She didn't know what she was waiting for. In the end, the other girl reiterated what she'd said originally. Rowena could have come up with a couple barbed comments based on this but she decided that it would be best to keep up the façade. Until the test was over and she was sitting with a passing grade, there was still a chance to mess things up. So she smiled instead. "Oh, I'm sure it will! Thanks again." Your gullibility is much appreciated. And with that cruel thought, she swore she could taste victory already.
[Is this thread done, then? Of course, feel free to hit me with a PM if you'd like to arrange another! <3]
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