Pit Stop (Caterina)

[YUKI ROZU AKIYAMA]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,10,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true] ★ I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE WHEN YOU WALKED IN ★ [atrb=style,width: 415px; background-image:URL('http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/s445/welshling/nebula_rcw49_04lrg.jpg'); border: dotted 6px #A17FA3; true;] ✯ Rin ✯ Slipping into the restroom, Yuki went to check her makeup in the softly lit mirrors that graced the restrooms of her floor. Leaning in she dug around in her purse and grabbed up her eye shadow, carefully applying it on the lid so that it wasn't garish. She had a long day today and didn't want her makeup fading away by the time she went home for the evening. Her suit was conservative but was a nice royal purple that brought out her skin tone and highlighted her hair which was down in a neat wave on her back. Satisfied with her eyes she dug around for her blush a moment. This situation with her grandmother was causing her to fret and she was determined to put her best foot forward. Finding the blush she applied it just as carefully. The sweep of the horsehair bristles on her cheeks causing her to grin slightly. Putting her blush away she dug around in her purse and made a point of brushing out her mane of hair. The drawback of having long hair was that it got tangled if you looked at it funny. She thought about it and carefully began twisting her hair up, digging about and pulling out a set of decorative sticks to keep it in place. They were subdued and black so they could go for any occasion thank goodness. ★ TROUBLE TROUBLE TROUBLE ★ template by rach

[CATERINA MELODY RAVENHILL]

She didn't envy the professors their jobs. If she could hardly stand forty five minutes with the same group of students, how could those that taught college stand a couple of hours with them? Then again, a lot of her coworkers taught because they had a passion for teaching as opposed to a desperation for money, employment. She sighed. It had been one hell of a long day.

Her day went from bad to slightly worse when she found the single-toilet ladies room in the staff lounge to be occupied. Having had too much coffee and feeling far too impatient to wait her turn, Rin left the lounge and headed for the larger bathroom accessible to both students and staff on that floor. She tried to avoid using it when possible, having a general dislike for such communal areas, but when in need she felt she didn't have much of a choice.

There was another female in the bathroom, one whom she first chose to ignore. It was not until she was slowly washing her hands at the sink, relishing the feel of scalding water against her cold hands, that she realised this woman was another teacher and not the college student she'd first mistaken her for. Or is she a professor? Deciding she didn't care, Rin didn't think any more on the subject.

"Were you locked out, too?" Her expression was one of irritation, distaste. "People need to stop treating the place like it's their own damn bathroom. Either that or they need to invest in more than one room." There was both a male and a female washroom but that was as far as the expansion went. Rin was a tad hypocritical in this aspect, as she didn't exactly rush herself when using the staff bathroom, but she never cared much for being kind. Pulling off her heels so that she was now barefoot, she scowled and sat them on the counter before continuing to wash her hands. "I feel like my feet were suffocating in a slow hell."

[Took a minor liberty for conversation's sake, hope you don't mind? ^^]

[YUKI ROZU AKIYAMA]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,10,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true] ★ YOUR PATHS UNBEATEN AND ITS ALL UPHILL ★ [atrb=style,width: 415px; background-image:URL('http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/s445/welshling/nebula_rcw49_04lrg.jpg'); border: dotted 6px #A17FA3; true;] ✯ RIN ✯ “One of the teachers who is pregnant has her baby doing a clog dance on her bladder today.” she said as she put away her makeup and looked at the stunning red head. Her dark brown gaze was thoughtful, "My name's Yuki. I think I've seen you around the staff room a few times. What do you teach? she asked in curiosity. Yuki was always curious what other folks did. It helped her to see the bigger picture and let her know if one of her students suddenly got swamped with work. The school was a bit of give and take and it helped to know when field trips and performances were happening. She tried to give plenty of notice for when element tests were going to happen so that the other professors didn't load down the kids with extra assignments. Hard to study for a pop quiz if you have a test that causes you to be so tired afterwards you sleep like a rock. She looked at the shoes that Rin left on the counter, "Heels are the bane of any woman's existence." she pronounced as she looked at the tired woman, "I do know a good salon for pedi's and mani's. A lot of us go there on Fridays after classes let out. Would you like to come? Its student free. she assured her as she washed her own hands and dried them carefully. She hated anything under her nails it drove her nuts. Stretching lightly she regarded the other woman with that tired aire that all professors get in the mid afternoon. The one that says I've got three more hours to go and my brain is tired. Being twenty six meant she had more energy than the older professors but the inspiration was often hard to come by in the doldrums of the day, “Might be good to know you're not the only one out there. And sometimes it helps us figure out sticking points with students.” It wasn't always a kumbaya fest but it made for a good late Friday afternoon that didn't add to the waistline. She knew some professors used it as an excuse to go dancing or on date night with their spouses. [Taking some liberties here too. Figured it might open some more staff dialogue. Sorry for the delay my computer kept eating my posts. ] ★ AND YOU CAN MEET IT BUT YOU NEVER WILL ★ template by rach

[CATERINA MELODY RAVENHILL]

Rin made a face at the idea. She didn't like kids as is—they were messy and whiny and overall annoying—but the pregnancy seemed like even more of a reason to avoid having them. Back pains, morning sickness, kicks to your stomach. Then the pregnancy itself, oh, don't get her started on how unpleasant that sounded. She was going to make a comment on this before something else came to mind that she deemed a more important question. "Wait, how the heck do you know that? Did you stand at the door playing twenty questions while she was on the toilet?" She snorted softly. A bit of an exaggeration for a question that was nevertheless serious.

The scalding water from the sink was already starting to turn her skin red as the other woman introduced herself. Isn't that bad for your skin or something? She thought she'd heard something about it but didn't care enough to cool it down. "Rin," she replied. "I'm locked up with the drama geeks and gay kids all day, fun stuff. High schoolers, mind—I'm a teacher." When she wasn't in the classroom, Rin completely lacked a filter. She wasn't very polite and she certainly didn't save anyone her opinions. It turned a lot of people off her. "What about you? Don't recognise the name." Yuki. Didn't ring a bell so it wasn't someone she'd heard gossip about. Shame, she quite liked gossip.

Though she was surprisingly friendly for a woman that hated so many things about people, Rin was not used to the other staff extending acts of friendship toward her. Tom had taken her out to a bar where she'd kicked his ass at video games but they were already friends beforehand. That doesn't sound half bad. She liked the idea of a student-free zone where she could relax but something stopped her from agreeing right away. "How much do they charge for that stuff? I might tag along if I've got the time." More like the cash. She'd mentioned the time to diffuse her real reason for a possible decline. She wasn't sunk into the depths of poverty but paying for the nuthouse to keep her father took an extra chunk out of her paycheck every month.

[YUKI ROZU AKIYAMA]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,10,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true] ★ I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE WHEN YOU WALKED IN ★ [atrb=style,width: 415px; background-image:URL('http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/s445/welshling/nebula_rcw49_04lrg.jpg'); border: dotted 6px #A17FA3; true;] ✯ RIN ✯ “She's a friend of mine.” she answered the question easily enough, the woman was coming off a bit brash but she'd dealt with that before. She put up with Hiro's snide commentary for years. Besides it wasn't like she was getting personal. It reminded her of how Hiro thought of her and she wondered if that was just his personal opinion or if she really was that stand offish. Taking a breath Yuki figured in for a penny in for a pound, worst case “I teach elemental education. I'm the one that tries to convince the students to look beyond the obvious. Don't always succeed but I try.” she shrugged her shoulders and straightened her jacket a touch as she chatted with Rin, “We get a teacher/professor discount. Its about twenty dollars for the manicure and pedicure combined.” she said as she brushed a hair out of her eyes. “Its something to think about.” she said casually as she looked inside her purse to make sure her cell phone hadn't gotten lost in the black pit that her purse could become at the end of a school day. Digging through it she tossed out old ink pens and markers as well as a few odd post it notes. ★ TROUBLE TROUBLE TROUBLE ★ template by rach

[CATERINA MELODY RAVENHILL]

So quick was she to jump to conclusions that Rin had not thought of the most obvious one. A nicer person might have apologised for her rudeness but the red-haired woman did no such thing, merely screwing up her expression with thought. "Eh, I guess that makes sense." Ugh, pregnancy. Rin didn't understand why anyone would want to go through all the fuss only to produce a screaming, demanding pink thing. You had to clean up after it, love it, raise it. Not her thing. The woman couldn't even handle a pet, let alone a tiny human being.

Her eyes narrowed as she considered the response that Yuki had given her in kind. "And what do you mean by 'look behind the obvious', exactly?" The question almost seemed ironic but she was dead serious. She'd always considered herself adept with her powers and so she was smug in her confidence that this woman didn't know any more than she did. Rin was too cocky for her own good at times. "Eh, they have incredibly thick skulls. Sometimes I wonder if a hammer and chisel would be more effective for drilling a point into them." Was it wrong to talk like this about her students? She didn't give that much thought. "At least you don't have to deal with a bunch of freeloaders. Half the idiots that take my class do it because they think theatre's gonna be easy. Not everyone can act." Not well, at any rate, and she was no kind-hearted or forgiving teacher. No, she expected her students to work for their grades. Earn them.

Twenty dollars didn't seem like much for how interesting the day sounded and so she shrugged. "Sure, I could go for that. So do you all meet up somewhere beforehand or do you just meet at the place?" Realising something else, she added, "Where is it, anyway? Downtown or in one of the nicer parts?" Rin lived downtown and while it was certainly convenient to be close to the central hub of the city, the apartment was of poor quality and not well tended to. She swore her landlord didn't care if the roof fell in so long as she paid her rent on time. She wanted to look for a nicer place to live but it was hard when she didn't have the greatest spending habits.

[YUKI ROZU AKIYAMA]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,10,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true] ★ I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE WHEN YOU WALKED IN ★ [atrb=style,width: 415px; background-image:URL('http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/s445/welshling/nebula_rcw49_04lrg.jpg'); border: dotted 6px #A17FA3; true;] ✯ Cat ✯ “Everyone has more to them than the surface impression they show the world. Its the same thing with teaching the students. You have to let them unlock their hidden potential or they never fully know how to control their power.” she obviously wasn't a fan of her students. Yuki did not want to make assumptions based on the statements she had just said but it was hard not to. She always thought folk got over the spoilt brat stage of high school but clearly not. This girl had a raging case of the "Its all about me." thing going. It may not have been the best idea to invite her along but maybe the ladies could talk some sense into her, “Why did you become a teacher if you hate your students so much?” she asked a bit bluntly. If this woman could go around making rude statements then she could handle a few tossed her way. It would show Yuki if she really was a spoilt princess or just honest. She thought about how she kept running into people that were just rude by most standards. She really needed better options if this was what life was giving her. Ahh well, she'd do her best to make it all work. “Its just a few blocks from the school." she got out a piece of paper and jotted the address down, "Can't miss it. Its by Tommy Hortons." she said as she passed the paper to Cat. ★ TROUBLE TROUBLE TROUBLE ★ template by rach

[CATERINA MELODY RAVENHILL]

Rolling her eyes, it was clear Rin was unimpressed. "Please, you sound like my aunt. 'You can do anything if you put your mind to it!' My mind sure as hell wasn't here, I'll tell you that." Perhaps she should have established a bit more of a professional boundary with her coworker, especially since they were not well-acquainted, but Rin had a habit of running her mouth. She was brutally up-front about her feelings and thought sugar-coating was for sissies. Coated in a little less venom were her next words, "There's a difference between a shy kid with a gift and a slacker who takes a class because 'his friends are in it'." Throwing up her hands, she made her opinion on the high school population clear.

Ah, the million dollar question. She got that one a lot, not that it would come as a shock to most. She was the last person most would have pegged as teacher material in college. "I never used the word hate." Her attitude made it clear enough but she'd never explicitly stated that she despised her students. Most people didn't need to hear anything after she spoke of drilling holes in their thick skulls, to be honest. "They needed an acting teacher. I can act." She shrugged. "Not like I'm gonna pretend I'm in this to... unlock their hidden potential, or whatever." She didn't like kids. She didn't plan on having kids. She wasn't good with kids. Hell, it could be argued that she wasn't really good with anyone. Rin cared about number one before she even considered anyone else. "I like some of my kids. Some." The ones who put forth a genuine effort and didn't go out of their way to get on her nerves, mostly.

Squinting as she mapped out the street in question in her head, she nodded as she accepted the paper. "Ah, yeah, I know the place. Never been inside, though. Good ol' Tim Hortons." She was sure she had plenty of fellow Canadians backing her when she said she couldn't go a day without her coffee. It kept her going during the bleary-eyed morning hours at work.

[YUKI ROZU AKIYAMA]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,10,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true] ★ I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE WHEN YOU WALKED IN ★ [atrb=style,width: 415px; background-image:URL('http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/s445/welshling/nebula_rcw49_04lrg.jpg'); border: dotted 6px #A17FA3; true;] ✯ RIN ✯ “Well I do try to make a difference. I can see that the cheerleading option isn't something you endorse” She smirked softly and stretched lightly. After dealing with Hiro Rin was small potatoes. Yuki had a bit of a thicker skin and she wasn't near as close to Rin to get too bent over what was said. Raising an eyebrow she glanced at the girl, "If it doesn't matter why are you getting aggrivated by it? Sheeple exist everywhere you just let them graze and focus on the ones that have talent. Easy enough to do if you try." for someone who didn't like what she did she was sure getting bent over the quality of students so it meant that at least something mattered. "Well that makes going to class bearable." she said with a slight chuckle. She put her purse over her shoulder and she glanced back in the mirror. She wasn't here to make Rin like her students she was just puzzled by the strong reaction she had gotten. “I think I would die without my coffee in the morning.” She laughed as she nodded and glanced at the clock in the room, "I've got to head to class but if you feel like coffee I'll be heading to Tom Horton's today to grade papers." she said simply as a friendly offer, "[colorff99cc]And I'll see you on Friday for the nail salon.

[/color]" she said simply as she looked over at her and prepared to head out.

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★ NOW YOU PUT ME DOWN ★
template by rach

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[CATERINA MELODY RAVENHILL]

Caterina cocked a red brow at her colleague in response to the smirk. Though it was nothing serious enough to offend her, she and Yuki seemed to have drastically different views and opinions. Fuck differences, she thought to herself. Rin was of the mindset that no one individual could change the world no matter how hard they tried, so she simply refused to put forth the effort. There was no way that she’d change the minds of a group of teenagers over the course of a school year—this wasn’t some Disney movie with an inspiring ending. Some would call her cynical, Rin preferred the term realistic.

One hand resting against her hip as she leaned against the bathroom counter, she refused to be tripped up by the question. “Because they’re wasting my time.” True, she was paid to teach and thus should probably do a little less complaining about the students she ended up with but a Rin without complaints was like PB&J without the filling. It wasn’t right. “I do focus my time on the good kids—hell, I couldn’t care less about the ones that don’t try in my class. If they fail, it’s their fault. Doesn’t mean I appreciate the waste of space.” Desks that could be filled with willing students or, better yet, empty. She wouldn’t mind her job so much if she only had to deal with a single class, a small group. There would be less headaches to juggle that way.

Yuki still seemed fairly sociable as the conversation drew to a close. Was it because she was trying to avoid confrontation or was she truly not bothered by the redhead’s attitude? Rin couldn’t tell, not in such a short span of time. She liked trying to read people but she wasn’t always successful. It wasn’t as simple as crime dramas made it look. Deciding to take her up on the offer on the off chance that she might be one of those rare few that would put up with the fiery teacher, Rin nodded. “Sure. The one closest, yeah?” It was smaller than some locations but it saved the trouble of driving further and wasting gas. Coffee was coffee, no matter what Timmies you got it from. “Yeah, I’ll be there.” Hopefully the other girls were all right. She wasn’t known for being able to hold her tongue. As Yuki headed for the exit, Rin paused to fiddle with her bag before following, heading in a different direction once she cleared the door.

[YUKI ROZU AKIYAMA]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,10,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true] ★ I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE WHEN YOU WALKED IN ★ [atrb=style,width: 415px; background-image:URL('http://i1052.photobucket.com/albums/s445/welshling/nebula_rcw49_04lrg.jpg'); border: dotted 6px #A17FA3; true;] ✯ RIN ✯ “Ahhh so the truth comes out.” Yuki said with a happy smile. "I guess I can see that. It always helps when students want to be there." she admits as she collected her things up. She had a few more hours to go before Tim Hortons and a part of her groaned at the thought. She was feeling the strain of everything at the moment but would push through as best she could. It was the best she could do considering everything going on at the moment. Just take things one step at a time and let life sort itself out. "Yes, that's the one. she nodded in agreement as she looked at the other professor and waved, "Back to the grind we go." she admitted as she glanced at her watch and grimaced. She'd take some time off for herself today instead of worrying. There was no reason not to. ★ NOW YOU PUT ME DOWN ★ template by rach