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Post by CAMDYN ELLA NOLAN on Apr 20, 2013 0:54:26 GMT -5
Who was she supposed to be meeting again? Camdyn bit her lip wondering to herself as she made her way to the library. The other day in class her professor had pulled her aside worried about her grades. This was nothing new to the girl, who had only passed high school due to countless tutors. Honestly she had been expecting it; school was never her strong suit. It was too stuffy and boring and she could never focus long enough to actually understand things. Her mind wandered far too easily, drifting from thing to thing like the wind she was so connected with. The only time she was ever able to concentrate was when she was learning a new dance or a new form. She wished she could just quit school and do something fun with her life, but her fathers both made her promise to finish college first.
College, it seemed like the bane of her existence. The school work was difficult, much more difficult than she ever would have thought, and she wasn’t interested in any of it. She knew her professors probably hated her for drifting off so much but she couldn’t help it. Their voices always seemed to lull her to sleep. At least this new tutor would help whoever it was. She wasn’t really paying attention when the professor had gone on about the details. He had only mentioned that the person was slightly older and one of the best students in his class. Then he handed her a slip of paper and sent her on her way. She was sure she probably knew the person, she had at least heard of most people on campus, but she just wished she could remember the name. It was in the back of her head somewhere, barely registered, but she couldn’t get to it.
Sighing she pushed the door to the library open, glaring at the books around her. She hated it in here and would have much rather studied outside, but she hadn’t picked the place to meet. She had arrived a few minutes early hoping that her tutor would find her since she could not remember who it was supposed to be for the life of her. While she waited she put her headphones on and turned on music knowing the studying would only stress her out once they began. She pulled out her notebook, despite the fact that it was not filled with any kind of notes at all. Instead it was filled with little doodles she drew during class to keep herself occupied. She really did try to take notes, but they always ended up making pictures instead.
She looked at her watch and noticed that her tutor would be there at any moment. She frowned trying to remember the name. Mitchell? Morgan? Max? She knew it began with a M, but she couldn’t remember the last bit of it. “I should really start paying more attention when people talk to me.” She said unhappily.
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Post by MICHAEL CONNER BARTON on Apr 20, 2013 12:07:32 GMT -5
 --- i'll be there when you close your eyes ,. [/color][/size][/font] ( HOLD YOU TIGHT, SAY GOODNIGHT )[/center]
Michael stood out by the library door and fished out the lighter from his left pocket, watching silently as the flames curled around the end of the cigarette and molded it into ash. He took the opportunity to draw on it, letting the smoke coil in his throat until it settled deep in his lungs, the end result almost immediate. He had broken his promise to Brandon to quit completely, but he was down from his usual intake.
The man didn't normally smoke, not as much as most people would assume after a year of trying it out. But, like them, Mike thought it was a nasty habit before he was pulled through that shit everyone calls peer pressure, the only difference being Mike wasn't pressured the first time. The Thunder was offered a smoke, so he took it. There was no regard to the sickening taste of nicotine or the burning sensation carrying away your ability to breathe. It was all a need to satisfy his inner curiosity. Calm his nerves. Flicking the cigarette in between his fingers, Mike reached in towards his bag to snag a piece of gum.
Mike walked into the building and searched for whom he assumed he would be tutoring. A younger girl by the name of Camdyn Nolan who his Professor said was in need of some academic direction. Every step formed a new aisle of books from his line of vision, and suddenly he was hit with a gut feeling in the pit of his stomach. He had no idea who he was really looking for. Scanning the tables, he found one girl sitting off by herself, though she was wearing headphones and currently engrossed in her own notebook. Maybe she was just here to study on her own? Realizing that all the other tables that were occupied had more than one person at them, Michael made his way over towards the lonely girl.
Reaching towards the table, he knocked twice on the wood to get her attention and shifted all of his weight to his left foot, tapping his right one against the carpeted floor as a means to get rid of the anxiety. He wasn’t sure entirely sure why he was so edgy all of a sudden, but he was and the whole idea of it came crashing down on him in one swift motion. He was hoping to feel better once he was sure this was indeed Camdyn. ”Camdyn Nolan?” he asked once the headphones were off. ”My name’s Michael Barton. Professor Akiyama asked me to come meet with you for some tutoring.” He held his hand out towards the girl, noticing the page covered in doodles. Either Michael was late, or Camdyn was a bit of a daydreamer.
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Post by CAMDYN ELLA NOLAN on Apr 22, 2013 15:42:32 GMT -5
Camdyn had been so caught up in her music and trying to remember the professor’s words that she had not even noticed the man approach. When he knocked on the wooden table in front of her she jumped a little and hastily pulled her headphones off. She tilted her head to the side a little as she took his appearance in. He seemed familiar although she still couldn’t remember his name. She had definitely seen him around before, but had never really talked to him before. He was a few years older and she had always been too wrapped up with her friends
to actually talk to him.
“Michael! I knew it started with an M!” She burst out right after he introduced himself. “Sorry, that was weird. I wasn’t really paying attention when Professor Akiyama told me who I was meeting. I’ve been trying to think of it this whole time but I could only remember it started with an M.” She rambled looking a little sheepish. Then she realized his had his hand out and so she quickly put her own hand out. After their brief handshake she wrapped up her headphones to put them back into her bag. Then she turned her attention back to the Thunder and smiled widely.
“So I don’t know how much the Professor has told you but I kind of, sort of, haven’t paid attention in class at all. I literally have no idea what is going. Every time I try to focus on what he is saying my mind just wanders. But it’s not like I’m expecting an A or anything. I just want to pass the class.” She explained fiddling with the bracelets on her arm. “Honestly I barely even know what this class is about or why I have to take it in college.” She knew he probably thought she was dumb, everyone did. In a way she knew they right too.
She took the time before they actually started studying to observe her new tutor. He seemed nice so far, at the very least nice to look at. He was definitely not what she had expected. Her past tutors had all been borderline snobby and acted like she was an inconvenience and so she was hoping he would be a little different from them. Then there were the tutors that had been hired for her during the summer. Those ones had all been old and had treated her like a child. But she forced herself to stop thinking about irrelevant things and instead to focus on what was happening now. She hoped she hadn’t zoned out too long. She couldn’t afford to daydream in class and then when someone was attempting to tutor her.
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Post by MICHAEL CONNER BARTON on Apr 22, 2013 23:46:22 GMT -5
--- i'll be there when you close your eyes ,. [/color][/size][/font] ( HOLD YOU TIGHT, SAY GOODNIGHT )[/center]
Michael’s eyes widen in shock at Camdyn’s obvious and slightly exaggerated realization. Though her lengthy explanation quickly covered for her and Michael could only smile back at her politely. ”Yes, ‘M’ as in Michael. I’m glad you already have the alphabet covered. I would have been a bit concerned otherwise,” he said lightly. As she took his hand he gave her a gentle shake before seating himself in the chair next to hers. ”Joking aside I hope I can be of some service to you.” Settling his bag near his feet, Michael reached down to pull out a well used notebook, his trusty pen, and a standard textbook he had picked up on his own.
”The Professor has more or less filled me on her concerns with your…attention,” his eyes drifted down to her notebook as he spoke before meeting her own gaze. ”,but with some time maybe we can find a way to lock it down without you dazing off too much.” Teaching was all about getting creative with students these days, or at least that was what his Education Professor tried to stress. The teacher needed to find a way to focus on the individual needs of a student and cater to them as much as they could with teaching styles, without creating favoritism.
”Do you think it’s boredom that causes you to not pay attention?” Michael’s intention wasn’t to make Camdyn feel uncomfortable or suggest that it was completely her fault her grades may have been slipping. Things happen outside of the teacher’s knowledge that could cause others to slip away. House home issues, learning disabilities, hell some kids just didn’t enjoy certain subjects and shut down. Michael had always had a hard time getting motivated when it came to anything dealing with science. ”What I mean to say is, what do you find yourself wanting to do instead of taking notes?”
Michael was surprised to hear that she wasn’t aware of how important the class was. ”Elemental Studies is a big part of who we are here at the Academy.” Maybe he was too close to the subject considering it was his favorite, and the subject he wanted to teach in the future. ”Knowing the full extent of our powers just helps us be more responsible with it. The more we know about it, the more we can rely on our gifts without the fear of losing control” Of course control was mainly dealt with during the High School years, The Thunder was just so caught up in all that could be done that he often advocated for the class. ”What is your element by the way? I’m a Thunder,” Michael offered up as a peace treaty. ”As an aspiring educator I promise I won’t judge no matter what your response is.” Truthfully he wanted his future classroom to be run like that. ”Even if you are an Earth,” he teased.
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Post by CAMDYN ELLA NOLAN on Apr 28, 2013 1:43:43 GMT -5
Camdyn let out a laugh at his response and realized how stupid her response really was. He probably was wondering how she even passed high school or something. “Oh you’ll definitely be of service to me…” She mumbled looking down at her hands. This was definitely not her best subject; in fact she was dangerously close to failing. She couldn’t afford to fail because then her parents would refuse to pay for her film and cameras. And there was no way she was getting a job to pay for all that.
She caught the end of his sentence and snapped back to attention thinking he had caught her dazing off again. But if he could fix her dazing off problem he would be a miracle worker. He would accomplish the impossible, or nearly impossible. No amount of exercises and different approaches could fix it and honestly Camdyn didn’t really care. “It’s probably boredom. I don’t really know. It just kind of happens.” She knew a lot of time people had problems with dazing off to escape reality because of bad situations. But she had a great life so it never had really been that. She had been bullied for a few years when she was younger, which was the reason the therapist gave for her problem, but Camdyn didn’t really believe that answer. It seemed like such an insignificant part of her life to really affect her so greatly.
“Well I’m a photographer and I would actually rather being be doing that then be in college. But I’m being forced to get a degree before I do all that. So I usually just catch a glimpse of something that would make a great picture and I start thinking about that. But then before I know it my train of thought is completely gone and I’m not even thinking about pictures.” She tried to explain as she fiddled with the pencil that was in front of her. “Does that even make sense?”
As Michael ranted on about Elemental Studies, Camdyn struggled to keep focused on what he was saying. His explanation made a little bit of sense but she still didn’t know why they had to continue on with it in college. He seemed really passionate about it though; why he was she had no idea. But she was relieved he was a Thunder. She didn’t really like the Fires, they could be pretty mean and she tried to avoid them as much as possible. “I’m a Wind.” She said shrugging a little. “I kind of like being neutral. I feel like people can’t judge me as much. Even though they probably do.”
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Post by MICHAEL CONNER BARTON on Apr 28, 2013 16:30:50 GMT -5
--- i'll be there when you close your eyes ,. [/color][/size][/font] ( HOLD YOU TIGHT, SAY GOODNIGHT )[/center]
”Well boredom can get the best of us.” Michael could give her that. Things that bored the hell out of Michael were unintelligent people. Now intelligent came in all sorts of shades and shapes, but it was the people who had not a single opinion on anything. It peeved him to no end when a conversation was completely one sided because a person couldn’t put in anything. That was when Michael tuned out from boredom. ”We’ll have to find a way to spice this up.” Easier said than done.
The first time Michael had ever tried to tutor someone had been a train wreck. Over zealous parents had seen his ad in the newspaper and quickly scheduled a meeting for their son. What they had failed to mention was that they were home schooling their young boy and his grasp of mathematics was far out of even Michael’s range. After being led to their son's bedroom, the Thunder sat down on the edge of the bed as the boy pulled out his schoolbook. Mike stared dumbly at the huge monstrosity of a textbook for a moment, fortunately unnoticed as the boy grabbed the binder with his assignments in it. Somehow the parents thought bringing in a college level boy from the Academy would be a means to challenge their prodigy son and in the end just resulted in a very confused Michael.
Now it was Michael’s turn to try and understand what Camdyn was so passionate. He got the whole thought about not wanting to get a degree from her standpoint, he really did, but unless it was geared towards teaching Michael wasn’t a very creative person. The Thunder was rational and geared towards using the right side of his brain in most cases while Camdyn and all other artists probably took comfort in using the left side of their brain. ”Photography huh. What is it about photography that you like?” Some of Camdyn’s rambling seemed to be rubbing off on the Thunder, but the trick was trying to find something about art or photography that may have captured the Wind’s attention and trying to mold it towards her studies. Even if it meant that Camdyn could at least pass her class. Michael was here to tutor, not work miracles as his Professor warned. He was slightly upset the Professor was so jaded and wished to prove her wrong. ”I’ve always liked most Winds. Must be nice having the option to get along with anyone you want to without having your friends breathing down your back.” Michael was a firm believer in sticking with his own group, but not because of any treaty. He just found Earth and Water students to be annoying. Element had nothing to do with it.
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