IT'S THE SUMMER SIDE ! [christina]

[nala]

It's a little weird to say it, especially after years and years of having the mere mention of the word cause panic attacks and caffeine addiction, but Nala was pretty glad that it was around finals time. Fact of the matter is, the grass was certainly greener on this side of the fence -- the side giving all the exams, rather than the side taking them all. Of course, there was the hassle of actually grading all the exams, and the effort went double if she had decided on a final paper rather than a sit-down exam, but frankly speaking, she always kept written exams multiple choice and matching to speed up the process, and as for papers, well -- she was the authority, and it didn't take even half of her neurological synapses to notify her when one of her students was bullshitting some fact, or plagiarizing altogether. Besides, she already had an entire list of facts typed up to help her in her grading. She was always a little over-prepared, but it just meant that she could actually be where she was now, the weekend before finals began, and actually be able to not give a fuck and actually, sincerely, not give a fuck.

The club probably wasn't the best place to try and have a dignified conversation with her colleague but no where else felt right, considering Christina and Nala had this drunken escaped planned for weeks. Christina had been a staple in what kept her sane around the Academy, if only because no matter what happened, Nala could compare herself to her fellow teacher and be glad that she wasn't as crazy. That isn't to say that she didn't like Christina -- far from it! Christina, though she was young, ended up being one of her favorite people that she worked with -- the girl had sass and spunk and a fierce attitude that, well, kind of reminded Nala of herself. Just...ten times more crazy and lethal. The moment they planned on Corrosion, though, any chance for dignified conversation was out the window as the club proved to be packed, though that didn't surprise Nala at all -- it was a Saturday night. It wasn't even all that late yet but the bar where Christina and Nala were seated was filled, a couple of their peers amongst the crowd, others just squeezing in to get a hurried beer or two. As Nala downed the remainder of her drink, she signalled for the bartender to keep them coming. He shot her a wary look -- probably because she was feeling a little wobbly on the stool even though the stool was bolted in place -- but she did her best to glare at him. He got the hint then.

"Thank you!"

Nala called after him, not quite sure if she actually meant it or if she was just belligerent that it took him so damn long to do his job. "Jesus, it's not like I'm just drinking for free here. If I wanted to be, I would be already,"

[/color] Nala muttered, then turned in her seat a little to face Christina, who seemed to be faring...about the same as she was. She paused for a moment trying to remember what the next thing they wanted to complain about was. "Girl, can you even believe that bullshit new rule? No heels higher than two inches? No skirts above the knee?!"[/color] She leaned her arm against the bar, using it to keep her upright, somewhat, her face a little grim. "It's not our fault that Latin language hussy couldn't keep her damn skirt on."[/color] But for serious, this whole new dress code was annoying, considering Nala would have to adjust almost all of her wardrobe to abide by it. Or at least have to buy like, five new pairs of shoes. ...wait, that didn't sound too bad after all...[/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[christina]

Christina was a pretty loud and... okay, kind of obnoxious person in general. This was just something that she dealt with... and that other people dealt with, obviously, because other people tended to have way bigger problems with her attitude than Chris herself did. Some people were more equipped to put up with it than others, at least, and so this was how she wound up at the seediest club in all of Maple Hollow (and quite possibly the world -- no, not really) with her co-worker. Nala was a couple of years her senior, had been teaching for a couple of years before that too while Chris had been slogging through her last few years of college, and was... kind of one boss of a lady, if Chris could say so. Admittedly Nala would probably be a little bit more awesome if she went around slightly more willing to punch people in the face and what-not, but no no, Chris was well aware that most people did not share this opinion of what made people awesome. Well, those people would be lame, but either way, she thought Nala was pretty fucking great to hang around, so she was pretty on board with the entire operation.

Plus, Nala was more than capable of putting up with all the goddamn attitude Chris knew she had, so that was the way it went. On the other hand, sober Chris and Chris after she'd had a few were two different people, apparently, though probably equally raucous. The biggest difference was that sober Chris often did know when she crossed lines -- she just usually went through with it anyway. At this stage in the game, though, her thought process was probably worse than usual. "Asshole," she said in a tone that she thought was under her breath as the bartender walked away. It probably didn't actually come out as quietly as she thought it did, but then again, this was fucking Corrosion. The place was packed anyway. "And how would you do that, make out with sleazy over there?" She gestured not so subtly at some dude over in the corner with some sleazy as fuck facial hair, trying to convince a blonde to take a cab home with him. For him to pay for her drinks, she'd probably consider it if the dude had bothered to fucking shave. Chris made questionable decisions drunk or sober, though.

"But instead you get to drink away an entire semester of pay! Fuck this shit, they don't pay us enough." The teaching was usually fine (usually...) but things like this new dress code were so not on. Damn, it wasn't like they were some teenagers who couldn't take care of themselves and fucking deal, she thought this whole dress code business was just stupid. "Great, we get to wear grandma skirts." Chris thought that she might have maybe one or two longer skirts floating around her closet somewhere, but it was an abysmally small collection. She'd have to deal with pants. Long skirts were fucking ridiculous. "She's a dumb bitch anyway, shouldn't be all that surprised." Chris wasn't nearly as fond of some of her co-workers as she was of Nala, and maybe a handful of others. They were probably just lucky that said Latin language teacher wasn't anywhere in the vicinity... that they knew of. If she was, she'd probably be too busy macking on sleazeball over in the corner to pay attention to their conversation anyway.

[nala]

"Ain't that right,"

Nala muttered in agreement. Well, to the 'asshole' part, not the 'making out with sleazy' part. Because that was gross. And no matter how drunk Nala was (which was very) or how long she hadn't had even a fling (a long time), she had enough standards and a decent set of morals to know that that was never okay, and she would be side-eyeing the fuck out of not only sleazy, but sleazy's little girl pal because ew, who chooses to let such scum touch them like that? Vile. Disgusting. Something she needed alcohol to get rid of, clearly, and was about to turn and get all bitchy with the bartender again when she noticed the glass in front of her already, a ring of condensation around the base, signifying that it's been there awhile, she just never noticed. Er...oops. Sorry alcohol, she won't ignore you ever again! "Dude I can't even begin to explain what is wrong with that entire picture right now. Like. Everything. It's just everything, I can't even pick which part to start on because there are no parts because everything is wrong about that picture."

[/color] Especially the blonde hair. On both. Everything. Just. How.

Also a good tip -- when you stop to think about just how much you've had, the answer is always, "just one more". It keeps the party interesting. Maybe sleazy would start looking respectable after one more (though chances are looking not so good).

"Between the drinking and the entire new wardrobe, yeah, they definitely do not pay us enough to deal with all this shit,"[/color] Nala whined, wondering how it ended up like this. Well, there was the whole thing with that damn Latin teacher, but in general, she meant. She actually liked teaching, but she couldn't help but admit that there definitely were some things that she'd rather not have to live with, like catching her kids lying to her or having to summon the patience to deal with a douchebag kid instead of just wailing him in the face. Or balls. Wherever it hurt most for them, really. That at least came with the job description, but quite frankly, Nala failed to understand just why the entire staff had to suffer because of one bitch's transgressions. How did they even get to this conversation? "She and sleazy would make a good couple. And then they can just go away and never bother us ever again."[/color] Because really, a guy standing there trying to pick up some chick was totally damaging her style right now, and it was making her skin crawl. Even worse than this asshole bartender who kept giving her wary looks every time she wanted a new drink. Like, damn, okay? "I hate being an adult, no one ever lets us have a good time,"[/color] Nala sighed pathetically. "We should just wear short skirts anyway. Like, damn the man! And whatever."[/color][/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[christina]

Chris was pretty sure she had way lower standards than Nala (and wow, that sounded so sad in retrospect) but even she probably wouldn't touch sleazy with a ten foot pole. Well... She was a little ashamed to admit that she had considered it for all of about a hot second, but on closer inspection, that was just a definite no. "But free drinks, come on," she goaded anyway because she was an obnoxious person. "Just. Take one for the team!" Then again, they didn't make much as teachers, but she did know that neither of them were in lousy enough of financial situations to even consider that. Ew. This dude was probably on like, the very lowest levels of humanity. Gross. So gross. She needed to wash the taste of this away, even, or maybe that was just her excuse, but whichever it was she reached for her drink anyway.

Drinking wasn't technically a part of being a teacher, so maybe this wasn't something they could logically complain about, but fuck it. Chris was a cranky drunk -- well, a cranky person overall, really, but this was especially true when she had alcohol (blame it on the a-a-a-a-alcohol, thanks). "It's so fucking stupid," she said loudly, slumping forward a little before suddenly sitting up straight, slamming her fist down and only narrowly missing the glass sitting on it. "God, like, what the fuck, we should get paid a hell of a lot more than this," she said. "The fuck is the union even for?!" Were they even part of a union, as teachers at a school for students with elemental gifts? Uh... She wasn't sure on that one, actually. She should ask one of the older teachers -- and no, Nala didn't count. "Yes. That needs to happen. Why don't we go and bring her here and he can stick his damn hands up her skirt or something." She was just grumpy but hey, the two of them totally deserved each other. Chris didn't even pretend to like all her co-workers sometimes. "Like, what are they going to do, fire us? Yeah, right," she said, snorting derisively. At least they were wearing skirts, okay, it wasn't like she wanted to go in hot-pants. "We'll just have to stage a coup. Overthrow the fuckers. And throw that Latin language bitch in the dungeons." The best part was that the castle really did have dungeons.

[nala]

all nala could do in reaction to chris practically begging her to 'take one for the team' was to give her the biggest side-eye she could muster. it contained all of her feelings on the matter -- sleazy, sleazy's hoochie friend, this judgmental as fuck bartender, their almost as sleazy surroundings, that damn latin teacher, there was a friggin' itch on her foot that she just couldn't get rid of. most days, nala prides herself on her ability to be patient and just roll with whatever punches life wanted to give her, but at the end of the fiftieth day or whatever, she had to let some of it go. as far as she was concerned, chris was one of the few people she could actually vent her frustrations with because chances were she was feeling them too. although nala was marginally less crazy, she and chris were a lot alike, and that was good to have no matter who or where you are.

she was not going to take one for the team, though. sorry chris.

"you'd think that we'd get paid more considering how dangerous our job could be.

nala lowered her voice a little to dissuade anyone eavesdropping -- while there weren't many regular humans around, she didn't want to take the chance. and really, thinking about it, besides educating their next generation, it was gutsy to cook up a boarding school for elementals, considering the fact that you're lumping together a bunch of hormonal and emotionally driven teens together for long periods of time. not only would that be kind of problematic alone, throw in the fact that all of them have powers and nala's actually a little shocked that no teacher has been razor leafed half to death at this point. still, nala liked it, for all the bitching she was currently doing. she just hated being on the receiving end of a punishment really meant for someone else. "i'll tell you what, though, if i were queen of this place, i'd probably bring back the guillotine. give all the sickos fascinated by death what they really want,"

[/color] nala dreamed. the best part really was that they actually had dungeons. "i'd make a great marie antoinette, though, really. i mean. besides the whole being black thing."[/color] this time, the bartender actually laughed, which made nala feel only a little bad at all the glaring she did at him just moments before, but really, too little too late, sucker.

"oooh, like guerilla warefare style!"[/color] nala was impressed by this idea, although in reality, she imagined it would just be chris and nala hiding out around corners and, when the school board or whoever the fuck decided these things walked by, they would pelt them with chalkboard erasers and packs of printer paper. that shit was heavy, man, it ain't no joke, it could do some serious damage! "imagine if we ran the school, though. i'd fire that bitch first and foremost."[/color] nala sighed. a dream, no matter how satisfying, was still a dream.[/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[christina]

Chris was of the impression that all teenagers were crazy as fuck anyway, and coming from Chris, that was a very big deal, alright -- because nobody rode the cray cray train like she did. Still, she knew that Nala was right, because teenagers were primarily hormone-driven and prone to doing really stupid, reckless things, especially without constant parental supervision. Okay, so a good deal of students lived in the Hollow anyway -- but a healthy chunk didn't, and that meant boarding, which meant no parents on a regular basis, which meant fucking crazy. Then again, she'd lived in Maple Hollow with her parents the whole time and she was still batshit insane, so she'd guess that those same crazy teenagers were just naturally that way. If one of them ever went on a rampage, well, that was that. "As if those kids could one-up us though," she said, snorting a little and not bothering to keep her voice down... and she'd argue that it was because the words were far too vague for anyone to know what that meant, but in reality it was mostly because she was drunk and she didn't even know how to keep her voice down anymore.

"They fucking wish, I'd destroy them." Using violence on the children wasn't encouraged but hell if Chris cared -- she'd been one of them like, five years ago, and except for when she was Wind leader and had to be responsible, she'd gotten into her fair share of fights. Now considering experience, age, and genuine effort for it were on her side, she'd be able to take a fucking high schooler no problem, and most if not all the college kids. Don't even front, bitches, Chris is here. Okay, so the craziness was emphasized when she had alcohol. Shut up. "Chopping heads off left and right. Sometimes with some of these kids..." Well, Chris had thought of the guillotine many times before, that was for sure. Was she crazy enough to try to hurt a student (or another teacher, for that matter) in reality? Of course not, but she was allowed to think whatever she wanted. "Whatever -- equal opportunity, you can be Marie Antoinette if you fucking want to," she said, dismissing the comment, but she hoped that the bartender's laughter meant that he wasn't going to try to cut them off later. She'd cut a bitch. "And if you give me some goddamn cake." Yes. That was a good call.

Guerilla warfare for a bunch of teachers would probably be really interesting if only because they were... uh, teachers. Half of them were old and boring... the other half were all useless. Sometimes Chris was pretty sure that Nala, herself, and maybe a few others were the only competent ones around here. Then again, she was biased because she remembered being in some of these old geezers' classes, and some of them were awful. "Word," she muttered bitterly when the Latin teacher was mentioned again. "Followed by that fucking secretary that gives me a dirty look every time I see her," she said, enjoying the idea of getting to fire co-workers she hated. (It was a vast majority, most of the time.) "And that perv from the Math department because ew." Chris couldn't even pretend to keep it classy all the time, but god, no, she had standards, okay.

(chris has problems, i'm so sorry. .___.)