fixed at zero | craig

[ANNABEL LYNNE DALE]

Not for the first time, Annabel wished that she had stayed home that day. She was itching to get out of school and away from the building, maybe play some Left 4 Dead or Halo with her friends. Maybe she wouldn't even have to leave the building. The dormitories had a TV and sometimes people would bring their consoles and games to play during lunch or after school. Hell, some people had their own TVs in the dorms themselves. It got boring if you lived in the Academy with nothing fun to occupy yourself, she heard. Soon she was paying no attention to the lesson at all, instead leaning her head on her hand as she fantasized about sprawling out on the dormitory couch and playing video games with some of the other Waters. She was gamer and a damn good one, too, able to hold her own against a large part of the Water population. Could even go for a prank, she decided, twisting a piece of blonde hair around her finger as she followed the train of thought. Maybe switch the faucets around in the bathrooms again. It's a classic, but it works. Could hide in one of the stalls... She was in the middle of this mental tangent when the teacher called her name.

Shit. "Do you know the answer?" Annabel could tell from the almost smug look on the teacher's face that he was well aware she had been paying no attention at all. No fucking clue. "Uh, sixty nine." A couple of kids in the class chuckled but the teacher's expression was completely devoid of any humour. For a moment she wondered if he was going to give her detention for her short attention span but after pursing his lips in disapproval, he said, "Since you're all so obviously invested in this lesson, I figure you won't mind a little extra homework." The stifled chuckles turned to groans that her classmates didn't even bother trying to hide. "Thanks a lot, Annabel," one of the boys sitting next to her said with obvious irritation. He was a Wind, she remembered, not a friend but not an enemy either. She shot him a glare and didn't reply. Maybe she'd have felt bad if he was a friend but if he was going to be a dick to her for zoning out in a boring-as-fuck Math lesson then he could shove it, in her opinion.

She sighed as the homework was passed back to her. It was only algebra, a familiar subject that she wasn't too terrible at, but that didn't mean that she was in any mood to do it. It looked like her fantasies of playing video games were going to have to wait. She already had enough homework to deal with as it was. After getting out of class she scrolled through her list of contacts on her phone and texted her friend Craig: "Got any homework? I'm gonna hang out in the library for a bit if you wanna come down there." While she could understand why someone might not want to have a study session, a large part of her really hoped that he was going to be on board. She entered the library and recalled immediately why it was one of her least favourite places in the school unless she was there for the wifi—it was too quiet. She bet you'd be able to hear a pin drop if the floor hadn't been carpeted to muffle footsteps and if she so much as breathed loudly she'd be hushed. She sat down and played with her phone until Craig arrived, giving him a friendly but pained smile. "Welcome to hell," she joked. "So what are you stuck with?" She hadn't even started on her work yet. She was dreading this.

[crow]

Craig spent the majority of his time at the school, even the holidays were spent at the Academy, the simple fact that he had nowhere else to go; no home, no family, he did have a guardian but he hardly spent time with that person. The monthly stipend he received was just enough to keep him fed and properly clothed which was enough for the young water student, he didn't really need anything else.

Walking down the hallway, leaving history class behind the blond water had a mind to head straight for the dorm and dig into a book or something. Such thoughts were banished as he felt the whirring movement in his pocket, a hand reaching down to pluck out a rather old cell phone; well truthfully it wasn’t that old but it lacked any of phone functions most people today take for granted. The only thing this little metal contraption could do was call and send SMS’ but frankly that was all Craig ever needed a phone for.

Finding a text message from none other than Annabel, asking if he had homework; if Craig could’ve decided then no, he did not have any homework but in fact he did. He had neglected to do math, saving that for those times when he had choice in whether or not to do it; like if they had a test or similar. He disliked math, mostly ‘cause no matter how hard he tried or no matter what he was taught he could never get it right much less remember it. Even if he had little wish to do that kind of homework, he didn’t exactly have anything better to do… and maybe all Annabel wanted was company.

So he headed towards the library, Craig utterly loved the library. It was, next to the dorms during vacations, and the surrounding grounds his favorite part of the Academy. Finding the girl wasn’t that difficult, seated and playing with her phone the moment he showed up. A soft snort of a laugh exhaled through his nose at the girl’s joke. Given things she might have been right, “Hell wouldn’t like us much, we’d put out the fires.” He quipped in return as he took a seat on the opposite side of the table, placing his bag onto the chair next to him.

“Nothing, I wish.” He ran a hand through his hair exhaling a sigh of mild frustration, “I only have math left.” He muttered dropping the book onto the table with a slight thump, cringing at the sudden explosion of noise though luckily no one seemed to take notice to it.

[ANNABEL LYNNE DALE]

She was admittedly more relieved than she should have been when Craig showed up in the library. It shouldn't have brought any kind of joy to drag a friend into an hour of boring studying and homework but at least it meant she didn't have to suffer alone. She laughed at his retaliation. Knew there was a reason I liked you, she thought. Belle liked it when her friends had a sense of humour, it made things a lot more interesting. "Unless it's made of ice like some people think." Extreme cold and extreme heat... eh, neither sounded all that appealing to the Water elemental. I think I'd take the cold. She was resistant to it because of Water elemental genetics. As this crossed her mind, she smirked. "Then again, we'd still come out on top. Bring it on, hell." She gestured as if to tell it to come at her, then shook her head and chuckled. Dicking around was fun but it didn't change the fact that the stack of homework in front of her was probably going to try its best to melt her brain.

It wasn't hard to detect his frustration and Annabel grimaced sympathetically at the word 'Math', though she had no idea that the subject plagued him a lot worse than it did her. "Ugh, same," she muttered. "Can't you hear my excitement? I'm so thrilled." The sarcasm heavily coated her words and she pressed her lips together in disdain. She felt for Craig, too, because he was a grade higher than she was and that meant that his work would probably be a lot harder. Maybe he could give me a hand? Oh, if only she'd known. Sometimes it was a lot easier to get help from a friend than her brother. Josh was busy with medical school and work lately and when she did admit that she paid less attention in class than she likely should have, he tended to blame her for her own grades. Hmph. Not my fault school is a bore. That reminded her, "Oh, and if that's not enough, it's my fault we've got extra work to do." She didn't like the weight of responsibility for her own misery. It kind of sucked. "Apparently the teacher doesn't think I'm all that funny." Okay, so her "joke" might have been immature and all but hell, she hadn't known the answer either way. Might as well have gotten a laugh out of it.

She dragged a hand through her hair and frowned at the paper as if it was the worksheet's fault she was here in the library instead of in the mess hall eating or in the dormitories playing games with a friend. And it was, partially. "I mean it's just algebra but still." Algebra was probably one of the few tolerable Math forms in her opinion. Tolerable, not enjoyable. "It's not the only thing I've got to do but at least the other stuff's pretty simple. What've you got?" What did they even study in eleventh grade Math? She almost dreaded the answer, knowing that it would be what she was stuck with next year. Ew.

[crow]

Craig usually had a sense of humor even if it could be dark and even sarcastic at times, he did enjoy a good joke. The water student tried to make himself comfortable with the prospect that they would not be doing homework, truthfully he’d much rather go read about life in the stone age or take a hike by the lake; anything rather than doing this! “But then it wouldn’t be hell, would it?”

[/color] Craig grinned as Annabel mentioned how hell wasn’t always depicted with fires, lava and rotten egg stink, but sometimes it was a frozen wasteland. “But yea you’re right, doesn’t pose a threat to us either way.” He chuckled watching as the girl mockingly tried to challenge this hell to a fight.

Frustration was a mild word in terms of Craig’s rocky relationship with math, he didn’t really understand in what ways he would actually benefit from even half of the things they taught him. When and where would and indeed could be possibly use in a practical, every day situation! “Oh that sucks.”[/color] The cringed as the younger water said how her joke had net not just her but her entire class extra math work. Craig usually knew when and when not to pitch a joke, though sometimes he’d foul up; but mostly that ended in someone getting unintentionally offended, other times it net him a punch in the face. “I find your jokes brighten up the day.”[/color] The boy smiled, that may have come off as simple flatter, but in honesty her jokes did brighten the mood on a sully day.

Unfortunately no jokes, no matter how jovial could brighten the fact that it was math they were going to do. Algebra, he had never been good with that at all, though what Craig would face was an even more difficult subject, “Unknowns; X’s, Y’s and all that bullshit.”[/color] He cringed, why couldn’t it be geometry at least those things were tangible; this crap he was stuck with was advanced metaphysical jargon to the poor water student.[/font][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[ANNABEL LYNNE DALE]

She thought about that for a moment. Would it be? Sometimes the cold could be as bad as the heat. Instead of sweating you got goosebumps and instead of burns you wound up with frostbite. Then again, she was a Water elemental. She smirked. "Not for us it wouldn't." They were lucky that "hell" wasn't theoretically full of plants and storm clouds. Earth and Thunder were their weaknesses where Fire and Water wouldn't do anything but make them laugh. Not that they'd be laughing for a whole lot longer. There was nothing funny about homework unless you were watching a Fire burn theirs or something.

Annabel groaned and dragged a hand over her face. "You can say that again." It might have seemed like she was overreacting but it didn't feel like it when it had landed her with more homework than she would have otherwise had to deal with. Craig managed to cheer her up with his comment though—she grinned and looked mischievous. "See, at least someone appreciates my sense of humour." It had been immature, certainly, but she wasn't one to believe that adults were completely immune to the hilarity of sexual jokes. They probably weren't allowed to laugh, being teachers and all, but Belle had enough of an ego to assume that not all of her teachers thought her humour was as dry as the desert. I bet they're laughing on the inside. In combination with Craig's compliment, which she was proud enough to accept, it made her feel a little better about the slip-up.

Completely oblivious to how much of a problem the homework was going to be for her friend, Annabel said, "Oh, well that's not too bad, right? At least it's algebra and not like... calculus or some shit." Though there was a point in Math where even algebra became a massive headache for her. Long-ass equations melted her brain just looking at them. "I've got the same, if it makes you feel any better. Probably a little easier." Being that she was a grade below him, she figured that whatever she was stuck with was simpler than what he was working on. "Guess we better get started, huh?" She pulled the paper closer to her on the table and stared at the first problem, twisting her pencil between her fingers. She started on it after only a little bit of thought, displaying that she at least knew part of what she was doing even if she hated it.