Description: Aranha begins his tour of the schools to figure out where he should go to school if any location would be good for him. First stop Pacific High. While there he's taken to meet one of the teachers as well as one of the lost students.
The usual class hours at Pacific High are winding down on this mildly nippy Friday afternoon. Most of the extracurricular activities are just getting set up, but a lot of the students prefer to spend their time off campus. It's part of Pacific's way of letting them integrate into a world society at large - inherent dangers of letting kids loose around Southtown be damned!
Out by the front gates is one of the teachers, one Mr. Rust (or 'Rust-sensei' if you just came out of your Japanese language class) is more or less waving some of the select few kids that actually do not stay on campus, namely the few that actually do live somewhere around Southtown, as he relaxes somewhat from a hard day trying to get a couple of wooden booths for an upcoming festival. His class is the one constructing them, but things haven't been going spectacularly nor poorly - he's just been the one doing a lot of the hard work in fixing up what team projects haven't been up to snuff.
Despite the fact it is slightly cold he hasn't put back on the long-sleeved shirt that is part of the usual Pacific uniform. He's been sweating it up enough that he's not really feeling the cold touch of winter coming just around the corner.
But hey, his line of work tends to be an all-year job even when the students aren't in class.
Class may just be winding down for some, but a certain new exchange student still has hours of rigorous training to go through before her day is over. Cutting across the front of the school, she fixes the black dance bag that dangles from her shoulder and pulls out a campus map. Aexis doesn't care if she looks like a tourist doing it, she needs to find the building where she's supposed to meet her coach.
Ever sociable, she stops to chat with a group of boys that are heading off in the other direction. Appearances would make it seem as though she's just asking them for directions to the building, but a burst of laughter from the group and a giggle from the young gymnast might make one think that appearances can be deceiving.
In spite of her cheerful demeanor, if one were to pay close attention to her eyes, they'd be able to see that she's tired. Late night of being lost in a new city, accompanied with early morning training can do that.
And as the class hours are winding down, so is Keith Mason's tour of the school. For some reason the young former thief had decided that he wanted to give going back to school another try since he wasn't able to finish. He dropped out of school in Metro City to support his younger sister.
The fighting world has been quite kind to him, especially with the Jinchuu tournament and the money he received just for going to the tournament being enough to atleast cover one semester.
The guide brings him out of the building(the guide originally wanted to have him meet Mr. Rust in his class but they were informed that he would be outside). Even as he moves towards the older man he glances around the area. It's something so deeply ingrained in him that it's not something he can simply turn off. He gives Alexis and various other women he passes a nod as he moves towards the teacher. When he gets there he says as he extends a hand, "So you're Mr. Rust. I'm Keith Mason I'm considering going to school here."
Mr. Rust doesn't keep up with a lot of the gossip and giggling between students coming and going. He's too busy with grown-up things. Grown-up things like standing around the gate and waving people in and out while not really giving much thought to putting on another shirt so that he doesn't feel too cold once all that fatigue from working on the project(s) of the week wears off.
Keith addresses him pretty promptly. The older teacher clears his throat, raw and dry from hours upon hours of lecturing and speaking, and extends his hand with a creaking noise in his elbow, giving a nice, firm shake. His body's probably about done with all the work today, ready to just begin laying down and enjoy the upcoming weekend. "Mason. Yeah, heard your name earlier today from the Principal. Nice to meet you. I teach shop, all grades." He gives the scars an evaluatory look. But... it might be a personal issue. That's more something a counselor should look into. "And... just a second, I'll get back to you."
"Hey! You!" He calls out towards the lost-looking Alexis when he catches the tail end of a question about the main building. She's in uniform and carrying a map. It's kind of easy to bridge the logic together from there. "What're you looking," he clears his throat again as his voice trails off, "what're you looking for?"
Alexis was quite happy to play the cute, lost-student routine a little longer, so when the somewhat gruff adult voice calls out to her she literally jumps. Good thing she's a trained professional (of sorts), because as her feet leave the ground she's spinning around to face the voice.
"This room here," she calls back with a soft French accent, pointing to the map. Turning to glance back over her shoulder at the group she'd been talking to, she finger-waves at them and then makes her way across to where the teacher is. "This one," she repeats, close enough now to actually show the location on the campus map.
"Sorry, I know it's really silly but I've not been here all that long and my coach has switched the location on me twice already. I think he just likes to keep me on my toes." Smiling radiantly at the teacher, she waits to see where she's supposed to be heading off to and then turns to the young man that stands with him. "A'lo," she chirps in an overly-friendly and bubbly manner.
"Hey there," he says to Alexis just barely cutting off the impulse to add the word 'ma' to the end of it. It was perhaps a good thing too since one using slang in front of an authority figure probably wasn't a good idea and then there was the fact that Alexis had an accent. An accent probably meant that there was a strong possibility that it would be misinterpreted.
Aranha watches her as she makes her approach to both men and glances down at the map. It's not as if he'd know the way since it was his first time on the campus. Even if he has a good head for terrain. Even still it probably would be a good idea to know how to get there in case he did go to Pacific. "Coach? What's the sport?"
After the glance at the map is spared he looks to Rust for a moment as he waits for him answer her question.
The teacher's eyes squint a bit as to see where she's pointing to on the map. With the other hand that wasn't involved in shaking, he signals her to come closer about the same time she decides to do so to better show him where she wants to go.
"That way. Southeast." He points with his thumb towards the athletics field before bringing it up against the back of his head to rub it. Maybe this is to make sure that horribly fake combover is still doing its job (...poorly). "Don't know why he'd want you anywhere else. I'll walk you there if you need me to."
He looks back over to Keith. "You been there yet? One of the biggest landmarks on campus."
"Oh, duh," Alexis says, gently smacking her forehead. "He had me training across town yesterday, but that's because it's where my equipment was left. I didn't even /think/ to like, check the athletics building." Chalk one up for the blondeness, or so it seems.
Turning back to the younger male, she grins. "Personal trainer, more like. Gymnastics," she adds in response to his second question. Attention drawn back to the teacher once more she shakes her head. "I don't want to distract you from your work or anything, and I don't think anyone's going to try to mug me between here or there. Thanks though!"
Aranha looks back down at the map for just a moment before responding to Rust. "No I haven't actually. Most of my tour has been mainly the various classrooms, labs, and educational departments." Keith gives a bit of shrug. "This was the first time it deviated from that theme."
When Alexis mentions not even thinking of the the athletics building a twinkle in his eyes of amusement is the fatal flaw in a well crafted bluff to keep his thoughts hidden. To his credit he doesn't bust out in laughter(which he really wanted to do).
As to the answer of his question Aranha raises a finger to touch his chin. "I had opportunity to train with some gymnasts." In his case he's thinking about training in Capoeira along side a few gymnasts. That failure to clarify could poossibly be confusing and possibly amusing.
"Across town?" Rust does seem a little confused about that up until the explanation about the equipment. It'll likely be hauled over here in time. Someone will probably ask him to. He is the physically strongest teacher on campus. Which, from the looks of things, might not mean much at this juncture.
"Well, enjoy then," he adds to Alexis' optimistic nature of being able to go from Point A to Point B on campus without being harassed in some form or another. But, yesterday's intrusion by someone that certainly did not belong was probably just an extreme case.
He misses the whole 'eye twinkle' thing thanks to trying to help a current student along to her destination, and all, while Keith explains where he's already been. But, eye contact is eventually made again, another creaky noise coming from one of his joints. This one, from his knee. "Same field?" He doesn't wait for an answer. "If you want to check it out yourself, feel free. You look like you'd like it."
Really, he's more fishing for an excuse to get students here to have things to do other than run out into Southtown and pick fights at night.
"Oh, I plan on it," Alexis states cheerfully. "Unlike most, I actually look forward to training!" With that, she's about to turn on her heel to head in the pointed direction, unaware that an altercation of sorts happened on the campus yesterday.
She quickly turns back to the younger man again when she hears of his training. "You did?" Sudden avid interest seems to take over and she stays put. "What type of training? I mean, because there's all sorts of things involved with gymnastics. Beam, vault, rings, bars..." Sounds like she could just go on and on and on about it, but she stops herself from mentioning every tiny little apparatus involved.
And here's where Keith realizes he wasn't specific enough. A little look of embarassment comes across his face as he he averts his eyes just slightly. "I trained in Capoeira," he says as he begins his explanation. "There were a few gymnasts who cross trained in Capoeira along with us."
He takes time to think about it. "I don't suppose I'd be too bad at the floor exercises though." He shrugs since he hasn't even decide whether or not he's going to Pacific let alone what extracurricular activity he'll take.
"...That's the one that uses," Rust has to clear his throat again. He coughs a few times afterwards in his attempt to clear out his throat. Boy, isn't it tired. "Sorry. Been talking all day. That's the one that uses dancing, right?" Based on the scars, he's not too surprised to hear that Keith has been trained, or is continuing to train in some kind of fighting style. He just didn't find it really appropriate to ask.
"I'm not going to hold you two up. Weekend's coming up, might as well start enjoying it now." He's sure the gym teacher can keep an adequate eye on Keith if he turns out to be trouble. After all, he's about due to start getting his own weekend plans in motion.
Flipping her wrist over, she glances at her watch and makes a very cute eeping noise. "I hate to break up the little chit chat session, but I've gotta go or coach is gonna kill me." Alexis glances between the two men again and ohhhhs as she hears the Capoeira thing. "I can so totally see that happening. You kind've need like, lots of movement for both. Good luck with that!"
Then the young gymnast is racing across the campus again, trying to make it to her training session without being late. Mid way there she turns back and calls, "Thanks, Mr. Rust! Drink some water for your throat, it'll be less dry then!" Dashing off around the corner, she disappears just as quickly as she appeared earlier. Girl's in a hurry.
"You could say that." He pauses as he thinks about how he'd elaborate on it. "Ask a bunch of Capoeiristas that and you either get that it's a game, a dance, or a fight and neither one would be wrong." It's not often he gets to wax philosophical about his style so he's going to enjoy it while he can.
He raises an eyebrow when Alexis 'eeps' and runs. "Take it easy." As for him he still does have to tour the athletics ground anyway. Seeing as he has nowehere else to go he can afford to take his time about it. Maybe next time he'll get her digits(if she's not too young).
Log created on 14:58:47 11/09/2007 by Aranha, and last modified on 01:20:51 11/11/2007.