22 Late But Presen (1/2)
DJ claimed the seat next to James, and Liza claimed the seat on the other side of DJ. James took a sip from an innocuous-looking bottle he'd brought with him.
DJ wrinkled his nose and his face contorted in disgust as he caught a whiff of the bottle's contents. ”Please tell me that isn't your specialty smoothie.”
James grinned, took another sip, and said, ”Yep!”
DJ shuddered and shifted so he could get as much distance as possible between himself and James' smoothie. James' disgusting energy smoothie. ”I can't believe you're drinking that stuff during class. Next to me.”
James smiled and laughed, ”You're the one who sat by me.” James took another drink, closed his bottle, and deliberately placed the bottle next to DJ.
DJ glared at James, ”Sometimes you're really annoying.”
James grinned at DJ. And DJ watched James for a moment. Then, when Professor Pele entered the room and James glanced at the door, DJ struck. He snatched James bottle, horrible smoothie and all. Then chucked it as hard as he could. The bottle struck the classroom wall, left a dent, and landed perfectly in the trash can, with a small leak.
In return for DJ's effort to save the class from James' smoothie, he received two glares. One was, of course, from James and the other was from Professor Pele who DJ had narrowly avoided hitting.
”I see DJ is already working hard on earning himself extra after class work.” Professor Pele slammed his books on the desk at the front of the classroom. ”I will only tell you once so listen well. You're in teams now. That means the rules have changed. Any punishments one member of your team earns is a collective punishment. That doesn't mean you split the punishment, it means you all receive it. On the other hand, rewards are treated the same way,” Professor Pele smiled and said, ”And the thing I'm sure you'll enjoy the most is you get to take tests as a team.”
Some students cheered and others watched their cheering teammates with worry.
Professor Pele continued, ”DJ since I haven't assigned any work yet, you just earned your team 20 problems from chapter 3. They're due next time we have class.”
James grimaced that was going to suck. DJ tried to make his impressive frame smaller and hide under the table. Earning his teammates more work was definitely not part of the fun plan. At least Calc class was only once a week.
♢ ♢ ♢
The classroom door creaked open just after Professor Pele had finished his review on derivatives and had written a simple problem on the board.
y - 3a - 3 = 14 - a cubed
Professor Pele turned to catch the person attempting to sneak into his class. As the student's form became visible in the doorway Pele realized he knew this student and he knew them well. Pele crossed his arms and glared at the intruder, glared at Kyrie. ”Trying to sneak in late.”
Kyrie paused in the doorway and blushed a bit. ”Sorry, sir.”
”You've earned your team 30 more problems from chapter 3.”
Kyrie glanced at DJ, Liza, and James. He was unsure how to handle this situation. Maybe if Centra had been out of the infirmary she could have passed on some advice.
”Not taking your seat? Are you volunteering to take the derivative of the problem on the board?” Professor Pele said.
Kyrie fidgeted with the ribbon on his left hand. ”No, sir. I'll go take my seat.” Kyrie glanced at Professor Pele as he made his way towards Liza. He wondered why Pele looked so familiar. As Kyrie walked past the trash can near the doorway, he sneezed at the strong smell coming from it. The very familiar smell. He glanced at James for a moment. Why would James' throw away his smoothie?
Professor Pele ground his teeth at what he believed to be Kyrie's continued reliance on James. It was time Kyrie learned to stand on his own. ”Come work the problem on the board.”
Kyrie paused and glanced at the problem.
y - 3a - 3 = 14 - a cubed
”Why? He's probably way ahead of us in math like he is in everything else,” Masaki said with a sneer. His finely tuned bully senses had told him this was an opportunity to help make someone even more miserable. And, it might just be an opportunity at revenge for Kyrie showing him up in Math class.