log: the first day of school
Sep. 5th, 2023 05:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsLiam meets Kyle and is introduced to school at Xavier's. Unlike what he's used to, it seems with a trip to the Danger Room
He probably didn't need any of the school supplies his mother had insisted he get 'just in case,' because judging from the other 'kids' he'd met, he was the only one actually in school. She'd found a list on some website though and ordered everything. It was all in a bag still under his desk in his room.
Heading into the classroom he'd been told they did stuff, Liam sat on a desk feeling awkward. This wasn't just 'first day of school' awkward, he'd been through plenty of those. This was his first time at a new school without kids he knew and he was apparently the only student. That... that was really weird. Even for mutant school.
The classroom was barely that. It did have the stereotypical big teacher's desk, and a whiteboard, and half-height bookshelves that were full to the point of overflowing into little piles atop the shelves. That was there the stereotype ended. There were a few student desks clustered together in a group, but most had been removed in favor of a handful of mis-matched floor rugs and a beanbag chair shoved into one corner. There was a ring light and video camera setup on the big desk, and two huge monitors facing the front of the classroom.
Kyle came into the room just behind Liam, hair still damp from a post-Danger-Room shower, and grinned. "Oh, sick, you're a little early. Today's just gonna be syllabus review, like, over and over and over." He flicked one of the big monitors on, and then set a laptop into the docking station on the desk. "And some intros to the folks doing your math and science classes. Technically I'm the guy who does the gradebooks for those, I like. Assure you. you don't want me actually teaching you pre-calculus." He grinned, showing sharp teeth. "I do vet the tutors who handle those though, you'll be in good hands. Tomorrow we'll do an intro to the rest of the remote students too, you'll have classmates, just over Zoom."
Ew. Syllabus review. That was boring. Not that school was usually fun, but at least his friends were there. This was just....him. "Hi," he greeted awkwardly, eyes widening at the sharp teeth. Granted, he had his own sharp canines, but....it was weird seeing it on someone else. On him it was normal. More and more Liam was realizing that this was what regular people felt like when they saw him. Trippy. "I'm Liam. You probably know that. Um," he was going to shut up now. If he thought going to Machias High was a small school, then he should be prepared for this, right? Wrong.
"I know, we met on the journals and my super nerdy Doctor Who joke sailed right over your head." Kyle said, still grinning. "This is probably going to take some adjustment for you, because you've actually had a regular classroom experience up until now. A lot of this is informal, very Montessori style, even if we do meet New York's standards. Lots of mixed-age classes, because of the virtual thing, Pros, you get a lot more free time, and a lot more choice about what you read for English Lit and even some of the History credits. Cons, no prom unless someone does one at the community center in the DX again." He considered this. "Which they probably will, tee bee ech. You do absolutely not have to call me Mister Gibney, I will not flip if you call me Kyle, but if you feel weird about the teacher and first name thing you can do Mister G."
Blinking rapidly, Liam just sort of nodded along blankly. Most of that didn't make any sense. "Okay..." He replied slowly, "I guess you got my transcripts so you know what I'm taking. What's 'Montessori style?'" He was just... not going to call his teacher anything for a minute and see what works.
"Basically, we figure out what you're interested in, and build lessons from there. A lot of this is self-directed." Kyle explained. "So, I do lit and history. Some of history we have a lesson plan, New York really wants me to do American and specifically local history this year for you, but even that. If you wanna go, I dunno, give me a breakdown of what is and isn't accurate in Hamilton, knock yourself out. Same thing for Lit. We have topics I have to cover, but the actual stuff we read, you and I can work together on. Math, and..." He poked at his laptop, and flipped through Liam's records. "Okay, you have science options we need to kick around. Anyway, those are more formal, but Lit and History, we can play with things. You get to self select projects and essay topics."
Huh. Cool. Really cool, actually. "And um... how does powers training work?" Liam asked cautiously. He'd heard about the X-Men, but no one had so much as suggested that he join, which he appreciated, but also powers training had been mentioned, too. "I'm not. I mean. I don't shoot lasers or whatever. I'm just a cat."
"Well." Kyle kicked out his feet, showing the sharp - and slightly broken today, due to his morning Danger Room run - claws. "I'm just a guy with toes. Powers training for you is probably gonna depend on what you wanna do. We do some self-defense and situational awareness, because you know, safety, but a lot of the training for folks like us is just learning." He huffed, and scrunched up his face. "Ugh, this sounds like I'm right out of the gross health handbook, but for feral mutants, a lot of it is learning how our bodies work."
Those were some gnarly looking toes though. Then again, all toes were gnarly in their own way. Liam was absolutely certain he didn't have a foot fetish. Too weird and gross. Holding up a hand, Liam made his claws extract, they weren't as curved as a cat's, more shaped to fit his fingers, but still plenty sharp. "I have claws on my feet, too. But that's a good way to ruin shoes and then I gotta go shoe shopping," and his mom would get mad. Shoe shopping sucked.
"There's a guy in District X that'll make custom shoes, and we need to get you good sandals." Kyle reached back, contorted and balanced himself in a way that looked inhuman, and came up from the well under his desk with a pair of teva sandals. "Pretty rugged, comes in colors, good to keep you from getting kicked outta the good donut place but still not wreck a pair of sneaks. A lot of what we call powers training is like this stuff, figuring out how to like, accomodate stuff for your life, figure out what you can and can't do, but other than self-defense stuff and some life skills, nobody's gonna be dropping you into the crazy Danger Room stuff unless you wanna."
He paused.
"But there's a couple of Ninja Warrior courses that are fun as hell. You know. If you wanna."
Liam lit up like Christmas, "That would be so cool!" he agreed, "I used to watch that in TV in the summers, then try to do my own stunts because we had all the trees and stuff, but I couldn't build too much, those apparatus are massive!" he paused to breathe, grinning, "I learned not to use my toe claws, because winter boots are not fun to ruin when it's cold and wet." Now it was habit.
"Oh man. I"ll send you his info right now." Kyle said. "It's not cheap, but he's not crazy expensive or anything, it's just custom shoes are pretty much a buy once last ten years thing." He pulled out his phone, tapped out an email to Liam, and then flicked through photos until he found the picture of his motorcycle boots, and then emailed that as well. "Can't much help for sneakers or swim shoes, but winter boots, and dress shoes he's got covered. In the meantime.." Another emailed popped through, this one titled "Lit Syllabus - yes there's the bard" and Kyle hopped off his desk. "All we were gonna do today is cover the syllabus and schedule but eh, lets Danger Room. Go get some sweatpants or something, we'll call it Phys Ed."
Oh this was so much better than his old school! Jumping up, Liam didn't have to be told twice as he ran from the room to go change as fast as he could.
He probably didn't need any of the school supplies his mother had insisted he get 'just in case,' because judging from the other 'kids' he'd met, he was the only one actually in school. She'd found a list on some website though and ordered everything. It was all in a bag still under his desk in his room.
Heading into the classroom he'd been told they did stuff, Liam sat on a desk feeling awkward. This wasn't just 'first day of school' awkward, he'd been through plenty of those. This was his first time at a new school without kids he knew and he was apparently the only student. That... that was really weird. Even for mutant school.
The classroom was barely that. It did have the stereotypical big teacher's desk, and a whiteboard, and half-height bookshelves that were full to the point of overflowing into little piles atop the shelves. That was there the stereotype ended. There were a few student desks clustered together in a group, but most had been removed in favor of a handful of mis-matched floor rugs and a beanbag chair shoved into one corner. There was a ring light and video camera setup on the big desk, and two huge monitors facing the front of the classroom.
Kyle came into the room just behind Liam, hair still damp from a post-Danger-Room shower, and grinned. "Oh, sick, you're a little early. Today's just gonna be syllabus review, like, over and over and over." He flicked one of the big monitors on, and then set a laptop into the docking station on the desk. "And some intros to the folks doing your math and science classes. Technically I'm the guy who does the gradebooks for those, I like. Assure you. you don't want me actually teaching you pre-calculus." He grinned, showing sharp teeth. "I do vet the tutors who handle those though, you'll be in good hands. Tomorrow we'll do an intro to the rest of the remote students too, you'll have classmates, just over Zoom."
Ew. Syllabus review. That was boring. Not that school was usually fun, but at least his friends were there. This was just....him. "Hi," he greeted awkwardly, eyes widening at the sharp teeth. Granted, he had his own sharp canines, but....it was weird seeing it on someone else. On him it was normal. More and more Liam was realizing that this was what regular people felt like when they saw him. Trippy. "I'm Liam. You probably know that. Um," he was going to shut up now. If he thought going to Machias High was a small school, then he should be prepared for this, right? Wrong.
"I know, we met on the journals and my super nerdy Doctor Who joke sailed right over your head." Kyle said, still grinning. "This is probably going to take some adjustment for you, because you've actually had a regular classroom experience up until now. A lot of this is informal, very Montessori style, even if we do meet New York's standards. Lots of mixed-age classes, because of the virtual thing, Pros, you get a lot more free time, and a lot more choice about what you read for English Lit and even some of the History credits. Cons, no prom unless someone does one at the community center in the DX again." He considered this. "Which they probably will, tee bee ech. You do absolutely not have to call me Mister Gibney, I will not flip if you call me Kyle, but if you feel weird about the teacher and first name thing you can do Mister G."
Blinking rapidly, Liam just sort of nodded along blankly. Most of that didn't make any sense. "Okay..." He replied slowly, "I guess you got my transcripts so you know what I'm taking. What's 'Montessori style?'" He was just... not going to call his teacher anything for a minute and see what works.
"Basically, we figure out what you're interested in, and build lessons from there. A lot of this is self-directed." Kyle explained. "So, I do lit and history. Some of history we have a lesson plan, New York really wants me to do American and specifically local history this year for you, but even that. If you wanna go, I dunno, give me a breakdown of what is and isn't accurate in Hamilton, knock yourself out. Same thing for Lit. We have topics I have to cover, but the actual stuff we read, you and I can work together on. Math, and..." He poked at his laptop, and flipped through Liam's records. "Okay, you have science options we need to kick around. Anyway, those are more formal, but Lit and History, we can play with things. You get to self select projects and essay topics."
Huh. Cool. Really cool, actually. "And um... how does powers training work?" Liam asked cautiously. He'd heard about the X-Men, but no one had so much as suggested that he join, which he appreciated, but also powers training had been mentioned, too. "I'm not. I mean. I don't shoot lasers or whatever. I'm just a cat."
"Well." Kyle kicked out his feet, showing the sharp - and slightly broken today, due to his morning Danger Room run - claws. "I'm just a guy with toes. Powers training for you is probably gonna depend on what you wanna do. We do some self-defense and situational awareness, because you know, safety, but a lot of the training for folks like us is just learning." He huffed, and scrunched up his face. "Ugh, this sounds like I'm right out of the gross health handbook, but for feral mutants, a lot of it is learning how our bodies work."
Those were some gnarly looking toes though. Then again, all toes were gnarly in their own way. Liam was absolutely certain he didn't have a foot fetish. Too weird and gross. Holding up a hand, Liam made his claws extract, they weren't as curved as a cat's, more shaped to fit his fingers, but still plenty sharp. "I have claws on my feet, too. But that's a good way to ruin shoes and then I gotta go shoe shopping," and his mom would get mad. Shoe shopping sucked.
"There's a guy in District X that'll make custom shoes, and we need to get you good sandals." Kyle reached back, contorted and balanced himself in a way that looked inhuman, and came up from the well under his desk with a pair of teva sandals. "Pretty rugged, comes in colors, good to keep you from getting kicked outta the good donut place but still not wreck a pair of sneaks. A lot of what we call powers training is like this stuff, figuring out how to like, accomodate stuff for your life, figure out what you can and can't do, but other than self-defense stuff and some life skills, nobody's gonna be dropping you into the crazy Danger Room stuff unless you wanna."
He paused.
"But there's a couple of Ninja Warrior courses that are fun as hell. You know. If you wanna."
Liam lit up like Christmas, "That would be so cool!" he agreed, "I used to watch that in TV in the summers, then try to do my own stunts because we had all the trees and stuff, but I couldn't build too much, those apparatus are massive!" he paused to breathe, grinning, "I learned not to use my toe claws, because winter boots are not fun to ruin when it's cold and wet." Now it was habit.
"Oh man. I"ll send you his info right now." Kyle said. "It's not cheap, but he's not crazy expensive or anything, it's just custom shoes are pretty much a buy once last ten years thing." He pulled out his phone, tapped out an email to Liam, and then flicked through photos until he found the picture of his motorcycle boots, and then emailed that as well. "Can't much help for sneakers or swim shoes, but winter boots, and dress shoes he's got covered. In the meantime.." Another emailed popped through, this one titled "Lit Syllabus - yes there's the bard" and Kyle hopped off his desk. "All we were gonna do today is cover the syllabus and schedule but eh, lets Danger Room. Go get some sweatpants or something, we'll call it Phys Ed."
Oh this was so much better than his old school! Jumping up, Liam didn't have to be told twice as he ran from the room to go change as fast as he could.
