xavier_institute_logs | A homework assignment for a professor

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A homework assignment for a professor - OTA

Who: Aqua and anyone who wanders into the open lounge
What: Aqua has been tasked to watch Romcoms. Thank you, Emma Frost.
Where: An open public lounge, since she has no clue how to work the DVD player on her computer.
When: Backdated - Middle of the day, April 7th
Warnings: Will add if needed.

Having been assigned by Emma to watch romantic comedies in order to potentially understand the point in having a date when she chaparones prom, Aqua has done what she has always done when facing a task at this school. She went to the library and took out research material.

Armed with every Romcom the school library had in stock, and wondering why the librarian had looked quite so amused, she found a lounge that no one was using and put in the first DVD. She turned on the player, and sat down to watch.

This... lasted a whole minute before she was up and pacing. She really didn't like sitting still. But... she reminded herself, this was a task, a challenge set before her. A skill to learn and master.

So she sat back down and worked on mastery as she watched, focusing both on the movie and the restraint to stay sitting.

Anyone want to come laugh at the confused look on her face?

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Tenma was "taking a break" from homework, really. He had other classes to go to later, and soccer practice after that, so there was no time to settle down and do it, honest. Unfortunately for him, the grass outside was still slippery, and all indoor facilities had been booked at the moment for other sports teams that happened to have more members (that cursed greedy basketball team...).

He doesn't poke his head in the lounge, as much as casually stroll in. He stops mid-stride, finding something a little off about the state of the lounge, and couldn't help but gawk.

One of the more serious teachers?

Watching romantic comedies??

"Ummmm?"

He didn't mean it. The sound just came out.

She glanced up and paused it, giving him a warm smile. Mastery said she should not make excuses to shirk her task, and she wouldn't, but helping the students was a larger task.

She stood and stretched. "May I be of assistance?" she asked.

He nearly jumped at the sound of her voice. He shook his head and waved his hands about like a famous puppet frog.

"N--No! I just...! I mean!"

The words just kept spilling out.

"I didn't... expect? This?" He punctuated awkwardly, trying to search his limited English vocabulary for words.

"This?" she asked, unsure. "I do not know what you are concerned over. How can I be of assistance?"

"I don't need any help, I was just walking." He breathed, relieved he managed to say at least that much without fumbling too much. He looked down at the coffee table, at the pile of DVDs. From what he could gather, they were all romantic comedies, adding more fuel to his confusion. He knew it was rude to ask, but at the same time, it would make things a little less awkward to have something to talk about.

"Are you marathoning movies?"

She gave a small nod. "I believe that is the proper term in English, yes. Miss Frost said that I should watch these to understand the point that she was making. As of now, I fear I am failing in my comprehension, however, I have only started."

She would put in the work, the effort. "Have you watched any of these before?" she asked. Working with others to learn is something she is comfortable with, and she was a fellow student far longer than she's been a Master or professor.

"Miss Frost is scary and confusing." Tenma admitted, looking down.

Aqua's question made him blush a little. "I've seen a few of the Japanese ones. My best friend growing up was a girl, so she made me watch a few." That's not even including the girl's manga she made him flip through to understand what she was talking about. It was only fair, she said. He made her go through all those soccer match archives after all.

"I would say simply that she is passionate and intense. About life, about helping people. These are not bad qualities."

"These are movies that generally only girls watch?" she asked, confused. Mind having sat through as much as she had, she was not quite sure why anyone watched them at all.

"She could be more to the point..." Tenma mumbled in Japanese, and sighed before switching back to English. "I don't think it's bad, it's just hard to understand her sometimes. I don't see how prom will shape the rest of my life if she doesn't explain how or why."

The question had stumped him as well. Looking back on it, almost all of the things he knew were aimed at girls were very romantic in nature, or at least romance was a big part of its appeal. "Er, I think so? Maybe some boys, but most of those boys are being forced to watch it by girls..."

He was no exception.

"Well, to that point any and every event can shape the rest of your life," she said, glad to be able to answer a question he had, even if not one of her own.

"Think of a ball of clay," she said softly, considering her words with care, translating as she went, "You may know how you want it to look. Maybe you are trying to make a key or a cup or a book. You could spend years working on this ball of clay."

"As you work, you improve, so that parts you thought you did well, you now know you can do better, and maybe you go and try to fix those areas, maybe you leave them alone. But you choose, and your choices mold the clay."

"But you are not the only ones with hands on the clay. Some people touch it briefly, and are gone, and you can try to cover up the marks they left, or grow them, or treasure them just as they are. Sometimes someone tells you to change a part, or ad a part to the clay. Sometimes someone gives you more clay to work with, sometimes clay is removed."

"But still you work with the clay, this one ball of clay from the day you were born, to now, to the day you die. It will never be finished, because you are always learning, changing, shaping who you want to be."

"Prom is an event that will touch the clay, will leave a mark. It is for you to decide," she said touching his chest lightly, over his heart, "if the mark of the prom will linger, if you will cover it over, if you will let what starts there grow. It may change the shape of your clay in only the slightest way, a pressing of a finger leaving a small print behind, or it may open a whole new avenue to you. Maybe before the clay was a book, or a net, or a ball, and maybe after prom you will spend time shaping it into something new, dance shoes, or something similar. You never know where you might find the inspiration for your life."

"But at the end, no matter what you do to the clay, no matter how you change it, how other things change it, it is still in part everything you have ever made of it, and what it is now... even if it looks different in ten, twenty, a hundred years time, if you still live, echos of how it looks now will forever be in the shape of it."

"Did that help, at all?"

It took a bit of time before Tenma's response, as he was trying to process it. The analogy was easy enough to understand, but a little too deep to fully grasp.

"I think?" He replied, letting her know that he did listen. "So even if it doesn't leave a big mark, it still left something behind, right?"

He was starting to form a better image in his head, but one thing began to bother him.

"So what was the point Miss Frost was trying to make to you?"

"Yes, you got it," she said with a warm smile.

And then her face... well... the smile was still there but there was something more like confusion behind it, than pride.

"I'm still trying to figure that one out," she admitted. "Any ideas?"

Yes, the professor was asking the student this, and yes, she was doing it as a professor. Because it would help him to think critically, build up confidence - because even if he has no better answer than she does, a teacher asked for advice - and if they come up with an answer together, so much the better.

He sensed her confusion and chagrin underneath that smile, and tilted his head in thought.

"This is also about prom, right?" he started as his eyes wandered back to the pile of movies and the one currently playing. He didn't really follow Aqua and Emma's conversation on the network, but he could only guess at the nature of it, given the amount of romantic comedies on the table.

"Well... Miss Frost knows a lot of stuff, but maybe she's wrong about this one. It doesn't have to be romantic to be fun."

He thinks back to his first winter formal here, having escaped the dancing crowd and getting to play soccer in the snow with a girl who didn't care she was in a fancy dress. His expression brightens considerably.

"Perhaps that is where the fundamental difference in the argument lay, thank you."

She gave him a warm smile. "I have no interest in romance at the current time, but she kept insisting it would be fun, perhaps she saw a separation there that she presumes was implied."

Another warm smile, and she rested a hand on his head gently. "Thank you for the advice," she said with all seriousness and warmth.

"There's no rules saying you can't go just as friends either!" He exclaimed cheerfully, feeling a swell of pride at her gratitude. "I went on a date with Shindou-senpai for the Valentines auction, just as friends and teammates. We had a lot of fun."

Sure, the first part where the older boy took his joke about bringing a limo way too seriously and actually called up a limo was embarrassing, but it was fun in the end.

"Besides, the best relationships don't start off romantic. I think it's better to be friends first before you even try to think about the romantic stuff."

He gave her a genuine smile, hoping his simple thoughts would reach her.

"Thank you for that," she said warmly. "I will give that serious thought."

Would Miss Frost accept her taking a friend as a date, rather than someone she was romantically interested in? Or... would she feel that it was a short cut around the work of the assignment, that Aqua was intentionally missing the point.

The problem was Aqua was not certain at all about this lesson, nor this assignment. With the Master, there was always the possibility that the lesson he wanted her to come to was that she could date a friend. The summery of a few of them seemed to imply as much.

However... with Miss Frost... she was not as certain. Well, perhaps she could call and find out if that was the expected answer.

Or would that be too much like seeking validation? Or was not calling a sign that her Mastery was failing, and she was giving in to simple fear?

Aqua would... have to meditate on that later.

Although she had been giving him a smile, Tenma could still sense she was still worried about something.

"Is there something else bothering you?" He dared to ask, a little uncertain if he should even be asking her that. He knew he couldn't just leave her there though. If there was still a thread he could tie up, he wanted to help her.

"Pensive on what you had said," she assured him. "Pondering how to apply that to the assignment, to try and ascertain the intent behind the assignment. You have been quite helpful, I have much to meditate on."

It would not even occur to he to hide anything or lie.

"I don't really know what the assignment is." He prefaced, scrunching his face in thought. "But if Miss Frost wanted to teach you something like she wanted to teach me, I think whatever she'll be happy with whatever answer you find."

He gives the pile of DVDs another glance with a slight grimace.

"I don't think these movies will help though."

"What was her assignment for you?" she asked, curiously.

And it wasn't just an excuse to delay returning to the movies, she actually wanted to know. She was curious as to how the other teachers handled the students, and to learn more about both this student and Miss Frost.

Aqua felt there was a lot to learn from everyone, even if it was not always the assigned lesson. She was hoping to teach her students the same thing.

The question surprised him as he had never thought of it as being an assignment. In a way though, he could see how it could be one.

"Um, she just told me to go to prom?" He answered with uncertainty. It was certainly much easier to accomplish than watching several romcoms for whatever reason.

"Well, you said you had fun at a previous dance, yes? So it does not seem like such a bad thing?"

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A homework assignment for a professor - OTA

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