hot off the tea press

[.magnarock.]

In the small staff room of the Astral Department Eva swirled the remnants of her morning break tea moodily, watching as the soggy biscuit crumbs rolled around the bottom of the cup without a care.
"I mean, could they be any more obvious?!" She exagerated to Tessera who was nibbling one of her favourite custard cremes, stolen from the main staff room of course.
"I think it's quite sweet that even in the turmoil of the school environment that love can be found."
"Oh pah!" Sniffed Eva. "They're not in looove. It's just that ridiculous Grady messing with poor Herschy's mind."
"Oh Eva, that's not very nice, you only need to see them together to-"
"Totally vom! Have you noticed that Herschal is the only young and attractive male teacher here?"
"Well... I don't know about the only-"
"I bet you that's why though!"
Tessera scrutinized her friend for a moment.
"Eva, I think that you're je-"
The bell for the end of break clattered and rang. Eva hastily scooped up her books for the next few lessons. "What a shame the bell I'll have to go talk to you some other time ok byebye I think I'll get to my lesson early today." She said, excusing herself and leaving Tessera to shake her head patronisingly at her custard cream.


"Stupid Tessera, I'm not jealous, why would I of all people be jealous. Stupid Tessera, she doesn't know what I'm talking about."
Grumbling down the corridor, Eva only broke her chain of thoughts to wish a beaming and zealous "Morning!" to Herschal as he passed her by on the way to a flying lesson with the first years of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. It was totally normal that she knew his timetable inside out. He just didn't know this. She sighed dreamily and floated along, on a cloud of what life would be like without Grady, to her next lesson. Divination with the third years.
"Hello there children, isn't the imagination a wonderful thing. At your young ages I fully encourage you to let yours flourish like beautiful flowers."
She waved them in and wrote up the lesson objectives on the board, ignoring the chattering few.

[cenizobelle]

[ yes okay, soz ]

Everybody had been sitting in their friendship groups, talking happily while Eva pottered around the room fixing things up getting ready for the lesson; when there was a knock on the trap door(?)
"Come in." Luvasco said absently, waiting for the door to open. It did and two people climbed into the room.

"Hello Eva." Hale said, smiling. "This is Raika, he's going to be shadowing you today. Is that okay? Good." She turned to Raika and said "I hope you get on well with your work and come and see me if there are any problems." Then she turned to the rest of the class. "Have fun everybody."

[.magnarock.]

[no class reactions? XD]

"I- er- wa- yes?" Eva stammered and smiled at the man through a barely restrained gawp, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck prickle for a moment before she remembered that he wasn't a killer. She felt almost like she had been spying into this normal persons life for the past ten years, keenly devouring the sensationalist stories in magazines with thrill and horror. The media has certainly done it's job, although off the page she could see none of the menace or blood-thirst the stories had written him to have: just a man, tall, attractive -though no doubt much the worse the wear for spending a decade rotting and tortured- and apart from the unplaceable intensity of his vivid green eyes, for now at least, he seemed quite human.
"Well, um, you can put your bag down by my desk and er- I- was- about to give a demonstration of a new line on the hand for palmistry- although I'm really not sure how much you know- er- Raika..." She trailed off, regretting having added the last bit; she had seemed like a nonchalant know-it-all despite her nerves, and she was fooling no one that she hadn't heard his name before. Attempting to salvage the situation she smiled warmly and gestured the place for his bag and went to fetch a cushion for him to sit on.

Raika crossed the room with easy strides, weaving around the chairs, cushions and tables. He slipped his bag from his shoulder and (i'm guessing that no-one is wearing shoes because they sit on cushiony things most of the time) removed his shoes.

[cenizobelle]

There was quiet as soon as Raika stepped into the room. But pretty soon the students started to mutter to each other.

'omg it's that tyakess guy'
'didn't he kill a load of people?'
'he was cleared.'
'why's he teaching here?'
'i didn't know he did divination.'
'...he looks buff...'
'do you think he has a 'V'?'

The whispers spread around the classroom and increased in volume as more joined the talking.
Eva pottered around the classroom for a little more, hushing the louder students of the class, then made her way to the front.

[.magnarock.]

[hehe yeah, was quite late]

Raika tried not to listen to the murderer comments; the children had no doubt all been on one side of the story since the word go, and trying to make them disassociate him with some crazy killer would be easier if he didn't freak out every time he heard someone mention his surname in conjunction with prison or death. They would soon find something else to talk about if he came across as a normal and nice guy.
[which of my kids are taking div btw? i dont have the amazing spreadsheet on this compy ): ]
Eva pottered around trying to find the correct books to hand out to the children; she was finding it hard to concentrate with this man in the room and not being able to join in with the whisperings of excited goss she could hear.
Why is it so long until lunch!!! omg, what am i gonna do at lunch! Do I need to take him with me everywhere? Or dump him in a staff room or what? Where are those books!?

Raika got up to see if he could help, unable to remain sat down listening to the children after their talk had veered onto his physical merits. Reassuring as it was that he was still good looking, it was always uncomfortable to be called buff by strangers.
"Which books are you looking for? Would you like some help?"
Eva jumped, startled out of her daydream.
"Oh -I er, yes. Um, Palmistry for O.W.Ls Third edition, it should be somewhere here." She said gesturing to the messy stacks of books and parchment about the room. "If you'd like to turn to page 25 of the books you have now and label the lines on the hand diagram while you wait class please." She called over her shoulder to the students, hoping that they did so she seemed like a cool and respected teacher.

[cenizobelle]

[ i'll just list everyone ...

Zada / Trent / Nali / Brigette / Venn / Donna / Kyli / Nina / Hugh / Leon / Storm / Leo / Elsie / Sean / Cynthia / Alex / Hanadi / Karsca / Rebecca / Carm / Morfin / Marie / Tobi / Cenizo ]

[Tessiec]

(is slightly disturbed by name choice of Tessera...)

[cenizobelle]

[ lol XD ]

[.magnarock.]

Eva raised her hands in exasperation and batted Raika away from the books. "I don't think we'll find them within the next week so I'll just get on with the lesson on the board. Ok class, now it's time to learn about the relationship line! I'm sure you'll all love learning about love!" She giggled, trying to be extra enthusiastic to make a good impression; there was bound to be some kind of report going back to Hale about this.
"Could everyone finish the question they're on and gather round the front desk."
She said, taking her cushion over to the circular low table and gesturing for Raika to do the same.

[.magnarock.]

As the students repositioned themselves comfortably, continuing or finishing dribs and drabs of conversation, Eva looked around for someone who hadn't spoken much this lesson.
"Now, to demonstrate, I am going to read a volunteers palm!" She said mysteriously, the girls instantly leaned forward and some of the more awkward of the group tried to make themselves inconspicuous as to avoid being told love was soon to blossom.
"And today I think I shall choose... Tobi!"
"Huh wah!?" Tobi jumped mid-sentence and flushed slightly. "I er, no, I mean- umm." He trailed off as she pulled him to the front and into the vacant seat next to her.
"Now then, Tobi has fairly average sized hands for his age so this makes any variations from size less likely."
Raika watched quietly, vaguely agreeing with the small lecture that ensued and wondering whether any of Sei's old friends were in this class; they were all the right age, maybe he would be able to see in future lessons if they did something other than palmistry.
"Ok, so now for the prediction, you can all identify the other lines right? Life, fate, money -phwar that's a long one!"
Tobi felt embarrassed already and smiled comically to hide it.
"Ah... I see you are currently in a happy relationship."
Tobi grinned nervously as some 'ooOoo's' went up from the class.
"Passionate-"
The class laughed at Tobi's embarassment. "Not like that guys!!!" He retorted so some other noises being made.
"Nono, there isn't the extra chink for that here." Eva affirmed, laughing slightly. "Ah, but here-" She said pointing to a faint arch joining up with the main line. "Someone whom you appear to have liked for some time becomes... available, perhaps? Well, needless to say, this could have some impact on the relationship you are in."
Tobi could feel a creeping sensation tingling up his back [haha switcheroo]
"Ah, but here, yes, it ends- oh but don't worry! There is a new one right here! Oh, and you won't die alone either!"