Official Meeting

[Admin Courtney]

For some of her classes, Mikayla knew there was a Teaching Assistant. Being the school-adoring student she was, she figured it would be a good idea to personally introduce herself. Besides, she was not sure if the TA had been told about her yet. She did not want to face the awkward moment in a future class when he asked her a question and then pointed to something and she had no idea how to answer because she could not see, and then had to explain the fact that she was blind to him. Yes, it would be much better if she spoke to him personally. Besides, she liked to be on good terms with all of her teachers. She did not feel like she could learn from someone who was pretty much a stranger to her.

And so Mikayla walked down the teacher's corridors, her hand trailing along the walls so that she could keep count of how many rooms she had passed so she could know where she was. She had asked where the TA's office was located, so she counted out the number of doors as she passed them until she reached the right one. Once there, she did not hesitate to knock on the door. If she had the wrong one, she would simply apologise and asked to be redirected to the correct door.
Rap, rap, rap, she knocked softly, and then waited for the sound of the door opening.

As she waited she smoothed out her uniform just to give herself something to do. Most people might stare into space or at something, but Mikayla was no longer blessed with the ability to see. So in order to pass by time and distract herself, she had to do things with her hands, be it smooth out her clothes, run a hand through her dark hair, or twiddle her thumbs.

[Laura [Oce&Lucas]]

Looking around at the boxes stuffed with books, piled hazardly here and there around his office, Ethan wondered if he really needed all them? Just because he was now a teacher's assistant it didn't mean he had to bring the books from all his years in school. But then he argued with himself about not honestly being able to remember everything what he learned in school, thus he needed his books. Did he even need an excuse to have books anyway?
Rap, rap, rap
Distracted from his thoughts fora moment, Ethan glanced up in the direction of the door and chuckled. It suddenly occured to him that he was a teachers assistant now. People would be knocking for him. Him! No longer would it be the other way around where he would be standing on the oppisite side ofthe door waiting for a teacher to open it for him. He ran his hand through his brown hair, which was still sticking up every which way since he had been in such a rush this morning he forgot to brush it. He glanced up in the direction of the door. "It's TA Forrester now." He whispered to himself as he made his way over to the door and pulled it open.
There was a girl. His piercing brown eyes met hers. A lop-sided grin overcame his face as he looked at the girl in front of him. "How many I help you?" He asked.

[Admin Courtney]

Mikayla smiled brightly when she heard the door open. She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her right ear and folded her arms loosely so that her elbows were cupped in her hands.

"Hi," she replied. "Are you the new teaching assistant?" she asked politely. "Mr. Forrester?" She had thought she would not feel embarrassed before, but now that she was standing there speaking to a person, Mikayla knew that if she was at the wrong door, she would feel absolutely silly. She had only been fooling herself earlier. Please, let this be the right room, she thought repeatedly until he spoke again.

[Laura [Oce&Lucas]]

"I sure am." He watched her tuck away a stray strand of hair and then fold her arms and he found himself trying to figure out her power. He typically tried to figure people out when he found himself face to face with a new person. What did they do? Where are they from? Whats their power? What do they do at night time when they have finished everything that had to do during the day? Did they sleep on their side of back? "Although I cant say for sure how long I will be a teaching assistant for." Ethan said, the nerves he had been feeling all week creeping back into his stomach. What if he made a boob for this job? What if he got fired? Everything he had ever worked for would be in ruins. "Is there something you need to speak to me about? My office isn't sorted yet but you may come in if it's a private subject."

[Admin Courtney]

Mikayla breathed an inward sigh of relief when her new TA assured her it was him. "Oh, good," she said with a more relaxed smile. "I was afraid I'd gotten the wrong room." As she breathed, she inhaled the air wafting out of his office through the open door. She could smell the faint aroma of cardboard and the dusty scent of books and wood. If she did not know any better, she would have sworn she was standing outside of a library.

She tilted her head slightly when he mentioned he was not sure how long he would be teaching for. There was some doubt in his voice that she picked out, and she frowned slightly. "Actually, I'd prefer to go inside if you don't mind," she told him, deciding not to comment on his previous statement yet. "I came here just to talk to you about a few things and I don't want to make you stand for long or anything. I hope I'm not keeping you from unpacking or anything," she added hesitantly, not wanting to be a bother. "I can come back if you would prefer."

[Laura [Oce&Lucas]]

"My students come first, unpacking can wait." He assured her, stepping aside to let her in. He noticed her frown and he blushed, dropping his eyes immediately, unable to keep eye contact again. He had yet to pick up on the fact that Mikayla couldn't see him. The nerves were really affecting his perspective. "Come on inside, lets have a chat."

OCC:// Sorry for the short post, trying to get used to Ethan (

[Admin Courtney]

(ooc: It's okay. Just make sure future posts are at least 100 words, as per the rules)

"That's comforting to know," she admitted, then walked forward when he invited her in. She moved slowly and did not go very far into the room, not sure exactly where stuff was. "That you put your students first, I mean," she specified. "It will make you a great TA," Mikayla added with a comforting smile. She decided his previous comment must have just been nerves speaking, and wondered if she was the first student he was having the chance to speak to one-on-one.

"Erm, I don't really know where to go from here," she admitted, stopping just a few steps into the room. "I had an accident when I was younger and lost my sight. I don't want to step on anything or knock anything of yours over. Would you mind leading me somewhere I could sit or stand or something?" she asked, trying not to feel too embarrassed. She had been blind for a few years now; it was silly to still feel embarrassed, but sometimes she couldn't help it.

[Laura [Oce&Lucas]]

Ethan blushed, how had he not noticed that she was blind? He was supposed to have a sixth sense for someone with an illness or disability. It was supposed to be his power to find and heal. His nerves must of really been effecting his senses. "Certainly." He lightly held behind her elbow, and lead her through the boxes towards his desk. The hairs on his arm bristle as a tingling shot through him. It startled him a bit and he hesitated, confused. What was that about? It waslike nothing he'd ever felt before. He decided to not dwell on it, the girl was here to talk to him, not her to stand their awkwardly while he tried to place the sensation he just felt. Ethan lead Mikayla to chair placed the oppisite side of his chair, then gently placed her hand on the back of the chair so she could feel it was there. That was the right thing to do, wasn't it? Ethan had honestly never come into contact with a blind person before. He wasn't sure what was best to do. He didn't want to over react and seem like a douche, he wanted to make her feel comfortable, but would that make him look like a pervert? "You can sit down. It won't do having you stand up." His southern accent rung.
Ethan glanced up at Mikayla as he took a seat oppisite her, "Was that the reason you came to see me?" He asked, leaning his arms on the oak desk.

[Admin Courtney]

Mikayla smiled gratefully as Mr. Forrester led her through his office to a chair she could sit in. "Thanks," she said brightly, and reached her hands out to see what was around her. She felt the edge of a desk and figured she must be sitting opposite his work desk, which helped her picture the scene a lot better. Judging from the maneuvering they had done, she guessed there were quite a lot of unpacked boxes around, and they were at the opposite end of the room. She listened as he sat down, and leaned forward slightly so she was comfortably resting her arms flat and folded on the end of his desk.

She noted his accent and wondered where he was from. Certainly not from Canada and definitely one of the Southern United States, but she could not guess which exact one since she had never been to any. "Well I figured it would be nice to get to know the new TA," she told him. "Not that I'm trying to brown-nose or anything. More that I'm looking out for myself. Wow, I hope that doesn't sound too selfish," she added, feeling a small blush rise in her cheeks. "It's just that I don't want you to feel I'm not a good student when you see me in classes with a zoned-out look -- which is really just my eyes because I'm blind -- or think I'm playing with my phone when I'm really just taking notes on my tablet. Of course," she rambled on, feeling nervous for some reason, which made her really chatty, "I'm sure the school has probably said something about me. Or maybe not. I don't know. Sorry, I'm rambling," she realised. Was Gabe rubbing off on her? She smiled amusedly at the thought.

"My name is Mikayla Karter," she said, extending her hand over the desk towards him. "And I guess I talk too much." She smiled guiltily.

[Laura [Oce&Lucas]]

Ethan listened in carefully as to what Mikayla had to say. "Thank you for coming to inform me. I wouldn't want to embarrass you and unfourtantly all of my colleagues have not informed me on your situation." Did that sound too official? He hoped not, he didn't want to sound like some stuck up teacher. He had hated all his teachers in school for being to formal and stuck up. Ethan wanted to be a cool TA, in which every student would feel like they could come to him about anything. That's what made a good teacher, in his opinion.

"Miss Karter, I was always told that there is no such thing as 'talking to much'. Verbal communication is very important." He smiled. It was a genuine smile, one that could be heard through the voice, not the fake kind of smile that was like cardboard that didn't match the voice. "My names James. Although I suppose you should call me Mr Forrester. I'm not sure on the school policies on what pupils should address their teachers by. It might be different here. Up in Tennessee we used to call our teachers and professors by their first name. But in London my cousin used to call her teachers by their last names. And in California my mother used to have to call them either Sir or Mrs. It's strange isn't it? How different places have different rules. Did you know in England you can shoot a Welsh person with a bow and arrow and it be legal, but only if you are in Chester and it is after midnight. Strange that isn't it? Oops, now I am rambling." He ran a hand through his dark hair, a blush creeping up on his face. "I know lots of useless facts. You could give me a topic on anything and I would know some useless fact on it."

[Admin Courtney]

ooc: Were you calling him Ethan now or still James? You used both in your post so I wasn't sure
ic:

Mikayla smiled. "Well then it's a good thing I came here to introduce myself," she said, relaxing in the chair. She enjoyed his accent. He would be easy to locate just based on the sound of his voice. There were a fair amount of students with accents from other countries, but so far Ocean was the only person she knew with this particular accent, and differentiating Ocean's from her TA's was simple, considering Ocean's was higher pitched than Mr. Forrester's.

"I will call you whatever you would like me to call you," she told him. "As long as you call me Mikayla instead of Miss Karter." She wrinkled her nose. "It sounds really stuffy that way. I'm sixteen, not sixty," she pointed out with a friendly laugh. Most of the teachers as Spiritus preferred their students call them 'sir' or 'ma'am' or Mr. and Mrs. and then their surnamed, but there were a few that did not mind if the informality was dropped. For example in the powers class, it was easier to refer to everyone with first names. Things could get chaotic in that class.

"I'm sorry, it appears my rambling is some contagious disease," she joked, shifting her seat in the chair and crossing one leg over the other. She leaned forward slightly on the desk and smiled. "Random and useless facts tend to be the most interesting. They would certainly make for an interesting enough conversation. Is that really legal in Chester? That could be a dangerous legality to have. If someone could come across a bow and arrow, anyway."

[KiKi]

"And I'm glad that we formally introduced." Ethan admitted to her with a friendly smile. He seen her relax in her chair, and he wondered if she was nervous before. He didn't want her to feel nervous, not around him anyway. Maybe it was because he was new here and she had yet to know about him? Yes, that was probably it. Though he wanted everyone to feel cool with him at first sight. Like when you know a teacher isn't uptight just by looking at the individual.

A chuckle escaped his lips as he nodded. "All right, Mikayla," he said, "you may call me Ethan, if you want to. You can call me Mr. Forrester if that's what you're comfortable with." Ethan gave her a warm smile and leaned against his desk. "So tell me, Mikayla," he began to say, "how does the system work here? I mean for the Mrs. and Mr. thing." He was wondering that because, as he said before, rules are always different where ever you go.

Ethan chuckled at her comment about rambling being contagious. He actually found it cute the way she rambled on like that. Wait, no he couldn't think that way about his student. No no, he couldn't. He heard her mention his useless fact about that legal law. "Why yes, I do believe it's true. And you're right, it is a dangerous law to have." Ethan gave her another smile, this time more of admiration than just his normal genuine smile.

[Admin Courtney]

Mikayla pressed her lips together, trying to decide what to call him. She figured she would just go with whatever felt the most natural. "Well, Mr. Forrester," she said, tilting her head to the side. "Most of the teachers here go by Mr. or Mrs. or Miss, but the powers teacher prefers us refer to him by his first name," she told him. "You might get along well with him. He's a lot younger than the other teachers and isn't one for big formalities. He threatens detention if we call him Mr. Hawthorn," she said with a smile, though she had never seen anyone get detention in powers class.

"I think I might call you Ethan, though. It suits you more than Mr. Forrester does," she decided. "I hope that's okay."

[KiKi]

Ethan chuckled lightly. "Well that's one way of getting the students to call you by your first name," he told her, half joking. "I bet I will. He seems to be one of those teachers who you could go to and not be scared that he'll yell at you." Ethan admired those kind of teachers, it's what made them so good at their jobs, in his opinion anyway. "Is he a nice teacher? Personality wise?"

"Ethan it is then," he said smiling wide to her, glad that she chose his first name instead of his last. It didn't make him feel right when people called him 'Mr. Forrester', although he knows he'll be getting that a lot around here.

[Admin Courtney]

"He is," she nodded. "He's one of the nicest teachers here. You'll get to know which ones you need to be extra careful around, but honestly Spiritus is not as strict as everyone says it is. I really enjoy my time here, anyway," she added with a shy smile. She clasped her hands together on the desk top so she would stop fidgeting.

"What classes will you be assisting in, Ethan?" she asked him. She wanted to know which she could look forward to. Look forward to? She was going to look forward to classes Ethan was helping instruct? Well sure, he was nice, right? That wasn't so bad. He seemed to really like his job. She pegged that from all of his questions. She could tell he was really dedicated and that he would be a great teacher. She could not wait to see how he taught. And she wanted to be a familiar face for him so he would not be nervous.