School Etiquette
Ditch Day. The one day a year where all the students are actually allowed to cut class and have a break from the grueling repetition of their classes. Yes, everybody loved ditch day! After all who wouldn’t, even the most dedicated of learners enjoy having a break every now and then. And going to class on ditch day was about as embarrassing as having your trousers yanked down in the hallway during middle school. If only Calliope knew that today was Ditch Day. Yes, sadly Calliope’s first day of class was on ditch day, and she nobody on campus had informed her of this. The campus was deathly quiet as everyone got in extra sleep, except for the early birds of course. My my, I wonder why campus is so quiet today. Just yesterday i was woken up by the chatter of people heading to their classes, but today it seems their all gone! Calliope thought as she headed to her first class of the day. History class, not Callie’s favorite class but one she definitely enjoyed. While she much more enjoyed thinking about what is, and what could be, there was nothing wrong in learning about what has been. Calliope shivered in the chilled air of winter, her light green jacket doing little to protect her from the cold. Yes that jacket, while it felt absolutely wonderful and felt amazing to wear, was near worthless otherwise. It even had her families insignia on the chest, over the heart. As Calliope entered class, she was absolutely shocked to find that the class was completely empty. She tried to blame it on being early, but as she checked her watch she found that she was certainly not early. She had just barely made it to class on time in fact, which made everyone’s absence even more puzzling. “Ich glaube ich spinne…” Calliope said out loud. That was a German expression that translated to ‘I think I’m spinning’ or, in a more common american way of putting it, ‘I think I’m going crazy’. Calliope removed her jacket, revealing her white button up shirt and lime green suspenders, then tied it around her waste. Ill wait ten minutes and then leave. Calliope convinced herself. It didn’t take very long for that plan to get busted, as the history teacher entered the room and closed the door behind him. Calliope wouldn’t have noticed if the door wasn’t rather loud when closing. She nearly jumped out of her seat as she shouted “Mein lieber Herr Gesangsverein!” (A German expression that translates to ‘My Dear Choir’, or ‘My Goodness!’), turning to see one of the largest people she had ever seen. Not exactly large in girth, but more in combined height and muscle. He was a true mountain of a man, but Calliope could already tell she stood taller than him by at least an inch. She couldn’t tell if his hair was brown, or black, but it was kept neat and combed. There was something familiar about him that she couldn’t put her finger on.
It was ditch day, where everyone and their friends got to be lazy for no reason and the teachers were too lazy to do anything about it. Not that Carlos was complaining, it gave him time to not have to watch over a group kids, many of which who could not give a shit to pay attention in class, and just take some easy free time to finish off some lingering work. Of course the elder Makara did not exactly plan on finishing a lot of work as free time was considered beyond a luxury for someone who kept a strict schedule to the point where prison wardens would consider it overkill. Instead of all that Carlos decided he would do something he never thought he’d do, he was going to relax and take it easy. At least that was what the original idea was.
Needless to say it wouldn’t be a day in the life of Carlos Makara without something unexpected happening when he wanted to relax. And happen it did. Stepping through the door and closing it with his foot after walking through the freezing weather and muttering his usual profanity about how fucking cold it was, something odd had entered his ear. Something that he wouldn’t have really expected and if you told him it would happen he’d probably call you an idiot and to stop smoking whatever your buddy gave you. After the noise he had heard finally registered he finally came to the realization ‘German..? Who’s here on ditch day?’ Not that there was anything unusual about that, a lot of students sometimes would simply forget it was ditch or would simply walk around campus looking for their friends, but this wasn’t a student Carlos recognized. First of all he didn’t recall anyone, at least any female student, speaking German and secondly they certainly did not look so… so… otherworldly. Seeing the students shocked expression immediately told Carlos this student was modded; the silver hair, the glowing freckles, and her sheer height, she was probably just as tall as him! The visage of the student made Carlos think back to all those fantasy films and books about elves and how they looked, but looking at this tall tree of a girl made him think that she could get a role in the next big fantasy film if she tried.
While the only thing going through the mind of Carlos was ‘What’s with this… lost German elf?’ He needed to say something rather than just stare at her… elfy appearance. Granted there wasn’t a lot to be said in a situation like this. Now of course would be the opportune moment to make a good first impression so that maybe not every student thought of him as the ‘prison warden’. So it was only natural for Carlos to say, “Who the fuck are you and what are you doing here?” Eh, close enough.
