Title:           Week14 - GreentextSavant
Author:          AlexanderGrey
Pastebin link:   http://pastebin.com/GYmpAd2U
First Edit:      Saturday 25th of June 2016 05:17:41 PM CDT
Last Edit:       Saturday 25th of June 2016 05:17:41 PM CDT

LISTEN
>Enter the room with a rushed pace; you did hear Cinch’s footsteps fall behind you a little bit.
>This gives you enough of a sliver of hope to pull this stunt. Reach over to your desk after taking one long step and swipe the keys off of the surface. You try not to let the clicking of the lock sound loud enough to reach where Cinch is going to be standing in half a second.
>Turn your hand, softly but quickly. Out of the corner of your eye, you spot the trash can at the corner of the room. The very second you feel the key leave the keyhole, you toss it in the direction of the trash can as accurately as you can.
>And you miss, but in a way where you overshoot the attempt and the keys slide into the gap between the trash can and the wall.
>Cinch’s clacking footsteps stop in the doorway right as you hear the keys hit the floor behind the plastic can.
>”I suppose there is something in here you’d like to show me?” Her voice shows more satisfaction than suspicion.
>It’s a miracle she doesn’t know yet.
“I, uh…” You pretend to fail at getting the drawer to open. “Hold on… I think I misplaced my keys.”
>If there’s anything you wish right now, it’s that you could be better at looking confused.
>Cinch raises an eyebrow, letting her anticipation grow as she waits for her victory to be confirmed. “Well… if there’s something you just placed in there, do you not know where you just put your keys to lock the drawer?” Now her tone is starting to shift to more of an interrogating one again.
>Force a short laugh.
“Heh, yeah. It’s just the dumbest thing. I just locked the darn thing and now I can’t remember where I just put the keys.” You fumble around your desk. “They were just here, I swear. I… I think.”
>Cinch eyes the student desks as you continuing shifting the objects on your desk around. Her brow furrows, and you can tell that she might be thinking of Zest at the moment.
“Is something wrong?” You draw her attention back to you before she looks towards the trash can.
>”Well… I still have the hallways to monitor, so I suppose that whatever it is you need to show me will have to wait until later.”
>You keep your attention away from the trash can, and slowly straighten your back and face the principal. She’s already walking towards the door.
“Uh, alright. Sorry about that.”
>Cinch turns to you. “Oh, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” Her voice has dropped back to a calm state. “I’m sure your keys are in one of those strange place where you never look until the very last attempt. I’ve done the same thing. It’s quite annoying, isn’t it?”
“Yup.”
>She seems to be satisfied with being convinced that the headphones are in the drawer and Zest can’t get to them anyway.
>You watch her walk out of the room, only sighing when you know the clacking heels are quiet enough for her to be out of earshot. Turn your head to one of the desks, noticing one of the students from the next class sitting there.
>Sugarcoat.
>Her arms are crossed, and she wears a glazed look on her face as you walk over to the door as more students come in.
“Good afternoon, Miss Sugarcoat.” You force a half smile.
>You would have felt better if the girl had smiled back, whether it would have been fake or not. But knowing this girl, you’re certain she’d be unwilling to fake a smile anyway. What you see is what you’re stuck with… a raised eyebrow.
>Start to ignore her and greet the other students walking into the classroom. Sugarcoat watches you for a moment, before greeting you back far too late for it not to feel uncomfortable.
>”Good afternoon, Mr. Mous.”
“You ready for today’s lesson?” You strike up a conversation without even thinking about it.
>”Probably more than you think.”
“Hmm?”
>”I’m aware that there’s a pop quiz today, since you gave last class’s theres yesterday.” Now she’s starting to grin.
>And you pray that this is the sole reason why.
“And how did you know that?” You put her in the spotlight.
>Her grin fades for a slight moment before she explains herself. “I simply caught on to the pattern. It wasn’t that hard to figure out. Maybe you should use a more complicated system if you don’t want your students to figure out when your pop quizzes are going to be.”
>You can’t help but smile yourself.
>”Oh, and aren’t you going to pick up your keys?”
>The smile on your face promptly disappears before the one on Sugarcoat’s face re-emerges.
“Now…” You start off in a rushed tone. “That only happened because I was just being silly.”
>”Oh, really?” Sugarcoat knows Cinch’s personality very well.
“What?” You respond. “Can’t us teachers have a little joking around every now and then?”
>Sugarcoat responds with a huff and tightens her crossed arms. She stares at the ceiling, giving you the green light to change the subject.
>Though, you have a pretty good reason not to, given what the girl surely knows. But that will have to be for later.
“Okay, let’s just wait for everyone to get in here and we’ll begin.” You nervously eye the door.
>…
>Sugarcoat doesn’t look very surprised as you ask her to stay after class. Judging by the concerned expression that you just knew you had on your face, she could have guessed that you had some explaining to do.
>And so, you do… seeing nowhere else to turn with this. Though, you’ll leave a lot of the parts against the rules out. Sugarcoat’s too honest to keep a secret.
>”So… what’s in the drawer that you don’t want her to see?” Sugarcoat raises her eyebrow again.
“Ah, just a few things she kind of… well not laughed at me for.” You sound as convincing as you can, realizing how stupid any excuse you think of will sound. “She just told me that it was silly to bring… rock albums… CD’s to the school. And that’s what i have locked in there, along with my CD player.”
>”Um… what?”
“We’re allowed to, but she still told me it was silly.” You solidify your story. “Isn’t that strange?”
>”It’s not really strange, in my opinion. The fact that you’d bring a CD player to listen to music in this day and age is silly. Have you even heard of iPods, or mobile phones or… the musical side of the internet? No wonder she’s mocking you.”
“Hey, now.” You playfully tilt your head at her. “Don’t be rude. It’s not that bad.”
>Actually expecting her not to be rude.
>She’s lucky most people around here have gotten used to it.
>”Unless you have a valid reason to not be able to get with the times, it actually is that bad. What did she even want to see in that drawer anyway?” Sugarcoat curiously eyes the desk.
“Just some paperwork.”
>That’s all you say.
>After a pause, Sugarcoat lets out a short sigh and answers. “Okay. Understandable. I’ll… not tell her.” She stands up and walks out of the room before you can say anything back.
>Whatever, she promised for now. Hopefully.
>The school day ends and you go back to your classroom. Knowing Lemon Zest, she’s either going to be super early from not talking to anyone due to the music or be super late due to the music.
>Spend the rest of the five minutes in between doing paperwork.
>And then Lemon Zest approaches the door — you can only tell by the sound of the music through her headphones getting gradually closer.
“Hey Miss Ze-” You start off before remembering that she definitely can’t hear you.
>Wait for her to sit down in her desk and face you. She takes the headphones off of her head after you wave to her.
>”Sup, Mr. Mous?” Her voice is even more cheery that the school day is over.
“Pretty well.” You pull out the part of your paperwork that has a summary of the past few day’s lessons summarized.
>The door is closed and Zest immediately gets her pencil out with an eager grin on her face as you go over what material you’ll cover during this after school session. You notice her write down a ton of notes in the beginning, actually filling up the whole page with information.
>It’s probably more than she’s written in total for about a month or so.
>The sound of her pencil actively sliding against the paper as she jots down more and more notes makes you feel proud of yourself for deciding to pull this off. Hopefully, everyone, including Cinch, can stay happy.
>But you start to feel a little bit concerned when Zest puts her pencil down in the middle of one of the most important sections you tell her about. You hadn’t realized it, but you were actually on a roll going over a much more broad period of time in history. You enjoyed it more; there is so much more happening over the minutes you give the lecture.
>Part of you even wished that the regular classes could be like this, but that part is silenced out when a sigh escapes Zest.
“Is something wrong?” You put your paper down onto the desk beside you.
>She takes a deep breath and open her eyes. “Well… it’s just that…” She glances down over to her headphones. “Can I be honest with you for a sec?”
“Sure.”
>”This lesson is fun and all, but like… do I have to memorize all of this for the tests and stuff?”
“Well…” You gesture your hand towards the board. “I like to imagine it more as actually learning rather than memorizing.”
>Lemon Zest gives you a confused look.
>”Well… uh, I don’t know.”
“What is it?”
>Zest hesitates for a few seconds. You imagine something small being out of line, something that you can talk the girl around and keep her pushing forward to doing better on her work. You really hope it isn’t anything about the material itself — that’s something you could never change.
>”It’s just that I wish there was a less boring way to do it.” The girl explains the best she can, leaning back in her seat. “I mean, if you put it in a way where it’s learning versus memorizing… I think enjoying it is what makes the two things different.”
>You were afraid she’d say something like this; this is the exact thing you were trying to counter by letting her learn after the school day itself is over anyway. It hadn’t occurred to you until now that she’d probably be even more unwilling to do work now that the rest of the students are home… and she would be home too if not for staying after.
“Does listening to music make things more enjoyable for you?” You decide to take the conversation in the direction it was already going in.
>”Of course.”
>Start thinking of all the possible solutions in your head as swiftly as you can. You admittedly find this situation to be quite interesting, given that the whole ‘learning vs memorizing’ thing Zest brought up has been something that’s plagued your thoughts every time you see your students rush to finish taking notes and leave to go home.
>Lemon Zest places a hand on her headphones as you start to explain to her what could be done. You try to decide whether it’s better for her to listen to music outside of school or during classes when the clicking of the doorknob cuts off your train of thought.
>”Mr. Mous?” Cinch’s voice freezes you in place as the door swings open. “You wanted to show me someth-”
>The principal herself is cut off by the sigh of Lemon Zest sitting right in her seat with her headphones right next to her arm atop a stack of notebook paper.
>”Principal Cinch!” Zest jumps in her seat.
“Oh, hello.” You almost involuntarily switch to cool mode, thinking up the damage control in your head.
>Cinch’s brow furrows as she glares over at the headphones. “Good afternoon, Mr. Mous… Miss Zest.” Her voice doesn’t sound much different with her teeth gritting against eachother.
“I uh… almost forgot. There was something you needed me to tell you?”
>The door shuts behind the principal, blocking out any potential yelling from exiting the room into the hallway.
>”I suppose it has something to do with Miss Zest.” Cinch guesses.
>It’s a good thing you have already been thinking of a solution for this in your head before Cinch unexpectedly walked into the room.
“Yes, I’ve been meaning to tell you how things played out, but you’re always busy and aren’t available to call until… later, so…” You can tell that Cinch knows ‘later’ means five in the morning.
>You can also tell that she doesn’t care about that, what with her addressing Lemon Zest right away.
>”So what is this going on here?” Cinch tilts her head back a little bit and points her nose upwards as she asks. “I suppose this is some sort of… after school tutoring?” She turns her head towards you with that same suspecting look.
>Calmly walk over to the principal.
“Well… Miss Zest here did come to terms that she is not allowed to be in possession of her headphones during school hours. It took me a lot of explaining it all to her.” You turn to the student, giving her a hopefully unnoticeable look of urgency to play along. “Right?”
>You’re not sure whether or not Cinch noticed. The moment she figures out that there’s something you’re hiding from her, it’s all over.
>”Y-yeah.” Zest slightly stutters with her fingers locked in front of her.
>”But… why is she here with her headphones?” Cinch narrows her eyes at you, keeping your desk in the background of her line of sight.
“See… I came up with an idea.” You are actually still in the process of coming up with that said idea in order to slither your way out of this.
>Cinch begins to look slightly interested to hear, but still crosses her arms. “And what is that?”
“Well, it goes like this.” You make it up as you go along. “Miss Zest knows that she isn’t allowed to have possession her headphones on school grounds during hours. But she told me that just today that listening to her music helps her try to focus in class.”
>The principal squints at you, and you re-word your statement to make that squint a more understanding one.
“I had asked her to hand the headphones over to me at the beginning of class. She did so, but I saw she wasn’t jotting down any notes. So I asked to see her after class.”
>”Am I in trouble?” Zest quietly interjects.
“Everything’s fine.” You immediately answer before Cinch can get the girl to spill the beans.
>”Miss Zest, I thought you had been told specifically that you are not allowed to have your headphones on in school!”
“Well that’s the thing.” You add. “Miss Zest here asked me if I could give her the headphones back, to which I said no. So she asked if there was ever a time when she could wear them at least at home when she’s doing her homework.”
>”Mr. Mous. Where are you going with this?” Cinch is now starting to glare at you.
“Well, it had been decided that the headphones stay in this classroom at all times.”
>”And locked away?” Asks Cinch.
“Yes. Locked away. All throughout the school day.” You clarify. “And I made it clear to Miss Zest here that the headphones are not to leave this room. And that’s the way it is. You’ve come to accept that, right?” You turn to the girl
>She stares at you, picking something up in your tone. “Yeah.” Her answer is meek, but straightforward.
“So we worked something out.” You continue. “I told her that if she really wants to listen to her music, she has to do it here on school grounds and in the classroom where her headphones were confiscated in the first place. I told her that if she wants to listen to her music, she has to do her work under my watch after school so her grades are certain to rise.” You cross your arms, looking as strict as you can.
>Cinch apparently only listened to the part about the grades.
>”Well then.” She straightens herself out. “I suppose I haven’t thought about it that way.”