If there was one thing Nico was grateful for, it was his planning period. Everyday between teaching second period AP US history and fourth period art history he could reply to angry emails, indulge into his candy stash, grade, write angry emails, refill his water, and go to the bathroom.
He had somehow ended up with the same exact schedule from one term to the next. He followed his second period out to run some arrends around the school and was scared shitless when his room was occupied with about 10 freshman. Two things were frightening about this, A: he didn't have a class third period, B: he didn't teach freshman at all this term (he could tell they were freshman, they had the scared look in their eyes).
"Woah you guys can't be in here, get to class!" He urged, slamming his stack of copies onto his desk.
"Uhm, this is our class," one of the braver ones said, " aren't you Mr. -" she knit her eyebrows together and glared at her schedule, "Di Angelo-Solace?"
Nico took a deep breath. "What class do you guys think you're in?"
The same girl, they're leader apparently, responded. "Honors English 9?"
It took all Nico had in him to not point at the various historical posters on his walls and the whiteboard dedicated to Italian verbs. He in no way taught English.
He took a deep breath (again). "There are two Mr. Di Angelo-Solaces in this school. I teach history and Italian, the other one teaches english. Go upstairs to room 302. I'll call him and let you know you're all coming."
The leader of the bunch seemed confused, but not confused enough to ask questions. She quickly gathered her things and walked out the door, causing everyone else to follow her.
Nico sighed and sat down at his desk. He knew Will had his cell off during work hours so he reached to the hardly used landline on his desk and dialed Will's classroom.
"Hel-lo" a sing-songy voice responded.
Nico smiled at the voice, "Hi love, it's me, sorry to bother I know it's syllabus day."
"It's no prob, what's up?"
"Missing half your class?"
"Yup. Got em?"
"Yup I just sent them up. Throw them a solid and don't mark them tarty. My fault I wasn't in the room when they first came in. I think I also generally scared them."
"Okay, will do, love you."
''Love you too, hun."
Nico put the phone back in it's holder and gave a soft sigh, turning to his desktop and opening his email.
When I was learning German my teacher pulled me aside to ask which of my parents spoke German. I was confused and said neither. Then belatedly I remembered that my dad did speak very rudimentary German after being stationed in Heidelberg for a few years.
This teacher was well loved but very strict, being questioned by her was always a little intimidating. I didn’t know why she was asking.
She pressed to ask if he spoke it with me and I laughed nervously and said no I asked him not to speak it because he couldn’t even conjugate verbs.
Apparently my accent was so good that she assumed I’d had more than one year of practice. The problem was my vocabulary. Ironically I needed her to translate the word for accent as I was unfamiliar with it. I was a decent student but some words tripped me up.
One day she conducted an oral exam and asked us to talk about the hospital. We could say whatever we wanted. In the middle of my nervous little monologue about how we go to the hospital when we are sick and the doctors and nurses help us she suddenly burst out laughing.
I had never seen her laugh before, at least not more than a sensible chuckle. But here she was, bent over her stomach cracking up leaving me baffled as to how talking about the nurses could possibly have inspired this extreme hilarity.
The word I was trying to use for nurse was “Pfleger” but I’d said “Fluger”. (Possibly fliegen? It’s been a long time) What I said was close to fly, and the teacher was imagining flying nurses drifting along the hospital wing.
She apologized and tried to compose herself but she admitted that hearing my extremely competent accent saying absolute nonsense was the highlight of her week.
no idea if it's my hormones, what I've seen in the news lately, the weight of living the past few years, or just because it's Judi Dench...but this impromptu performance really made me cry for a good ten minutes, no kidding.
the rat grinders getting whomped because they don't know how actual combat works is exactly what I've been waiting for all season. fabian taking down ivy in one turn bc they have no hp, them grouping up bc they don't know they're not supposed to and getting immediately shit on by adaine, riz's attack of opportunity doing more damage to kipperlilly than her actual attack did to him, gorgug taking down oisin by the end of round 1 bc they didn't protect their wizard, kristen and k2 both bringing all their friends up while keeping themselves strategically hidden bc they know better, riz diving into the lava like it's nothing bc he's a badass, adaine slapping jace's counterspell out of the air, fig tanking that hit from porter and casting that clutch fireball. just. beautiful. iconic. poetic. exactly what the rat grinders deserve after xp grinding for three years instead of actually adventuring. you fucking suck at this game kipperlilly!! you might be high level but you're shit at pvp!!!!!