“Fourteen years I’ve working here as a teacher now” the middle-aged man shouted, wildly gesticulating with his arms. “And for fourteen years, the students didn’t need to know what and e-integral is up to the 10th class. But then, from one day to the next, I am supposed to teach it to a bunch of 7th graders! Can you believe this? How the heck am I supposed to explain the e-integral to a bunch of kids who barely understand what curve sketching is!?”
Cadence, smiling politely at the man, slowly nodded her head. “I can understand how you feel” she told him.
Her colleague sighed, taking a sip from his coffee. When he put the cup off his lips he seemed to have calmed down, but was still frustrated. “And it’s not just that Cinch moved the lectures from higher into lower classes” he sighed. “For the seniors, she decided it would be necessary to add the cotangent into the lesson plan – the cotangent!” He threw his arms up, Cadence fearing he would spill some of his coffee on his half-bald head. “The only field that requires knowing that is rocket science, and while we are an elite high school, I doubt many of our students aspire a career in it.” He held his cup close to his face, grumbling. “Now I have to spend my evenings refreshing my knowledge about the cotangent – stuff I was all too eager to forget after college – while at the same time, trying to think of a way how to squeeze it into the rest of the study plan. We were in the middle of imaginary numbers when Cinch announced her changes!”
Cadence, smiling politely at the man, slowly nodded her head. “I can understand how you feel” she told him.
He took another sip from his coffee, a long one, before putting his cup down with a sigh. Rubbing his temples he looked like he was about to say something else, but the school bell cut him off. “Well, back to business” he said, not sounding the least bit excited. “Gotta teach a bunch of 6th graders what a polynomial is.” He took in a deep breath, before flashing a smile at the dean. “Thanks for listening to me, Miss Cadenzia.”
Cadence, smiling politely at the man, slowly nodded her head. “I can understand how you… I mean no problem” she quickly said, blushing slightly. “And please, call me Cadence.”
The man nodded, before getting on his way, moving rather fast and hectic. Once he was out of hearing range, Cadence let out a sigh. “My job description said I needed an open ear for the problems students, not the teachers’ as well” she murmured, taking a sip from her own coffee.
For many students, the teacher’s longue was a mystical room, a luxurious palace where the teacher’s resided between classes like kings and queens on golden couches while eating the finest caviar. Though the teacher’s lounge of Crystal Prep Academy probably had more elegance than those of other schools with its shining walls and the crystal columns, Cadence wondered what some of the students would think if they found out how mundane the place really was: A number of desks, shelves containing books and files, a couch in a corner, and a small kitchen niche – that was it. Not quite the luxury some students were dreaming about, but as a place to prepare the next lesson or just relaxed between classes, it did its job.
Currently, Cadence was leaning against the kitchen counter, embracing her mug of coffee with both hands. She took another long, satisfying sip from it, the bitter nectar warming up her throat. Taking it off her lips she took a look inside, seeing there was only a small rest left. Despite the caffeine’s effect she still felt a little worn out, so she took the coffee can from the machine and filled the mug back up to the brim. After taking another small sip to lower the fluid level Cadence headed for the door. On her way she walked past a number of other teachers at their desks, one looking more stressed out than the next. There were biology teachers trying to condense the principles of DNA replication into two lessons, sport teachers reading on training methods to increase the performance of young athletes, and music teachers thinking of ways how to fit 200 years of musical history into a single half-year. One glance at their exhausted faces, Cadence could tell many of them could need someone to lend them an ear for their problems. The staple of work on her desk in mind however she picked up her pace, quickly heading for the door.
Once she had left the teacher’s lounge, the dean was greeted by the sight of a group of students standing in the corridor. As she passed them, she could overhear a conversation how to spend the free lesson – the discussion seemed to be pending between learning for a test or going to the sports field to train for an upcoming marathon. When one of them suggested they should just sit down in the schoolyard, the others laughed.
Laughter. That wasn’t something heard often at this school. Granted, the punch-line was rather cynical, but still, as Cadence looked over her shoulder at the students, she smiled at them.
After reaching her office and closing the door behind her, the first thing she did was check her emails. As she sat down on her office chair, the mug of coffee still in her hand, she gleefully noticed an email titled as “frindship repot” – it only took a quick glance to see it was written on a cellphone. Leaning back Cadence began to read, occasionally taking a sip from her coffee.
dear dean cadence
did ya watch the concert?! totally awesome rite?!! XD
anyway I learned buncha stuff so thought I should tell ya bout it :3
(sry didnt write ealier but weekend u know ^^;
so yeah i started a band but first my friends didn want to join bcause we dndt like the same musc and stuff :(
so i looked for people outside of school & found those 2 cool gals b^.^d
but when we started rehersl they only argued bcause they dint wanna play each others music >_<
(also one tried to eat the others soul 1ce but thats a different story :o)
so it seemed bad but i kept telling them to play & then we started playing & it was good bcause we mixed our fave music & WE ROCKED THE SCHOOL!!!! \m/(-o-)\m/
but bcause they dont go to cpa cinch said we couldnt practise anymore here so we had to quit the band :*(
but next day my friens suprised me by sain they start a new band with me and now weve got a band aftr all :D
so to sum it up when tis bout music or games or many other kind of stuff people are all like “this is the best” or “i only like this” o.0
but in the end tis dont mater just as lng as ya get ur friends & u can party hard!!! >:D
i also learnt things that are very difrnt can actualy go very wll 2gether so u shouldnt juge too fast & just try & mix em:)
probly learnt other stuff too but cant remember rite now and im reachin charcter limit^^
stay fresh! LZ
ps you also told us to report how we spread friendship around cpa & stuff
well thanks to me almost half the students now want to hang around in bands
not bad rite ;)
Despite being rather short, due to the grammar the “letter” took a while to finish. When Cadence was done she put her half-empty mug on her desk. While she printed out the mail she thought for a moment about Lemon’s concert – unfortunately she couldn’t attend, but from what she had heard, it was a big success. And of course, she had heard about all those bands that had started up the day after. Just as she was about to reminisce on her own time in a school band – which consisted of one gig and a lot of tomatoes – a “ping” informed her of a new email. Bearing the same address as the last one, with the same misspelled title, she curiously opened it.
almos forgot hers a record from our first time plain 2gether hope ya like it :)
And indeed, there was a sound file added to the mail. With a smile the dean clicked on it, leaning back in her chair. Maybe, she thought, this could be a memento she wouldn’t have to put away with the letter – whenever the stress of her job got too much, she could just play the song, and relax to the melody created from the bond of her students and the memories of this event that had deepened their friendship. Seeing the file had been downloaded Cadence closed her eyes, waiting for it to auto-play.
After listening to it for ten seconds she shut it off, copied the file on a CD, placed it in a plastic hull and quickly stored it alongside the letter in the friendship folder.