Survival of the Attentive

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Located on the first floor of the school building, the language arts wing houses all the school's English, Spanish, and other foreign language classes. The Principal's office is also in this area.
ThoDuSt
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Survival of the Attentive

#1

Post by ThoDuSt »

*sigh*...

Charles Richard Dawson stared in dissatisfaction at the credits on the screen, while wishing he had never taken this elective. Usually in classes about movies you watch ones with merit to the craft, but this wasn't of high enough quality to count as even a B-movie. Every attempt to find out about the film on the internet came up with nothing, how does that happen!? The past few days in this class could have been better spent watching pretty much any other movie.

The monster couldn't be naturally occurring, but they implied it was. If there was really a breeding population of carnivorous mammals the size of 18-wheelers living in small town America it would probably be discovered long before the start of the movie, and no one would build a town on the breeding site of those creatures if they knew.

The teacher told the class to discuss the film as he went to do... something. He didn't say what exactly, but he did assure the class that he'd know if they left.


*sigh*... "It's gonna be a long day," Charles silently mouthed to himself.
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xylophonefairy†
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#2

Post by xylophonefairy† »

((Maddy Stone continued from For The Kingdom...

Out of curiousity, is that a real film or did you make it up?))

Maddy leaned forwards to tap Charles on the back, eager to resume the conversation that they seemed to have almost every time they encountered each other, which was usually in this class. Any film could be linked back to the theory of evolution in some way, she had discovered. Films about love, films about talking animals, films where the main character is an alien from the planet Clom. All had their bizzarre twists back to Darwin and God and their general disagreement.

She breathed slightly heavily through her nose, it being bunged up with the cold that had been simmering for at least a week, refusing to come to a head and actually present itself, preferring to sit and make it difficult for her to breathe properly and inducing the odd sneeze, usually when the room was quiet. She fumbled in her pocket for a tissue, finding a crumpled, previously used one at the bottom. She wrinkled her nose in distaste, but her tissue supply was running precariously low, and desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Go on then," she said, in a half whisper, holding the tissue under her right nostril that had just begun to stream, "how did those," she indicated the screen with mild distaste, "things evolve?"
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#3

Post by Killer_Moth† »

((Theo Behr cont'd from Seeking Focus))

Theo sat quietly in class as the lesson droned on around him. He was feeling much more himself after all the excitement of yesterday. He hadn't had an opportunity to speak with Dr. Brock as yet, but still, he'd written down everything in his journal. That helped him to make more sense of it all. He felt that he should probably find Vic and apologise, or at least find a way to make it up to her, but really didn't want to come across as a stalker.

The teacher was talking about some bad film, so Theo wasn't paying particular attention. Not that it really mattered. He was used to the fact that most teachers never called on him if they could help it. They'd either get a shrug, or a diatribe, depending on his mood. Neither was particularly useful to them, but couldn't be helped.

He was doodling on his notebook, just some idle pics of eyeballs, hands, ears, trying to get a handle on basic anatomy. Not that he liked drawing, but it was easier to concentrate on that than on the film. There'd been nothing to grab his attention, the plot being both highly implausible and derivative, playing on city dwellers fears of what lay in backwoods America. Keep them afraid, keep them controlled.

He stretched, adjusted his glasses and noticed that the teacher had gone. The class was breaking up into discussion groups. Brilliant. That meant that somebody would almost inevitably try and get him involved, try to make him feel part of a group, of the class. He tried to look engrossed in his notes, hoping that nobody would engage him.
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#4

Post by Fanatic† »

((Teo Weinstock continued from Looking for Company the weekend before))

Teo glanced around as the student body broke up into discussion groups and he stretched out. Frankly the film was yawnarific. He much preferred the fast pacing and on the seat entertainment of action films. Yes, sure, mutated creatures were always fun but to be honest, it was way too far fetched to be entertaining to Teo.

He absentmindedly eyed up Maddy's decent jugs before shaking his head. She was well below his average eye candy and he had better things to do with his time. His eyes slid over to Theo's table, the boy scribbling away frantically in his notepad.

"Yo, Theo, whatcha got there?" he said, standing up from his chair, picking it up and planting it solidly next to his unenthused classmate, not that he really cared. The only reason Teo had signed up for this class was the (unfounded) rumour that all the girls had chosen this class, and he wasn't one to miss such an opportunity. After he discovered his mistake the tall guy just stuck with it, as it was a relatively easy class and let him focus his attention elsewhere or just use the class for extra study time when in a pinch.

***

((Jason Harris continued from Walking Amongst Ghosts directly))

Jason slipped in to the class unnoticed. Fifteen minutes late as sure as clockwork like he always did. Sliding in to the empty desk near Maddy and Charles he whispered as he quickly flicked his notebook out of bag, "What did I miss?"

Class was important to Jason, despite his tardiness. Not that he couldn't keep up, but learning was definitely something to take in to account. His mind was of two worlds on the subject, it was important to gain the knowledge, but putting it into application was far more difficult and rewarding. He thought back to his conversation with Nathan. He would, he decided, ask Erin to prom at soccer training later that day. Hell or high water, and for now, instead of over-thinking it, as per usual, he would concentrate on the class, if only his classmates would get him up to speed.

With his mind resolute he stared intensely at Charles for a second, before breaking in to a friendly smile upon the realisation that he had perhaps, been staring a little too hard.
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#5

Post by xylophonefairy† »

"We finished watching the film," Maddy said to Jason, gesturing towards the screen where the last few credits were still rolling, now they were on to the names of the various CGI people who had made the monsters come alive. For such a small budget movie, there were an impressive number of people involved. She adjusted her top slightly, having a strange feeling Teo had been staring at her chest, which made her feel self-conscious all of a sudden. Hitching it up, it bagged strangely. Even stranger was that her mother had bought her it, her mother who thought that a skirt that ended above the knee virtually guaranteed you to spend the rest of your days burning in eternal damnation. "The monsters looked set to take over the town," Maddy continued, she wasn't even sure if Jason had seen the first half, she didn't remember his specifically from that class but she rarely noticed when people were absent anyway. Her sister went away to church camp once in the summer and had been gone a day and a half before Maddy had realised.

"But then," she said, pausing somewhat sarcastically as if to indicate that this was a dramatic moment in the film, "the hero came up with the usual ridiculous method of getting rid of the monsters, something to do with their constitution being delicate to fruit stones, or maybe it was the cyanide but basically they lured them into a peach tree orchard and they went crazy and ate the peaches then they all died. It was a bit of a let down..." she said, trailing off absent mindedly. Maddy hadn't known what she'd been expecting, after all when she'd looked it up on imdb, there had barely been any information about it at all, only the principal two cast members were up there and none of the extras. She supposed they probably didn't want to be associated with something so bizzarre.

"And now," she kept going, "Charles is trying to come up with a way for them to have 'naturally evolved'. I will stand by the fact that God was having a bad day and decided to play a bit of a cruel joke on the innocent inhabitants of that tiny town."
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#6

Post by Killer_Moth† »

"What? Oh, just my notes. Nothing important. Just doodling. Can I help you?"

Teo. Of all the dumb guys to decide that they wanted Theo to talk about the film with, it had to be this guy. It struck him as odd that he picked Theo over one of the girls, as Teo had a reputation as a lech. Still, hopefully he wouldn't be expecting Theo to actually talk about the film.

Theo was always slightly nervous around the taller boy. He was everything that Theo wasn't. Tall, well built, popular. The only thing that they had in common was their Jewish heritage, but even then, Theo was nth Generation, his family having lived in America for a very long time. Even so, the connection was there, and it was enough that he felt he couldn't just ignore the boy, no matter how much he wanted to.

He looked around the rest of the class, seeing if anybody else was planning on coming over. Jason, Maddy and Charles had formed a group over to his right, but really, he had little time for any of them. Reflecting, maybe Teo was the best option if he had to talk to somebody. Hopefully, he would just be able to sit back and let Teo talk at him, so he would have less to worry about.

"Sorry, Teo. I'm a bit aiver butel today. That film just seemed to be a waste of time."

((This one was a bugger to proofread, between Teo and Theo. Incidentally, the Yiddish translates as absent minded or mixed up.))
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#7

Post by ThoDuSt »

((sorry for the delay in my post, I was waiting on someone to join the thread and then other things came up etc. also the film is made up if you still wanted an answer to that))

Charles snapped out of his daze. "Naturally evolved? I thought I had informed you that even if a film can used to be used to demonstrate evolutionary theory to a layperson that doesn't mean that it has any actual scientific merit. If the events of the movie occurred in real life I would be forced to agree with your view that a magic sky pixie was behind it!"

He glanced away, sneering, before realizing the weight of his words. Sighing, he turned to Maddy once again, "Sorry about that Maddy, that movie just really pissed me off." as Charles took a quick look at the credits rolling screen, he couldn't help but hone in on two words, "Scientific Consultant!? Who would willingly admit to having that position!? A member of the Flat Earth Society could do better!!!"
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#8

Post by Fanatic† »

(OoC: Yep, not as bad as the one where we had 2 Sarah's, now that was confusing!)

Teo nodded, leaning slightly back in his chair putting his hands behind his head. "Yeah, plus between us the coursework in this class is a joke hey, I don't think I researched for a single assignment." He broke in to an easy grin as he watched Theo's reaction. The kid could be easily intimidated, but that wasn't what Teo was going for in this instance. Theo was a good kid, if not a little socially inept and despite his exterior Teo felt a pang of pity for the guy. "Still, it wouldn't hurt to compare notes, you've probably spotted something interesting that I didn't, unless you just want to shoot the shit or something."

Teo rocked forward so the chair landed on all four legs and made a motion for Theo to move his notes over so they could both have a good look at them.


***

Jason broke in to a smile as Maddy . "Right, sounds about right. You know it's always the small towns who have the plagues of strange mutants."

Cocking his head slightly he leaned forward to look past Maddy as Charles broke out of what Jason assumed was a rapt state of disbelief and entered a small rant. "If the events of the movie occurred in real life I would be forced to agree with your view that a magic sky pixie was behind it!""

"Whoa Charles, don't knock the sky wizard, his beard is magnificent and luxurious. Jason made a show of stroking a non-existent beard as Chris quickly recovered and apologised to Maddy. As he continued talking Jason spoke up once more, while he bent down to unzip his bag and pull out his soccer ball. "You know, I saw a website which was run by those guys. I honestly cannot believe they reckon the whole world is flat and that the round earth theory, or should I say reality, is a giant conspiracy run by NASA. There's no arguing with some loons."

Puling out the ball Jason played absentmindedly with it with his foot while he surreptitiously glanced at Maddy's notes to see if there was anything he needed to copy, or if there was an announcement of some assignment that he missed at the beginning of the class.
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#9

Post by xylophonefairy† »

((Ahh, I remember the one with 2 Sarah's, and they were talking to each other as well, just to confuse matters that bit more. And it's a good thing the film is made up seeing as I made up the ending.))

Maddy recovered fairly quickly, she felt, from the initial shock at Charles' outburst. Usually they entered into a debate at least, but she hadn't heard him talk with so much distaste since, well, ever. The slightly upset look on her face softened, and she turned to grin at Jason stroking his imaginary beard, her image of God was always of a man with a long brown beard, slightly too long straight brown hair, in a white gown. In fact, the face was startlingly similar to that of the homeless guy who sometimes snuck into Church late on a Sunday morning and stood at the back, clearly more moved by the sermon than anybody else was. The rest of the congregation regarded him with a sense of pity, and though they were outwardly kind when they brought him tea, they warned their children to stay away. From her position in the choir stalls, Maddy would watch him during the service, and if it were to turn out that the second coming of Jesus was about to arise, she wouldn't have been in the least bit surprised (okay, maybe a bit surprised) if he had stood and confessed to the world that he was in fact the son of God.

For this reason, Maddy tended to make a point of being nice to the homeless man. Just in case.

"Yes!" she said, twirling a pen between her fingers, leaning back in her chair. "I may be a Catholic and believe in the 'bearded sky pixie', as you insist on calling Him, but at least I will accept that the Earth is a sphere. Anyway, what good sky pixie would make a world where people fall off the edges just for being a bit curious?"
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#10

Post by Killer_Moth† »

"You think I was paying attention? Wow. I really have nothing written down about that film." Theo hesitated. His drawing was truly awful, barely resembling anything that he'd been trying to draw. There was maybe a line or two that he was happy with, but most of it was scratchy, hurried and shapeless. He'd rather not let Teo see any of it, leaving him open to criticism.

"It's all just some bad drawings, stuff I've been doing to keep me awake in here. You know how the teachers complain when I start to snore. There's nothing you'd like to see." Somehow he had to turn the conversation around, make it less about him. What was Teo into? Girls was the obvious choice of topic, but not one that Theo had much experience of, apart from his night with Vic, but he knew that if he mentioned that, then he'd have just the same problem. And Teo would be bound to read more into it.

Still, it wouldn't hurt to try. "How's things going on the love life front with you these days?"
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#11

Post by ThoDuSt »

"Anyway, what good sky pixie would make a world where people fall off the edges just for being a bit curious?" Charles turned to Maddy when he heard her say that. Inspiration having struck him, a smirk was readily apparent on Charles' face.
"Wow, Maddy. You don't often leave me such obvious openings in our debates. Religion requires faith, right? And faith, by definition, is belief not based in proof. So! What good sky pixie would require faith, but make it's existence obvious through a clear act of biblical creation?" He took a breath and then added one more thing, "I believe, Maddy, that this is check. I would call it checkmate, but I have faith that you could find a way out of it."


He began thinking to himself. Thanks Maddy, I thought my day would be ruined by that crappy movie, but you've taken my mind off of it. Even if that wasn't your intent.
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#12

Post by Fanatic† »

It didn't take long to glance down Maddy's notes and realise that there probably wasn't much in the movie he needed to write down. Jason glanced back down to his own pad, repeated figure eights drawn in to the margin, next to some scant irrelevant notes.

He was agitated and nervous. After class he fully intended to approach Erin and ask her to prom, and he was over thinking it. Just like he always did. Rocking his foot back and forth he let the soccer ball slide away before pulling it back again. "come on Jays" he thought to himself "get a grip, when you see her just go for it, don't think about it till then" The boy looked around to see if he could do something to take his mind off the issue.

"So, uh, you guys watch Heroes last night? Even that makes more sense than this movie hey!" If he had a choice to date Claire from Heroes and Erin he would pick Erin he thought to himself.

Stop thinking about her Jason, stop it! Nervously he began tapping his finger on the desk while a goofy grin spread on his face, a cover of course.

***

Teo laughed. "Yeah Tash is good, good, spending some more time together, but we both know who wears the pants in the relationship." He gave Theo the thumbs up signal with both of his hands and then pointed them back at himself. "What about your hot stuff - any cuties lined up waiting for you?" He playfully punched Theo in the arm.

Teo was pretty comfortable with himself with this language and it showed. He never did it intentionally but a little part of him liked to see people get uncomfortable. It put them at a disadvantage and thus gave him the upper hand. Although, Teo would never see it like that.

Conversation was good, Teo was acing the class (not that this was any kind of accomplishment given the content) and he was a social creature by nature, and girls and relationships, even if they weren't his own, were much more interesting than media. And hey, Theo seemed like a nice guy, if he didn't have anyone on the burner he could hook the guy up with one of Tash's friends, although they were a bunch of snooty little brats most of the time.

Teo glanced over at the clock to check the time before turning back to Theo for his response.
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#13

Post by Killer_Moth† »

((Sorry this took so long. I sort of forgot about this thread. Sorry))

"What, er? No. No, no cuties. Not even any n-non-cuties, to be honest. It-It's not a big deal. I know I'm p-pretty much undateable." Theo tried to smile to cover his nervousness, although his stammer was more obvious than normal, he was sure. Damn, why did Teo have to do this to him? Everyone knew Teo had a few girls on the go, the same way that everyone knew that Theo would die a virgin. Why did he have to flaunt it like this?

Still, Teo was trying to be nice. Be nice back. You have stuff in common. Make a connection. Make a friend. Yeah, cause that worked so well with Vic. Don't do this, Theo. Don't give in. Dr Brock is right, you can make friends.

"You know, Teo, Prom's coming up soon. I take it that you're going to go with Natasha, right?" He spoke slowly and deliberately, trying to reign in his stutter, to stop him going off on tangents. "If there's anybody you know who could stand to be seen with me, then maybe we could make an evening of it all."

There, he put himself out. Socialising. It was terrifying. What if Teo said no? What if he didn't want to hang out with the class freak? Still, he had approached Theo, had been trying. It was only right that Theo try and build something here. Besides, it would keep Dr Brock happy for a little while.

"Of course, if you can't, or you'd rather not, then... Yeah, just forget I said anything."
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#14

Post by xylophonefairy† »

"Faith is all well and good, but there's a line, you know?" Maddy said, gearing herself up for a little bit of a rant. A friendly rant though, or so she hoped. "If I told you that the world was gonig to end tomorrow, would you just believe me and say your prayers, well not prayers for you I guess, but say goodbye to everyone and prepare yourself, just based on what I would say. Of course not, you'd want some proof. It's a massive thing. But if I told you that I had a cousin called Jiminy, you would believe me on faith alone, because it's a tiny little thing and it doesn't affect you. And believing in God affects you, it's the biggest part of my life, and I think it'd be courteous, as an all good God, to give us something that nudges us in the right direction." She took a breath, having said that all very quickly, and took a soothing moment to draw a house in the corner of her page.

Just then, Jason spoke about a far less energy requiring subject. Plus is gave the the chance to make herself seem a little less pious after her previous rant about God. Maddy grinned at Jason and shook her head in response.

"Nah, we're not allowed to watch Heroes in my house, Mom says it's promoting the work of the devil or something. So me, Dad and Trent have to wait for her and Eve to be out the house long enough, and for us to all be in at the same time. It's tricky, my Heroes watching schedule tends to be a bit off everyone else's..." She looked pointedly at Jason in an attempt to warn him off talking about the previous night's episode.
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#15

Post by ThoDuSt »

"I understand that Maddy, but the problem is that neither Creationism, nor God itself, lives up to the burden of proof," Charles paused. Although his relationship with Maddy had been built up on debates like this he felt they had become something approaching friends. Which made him all the more saddened by the fact that it sometimes seemed as though they couldn't even begin to understand each other, it was as if they were members of two wholly different species.

Charles let out a deep sigh before continuing his thought, "And before you say, 'You can't prove that God doesn't exist,' remember that the burden of proof falls to the one making the assertion for something's existence."


'Heroes' is promoting the Devil? Charles wondered incredulously, I really don't understand devout religious people...


The door opened, it was the teacher, back from doing whatever he had been doing. "Something came up, I have to go, you're free to stay to discuss the movie or leave. Just don't get into trouble, class dismissed." And with that he was gone again.

Charles looked at the clock, trying to determine what he could do, if anything, with the extra time before his next class.
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