Chapter 11 Ms. Tish's Class

Her hair was lavender with a pink ombre. Her eyes sparkled with a pink and purple gradient, and her build was skinny while also being…curvy. Her lips were painted over with pink lipstick, which made the smile she gave to Celia all the more interesting. Speaking of the smile, it looked excited, happy. It was as if she was eager to start teaching the young teenager who stood in front of her.

Right. Like anyone would be eager to do anything with Celia Patch.

"You and I are going to have a fun year; I guarantee it," Ms. Tish said, her eyes twinkling. She turned and walked over to the whiteboard at the front of the room, all while Celia's lips noiselessly moved. It wasn't until she started writing down the schedule that Celia was finally able to speak to her new teacher.

"You…you're…where do I sit?"

"Down," Ms. Tish said with a sparkly laugh. "You're the only one here; it really doesn't matter where you sit as long as you can see the board."

Celia hesitantly took her place in the second row. She stared at Ms. Tish's back, or more specifically, her shell. Like her hair, it was lavender in color, and it had pink rings encircling the spikes. This was just too surreal. How…how could Ms. Tish be a koopa? Of all creatures?

"Okay," Ms. Tish said once she had finished with the schedule. She pointed toward it with her closed marker. "I only give homework when you don't finish your work in class. I figured that you want to be able to have some free time when you get home." She leaned against the board in a nonchalant, casual sort of manner. Definitely not the type of demeanor Celia would expect to see from her teacher. "Today, we'll mostly be going over the syllabus, so I don't expect you to be over run with work." She looked over at her desk in the corner. "Which reminds me; I still need to locate that thing."

With that, she got up and went over to the desk. She rummaged around in a filing cabinet next to it, muttering to herself all the while. Curious and not sure exactly what could be done next, Celia got up and walked over to the desk. From this angle, it was much easier to see what Ms. Tish was doing; what she was pulling out of the filing cabinet and what she was putting back in. She noticed a lot of papers; none of them seeming to be of any importance. She looked over at Ms. Tish's desk, which had a laptop and a mouse in the center. Surrounding those two items were a bunch of personal memorabilia; a cat statue, a plastic cactus, no more than three coffee cups, and a picture of Ms. Tish with a brown and orange cat and a young human boy.

"Come on, come on, where is it?" Ms. Tish asked herself.

Celia kept her eyes glued to the picture. The boy in the picture was holding onto Ms. Tish, almost like he was…comfortable around her. Like he trusted her with his life.

"Ah! Here it is!" Ms. Tish exclaimed. She took out the syllabus and handed it to Celia. "I apologize for making you wait." She walked back over to the board, and Celia went back over to her desk. It wasn't until she was seated that Ms. Tish bit her lip. "Now, it was fourth grade that you ran away, right?"

Celia hesitated before nodding. "That is correct."

"Okay. So you know how to read?"

"Eh," Celia said, doing the so-so sign with her hand. "I might need help with some long words."

"Okay. Well, we'll be going over this together, so don't worry." She came over to Celia's desk. "Okay, on the first page is a list of materials you'll need for the class; textbooks, pencils, paper your own laptop. The textbooks and laptop are provided by the school, so all you need to worry about is the pencil and the paper."

Celia nodded. She didn't know whether or not this stuff was particularly exciting; she had never operated a laptop in her life and her reading level was less than satisfactory.

"Okay, on page two…" Celia turned to page two… "it talks about the homework policy, which I more or less just told you about. It also talks about the rules; no physical violence, no gum, no drugs…stuff like that." She had Celia turn to page three. "As for this…well, there are four projects a year; one for each quarter. Since you are here late in the year, there is only one that you need to worry about. We'll discuss that more tomorrow." Celia turned to the last page. "And, that is just telling you that you need to hold onto the syllabus for the rest of the year."

Celia blinked. She had honestly expected the reading of the syllabus to take all day, given the impression that Ms. Tish had left. Huh.

"Okay." Ms. Tish smiled as Celia put the syllabus in her backpack. "Now, usually this is the time where the students get to know each other. However, since we are the only ones here, I guess its only us that need to get acquainted." She walked back over to the front of the room. "So, Celia, tell me a little bit about yourself."

Celia paused. Her heart was in her mouth, her head was spinning. Oh, she did not like this. Why did she have to talk about herself? Why?

"Uh…um…uh…" She looked back up at the expect koopa. "I don't…I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Ms. Tish said. "Take your time."

That did not help Celia's anxiety at all. She stumbled over her words. "Well….I'm half human…"

Ms. Tish nodded. "Very nice. We don't hear a lot about that." She chuckled. "I'll admit, I was surprised when I ran into your parents. Ruby and Singe, were they?" When Celia nodded, Ms. Tish grinned. "Yes, it was quite interesting to hear that they were able to conceive. The last time I heard, no koopa human hybrid had survived past infancy."

Celia actually blinked. "Iggy told me that too; he had to do a lot of research to find that information. Have you…done research on it?"

Ms. Tish chuckled, although there was an air of nervousness to the sound. "Y…yeah." She scratched the back of her head before clearing her throat. "I, uh, have."

Celia felt as if this was a sensitive subject, so she didn't question any further. She figured she might as well move on by talking about herself a little more.

"I…I live in the Mushroom Kingdom…my favorite color is magenta….I like chocolate cake…"

Her voice trailed off. This was pathetic! Her words didn't even sound like words so much as glorified mumbles! She could feel her face growing red with embarrassment. "S…sorry."

Ms. Tish furrowed her brow. "It's alright, Celia. It's alright." She smiled. "Now, how about I tell you a little bit about myself?"

Celia perked up, raising her head as she did so. This was actually something she wanted to hear.

"I was born and raised in the Koopa Kingdom," Ms. Tish said. "I moved here when I was twenty one. I've been a teacher for a total of five years. This will be my sixth." Ms. Tish grinned. "In my free time, I really like to go go-karting. Sometimes, I host mini Mario Kart races at a race track in Toad Town. I am able to rent it for the students to use here on the last day of school, so.." she laughed… "You have something to look forward to before you leave."

Celia's eyes grew wide. "That's pretty neat." She actually managed to smile. "Really neat."

"Thank you." Ms. TIsh curled her hair over her right ear. "A lot of the students enjoy it. Those who don't want to eat get to eat from a buffet that was cooked by the teachers." Ms. Tish blushed. "I don't generally contribute to that."

Celia chuckled. "You're like my Mom."

Ms. Tish sighed. "Yeah." Her face lit up once again. "At the Mario Kart race, we have the graduating seniors and a few of the underclassmen talk about what thewy wish to do when they go out into the world. It's a very nice time."

Celia shrunk back a little. "It…it sounds nice." Now she knew exactly which event to avoid.

Ms. Tish hesitated before coming a little closer. "Anyway, I am always here if you need me. I really hope that you have a good time this year."

Celia nodded. "Yeah," she said quietly, aiming her gaze down toward her the floor. "Me too." Right as she said that, the bell rang, much to her surprise. "What does…?"

"That means its time for lunch!" Ms. Tish smiled. "You have forty five minutes to spend in the cafeteria." She furrowed her brow. "Do you need help finding it?"

Celia looked down at her map again. "No, I think I'm all set."

"Okay! Great!" She went over to her desk again. "See you after lunch!"

"See you," said Celia. She got up as Ms. Tish sat down at her desk, getting out her own lunch of poison mushroom salad. Celia directed one more glance at the picture of her with the human boy before making her way out.