Ryuji looked warily at the table. It was covered in binders full of pristine colored tabs, highlighted and annotated notebooks and textbooks that had several brightly colored sticky notes protruding from the edges. Niijima noticed him staring and regarded him quizzically.

"Is there something unusual about my study materials?" she asked, her eyes slightly narrowed. Ryuji shook his head.

"No, it's kinda what I would expect from someone so-I mean from the student council president," said Ryuji, conscious that he had just barely stopped himself from calling her mechanical. From the look on Niijima's face though, it seemed like she was onto him. She frowned at him for a moment, clearly thinking about saying something to him before letting it go.

"Alright, have a seat then. Which one of your classes did you want me to help you with first?" asked Niijima, her voice cool.

"Uh...well, probably English. We've got an essay we're supposed to write an' I'm kinda stuck on it," replied Ryuji, unzipping his backpack and fishing out a few battered battered notebooks and crumpled papers along with his textbooks. Niijima regarded his study materials with a look of faint horror.

"...Are those your study materials?" she asked, looking on as Ryuji attempted to smooth out what looked like a crumpled assignment prompt on the library table. Ryuji furrowed his brows.

"Yeah? Something wrong with 'em?" challenged Ryuji, pausing his efforts in un-rumpling the paper. Niijima nodded, taking one of the battered looking notebooks and flipping through it.

Inside, the notebook didn't appear to be separated by topic, with each subject's notes right alongside another and often entirely unrelated subject. Nothing was dated, given a central topic or otherwise organized. Niijima frowned. "Is this how you've been taking notes?" she questioned, continuing to examine his notebook.

Ryuji rolled his eyes. "Uh, yeah? That's my notebook you're reading," he replied, poorly concealing his confusion and exasperation. Niijima ignored his rudeness and flipped through a few more pages of the notebook.

The handwriting inside was poor, and likely would have been indecipherable if Niijima hadn't had the practice of helping teachers grade quizzes in the past. As it was, she noted, it wasn't technically the worst handwriting she'd ever seen. She closed the notebook and passed it back to him. Of course, having only the third worst handwriting she'd ever seen didn't make Ryuji's work much of a prize.

"I think it'd be worth giving you some organization tips, in addition to our regular tutoring as well. You'll get more out of your notes if you can easily find what you're looking for," said Niijima. Ryuji scowled. Both students at the table were thinking the exact same thing.

This is going to be a battle.

"For now, I'll just advise you to separate your notes by subject. I'd get a few new notebooks and label them so that you know at a glance which is which. I'd also recommend going back and putting tabs or sticky notes in your old notebooks so that you can tell which pages belong to which subject and...why are you shaking the table?" asked Niijima, pulled from her advice by the rhythmic jiggling of the table.

Ryuji's leg stopped bouncing and he actually had the grace to look a little embarrassed. "Uh, sorry," he mumbled. "I didn't get to run this morning, y'know cause of the rain. I get kinda antsy when I'm all cooped up," he explained, rubbing the back of his head. Niijima's expression shifted and became one of recognition.

"Right, you're part of the track team," she said, looking at him with some understanding. Ryuji nodded and looked away, his brows knitting together.

"Yeah I used to be. Of course it's uh...been disbanded now," he said, discomfort coming off him in waves.

"I remember that. Kamoshida disbanded it because of-"

"Yep. He sure did," interrupted Ryuji, his frown deepening into a glare. He crossed his arms and began bouncing his leg again. It was like watching a wild animal in a trap, thought Niijima. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here.

"Well, if the track team is disbanded, why are you still running?" asked Niijima. Ryuji looked up at her in surprise. Apparently he hadn't been expecting that kind of question from her.

"Uh...I guess cause I was good at it y'know?" he replied haltingly, unsure of how to answer her. When Niijima remained silent, watching him with interest, he continued. "It's not like school where anyone puts you on the spot or glares at you for gettin' the answer wrong. No one's lookin' down on me or tryna' put me in my place. I'm just...free. And it feels good to run, y'know, gettin' your blood pumpin and the endorphins flowin'. I uh...it feels good to do it and it feels good to be good at somethin'," he finished, realizing how much he'd been talking while Niijima looked on. Embarrassment crept into his face and he gave Niijima an apologetic look.

"Sorry for ramblin' on like that. Can we uh...can we get back to the assignment?" he asked, his voice bordering on pleading. Niijima seemed to snap back to reality, apparently something he'd said caused her to get lost in thought.

"Of course Sakamoto. Try to put some of those organization tips that I gave you into practice. Now, you said you wanted to work on your English assignment right?" replied Niijima quickly, taking the partially smoothed assignment sheet and scanning the instructions. According to the sheet, Ryuji's paper had been assigned a week ago the first draft was due...tomorrow. "Have you been able to get started on the assignment? Show me what you've got and I can give you some feedback before you have to submit tomorrow" she said, regaining her normally prim and composed demeanor. Ryuji shrank back in his seat.

"See uh...I don't have anything," he said, jamming his hands into his pockets. "I couldn't think of anything I wanted to write about," he finished lamely. Niijima looked at him with wide eyes.

"You really don't have anything? Not even a topic?" she asked, her tone bordering on incredulous. Ryuji shook his head sheepishly. Niijima closed her eyes and sighed. "Well, then I'll help you pick out a topic today. After this session, I want you to go home and write as much as you can on it and we'll meet early tomorrow to discuss what you've got. Since the first draft can be rough and incomplete, it should be fine, but you should really try to be more diligent about your assignments," she instructed, looking at Ryuji meaningfully. Ryuji seemed to recover a measure of confidence.

"Yeah of course, totally! Sounds good, and I promise I'll have something for you tomorrow," said Ryuji, and the earnest tone in his voice made Niijima believe that he actually would have something for her tomorrow.

"Alright then, let's discuss the prompt: 'If you could do anything you wanted for a day, what would it be and why?'"