Complications
Chapter Two – Grand Turkey Club
Tuesday morning, Loki and Circe are standing in front of Room 206 in Waterford Hall with a small group of their classmates waiting for their discussion section to begin. Mere seconds later, Pascal swings the door open, smiling about a mile wide. "Hey guys and Circe, take a seat!" he instructs, stepping back and gesturing towards the open doorway, "Class will start in a few minutes!"
"God, this is going to be worse than I thought," Loki mutters, walking into the small, slightly-cramped classroom and taking a seat next to Circe. Loki cocks his forehead when Vidcund trails into the room behind them and plops himself down in the seat across from him, releasing a heavy sigh as his butt hits the chair.
"Vidcund? What are you doing here?" Loki wonders, "Isn't having you in this section a conflict of interest?"
"I thought so, too, but this was the only discussion section that could fit on my schedule, and the professor said it was okay," Vidcund adds, unzipping his solid white book binder and pulling out a pencil before turning towards the board.
Pascal smiles and clasps his hands together, positioning himself at the front of the room. "Hello everyone, and welcome to the Physics 475 discussion section," Pascal states, stopping in front of the blackboard, "I'm Pascal, your GST: Grand Turkey Club."
"-That's GTC," Vidcund corrects, staring at his brother, puzzled.
"It's a good sandwich, Vid. Don't dis the meat!" Pascal counters, rubbing his hands together and turning to the rest of the class, Vidcund appearing even more confused than before, "Anyway, as I was saying earlier, I am your grad student teacher for this course, so if anyone wants to drop out of the class, I suggest doing it right now."
Loki sinks down in his seat and raises his hand slightly. "Believe me, if I was ever going to drop the class, it would be for this exact reason."
"Noted," Pascal remarks with a wave of his finger, "Now, before I hand out the syllabus, we're going to go around the room and have everyone introduce themselves. Cause everyone loves icebreakers, right?" Pascal cheers, flashing an optimistic smile; the class groans, "Perfect! You first!" Pascal states, pointing to the messy, black-haired student that is sitting next to Vidcund.
"Okay," the student says, "Um, I'm Craig. I'm from Strangetown, and I enjoy dark chocolate."
"Ooh, nice!" Pascal chimes, before pointing to Circe.
"I'm Circe," the young woman says, giving a disinterested half-wave with her hand, "And Craig really smells." Next to her, Loki nods in agreement.
"Uh…that's not at all how this works, Circe," Pascal cautiously speaks up, "You have to say something about yourself."
"Oh okay," Circe replies, pretending to stare off at the celestial poster behind him, "I'm Circe, and I will punch you if you tell me what to do again," she remarks, crossing her arms in challenge.
Pascal slowly takes a step back. "Alright, moving on." Pascal points to Loki.
Loki rolls his eyes at the ceiling. "Pass," he states, his arms folded.
"You can't pass. You have to do the icebreaker!"
"Psh, I don't see why it's important!" Loki concludes, "I'm probably not going to see any of these nameless people after this course is over anyway."
"Loki, if you don't participate, I'm going to have to dock points from your class participation grade," Pascal explains.
Loki sighs, "Fine. I'm Loki and don't bother talking to me, because I'm scientifically superior to you…especially you, Curious!" he proclaims, shoving his finger in Vidcund's face before sassily turning back to Pascal, "You happy?"
"A bit," Pascal answers honestly, "but I don't understand why you wouldn't want to paint yourself in a better light here."
"Why?" Loki shrugs, "I'm not a liar, and I'd say that description was pretty accurate."
"Okay, since I can see this activity is going nowhere, I'll pass out the syllabus," Pascal announces, picking up the giant stack of papers on his desk and individually handing them to the eight present students. "As you can see, I love Verdana, which is the perfect segue into today's discussion on String Theory."
Vidcund tilts his forehead, clearly confused, "What?"
Forty minutes later, Pascal is in the middle of a rather lengthy scientific lecture with half of his students falling asleep in their chairs in front of him.
"-And that is what would happen if you tried to cut a piece of string that contains all of the pinpoints leading up to the Industrial Revolution," Pascal says, continuing to pace around the room, "Now, if you tried to bite the string, that would be a entirely different concept-" Pascal continues, stopping in place when he notices someone has their hand up. "Yes, Loki?" Pascal states, staring down at the student who is reluctantly doing so, hoping to stop this nonsensical ranting.
"Is this story going anywhere?" he wonders, propping his head up with hand, bored out of his mind.
Pascal halts for a moment, briefly tapping his chin to think this one over. "No," he concludes, moving his hand down. "Let's go over what Professor Irma was talking about in class, shall we?" Pascal suggests, walking over to the chalkboard and picking up the longest piece of chalk he can find. He brings his hand up to the board and draws a large circle on it. He steps away from the board. "This is a circle," Pascal begins, turning to the group of disinterested students.
"Whoa, slow down! I don't think Vidcund can follow this," Loki quips, flashing Vidcund his signature smirk from across the table.
Vidcund narrows his eyes at his rival. "Shut-up, Loki."
"And this is a square!" Pascal completes, drawing another geometrical shape next to the circle.
"Okay, now I'm really lost," Craig chimes in, trying to draw a square in his notebook. Across from him, Circe giggles.
"That's alright, we'll go slower so everyone can keep up," Pascal assures Craig, turning away from the chalkboard. Loki throws his head back in his seat and gives an elongated groan.
"This is a four-hundred level physics course, not an elementary school art class! Give me something challenging here!" he cries, "I haven't been challenged since the fifth grade!"
Pascal cocks his forehead, somewhat surprised by this information. "When was that?"
"When we had to do that nature project to help the community," Loki reminds him.
"Ah, that explains it," Vidcund remarks, nodding in his seat.
"Loki, don't worry. This class gets quite challenging, trust me," Pascal assures him, walking over to the front table. "But for now, let's just focus on Jeffrey."
Loki scrunches his forehead. "Who's Jeffrey?"
Pascal smiles, "That's the name of the square I just drew on the board," Pascal explains, tapping his piece of chalk next to the hastily-drawn figure.
"Good God," Loki mutters, shaking his head as he rubs his aching brain. "I think I have a headache."
"Now, now, naming geometric shapes is a great way to help remember concepts for your exam!" Pascal beams, staring down at Loki enthusiastically.
"Somehow, it doesn't seem as if you're qualified to be teaching a discussion section," Loki comments, his arms crossed, "but unfortunately, I know for a fact that you are."
"Damn straight! Now, who wants a potato?" Pascal exclaims, holding out a bowl of fresh potatoes to his students. Loki groans.
"Alright," Pascal states, after passing around the wicker bowl, "I can see a few of you were severely unchallenged during this session, so I'm going to pass out the practice entrance exam for the Sim State Physics Team," Pascal reveals, picking up yet another gigantic stack of papers and handing them to his eight present students, "On the official exam, which few if any of you will be taking sometime during this semester, whoever answers the most questions correctly in fifteen minutes becomes team leader."
"Done!" Loki chimes, holding his completed paper up to Pascal.
The graduate student snatches it from him and looks back at the clock. "Wow, all five questions correct in twenty seconds, that's slow for you."
"Yeah, I would've finished sooner, but I had to sharpen my pencil first," Loki remarks, leaning back in his chair a bit, "So, when's the real exam?" he smirks.