Chapter 3.5: The Other Sides First Impression of the New Girl
His first day of teaching and the young Portuguese man found himself letting go of his resentment for the overload of work. When he was greeted with such amusing sights in the hallways, how could he resent it.
Not only did one of the students walk into him, the teenage girl had been completely oblivious to her own dress. Which was amusing, for him and for the male students who had been standing behind her in the hallway. Did she really forget she had a skirt on that easily? Or had she been so thrown off by his appearance that she didn't think of it? Though most girls remembered exactly what they were wearing when they walked into him, (and what they didn't want to be wearing.)
But she had also been interesting in her own right; besides the strands of white hair, not too uncommon where some supernatural events were concerned, she had been hiding something behind her bangs. If the shadow of negative energy still clinging to her was any indicator, she was probably hiding a curse mark of some kind. On this campus, with all its wards, it was odd to still have that stain on her, like that negativity was a part of her, and not just drawn to her. And why the gloves? Both hands were covered in black gloves, and it was not a fashion statement, they were too worn and plain for that.
How had he missed a student this supernaturally attuned? She couldn't be new, could she? She had been wearing the exorcist uniform, right? Millennie knew all the recent recruits, and he never mentioned a girl with that kind of negativity staining her.
Preoccupied with his thoughts, Tyki entered the principals office and stood for a moment, staring blankly at the front desk. Why was he heading to the main office again?
"Ah Tyki!" Miranda hopped up, hurrying over to the counter, "Was there something you needed, did I forget to do something, there weren't any papers to prepare were there?" all this is said with barely a breath and Tyki frowned, not quite sure of everything the older woman had said.
"There wasn't anything for you to concern yourself Miss Lotto." Tyki said, putting some effort in to being polite. Komui may be desperate to keep him around, but that didn't mean he could drop his gentlemanly facade. Not yet anyway.
A door opened behind the desk, directly across from the principals, "Miranda, could you try to locate some kind of school transcript for Ellen, Komui said something about homeschooling but there have to be grade school records or something- oh hey Tyki," the older man seemed a bit discombobulated at the moment, his blond hair sticking up in places and his tie missing from his dress shirt, but he still smiled cheerfully at the younger man. "You had a new schedule to pick up, right?" He asked, beginning to dig through papers on a rather neat and organized desk beside Miranda's, "Komui mentioned something about it yesterday," he continued
"Reever, are you looking for this?" Miranda asked, pulling a packet off of an almost empty tray marked simply 'out'.
Glancing it over Reever seemed satisfied, "Yep this is the schedule, thanks Miranda." Reever patted the dark haired woman on the shoulder, before crossing to the counter.
"Here yah go Tyki, pretty self-explanatory, just don't forget to add your tutoring hours to the schedule each week so you're not assigned detention duty or something." the blond tapped the paper on the counter, indicating empty time slots throughout the days,
"Tutoring?" Tyki echoed, taking a quick glance over the schedule before raising an eyebrow at Reever, "When am I supposed to have time to tutor among all this?" He asked, incredulous as he indicated the almost fully blocked out week. "I have classes too you know."
"Sorry Tyki," Reever said with a shrug, "This is only until we can find a permanent teacher to fill the spot, it shouldn't take too much of the semester."
"I still have finals and thesis projects to put together Reever, I can't be doing tutoring too."
"Its not like its tutoring a bunch of students, its just one."
"Tutoring for just one student?" Now Tyki was even more confused, "Why does this student need individual tutoring? Or rather, why isn't the student tutor enough?"
"Well she is a new add on to the exorcist class, so she'll have to catch up quick in order to not fall behind when she begins taking missions."
New student? Could it be that same girl? Was there someone new that they didn't know about? How had the Order kept this so silent?
"Why not just take the language requirement off, I really don't have time for tutoring." Tyki tried to argue, even as the questions kept building up.
"Tyki," Reever sighed, exasperated, rubbing his temple, "Can you take this up with Komui tomorrow? He is the one who was pushing for Ellen to have all these classes, even if she didn't need them," Reever muttered the last part as he turned away from the younger man.
Wondering what that meant Tyki opened his mouth to voice another argument, but promptly closed it as he silently came to the agreement that Reever couldn't change anything.
"Just," Reever paused, and Tyki looked up from his contemplation of his schedule again, not having noticed that the blond haired man had turned back his way, "Take it easy on her Tyki, she's had enough shit in her life, she doesn't need to be stressed out by her classes."
Meeting the older man's eyes Tyki can't help but wonder who this girl was that had managed to gather this level of support from the black order staff so quickly.
"Who is she Reever?" Tyki asked, exasperated.
Another sigh as Reever looked away, "Her name is Ellen Walker," he began, gaze unfocused, shadowed "she's had a few rough interactions with the akuma, and other supernatural entities." He looked back at Tyki, imploring, "We're just trying to give her a normal existence here, have a chance at a high school life like any other student here."
"Why does it matter so much to you?" Tyki asked lowly,
Maybe all his hard work being polite and friendly would pay off right here and now, and he could get some real answers. All this hype over a new exorcist may mean things had started moving, and the Earl would want to know.
A couple of blinks and Reever seemed to realize how much he let his tongue get away with him. Looking from Tyki's expectant expression to Miranda's wide-eyed one, he shook his head.
"All the students matter to us Tyki, especially when they come to us needing so much help." Reever said offhandedly, as if it didn't matter at all.
Well now that he knew he hadn't earned enough of their trust yet for that kind of information, Tyki decided not to comment on the sudden change in behavior, and instead moved on to the next issue.
"So does this mean I get overtime for tutoring hours?"
It was worth asking after all. And made it seem like he wasn't as interested in this new phenomena.
You never knew what use the Earl might have for a new player- it might be enough to just learn this new exorcist's strengths and weaknesses for future fights. But if she was in one of his classes, that made it all that easier to figure out.
Reever shrugged his shoulder at this, "Take it up with Komui." He said again, turning back to Miranda to ask about some other paperwork he is looking for.
Tyki meanwhile snagged a pen from the counter and jotted down the name before he forgot. When he flipped the paper back over to the schedule a new thought came to mind.
"Wait Reever," Tyki called as the blonde headed towards his office, realizing that even if she was new, he wouldn't really be able to tell, since he just took over classes this week, "do you know what class she is in?" he asked
"She just started classes today. If you didn't see her today then she'll be in one of your classes tomorrow." Rubbing his furrowed brow, Reever added "I don't remember which one, but your computer roster should have her added in by now."
There was a crash, Tyki and Reever lazily looked over at the latest mess Miranda had made tripping in the office.
With a long suffering sigh Reever excused himself to take care of the mess.
Glad he's not the one dealing with it, Tyki left the office, pausing once he stepped out to glance down at the name he had scribbled on the back of his schedule.
"Ellen Walker, huh," he muttered, even as his mind wandered to deciding whether to go back to the Portuguese room and check his roster, or go find out what he was doing for lunch.
A gleeful cry from behind him decided this as he was almost bowled over by his rambunctious niece.
"Tyki!" the blue haired girl clinging to him caused a few stares from students lingering in the hall, but a stern look from him had them scrambling to get to class. The students, especially the finders, learned quick that he had no patience for children. Especially when half of them left detention with another detention just for looking at him wrong.
"What'chu got there?" Rhode asked, snagging the paper from his hand.
"That is my new work schedule." Tyki said with no mild amount of derision as he smoothed back his hair, trying to take a calming breath. "I'm not gonna have any time to go hang with the guys." He muttered forlorn, and then realized his niece was being uncharacteristically silent. Glancing down he sees the teen staring at the paper in her hands with an odd look on her face.
"Rhode?" he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.
His touch seemed to snap her out of her thoughts and Rhode carefully schooled her face before grinning up at him.
"Now you won't come home smelling all gross and drunk, and we can play more!" She said gleefully before taking off down the hall.
"Rhode give that back, I need that for classes!" Tyki called after her, "And I don't smell!" his testy tone carried down the hall as he followed after her languidly.
He wouldn't comment, but he would file this incident away for later; whatever brought Rhode to a halt, it hadn't been the sickly gleeful realization that he wouldn't get to do his normal weeknight gambling.
But what it was that brought such a troubled look to his nieces eye, he wouldn't know for a few days more.
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