Here Again [Closed]

She handed the papers over to him once he approached with a smile, "Y-your w-w-welcome... I g-guess?" and scooted off to the side once he took a seat again. There weren't many times people had thanked her for anything, taking whatever act that happened and how she covered it and left it at that. The words had rolled off her tongue awkwardly in a questioning tone, and she wasn't even sure if it was alright to say it this time. Was this something noteworthy enough to return gratitude back? Was it even appreciation or anything along those lines? Adeline knew her social grace was awful, but to think it was this bad made her heart sink a bit. Taking out her own notes and homework, she cast another glance back at her bag and got a decent grasp on her pencil bag. She unzipped it and took out a writing utensil before looking over the English Literature worksheet, checking for anything she had missed in her initial analysis. It was a bad time to start homework, but since they already had the notes out and everything and she didn't plan on sleeping anytime soon... Might as well.


The plain white sheet of paper only had a wall of text on it, the directions on top asking for annotations. There were numerous highlights, circles, and underlines littered all across the page, but what was more was that all the writing she had done seemed to equate to the same size as the passage if not twice as large that she had gone to the backside to try and finish writing everything. For something that appeared to be a jumbled mess, it was oddly organized with straight lines acting as dividers. However much it seemed that she had deciphered the passage, Adeline never went outside the box, sticking to symbols and figures of speech that she knew rather than making her own inferences on what something was about; she couldn't trust her own judgment, after all. Once she couldn't pinpoint anything else, the paper went back into her binder and she took out the assignment she dreaded most.

Every part of the worksheet had different directions at the top, but what was worse was that it was devoid of any work. How are you supposed to do this? She was awful at math, half because she didn't have a logical mindset and half because the formulas and specific methods to solve everything always slipped out of her mind. It was a miracle that she wasn't completely failing with an F. Her bangs fell over her eyes a little as her shoulders slouched in a crestfallen manner as she mulled over the possible solutions, her binder cradled between her knees and chest with the page on top, the lead on her pencil snapping. Pushing some more lead out, Adeline wasn't sure if she was tensing up or not as she kept rereading the directions and questions without being able to comprehend them.

Questions 1 and 2 refer to the following: Profit, p(x), is represented by the function.

Glancing over to Magic, she was almost tempted to ask him to help her - considering that his grades matched that of an actual Winter student -, but immediately stopped herself from saying anything. Her fingers were pressing random buttons on her graphing calculator, the pitter-patter of each input echoing one another. It was too late to ask Kearn and she wasn't carrying the textbook around to look up how to figure these out... Dammit. Ask for help, you moron. Was that really her only option here?

She didn't want to find out.

Magic looked over from his paper to the girl sitting beside him when he heard her shuffle around for a moment. He blinked slightly when she pulled out some math homework. He couldn't help but read it trying to figure out what math she was doing. It was pretty simple from what he saw. The first one you just plugged the number in and got the answer from there which was 'c'. The second one he wasn't too sure on. There wasn't enough information to know what you had to do.. Well there probably was, but he had never seen a problem like that to know what to do.

He looked back to his paper for a second before putting it down on the top of the piano. He decided to be interested in something else, but kept glancing over to her sheet. He couldn't help but notice that she hadn't done anything besides mess with her calculator.. Did she need help? "Do you need some help?" He asked with a slight amount of interest.

Dammit.

Adeline blinked in surprise once Magic spoke up, glancing at him from the corner of her eyes nervously before ripping her gaze away and back towards the calculator. Her hands were still fidgeting with the device but she stopped pressing on the buttons and held her breath. Maybe it would be better to say yes and get this over with. Would be better than giving herself a headache trying to figure it out all night - that is, if she could be bothered by that. There was no use sitting around and just staring at a piece of paper for the rest of the night, and without her textbook, she couldn't find the solution. It was only by Fate's hand that Magic had noticed her predicament, leaving whatever hope that she wouldn't bother again slipping out of her grasp.

She tilted her head a little, her gaze flickering back to him and back to her paper. Wasn't she supposed to say something? "Uhm..." She let out a small, shallow breath, her smile faltering a little. "N-no... I m-mean... Yes." Of course she wanted the help, but to admit it was a different case. All she ever did was bother someone else and all she could ever do was cause some sort of trouble, directly or indirectly. This was stupid. Math was stupid. She was stupid. "I'm s-sorry... I'm n-not good at this..." Not good? This was an understatement, considering the fact that she had to retake Geometry because of how poorly she did. Barely passed last time as well and here she was, practically failing another math class. How could anyone think so logically and calculate it as if it was nothing?

He should have expected an unclear answer. He sat there for a moment, and then blinked before looking back to her paper. "The first one is pretty simple. All you have to do for that one is take the number they give you, and replace 'x' with it, then work it through, and you should end up with your answer." He wasn't going to give her the answer, this way she could actually learn what to do, and be able to figure it out for herself when the time came for her to do it on her own.

The winter prefect didn't really know what to do about the second one. He still wasn't sure on what it was asking no matter how much he searched his brain. "As for the second one, do you have your notes?" He asked hoping she would have them so he could take a look for himself, and figure it out then explain it to her. If it was anything like the first one it should be easy right?

Of course the solution was something as easy as substituting the number in for the variable. Wasn't that simple Algebra? She really was hopeless at this. Adeline gave a small imperceptible nod as Magic gave the explanation. If that was the case, she could cross out 'd' as an option since it was more than likely to result in a negative number. It was too large and if the number was squared, it would equal something much higher than two hundred multiplied by anything; subtracting it was definitely going to make it less than zero. Could she erase 'b' as a choice as well? Eighty was a whole number and if she could recall correctly, 99.5 would most likely result in a decimal. That's what all squared decimals came out as, right? Even longer decimals? So that would leave 'a', 'c', and 'e'. Keeping one eye on the paper, she pinned in the equation on her calculator. '6400' blinked onto the screen and Adeline immediately pressed the "CLEAR" button, leaving the top blank again.

Rinse and repeat with 100. Neither of them resulted in 80, which could only mean that the answer was none. After glancing at the calculator's history, she quickly plugged in the two answers she had crossed off just to make sure. Nope, they still didn't equal 80. Was she doing this right? Did she miss some sort of step? Maybe it was just that Magic thought it was easy and he had simplified it to the point where he had already done the work in his head, so he just gave her that last bit. You're an idiot. She was struggling with the first two problems. How the hell was she suppose to finish a worksheet of twenty questions at this rate?

Hesitantly, Adeline circled in 'e' after doing a triple-check, but she was still second-guessing herself by the end of it. Casting a glance over her shoulder, she shook her head. "I-I don't have th-them w-with me. Sorry..." They had been left in a neat pile on top of her desk along with her textbook. She should've known it was late enough that the faculty would've locked them in the room; she would'e taken everything with her. And here she was, without any dense books filled with boring walls of texts and with only a scarce amount of unfinished worksheets.

Damn it.. He didn't explain it right. No he was never good with explaining things unless it came to an attack plan even then he didn't do much explaining. "Sorry, I should have explained it better." He wished he had a pencil or something to point out something. "I meant to say, in the first problem they give you how many units they produced, which is 80. The x equals the number of units produced. So you have to plug in 80 for the x which if you do the equation then should give you the p(x) or the profit." He still wasn't going to give her the answer just yet.

He mentally cursed himself for not being able to remember what the second problem was.. and she didn't have her notes which only made it worse for him. Such a help he was. Seriously why couldn't he recall something like this? Was it because there wasn't a need for him to remember it? Or was it because he probably didn't do it in a while? The only thing he could assume about the second question was that it was most likely D. If the profit wasn't maximized already in the first one then the only really logical option to choose would be D. Though he was most likely wrong.

It wasn't right?

...

Duh. She knew in the back of her head that it definitely wasn't the right answer, no matter how much she had checked it. Rereading the problem, Adeline realized where she went wrong. It said production was equal to 80. How the hell did she misinterpret that? She shook her head again as her eraser wiped the paper clean of any pencil marks. "No, i-i-it's my f-fault. I sh-should've paid more a-attention." To what? Class? The directions? His explanation? It was more like all of the above. Redoing the problem again, this time putting the right value into the equation, she got the answer that she had originally crossed out first. 9600. Was that correct this time? Should she check it? There was only one way to put into the calculator and the calculator was never wrong. It was only the person who used it who could make a mistake.

Her lips thinned as she marked 'd' as her answer this time. Adeline tilted her head a little when she glanced over at Magic to check her answer, only to notice that he seemed to be stressing out just because he didn't seem to know how to do the second one either. "Uhm... I-I'll finish th-this later. You d-don't have to h-h-help me." There wasn't any need for him to have to worry about her work either, as hopeless as she was at any of this. She could just look through the textbook again... or maybe get a tutor. Actually, finding a mentor of some sort would be bothering someone else. That meant she should try and do it on her own, only resorting to Kearn if she sincerely got stuck. Tucking the page back into her binder and bag, she suddenly became aware of how close they were and moved a little to the side. She didn't know exactly if they had been touching each other, but better safe than sorry.

He felt slightly relieved when she circled the right answer. So he had explained it right this time which was good, though she must have noticed him stressing over the second question because she had put it away, or she just didn't feel like doing it. He felt like she noticed though. He didn't even notice how close they were either well that was true until she moved away slightly. He didn't mean to be that close, he just wanted to explain something.. He silently apologized to her, not really know what to say at this point. They still had a while before the doors would open up again.

"A-ah, n-no... I-I'm s-s-sorry." Magic didn't mean any harm when he moved closer. Of course he didn't. He only wanted to help with something that she clearly had trouble with. Was she that bad at hiding her inability to do anything? "I just d-don't want to... uhm... h-hurt you." She couldn't even trust herself with her own gift. Her grade in Gift Mastery was getting better to an extent, but that was only because she kept displaying the healing side of her power instead of the other side. Even when she was given dummies or anything along those lines, Adeline never did anything more than restore something else. There was no way she was risking it in the middle of a classroom again. Or ever again.

Closing her eyes, she could only tell it was getting later, the clock passing by with each second more loudly than the last. "Y-you should sl-sleep..." He was looking more tired every day, and she wasn't sure if it was because of the events in the forest or because there was too much stress from the academy itself. It could always be a combination of both. At least if he was asleep, she could try and work on everything without bothering him. That'd be a win-win situation. At least, that's what she hoped. There wasn't anything else they could really talk about, save for the Autumn Festival, but Magic seemed like the kind of person to avoid events like that. Not that she could say much about it either.

He wasn't really scared of her hurting him, or anything like that. He honestly felt like there was more than not wanting to hurt him, cause she touched him when he was blushing earlier. Well that was when she thought he was getting sick, and that situation was slightly different but still. She wasn't afraid then, but he was afraid of her noticing the blush.. so he moved away... Jeebus this was a lot of back and forth..

Magic didn't really feel like sleeping.. Honestly he was kind of afraid too.. The nightmares would just wake him up after a few minutes of rest anyway.. so there wasn't a point. The boy shook his head. "Nah.. I'm good." He replied to her in a soft tone. He knew it was let and probably could figure out the time if he bothered to check his phone, but he was lazy. He was always lazy..

There goes that plan. Nothing ever went how she would like it to anyway, so why did she even bother trying to tell him anything? Adeline bit her lip, suppressing a frown. They couldn't keep a conversation for another six hours. Non-stop talk was something she could never do - it was too much and she couldn't carry a discussion for long before it flopped dead like a fish out of water. It wasn't something that happened to everybody. People always seemed to be able to talk to one another without any problem and here she was, unable to think of anything decent to talk to. With a shallow breath, she tried to find some sort of method to keep the silence less awkward. Was it awkward? Maybe it was the kind of peaceful silence instead? She didn't know.

Her eyes wandered back towards her music binder and the letter inside. She still had to answer that too. Would be a bad idea with Magic around, though... There were things written inside that he didn't have to know about. Was Magic forcing himself to stay awake because she was around? That was what she could get out of the situation so far. A burden. She was always bringing everyone else down with her. Family, friends, strangers. Didn't matter who it was, she was complete dead weight. "Please d-don't force y-y-yourself if you're t-tired."

Nah. He he was set on not going to sleep. He probably could fall asleep if he wanted to, even in a room like this. He had fallen asleep in some pretty strange places before. But he was set on not sleeping, and definitely not going through another nightmare. The boy simply responded, "I'm fine."

Magic had forgotten about the gathering clouds outside. It had been rainy all week with a few occasional storms. A loud rumble of thunder filled the silence created between the two, causing Magic to jump. He would have jumped out of his skin if it was possible at all. "Fucking hell.." Magic growled. "Curse my hearing.." There was no way he would be able to fall asleep now.

Was he fine? No, she shouldn't try and push it any further. It wasn't any of her business and no one ever appreciated it if someone tried to pry their own way into it. Growing silent, Adeline nervously shuffled her feet, her hands clasped together on her lap as she watched the never-moving ground and her own shadows melding with one another with each subtle action. Shifting uncomfortably, the sudden jerk of motion from Magic caused her to lift her head and blink. He wasn't scared of thunder. His next words clarified everything for her, and she immediately felt stupid for forgetting again. Noise. Loud snaps like whips, bangs like fireworks, he heard everything.

She didn't have her MP3 or headphones or anything with her. Not even some sort of earplugs. That was only because she didn't think she would be running into him any time soon. It must be awful to have hearing like that, especially in crowded areas. If she had to be honest, she was surprised he hadn't gone completely insane from it before. How could he manage sitting in a classroom or cafeteria or even be on school campus like that? There were always parties or students socializing, even in the darkest of corners or where you would never suspect they would be. People were always around, in places they weren't allowed in, and sometimes they were breaking the rules and blaring loud speakers from their dorms or screaming and yelling nonsense. How could anyone even stand it?

Always hearing gossip or whispers from person to person that you shouldn't be hearing. Learning secrets about people that they don't want you to know. "I-I'm s-s-sorry... I d-don't have anything th-that can help you with m-me." Well, there was that one time where she risked it. But that was stopping a dog's barking or something along those lines. Thunder was a lot louder, wasn't it? Or was this just her trying to be selfish again? "I-If you w-want... I c-could, uhm... st-steal the t-time there." She didn't even know if it worked. There was only the basic concept. Every sense had a set time limit until it failed completely, generally at old age. There were sometimes genetic mutations that caused them to stop working at an earlier time, but those were just exceptions. Magic's sense of hearing would be amplified and probably wouldn't fail for a long time, the most being that it would drop to normal levels by the time others would go deaf.

It was a temporary solution. And the exchange would result in her own sense of hearing increasing. She wouldn't mind it all that much. She could make the exchange something that wasn't permanent, but it wouldn't be so bad for her to kill her own ears if it meant that he didn't have to deal with it all the time. In the end, it was all theory and nothing that could be proved.

He didn't mind not having anything to block some of his hearing. It was something he got used to over the years, the first loud rumble of thunder always caught him off guard no matter what he did. He would just have to deal with the storm, and wait for it to pass.. At least that was the case until Adeline offered taking the time from his hearing.. Which he didn't really want. "No.. It's fine.. The first one just always manages to catch me off guard.. Heh.." He said. He couldn't help flinch as another rumble passed. Jeez.. This was going to be a pain.

Wouldn't she get his hearing if she stole time from it? He couldn't help but wonder on that for a moment. If she did get it then it would be a massive pain for her. For one she wouldn't be used to it like he was.. She would end up with a massive headache from the noises, and probably wonder if she could hear herself blink. He wouldn't be able to say anything with out her flinching from it. The thunder would just kill her ears too.. Yeah.. It was better to let him just keep the hearing.. He was used to it.. He also knew how to deal with it a little bit.

Maybe she would have a headache or be caught by pain if she could still feel it. None of it would ever wind up overwhelming her the same way he thought it would, and it only made her want to take it away from him more. Being immune to those senses had their benefits. Her hand shifted and she was tempted to go through with it, even after he specifically told her she shouldn't. Well, actually, he said he was fine. He never told her she couldn't do anything about it. No, he doesn't want me to. If she showed no reaction to it, then he'd get suspicious again and think she was hiding something. There was always the possibility that she could make up a lie about it, but, actually no, he wouldn't be able to hear that in her voice after she stole it. Adeline let out a quiet sigh, trying to dismiss those lingering thoughts in her mind. "I-I'm j-j-just... t-tell me if it b-bother you t-too much." She smiled a little. "I don't mind d-dealing with i-it."