Cram Studying

Sitting in the almost empty cafeteria, a tall, orange haired student sat alone at a circular table, a tray in front of him and a math textbook sitting next to it. Turning the page and scribbling down notes in his notebook, Renji grabbed a spoonful of cereal, savoring the delicious cinnamon flavor that seeped into his mouth. Although most students were probably still tucked in their dorm rooms, snuggled in their comfortable beds and blankets, he had a math exam today and had to get a good grade.

It wasn't that he was a bad student and didn't pay attention or take good notes, but like all people his age, memorizing wasn't his biggest forte and when it came to studying, he was the type to not look at any notes until the night before, and then was forced to cram everything into his head in the span of 12 hours. He should've learned his lesson by now, but every time that he told himself that he was going to study in advance, he just ended up procrastinating and spending all his in the studio playing his saxophone.

So here he was, in the cafeteria, eating a bowl of cereal and studying at six in the morning. Thank God the cafeteria was open this early.

Setting the the spoon down on the side of the cereal bowl, the Winter ran a hand through his medium length hair, becoming distracted by the fact that it was so soft this morning. Must have been that new conditioner he was using. Man, did he wish that he had the time to think about the small things in life, like his hair or gift. Letting out a sigh, Renji leaned back in the plastic chair in which he sat in and looked down to the textbook. Using a cheap metal fork that was given with his meal, he stabbed it into a piece of fruit, his gaze not leaving the book. Better get back to work.

Elena loved the mornings.

They were beautiful, peaceful and the sunrises at Beata were gorgeous to watch from the roof-tops of the school. Elena usually woke up every morning and wandered to the rooftop to watch the sun rise it was something that made her morning and a good inspiration to her. The morning was going good so far however there was one slight problem.. Elena forgot to grab some food from the town and now she was forced to go to the cafeteria. The brunette wasn't to fond of lunch meals, she had bad experiences at her old school getting food posioning twice from the lunch they served.

However nothing else was open and she didn't want to go into town again so she figured she would give the lunch at Beata a try. Elena opened the doors to the cafeteria where she was met with the smell of freshly cooked bacon and more food. The smell of the food was very appealing so she quickly grabbed a plate and scooped up some bacon, eggs a pancake and some orange juice before noticing another student.

Elena then realized that there was only two people in the entire cafeteria.. It would be awkward and rude for her to not sit by this person. So she walked over to the table he was at and greeted him with a bright smile. "Hi!" She grinned as she placed her plate on the table. She noticed that the other boy was studying something, he seemed to be stumped. "Oh math! Need some help? I'm pretty good at Math." Elena spoke kindly trying not to assume that he needed the help and she then invited herself to sit down. As she quietly munched on some eggs awaiting his answer.

Anxiously tapping his foot on the ground as he nibbled on a large piece of pineapple, Renji barely noticed the girl who'd entered the cafeteria. Although she had been shuffling around, making soft clank and clatter noises with the silverware and other lunchroom items, he ignored them, or at least tried his best to do so. Unfortunately, he also failed to realize that she was walking over to him and when she spoke, he dropped the fork and slightly jumped.

Looking to where the voice had come from, he was soon staring at long haired brunette girl. Where the heck had she come from? Before he was able to ask questions the girl quickly said something about liking math and sat down. 'Invite yourself to stay, that's fine with me,' the Winter thought to himself smugly and gave a soft scoff, although he honestly didn't mind her accompanying him. Besides, to him, any company from a girl was always welcomed, well, unless it was someone he didn't like, but it he didn't have very many enemies, so that usually wasn't a problem.

"Yeah, math," he started with a small embarrassed grin growing on his lips as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I have a test and really need to do good on it. You said you're good at math?" Renji finished and looked to the girl that sat across from him. She seemed pretty cheery and hopefully smart, so maybe she could be of some assistance and he'd actually be able to get a decent grade for once.

Elena was a good student in general, she was probably a nominee for student of the month the last school she attended since she did so well in classes and helped out with community service and tutoring. So if he needed tutoring for math she would gladly offer helping. She quickly finished eating some of her bacon and slid over to his side glancing at the pages of the book. He seemed to be doing Algebra..? She was way past this math class but she had a pretty good memory. "Yep, I can help with your studying when is your test?" She had hoped that he didn't say that it was today because if it was today his chance to pass was slim since it didn't really seem like he got the material and he clearly wasn't going to learn it in a hour or so. "Oh my name is Elena by the way!" The brunette said with a smile. As she continued to read the book pages. "What material is on your test?" She asked as she took a sip of her drink.

Prying his eyes off of the girl who said her name was Elena, the Winter looked to his bowl of now soggy cereal. 'Dammit, I was looking forward to finishing those.' Letting out a soft sigh and trying to hide his disappointment, Renji pushed away the bowl and stabbed his fork into another piece of fruit. Trying to eat relatively fast, he swallowed the delicious chunk of sweetness and looked back up to his new company. "Uh today," he stated, realizing how stupid he must've sounded, studying like this on the day of a chapter test."Nice to meet ya, I'm Renji," the student said with a smile, glad she was relatively easy to talk to, seeing that antisocial girls weren't never much fun to chat with.

"It's a bunch of college algebra gibberish," he started, tapping his pencil anxiously on the open page of the book. "Rational expressions, to be exact. Being the procrastinating fool that I am, I saved studying this for the last minute, and as you can see... I in a bit of a slump," he chuckled in an embarrassed sort of way, although having no clue how to set up the equation the day of a test was no laughing matter. "I guess I just don't really know where to start. I mean, I took notes... but, yeah..." Renji finished, pointing to a group of practice problems on the page and then looking up to Elena, wondering if he was asking too much of her.

She wondered if she had ruined his breakfast she slightly frowned when he pushed away his cereal she wanted to shout Breakfast is important to your body! but he was eating fruit so good enough? She blinked when he mentioned that it was today she let out a soft sigh. "Well hopefully I'll be a good tutor!" She said with a nod as she continued to read through his work. "Well Renji your not doing to bad, all your doing wrong is your forgetting some steps!" She said cheerfully. As she pulled out a pencil from her bag, "You must always remember to substitute x for the original equation!" Elena spoke simply hoping that he knew where she was going with this. When he mentioned notes she wasn't sure if they were well written. And since she was also dealing with the same stuff she could easily offer hers. "Notes! Well here, I always make a few extra copies and I have some good ones on this material! Maybe it can help you out a little." Elena said kindly pulling out her notes where she had many little details written out on the paper. "I also feel you on procrastination, I used to be like that last year but its easier to just get it over with."

Listening to the girl explain a mistake he'd made, Renji gave an internal sigh. It was so simple, substituting x for the original equation, but some how, this simple, yet key rule to the problems he was solving got lost in translation. Fortunately, now that he knew this, hopefully everything would run a bit smoother.

"Oh, that makes sense," the orange haired student replied softly, looking down to the textbook that sat in front of him. Before he was able to reply anymore to the girl, she'd pulled out her notes. Renji gave a curt nod and grabbed them from her hands. Looking from his notes that sat on the table and back to hers, it was clear who out of the two of them took their studies more seriously. His notes had the bare minimum of what the instructor had told him to write, while her papers were littered with what looked like way more than needed to be recorded. Well, at least she was a decent teacher.

"So if I switch these two around, then I'll get a closer answer?" he asked, pointing to his worksheet with a pencil and motioned the numbers moving around as if he was able to move them with a magic wand. Wouldn't that be a fun little trinket to have. A magic wand... maybe he could even hypnotize his teacher into giving him an A. That'd be awesome.

Elena chuckled a little, he clearly was rushing a little. "Yep! If you just slow down a little you should be just fine." As Elena finished her food she stacked her trash together so it would be easier to throw it away. " Feel better about the test?"

Listening to the girl again, he had to admit, she had a very valid point. When he took tests, he usually rushed through it and ended up making silly mistakes. He'd always known not to do this, but in the end, he'd always made the same mistake. With a smile, Renji nodded and turned back to look at the person who’d been kind enough to help him. She was definitely a sweetheart, there was no doubt about that, and if anyone knew Renji, they’d know that he was a ladies man if nothing else.

"Yes, definitely more than I was a few minutes ago," the Winter chuckled and looked back to his textbook. Tucking the papers in between some pages, he closed the book and pulled the cafeteria tray closer to him. The cereal was soggy, but at least the fruit hadn’t grown any less ripe. Stabbing a strawberry with his fork, the orange haired student popped the sliced piece of red fruit into his mouth. So sweet, and yet… somewhat… tart, like the girl who sat next to him.

Well, now that the hard part was over, he decided to relax a little. Besides, he might as well not get too worked up over the test in which he had to take in an hour or so.

"Thank you for helping me," the orange haired student said with a calm smile, swallowing the last bit of the succulent fruit and leaning back into the chair. Brushing his semi long hair back with his hand, he looked to Elena. "Say… you want to hang out at my dorm later today? How about today after classes?" he asked with a calm smile on his face, not hesitating to ask. She was clearly a smart girl, but hopefully she wasn’t one of those people who were so engulfed in their studies that they had no time to spare for fun.

Elena was glad that he was feeling better about the test, the brunette didn't like when students stressed over tests or grades, a few years ago she was in the same boat where she was to lazy to do any of her work but it's always easier to do it sooner rather then later. "Great! Tell me what you get when you find out." She told him with a smile and she nodded simply. "No problem! I always have fun helping people out, if you need me to tutor you some more I wouldn't mind." She dusted herself off quickly not exactly hearing what Renji said, she figured that he was asking her to come over to his dorms for more help, so she couldn't deny that. "Yeah sure, wheres your dorm at?" Elena was always someone to put her studies first, grades were important to her. She wanted to make her life easier by solving issues.

When she agreed to meet him at his dorm later, Renji let out a breath of relief. So far so good, and he was honestly glad to get to spend more time with her. "Dorm 102, I'm in the Winter hall," the orange haired student said with a smile and stood up. Picking up his navy blue Jansport backpack from where it hung the back of his chair, Renji set it on the table and put the textbook and notebooks into it. "Thanks again for helping me," the Winter said as he zipped up the pack and and slipped his arms through the straps of it. Grabbing his tray, Renji stood up straight and looked to the girl. [/color=#cc6633]"See ya tonight after school,"[/color] he added with a smile. With a curt nod, he made his way towards a trashcan where students were instructed to put their cafeteria trays on top of. Emptying it out, he turned around and gave one last wave and smile to Elena. "See ya tonight!" he called across the room. With that, he headed out of the cafeteria and towards his first class of the day, a little more prepared than he'd been a half an hour ago and excited to spend more time with the girl.

OOC: topic over, and I'll make the next topic in a sec~