Who: Tahiri and Will When: First day back of school Where: Algebra Class before the bell What: Officially meeting Rating: Low
So far, school wasn't as hard as he thought it would be. He was taking music, band, and creative writing which were all things that he was naturally inclined to be good at. He was actually looking forward to anatomy as he thought he'd be pretty good at that, too, and he wanted to know more so he could be better at healing. The one subject he was really worried about was Algebra. He hadn't taken formal math - ever - but the counselor who helped him pick his classes said one math was essential and that people who were inclined to music were often pretty good with math. So... he hoped she was right.
When he walked in, he took an empty seat and hoped he wasn't in someone's favourite spot - he didn't exactly want to start the class by making some cliche-movie fight with someone. In front of him, though, was a girl he was pretty sure he knew a little about from the description both Anakin and Nico had given him. Will paused, considering if he should ask or not. After a moment, he reached over and gently tapped her shoulder. The worst thing that could happen was he'd be wrong, slightly embarrassed, and maybe make a new friend.
"Uh, hi. Is your name Tahiri?"
Though she really wasn’t much of a morning person, Tahiri had too much energy for bleary eyed sleepiness. Even on the first day of school. Even right before math class. Numbers weren’t her favorite, but she’d used it to ‘decide’ her birthday or whatever. Calendars. That was math, yeah? So she turned rather quickly to look at the person who had come into the class and tapped her on the shoulder. The new person.
Unlike other schools, their new students came from a journey through a portal. She grinned at the boy, wondering how many new ones they had. “That’s me,” she said. “I’m already famous?” She grinned, joking. “Who’re you? You’re new. And you knew me. Are you Will? Will… Apollo was it?” It was still morning, but she knew Nico’s ex/boyfriend had showed up. And that seemed tip top likely new guy to know who she was. “You are, aren’t you?!” Tahiri said after the half second gap her thoughts had left her. “I’m Tahiri Veila. Which you knew, mostly. Welcome to maaaaaaath class.”
He hadn’t been expecting so much energy, especially since he had met Anakin and knew Anakin was dating Nico. Nico was very different in almost every way to Tahiri, at least from first impression. Still, her energy drew a smile from his lips and he nodded. “Yeah. Thanks. Though it’s Solace. Will Solace? Apollo’s my dad, but we don’t usually go by their names at all.” Mostly because they never knew who their parents were until they were teenagers. “This is actually my first math class ever so, yeah. I’m probably going to really suck, but I’m glad I know someone here. Well, know of someone I guess. It’s nice to finally meet you.” It felt a little awkward to say ‘Nico thought we’d have a lot in common’ so he left it at that for now.
“This world’s got lots of people whose last names seem to be someone’s dad. Peterson. Erikson. Somebodyelseson,” Tahiri pointed out. “Solace is cool though. Much closer to Veila in the class list, I’d guess.” She supposed having a god for a dad had good and bad things. On the plus side, he probably didn’t die? Which she supposed sucked for him, over the years. But that wasn’t Will’s problem.
“I never did math before I came here,” Tahiri said. “So we’ve got that in common. Sometimes it sounds like garbage, but I’m passing. So, it can be done.” That was meant to be assuring. “And honestly, you might suck. But I’m guessing, like most humanoids, you probably fell on your butt a ton of times before you mastered walking, and now you can do that easy peasy. You just have to work at it and not give up because it’s hard. Or because you aren’t good in forty-five minutes. No one’s good at anything in forty-five minutes.”
He felt a little assured by her that he could pass without having done math before. Will was determined to do well, in part to impress Nico and not be a trouble to him. Will wasn’t the sort of person who did things halfway either. He nodded. “I’m not afraid of a little work.” He had decided to approach the whole school thing as positively as possible. “But I’m glad to know I won’t just fail miserably no matter how hard I work.” He smiled to her, half-joking.
“What other classes are you in? Other than this one, I’m taking two music classes and an anatomy one and… a creative writing course which, in theory, I should be good at except I have a hard time reading English so, we’ll see.” He shrugged.
“If it feels like you’re just hitting a wall and not learning,” Tahiri said, “that might just be a sign to try and do the work another way. Like, memorization doesn’t work for me. I’m not going to just memorize Biology or History, especially this planet’s history. I’m not familiar with it at all. Which, that’s why I’m taking it of course.” And she wasn’t necessarily the biggest fan of having to take math or English. And at least the Yuuzhan Vong knowledge stuffed into her head made biology much easier. Lots of the principles were similar.
“I’ve also got English 10, Shop, American Sign Language, Gym, Psychology, Specialized Survival, and the previously mentioned History and Biology,” Tahiri said. “It’s nice to have a couple more physical classes, so it’s not just sitting still all day. Have you thought about taking Sign Language? Because then you could study and discuss stuff not in English. It’s so much with hands. It’s great.”
“Yeah?” He had never thought of sign language. Will liked doing something physical and the thought of a class where English wasn’t the main focus. Hopefully ASL wouldn’t be hindered by his dyslexia. “I’ll see if I can try it. I wouldn’t mind learning a new language. Plus I’m sure it would be helpful in the clinic if a patient can’t talk.” It would help him become a more well-rounded healer and that was something that was important to Will. “Do you know how to speak a little already?”
“Or if they’re deaf, and this is how they speak,” Tahiri agreed with a nod. So he was a doctor? That was good. Anything could happen in this place. She knew how to heal herself, sometimes, but that was it. “Yeah, I know some sign language,” she said, signing it as she said it. “I like using it when I see a classmate in other classes. Like with Groot.” She finished signing then motioned toward their tree-like classmate. Huh, she wondered. Could her and Anakin’s tree be related to Groot? A question for another time.
He thought what she was doing with her hands was pretty cool. She seemed pretty fluid at it, too. “You’re really good.” He could see the appeal to using it with other people in school who knew what you were saying while others didn’t - he couldn’t exactly speak Greek to anyone else here.
“Listen, uh -” He paused when the teacher walked in, but it seemed like the teacher needed to set some stuff up first before beginning. “If you want to hang out sometime or whatever, that’d be cool.” He knew they had some stuff in common, but it felt weird to lead with ‘tell me how you coped with your boyfriend older and dating someone else.’
“Learned a different sign language growing up,” Tahiri said. Only as a kid. She hadn’t used it since, but it felt familiar enough, even behind all the memories crammed in her head. She glanced at Albus Potter and turned back to will. “Yeah, that’d be fun. Do you like legos?” It was easier, sometimes, if there was something to do. Well, easier to talk about awkward things. Tahiri wasn’t sure, but they were both in the same situation. So if Will didn’t bring that up, she planned to.
Will had to grin - Anakin had asked him the same thing less than a week ago. It seemed as if Legos were in his future one way or another. Will nodded. “Yeah, I like Legos.” It would definitely be easier to talk while doing something.
He straightened in his seat when it looked like class was about to begin. He told himself he could do this and let out a breath.