Riggins (texasforever) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-04-21 17:18:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, clara oswald, ezra fitz |
Who: Ezra Fitz and Clara Oswald
When: Recent
Where: UCI Campus
What: Running into each other... literally.
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete
Ezra had just finished teaching a class and had some time before his next class. Not a lot, but enough to go to his office for a bit, plus the next class he was teaching was across the campus anyway. His office was on the way. Might as well drop the papers he had just collected off at his desk so he wouldn’t have to carry them the rest of the day and relax for a few. Maybe he could even read the next chapter of his book.
He was rounding the corner to his office when he bumped into someone. That honestly happened a lot, it was a large campus with a lot of students. He was bound to bump into people on occasion. “Sorry,” he said giving a genuine apologetic smile to the woman.
Clara still felt bad about what had happened from the dreams. How not like herself she’d been, the fact that she had undoubtedly made her family worry. The was one of the things she couldn’t stand. She always tried to be put together, to seem like things were fine even if they weren’t. She knew the night terrors had worried John, and she knew that her post when she felt she had lost herself would have compacted it even if he never stated it outright. Random texts were fine, but he was the only one she hadn’t seen since she’d been saved in the dreams, which meant a surprise visit was in order. Just hopefully without bursting in on a meeting with a student as had happened a couple of times when she was fed up and needed to vent to her cousin.
Tea in hand, Clara stumbled back some as she was run into. It wasn’t all that uncommon for her, poor Anatoly had ended up in her collision course twice. But this was probably the first time someone had run into her. Tea saved, (because Clara had a gold medal in not spilling her tea), the brunette shook her head and smiled some as she looked up at the person who had run into her.
“Quite alright.”
Looking down at the woman he was relieved to see that her drink hadn’t spilled. Being a coffee addict himself, he knew nothing could quite ruin the day like spilling a good cup of coffee. Especially if he had just gotten it. That had actually happened to him a few times and he was not a fan of it.
“Glad you saved your drink,” he couldn’t help but comment a smile forming on his face. “I’m Ezra,” because why not introduce yourself to the person you had almost just run over? Seemed like the polite thing to do and Ezra did have some manners. “I don’t think I have seen you around before. Do you teach here?” She looked too old to be a student, not that you had to be a certain age to be a student, people could go back to school at any time really, but she was in the office part of campus. It was the time of the semester when students didn’t show up much either. Usually they flooded the offices at the beginning of the semester to kiss ass and towards the end stressed out about finals and grades. Now was a slow time, so a Professor seemed logical for the woman he had just bumped into.
“It’s been joked by my cousins that if saving tea from spilling were an olympic sport, I’d have the gold.”
There were a lot of jokes about Clara and her tea. It was good for comfort, good for waking up, good for, well, anything really. Still, she wasn’t at all put off by what had happened and instead just smiled in slight amusement. Ah yes, the ever so polite issue of name telling.
“Clara, pleasure to meet you.” And then he was asking about if she worked there, which caused the petite brunette to shake her head, “No, my cousin does though. John Smith? I teach at Creekside, though. Advanced English. What about yourself?”
Obviously he worked at UCI, but as for the department, well, that she didn’t know.
“I don’t know how many people would actually watch that sport,” Ezra joked. Not like he even watched sports anyway. Not really his thing.
He shook his head at the mention of her cousin’s name. He couldn’t place the man she was referring to, but he was still pretty new. Not to mention there was a lot of faculty on campus. He barely even knew all of the English department. What she said next though, caught his attention. “I used to sub there. You must be new?” he may not recognize all the students, but he tried to at least keep track of the other teachers from his time as a sub.
“English?” he questioned a bit impressed. “I teach English too. I’m one of the English Professors here.”
“Not many. I still would have the gold in it though.” Her tone and manner were light. Oh there was still a lot she was dealing with, mostly from the dreams and dealing with the emotional fall out of what had happened with the Doctor’s time stream, as well as trying to appear put together again. Troy was probably the only one who saw past it though. “Oh? But yes, I’m new, I started when the term started in January.”
The joys of moving in the middle of the year because of a job, but she had needed the distraction and running away from pain was definitely in her upbringing, even if her dad and both John and Troy didn’t seem to think it was. They all did the exact same thing.
“Really? Brilliant! My cousin Troy is an English professor at UCLA. John teaches History here.”
Having just joined the network Ezra had yet to have any dreams. Even if he could detect something off about Clara he wouldn't understand it. Dreams were still just dreams to him.
"That must have been tough," he commented. "I used to substitute teach, students tend to not like change or take advantage of it. So starting mid-year?" New term or not he still couldn't imagine that being all that easy. At least she wasn't a sub though. He had a feeling they got the most abuse. "Did you move here from the UK?" He asked noticing her accent.
"History is fascinating too. It's just stories that are actually true," and Ezra did enjoy a good story.
Clara missed dreams just being dreams. Though she’d lately been getting repeats and nothing new. She wanted to believe they were over, but they didn’t have the sense of finality she had seen people mention… She didn’t know what it meant and she wasn’t sure she wanted to think about how they could get any worse than they’d been.
“It was, but I enjoy the challenge. The students seem motivated enough that it hasn’t had a negative effect on them even if they resist change.”
Which was the important thing. Because resisting change was normal. They had learned fairly early that trying to get things passed her wasn’t going to do them any good and things had settled in the months she’d been there. Of course, a three month crime wave in the midst of that and her frustration with her dad’s actions hadn’t helped her, but it was working out. “I did, yes. London.”
Clara doubted that saying the exact borough would have made much sense, so London it was.
“I love history. I find it helps inform the stories we read as well if we can know what was happening in the time and place something was written.”
That actually made sense. Clara did say she taught advanced English. Students in advanced classes tended to be a bit more motivated. Perhaps it wasn’t fair to judge the students like that, but it was a fair observation. Just like most of his college students cared more than when he taught high school. They were mostly in his class by choice now, not being forced to take a class. “True, if the job was too easy it would get boring. A bit of a challenge can be nice sometimes,” he agreed.
Chances were Ezra probably wouldn’t know the exact borough of England she was from. He liked to think he was cultured, but he only really knew the more well known areas. Not towns most people hadn’t heard of especially people over in the States. So London worked just fine for him. “How do you like it here?” it had to be a change.
“Exactly. Sometimes the author does a good job of describing what was going on in that particular time period but it enriches the experience if we already have an understanding of it ourselves.” And then there were times where the author didn’t do such a good job, or it didn’t really matter much to the story, but still it was easier to picture in his mind when he knew more about the time.
Goodness knew Clara was relieved that because she was teaching advanced placement that she had students who were motivated. It wasn’t that she couldn't’ handle unmotivated students (she wasn’t her father, okay?) but given she had come in during the middle of the school year, it was just easier to not have to worry about them trying anything with her beyond pointing out when she did proper English spellings as opposed to Americanised spelling. “Precisely.”
And that was also important. Growing bored in a job was the first step towards being unfulfilled because then you just were in a rut, going through the motions, and who wanted that?
“It’s… interesting.” If Ezra weren’t part of Valarnet, then he wouldn’t understand what could happen. The Dreams, the random things like people switching bodies. There really wasn’t a word for it that accurately described everything. It just… was. So interesting would work, “Definitely warmer and sunnier, though.”
“Exactly! Or why the story is being told at all. What was happening at the time, what were people dealing with. It’s all very fascinating and interconnected.”
Ezra had joined Valarnet, but had yet to have any Dreams. So far he just figured they were all a bunch of interesting stories, hence his reason for joining in the first place. The Professor was always looking for new ways to gain inspiration. Reading a bunch of crazy stories people posted on a daily basis, seemed like a good enough way as any.
“Interesting?” he questioned not really sure if that was exactly a good or bad thing. “I know what you mean, I’m originally from Pennsylvania. It’s a lot different not really having seasons anymore.”
Once again Ezra found himself nodding in agreement. “If you think about it, the two subjects go hand in hand. Like math and science.”
Really, Valarnet was just something that needed to be experienced, no one could truly explain it. Then again, Troy had been planning to use his dreams as inspiration for a book and now he seemed to hate them and the Doctor. From conversations, it seemed he’d keep fighting it but she didn’t know how long that would last. It worried her in it’s own way.
“Yeah. Can’t figure out quite what yet, so, interesting.” Safer that way, “I feel like I will miss seasons. I haven’t been here long enough to go through the withdrawal. So, that will be fun.”
So far, it seemed the two had enough to talk about, enough in common. That did tend to be the case with English teachers though, so, not terribly surprising. Sipping her tea, the brunette nodded.
“Precisely.” Not that she had the best grasp of either. She did well enough, but her talents were in english and history.
He did miss the seasons, that was probably the only thing he missed from back home. Certainly not his family, well his little brother, but that was it. “You will get used to it overtime.”
Math and science were also not his strong suit, but he knew enough to know they went together, sort of.
He did like talking to Clara, it seemed the two of them had a lot in common, made her easy to talk to. “Well it was nice meeting you, Clara,” he gave her another smile. “But I should probably get to my office before I have to hurry off to my next class. I’m sure I will see you around again?”
For Clara, it was pretty much impossible to miss her family, as they all had ended up in Orange County. Which, strange, but after what she’d experienced in her four months in the area, maybe wasn’t as strange as she initially had thought.
“Likewise. And yeah, I should go say hi to John.” Since well, that was the reason she was there in the first place. “I’m sure we will undoubtedly run into eachother again. Ta.”
With a smile, Clara then started down the hall to John’s office.