Teacherly Concern

who: hunt and lullaby
where: mshs
when: mid morning

"Remember - I need your assignments on my desk by Monday!" Hunt told his class as the bell sounded and everyone moved. Forget the New York second, Prachett hadn't ever seen a class full of kids move as the bell went. He watched as they filed out stepping forward at just the right moment. "Lullaby - could I have a quick word with you," he said as Lullaby Draven filed past his desk.

At the light touch on her arm, Lullaby stopped and looked at her teacher, catching what he said to her, as he'd waited til she was looking at him. She gave a little smile and nodded. "Okay." she said, then waited til people were sort of gone-ish. "Is everything okay? I'm not failing, am I?" she asked, feeling kinda worried. Though how she would be failing already, she had no idea. That and she was usually a good student. Granted, she'd missed a few classes lately...

Hunt did a scan to make sure there was nobody hovering and then leaned back against his desk, facing her. "Actually, I was going to ask you the same thing," he said, kindly - aware of her hearing difficulties and making sure to look at her as he spoke. "Is everything okay? You don't really seem to be with us at the moment - it hasn't gone unnoticed that you've skipped a few classes lately, and even when you're here, well, I don't get the feeling you're really here."

Lullaby immediately felt really bad. It was just the way she worked, she felt like she'd let him down or something. And as far as teachers went, Mr. Hunt was awesome. And, incidentally, one of the teachers most talked about by female students, due to the cute factor. But none of that was on Lullaby's mind, and her emotions were as usual, all over her face. "I'm sorry!" she said with feeling. "I don't...I mean, I'm here, I'm paying attention--I'll get my homework done and everything things've just been...I mean...and...I'll do better!"

Hunt held up a hand to stop her. "Woah, slow down - you're not in trouble, that's not why I called you back," he assured her. Lullaby Draven was generally a good student - one of his better ones, if he was honest. "But this isn't like you, Lullaby. I was wondering if everything's okay? Things have been hard around here lately and I just wanted to let you know that I'm here if you need someone to talk to, about anything."

She gave a relieved little half laugh, and smiled at him sheepishly. "Sorry..." she said. "Scared me for a minute there. Um. ...things have kinda been...weird for me for a couple weeks now. Lots of stuff going on. Like, my best friend since birth practically moved away. It was really sudden, I'm still kinda dealing with that. And some of the guys who were missing were friends of mine, and I knew Mary and Josh..." She hadn't thought she could talk about things without mentioning the supernatural, but hey look at that. She totally had.

Hunt nodded, letting her speak - he'd figured that it probably had to do with everything that had been going on recently. A lot of the students had been affected, after all. It was only a relatively small school. He kicked himself for not picking up about her friend though. He'd had both Lullaby and Journey Winters in his class last year, but he'd figured that Journey had moved away over the summer or something. Obviously not.

"So...I dunno. I've been kinda...out of it lately, I guess. Things are all weird around town. Over the summer there were the weird cats. That was...freaky." Lullaby continued. To put it mildly. "I'll get better, I think things are looking up. I made a new friend--he's really awesome. Dean, not sure if you have him for any classes. But he's hard to miss, all British in stuff...I guess things have just been hard." Then she paused, and looked at him for a moment, before she smiled. "Thanks for asking." she said, as if it was just occurring to her now that he was going out of his way, and she appreciated that on a very genuine level.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that things are getting better - you must have been overjoyed when the news hit that they'd been found," he said. he knew he'd be keeping an eye out for her for a while now, even if she said things were looking up. It was just what he did.

She smiled. "Yeah, I was. And I made Isaac cookies. I know him better than the other ones, but even so. It wasn't good. With everything else going on, it was...hard for me." she settled on. It had been. She wondered vaguely if she should be a mildly weirded out by the ease at which she had this conversation. The fact that she was talking around everything with no trouble.

Hunt smiled, chuckling a little at the thought of her making cookies in the face of all of that. "I'm sure he appreciated the cookies - that was a nice gesture," he told her, thinking that maybe she needed to hear that. "You know, if you need some time - you've had a lot on recently, obviously. But, if you're going to miss any more of my classes, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know," he said, mildly, the admonition slight, hardly there at all.

She smiled. "I will, promise." she said. "If it helps, I don't actually plan on missing any more?" she suggested. "Like I said, things seem to kind of be looking much more up, so I think I'll be all good. Now if I can keep things nice and quiet, that'd be nice. I don't think I'll have too much trouble." It was the rest of the town who probably would. Since it had turned into CrazyTown.

"That helps - are you going to be good to get your assignment done over the weekend, or do you need an extension?" Hunt asked her. Yes, he was, in fact, a complete pushover at times, far too willing to give ground when one of his students had problems. He was a definite soft touch. Then again, that was evidenced by the fact that this assignment was the first real piece of homework he'd given his class lately, since everything in town started going sideways.

She beamed at him. "It'll be on your desk on Monday!" she promised. "I don't need extra time, but thank you. It's good to know I could have, if I needed it. But naw. I should be spectacularly unbusy and unworried this weekend." That was her plan, anyhow, and she was damn well going to stick to it. She was gonna go to the carnival, hang out with friends, and have a nice, stress free weekend. Maybe she'd get people together on Sunday to watch movies. She could invite a bunch of people. Make sure Dean was there so he could talk to people too...yeah. That was a good idea. She realized her mind was drifting. "I gotta get going though, Mr. Hunt. Again...thanks for asking. You're awesome." she informed him.

"have a nice time at the carnival," he told her, figuring that's where she'd end up - most of the town was expected to be there, after all. "Have some fun. I'll see you Monday," he added, pushing up off his desk and turning slightly to sort some papers, so she could slip away.

She waved happily, then bounced out of the room, goal to find and snag Dean as soon as she could, and Isaac if she could spot him. Spread the word around, all that. But she was in a generally good mood, and she planned on sharing it.