The Roof, Wednesday Evening [9.2]

[icecoldfrost]

After handwavily indulging in cigars last night after the broadcast, Emma wasn't craving a smoke right now. Still, she liked the roof, and had taken her AP Algebra textbook up with her to get out of her room for a bit. Hank had somehow arranged for her to take a correspondence class for credit, so that she'd have more 'traditional' classes on her transcripts. She would have preferred statistics, honestly, but algebra wasn't too painful.

And if she kept twirling a cigarette between her fingers as she worked on her assignment, well, she'd need a break soon anyway.

[open roof is open!]

Comments

[bitten_notshy]

"Working on something?" Jack was up there mostly to enjoy a cigar, but it could wait. He hadn't seen Emma since the picnic, if a few words after the play last night didn't count.

[icecoldfrost]

"Algebra. I'm taking a few extra classes through correspondence," she replied, holding up the textbook. "Nothing urgent, thankfully, this class doesn't start until next week."

[bitten_notshy]

"Trying to get into university so you can rule the world?" Jack queried. "Not a bad plan. I'd have to do the same if I was staying in this time."

[icecoldfrost]

"More or less," she laughed. "I'm actually not that fond of math, but it looks good on an application, so I'm willing to suffer through it."

"You could take the classes anyway, you know, if you really wanted to."

[bitten_notshy]

"I know what I need," Jack argued. "Which I suppose means I don't really want to."

"Math isn't bad," he continued, "just a bit abstract. I'm better at things I can see a use for."

[icecoldfrost]

"And do you know everything that you'll ever have a use for?" Emma challenged, raising an eyebrow. "That's a handy gift."

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

Chuck was up on the roof to, well, do what he always did on the roof. No surprise there. He was sort of surprised to see someone up there with a textbook, however.

"What are you up to, Emma?"

[icecoldfrost]

"Imitating a good student," she replied, grinning up at him. "What do you think, do I look studious enough to pass as respectable?"

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

"If I hadn't met you before I'd be totally fooled," Chuck said with a smirk. "And then be pleasantly surprised when I got to know you."

[icecoldfrost]

"But I'm full of pleasant surprises, Chuck," Emma protested, pressing a hand against her heart. "You just haven't found them yet."

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I've already been pleasantly surprised by you before," Chuck assured her. "But I'm obviously going to have to try a bit harder in an effort to make you surprise me even more."

[icecoldfrost]

Emma snorted in amusement. "Just pay attention during our cooking class," she laughed. "I should be good for plenty of surprises."

Like how many times she could make the Chef cry. Emma's idea of cooking was s'mores, or pop tarts. That's about it.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack waved slightly to Chuck. "How are classes treating you so far?"

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

"They're not what I expected," Chuck admitted. "Ending up in a cooking class was surprising, to say the least."

[bitten_notshy]

"Cooking, really?" Jack was surprised, even as little as he knew Chuck. "I got religion, literature and art. None of the teachers seem totally insane this term."

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

"Cooking had to have been a paperwork error," Chuck said, shaking his head. "You got lucky if your teachers seem fairly normal this time around. Of course, they could be waiting until the second week to show off their crazy."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack laughed. "If I come in next week and Professor Chevalier is wearing spandex, I'll remember this conversation," he said. "Everyone seems to like Atreides, though. I signed up just because of that -- I'm really not religious."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

Elena waved her cigarette in greeting at her fellow smoker.

"Lovely night for it," she said. It wasn't quite an introduction. He seemed familiar, but she was also sure they hadn't actually met. Strange.

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

"Couldn't agree more. Fall's coming," Chuck said. "Best time of the year."

Scarf weather!

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"Not so hot that all you do is lie around, sweaty and sticky," Elena said. "And not so cold that you have to bundle yourself up and deal with snow."

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

"That's exactly why it's the best time of the year," he said. Chuck tilted his head. "I don't think I've seen you around before. Yet you don't look completely terrified. So I take it you're not new."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"I don't scare easily," Elena scoffed, amused by the suggestion. "I got here a couple months ago. And I'm sure we haven't met, except I have the strangest feeling of deja-vu going here."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

Elena, for her part, was totally going to the roof for a smoke. Paperwork be damned, and all that.

"Homework already?" she asked, pulling a cigarette out and lighting it. "That's just cruel. It's only the first week."

[icecoldfrost]

"For a correspondence class, since colleges expect you to have things like Algebra and such before they'll let you in," Emma sighed, frowning at the book over her glasses. "The assignment isn't due until next week, but I'm getting a head start on it, just in case."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"I'd offer assistance, but I doubt you'd want it," Elena said. "Algebra was never my strong suit. Geometry, even less so."

She had marked up papers by turning the diagrams into layouts of ambushes, secret attacks, and so on. Find the cosine of the hypotenuse, where the hypotenuse is guarded by angry ninjas and your base camp is the right-angle square.