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He leaned back at the desk chair, frowning at the test papers he had seen. Or rather, the scores on said papers from his advisory class.
Arthur had been a teacher in that middle school for three years. A homeroom to Class 3-A and a Science teacher as well. As a preparation for highschool grade Science, he is trying his best to pull everyone to his so-called "sphere of influence" so that he is certain everyone understood his lectures perfectly.
Admittedly, Science was a hard subject, especially on the elemental fields and chemical balancing. But if his students pay more attention inーdear lordーMaths then is there something wrong with him personally then? Or something about his teaching techniques? What in the world could make students understand Maths more than Science? Like, how?!
Both Science and Maths are major subjectsーhe knew thatーand he could only hope it's just something about the topic difficulty and not in their teachings.
Freaking Jones...
He sighed, rummaging the papers in search for one of his topping students, Lukas. That Norwegian child had been topping his quizzes ever since he handled him years ago. Though Lukas isn't as active in class discussions, being that quiet kid at the back of the room, his academics were still outstanding for his class.
"Oh dear," Arthur sighed, "Lukas, what happened to you?"
He closed his eyes and sighed at the sight of 35/60 on Mr. Bondevik's exam.
He searched for that other topper from that sodding Mr. Jones's classーfuck his math and his students' passing grades, by the wayーVash Zwingli. That kid had been quite friendly last year, hanging around with that Austrian kid and a few others. This year his sister had entered the school and now he had quite a record in Mr. Braginski's list in the guidance council. Despite this, the kid had a big brain inside his head.
Only 23?!
"Vash..." he called out hopelessly in the air, gripping on the paper hoping that the 23 could turn into 58 or 59. But as always, the paper wasn't changed in any way, not counting the new creases on the side from his tightened grip.
Did he put too much pressure on the kids? Was his quiz that hard? Was he skimming through discussions too fast?
Arthur dropped his head on the table and almost cried. In the three sections of eighth grade students, almost everyone seemed to understand their topics and are even active in his recitations.
So it's not that the discussions was fast, or that the quiz was too hard. What did he do wrong then?
He looked to the side, hopelessly rummaging the test papers in search for a decent score. He had heard that the brothers Matthew Williams and Alfred Jones, the oh-so-wonderful universal favorite teachers of Health and Mathematics respectively, had been proud of the children's scores in their exams. Arthur could accept Matthew's, since Health is a pretty easy subject, but Math?!
Francis was also praised for his French class, not to mention Yao's History, Ludwig's P.E and Kiku's Music and Art class. It seems the kids are struggling with Science and Science alone, much to Arthur's distress.
Well, at least this Austrian kid passed with 44 over 60, much to Arthur's relief. That Prussian kid too with 46 over 60, much to Arthur's suspicion.
"Hello, Artie."
Immediately, he found himself straightening up as the American Math teacher walked near.
"What is it can I help you with, Mr. Jones?" he asked, a bit of a bitter tone in his lips. He shifted in his seat, eyes fixed on the papers he held as he avoided glancing at those blue eyes. He had a feeling that he'd strangle the teacher down, but of course he's a gentleman.
A co-worker.
A teacher.
Calm down, Arthur.
"Oh nothing, these kids wanted to see you."
Arthur looked up, seeing the Math teacher dressed in only his plain longsleeve. The jacket he's supposed to wear was visible on his chair, seen from Arthur's cubicle. Behind Alfred and those smirking blue eyes, appeared 4 children, whom he had been delighted to see.
"Good afternoon, sir," Vash greeted, face serious as ever. The others also nodded politely, murmuring their greetings.
"Sir, we do think Gilbert cheated," Lukas said bluntly.
"As well as a few concerns about our exam scores," Elizaveta, another high-ranker, spoke.
Arthur smiled at the kids and scooted to the side with his swivel chair, letting the kids inside his booth. He stood up to meet Alfred's smirk from his own stall, across the faculty's office, and narrowed his glare.
"This isn't over, Jones," he mouthed.
Alfred had one significant shit-eating grin on his face.
"Hope not," he replied.
Arthur took a shaky, deep breath before turning to the kids. "So, about the test scores..."