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“Wait what?” Edelgard asked her new friend, as her head felt foggy. Her gears turning in order to understand second grade math.
Lysie sighed, looking at the pretty watch on her wrist. “I’m just saying, after that you should have multiplied both sides by 2 to get 144, take the square root of that, and then x equals 12.”
Ah. “Well fuck. Why is a freshman better than me in second grade math?” She was a senior for crying out loud. Lysie’s gaze shot up at her, looking too amused. “That… I didn’t even mean to say that out loud.”
“Well you said it now,” she grinned. Edelgard didn’t like this cocky look on her friend. She had just gotten unlucky with her math exams, it wasn’t as if she was actually that bad. And today’s lecture? Today was just a bad day. Her mind had drifted on other things.
“Let’s just say my head wasn’t at it today. I’ve been so caught up with my English class.”
The younger girl grinned. “Are you also in second year English?”
“No,” she said defensively to Lysie’s teasing. “Of course not!”
“Ah too bad. Then I can’t help you with that.” Lysithea shrugged. “Why are you feeling so nervous anyway? Big test?”
Edelgard took a moment to think before answering. “Yeah sure.” That was a lie. There was no damn test. There was a damn teacher. Miss Eisner.
Before she knew, Edelgard was in heaven… uh wait no English class. Miss Eisner’s lecture had just begun. While the professor went on about the rules concerning the past participle, Edelgard could only wonder why any teacher would wear short shorts combined with fishnet stockings.
Tock, tock, tock, was the sound of her high black boots with each step she took; tock, tock, tock, with every graceful stride; tock, tock, tock. The next sound was a loud tick instead, as a pointer made contact on the desk in front of her nose. Edelgard’s eyes shot up to meet her professor’s eyes, startled.
“Miss Hresvelg,” she stated, more so than asked, “could you give me an example, perhaps?”
“Uhm… pardon me miss,” she answered, trying to possibly figure out what the question could have been. A quick glance across the room only yielded the disapproving eyes of Ingrid next to her and the amused grin of Claude, neither of which gave her any clue. “Uhm six?”
“Nice try,” miss Eisner responded, “but this is English.” The whole room seemed to roar with laughter, great next to daydreaming she was now being publicly ridicules as well. “Mister von Riegan,” she said, going after the kid who laughed the loudest, “would you give me an example instead?”
Now it was Claude’s turn to be embarrassed… or so she thought. “Uhm… If Edelgard hadn’t dozed off, she would have known what to give an example of?” he said somewhat unsurely, his intonation making it sound like a question.
“That is correct,” miss Eisner responded, whilst continuing to write the example on the black board. “Can anyone give me another example of the Third Conditional?”
Edelgard tried to think of an example in her head to redeem herself, but Ingrid was faster and raised her hand. The professor nodded in her direction. The blonde girl had a smug smile on her face, which made Edelgard want to sigh. “If the people of Duscur were actually innocent, they wouldn’t have murdered Dimitri’s parents.” A loud collective sigh followed from several students across the class room, removing Ingrid’s smug look swiftly.
“That’s enough with the politics!” miss Eisner said softly but sternly, with such a natural authority in her voice that other teachers would have to shout to get the same effect. “We’re in English class here.” Tock, tock, tock. Miss Eisner tugged a strand of her luminous dark blue hair behind her ear. “Mister Gloucester,” she spoke. “Even though the previous constructed sentence was technically correct, could you give me another example? One I can actually write on the board?” Edelgard couldn’t resist letting out a chuckle, earning her an elbow from Ingrid.
Lorenz seemed deep in thought before answering. “If a lily wasn’t ready, she wouldn’t have blossomed.”
Miss Eisner blinked twice, hiding her big blue eyes, “Sure,” and wrote the sentence down. She handled her little chalk piece with such a grace that it almost seemed like a performance to watch miss Eisner mark the blackboard with her beautiful… uhm handwriting and her big loopy letters. Tock, tock, tock, Edelgard straightened her back as her teacher took a few strides in her direction. She had to pay more attention, lest she’d get another tick on her desk.
Luckily that tick was reserved for Linhard instead. Another sleepyhead. This time one who actually fell asleep during lectures instead of daydreaming about his gorgeous professor with long dark blue hair and fishnet stockings… not that Edelgard had actually been daydreaming… and most certainly not about that. Was Miss Eisner attractive? Sure. Was Miss Eisner her professor? Definitely. Was Miss Eisner the most beautiful human she had ever known? Quite possibly. Did she have a crush on her teacher? Noooo… definitely not… no really, she did not… did she? Fuck. Maybe she did.
“Oh why do I even bother?” Edelgard heard her teacher say, pulling her back to reality. As she tried to gauge what was going on, she noticed that Linhard hadn’t even woken up. He did so in every class, yet somehow always passed the exams anyway, thus there was only so much teachers could actually do about his behavior. He got the grades, even though he was quite possibly the most lazy person of the entire school. Life was so unfair.
What would you do as a professor when lazy person number 1 is asleep? Target lazy person number 2 of course. “Miss Goneril,” she said, causing the pink-haired girl in the back to jolt around instantly, for once turning her attention away from her boyfriend and to the blackboard.
“What was the question?” she asked dumbfounded with a silly smile, probably wanting to evade the same pitfall that had made a fool of Edelgard. Not that she could escape it either way.
“There was none,” miss Eisner answered. “I simply required your attention.”
“Oh,” the girl said, looking a little relieved, though visibly resisting the urge to turn around again, as miss Eisner kept making eye contact.
“Great, now if you could keep focusing your attention to the lesson, instead of Mister Riegan’s wavy hair,” the teacher spoke without emotion in her voice, though Edelgard could swear that she could spot the signs of a slight teasing grin.
Hilda laughed it off, as she always did when she was embarrassed. Luckily for her, miss Eisner left her alone after that and continued her lesson. Tock, tock, tock, wait what was the proper phrase for ending a letter of application? Tock, tock, tock, yours faithfully or yours sincerely? Tock, tock, tock, yours truly or fishnet stockings?
Ingrid came to the rescue by showing her the notes she’d made. “I literally heard the gears turning in your head, here.” The blonde girl chuckled.
“Thanks,” she whispered back, copying the notes.
“Psst Ing,” came a voice from behind. “Ingrid.” This time it was accompanied by a tap on the shoulder.
“What?” she said, turning around to meet the gaze of her friend.
“Could you pass me those notes?” Sylvain asked with a wink.
Ingrid’s head turned around as swiftly as her mind was made up. “No.”
“Aww come on.”
“Do your own work, Sylvain.” The guy looked bummed and Ingrid just shook her head disapprovingly. Edelgard did not comprehend their friendship in the slightest.
“Hey Felix,” she heard Sylvain say behind them. Ingrid rolled her eyes. But Edelgard’s attention had drifted away before hearing whether Felix complied or slapped Sylvain. Miss Eisner tucked a few strands of her dark blue hear behind her ear. Her eyes darting across the room, verifying whether she still commanded the attention of her students, well minus the obvious lost cases as Hilda, Linhardt and Sylvain. Seeming satisfied, she went on, reciting a normally boring lecture as if it was beautiful poetry. Speaking off, Ingrid crumped Sylvain’s note filled with his latest attempt at poetry and threw it back into his face.
Before she knew it, Edelgard her own was also attempting poetry. Scratching some quick lines in her notebook.
I feel like the Sun,
If so, would you be my Moon?
Together we’d have all the fun
Miss Eisner, please marry me… soon?
As soon as she realized what she’d written, she crumped her sorry attempt of poetry, ripped it out of her book and proceeded to miss when attempting to throw it into the bin. It earned her some soft booing from her classmates. Not everyone could be the bin king, as some liked to nickname Claude. Miss Eisner let out a sigh.
Tock, tock, tock. As she stood next to the bin, Edelgards heart stopped for a second as the most embarrassing imaginable scenario happened. Her teacher unfolded the parchment. Her eyes scanned the lines and Edelgards cheeks burnt so much, that she feared it would appear the same color as her house leader’s cape. In all of her embarrassment she analyzed miss Eisner’s face, looking for any signs of uncomfort, astonishment, repulsion or even amusement. But her face was blank, as always. Edelgard wondered if perhaps it was an emotionless façade, or if miss Eisner actually had no emotions whatsoever. Either way, it made her sound more dangerous.
A few intrigued voices came from her classmates, asking miss Eisner to do the unthinkable. “I feel like the Sun,” she said. “If so, would you be my moon? Together we’d have all the fun…” She introduced a little pause for tension. Needless to say Edelgard died from embarrassment. She felt the gazes of her classmates. Swiftly alternating between her and the professor. Patiently awaiting her death sentence. Miss Eisner opened her mouth. A gasp fell from Edelgards lips. “But alas, you look like a big buffoon.”
Almost the whole classroom laughed their lungs out. “A big buffoon?” Ingrid asked incredulously in between her laughs. Edelgard just felt a wave of relief.
Then miss Eisner spoke up to calm the class down. “Well, miss Hresvelg. That was… clever.” Edelgard thought her teacher’s correction to be clever indeed. “I look forward to reading more of your poems.” There appeared to be a small grin on her face, but nothing like the kind of humongous grin you would expect if any other teacher would read such a ridiculous poem, from a student no less. “But let’s continue our lesson.”
If Edelgard had any focus before the incident, she definitely had none anymore. Her head was spinning, recalling everything embarrassing that had happened during today’s lecture, from daydreaming to the teacher reading her poem. What would miss Eisner think of her? She already hadn’t made that good of an impression, though her poem would perhaps explain why she had so many problems with paying attention. Or would she perhaps think her poem was a joke? Like a dumb truth or dare prank with her friends? Perhaps that was better. Though in that case she would not only daydream during her lectures, but also play silly games. That was so unrespectful. At least her poem was sort of respectful right? She could have easily written about other things of miss Eisner that would have been considered inappropriate. Oh shit Edelgard was staring. Luckily, her teacher didn’t seem to have noticed. Oh wat was she going to do?
Then, all of a sudden, the sound of salvation. The bell rung. Finally, she thought. She could leave this lecture behind, erase it from her memory, throw it into the garbage disposal to annihilate it to mere pieces. She cast one last look at her teacher, before standing up.
Unfortunately, salvation had to wait. “Miss Hresvelg?” miss Eisner called, causing Edelgard to instantly stop in her tracks. Shit. “I would like a word with you, about your poem.” Fuck.
“Sure,” Edelgard responded, her cheeks burning red. She fumbled with her pen, while they waited until the classroom was empty.
“Sit down.”
“Oh right,” she answered awkwardly, shoving her chair backward to sit down at the table in front of miss Eisners desk. Her heart was beating a thousand times per minute. What would her teacher do? Lecture her? Scold her? Even expell her? … Kiss her?
Miss Eisner didn’t say a word. Tock, tock , tock, she walked up to frontside of her desk. She turned around so that her back was facing Edelgard. Her graceful fingers stroke the wood of her desk. As she found her grip, she lifted herself up. Her behind was on her desk, while her fishnet stockings covered legs reached for another destination. One of her black boots graced the tiles on the ground. The other, she placed right in front of Edelgard. Tock. She actually placed her foot on Edelgard’s desk! Edelgard was baffled beyond belief. Only able to stare at the knee of the long arched leg of her teacher. Miss Eisner leaned backward ever so slightly, remaining grip only with her hands.
She finally spoke up. “So miss Hresvelg,…”
“Yes?” Edelgard answered nervously, feeling the sweat on her forehead.
“I’ve noticed your attention is elsewhere during my lectures.” Gulp. “If you keep this going, I’m afraid you’ll have a hard time passing next week’s test.” Crap, did they have a test next week? “And I would hate for you to fail. You seem like such a smart girl.” Edelgard blushed a bit. Though she wasn’t sure if it was the compliment, or the black boot of her teacher.
“I’m sorry, miss Eisner.”
“No apology needed. It is more important that we focus on what we can do about it.” Miss Eisner graced her fingers over her exposed knee, showing her dark blue nail paint.
“Oh, of course,” Edelgard quickly answered.
“I suppose I could have you moved to mister Cichol’s class?” she asked, her fingers moving over her lips this time, as if she was deep in thought.
“Oh?”
“But I would hate to think that’s necessary. Hmm.”
Edelgard wasn’t particularly excited to have another year with a teacher as stern as mister Cichol. Besides, her step-brother was in mister Cihcol’s class. “I don’t think it is,” she said. “Mister Cichol is not as good a teacher.” Did she actually said that out loud?
“I think he’s an excellent teacher, but as I said you’re a smart girl. I can’t have his average score be better than my class.” Edelgard wasn’t sure if that was meant as a joke, seeing miss Eisner’s blank expression. She left out a chuckle, just in case. “Do you want to stay in my class?” Edelgard nodded affirmingly. “In that case, let me give you an additional homework assignment.” She probably read Edelgards look. “It’s not that long, don’t worry. For next lecture, I want you to write down a solution that will help you pay more attention in my classes from now on. Then you hand it in before the lecture starts.”
“Oh okay,” she answered, somewhat relieved. “I can do that.”
“Wonderful,” miss Eisner said as she retracted her beautiful leg and pushed herself of her desk. “That will be all.”
She walked Edelgard over to the door. “And don’t fret about next weeks test. Your poem had potential.”
Edelgard blushed while walking out of the classroom, trying not to glance back to her teacher and just closing the door. However, Miss Eisner held the door open before she could. Edelgard drowned into her big blue eyes. “But marriage is a bit soon don’t you think?” she stated with a wink, before closing the door. Tock, tock, tock.
How the hell was Edelgard going to pay attention the next lecture?