Love of Learning 1
William stuffed the last of the exam booklets into his briefcase and took a deep breath. Teaching at the McKenzie School was a tiring prospect most days, with the earnest attention instructors were expected to give their students. Any prep period automatically turned into office hours, with a gaggle of young men hanging about with a variety of questions about the poetry they were studying, the paper they had due, and offers to do extra credit work.
For the most part, the students at the school were highly ambitious. And though William appreciated their determination and focus, he sometimes wondered how much of a childhood or youth they were really allowed to have. Their parents were insistent that they get into the best schools, pursue the best sports and hobbies. He had become used to the calls at home and the expectations that he would attend most of his students´ sporting events and plays.
There was of course the occasional straggler or slacker in his classroom, sometimes a student distracted by other responsibilities, or a boy going through an all–too–brief period of rebellion. For the most part, though, the students were attentive, eager, and not only on track but ahead on their work.
That was why he´d been so flummoxed recently when he´d gotten a transfer student, Xander Harris whose misbehaviors and terrible grades in no way figured with the typical boys William had taught at this school. Oh, he was a pleasant enough boy, with a wide bright smile and a quick wit that bespoke obvious intelligence. But he seemed utterly uninterested in applying himself.
William had no idea how such a student had come to enroll at the McKenzie school; more to the point, he had no idea why such a student had not yet been expelled from the institution.
The headmaster, Rupert Giles, had further complicated the matter in William´s mind when he had drawn William aside and told him to give special attention to young Xander. Apparently he had already taken enough of an interest in the boy to inquire and learn that he was not doing well in his courses (or perhaps the parents had visited with concerns, though a few things that William had overheard Xander say to the other boys would have seemed to rule out invested parenting in Xander´s case).
But despite William´s gentle suggestions that Xander was perhaps not the best fit for McKenzie, Mr. Giles seemed adamant that Xander did indeed belong at the school. Apparently he´d spoken to all of Xander´s teachers about bringing his grades up and encouraging the boy. But he wanted William to take a particular care to help Xander better his performance. "I want you to instill a love of learning in him," Mr. Giles had said with gravity.
So today was to be the first of their tutoring sessions. William sharpened a few of his pencils, took down some of the books that he hoped would suit Xander´s interests, and waited.
And waited. And then waited some more.
An hour later, having completely given up on the boy (it had hardly been a loss, because he´d graded a stack of the exams and drawn up his lesson plans for early next week), Xander swung into the room, his cheeks red from the cold outside and rubbing his hands together for warmth.
"You decided to come after all?" William asked, his eyebrow arched.
Xander laughed and put both his palms face down on William´s desk. "You won´t believe this, but I got all the way back to the dorm, and was completely going to run in and get my notes, but then there was a fire drill, and they wouldn´t just let me leave, because they had to count everyone in the building and get the fire marshal to check all the rooms, and I kept saying I had tutoring, but they just told me to stay, and we were standing outside, and I´m sorry, but this isn´t brisk fall weather, it´s like nippy frigid freezing arctic winter stuff, so I´m totally blaming them when we all come down with pneumonia or something."
William blinked. "Er. I believe you. We once had an evacuation test here during school hours, and of course the fire marshals can be very thorough."
"Great, great," Xander said enthusiastically. He lifted his hand to his head, and William looked down abruptly when he realized he was following the path Xander´s fingers were combing through his dark thick hair. "Thing is, usually I would hang out here for the tutoring, no problem, but right now I am starving, and I was so hungry that after they even let us inside after the drill, I didn´t grab a snack or anything because I was in such a rush. And then, I totally forgot my notes. So, um, I don´t really know how much of a tutoring thing we´re going to get going on today, so do you want me just to come back tomorrow or something?"
William sighed. Tomorrow afternoon he had plans to get phone his fiancée, Elizabeth. She was working in England currently, and they had a hard time of it arranging phone conversations. He hated to rearrange the plans. However, the teachers were so encouraged to accommodate and cater to students here that he automatically found himself shifting his schedule in his mind so that he could in fact see Xander tomorrow during the afternoon.
"I suppose I could," William began, and Xander held up a hand.
"Do you like pizza?" Xander asked seriously. "Because there´s a great place I found last week, and we could just head there and you could bring whatever stuff you were going to give me, and give me the whole pep talk while we eat. And really, I think better on a full stomach, and you´ve got to be starving too, right? Or...wait, do you not eat pizza? Is that not a thing in England?"
"Oh no, I eat pizza," William found himself saying. He frowned at his knuckles. Somewhere along the way the thread of conversation had slipped from him, though he wasn´t quite sure how.
"Excellent," Xander said. "Let´s go now; beat the rush."
William hesitated for a moment, but when Xander grinned at him, he shook his head a little and stood up to follow Xander out of the room.
