Office Hours - Psychology, Magical Theory

[romanywitch]

Jenny is putting the finishing touches on her lesson plans for next term.

Outside her office are two signs:

If you have received lower than a C in Abnormal Psychology, please contact me before registering for any of my classes next term.

Looking for Teaching Assistants for Psychology 101, Jung - Archetypes, Etc., and Magical Theory 101. Please see me to apply.

Comments

[romanywitch]

"Xander!" exclaimed Jenny, smiling as she looked up from her laptop. "You've brought an ailing computer for me to play with. This? Is never a bad thing. Trust me, just because I'm teaching psych now, it doesn't mean all my computer skills have atrophied." Even if she's had to teach herself eight years' worth of new technology in the past month and a half. Thank God she's a fast study with computers.

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander nodded. "I actually can poke my way around a regular PC these days; apparently I didn't forget everything from your class, and we have to use them a lot more here. But the laptop thing and the Mac thing and the randomly decides it's trying to connect to some network in another dimension thing, that's a bit much to take all at once."

[romanywitch]

"That sounds like a job for me," said Jenny, grinning. She moved her laptop off to the side and held out her hands. "Lemme have that sucker. Sounds like you're having problems with the interdimensional network. Gotta say, technomagic comes in more handy here than it did in Sunnydale."

She tinkered around with the network settings for a few minutes, then glanced curiously up at Xander. "Decided what classes you're going to take next term?"

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander grinned back, maybe a little uncertainly. "I kinda thought I'd take yours, for one. Uh, the intro to Magic, not the psych. The world does not need Xander Harris with the ability to diagnose its problems at a deeper level than 'wow, you are sincerely screwed up.'"

[romanywitch]

"It's covering magical theory, actually," said Jenny, shaking her head and laughing at Xander's joke about psychology. "No way am I teaching actual magic without knowing who's got a solid grounding in theory and ethics, y'know?"

She changed a couple more network settings, then wrinkled her nose at the computer. "They don't make it easy for you, do they? You know, Xander, I'm looking for a TA for Magical Theory--and you do have a lot of practical experience."

[soldtoarmenians]

"In learning what not to do, you mean?" Xander snickered. Then added, "Wait, TA as in teaching assistant? Come on, yank the other one. Me? In a position that involves responsibility?"

[romanywitch]

"You guessed it," said Jenny, then nodded at him. "No, I mean it. You can handle responsibility. Besides, it'll look good on your college applications. Where are you applying to?"

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander groaned. "Oh man, not you too? Willow's all 'take your SAT's again, I bet you can get a higher score, and you don't want to work at Doublemeat Palace for the rest of your life...' "

[romanywitch]

Jenny nodded. "I'm a teacher. Of course I want you to go to college!" She wrinkled her nose. "Besides, Doublemeat Palace? Ew. Place is kinda gross. And you totally underestimate yourself. Tell you what. Sign on as my TA for Magical Theory, I'll write you a letter of recommendation for college, and if you want, I'll help you study to retake the SAT's."

She grinned at him. "Just think of it as my contribution to the future of our society."

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander quirked a brow. "So they'll know who to blame when I accidentally start World War Three someday, huh?"

[romanywitch]

"Xander." Jenny gave him the same look she had when he turned in poorly-done homework in Sunnydale. "Don't make me beat you into submission with the 'this is your future we're talking about' speech."

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander held up his hands in front of his face in an exaggerated posture of fearfulness. "Not that! Never the future speech!" He lowered his hands and looked a little wistful. "Especially now that I can't use the excuse of living in Sunnydale and thus probably not having one."

[romanywitch]

Jenny laughed. "Not just the future speech. The future speech and me showing you college websites. You wanna give in before I start with the torture?" she asked. She gave Xander a sympathetic look. "You miss it? Or do you miss Willow?"

[soldtoarmenians]

"Yes? All of the above?" He cocked his head, considering. "I can't say I miss Sunnydale, but I miss the gang. And being young enough that the biggest thing we thought we had to be afraid of was the dreaded college website speech." Not that he was sure there ever really was a time like that -- not after Buffy came, anyway, and he didn't think he'd ever want to trade knowing her for being that innocent again.

[romanywitch]

"Who'd miss a place with a direct line to hell?" asked Jenny. "But I know what you mean." She took a drink of her completely unmentioned before now, but it's Jenny, people coffee and looked back up at him. "There are people there that I miss too. But guess what? You've grown up. Speaking from someone who hit grown-up a little sooner? The whole process pretty much sucks. Especially if you do it in Sunnydale. Everyone learns sooner or later that the world's got big things to be frightened of. In Sunnydale they're just--bigger than most things."

"And the college website speech is a little scary. If only due to the sheer number of links I have to go with it."

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander glanced over his shoulder for the alleged grown-up she was speaking to, but no one was there. Huh.

"Um." He coughed. "Speaking of links, those favorites on the browser? So not mine. Not that 'girls who might love girls' doesn't sound. Er. Educational, but I haven't actually been able to connect long enough to check my e-mail without thirty re-tries, let alone start bookmarking sites that I wouldn't leave on my computer before handing it over to a teacher."