fandomhigh | Professor Chaucer's Office Hours, Tuesday

Kiki comes in just after lunch. "Hello, Professor Chaucer!"

"Hey there, Kiki!" Geoff looks up from grading quizzes and grins. "How are you today?"

"I can't complain, I guess," Kiki answers, putting on a smile that looks faintly strained. "Glad to have had the day off yesterday!"

"I think everyone was," Geoff agrees. "Why don't you sit down?"

Cocking his head, he studies Kiki for a moment. "You seem like you're trying awfully hard to be happy, Kiki. Do you want to tell me what's wrong?"

Kiki pulls a wry look as she sits down, setting her books in her lap. "Boy trouble, truth be told," she answers, rolling her eyes. "I'd thought we were dating. I guess he thought otherwise. It does explain why he hasn't called, though."

[Mun headdesks over the lack of assignment for this week, and then facepalms with amusement that the next is Frankenstein, when she has Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein" in her head from seeing it this weekend.]

[#2: Did Phale get his latest letter? :) ]

Laughing ruefully, Geoff nods. "Boy trouble I can understand. He didn't call, even for Valentine's Day? Give me his name and I'll have a word with him. It's a crime to not call your lady on Valentine's Day."

[Mun giggles over Frankenstein vs. Young Frankenstine, and is now resisting the urge to show the movie in class. Mun also sads deeply over the fact that next week will be Geoff's last IS lesson with Kiki. :( ]

[#2: Yes, but I've been waiting for my partner in crime so we can co-write the reply. *g*]

"Ah, well," Kiki answers, a small, sad, chagrinned smile fluttering over her face, "thank you for the offer, but I don't think you can scold someone into being my boyfriend. That's just embarrassing all the way around the circle. And even if you succeeded, it wouldn't change the fact that I walked in on him and his-lady-that-isn't-me in preparation for a bath together yesterday. An entire thesaurus doesn't have enough words for how awkward that was. Hence the confusion on my part." Kiki shrugs a little. "But this, too, shall pass."

[Kiki: You know, if I magically chain him to his desk, he can't leave!
Mun: Hush, you. Don't give me ideas like that.
Kiki: But you want to. You know you do. Give in!
Mun: Keeks, you've been taking lessons in temptation from Crowley again, haven't you?
Kiki: Well, you DO keep sending me over to the Arms, so... duh.
Mun: *headdesk*
Mun: *considers idea*]

[#2: yays!]

Geoff's eyebrows go up. "Ah. Well, yes...that makes it a different situation entirely. I'm really sorry, Kiki. It doesn't make it better, I know, but he's making a mistake if he's dropping you for someone else."

He sits back in his chair a little and decides a change of subject is probably in order. "You know there was no lesson for this week, right?" he asks with a grin.

"Thanks," Kiki grins slightly. "And yeah, it's beginning to dawn on me that yesterday was actually a holiday, which would mean no assignment for this week. I guess the habit is has become ingrained in me! Since you spend so much time talking about what you've given the students to read, it's time to turn the tables: what are you reading these days?"

Geoff's grin widens and he holds up the book he's been reading. "American geography. I picked it up in Baltimore. Think I should have put it on the class syllabus?"

Raising a skeptical eyebrow, Kiki answers, "Western, yes. Literature? Less so. Unless it has a compelling protagonist I've never heard of."

"No protagonist but you the traveler. Best protagonist ever invented, really." He opens the book and scans over the page. "'For most of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Newfoundland cod fishery operated as a seasonal, overseas business that was based on numerous Western European ports.' Fascinating stuff, really."

Geoff looks back up at Kiki and winks. "Actually, it's unimaginably dry. But...it's taught me a lot about this continent. Like, for instance, that Newfoundland isn't actually part of this country."

"I think it's in Canada, isn't it?" Kiki asks. "I'm afraid I don't know too much about this country, either."

"Yes, Canada. North of here. Home of hockey and...their guards where red uniforms. Beyond that, I really don't know much about them." He grins and closes the book. "By the way, you've got a guest lecturer this afternoon for poetry class. Professor Dream."

Mulling that over a moment, she asks, "Our new school security guard is from there, right? Red uniform, hat, pretty tall and cute? I'm pretty sure he's from Canada. Are you taking Professor Dream's class in exchange?"

Laughing, Geoff replies, "That's him! He's the one who told me they had hockey, although I don't actually have any idea what that is."

He leans back a little in the chair and nods. "I taught Professor Dream's class this morning. We discussed Dante, like our class did a few weeks ago, although we did the entire Commedia rather than just Inferno."

"I've never played it, but I've seen it a couple of times. It's a game played on ice where you try to shoot a flattened rubber ball across the ice into a goal using a bent stick," Kiki explains. "I should read the rest of the Commedia, I think. It'd be interesting to see what else Dante has to say about the next life."

"I'm not sure you're going to like it any more than you liked what he had to say about Hell," Geoff warned, in a laughing tone. "Also...I think he could have been a little more creative with the punishments he assigned in Purgatorio. But that's just my opinion."

"Oh?" Kiki asks, intrigued. "What does he put them through?"

[Mun is ashamed; she's not read beyond Inferno... Has them, though, on the shelf, so it looks very impressive!]

"Pretty typical things, actually. Constant running as a punishment for Sloth, abstinence from food for Gluttony, burning in fire for Lust. Although Envy is pretty interesting: you have your eyes sewn shut and have to wear clothes that make it so you blend in with the ground." He raises an eyebrow and says, "Maybe there'd be some extra credit available if you read the entire Commedia."

[ooc: All hail the great god Wikipedia! *g*]

"Extra credit?" Kiki arches an eyebrow with a smile. "The punishment for Envy does sound interesting, though! I'll put it on my list for when I'm done with Jane Eyre."

[ooc: Huzzah! *worships*]

"Well, fair's only fair. I'll put Jane Eyre on my list to read. When I've finished with A Regional Geography of the United States and Canada, of course."

Geoff makes a mental note to speak to his replacement about the extra credit offer.

"You haven't read it?" Kiki asks, her eyebrows going up. "Ooh, it's very good. Some mystery, some drama, some violence, some romance...all the good things a gothic novel should have. A definite change of pace from regional geography."

"Sounds intriguing. I'll definitely have to have a go at it, then."

Geoff's expression becomes serious for a moment. "You know, it just occurred to me that next week will be my last week here."

"Ehr...yes," Kiki replies quietly. "I know. There's something strange about this town, the way people come and go - so frequently, and without a word, sometimes."

"It's an unnatural town," he replies, a little darkly. Then he gives Kiki a rueful smile. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up. I'm just going to miss having these sessions with you. Who knows, though, right? My wanderings brought me here, they may well send me someplace else like this one, and we'll run into each other again."

"I hope so," Kiki smiles sadly. "I'd be pretty sad if I thought we'd never get to chat like this again."

"I would too, Kiki. You know what...how about I treat you to lunch or something at the Perk, next week?"

"Really?" Kiki's eyes light up and she grins. "That would be great, Professor. I would really enjoy that!"

Pleased by Kiki's enthusiasm, Geoff grins broadly. "Good! Next week it is, then. What's your class schedule like?"

"On Mondays and Wednesdays I have class either right before or right after lunch, but I'm free on Tuesdays until poetry, have no classes on Thursday, and am done after first period on Friday," Kiki answers.

"Let's make it Tuesday, then. I'll hold my office hours in the morning, and we'll grab lunch and be back well before poetry class."

[oops! *g*]

"Sure!" Kiki answers, smiling happily. ~~What better way to get over a semi-broken heart than with a *cough* Not!date *cough* with a cute professor?~~ She straightens the pile of books in her lap. "Frankenstein for next week, right?"

[Was sooooo tempted to play that as Phale possessing Geoff! *g*]

"All right then! It's ~~not omg!~~ a date! I'll see you next Tuesday." Geoff gives her a pleased grin, and nods at the question. "Yes, Frankenstein for the next lesson. I think you'll enjoy it -- it's a much deeper story that it seems on the surface."

[*jaw drops* ZOMG! It must be done! *plots insane plottiness*]

"Fabulous," Kiki grins, standing up. "I'll see you Tuesday!"

[*glees* That would be SO. AWESOME.]

"I'll see you then, Kiki. And I hope your week gets a little better than it's started out."

[ooc: I'm seeing a timeline on this of, oh...sometime in the late spring? Say...April or May? *g*]

"Thanks!" Kiki grins. "It already is, I think. Good-bye, Professor!" She waves over her shoulder.

[ooc: *g* sure! I'm game :) *rubs together hands of evil plottiness*]

Professor Chaucer's Office Hours, Tuesday

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