Office hours, office #5

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon wanted...well, no. Jon felt he ought to make himself available in case any of his students' guests wanted to meet him. He very much wanted to be back in his flat.

Especially once he got to his office and found someone else there.

"You, um. I was...I was assigned this office last year."

Hannibal raised an eyebrow. "I was assigned it years ago. And I see you haven't removed my decor."

"It...it seemed nice enough. Look, you, um."

"Are you saying there isn't enough room for both of us?" Said with a vaguely pleasant, vaguely threatening smile.

"No, I...um. Well okay, fine."


Jon's office was open for visitors!

Comments

[notajones]

Miss Grayling wanted to check on Jo’s progress at her new school and see is she had in fact changed as much as she seemed to have.

“Hello?” she knocked on the door to the Im office.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon looked up, then stood and came over to invite the woman in. "Hello, I'm Jonathan Sims. I take it you're here for one of my students."

[notajones]

“I’m Miss Grayling,” Miss Grayling smiled, “I’m here visiting Josephine Jones? I understand she’s in your class, I’m actually her former Head Mistress,” she explained, which was a bit awkward since she had been the one to expel Jo last year.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Yes, of course. Please come in, Miss Grayling." Jon waved her over to a chair by the desk. "Jo has been in several of my classes. She's doing very well, I think."

[notajones]

“Oh,” that was indeed a pleasant surprise to hear as she came in and took the offered seat, “it was rather unfortunate with what happened at Malory Towers, her father didn’t give her the best chance she had to succeed, I’m pleased she does seem to be settling well in her new school,”

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon nodded. "She told me about her difficulties. I'm sure it's a bit of an adjustment coming here, but I think she's benefited from the environment. She takes to some subjects better than others, but she always tries. She pays attention and engages in discussion during lessons. I've been happy to have her as a student."

[notajones]

“Then that is a very different report to what I was usually getting about Jo from her old teachers,” Miss Grayling nodded, “it is nice to see that she is trying in her classes, I hope she has been managing to stay out of trouble as well?”

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"So far as I'm aware, yes," Jon answered. He wasn't about to explain how much he was aware of, so he went with, "around here, the radio reports most anything of interest, and I haven't heard anything untoward."

[notajones]

"There is a radio here?" Miss Grayling considered, "do they have old news editions by any chance?" she was curious about learning more about Jo's new school, which seemed to have done wonders for her.

"I am pleased that Jo has settled down though," she added, "it has been a considerable change since she was at school at Malory Towers and she even seems to have made more friends here," the old Jo had been so boastful and loud and generally unlikable that only Deirdre in the end had become friends with her.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"They do," Jon said. "Although I'm not sure how many you'll be able to listen to, unless you're willing to bring a modern mobile back with you - they're available here." He pulled out his phone and called up the podcast of past radio shows, showing it to her. "The station might have transcriptions, if you ask."

[notajones]

"This is a phone now?" Miss Grayling was fascinated as she looked at the phone, before turning her attention to the podcast, "I can see how this would be rather useful to stay up to date and it reports on everything around the island?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Yes," Jon said. "It's...best not to ask how that happens, but every day someone reports on the news of the day before. On Monday mornings, it's generally me. If you're interested in getting a mobile, I can point you in the right direction."

[notajones]

"Would it work back home for us?" Miss Grayling was curious, "does it work the same way as a normal telephone?"

Having a mobile phone like that would be quite useful.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Everyone I've known to bring one home from here has had it work," Jon said. "It can make phone calls as a regular phone, but honestly most people these days barely use it for that." He called up the phone function on his. "You press the buttons for the number you want to dial, then you talk here and listen here. You can also send text messages, though. Erm...I suppose the closest analogue would be a telegraph? But instant. And you can research things, look up information from around the world. And there are games."

Also so many cat memes. He didn't know if Miss Grayling would be interested in those, though.

[notajones]

Miss Grayling was very fascinated as she watched Jon explain the functions of the phone, “technology has most certainly come a long way,” she remarked, “I may have to look into getting myself one of these devices,”

She would never admit it but she would enjoy looking at cat memes.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"If you do, you could call Jo sometimes," Jon pointed out. "She might be glad to hear from someone back home."

He hoped. She seemed pleasant, anyway.

And he would absolutely send her cat memes.

[notajones]

Miss Grayling nodded, "I may do that, I am sure that her friend Deirdre would like one as well, to be able to call from time to time rather than rely on letters," she knew that Deirdre and Jo still wrote to each other fairly frequently.

"It's unfortunate that she had to learn an extremely hard lesson in life to get here but she seems to be a lot more focused and willing to try, not just rely on her family's wealth ...her father was not a good influence in that regard," she explained.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"If you go to the store Turtle and Canary, they'll have some," Jon said. "If Summer Smith is there, she'll be very helpful in setting them up."

He realised something and winced. "I would suggest going to the bank first, to see if you can exchange your money for the modern sort. Currency is different these days, not to mention American here, and even if they took pounds, inflation over the years has been...erm...excessive."

Best to shock her the good way by what her money was worth, before finding out how much things cost.