(no subject)

[eggos]

Eleven isn't sure how she feels about school. Monday had been largely a blur, as she'd been shown around and learned how to find her classes. She'd had to stand up at the beginning of class and introduce herself, and that had been uncomfortable. A few kids had snickered at her. She hadn't liked that.

Lunch had been alright, at least, and she'd had fun in gym, too, because it'd mostly just been running and doing some stretches.

The classes themselves are either very hard, or very easy. El isn't stupid, and Hopper had done his best to teach her at home, but there are some things she just hasn't had the chance to learn yet, and that leaves her slightly behind her peers. She knows she should pay closer attention, but sometimes, she finds herself looking out the window, or watching the other students in the room.

Which is obviously also a mistake, because on Tuesday, the teacher notices, and calls on her to answer his question.

Only El doesn't know what the question is.

She looks at him, her eyes wide but her expression otherwise schooled.

"What?" she asks.

That raises a wave of giggles from the other students, and El frowns slightly. It's not funny.

"Elle, you should really be paying attention, so you can learn this stuff," the teacher says, in a tone very much like the one Papa used on her. Eleven grips the edge of her desk tightly and the lights flicker once, twice before settling.

"I will," she says, but she doesn't apologize.

"We just went over this yesterday, people!" the teacher says, addressing the rest of the class, now. "I know at least one or two of you were listening. Now who can tell me a little bit about the Prohibition?"

Comments

[finally_ahead]

"Yeah," Stan says, his sideway grin only warming. "It's peaceful, and no one bothers you. And the other good thing is, if we do the work the way he wants, he stays out of the way."

He can't help a laugh at the description.

"Maybe," he allows. "Probably got his nose broken in too many fights."

[eggos]

She's not sure what a broken nose has to do with being a mouth breather, but maybe that's something she missed when Mike had first told her. She doesn't say anything about it, though, just looks at Stan's notes before looking at her own pathetically blank paper.

"How do you know what to write down?" she asks.

[finally_ahead]

"I have a trick," Stan answers, "but most of it's just practice and sometimes the teachers tell you. I make an outline, because it's the same every time." Doing notes like this soothes him, sometimes, even if he's not really paying attention to the content as much as ordering the information and lining it up.

"You list the important thing first, and then it's more details as you go down." He takes up a pencil, even if he doesn't like how they smudge, for ease of erasing versus starting over. Motioning at her paper, he asks, "Can I?"

[eggos]

She nods and slides the notebook closer to him so it's easier to write. Then she moves a little closer, too, so she can see better. She's never 'outlined' before, and she's got a lot of questions about that, too.

"How do I know what's most important?" she asks.

[finally_ahead]

Stan smiles, warm and quiet, like sharing a secret.

He is, in a way. He's sharing how having such a precise system puts him at ease, one of his defenses against the rest of the world. It's a defense he'll share, because whether she finds it useful or not, she won't laugh.

"That's the trick," he says, and turns to the most recently assigned chapter in the book. "See this paragraph? The first sentence is usually the most important, and you can go from there. Most of these books are written like that. And if a word is marked like this," and he taps toward a bolded vocabulary word, "then it's important too."

[eggos]

She frowns in concentration as she listens, because she wants to make sure she understands what he's saying. The idea that the first sentence is usually the most important is easy enough. It means she's not going to be struggling to figure out what to note down. The bolded words are good, too.

She offers Stan a small, grateful smile.