Re-energized and in better form, Michael arrived earlier at school than he did yesterday. He still had almost 20 minutes before the doors would open and he could enter the school. He made his way over to the track again and put his bag down by the side. "The routine does say a minimum, after all," he muttered, an excited light shining in his eyes.He wrapped up the 5km minimum quickly, and then kept going. He was running for time, not distance at the moment, and had set a timer to stop at 7am. So he kept running. Each circuit was 400 metres, and soon he"d finished two, then three laps. He was up to 6 kms total for the morning before he knew it, and still had plenty of time. His lungs were burning and his legs were screaming, but he also felt exhilarated. He kept running and running, and he was coming up on 7km shortly before 7am. His body was almost ready to quit, but seeing how close he was to 7km, he decided to go for it.
The number didn"t mean anything, and it probably wasn"t the smartest decision, but he couldn"t help himself - a zeal he wasn"t familiar with was almost overwhelming the tired signals his body was sending him. He opened the throttle all the way and sprinted the final stretch, arriving next to his bag. His heart was pounding, he could feel his pulse in his skull, and his lungs were heaving furiously like a bellows, yet still he was happy.
He picked up his bag and stopped abruptly. At some point during his run, a tall girl with blazing red hair had arrived and was watching him race around the track. She didn"t say anything to him, but he was fairly certain that he heard her snort as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail and made her own way on to the track. A little shy, but also desperately needing a shower, Michael just left and hit the showers.
---
As opposed to yesterday, this morning in the library was quite calm. Michael finished dealing with the overnight book deposit and shelving quickly, and then went behind the desk and worked on his Algebra and Chemistry work. He felt a little guilty, since he didn"t like leaving things til the last minute, but he was surprised to find that his mind was moving even more quickly than it normally did. Both Algebra and Chemistry only took 45 minutes each, including the supplementary questions.
"Looks like my academics are improving, too," he exclaimed excitedly, before quieting down upon remembering that it was a library. Just in time, he packed up his stuff, said goodbye to Mr. Maddox (who had buried himself in his office as soon as Michael had arrived) and rushed over to Algebra cla.s.s.
"Good Morning, Mr. Prout, and good work. The delineation was helpful too - very easy to read. Keep it up, and there might be an opportunity for you in the New Year," Ms. Blackice said as soon as he entered the cla.s.s. He walked over to her desk, sort of mumbled an embarra.s.sed thank you, and exchanged the previous cla.s.s" homework with today"s supplementary work. The prospect of an opportunity related to her was also something that Michael was very interested in, though he"d probably try to deny it. He then made his way over to his own desk and buried his blushing face in his textbook.
The morning proceeded uneventfully from there, though Jeremy did mention after cla.s.s that he"d had a look at the proposal, liked it, and would be talking to Ben about it tonight. At lunch, Michael availed himself of the microwave in the cafeteria before heading over to the library. Luckily there were only a few books to shelve at the start of the hour, and then he sat at the desk, eating his lunch and working on his Algebra homework. He didn"t want to get into a situation like he had that morning. He had so many things on his plate at the moment that he was finding it easier to get distracted.
"Maybe I should take more advantage of the System"s functionality," he mused. He could use the step functionality provided by the system to make himself better lists. Furthermore, by incorporating some of the project approach introduced in the literature he"d been reading last night, he could make the tasks more manageable. He decided to test this out later that evening, and made a "note" for himself in the interface.
[ ] Pilot new Task interface in the System UI.
This text was now floating at the edge of his vision, and would be until he completed it.
"Organizing" Skill => +0.1
Willpower-??? => +0.1
>>
"Glad you approve, System."
---
"Good afternoon, Mr. Prout. I a.s.sume you"re here early to discuss your outline?", Ms. Aldrich greeted Michael as he came into the cla.s.sroom. There were still almost ten minutes until the bell rang - even the most eager students wouldn"t be here for a few minutes.
"Good afternoon, Ms. Aldrich. Yes, I was wondering if you"d had a chance to review it yet," Michael asked cautiously. He was searching her face for anything that might look like anger or disappointment, but all he could see was a bit of a smirk.
"Yes, I"ve reviewed it. It"s ambitious, certainly. If you insist, I won"t stop you from proceeding, I just want to caution you on not biting off more than you can chew," she replied, handing over the marked up review. There were a few locations where comments had been made in red pen, but from Michael"s preliminary glance none of them were too drastic. He could incorporate them as he implemented the edits Mr. Maddox had made as well.
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"Thank you. I was also wondering what the process was for subsequent drafts? Are you reviewing each draft, or...?"
The teacher shook her head. "The next time you submit to me will be the final draft. If you"re looking for recommendations for potential draft reviews, we can discuss it after cla.s.s."
Michael nodded and took his seat. He was soon joined by his friends, and cla.s.s began. As it happened, today"s topic was how to prepare your outline. Ms. Aldrich seemed to make a point of not looking in his direction. They also got their quizzes from the previous cla.s.s back - as Michael expected, he did pretty well, though there were a couple of tricky scenarios that he only got partial marks on. He made himself an explicit note according to his new system.
[ ] Add English grammar and writing style guides to the library.
At the end of cla.s.s, he walked up to his teacher to briefly discuss things before he had to rush off to gym. She got straight to the point. "Normally we recommend a combination of peer review and parental review where possible. In your case, though, peer review might not be as good an idea, as you"ve undertaken this supplementary component. There are also learning resources available through the library. I believe you are acquainted with Mr. Maddox, yes? I"m told he has a new a.s.sistant, so he should be opening up more tutoring slots."
Michael gave a wry grin at this. "Actually, I"m his new a.s.sistant. He"s already offered his help for review, so I"ll continue through that. Thank you, Ms. Aldrich!" He then rushed out of cla.s.s and made his way to the changing rooms.
The teacher watched him leave, her eyes narrowing. "Just what are you up to, you old snake...", she muttered as she collected the rest of her material.
---
Despite his early morning activity, Michael didn"t have any trouble keeping up with the main pack. He even felt that he could probably push his speed a bit further, but held back as he didn"t want a repeat of last week"s debacle.
After laps, cla.s.s was once again archery practice. Michael was middling in his results, as he hadn"t had any time or opportunity to practice since the previous session. He tried to figure out how he could practice further and decided that he"d need to pick up the equipment for home in order to get enough practice.
They were also informed that there would be a fitness test at the end of the month - the contents of which would be distributed at a later date. Michael was just glad that it would be after his current 2-week mission.
With cla.s.s wrapped up, he said goodbye to his friends - Jeremy was headed to the cafe and Valeria had something to take care of at home - and then went to the library. A couple of cla.s.ses had their free periods in the afternoon, so there was a sizeable amount of shelving to do, after which he ran a search for books to get started on his coordination mission. He found a couple of books on yoga to start and brought them back to the desk. As he was flipping through them for the System to scan, he heard a familiar voice.
"You really are the new a.s.sistant, I see. Is Mr. Maddox in his office?"
Michael looked up and saw Ms. Aldrich standing in front of the desk. He quickly closed the book and nodded. "Yes, Ms. Aldrich. Would you like me to let him know you"re here?"
"No need, I"ll see myself in," she said as she walked towards the office. Michael faintly heard her begin her sentence before the door closed.
"Would you care to explain..."