My character

Name: Ianto Harkness
Age: 27
Occupation: teacher
Appearance:


Ianto sighed with annoyance as he adjusted the shirt he'd chosen for the day. Today would be the first day of his new joab at the local school. Yet again he wondered exactly why he had taken this job. He didn't really want it. He was sure that his calling was not in teaching but he needed the money, needed to be able to support himself. He was new to the area and did not know it very well. He hoped tha in a few weeks that would change, he'd make a few aquaintances who would turn into friends and things would settle down. As it was for now he would just need to make do with what he had. Once he had enough money stored up he would see if he could exchange his position for something a little more preferable.

Finally deciding that he had had enough he grabbed the sachel that contained all the materials he would need for the day and headed out the door. He was to be the new history teacher for the school. The previous one had retired recently and the school had been happy to take whoever they could get. It just so happened that Ianto had been between jobs and he'd just come to the area so he was the ideal candidate for a position. He reached the front door of his small appartment before stepping outside into teh dimly lit corridor adn locking the door. He walked along the corridor and down the stairs to the bottom floor and then out the front of the complex where he'd moved. The school was only a few blocks away so he figured that it would make the most sense to walk. It was cheaper than getting a taxi or a bus and the day was fair enough. It would only take him about ten minutes or so to reach the building and then he would be starting his new job.

Name: Damien Johnson
Age: 17
Occupation: Student
Appearance:


Damien's alarm clock started blaring and he knocked it to the floor in an attempt to turn in off. He hated getting up so early in the morning. And for school no less. He couldn't wait until he graduated and could be done with school. Though he knew his parents were expecting him to go to college. And he might. It depended on what he decided he wanted to do with his life. He could figure that out later. He was a senior! One more year to freedom! That is what he focused on.

He eventually rolled himself out of bed and got dressed. He grabbed an apple on his way out and ran to the school, eating on the way. He was already late. His father would kill him if he got detention on the first day. Luckily for him, he made it before the bell rang. He threw the apple core away before taking a seat in the back of the classroom, sorta ready to begin.

It hadn't taken Ianto long to reach the school. It had actually taken eight minutes to reach the rather large building so he was a few minutes early. This pleased him somewhat as he made his way through the halls. He'd been given a map a few days ago by one of the receptionists and had memorised it so taht he wouldn't humiliate himself by getting lost on the very first day he started. That would not create a good impression.

He entered his room to find it empty. No surprise since there was still a little time before students would have to start appearing. He sat down behind the newly cleared desk and began to take out some lesson plans that he had made for the day. He studied the time table and shook his head slightly. On his very first day he had a class of seniors to deal with. Well wouldn't this be fun? He just hoped that, maybe, among the group there would be one person willing to at least try and learn what he had to teach.

Finally all the students had arrived and they were sitting down when the bell rang. Ianto took that as his cue to stand from behind the desk. He walked around to the front and perched slightly on teh side. He looked over all the students, taking in their reactions before beginningt to speak.

"Good morning," he said to them, his voice not as loud as some teachers but definitely firm. "I will be your new history teacher for the duration of the year. My name is Ianto Harkness and I'd prefer it if you paid attention in my class. Those that don't will receive detention. This is your last year of school before stepping into the wide world and I intend to ensure that your grades are as good as they can be for possible applications to university."

((I don't really know how this works but I'll try my best at it.))

{{Its alright. Just do what you can.}}

Damien looked at the teacher. He hadn't seen him around here before. He knew he was was new before he even started speaking. Personally, he liked the old teacher. He was cool to talk to. So he didn't know how to react to this new guy. He listened to what was said, but he wasn't really paying to much attention.

"What if we don't want to apply to a university?" he asked, not raising his hand. He knew that he wasn't the only one thinking that. Not all the students here would go to college. Only the ones who were straight A students would go. The rest would just deal with whatever job they got.

Ianto's eyes flicked to the kid taht had asked the question. He knew that there would probably be a few like this in the class. With kids this age it was almost inevitable. Still he was glad that one of them had asked. That gave him teh opertunity to get it out of the way, clear the air so to speak.

"Well," he said, his voice the same volume but with a slightly firmer undertone. "If that is the case then I still expect you to pay attention. Think of it like this. You're doing something you enjoy, something that you're really into and someone comes along and starts annoying you, amybe it's just something minor and you can put up with it but then it gets a bit bigger until, finally, you can't concentrate. I don't want anyone to feel like that in my class. Some of you may like this subject, may even love it and for those students I will do my best to teach. For those of you that do not like the subject I can respect your decision but there is no need to make it harder for others."

He glanced around at the general student population in the class and thought he could already see a few rebelious ones in there, just waiting to cause some trouble. He always hated kids that did that, kids that didn't appear to have any respect for others and what harm they could do so he decided that he needed to hammer his message home. "Anyone who intentionally tries to do something to disturb the class or is being unnecessarily distracting I will asign detention. I am fair though so if I do give you a punishment then you can be assured that it was deserved."

Damien stayed silent, thinking about that. The teacher did have a good point. And, luckily for him, he normally found history pretty interesting. That was probably because of the teacher he had had. What he really liked was sports. But he could only do that after school. So that didn't really leave much time for him to do much studying. He would pay attention though. He couldn't guarantee the rest of the class though. He couldn't control what they would do.

"Now that that's out of the way we can begin," Ianto continued. He reached down and grabbed the register for the class and quickly went through it, ticking off names as he went, mentally placing faces to names as he went. Once that was done he glanced quickly down at his class notes before pushing himself from the desk in order to stand in front of it.

"Not it's time to officlaly begin," he said. "From waht I can tell from teh notes left by your previous teacher you're currently studying the Aztecs. Quite an interesting topic and it can get quite complicated if you aren't paying attention. Now...since I don't know exactly what level you're at right now we'll start off with a small quiz taht I prepared earlier. It's not taht difficult and it's just there so I know how far you are. Don't worry if you can't answer everything. I don't expect you to unless you've enhaled the textbook."

He reached to the desk again and pulled out a stack of papers. He divided this stack into smaller bundles and gave them to the front person of each row of seats with instructions to pass the sheets back. Once he was sure that everyone had a sheet he gave the instruction to begin.

"You have fifteen minutes. They're just True or False questions so it shouldn't be too time consuming."

Damien looked over the paper when he received it. This was to easy. He could get it done in five and have most of them right. He had a pretty good memory. Which was good seeing as how he didn't always have time to study. Once they were allowed to begin, he got down to it. He got it done with five minutes to spare. Sure, it had lasted longer than he had thought. But that was fine.

He flipped the paper over on his desk and leaned back in his seat, bored already. He just wanted for class to end so he could get out of here and have some fun with his friends. School was just a waste of his time.

Ianto took note of the student's reactions to the quiz and noticed the kid at the back of the class that finished five minutes early. He couldn't remember the kid's name off the top of his head but he'd check it out on the name list. Finally the full fifteen minutes were up and he could hear a few students grumbgling as they handed in their not-quite-finished work.

"I'll have these back to you by tomorrow at the earliest," he told the class. "Don't forget to write your name at the top to make sure I know which paper belongs to which person. You don't want someone else taking credit for your work, do you?" He smiled thinly at the class before beginning to collect in the papers. "Since this is your first day with me as your teacher we'll take it relatively easy for the rest of the period. You can read through the text book. Read chapter 3 and if you don't quite manage to finish it read the rest for homework tonight."

Damien made sure his name was on his paper before he turned it in. He took his book and skimmed through the chapter, not really taking the time to actually read it. He figured he could do that later. His mind was more focused on the training he had to do for the big homecoming came after school. That was more important to him than school work. And he knew it mattered to his friends, seeing as how he could tell they weren't paying attention either.

Ianto didn't take very long to notice that manhy of the students weren't reading through the material he had instructed. Oh sure they were flipping through the pages and going through the motions of doing it but he could tell that their minds weren't really in the classroom. Still they weren't disturbing the other students so as long as they didn't do that then he wouldn't call them on it...yet anyway. It was still early in the term and if they read the material later then he wouldn't have a problem. Of course he doubted that they would but it was always best to give them a chance.

He quickly skimmed through the names of the papers, checking them against the register and frowned as he noticed that a couple hadn't signed their names. Well he'd just need to make an example of them tomorrow. He didn't like doing things like this but they needed to learn who was in charge of the classroom and the sooner he drummed tha into their teenage skulls the easier it would be to teach them for the rest of the year. Finally the bell rang and the class was dismissed.

"Don't forget about the homework asignment," he told them firmly. "Anyone that doesn't read through the chapter will receive detention tomorrow unless they can provide a decent reason."

Damien heard the teacher say something about the assignment. But he didn't really listen to what was said. He gathered up his stuff, figuring he'd read the lesson later. If he had time, that is. It wasn't like he didn't have a reason. They had practice tonight and that was probably going to take a long time.

He went through his classes half asleep. He didn't find any of the classes interesting, so it was hard to pay attention. He did his best though. So he was relieved when school finally ended and he could do what he loved to do: football. Sure, he wasn't the quarterback. But he still had an important job. He was the fastest running-back this school has ever had.

Ianto went through the classes in a sort of slow motion. he didn't know why exactly this was, possibly the after effects of moving to a new area and starting a new job? Possibly. That was not important now. What was important was that he finish marking the quizzes he'd given out and then asign a mark to each one out of 100. Most of the students appeared to do relatively well thankfully. Apparently the teacher before him had done a rather good job when it came to keeping the students interested in the subject. Ianto hoped that he would be able to do the same.

Eventually all the work had been sorted out and now all that remained was to go through his lesson plans for the next day and hope that the students actually did their homework. He doubted that some would and he was not looking forward to the prospect of asigning detention on his second day but it was important that they learned who was in charge in the classroom and refusal to do the simplist of asignments would lead to consequences. So thinking Ianto retired to bed for the night and mentally prepared himself for tomorrow. If he remembered right he had the seniors just before lunch tomorrow. Well at least he'd get a break after dealing with them. That was a small pluss he suposed.

Damien went through the training exercises like he did everyday along with his friends. It was hard work, but they were on the top so they had to work hard to stay there. Plus, he liked the exercise. It made him feel like he accomplished something during the day. When he finally did get home, it was late. So luckily he didn't have any homework.

The boy hated getting up the next morning. His muscles were sore, but he was expecting it. He took a hot shower and some pain pills before leaving for school. He knew it wouldn't take to long for the pain to go away. He got to school pretty early, so he just waited around for it to begin.

So far his second day at work seemed to be going smoothly adn Ianto was thankful for that. Unfortunately now it was time for the class of seniors and he was not looking forward to it. Sure they seemed like an alright bunch of kids but their yyear was usually the hardest to teach. They were so full of themselves at this age. When everyone was in the class he began to hand out the papers, making sure to get the names right. Finally he was left with the one paper that no one had written their name on. By process of elimination he already knew who it belonged to but a lesson had to be learnt here.

"Will anyone who didn't write their name on the paper from yestday raise his or her hand," he said in a stern voice. He was not about to tollerate something so childish. It was immature. If the student had merely fergotten then he wouldn't have minded but he had told them specifically to make sure that their names were on the sheet. He could see the other students looking around, trying to find the one that had disobeyed the new teacher.

Damien went through his first classes completely exhausted. He just wanted to go to sleep. But he couldn't afford to do that. Falling asleep meant getting detention. And getting detention meant being suspended from the team. He couldn't handle that. That would be terrible! It was finally the class with the new teacher. It was also in that class twhen he fell asleep.

He only managed to sleep for a few minutes though before he heard the teacher talking. Though there was no way he was talking to him. He had put his name on his paper. He always put his name on his papers right away just so he wouldn't forget. That way he couldn't get in trouble.

Once the student who had not written his name on the paper had been identified and a suitable punishment had been handed out Ianto went back to the front of the room and quickly glanced around at the student.s He could immediately see that there were quite a few that were falling asleep and even one that appeared to actually be asleep rather than atempt to stay awake. He frowned slightly at this before grabbing the largest book he could find on his desk and walking towards the student in question.

He made sure to be quiet as he walked and soon he was right in front of the student's desk. He positioned the book on teh desk in front of the student's head before releasing it and allowing the hard backed book to hit the desk with a loud bang.

"Keeping you up are we?" Ianto asked, his tone sarcastic as he stared at teh student.

Damien jumped when a book was suddenly slammed on the desk. He really wasn't expecting. He looked at the teacher still partly asleep. He really was exhausted.

"Of course I am." he automatically said. He always kept up in his classes.

"Then perhaps you could explain to me why you were asleep during my class?" Ianto asked, his tone perfectly pitched at the student. He could hear the whispers of the other students surrounding them at the moment but ignored the distraction in favour of focusing on the one in front of him. He remembered taht this was the student that had asked a question yesterday. "After all I haven't even started the official topic of today's lesson. Am I really that boring that you were put to sleep by the mere thought of my class or is there a better reason?"

"It has nothing to do with your class, sir. I just didn't get much sleep last night." he stated. Why else would he be falling asleep. He was trying so hard to not yawn in his teacher's face. That would be rude and would more likely get him detention. But he was so tired. He forced his eyes to stay open though.

Ianto raised an eyebrow at the studen't answer.
"And why exactly did you not get much sleep last night?" he asked, his tone curious. "It can't be because you took taht long to finish the chapter of reading I asigned. It would have taken ten or fifteen minutes at the most, twenty if you're an especially slow reader."

"Our football practice ran longer than usual. And I had a lot of homework to do." he stated.
Damien briefly glanced at the clock. How much longer was this class anyway?! He didn't like being questioned like this, so he was hoping it would end soon. But, according to the clock, it didn't look like it would.

Ianto raised an eyebrow. He was no fan of sports but he did understand that it was an important part of school life. Still...extra activities were no excuse for not being able to keep up and falling asleep in class.
"So you did your homework last night, correct?"

"Yes, sir. Of course I did." Damien stated. He hadn't gone to bed until he had it all finished.
He always wouldn't be able to sleep until he had his work done. No matter how tired he was. So he always did it first chance he got.

Ianto raised an eyebrow. He didn't quite believe the student. He'd had students lie to him before after all.
"Alright then," he said, flipping to a random page of the chapter that he'd asigned the day before. "Then tell me waht the topic of discussion on page 33 is and how it relates to the following information presented on page 36."

((Um I'm a bit confused here. In a post above you said that Damien went straight to bed without doing his homework but on the post above you said he did do his homework...?))