At the End of the Day

[unukalhaiuntamed]

It had been a strenuous day, Samual reflected as he took the shuffled papers from his desk and smartly rapped them on the wooden top, making them orderly and neat. He slipped his belongings into his briefcase with an unthinking and uncaring hand.

There was something different about this school, and it was daftly hard to place. He couldn't make heads or tails of his situation. He was more than thankful that he was in a place with many good looking people though.

Young minds to be molded, he thought with a hungry grin.

[Justice Peters]

Justice passed by the class room once inhabited by Mrs. Whelps. She would have the class in the spring semester, but she'd heard that Whelps wouldn't be teaching it now anyway. Seemed she'd taken a spill during one of her classes and would be forced into and early retirement.

She noticed a young man in the classroom now. He looked too old to be a student, but much younger than the other teachers at St. James. She stopped outside his door and popped inside.

"Hello," she said brightly. "Are you the new history teacher?"

[unukalhaiuntamed]

The hungry grin on Samual's face was instantly replaced. He had an audience to impress, apparently. He heard a female voice from behind him at the door of the room. He turned around and smiled his usual warm smile.

"Yes, I am." He stated, his voice soft yet distinct. "And what can I do for you?" His eyes fixedon her, their cold blankness analyzing every bit present, from her wavy brown hair to her neatly outlined eyes.

[Justice Peters]

"Well, I'm Justice Peters," she said with a bright smile. "I'm Vice President of the Alliance of Christian Students here at St. James."

She flicked her hair back over her right shoulder without even thinking about it, that sort of thing was second nature to her.

"I won't have your class until next semester, but I just wanted to welcome you to St. James on behalf of the ACS," she said, masking her own hunger with a bubbly expression. It would be in the best interest of the ACS if they could finally get a teacher with some drive to join their cause.

[unukalhaiuntamed]

Justice Peters, hm? Well one thing was clear about her involentary reaction to him. She was thinking about sex. Samual wasn't quite sure why she was at this point, but perhaps it was just her reaction to being in the presence of a male. Hair-flipping is, scientifically, a human habit to attract the attention of the opposite gender. She didn't even know it but she was coming on to him.

Samual kept smiling his usual unreadable smile, as he absendmindedly pulled a few strands of hair behind his ear. Better to return the favor, he figured. The girl's phoremones were probably going crazy and she couldn't even tell.

"That's very considerate of you, and your organization for that matter." An Alliance of Christian Students? How very interesting...

[Justice Peters]

"Well, we're a very considerate group," she said with a little chuckle. "We have meetings once a week if you ever wanted to stop by, we don't mind teachers dropping in on the meetings."

She flashed him a grin, as if to reinforce the positive image she was trying to portray of their little group. Of course, she truly believed that no one could find fault with what the ACS did. It was all in everyone's best interest.

[cynthia]

Cynthia had been on her way out of the school when she realized that the history classroom of Mr. Benson was directly on her way to the front doors from her locker. She figured that since she met him before he had started teaching it would only be polite of her to see how his first day had gone. He seemed easy-going enough to have a causal conversation with, even if she wasn't his student.

Since the door was open, she walked right in. "Hi, Mr. Benson. I was just seeing how-" she started, but then noticed who the wavy brown hair she saw before her belonged to. Justice. Shit. "-how your first day of classes went." she finished, barely skipping a beat. "But I didn't realize you were with another student... I can come back," she said. With all the GSA/ACS drama she didn't want to get into anything here. She had no problem with Justice, and wished that both of their groups could just co-exist in peace. Unfortunately, the other girl didn't feel the same way.

((ooc- if this wasn't his first day, let me know and I'll change it to 'first few days' or something! Hope you don't mind me butting in... I was bored. ^_^))

[Justice Peters]

Justice turned around to see who the other voice belonged to, but she had already guessed as to who it was. Cynthia Rose, coming to crash the party. She pasted a smile on her face as she looked at the other girl. Her smile was as insincere as the words she was about to speak.

"Oh Cynthia, how nice to see you," she said in a bright voice. Though she was acting nice towards a GSA member in the presence of a teacher, her eyes belied the silent wrath she was feeling. "Oh no, I was just welcoming our new history teach to St. James."

[unukalhaiuntamed]

There was something in her smile that reminded Samual of himself, or perhaps the fact that she was using her good looks to her advantage. Samual really didn't mind the spectacle, frankly, but he was curious. There was something that this pretty little christian wanted out of him, but he couldn't quite tell what.

"I'll be sure to stop by sometime-" It was as if Samual had suddenly realized what dear little Justice had wanted and instantly forgot because, at that exact moment another, quite different girl entered the room. "Well, aren't I popular today." Samual chuckled good naturedly as his emotionless eyes turned to Cynthia Rose, captain of the colorguard-extraordanire.

"You're both very considerate. Thank you." There was an odd crackle to the air in the room and Samual could almost sense a showdown nearby. There could have been a tumbleweed floundering around behind him for all he knew because there was something overriding awkward about this scenerio--something in Cynthia's voice had given it away and Samual barely caught the threat in Justice's eyes.

[cynthia]

Cynthia smiled back at Justice, though it was clear that tensions were running high between the two seniors. Both of them felt very strongly about their beliefs, but that was about where the similarities ended.

"I know how the students get with new teachers, I was just making sure that being personable was enough to keep the worst ones at bay," she said, referring back to their previous conversation. She wondered if Justice had already convinced Mr. Benson to be the new backer of the ACS... that would be the worst! She hadn't even thought of trying to convince him to support the GSA. He was new, he didn't need to get involved in those sorts of things, did he? He'd have a hard enough time establishing a spot in the school, she had figured.

"But you're still here, so I s'pose there's nothing to worry about."

[Prudence Roberts]

So Mrs. Whelps now had a replacement? Excellent. As horrible as the woman was, she was still the ACS adviser and would need to be replaces and as soon as possible. With out an adviser the club wouldn't be ale to meet inside school the Prudence had far too much on her agenda to let a major set back like that happen. She's ask Mrs. Whelps replacement to fill the void that Whelps left.

At the end of the day Prudence made her way to Whelps' old class room, occasionally stopping to catch her beautiful reflection in a mirror or to admire one of her lovely fliers. When She was but steps away from the class room she heard a number of voices coming from inside. She recognized Justice's right away and then it took her a moment to get the unholy babble that was Cynthia Rose's voice. Then there was the voice of a male that Prudence hadn't heard before. It had to be the new teacher, Whelp's replacement.

Ever so gracefully, Prudence waltzed into the room and was met by the sight of the two formally mentioned girls and a rather handsome looking young man. Prudence stepped right in front of both Cynthia and Justice to formally speak to the man.

"Well, hello there," she said with a smile, standing tall and confident, "I'm Prudence Roberts and you must be dear old Mrs. Whelps replacement. Such a pity the poor or girl had that nasty slip," Prudence sighed in a sad sort of way before continuing, "but, life must go on and I'm afraid that the lose of Mrs. Whelps has put my club in a bit of a pickle. You see, Mrs. Whelp had been the adviser for the Alliance of Christian students, the club I am proudly president of, and without an adviser I'm sad to say our club will not be permitted to meet in school. This came at the worst of times I'm afraid; we're currently working on a school wide cleansing project so I'm sure you see the disadvantage of not being able to meet in the school. So I was hoping that in addition to replacing Mrs. Whelps as a teacher, that you may also replace her as our club adviser."

[cynthia]

Prudence! Cynthia kept a pleasant smile on her face and managed to appear completely passive to the presence of these two girls until Prudence asked Mr. Benson if he wanted to head the ACS. Then her face became completely unreadable as one work exploded in her head. NO! No, no, no, no, no. The ACS being leaderless was the best thing for the GSA because it bought them some extra time. If hey got a leader so quickly, and a younger teacher at that, then it wouldn't be long before he was proposing new ideas, letting them have more freedoms, and then everything she'd worked so hard for would have been for naught.

Of course, this wasn't really her place to comment. What Mr. Benson did with his free time was his own prerogative, but she couldn't stand by as the Vice President of the GSA and just let them get this edge. She had to at least say something.

Taking a deep breath, Cynthia looked up at the teacher. "Listen, I know it's not really my place, but I just thought it fair to warn you that the 'cleansing project' Prudence alluded to is their attempts to disband the school's Gay-Straight Alliance, crushing every step we've made towards tolerance and acceptance of alternate lifestyles," it was hard for rational people to argue against tolerance and acceptance, since those were the two things most adults claimed that 'these kids today' were lacking.

"Of course, if that's something you believe in, then far be it from me to stop you. The GSA doesn't try and change people's beliefs, just make them more open to those of others. If you do back the ACS, then I promise none of the GSA will hold it against you," she added quickly, her worried expression changing back into a simple half-smile. She'd done her part, she'd provided him with both sides of the situation, and what he did from there was completely up to him. She couldn't blame people for being homophobic, even if she thought it was wrong, and she wasn't about to force her own beliefs onto someone else.

[Justice Peters]

Justice was a little put out by Prudence coming in to try to gain Mr. Benson's support. She thought she'd been doing a rather good job of putting the idea in his head, and using some of her charm to try to entice him into stopping in for a meeting. She had thought a slower approach would have been best, but then again she was only the Vice President, perhaps this way was better.

"Oh, that'd be great," Justice said in response to Prudence's suggestion. When Cynthia spoke about their goal's her face turned into a mask of concern.

"Crushing is such a strong word, Cynthia." Destroying was the word I'd have chosen. "We're just seeing to it that the sinners in this Christian school are stopped before it's too late to save their souls."

[unukalhaiuntamed]

If the tension was palpable before, it was absolutly solid now. A new girl had entered the room with the animal-like ferocity that is rare in girls of her standard, and he could tell her standard simply by looking in her piercingly blue eyes. He felt as if he had been shot with those eyes and pinned in the room by these ACS figureheads.

A advisor, was it? So that was what interested these aryan girls, these perfect little christians with their primped hair and flawless make-up. They needed a Hitler to their genocide. No matter how many pretty little, albeit ruthless, girls they had to 'cause' they needed someone of power to sponsor and support them. Oh, the control--he could almost smell it, underneith all of the tension and behind western shoot-out theme that was pratcically playing, the power was there. He lived off of the power and needed the control, just like he breathed air and drank water. He lived for the control.

But there were targets at stake here. Three girls stand in Samual's room. If he takes either side, he loses possible targets, meaning that he shouldn't choose sides. They were the most important in this situation anyway, and the loss of them would mean that Mr. Benson was slipping up...but on the other hand...he could lose all of them if he never chose sides in this argument--their shootout. Two girls against one, two on the side of genocide, one on the side of justice. It was the convention good vs. evil after all. Samual knew exactly where he fit in, but would it benefit him after all?

Of course it would.

"It would be against my morals to let any group be dissolved because of my stubbornness." He laughed, smiling charmingly at the two perfectionists--his little nazis. "I'll attend a few meetings."

[Justice Peters]

Justice felt a sincere smile play across her face when Mr. Benson agreed to come to their meetings. She gave a little clap as if to say the whole affair was settled.

"Thank you so much for helping out," Justice said, with a clever little grin replacing her previous smile. Not gloating in front of Cynthia was proving a challenge. She flashed the smile in her direction though, and assumed the other girl got the message. "I'm sure you'll enjoy the meetings."

[cynthia]

Cynthia nodded slowly, careful not to show any signs of remorse. She couldn't blame him for making his decision since he had based them on his own personal beliefs. She really wasn't out to get anybody, she wasn't as cut-throat as Justice or Prudence, she just wanted everyone to be able to express themselves equally and freely.

She looked Justice in the eyes, making sure to meet her gaze. "Well, I'm glad you guys can keep meeting," she said, knowing that she had to pick her words carefully. She gave another genuine smile up at Mr. Benson, making sure she knew that she didn't harbor any ill will towards his choice. "Everyone has their own opinions," she said, shrugging.

"Well, I'm sure you guys have dates and times to sort out, and I've got a practice to attend. Bye!"

Cynthia waved goodbye to the three other people in the room, and headed out the door. She needed to find Desmond and inform him of her newest discovery. They would really need to step things up a notch now.

[vicki]

Vicki McGuire walked down the hallway of the history wing, her heels *thunking on the polished floors. ((*Clicking makes them sound girly, they're more like business heals.)) she wore a pair of grey dress pants, and a white button down shirt with three quarter sleeves. She had a string of pearls around her neck and wrist. And two pearl studs in her ears. Her dirty blond hair was swept up into a loose pony tail, with strands falling artfully out and framing her face. She wore a pair of half rimmed glasses, giving her an intelligent sort of air, and yet not deterring from her looks.

She heard a familiar voice: one of the students from the GSA, Cynthia Rose. She headed towards her and noticed the room she had come out of: the new history teacher's. She hadn't met the man yet, but figured it was bound to happen sooner or later.

"Hey Cynthia," she said, her expression pleasant as she peered around the door frame. "I see you've met the new guy. I suppose I should say hello too while I'm here?"

[Prudence Roberts]

For some reason Prudence sometimes found herself being more appalled by Justice's voice than Cynthia's especially when it was followed by her own, Prudence's, voice. Justice always had to add her own little tid bit after Prudence spoke It annoyed the shit out of her, but Prudence just thought about Jesus and it calmed her down and stopped her from smacking Justice upside the head.

She allowed Cynthia to have her own little statements thrown in before the new teacher gave his answer. She simply stood with her fingers laced in front of her and a smirk on her face. Oh, Cynthia, trying to make Prudence look like the bad guy. Going on about alternative life styles. In Prudence's opinion a different life style was someone who married someone of a different race, or some one who grew up in the suburbs that suddenly decided they wanted to live in the city. Being gay was a different story, that was just plain blasphemy. Of course Prudence wasn't about to blab all this out in front of the new teacher. She wanted to reel him in with politeness and charm. She's save her extreme beliefs for later.

A smile spread across Prudence's face when the young teacher said he's help them. Prudence always got what she wanted, one way or another. She had to stop herself from looking back at the crushed expression she expected to see on Cynthia's face. Her sudden departure was good enough though. Prudence didn't even turn back to watch her leave, hearing it was good enough.

Just when Prudence thought she was finally alone with the young teacher and Justice she heard clicking heals and an all too familiar voice in the hallway; Miss. McGuire. One of the school's English teachers and the adviser of GSA. As much as she disliked the organization and the woman Prudence had to give her credit; it probably took a lot of guts to agree to be the adviser of such a controversial group. Prudence had to admit she had an once of respect for the woman because of that. Prudence assumed the woman would be coming in to greet the new teacher so Prudence held her tongue for the time being.

[cynthia]

"Oh yes, by all means, go introduce yourself," Cynthia said, a slight smirk on her face. "He's very personable. Quite popular, too. Seems to show an interest in heading up the ACS already. Ambitious."

Cynthia thought it only fair to warn her own club's adviser about the new status of the new history teacher before she actually met him and realized it herself. He did seem like an interesting person, though, and she couldn't shake off the curious sense of intrigue she felt.

[vicki]

"Oh, I see," Vicki said, her voice contemplative. She spoke in an undertone to Cynthia. "I'll keep that in mind. See you at the next meeting." ((Unless Cynthia is taking her class in which case she will see her there.))

She straightened herself up and wrapped her knuckles on the door frame before proceeding to enter the classroom. She noticed the two girls with away: Prudence and Justice. Ironic how the girls names could be so far from what they actually did. She smiled at them, she tried never to let her disagreements in ideals interfere with her status as a teacher, at least when it came to the students.

"Prudence. Justice," she said looking at each one in turn. "And you must be the replacement I've been hearing so much buzz about."

She extended her hand to the new teacher, determined to make her own assessments about the man and not immediately judge him based on his willingness to head the ACS. (Although her defenses were ready to shoot up if this turned out to be a gang up on the Liberal teacher session.) She also was curious as to whether or not he'd be a formidable opponent.

"I'm Vicki McGuire," she said. "I teach English here."

[unukalhaiuntamed]

Just look at how popular he was becoming, Samual beamed, rather pleased with himself. Four visitors on his first day, especially at such a strict and upstanding school. He had thought that students and teachers alike would be intimidated by his youth, but it seems he was quite wrong. In contrast, they seemed to flock to him because of it, or perhaps his faux innocent standards. Either way, he had just hit a new record: Four woman fighting over him in one classroom on the first day. It had a nice ring to it.

He shook her hand, firmly but not too hard. She was a lady after all. Samual smiled warmly, a smile that couldn't quite cover the cold analysis that he was putting the other teacher through. His eyes locked on to the new teacher, seeming uneffected by her challenge in her expression. "Ah, I see. I'm Samual Benson. I'm the replacement for Mr. Whelps." He thought it only polite to use his first name in this occasion, even though he was so accustomed to answering to only Mr. Benson.

[vicki]

"Oh good 'ol Mrs. Whelps," she said in attempted fondness. She had never been close to the old bat, seeing as how she'd been the previous ACS the two hadn't exactly been on best terms.

"Well, Mr. Benson," she said, deeming it proper not to use first names in front of the students. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything important you might have been discussing with the students. I just thought I'd pop in and get the introductions out of the way, so it wouldn't be awkward if we ever happened to bump into one another."

She liked to know who everyone was on the faculty. Not only was it convenient in case she ever needed to bum a ride or had to ask a favour, but it was nice being able to say that she knew every one of her colleagues.