Teenage riot, September 2037

Round 33: September 2037 (Spring)

Staff: Kendal Draper (principal) is 61, Julia Gray (teacher) is 28 and Veronica Moretti (student teacher) is 20.
Students: Emma Gottlieb, Tim Lane, Jessica Royce-Nihill and Louisa and Eddie Gentry are 17, Austin and Lauren Carmody, Declan Romilly and Justin and Xavier Moretti are 16, Caitlin Romilly and Brendan Lachance are 14, Annabel and Georgina Nott are 13 and Simon and Matthew Lane are 12.

Veronica is now a junior, so it’s time for her to begin her mandatory two years of student teaching. This year, she’ll be working at Sullivan High School.

She’s a little nervous about it too. It’s only been three years since she was a student here herself and some of the older kids probably still remember her.

Kendal assures her that her first day will be quite a gentle introduction to the school; the senior students are visiting Suffolk University today, so only grades 7-10 will be on campus.

Not that the kids are particularly thrilled to be there. Writing an essay on the major themes in To Kill a Mockingbird is not the way any of them would really like to spend their morning.

It is a good opportunity for Veronica to watch Kendal’s close supervision of Caitlin and Annabel, two students who are feeling rather unmotivated this morning.

Veronica has her own ideas about student motivation, direct from her educational psych textbooks.

Kendal is polite and listens but tells Veronica she may be in for a shock once she’s actually in front of a class. Things don’t always go as planned.

Georgina is the polar opposite of her twin sister Annabel and is not a student Kendal needs to worry too much about. Georgina spent much of her weekend planning her essay and has been working steadily all lesson.

Making her essay plan also served as a convenient way to distract her from thinking about Brendan, the boy she’s had a crush on since last year.

Without work to focus on, Brendan is often all Georgina thinks about.

Not that he’s noticed her at all, at least in the way she’d like him to. He spent most of last year pining after Annabel. Seeing she never did peg on that he liked her and Brendan was too shy to make his own move, they went nowhere.

This year, he’s moved on and started dating Caitlin Romilly.

Brendan wouldn’t have had the guts to ask Caitlin out either but fortunately for Brendan, Caitlin took that into her own hands.

Georgina isn’t thrilled with this development but if it had to be anyone, she’d rather it be Caitlin.

She’s not sure she could take it if Brendan had started dating her twin sister.

When not hanging out with Caitlin, Brendan has been getting to know Matthew, a Grade 7 student.

If they were 10 years older, their age difference would be nothing but at 14, Brendan sometimes finds 12-year-old Matthew a little immature for his liking.

But it’s not bad to have someone looking up to you and hanging on your every word. As the baby of his family, that’s a new thing for Brendan.

And it is nice to have another guy to talk to, after really only having female friends before.

Matthew’s twin brother Simon also started high school this year but he hasn’t been making too many friends so far. He spends his lunch hour totally blissed on the guitar in the music room.

He’s only just started but he already fancies himself a rock star. He has the right pedigree, at least: his uncle is Luc Lane.

Kendal’s not much of a fan of heavy rock but she’s taught some truly cacophonous music classes in her time. It’s nice to have some talented students.

Meanwhile, Julia has taken the ten Grade 11 and 12 kids to the Suffolk University campus for Open Day. They’re under strict orders to meet back outside the student union by 3pm, to get the bus back to school.

They’re all looking forward to learning what the campus has to offer and wish Miss Gray would just shut up and let them go and explore.

Austin’s original plan was to use his semi-unsupervised day off to take full advantage of the video arcade in the student union.

Austin didn’t consider best friend Declan, who interrupts his gaming session within the first 15 minutes. Declan is concerned Austin is squandering this educational opportunity.

Austin isn’t too convinced but seeing it’s still better than being at school, he agrees to tag along with Declan.

Tim, Justin and his girlfriend Louisa had already decided weeks ago that they’d be visiting Sitko Faculty of Science on Open Day at Suffolk.

The local hospital has sent one of their doctors, Cara Moretti, to meet potential med students.

She’s there to guide them around the facilities and talk to them about what they might be in for if they do choose medicine.

Medicine hasn’t been Tim’s lifelong dream or anything - he just decided on it last year - so he has lots of questions for Cara.

It’s all sounding pretty fantastic to Tim though! He doesn’t have to decide right away but he’s surer than ever that med school might be the right path for him.

If only Louisa had the same direction. She thinks she wants to do something sciencey but isn’t really sure about any specifics past that. She's followed Justin to the botany lab, hoping something might click for her. She likes seeing Justin so passionate about something but has to admit plants aren’t really doing anything for her.

Justin suggests a look at the oceanography lab and Louisa agrees to check it out. But fish? Eh, maybe. Oceanography seems more interesting than botany but Louisa still isn’t positive she’d want to devote her life to it.

The university has also arranged for architect Sarah Moretti to talk with the students about her line of work.

Declan has wanted to be an architect since he was 12, so he’s listening very carefully. He’s even taking notes.

Architecture is not really Xavier’s thing and Eddie doesn’t know what he wants to do but both, at least, listen politely.

Which is more than can be said of Austin, who is so bored he’s decided to examine the woodgrain on his desk.

Austin is relieved when the lecture is over and Xavier suggests checking out some of the dorms.

It was a long walk though, so Austin decides he’s just going to chill in the common room.

Also touring the dorms are Jessica, Emma and Lauren.

Lauren and Emma are both quite impressed with the “penthouse” dorm. More privacy and the only room with a big bed.

Both girls want to claim the room for themselves, which could possibly end in a fight.

But Emma reminds Lauren that she’ll be at Suffolk a full year before her and there’s no way the room will remain vacant until then.

Lauren hadn’t thought of that. The room may not end up as Emma’s but it almost definitely won’t be Lauren’s.

Downstairs, Jessica has made friends with one of the resident students and they sit down around the poker table to talk about life at Moretti Hall.

Catching Jessica away from Emma, Lauren and Louisa is a stellar opportunity for Declan. He’s not shy but he’s not keen on approaching Jessica while she’s surrounded by her friends, or in conversation with a stranger.

So he moves on and finds her 10 minutes later, inspecting the dorm’s garden and pool area.

Jessica and Declan became good friends last year. Declan developed a crush on her quickly but until recently, Jessica has had a boyfriend.

They get along great. They’re both the most studious of their friends and Jessica doesn’t even seem to mind Declan’s obsession with comic books and sci-fi movies.

As friendly as Declan and Jessica have become, she’s never shown any interest in him past that. But now, it seems she’s definitely getting a bit flirty!

So Declan decides to ask Jessica if she’d like to do something together on the weekend.

Jessica thinks that sounds awesome (and is quite thrilled Declan took charge).

Declan didn’t think a university open day would score him a date (finally!) but he’s pretty pleased it has!

Extras:
I really was expecting Annabel to swoop in on Brendan this round but she was beaten to the post by Caitlin.
And Annabel learnt that the early bird gets the worm.


And Caitlin looks pretty damn smug about it!


Whether or not I deal with this Annabel's update will depend on what kind of wants she's rolling. I do see her as somewhat fickle, so she may not even care about Brendan by then.


Title:

• I said in my post yesterday that this update took place in two venues, meaning the university and the high school. Seeing I used four different lots at the uni, it was more like five venues. I never would have considered it on my old computer! I think I would have crashed several times.
• Veronica will be doing her student teaching at the primary school next year but once she finishes, I'll definitely be having her teach at the high school. They're going to need more staff soon.
• On my old computer, in my notes, I had jotted down what careers might suit Louisa and Eddie but I lost them. :( So I'll have to go through and do that careers criteria thing again sometime soon and figure it out.
• Declan and Jessica will only have a few months together in Sullivan before Jessica goes off to uni but I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for them anyway. They have better chemistry than Jessica and Noah did, so we'll see.