Not my day

Atheleah sat in the Staff Room mentally cursing herself out for being so immature and prideful. She had been talking with some students when she got dared to do something to the next professor she saw. Sadly, the next classroom she had passed was Cain's.

She just wanted to get the dare over with, and now she was upset that she might have ruined a chance at a friendship. Now, all she wanted to do was apologize.

If I run into him, I'll apologize, she thought to herself.

This just wasn't her day.

Cain was a little confused, he had just had a very unusual encounter with a member of staff and he didn't know what exactly it had meant. Did she not like him? Was it because he was a centaur? Sighing a little he had decided to go and try to find her to see what exactly a conk was and if he could kindly have his one back.

He walked into the staff room, after knocking, politely on the door not wanting to walk in on anyones private conversation, he couldn't help but smile balefully he had manged to find her and it didn't take that long after all. He gently ducked his head under the doorframe and entered the room bowing graciously to the Professor.

"Greetings, not to intrude but I was wondering, if I might have my conk back? Not that I know what one of them is...but I'm assuming I need it."

He paused for a minute before realising he didn't know her name.

"I'm Cain, Cain Valerian and you are?"

Atheleah was blushing. Yes, she said she would apologize, but she didn't think it'd be this soon.

She laughed nervously and ran a hand through her hair, a nervous habit. "Um, hi." She cringed internally. When the heck did I become a wimp?

"Well, um, you see, I was, uh, dared by one of the students to do that. I didn't really take anything." She smiled bashfully. "I guess it sounds kinda stupid that I would act so immature because of a stupid dare. Sorry," she mumbled.

She felt so embarrassed. Not only did she just humiliate herself in front of a colleague, but in front of a cute colleague! Wait, what?

Great. Now I'm thinking inappropriate thoughts for a fellow teacher. Just what I need.

"I-I'm Atheleah DeLuna," she whispered, her cheeks heating up, as if he could hear her thoughts.

Cain smiled shyly and walked a little further into the room, he looked about having never been in here before and he found it to be quite a nice room, he made a note that he would have to come here a lot more often, it was warm and had food, what more could you want? Cain raised his eyebrow slightly in response to her statement, he grinned playfully however, it was good that Atheleah was interacting with the students.

"Playing a game? I have never played a game like that before...I realise," Cain blushed "I must seem rather ignorant to not know about these phrases and customs they are so different to my own, I am trying however."

He looked kindly at Atheleah, he could see that something was wrong with her and he thought it might be him, he shouldn't have intruded upon her like this. His eyes filled with sadness and he turned himself around to walk out of the room, he wouldn't want to disturb her any more.

"If I am intruding, please, never hesistate to tell me to leave. I will."

"NO! No. You weren't intruding. What gave you that idea?" Atheleah asked, her cheeks even redder at her outburst. She had no idea what it was about this guy that was making her act like a complete idiot.

"I'm just embarrassed. I'm acting like an idiot, aren't I?"

Cain turned back to face Atheleah, he smiled a little and walked back into the staff room, taking up a stance by one of the cupboards and leaning against it to take the weight off his hooves for a while it got so tiring for him having to stand up constantly, but, if he sat down he would have to wait for assistance to get back up.

"I must admit, you are acting strangely, but, it is not such a bad thing Atheleah."

He smiled again and moved from his leaning position against the cupboard to stand next to the chair where she sat his black shirt coming up to where the top of her head was. Cain wished he could have a sit down, try to be a little more human alas he didn't know if he could rely on Atheleah to pull him back up.

"I would sit, but, I cannot."

Atheleah tilted her head in confusion in a way her dog would. "Why not? You don't know how, or you don't know how to get up? Because if getting up is the problem, I'm sure there's a charm to help."

Atheleah grinned. She loved magic. But, she loved it more when it was to help someone.

"Please, sit down. Relax. I mean, the first day of classes are over! We should celebrate our survival against the animals they call children," she half joked. Atheleah loved kids, there was no doubt about that, but they were a bit tiring.

"I mean, you don't have to. You know, if you don't want to," she whispered, that stupid nervous wave coming over her again.

Cain's eyes widened a little and he nodded slowly, bending his front legs to lower himself to the ground and then his back ones so that he was now only a little bit shorter than the average male was standing up. He sighed contentedly and tilted his head back, rolling it about on his neck to relax himself, it was true that he had managed to survive the lesson but there were only two students, not much to survive.

"Of course, but, I only have two students, they are attentive and well behaved. Tell me, how many have you?"

He didn't know why he was bothering to ask these questions she surely could not be interested in his own view point, not many were. Cain rested his head on the arm of a chair and looked intently into Atheleah's eyes for a while trying to read what she was thinking, alas, he couldn't tell a thing.

Atheleah smiled. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately. It didn't help when he started staring into her eyes.

"I don't know the exact number. About three to five students per house. So, at most 20 and at least 12."

"You teach divination, right? What's it like? I mean, what's it like to actually believe in it, to trust that you can do it? I could never do it as a student. My parents didn't really like it, so they discouraged me from excelling in it."

She didn't realize, but she absentmindedly scooted forward. She sometimes didn't realize she was doing things when she enjoyed a conversation.

"You have a lot of students, maybe it is because the Professor is so nice that they all flock to your lesson."

Cain chuckled a little, his voice coming out a lot deeper than normal. He would have been offended but he had gotten used ot the view that most people saw his subject as hokum and a waste of time and effort, for a few people though it wasn't it yeilded very promising results. Atheleah had hit the nail right on the head, of course, believing what you were doing is real is a key point to divination.

"I do teach divination." He grinned with a nod of his head "It is a wonderful subject and one as a centaur I excell in because I can predict from the movements of the planets...most people however fail to posess the ability to believe in what they're doing so naturally they fail..."

He sighed a little and began to trace the lines on the chair absent mindedly while he thought, something to occupy his hands with.

"I haven't really spoken to many people since coming here...it is rather sad...I wonder sometimes, if people dislike me because I am very formal."

Atheleah scoffed.

"People don't dislike you because you're formal. Heck, they don't dislike you at all. And, if they do, you just have to remember one thing: people are jerks. Even I'm a jerk at times. The only difference is that I actually give people a chance. Everyone deserves a chance, right?"

Atheleah smiled trying to fight off a blush. She didn't get complimented a lot, so, naturally, she didn't know how to take them. Of course, there was always the fact that Cain made her act really strange.

"And, thank you. For calling me nice," she elaborated. Stupid, stupid, stupid! "I hope that maybe one day you could show me what you mean about the planets. I may not have been good at divination, but I was always fascinated with astronomy."

Cain nodded once more and smiled at what she said, she made a lot of sense and she seemed like a nice person on the surface of it all but people had a tendancy to behave the way they want to be percieved and think another thing underneath what they are saying. Cain wondered if this was the case with Atheleah but he doubted it...

"Everybody, has their 'jerk' moments. Even I sometimes get fed up of a person and have to resist the urge to kick them in the gut, is this what you mean by 'jerk'?"

Cain blushed lightly, he felt so idiotic not knowing these terms but he supposed the more he talked to people the more he would come to know them.

"Why, it is no problem Atheleah, you are a nice person, I am only pointing out the truth before my eyes."

He grinned and he thought about what she said about astronomy, he supposed that it would be possible to enjoy looking and observing the planets even if you did not know what those movements meant. But then again, he didn't know if he should share with her the planets and their meaning to him...it was a deep thing to do that.

"Perhaps one day, you will allow me to show you. If I can reach my office without having to stop about 5 times on the way, stairs and me don't go very well..."

She smiled at his blush. She didn't know much about centaurs; being a hit wizard always kept her on the move, never giving her enough time to learn about the local village.

"Yeah. A jerk is someone who's basically mean, crude, things of that nature. And, I have to admit, I would really find it amusing to see you kick someone in the gut because they were annoying. That sounds mean, huh?"

She bit her lip. She had a very sarcastic humor, but she wasn't sure if many people would find her 'nice' if they saw her laugh at a prat who fell down half a flight of stairs. Yeah, she should probably try to limit her comments.

"And, I look forward to learning. Maybe one day I'll even enjoy divination. Believe me, I try to be open-minded, but it's kind of hard when all you hear as you grow up is 'You're not taking divination, are you? You do know it's a load of bull, right?' or 'don't trust what you see in a crystal ball; it's all a scam'." Atheleah paused. "I hope I'm not offending you, I have a tendency of not thinking before I speak when I'm hungry."

As if on cue, her stomach let out a loud growl that caused her cheeks to redden.

Cain smiled weakly, he would have normally been offended when someone told him that they thought what he believed in was rubbish but as he had begun to hang around more and more humans he had learnt that it wasn't just his views that were under critique many of their own were rejected just as much as his. Eventually he had gotten used to it, and now, it didn't bother him at all. Shrugging his shoulders lightly he said;

"I don't think it would be mean. They probably deserve a good kick...it takes a lot to make me angry so if someone got me riled up enough to kick them, they'd probably deserve it."

He raised his eyebrow slightly when her stomach growled, it was no-where near a meal time and it was a little odd, then again, Cain himself never felt hungry at all. Gesturing to the door he tried to get up from his seat on the floor but ended up flopping back down with a thump, hair covering his eyes he swept it away and grinned bashfully.

"You would like to get some food? From the kitchens?"

Atheleah laughed weakly pulling out her wand. Gibing it a gentle flick, Cain was lifted into the air and set gently on his feet.

"Sure. I'd love to."

She walked over to the door, and held it open for him.

"You know, you should think about playing truth or dare with the students. Who knows what they'd make you do," she smirked.