watch you crawl [r]

[ROWAN FOLEY]

The air was brisk and thin in preparation for winter, the perfect type of air in Rowan's opinion. It was certainly a stroke of luck; the redhead had been lenient on his students lately, running them inside and away from the nipping cold, so it figured the day he brought them back outside it was even chillier than normal. He snickered quietly into the black scarf draped around his neck; even if his students were going to be freezing, Rowan had no intention of suffering through the blasted cold himself. Besides, they would be too busy trying to breath in the oxygen-thin air to worry about their poor little fingers turning blue, not that the increase in circulation wouldn't keep them warm anyways.

Bottle-green eyes snapped to attention as the last of his students arrived, joining in the chorus of complaints about the weather. With a roll of his eyes, Rowan stuffed his hands into the pockets of his dark blue jacket. "Today,"

[/color] he started before he took a moment to pause, waiting for the last of the teens to stop talking. He never bothered raising his voice; it was uncomfortable and hardly worked. Besides, such a thing was for those people who couldn't control their classes. "Today you will be running an endurance course. Over the past couple of weeks, a few of you have complained about me running you too hard."[/b] He snorted before a slightly menacing smile settled over his expression. "This is my way of showing you that I could have been running you much, much harder."[/b]

As a few mutters broke out among the class, Rowan grabbed a folder of papers from the bag hanging at his side. He handed the pile to one of the students sitting in front, who took a single page before passing it to the person next to him. The redhead waited until about half the class had the paper before speaking again. "This is a map of the route you are to take. If you can't read it, you should either take a cartography class or get your head out of your ass and just follow the people who can read it."[/b] A couple of the kids looked insulted, and he rolled his eyes again before continuing, gesturing to his own copy of the map. "Essentially, you are to follow the main road of Santa Prospera for three miles before looping back and returning to the school."[/b]

With a glare, Rowan managed to cut off the majority of the protests, although a few of the students were still muttering angrily under their breaths. Two of them stood calmly and handed their maps back to Rowan before walking back into the building. He didn't try to stop them; it was their choice whether they failed or not. With a shrug, he turned back to his class. "Along your route there are two colored flags at each checkpoint. One is for the way to the end, the other is for the way back. And don't think you can bullshit your way through this by having the best runners grab all the flags for you. There's a camera at the last checkpoint that feeds directly into my cellphone. I will know if you cheat."[/b]

Rowan studied the students carefully for a moment; they all looked disheartened. Good. Maybe now they would all stop thinking his class was an easy grade, which should have sunk in already considering a decent handful of them were beyond any hope of passing at this point. He snorted. "There is no time limit since this is an endurance run. However, I will not excuse you from any of your other classes. So, since I know most of you have break after this anyways, how does two and a half hours sound?"[/b] He nodded as they all stood with sullen faces. "First three back earn a passing grade on both this and another two of their assignments. You may begin."[/b] Rowan didn't watch as they all rushed out the gate, choosing instead to settle himself into the chair he had once again brought with him, scarf pulled over his mouth and hands tucked in his sleeves. He pulled his knees to his chest and sighed, laying his cheek against them. This was going to be a long two hours. [/div][/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[AALEKH KASWALA]

Holy balls it was cold today. Jesus if Aalekh wasn’t dead set on doing this class he would have quit right here and now but this was one of those things he had now set a goal too and by god he was going to do it. To commemorate the cold he was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt the worst thing to wear in cold weather he needed to do some warming up, he began to stretch out his muscles and jog in his place to get the blood pumping. He wasn’t one for cold but it was freezing out here but by know he had come to expect this from his teacher, Mr. Foley.

Aalekh didn’t hate the guy in fact he kind of liked him, he was a complete dick to his students but he was funny and that was an admirable quality. Besides the guy could barely get through to Aalekh insults were nothing to him he didn’t care at all. Half the shit he said was brushed off as a joke between friends an incredibly bad thing when actually seeing who his professor was. It was a good thing Aalekh had never really engaged in any conversation with Aalekh.

Then it hit him hard, they were running an endurance court, a god damn endurance court. Aalekh was no good at endurance, sure he was fast and was normally the fastest in the class but they had just entered into his weakness. He was good at running and rather quick but he couldn’t last that long. Up till now they had been running some basic courses that most of the out of shape students weren’t able to do and all they did was groan but now there groaning had gotten Aalekh into a situation where he would be just like them. His goal was to get faster and get more endurance but he had never taken into account that they would be doing an endurance course, a stupid thought at best. He was deadest on this though, he was going to complete this and he was going to damn near good on it.

Aalekh looked over the map as his fellow students muttered. He memorized the whole course before shoving it into his pocket just in case. It was essentially a three mile course. The first three miles would be tough but doable and he could still get top three but the way back, that was going to kill him, literally speaking he would drop down dead at the end of it. Aalekh had a good grade in the class but if he failed than he would fail for sure there was almost no way to redeem himself there.

He began the sprint at the ready signal and zoomed ahead of everyone and for a good mile and half maintained a sturdy and healthy lead in front of everyone as they groaned and panted, only a few paced themselves correctly and were smart enough and fast to be able to catch up to him. Once his lead had been established he reduced himself to a slower jog and the next mile and a half his lead began to shrink as he began to go slower. He was still the first one to reach the flag and it had taken him near an hour to get there.

He grabbed his flag and head back gingerly but he was beginning to get tired. He tried to use his remaining energy to make a mad dash for the next mile but it was to no avail as three other students over passed him and took the second flag. This was hard as hell. He was too damn slow, he wanted to be fast and have stamina, that was his goal but it was a lot fucking harder than it looked. In the next hour and a half he reached the end behind 10 other people. He wasn’t the last but he was nowhere near the top. This was the first challenge he had received when coming to this school, even for a first year he was inadequate, he couldn’t even finish a fucking race anywhere near the top. He was utterly crushed at this moment, a complete low. He hit the chain link fence next to him in frustration, this was some bullshit. He was going to fail this class without a doubt. Now was not the time to wallow in himself. He walked up to his teacher, that wise ass teacher of his. ”Is there any way to get extra credit in this class, to stop myself from failing.” If there wasn’t all his effort would be for naught, he wasn’t about to give up now, he was going to pass this class. By god he was going to use every fiber in his body to pass the class and finally overcome something, a weakness. This was his chance to prove something to himself, that he could try, that he could believe in his own strength and not just his familiars.

[ROWAN FOLEY]

Sometimes, Rowan thoroughly chewed himself out for taking his teaching position; it wasn't as though he didn't have plenty of other things to do. Sure, they weren't exactly things other people considered productive, but he certainly enjoyed them well enough. Besides, one could learn plenty from just reading books, it wasn't as though it were his fault that people were too lazy to expand their mental capacities. He did other things besides reading anyways, but teaching also got in the way of his various experiments. At least he was able to keep up with his running; he had to challenge his classes occasionally, right?

It took awhile, but eventually Rowan's phone chimed cheerily from his pocket, causing him to scowl as he put down his book. Sure, he may have said there was no time limit, but those idiots had gone well beyond pacing themselves; hell, he wouldn't be surprised if the majority of them were walking. The redhead thought carefully for a moment before he scowled and pulled his cell out, only to type in a few things rapidly. Hacking into the city's street cameras had never been difficult, and he had had enough free time to create the program on his phone; without hesitating, Rowan pulled up the video footage from a restaurant by the first checkpoint, only to be greeted with the sight of one of his students jumping out of a cab to grab the first flag and then getting back in.

Idiot.

Rowan wasn't angry, not at all. In fact, this was quite the interesting turn of events. He had expected someone to try cheating, had anticipated it enough that he kept a camera at each station, not just the last. It was ridiculous how these kids thought they could pull the wool over his eyes; he may not be as old or experienced as some of the other professors, but it would be a downright lie to call Rowan an idiot, and everyone knew it. He watched with a blank expression as the rest of the class ran past before he shoved the device back in his pocket and picked up his book. Two hours until he got to chew someone out. Joy.

Time went by way too quickly; Rowan only managed to finish one of the books he brought with him before the first student returned. And as luck would have it, it was the student he had caught in the cab. With a roll of the eyes, the redhead barely even glanced up from the text in his lap before he spoke. "Do I look stupid?" The student looked flabbergasted for a moment before he shook his head cautiously. With a snap, Rowan shut his book and lifted himself to his feet. He may not have an intimidating build, but his acid green eyes pinned the boy to his spot. "Really? Because judging from this lovely video, you think I'm so feeble-minded as to not catch you cheating." The boy's eyes widened as Rowan held out his phone, a short clip of the cab ride playing on repeat on the small screen. Fearful eyes turned toward the teacher, who gave him an apathetic look in return. "Show up to class early next session, or I will think of a far more dire consequence than what I have in mind at the moment."

[/b] And with those words, the teen bolted, leaving Rowan to turn to the rest of his returning class.

The group was panting and sweaty, and a majority of them had already collapsed on the ground in various positions. One or two managed to make their way into the school, but overall they were worn down. He nodded, satisfied; maybe now they would realize he wouldn't hesitate to work them to the bone. It took him a moment to realize he was being spoken to, but once he did, Rowan turned to the student with a frown. Aalekh Kaswala, overachiever and one of those students most teachers would kill to have. On the contrary, the redhead did not like having the teen in his class; he was always relying far too much on his familiars, he was far too nice for it to be natural, and his damn height made Rowan feel like a dwarf. Scowling, Rowan crossed his arms over his chest. "Extra credit?"[/b] The redhead scoffed, green eyes rolling in annoyance. "What do I look like, Kaswala, fucking Santa Claus? You earn what you get in my class, equivalent exchange. If you have issues with that, then you should really get off your lazy ass and try harder." [/div][/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote]