This was the first time Alyssa had ever been tasked with something such as this. Teaching children. Though Alyssa did not hate children, she had no idea how to deal with such creatures. Arcane seemed to be very interested in the idea of being around a bunch of children who loved him. Alyssa and her split, not so much. Though not truly interested in the idea, Alyssa could not turn down the chance to help one of the more esteemed women in Magnolia. She was a truly amazing teacher and Alyssa respected her, as did many of the citizens of Magnolia, along with the travelers as well.

Alyssa carried the papers that she was given which included the lesson plan for the day, the list of students in the class, a schedule, and a stack of homework for the young ones as well. She was to be teaching some of the basics of math including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Though math was her least favorite subject, she knew enough to teach simple lessons to the students. Once she reached the school, she found most of the students in their chairs, sitting quietly as she walked in. All their eyes traveled to Arcane and not herself, though she expected as much. She told Arcane to sit under the desk as she introduced herself and the lesson for the day.

"Hello children, my name is Alyssa and I will be taking over for your teacher Sandine today. Now, I know you do not know me, but I am positive that we will all be great friends." Before she began with the lesson, she called roll, making sure all of the students had showed up for their lesson, which they had. Grabbing a marker, Alyssa walked to the board in front of the class. "Alright, I'm sure you are all very smart and have gone over this before, but just to make sure, we will be going over math today." The children groaned. "I know, I know, not very interesting. First, we have addition." Alyssa wrote it on the board along with a couple basic questions. "Now, let's say Brad has five apples and Amanda has one apple. If Amanda gives Brad her apple, how many apples will Brad have?" She watched as the kids counted on their fingers and wrote things down. A few shouted out the correct answer. "Very good, I knew you were all smart." After a few more examples using food, she gave the children a couple to answer on their own pages.

"Next we have subtraction. Now say Amanda is being really mean and she takes the apple she gave Brad back, how many apples will Brad have left?" The children shouted out five, the correct answer. "Right! Now, what if Brad gave Amanda two more of his apples?" The kids all once again shouted the correct answer. Alyssa continued to drill addition and subtraction with the children, surprised that all of them in the class were very bright young ones. Soon she realized that it was time for their break. "Alright children, it's time for lunch and recess. We can go outside and eat, if you would like." The kids all agreed and they went out to their playground to eat. Pulling out her own lunch, Alyssa began to chow down with the children. Soon, they were all running about with Arcane chasing them. Alyssa could not help but smile with hopes that one day her own child would be as bright as those in the class she was currently teaching.

Recess seemed to drag on for quite a while. Alyssa checked the clock every couple of minutes to find only one or two had gone by. The children seemed to be having fun, so did Arcane. It was almost heartbreaking when she told them it was time to go back inside. Heads hung low as they all slowly made their way back into the classroom and took their seats. Tired eyes coated the children as they once again looked up at the board. "Alright, now we move on to the harder things, multiplication and division." The children groaned audibly. Alyssa wrote a couple problems on the board to review what they had learned before lunch and allowed the children to finish them on their own pages before she moved on. "Now multiplication is not addition, though you may see the cross as just a sideways plus sign. We are going to imagine columns now." She drew columns on the board. "Now when we think multiplication we are going to think, two times two, meaning there will be two columns with two strikes in each column, now count the strikes, ergo your answer." Alyssa gave the kids many problems to solve. "And with division, we can imagine four apples being split between two kids. Four divided by two, would be two a piece because if you take four apples and give them evenly to two children, they would each have two." This was the easiest way for Alyssa to explain these, as she had never had to explain math to a child before.

The day passed quickly, as she drilled the children on all they had learned that day. Soon, the end of the day came and the children groaned as Alyssa passed out their homework to them. "Thank you all for having a great day with me today. Maybe soon I can come back and help you guys out some more. Say goodbye, Arcane." The bell rang and all the students piled out, petting Arcane as they left. Alyssa sat and waited until the children were gone and gathered her belongings from the desk. Sandine made her way into the classroom a couple minutes later and smiled at Alyssa, thanking her and letting her know that the children had loved her. She handed Alyssa a sum of cash and began cleaning up the mess the children had left laying around. Alyssa began helping her clean up before she left the building and headed home, exhausted from the day.

WC:1013/1000