Welcome to Hickstead, home to both Seven Oak Stables, and Blue Acre - two rival stables. Both offer opportunities for their clients to reach the highest level of excellence. Each stable differs from the other, so choose wisely and never forget, loyalty is everything... Meanwhile as the stables battle it out, there's trouble brewing at the university. Be careful, if you don't pick a side you may get caught in the cross-fire...
This is an chilled out rpg with a super friendly and relaxed atmosphere! Remember to sign up with your characters full name in all caps and don't forget to do your claims! Thank you and Welcome, we've been established since 10th March 2009 but unfortunately have had to close guest view of our boards due to multiple sites ripping off our hard work, such a shame! Come chat to us in Discord before joining if you like!.
Elaene’s first day of sub-work, and she was already quite lost. She hadn’t expected to be called so early, but if she remembered correctly – the woman she was covering was pregnant. She couldn’t remember, which may or may not be a good thing. Either way, she was in now – and the first class went well. The students were probably thrown off, as subs usually meant not a lot of hard work. But Elaene didn’t work like that.
Lunch came around, and Elaene was struggling to get to the staff room. She had a bit a of late start, so she walked in and was whisked into the classroom as it was all last minute. Elaene, not someone who liked to waste time – found a classroom that had a staff person in it. A fluffy head of fake red hair poked in after she gave a knock, to alert the others of her presence.
“Hi!” she started. “I was wondering if you had the moment to lead me to the staff break room. I was called at the last minute and wasn’t given the tour of the maze yet,” Elane added, with a gentle laugh.
It had been a busy morning, but a good one, and Beth was decompressing by clearing her whiteboard before she made her way down to the staff room, where her lunch was waiting for her - and it was a new recipe she had tried, so if nothing else, it would be interesting.
With the board clean and her laptop turned off, she made sure her desk was tidy and readied herself to hea out when a knock on her door caught her attention. "Hi." She greeted the unfamiliar face with a smile, her smile deepening as she listened. "Even when you've been here a while, the place is still a maze." She reassured the woman with a gentle laugh. "I was just about to head that way, and I'll gladly walk with you. I'm Beth, I teach English." As if the English paraphernalia around the walls didn't give that away.
She grabbed her handbag and led the way down through the halls and toward the break-room.
“Oh, awesome, thanks!” Elaene smiled. “Beth? Nice to meet you. I’m Elaene, math cover.” She followed alongside the other woman, happy that the first person she found was kind enough. However, she had an inkling of a feeling most of the teachers here would be helpful. There was always that one person that seemed to hate being around, but they were often in their goblin hole, with their door closed. Or chaperoning the lunchroom of students.
It didn’t take long for the pair to get to the lounge. But Elaene made sure to find some landmarks and remember them, so it would be easier for her later. “Wow, it is a lot larger and nicer than some of the other ones I’ve been in. It looks...somewhat new?”
Beth nodded to confirm her name. She often surprised herself that she never introduced herself as Elizabeth, and she'd never been a Liz, so Beth was just so much easier for the people who like monosyllabic, or short, names.
The walk had been uneventful, which was often a miracle in a school at lunchtime, as there always seemed to be at least one student who needed last minute help on homework they hadn't quite finished, or something explained from class that they hadn't quite grasped, but were too embarrassed to ask in front of their peers, so waited to speak alone. She smiled as she looked around the lounge. "I think it had just been remodeled before I started here." She offered with a shrug. "And the fact that only adults use it, the newness tends to remain longer than when children, no matter the age, are involved." It seemed that from infant to early twenties, children were rougher on their environment than adults were, and this space was frequently used by a large number of people at any one time. Even now, she doubted they would see at least half of the faculty members.
She took her drink bottle and lunchbox from the fridge and sat down one one of the large sofas. "Did you have a good morning?" She asked Elaene as she removed the cutlery from the top of her box and then removed the lid to reveal her chicken salad, with a pottle of hummus that she emptied on top before using her knife to mix the food around.
“That is true,” Elaene laughed. “Children, no matter their age – always seemed to make a mess somehow.” Even though Fionn and Michael were adults now, there were still times that she felt like she was reminding them to clean up after themselves. Maybe it was the fact that she would continue to be a parent until she died. However, the mud pies and playing tag were always a welcomed sight.
She was thankful that her lunch wasn’t something that needed a lot of refrigeration. But also, the new lunch box had proved itself worthy of being a good one. Elaene took a seat and opened her lunch kit. It wasn’t anything special. A spinach tortilla wrap, encasing hummus, falafel, lettuce, and pickled onions.
“The class wasn’t as bad as I thought!” Elaene replied, squirting some hand sanitizer into her palms. “It did take me some time to adjust to what they were learning, and for them to adjust to me. I think they were expecting some math sheets and downtime. How was yours?”
Beth grinned and nodded, though she didn't have many issues with getting her son to clean up after himself, just the odd reminder to keep his art supplies in his room, rather than all over the breakfast bar. It was her students that she was often having to remind them to keep their work spaces tidy, bags on the floor, clothing either in the bag or over the back of the chair so that they had enough space on their desk to be able to do the work asked of them.
She took a mouthful of her food, savouring the flavour as she slowly chewed, nodding as she listened to the other woman talk about her day. After a drink, she gave an encouraging smile. "Students tend to smell fear, and that's the first thing they test for when someone is new." She remembered when she had been new, and the students seemed to take pleasure seeing how far they could push the boundaries, though quickly learned that she wasn't a pushover. "It's been pretty productive." She grinned as she thought over the morning. "We're looking at Shakespeare, and all the common phrases we have now that we can thank the playwright for. And a little creative writing." She knew that Shakespeare wasn't everyone's thing, and a number of her students whimpered when his name was mentioned, but she did her best to make the topic fun and engaging, rather than just reading the plays.
