Learning Curve

Chapter 1.1-Donuts and Witches

Ever faithful to his daily routine, Emile Ramos walked into the school building at 6:40 in the morning. It took a lot of effort for a man like Emile to get to school on time as he was notorious for being a grouchy riser. Luckily, he had many things to look forward to during the school day that motivated him out of bed each morning.

One of those things was the horchata.

Everyday on his ride to school he'd stop by at the local taqueria, Bruno's, and buy himself a large in the hopes of raising his mood. Fifty percent of the time, it did.

Today was one of those days. Though, that could also be attributed to the fact that today was a Friday. There wasn't much that could kill a mood on Fridays.

Emile absentmindedly had the straw of his drink to his lips as he strolled through the hallways of the school to his classroom.

Although class didn't start until 7:30, a lot of the other teachers and students were already here. Most of the kids were leaning or sitting on the walls with their friends laughing and talking or trying to huddle together and share homework answers.

His own students were lucky if he didn't catch them doing the same.

Others were already making their way to their first period class, having nothing better to do.

Seeing as Emile was early, he decided he'd get himself some food at the breakfast cart. Most days he skipped breakfast entirely, which all of his friends and co-workers yelled at him for, but he was not the type of person to get up early enough to prepare himself breakfast. He slept in as late as he could, got dressed, fed his cat, Ivar, and then left.

It wasn't like he starved himself all day anyway. Once his lunch break came around, 12:15, 4th period, he'd finally have some food.

Today though, he was going to spoil himself. A peanut butter and jelly would really hit the spot right about now.

He bought his small treat, forgoing a carton of milk as he had his drink of choice already, and finally came upon his classroom.

D246, located in the D Wing where all the math classes were.

When he got there, Emile wasn't too surprised to see that he wasn't the first one to arrive. A group of 5 of his students were barricading the entrance, talking and goofing around as they waited for him. Upon seeing him, they all stepped to the side so he could unlock the door and let them in.

They all wished him a good morning before clamoring over to their desks in the far left corner. Emile was barely aware of them as he went over to his own desk to set his stuff down and prepare for first period. He knew what they were doing anyway.

The group of five had dubbed themselves the Breakfast Club as ironic as it was in terms of his own views of the morning meal. They consisted of his own students in his first period class that came early in order to have their own breakfast banquet for whatever reason.

The five of them, Paul, Lizzy, Jacob, Julia, and Eva were already grabbing napkins and plastic ware from his supply closet, because for some reason they were entitled, and started to place everything down like they were setting a table.

As bizarre as it was, Emile also couldn't help but be fond of their ritual and it never occurred to him to stop them. Besides, they always cleaned up after themselves so it didn't really matter to him in the long run.

Emile set down his bag and fired up his laptop. While it was warming up, he unwrapped his sandwich and began to eat. His students were immediately aware of his movements.

"You should join us for breakfast Mr. Ramos." Paul encouraged with a familiar phrase that at least one of them said daily. Sometimes he was obliged to if he was absolutely starving, but Emile also didn't want his students to feel like he was taking advantage of them. Most of the time he turned them down.