Math

After all you heard about this school you are not sure if you should expect a futuristic lab or an old classroom with wooden tables and a conservative teacher who punishes students for not sitting upright enough with a cane. To your surprise, the math classroom looks almost normal. It has an electric board like all modern schools and five rows of plastic seats with tables. With six places to seat in each row there would be space for 30 students. But the group C oft he first semester seems to not have this many students. You count only 21. And two of them are sitting on the floor like waiting dogs with collars around the necks. A third student has a collar too, but she is sitting on a chair next to a boy you assume to be her master. The teacher is an older guy with a friendly face and an elegant sakko. He wears glasses and seems to hold a lecture about trigonometry. But he becomes quite and watches you, when you come in.

„Professor Baxter, this is Veronica,“ Ashley tells the teacher friendly „she is a new student.“

„Excellent, please come in!“ Professor Baxter says friendly, „I’m Archibald Baxter. I’m your teacher for math and if you choose the technical path after the second semester, I will be your teacher in statics too. I was informed about you being a new student. I also know that you are here because you did not managed to stay out of trouble. We are in the middle of a lesson now, but how about you introduce yourself to the class and tell your version of the story?“

„With pleasure,“ you say and take a short look at your future classmates, „my name is Veronica and I will attend to this uni from now on. And as our teacher already told you, I’m here because of a deal with the police. I could choose between prison and school. If you have questions about this, please keep them to yourself.“

Your last comment earns you a few quite laughter. Professor Baxter also seems to be amused.

„A interesting story,“ he says, „well, you can sit down now wherever you want. There is no constant order, so you can choose your seat freely every day. In my lessons we have a special systems for punishments. When I ask a question and you answer wrong, you get five hits with the cane on the bare ass. The punishments will follow the lesson by the hand of my assistance Ashley. Do you already had trigonometry in school?“

„A little but this was years ago,“ you answer.

„Then I recommend you to take tutoring,“ professor Baxter says, „the first semester is to repeat important stuff before the second semester. If you don’t know the basics, you are in deep trouble next semester. Now sit down please.“

You look around. There are several places you could sit.