Seeking Help

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Nora made it through the day relatively unscathed. Lunch was the usual, she took a test in her math class, and then the remainder of her day was spent with busy work. By the time the final bell rang, she was almost over the bad marks, and was heading to Mr. Green's room to discuss setting up a time for tutoring. She walked into his classroom, "Hey, Mr. Green? I'm here to talk about my test."
 
"Come in Nora. Close the door so we arent interrupted." He told her. He waited while she closed the door and took a seat. "First I need to know what days and times work best for you."
 
She followed his orders, closing the door and going to take a seat. "I'm mostly available Mondays and Wednesdays after school. Fridays on occasions, but my Tuesdays and Thursdays are pretty well booked." She informed him, glancing down at her hands, fingers neatly laced.
 
"Mondays and Wednesdays it is then." Zack told her making a note on Hus calendar. "Now tell me what about the material we covered you don't understand."
 
"The thing is, I did understand the material. Or at least, as much as anyone could. But when it comes to tests I overthink and I just freeze up." She said, trying to explain. "So, basically I know I'm going to do badly so I tend to not study so much."
 
"I see you gave up." Zack told her thoughtfully. He shook his head. "Rather than study do your very best you decided that studying wasn't worth your time because you knew you were going to fail. Tell me Nora why should I help you if your not willing to help yourself?"
 
There were two ways that Nora could go about answering such a question. The first was likely to be highly offensive to him and everything he stood for, so she opted for the second possibility. "Because while I'm not proud of such a statement, I do wish to improve. Would you rather I'd lied to you about studying my very hardest when I'd done nothing of the sort?"
 
"No I appreciate your honest Nora. But the problem I see is that many of those seeing tutoring studied hard and did their very best. They really need my help. You just told me that you don't need my help understanding the material. Just building better study habits. Does that seem far?" Zack asked her.
 
"Fair enough." Nora said, biting her tongue. For some reason 'So, shall I see my way out?' came across rather poorly so she left that out of her sentence. She waited for him to tell her where they would be going from here, as she didn't really know what she was doing at this point.
 
Zack sighed. "Nora what do you want out of life? Are you just going to accept defeat? Are you going to call it quits everytime things get hard?" He wanted her to prove that this really mattered to her.
 
"Don't insult me." She said, pulling a face. It was a psych test. She wasn't even going to be a psychologist. "So I slacked off because of lack of confidence. It happens, and it's not something I'm proud of. But I'm here to do the exact opposite, so don't I get a little credit for at least trying to fix my mistake?"
 
Zack shook his head. "Not in this school. I can give you an hour on Mondays. But honestly Nora I don't think I can help you. You don't want it enough." He wrote her name in his calendar. "I'll see you in class tomorrow.'

(enjoying?)
 
She sighed, nodded, and then watched as he wrote her name in on Monday. "Thank you, sir." She said softly, figuring that was her cue to leave. "Have a nice night, Mr. Green."

(I am, are you?)
 
"Good night Nora. Think about what I said." Zack told her as she left. Another student entered shotly after her. Zack question him the same way he questioned her. He was prioritizing his time according to how needed and wanted his help the most.

(I am. I just wanted to check. I was worried the meeting might have been off putting but I had a teacher say something like that to me.
 
Nora went home and had to think. Did she even want the grade she was asking for? He wasn't going to be one of the teachers who just handed over the grade with little to no additional thought, much to her dismay. She'd have to work for it, and actually care enough to try. It was going to be a long hour on Monday.

(Nope, I've had similar conversations with the teacher I was closest to. Those are what form bonds in the long run.)
 
Zack ended up staying at the scholl almost two hours. Finally the principal chased him out. He had several students set up for tutoring. He hoped that he could hsndle the responsiblity he had accepted. But every student that came to him needed help in some way so he would refuse them.

(I'm glad.)
 
(I'm sorry, I'm back in college so my replies are less organized)

Nora went home to her rather annoyed father, tried to beg forgiveness, and then went to her room to visit with her cat and work on her other homework assignments. She had a bit of reading for his class, but it was dropped to low priority for the moment. Her grade was already tanked, she needed to keep her other classes from following the same course.
 
Zack finished correcting his papers. He stretched and rubbed his eyes. He was tired. He slowly made his way up to bed. He thought about all the students that needed his help. He had plans on how to help most of them. The others he would have to figure out.
 
By the time she collapsed into her bed, Nora was exhausted. She had dinner with her parents in a rather stony silence, and then spent the remainder of her night studying and wishing she was doing nearly anything but that.
 
The next morning Zack gathered his things and headed to the school. All his papers had been graded. He had today's assignment ready for his classes. And he had a solid plan in place to help those that had come to him for help. He was pleased with the way things were starting.

(Sorry for the delay I've been sick)
 
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