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Post by Greenie on Jan 5, 2010 22:57:41 GMT -5
"Father?" Zether called out from his bedroom, a frown lingering on his usually cheerful face. When there was no response, he yelled a little louder; Christopher tended to ignore him if he only yelled once, being under the idea that if left to his own devices, Zether would eventually answer his own question, or at least stop yelling. He had no intention of letting that happen today. "DAD!" He shouted through the apartment suite, enjoying how the sound echoed slightly through the room. He had a voice when he wanted to, despite what his bullies said. Five minutes later he was still puzzling over the problem.. alone. Stupid parents. Zether grudgingly left his desk to stand in the doorway. "DAAAAAAAAD~" The mix sang and yelled down the hallway, knowing that a constant interruption of his father's work was the most likely to get his attention, even if it would simultaneously get him in trouble. "Paaaaaaa.. Where are you, pa? Papa~!" He cheerfully skipped around the suite, knowing that eventually Christopher would appear to snap at him to shut up. He would get the attention he wanted today!
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Post by Kari Muffin on Jan 6, 2010 15:38:10 GMT -5
He was busy.
This was nothing new. Since he had slowly switched jobs to becoming a tutor instead of a full time professor his work load had shifted to a variety of things he had never experience before. However, lesson plans were still needed, but instead of answering to educated Esterberries he had to answer to parents.
Sometimes he would rather be stabbed in his good eye than deal with the whining and ranting of people who claimed to be proper adults. And tomorrow he had to submit his lesson plans to a more than overbearing and picky mother of three. Rather than tear her down with words she could barely understand he was going to try and humor her for once.
So Christopher had chosen to ignore is done for the time being as he neatly wrote the plan. That was until he continued to yell. And yell. And yell some more.
It wasn't until he heard the drawn out "Pa" that he decided to get up to tell his son to shut the hell up. He flung open the door to the small drawing room where worked. "What?" he growled. "Is someone dead or are you just making a racket because you're bored?"
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Post by Greenie on Jan 6, 2010 18:10:21 GMT -5
Zether opened his mouth in preparation for another deafening, eardrum-splitting yell when the door in front of him suddenly slammed open. He jumped and deflated, immediately putting on what he hoped was a properly contrite and pathetic expression. "I'm sorry, Father.. No one's dead.." The mix immediately enacted his special "puppy dog" face, complete with a droopy frown, and biiig ol' sad eyes. It never worked on Mother - Mother thought it was hilarious that he was trying to "work" people.
Father, though? It worked on Father, sometimes, especially if Zether could convince him he'd been "neglected." In those rare, special cases, he could get anything he wanted out of him. Here was to hoping today was one of those days. "I need help with this equation.." He half-heartedly held up a mildly wrinkled piece of paper that was completely filled with scribbles and illegible markings. "I can.. go find someone else.. if you're busy.." The teen avoided making eye contact, just in case he was about to laugh; instead, he looked pathetically at the door - Christopher knew there wasn't anyone else who could help that wasn't busy, so it was just a matter of time.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Jan 7, 2010 15:37:37 GMT -5
Christopher wasn't about to admit that the "puppy face" worked on him even if it did. He was still rather irritated at his son for making such a huge racket over a math problem. Really, all he had to do was walk in and knock on the door. He knew that.
And he just had to ham it up. Gah.
The Esterberry knew full well that he was probably the only one in the palace who could help him with the math problem, and if he wasn't the few people who could were busier than he was. A frown flashed on his face rather briefly before he crossed his arms.
"Fine," He said after a moment. "Let me see it. And while you're here is there anything else you need help with. I don't want to be interrupted again after this."
The canine sighed. Of all the things to be a push over about, he never expected something like this.
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Post by Greenie on Jan 9, 2010 13:55:10 GMT -5
Zether kept up the "poor me" face up until the last possible minute, then began wiggling in excitement when Christopher agreed to help him. Yes! Attention from father gained! Now the problem was how to keep his attention beyond the math problem. In truth, he mostly knew how to do the problem; if he really tried, he could have figured it out on his own. He just didn't want to. He was sick of sitting in his room by himself, damnit!
It wasn't as if he was allowed to leave, either; if he tried to leave the suite during "study time" he got lectured and locked in until his studies were over. He was about ready to try climbing out his window..
Grinning happily, he floated off back toward his bedroom and plopped back down at his desk and waited for Father to follow him.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Jan 11, 2010 14:09:06 GMT -5
The canine begrudgingly followed the boy into his room. He knew full well he was going to be roped into something as soon as he started helping his son with the math problem. That's just the way things worked. Normally he wouldn't mind, but he really did need to get those lesson plans done.
"All right, let me see this," he said as he hovered over the paper. Both his eyebrow arched as he glanced at Zether. This problem was easier on the spectrum of work he'd been assigned, so was he really having trouble with it. The Esterberry wrinkled his nose as he grabbed a spare sheet of paper.
"Here's an example problem, just do it like this," he said as he started to solve the problem in a blur of mildly unhelpful scribbles. Math was second nature to him so when it came to properly helping he did a bad job of it. That's why he made a good College Professor. Of course if Zether couldn't follow he would just illustrate the proper way of solving the problem until he understood.
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Post by Greenie on Jan 12, 2010 21:05:55 GMT -5
Zether obediently set the paper in front of him and perched on his chair like the innocent, pliable child he wasn't, waiting for Christopher to say something. He kept his expression a blank mask of "oh daddy help me" and tried not to snicker when he saw his father's look of annoyance. He'd definitely caught on, but whether or not he would say anything..
The pup looked at the paper...and stared some more. "Father, I can't read any of that." He stated finally. "Your handwriting's worse than Mom's...." He coughed out, then looked out the window as if he'd seen some fabulous bird fly by as a distraction. It generally wasn't a good idea to point out Father's faults, but sometimes.. it was just too funny. "Maybe if I actually had a textbook to help me.."
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Post by Kari Muffin on Jan 12, 2010 21:22:35 GMT -5
Christopher had perfectly fine handwriting when he gave a damn. At the moment he had absolutely no desire to neatly write out the problem for his son. His nose wrinkled as he flipped the paper over to write a bit slower.
It still looked like crap.
His ears perked slightly at the mention of a textbook.
"You might regret that statement," Christopher commented as he turned around to walk out of the room. It took him a few moments to find a math book that was the right "level" for the boy. It was newer, and he had only used it once of twice for his new job. Flipping through the pages he found what he was looking for rather quickly.
The canine returned and presented the book to his son. "Here's a text book that explains the problem step by step. Does that make it easier for you?"
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Post by Greenie on Jan 12, 2010 21:27:55 GMT -5
Zether watched, progressively more amused, as Christopher was still unable to write the problem even mildly legibly. How did he teach other people? His verbal skills at explaining problems weren't much better. He'd never been to a University like the one his father used to teach at, but he rather imagined they all knew how to write...
He swore several times under his breath after Chris left the room. He was regretting that statement, because it probably meant more homework. Oh well, he probably wasn't going to do it anyways.. He spent half of his "study" time lounging about and reading rather than actually working on his studies.
Zether scowled down at the book, then up at his Father. "Do I have to answer the question?" He replied, purposefully being vague as to which question - the math question, or his Father's question.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Jan 12, 2010 22:20:10 GMT -5
Christopher narrowed his eyes.
"Yes, you have to answer both of the questions or I'm going to make you do fifty problems from that book for homework. If you don't do the problems you're going to be getting a wonderful punishment that I promise you will make you love math for the rest of your life."
He smirked brightly. "Now, do you understand the problem or do I have to go through it with you step by step?"
The Esterberry crossed his arms as he looked down at his son. That would teach him for talking back. Maybe he would just give the kid homework anyway as punishment for being lazy. Honestly, where did he get it from? Mia worked hard. He worked hard. Was it his grandmother or something else entirely? Either way it was obnoxious and absolutely irritating. Maybe he and Mia should try for more children just to make him more competitive.
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