dndshs | [log] special econ tutoring

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[log] special econ tutoring

who: Nifty, Cassidy
what: Cassidy's economics tutoring adventure begins
when: Following last period on the day after Nifty has a chat with him
where: Economics classroom

Look, of course Nifty didn't actually care about the kid's grades. It wasn't just that he didn't offer tutoring sessions often - he didn't offer them at all. At least, not to anybody who wasn't the son of the principal. This wasn't the most subtle of moves, but getting in good with the principal was probably the only way he'd ever be able to get a modicum of power over his sister at this job. Truth be told, the Calloway boy wasn't really guaranteed to fail. He wasn't good at economics, but even without tutoring he'd probably pass with a C-. At least Nifty didn't have to worry about his skill at tutoring, since he'd thoroughly convinced the kid yesterday that he was doomed.

The last students of the day filed out and Nifty closed the door behind them, then started clearing his desk of half-graded class- and homework. Now he'd see if Cassidy was actually scared enough of failing to show up.

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Of course, nobody else was in the room except Nifty, who raised an eyebrow as Cassidy entered. "So you actually showed up. Sit down." He nodded at the chair pulled up in front of the teachers desk.

There was only one chair pulled up. There wasn't a table set up, there wasn't a circle of desks, there was just one chair. And it was too late to turn around for today.

Cassidy walked over and sat down. God Strangenorth had the neatest, most organized desk of any teacher he ever had. That just irritated him more. "It was either fail or show up, you didn't give me a choice"

"Your choice was when you failed to study properly. I gave you a chance."

Were all teenagers this petulant? From his few months experience teaching, Nifty was quickly discovering the answer was yes. Cassidy was mostly quiet in class, but the moody kid apparently liked to run his mouth in one on one conversations. At least he wasn't like his brother, who had to make a smart-ass comment on everything, or the MacHault boy, who Nifty was positive had some kind of brain damage.

Sitting behind his desk, he pulled out Cassidy's red-lined homework. "You seem to be having the most trouble with the AS-AD diagrams. It's not as complicated as you're making it. Look, when demand for goods exceeds supply there's an inflationary gap where demand-pull inflation occurs and the aggregate demand curve shifts upward to a higher price level. When the economy faces higher costs, cost-push inflation occurs and the aggregate supply curve shifts upward to higher price levels." He drew the changes in the curves on the diagram as he spoke, then looked at Cassidy expectantly.

Cassidy was staring at his homework with one hand against his forehead, pencil idly in the other. "I... um, hold on."

He dug in his bag for a moment before pulling out a small case. Cassidy opened it up and put his glasses on. "Can you show me that again? A little slower?"

Nifty sighed, already irritated. This was basic macroeconomics, Cassidy probably could have just looked up the answers on Google. Wasn't that what every high schooler did?

Still, it wouldn't pay off to throw him out as incompetent this quickly. "I'll go as slowly as you need me to," he managed to say after a moment of gritting his teeth. "Although if you need glasses, maybe not wearing them in class is part of your problem."

Cassidy looked away from him and back to the paper quickly. "I don't need to look like more of an loser than I already do."

He wrote down what Nifty was saying in his extra notebook in neat cursive with his right hand.

Nifty snorted. "That self-deprecating attitude is certainly not helping either. And no, look - " He waved Cassidy's hand away from the notebook. "That's not right. Start over from the beginning." On another sheet of paper, Nifty drew a blank aggregate supply-demand diagram and started to diagram out the parts, explaining them as he went.

Cassidy nodded along, forced to pay attention because he was the only one in the room. He couldn't doodle around the edges of his notebook or in his planner like usual.

"Let me try it this time." Cassidy over his old homework and redid the first problem on it easily.

"See, you got it quickly when you actually pay attention for once." Wait, that wasn't quite right. "Good...job?" The compliment came out awkwardly and seemed to sit heavily in the air between them, but at least he'd said the appropriate teacher-y thing.

"Or maybe you're not a completely awful teacher" Cassidy said with almost a smirk, trying to break the silence. He didn't need to make even his teacher uncomfortable with how awkward he was!!

Nifty raised his eyebrows at his student. In class, Cassidy was shy and silent, not this sarcastic little shit. He wasn't sure which version he preferred, the introvert who refused to participate or the teenager full of one-liners.

"Well, I'm glad you finally realize it. You might've done so earlier if you actually listened in class."

Cassidy raised an eyebrow at his teacher. "Everyone thinks you're a shitty teacher. But I always wondered if it was you or myself who didn't want to be in class more?"

Nifty frowned, taken aback. He'd thought Cassidy wasn't paying attention in class at all, not that he was observant enough to notice how much Nifty hated teaching.

"That mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble someday," he said, avoiding the question entirely.

Cassidy slides the paper back to Mr. Strangenorth. "That's why I don't talk much in class. Most of the teachers don't like it when I have a better come back than they do... Am I doing it right?"

Nifty glanced at the paper. "The aggregate demand shifts right with a monetary expansion, not left. Or is it that you in particular just don't want to get sent to the principal's office?" It might not have been the best thing to say, but the kid was getting on his nerves.

"I don't want any special treatment. Some Teachers are afraid that being hard on me will make them look bad." Cassidy erases his graph until the lines are completely gone.

A corner of Nifty's mouth twitched up. "You don't have to worry about special treatment from me." A blatant lie, but maybe saying it meant Cassidy wouldn't catch on to the fact that he was receiving special treatment already.

"I'll be as hard on you as you make me be."

Make him be hard on me? What was that supposed to mean. I'm not failing on purpose here. And I'm NOT-oh god gross that's not what he meant

"I figured you'd want me out of here as quick as possible. " Cassidy adjusted his glasses.

"No, I want you to learn." Nifty knew the words sounded insincere as soon as he said them, so he hurriedly followed up with, "So that I can get you out of my classroom. I don't want anybody lingering around semester after semester and pissing me off with their inability to understand simple economics."

That shut Cassidy up as he quietly worked on redoing his old homework sheets. He would ask questions every so often, and there was no bullshit with Mr. Strangenorth. Which honestly, was helpful.

He would sit in his bed and do homework for hours getting more and more frustrated, not getting any closer to solving the piles of homework problems. Cassidy has always been too stubborn to ask for help, so maybe Nifty forcing him into this wasn't such a bad thing?

"Time's up," Nifty said at 4:00. Surprisingly, Cassidy already had a good grasp of the models he was so miserable at before. "You can leave, and I want to get home.

"Uh," he added as he stood to collect his bag. "You picked up on those quickly. Good job." The compliment didn't sound quite so awkward this time - he was getting better at the lie. Although it wasn't technically a lie, he realized.

Cassidy quickly put all of his papers and textbook away in his bag. He carefully put his glasses back in their case and slid that in his (black) messenger bag.

"Er, yeah." Cassidy looked down at his feet. He understood what he was missing better but it wasn't because he had some miraculous break through? It was because Mr. Strangenorth was willing to sit there and help him. The first of any teacher to realize that he was actually struggling and not just trying to appear aloof.

"Thank you. I... I yeah. Thanks.

"Get out. I'll see you for another session on Wednesday." Nifty waved his hand once toward the door, and then returned to packing his bag without looking at Cassidy. At least the boy wasn't as incompetent as he seemed like he might be. Maybe this ploy wouldn't be as awful as he'd thought.

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[log] special econ tutoring

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dick jokes

moving a little fast, aren't you

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cassidy i promise you're not the only awkward one in the room

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now we're getting into the double entendres

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don't worry nifty, joaquin is worse at accepting compliments than you are at giving them

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