Uncharacteristic Roles (Ludwig)

[ANA MARÍA CAMPOS HERNÁNDEZ]

Ana María groaned in frustration as she tossed her pencil to the side and laid her head down in defeat. It was afternoon, well past the time a normal person would spend in a enclosed classroom. A cup of coffee, hair tied in a messy ponytail, and notebooks filled with scribblings here and there that almost made it impossible to read the contents, were all part of the atmosphere that surrounded that girl on that particular afternoon. How long had she been there? The question remained unanswered. Unable to really, just like the ones that laid before her, being crushed by the impact of her face against the paper.

It was highly uncharacteristically that the girl with the chocolate brown eyes, be spending a sunny afternoon trapped inside equations and papers, and numerous babble about letters and signs. She wasn't one to sit still for a prolonged period of time, nor was she the sort of person to do classwork or homework, if she were to be honest. Actually, she wasn't sure why she was even here. Why bother when it was clear it made no difference? Wether she did it or not, the result ended in the same. Nothing.

Ana María didn't know if her lack of efficiency in the assignment was because she had slept through class or missed the class entirely. She could begin to hear the sound of her father's scowls, in the back of her head, demanding obedience. The junior felt like tearing all these papers and throwing them out the window, along with the textbooks and probably the cup of coffee and everything that was in sight that she could manage to lift. "A la chingada con todo." She would scream. Except, Ana María was too proud to admit defeat. Which was the only reason why she slowly lifted her head and blinked twice as she stared down once more at the paper.

She would've sworn she was good in math. It was the only subject that came naturally to her. The one in which she didn't have to try to hard to get a decent good grade. She thought numbers made sense to her. Looking at the white board, she made more sense out of a simple or complex equation than of real life issues. But this was not math, at least, not a whole. It was Physics, and with Physics she never got along. It was funny how she could be Acing math and be failing Physics. If it's the same thing! Her teachers would constantly repeat in a manner of pure annoyance. No, it is not. Because one is the core and the other is applied. It's not the same teaching someone how to drive and then have them go unto the street.

But they were right at some extent. They were roughly the same. Ana María took a deep breath as she picked up her pencil and tried to read the passage. A car starts from rest and accelerates uniformly over a time of 5.21 seconds for a distance of 110 m. Determine the acceleration of the car. What? Who cares what's the acceleration? If you were to accelerate to such velocity and under such a small amount of time, then something is far more important that the acceleration of the car. It could be you're driving someone to the hospital, or you're late for school, or a sale at shoe department just broke out.
No one cares about the acceleration of the car. And she tossed the pencil again. Someone should at least congratulate her, she was taking the time.

[JULIUS SILANUS]

Ludwig was stepping down the hallway in annoyance. It just simply wasn’t his day. Normally Ludwig was an extremely calculated and careful student. She did his best to not make mistakes, and for the most part, he really didn’t. Not to be a showoff or anything, even if it was to himself, he just didn’t like the thought of screwing anything up. Luckily enough for him, his powers did help with the prevention of that most of the time.

But not today. Today seemed to be the day he was destined to make a huge mess of himself. Ludwig had been sitting in his dorm, quietly minding his own business. He had homework to do, and that involved him cooking for class.

Ludwig hadn’t really been the best of chefs, as he knew plenty of others whose skill levels surpassed his by a long shot, but he didn’t really consider himself a bad cook either. If anything he simply knew enough about cooking to simply just get by if he were ever left alone at home. (That didn’t happen often, his brother was quite the work of art.) He often made himself some bratwurst or a wurstbrot or käsebrot. He was good at that.

Heck, when it came down to it, he made excellent cakes, and even other pastries and whatnot.

But to tell him to make a foreign dish that required a lot of spices? That didn’t end well. Ludwig hadn’t ever really been good at making food that he didn’t have a taste for, and his want to measure everything precisely and make it all look perfect while doing so was his biggest downfall. So what was supposed to be a nice meal to bring to the class for a cultural study turned into him setting the dorm’s toaster oven on fire.

Of course Ludwig panicked a moment, before pulling the plug from the oven, and using his sweater- his nice sweater- to dowse the fire. In his embarrassment, he quickly tossed the toaster oven with his sweater and the food into the trash and made an exit. No one was really in the room, but it didn’t stop him from feeling ashamed anyway.

So ashamed that he was going to hide away until he deemed it safe to return. He decided that the best place to hide away would be in a classroom that one of his favorite teachers left open for him in case he wanted to study. (Which was a lot.) Or if he wanted to get away from the commotion of his dorm room. (Which was also a lot.) And boy did he need to get away. He just wanted to not think about that mess for as long as he could. When he was ready to face up to his guilt, he would.

He placed his hand on the doorknob to the room, and just as he pushed it open, a pencil flicked towards him and bounced off his leg. He blinked in confusion, before bending over to pick it up. Usually the room was completely empty, so it was weird seeing a girl sitting in the room with all of her things sprawled out among her sitting in his usual seat making efforts to study.

Ludwig let out a slight grunt. He then bent over to pick up the writing instrument and straightened out before moving to the desk. He placed the pencil in front of her with a cough and a rather deeply embedded frown. It wasn’t that he was upset that there was someone else in the room… okay so he was a bit upset that there was someone else in the room, but that wasn’t the point!

“Are you doing math?” He stated, glancing at all of her materials. She appeared to be somewhat stressed out, which from experiences with his friends, happened quite a bit. Math was pretty challenging though, there were even times when he himself found it hard.

He took a second look at the book.

It wasn’t math. It was physics. Wow another way to embarrass himself.

“I’m sorry, I meant physics, are you having problems?”

((Ughhh this really sucks I'm sorry. ;n;))

[ANA MARÍA CAMPOS HERNÁNDEZ]

A car starts from rest and accelerates uniformly over a time of 5.21 seconds for a distance of 110m. Determine the acceleration of the car.

Okay. Let's break it down into parts. A car. Method of transportations with four wheels. Accelerates. Meaning it goes fast. Uniformly. What? Is it dressed for carnival or something? Wait no, concentrate, Ana María, concentrate. Breathe. You can do it. So Uniformly. Let's say... uh, that it doesn't change? Yes, that looks good. A time of 5.21 seconds for a distance of 110m. Determine the acceleration of the car.
What? Just like that? No more information? They just throw it out there? Ana María felt the need to bang her head against the table for multiple times, just to see if that was any less painful that the stupid math problems she was encountering.

She was not terribly bad at mathematics. It was perhaps the one core class that she was actually passing with a decent grade. She knew about it from her mother's books. Never before had she had a problem with it. Not even when they got the oh so wonderful idea of mixing the alphabet. But when it was about Physics, when they gave a purpose to something that was plain and dull and lacked any sort of life, well, it all got a little more overwhelming.
Ana María considered simply flipping the table with all her books and go do something other than seat around all day on an empty classroom. She honestly had no idea how long it had been and yes, she was still in problem número uno. To say it sucked was an understatement.

But she couldn't give up. Not for pride. Pride had managed to leave the place and go hide somewhere on the grounds. No, she couldn't give up because there was no way she would be able to pass this class without at least acing the exam that followed this treacherous assignment. She had to find a way. She utterly refused to have to take the class again.
It was a well-known fact that she wasn't into academics. But Ana María still possessed that ounce of "common sense" or whatever, that said that it wasn't wise to fail a class. Multiple times.

The girl wondered, in a slight glimpse of hope, if maybe her powers could help. If maybe they could magically find the answer or something. She chuckled. Almost a nice fantasy. If it wasn't for the fact that she did not possess any geeky-like math power stuff. Well, this was going to be a long night.

"Are you doing math?"

Ana María almost jumped up at the sudden stranger presence that had accompanied her on this particular evening. Boy, she must've been really pissed, or concentrated, not to notice. She glanced at the person and gave him a defeated and tired smile.

"I'm sorry, I meant physics, are you having problems?"

"Can you tell?" She asked with a bitter chuckle. "I've been here all day and I'm still stuck at the principio. I can't figure this out. And I'm supposed to be a decent math person!" She lashed out at him, her voice growing more anxious and loud by the moment. "It's just if I can't finish this, then I'll most likely fail the exam. And I can't fail exam. Porque I'll have to take it again and ugh-!" Yes, that banging seemed in order at this point. But she didn't want to overwhelm the boy more than what she had already done with her nonsense babble.

"Lo siento, I didn't mean to dump all this on you." She said in a calmer voice, taking a deep breath to stabilize her heart rate. Ana María sighed and turned to look at him for the first time without any distraction. "Espera, you're Ludwig, ¿si? I'm Ana María. I'm sure we have seen each other around. But maybe, never had the chance to meet? You'll have to forgive me, I tend to get distracted easily and stuff."

[JULIUS SILANUS]

Ludwig noticed the student seem to jump out of her seat, and he bit his bottom lip in an attempt to hold back a small chuckle. But when she looked at him sadly, Ludwig lowered his gaze to the ground.

"Can you tell? I've been here all day and I'm still stuck at the principio. I can't figure this out. And I'm supposed to be a decent math person!"

“Principio…” Ludwig muttered the Spanish under his breath, trying to figure out what it meant, but that didn’t matter. The German scanned the book with his eyes, not entirely certain how to solve the problems himself, but he figured with a bit of studying, he’d be able to figure it out and help the other student.

"It's just if I can't finish this, then I'll most likely fail the exam. And I can't fail exam. Porque I'll have to take it again and ugh-!" The German raised his eyebrow as the girl continued to ramble onwards, "Lo siento, I didn't mean to dump all this on you. Espera, you're Ludwig, ¿si? I'm Ana María. I'm sure we have seen each other around. But maybe, never had the chance to meet? You'll have to forgive me, I tend to get distracted easily and stuff."


“Yes. My name is Ludwig.” Ludwig was used to most students knowing him, as he was generally quite active in student activities, not that he had too many friends, however, “It’s nice to meet you Ana Maria.”

Ludwig took it upon himself to pull another desk over to her side and he slid the book onto his table, looking over the problem carefully. He was glad that his gloves prevented him from knowing exactly how to solve the problem. A good challenge was always nice. At least in his opinion it was.

He read the problem over in his head.

A car starts from rest and accelerates uniformly over a time of 5.21 seconds for a distance of 110 m. Determine the acceleration of the car.

From what he could see, this problem wasn’t too hard. He could probably explain it to her quite easily. But first he needed to solve it. He plucked her pencil from her, as well as a piece of paper. He took his time to push the textbook away as he pulled off his gloves, and began to work on the problem. It took him a moment or so to actually get everything just perfectly, but after a few minutes, he had the answer right in front of him.

He held it out to her.

“Study this and work on the next problem. If you require more assistance, please just ask me.” He slipped his glove back on and watched her a moment. He wasn’t really sure how she had gotten so baffled. The problem was pretty straightforward. Or at least that is what he thought. He wondered what kind of classes she was taking. He had already taken most of the higher level science courses that the school offered, and he had done well in most of them.

Now he would just have to take that knowledge and share it with his acquaintance here. She did seem to be quite frustrated and Ludwig would do his best as representative of the school to help her fix that…. Maybe he could even make a new friend too.

Yes. That would be nice.

(PRETEND THIS DIDN'T TAKE 80000000 YEARS ;A;)

[ANA MARÍA CAMPOS HERNÁNDEZ]

Ana María would probably had been more excited to meet a new person if her heart hadn't been inside the deep sorrow of the ever present I'm so gonna fail~. It was hard for her to deal with this sort of tension because it didn't normally happen to her to be so stressed out. She rarely cared about school work. If she had the time to do it, she did it. If she'd rather have a nice siesta and wake up the next day then she did that. It was all a matter of what seemed like the important thing at the moment. Of course, that meant that there was the probability of being stuck one day trying to understand a month worth of information with zero results.

It's funny how the brain works to make the opposite of what she wanted. The girl remembered how in fifth grade, she had tried to get over some kid she had a crush on, but no matter how hard she tried, his freaking name was everywhere she went. The TV character, the book name, a magazine editor, the little corner store. It was irritating. But now that she wanted to memorize all this stuff, have it stuck on her mind for good, well, it didn't work that way.

"Yes. My name is Ludwig." The German student said. "It's nice to meet you Ana María."

She offered him a smile, as she watched him pull over another desk and take it upon himself to figure out the cause of her idiocy and solve the problem so that she could at least have one done for tomorrow. This was so not her day. She was bored, and being bored was well, boring. Ana María took out a piece of gum from her pocket and put it in her mouth. She watched Ludwig at ease and how easily his pencil scribble through the paper. It was as though he knew it by heart. The girl couldn't help but feel a little resentment mixed with jealousy. It wasn't fair that she had to spend countless hours trying to determine one simple answer, when this boy took a matter of minutes. There was no divine justice in this world. But then she remembered, quite reluctantly if she might add, that everyone had their weaknesses and strong points, and that what may seem easy to her was probably quite the opposite for Ludwig.

Still, in her stubbornness , it wasn't fair.

It made her feel stupid. The teacher had made it clear that this set of problems was fairly simple and easy to do. Something that they supposedly (key word) already knew. In a few words, they where all idiots because he had already taken his time to explain and they just didn't get it. Ana María sighed as she rolled her eyes. Well, excuse her! She had better, more important things than to worry about the one class that no basis in the real world. Well, no basis of importance.

"Study this and work on the next problem. If you require more assistance, please just ask me."

Ana María had been to preoccupied in her own thoughts to pay attention to what the other student was doing and potentially learn, and to realize that he had finished and was now holding the paper out for her. She felt like she was being unacceptably rude, but tried to mask it by turning her attention towards the paper.
Her eyes searched through the impeccable handwriting that seemed fitting for someone as tidy as Ludwig. Every step was clear and well organized that she had no trouble following through. She could easily follow the same pattern on other problems of the same degree of difficulty. Ana María could barely contain her joy now that she had one problem done out of twelve.

"Wow! Thanks! How did you did that? You must be really good at Physics!"[/color] She said, holding the paper close to her chest almost singing Hallelujah in her happiness.

[JULIUS SILANUS]

"Wow! Thanks! How did you do that? You must be really good at Physics!"

Ludwig nodded. Of course he was good at physics. He had always been good at math and science. And whether it was due to his powers, or due to his family, he wasn’t sure, but either way, it was good that he was able to use to help people, then he was glad that he has.

Or maybe it was a better idea that he just accept the compliment.

“Yes. I am fairly gifted in math and science. According to my partner though, my creativity leaves a lot to be desired.” He let out a slight chuckle, “If you wish I could assist you in your homework further. It would be a pleasure to explain this stuff to you. Well… as long as you appreciate what I am teaching you.”

Ludwig had always thought of himself as a good teacher. And if he could help Ana with her work, then he didn’t mind having to do so. Ludwig tutored a number of students. Picking up another one in his schedule every now and then would certainly do a good service to his university and job resumes, and he could never say no the idea of improving his image.

Ludwig plucked the book up and began to flip through it, trying to see what kinds of things they were learning about in their science class. The German noticed that her class level was a bit below his own, but that wasn’t a big deal. It just made his job of teaching her physics all that much easier.

“What do you enjoy doing Ana?” Ludwig stated curtly as he continued to finger through the various pages. He was hoping for her to tell him something of interest, “I am in the newspaper and yearbook club if you’re interested in having a quote in one of them.”

He wasn’t sure where that came from, but Ana did seem like the type of person who would enjoy something like this.

((Sorry this sucks Germanymuse is p much dead ;;; ))

[ANA MARÍA CAMPOS HERNÁNDEZ]

"Yes. I am fairly gifted in math and science. According to my partner though, my creativity leaves a lot to be desired. If you wish I could assist you in your homework further. It would be a pleasure to explain this stuff to you. Well… as long as you appreciate what I am teaching you."

Ana María wondered how it felt like to have other students look up to you as a role model for everything good and educational. An example of the proper citizen, a grade A individual. Yeah all that. Ludwig seemed, for what Ana María could gather in the vague recollections of her mind, so completely unlike her. So different. She kept chewing her bubblegum, eyes fixed curiously on him. He was so proper, responsible, how did he not get bored? That was an enigma whenever the girl met people like this. How did the manage to find a joy in life when they always followed rules. It was like a square, everything had to go a certain way and it was tedious. But she knew, as always, that there was more to people than met the eye. And Ludwig was no exception to her wanting to figure him out.

Ana María chuckled at the last part of his remark. That was highly unlikely. While she was eternally grateful for solving her first problem and potentially helping her out with the rest, she wasn't about to make a regular habit out of this. She wasn't one to ask for help. For instance she thought it unnecessary when she could somehow find a way to make it happen. Second, it made her feel useless. It was no secret that she struggled with school work. She had trouble focusing. And while she liked pretend it didn't bothered her, there came a time when seeing someone else do it for her made her feel stupid. And she wasn't stupid. Ana María had to be in deep trouble to accept someone's help. Besides, if she said yes to Ludwig and set up that whole studying partner sort of thing, chances where she would forget, or arrive late, or make it look like she wasn't interested. The last thing she wanted was to waste his time, plus, she didn't want him to be disappointed in her inconsistent effort. She had plenty of people for that already.

"Thank you for the help, Ludwig. I so fondly appreciate it."[/color] She said as she began to browse through the remaining problems of the page. She should've really read it over instead of agonizing over the first thing. Maybe she would've gotten a remote idea or she could've gone to the library and search a book as reference. Oh right, like she genuinely would've done that. Had this not been essential, she would probably be in her room taking a siesta, or outside playing futból or hanging out with her friends. Ah, she really wanted to do that. The girl rolled her eyes discreetly, again with the wondering off. She had to pay some attention to the here and now. That was her main problem. She was always thinking about something other, drifting off into dreams of how cool reality would be if it had this and that, if it was that way or this. She had to snap out of it.

"What do you enjoy doing Ana?

Ana María turned to look at Ludwig, excited that they were proceeding to talk about something other than Physics. She wondered about what to tell him. She loved chatting and getting to know people, but she had some trouble talking specially about herself. She was always thinking about what might be appropriate, or what she might regret later on. It was a tiring job to be constantly worrying about it, and it certainly shouldn't be that way.

"I am in the newspaper and yearbook club if you're interested in having a quote in one of them."

Oh, The newspaper and yearbook club. He had such important extracurricular activities. Of course she knew that he was very involved in all things school related. She did feel a small ounce of intimidating. What could she say that would impress him? Or even more important, that it would interest him? It was one of those moments, very rare if she might add, that Ana María secretly wished to have a hobby other than cutting class and fool around. But then again, this was an interview. A sole opportunity to talk and share and have the whole world school learn just how fabulous a person she was. Well, that's how it went on in her head.

"¡Si! Of course! I would love that. You can even bring out your camera cause Dios knows I'm not camera shy!"[/color] Her levels of excitement started to build up. It was a complete turn from being bored and frustrated, and somehow miserable just minutes ago, to know. It was a self-inflicted form of sugar rush. She just couldn't help it. She got comfortable in her seat, tossed her head to the side like any television star would do and took her pencil to use as microphone, her hairbrush had stayed back at the dorm.
"Well Ludwig, I love playing futból. That is my one true passion. I learned to play it by playing on the streets. It's just, the adrenaline rushing through your veins, the feeling you get in being part of a team, and when you kick it as hard as you can, hoping to all that's mighty, in that short amount of time when the ball is flying over just so that it scores a goal. Ah unbelievable. And then the crowds cheer and there's beer being splashed around and everyone is covered in face paint and all. I love it."[/color] Ana María had to stop to catch her breath. She would've gone on, but she also wanted to give Ludwig some time to take it all in.