sixteen

March 1981

Staff: Principal Gertrude Wagner is 40, Teacher Adelise Lefevre is 35, Student-Teacher Fifi Michel is 23.
6th Graders: Lyra Garcia, Andy David and Rafael Silva are all 18; Reymond Perrot and Rey Garcia are both 17.
5th Graders: Cheri Martin is 16; Norris Perrot, Esperanza Silva and Ninon and Paien Laurent are all 15; Derrell Bonnet and Rique Blanc are both 14.
4th Graders: Emanuele Blanc and Geri Bonnet are both 13;  Rust David, Alonzo Silva, Genivee Bonnet and Lance Moreau are all 12.

Early tuesday morning is math for the 4th Graders and Adelise is having a hard time keeping them all focused. She's not the biggest fan of math and would much rather teach them more liberal subjects but she has to obey the principal as do the students, who aren't that crazy about math either.

The south side of the class is being occupied by the more disciplined students. Emanuele Blanc, Alonzo Silva and Geri Bonnet all care much more about their grades than speaking with each other so whenever Adelise is looking they're completely focused. When she's writing an equation or scolding the other kids they talk as if there's no tomorrow though.

On the east side of the class are the more talkative kids. They're equally bright but just can't seem to be able to keep their mouths shut. Usually Genivee sits next to Lance but Adelise has had enough and moved her forward to sit next to Rust David, the class nerd. The only thing Genivee knows about him is that he wears buttoned shirts to school every day tucked in his pants, and not the cool kind of buttoned shirts, but ones that belong to 50 year olds. Lance thinks Rust is nice but he misses sitting next to Genivee, she's so cool, she's the only one who he really gets along with but Rique Blanc, and he's in the 5th grade. He tries to listen to their awkward conversations and unfortunately it means he doesn't have a clue about algebra.

For some reason, Lance seems to think the appropriate time to join the conversation is right when Adelise asks him to come over to the board. Genivee is ignoring Adelise standing right there and listens to Lance and Rust is just confused and gives Adelise a weird face.

At the library, the 6th graders are writing essays. Gertrude is dividing her time checking on everyone and surfing the web. She's really happy being the principal, she can make her own rules.

Lyra Garcia is Gertrude's best student. She already has too many scholarships to count but won't be needing any since her parents are some of the richest in Verre Tranquille. Gertrude was very disappointed to hear Lyra will be studying Chemistry in college, she writes the most amazing political articles in the school paper.

Reymond Perrot and Rey Garcia can also be trusted to work without her guide but Rafael Silva and Andy David are another story. What a coincidence, she thinks, that just when she gets closer they only have about 2.5 lines written down. Rafael has already gotten into college but Andy has barely just gotten into one course! Gertrude is trying her hardest to make him work but he seems to have given up long ago.

She is still very proud of her class, all of them got into college, even Andy who only got into 1 course. Most of them are finishing the last semester of high school but Rey will stay with her for another year, which he will need since he plans on going to Kein Schlaf to study Medicine!

Of all classes, Fifi's is the worst. The 6th graders are older and work very hard, the 4th graders are the youngest and have a lot of positivity in them that high school will be awesome, but the 5th graders are just very passive.

Even when they talk it's half sentences, usually being something about boredom. Even her best student Cheri Martin has been very quiet lately, Fifi doesn't know what's been bothering her. You'd think the students would love having a younger teacher but they're all oddly quiet in her classes.

Ninon Laurent and Derrell Bonnet used to make out in her class all the time in the beginning of the year but they don't even talk lately. It's like every 60 minute class is 3 times longer. Maybe being a teacher isn't what Fifi's meant to do?

On the rest of the day the kids are split to their chosen subjects. Today Adelise is teaching biology. This is something that has been bothering her, Gertrude teaches history instead of Adelise even though Adelise has a degree in history! But once again, Adelise obeys orders and maybe next year she'll teach history.

The Garcia siblings are definitely the best of her class. From the 4th grade to now, Lyra has gotten 100 on every biology test, Gertrude has told Adelise. Unlike Gertrude, Adelise is thrilled that Lyra will be studying chemistry at ETU. Adelise is sure that in a couple of years she'll hear about some great scientific fact Lyra will discover.

Gertrude is teaching history and she's feeling very lazy today, so she tells her students she has a challenge - whoever will find out what year the Roux family began ruling Parrain Verite will get a 5% raise to their grade. Rafael's parents are both Parrain Verite politicians so he obviously knows it  but pretends not to because all the rest of the kids in history class are much younger than him.

All of the students are having a hard time finding that out and Gertrude is happy. Only a few more hours and she'll be able to return home.

Drama class is held outside and it's the first since Andy has broken up with Cheri. She didn't think about it yet and wants to burst into tears right in front of Andy. Geri find the older kids' gossip really funny and tries to hide it from Cheri.

She has to be the one to comfort Cheri after though. Cheri is much older than Geri but she was her tutor once and sort of her best friend in drama class.

Cheri has to rehearse her dialogue with Ninon Laurent and isn't too crazy about it. Ninon never seemed nice to her and they barely ever speak. Too bad Fifi paired them together this time.

A few classes later, right before everyone have to go home, Genivee, Cheri's sister, is stopped at the hallway by Lance Moreau, her best friend, and he's kissing her. Wait, what? Genivee is a little too confused about this and hopes none of the teachers saw them. She tells Lance a quick 'bye' and rushes to her bus.

notes:

• Title is Sixteen by No Doubt.
• Everything might be a little confusing but I'm still working on the education post and hopefully it will make everything much clearer.
• They had a few more classes but it was generally just them skilling, so boring...
• Can you tell how much I love Lyra? I love all my sims but it's hard for me not to connect to some more than the others.
• The kiss was right before I sent Gertrude home (She's the principal and owner) and was an up-arm weird one so this one is their 2nd kiss actually.
• No one has chemistry. No one! Well, maybe some of them or some that I didn't check. Genivee and Lance do, and some of the 6th graders but that's pretty much it. Rust has a negative bolt with 6 girls I think, so I wrote him in as a terrible nerd. And I don't know what I was thinking about when I gave him the buttoned shirt... I don't remember doing it. Maybe I used to have a default? I'm terribly confused...