Grade Haggling (Anne and Romulus)

Romulus was particularly proud of himself. He had successfully done his job at correcting all the papers he assigned in a timely manner, even if it meant staying up to 2 in the morning to do so. Of course, his motivation was to not be outdone by his much younger coworkers. However, that did not matter. The Italian was done and free from the shackles of tedious grading! Teaching was what he signed up for, not hour upon hours of reading poor translations of children's stories.

The Ancient Runes teacher got up from his seat at his desk and stretched, his back making an audible crack. He was a creature not meant for staying still; what could he say? As he realized his day was more or less over as the person he assigned detention to made the unfortunate decision of skipping out, he gave a smile to himself. Now to spend time bothering his grandsons or getting to know that cute nurse!

Apparently, the universe had other things in mind for the Italian; a soft knock was heard rapping on his door. He sighed and sat himself on his desk once again. "Come in~"

Anne cringed at the sing-songed voice of her professor. While she respected his teachings, she couldn't help but think he wasn't serious enough to be a professor. She carefully arranged her expression to a polite emptiness, focused on one thing and one thing only. Her grade. Taking a deep breath she stepped inside, closing the door behind her.

"Professor?" She began, stepping forward, placing the essay on his desk, smoothing it carefully. The 'A' glared up, almost mockingly. "I wish to speak with you. About my grade."

As the door opened and the knocker of the door walked in, Romulus saw that it was Anne Kirkland; one of his most serious students. This would not have been a problem if she was not also one of the most grave people he had encountered in his entire life and she did not look like she meant business. Anne Kirkland always meant business as he had observed. Business that would inevitably lead to tedium and a headache. However strongly he felt a twinge of a headache coming over, the professor brightly smiled at her.

"Ah, Miss Kirkland. Nice to see you too." He remembered her essay as soon as he saw the A he had scrawled on the top in green ink. "Why? It was a good grade you earned. Better than most of your classmates." He gave another smile, he was telling the truth. The translation had been technically flawless but it lacked a certain spark of personality the original had. Yes, he may not look or act it but he was a particularly tough grader.

Anne smoothed her skirts before launching into her reasoning, clearing her throat. "Yes, well, I'm sure you're aware I have much higher standards than my fellow colleagues," she began, keeping eye contact, as was instructed by her parents at a very young age. One didn't look down while speaking to her better; such a thing was rude and uneducated. "An A would be considered unacceptable by my standards, professor. I don't mean to sound insolent, but I spent a great deal of time researching and translating. I also double-checked every word, just in case. The translation is flawless, if I may say so. I just don't see what I did to deserve an A."

She frowned, her eyebrows furrowing, looking at the professor in earnest. "Please sir," she very nearly begged (though a Kirkland never begs), "I highly advise you to reconsider your grading. At least for the amount of effort. I even made sure I was using the correct colloquial expressions and idioms used in the text. Trust me, after seeing your grade I looked over to make sure I hadn't made a mistake. I simply can't understand why I ended up with such a poor grade."

Ah, the headache had started already. Romulus dealt with students of all sorts, from the 'casually not showing up to class and thinking the professor is too senile to notice' to the perfectionists and grade grubbers. To be honest, the ones who skipped class were far less of a hassle than the type A personalities. Romulus tried his best to be sympathetic and attempt listening to her complaints but all it did was send near agony through his brain.

"Miss Kirkland, have you ever been familiarized with the expression 'you get what you get and you don't get upset'? I find it quite applicable in this situation, don't you?" Despite his words, he still smiled in his boyish way to her. Of course, as this world was far from ideal, he knew that would not quite do. He should perhaps offer some useful advice or feedback of some sort. "While you are correct in thinking your translation was technically sound, if not borderline flawless, it lacked the most important elements: the charm and spirit that were in the originally work."