Handing out books was always a pain. The book numbering never made sense, and he always had a predilection for giving certain books to certain students, meaning he would have to dig for them while looking like it was all deliberate in the meantime. One of these days he was just going to organize the books beforehand.
Wait, that would mean getting to school early. Never mind. Kakashi sighed at the very idea of ruining his laid-back, lackadaisical image. He glanced through the remaining stack of books for his next set of classes and admitted defeat. He shut the lights off in his room and went around the corner to Asuma's room.
"You're late!" Iruka growled.
"Sorry, I was busy pondering the meaning of life. I almost had it and then Naruto ran down the hall at full tilt." Kakashi took his seat and leaned back before noticing that he had forgotten his book. Damn! He frowned mournfully.
"Can that boy possibly be any louder?" Kurenai asked. "It's like he has to shout everything."
"He does set your teeth on edge," Asuma agreed.
Iruka shrugged his shoulders. "It's the only way he thinks he can be heard; he's patently ignored by the rest of his grade and his foster parents change almost yearly. It's to be expected. That reminds me, since this is the beginning of the year there's going to be a slew of PPTs. I've been scheduling them for about two weeks from now; that gives the kids a chance to get settled, us to know their faces, and it gives the parents enough time to rearrange their schedules. A lot of them I'm trying to schedule either during team time or during C period, since most of us have prep then." He looked up after marking it in the notebook. "Do you want to draw lots as to who goes to whose?"
"Ask me again next week," Asuma said, "I should know all their faces by then."
"Also, there's a union meeting after school today," Kakashi said, staring at the ceiling. "Who's going to that?"
"I will nobly represent our team at the most-likely robust meeting!" Gai offered. Kakashi nodded; union meetings were always up Gai's alley, and he was a regular attendee. Something about the earnest vigor of the protection of the guardians of youth. Kakashi always made a point of going to at least one, but this year was just too busy with the extra workload the old science teacher had left him.
"That reminds me; Asuma, you'll have to take over as treasurer. I can't make heads or tails of anything."
The math teacher grinned. "Numbers are my specialty. Where's the notebook?"
"It isn't a notebook, it's a giant folder with crumpled receipts and mixed up spreadsheets, and random hall passes and Homework Tickets." Kakashi noted Asuma's appropriate look of frustration. "I talked to the tech advisor yesterday, he searched the old science teacher's account and didn't find any sign of a file for the teams account. I had to go all the way to the financial office and get a printout of what's currently in there. It's on my desk right now."
"Bitch," Asuma cursed. "Was she trying to screw us over?"
"Probably," Kakashi offered lightly. Iruka threw him a disapproving look as the team secretary continued to take notes.
Kurenai leaned forward. "Homework Tickets?" she asked.
"Yes," Gai said expansively, "as our illustrious leader Kakashi mentioned last week, our team runs a glorious competition called A Period Excellence! Homework is noted in all the A periods, and on days where the entire class has completed the assigned work, they receive a check for their prodigious effort. When the period assembles a week's worth of checks, they receive what we have humbly titled as Homework Tickets."
Iruka picked up the narration. "I think I have some... here." From the team folder he pulled out a sheaf of paper cut to size that had the word "Homework Ticket" printed out in fancy lettering. Underneath it read, "This ticket to be presented in place of a homework assignment to receive full credit." Kurenai examined it while Iruka continued; "It's basically a freebee. They turn in that ticket if they didn't do the homework and they get credit for it. It applies to any academic classes, meaning the five of us, and it lasts to the end of the year. I remember Tenten last year, she banked hers so that she didn't have any homework for the last week of school in math."
"She just didn't want to study for the final," Asuma retorted blithely.
"At the end of the year we have an awards ceremony, and the class that has the most Homework Tickets gets the 'Most Studious Class' award, and gets a party thrown for them. Kids can get Homework Tickets in other ways, too; they're sort of a general prize for the various events we'll be holding over the year."
"Oh, I see," Kurenai said, handing the ticket back. "It's a positive reinforcement, a reward for doing their work. It also has the competition motif for those that don't by the reward, increasing the number of students who'll take it seriously."
"It didn't work out very well last year," Gai explained, "but the two years previous had students that were thrilled at the idea of a party. It was an excellent idea."
Kakashi decided it was time to move the conversation along. "Seventh and Eighth grades are paying for the 'Welcome Back' dance. The kids are already calling it for what it is, Homecoming. The student council is already trying to figure out how they can have a Homecoming king and queen and not have us notice."
Kurenai smiled. "Kids are so cute at this age."
"What kind of fundraiser are we going to do?" Iruka asked.
"I was thinking of a penny drive," Asuma offered. "Any and all coins increase the points of the team and all dollar bills decrease the points. We can suggest the student council set up as a two-fold competition, between grades and between homerooms. Winning homeroom can get free tickets or Homework Tickets or something. The student council can figure out the rest."
"Sounds good," Kakashi replied. As student council advisor, he'd find a good way to suggest it and make them think it was their idea.
"Is it not also time to do our bimonthly newsletter as well?" Gai asked.
"Yes," Iruka agreed. "First edition is usually about us. Kurenai, you'll have to write a mini biography of yourself." He reached into his folder. "I think I have a sample here somewhere as well." Pulling out a pamphlet, he slid handed it over to the new science teacher.
"Looks like a good way to keep in contact with the parents," Kurenai smiled.
Glancing at the clock, Kakashi noted that they were running low on time. "We do have some funds left over from last year, but I want us to start thinking of some of the fundraisers we can do through the year. It's a larger class than last year's, so we'll probably be needing new ideas to make sure that some of the poor kids can come to the various events we do."
They all nodded. "So, any last minute concerns?"
The following day, Kakashi got called into a team-leader meeting during the team time period; so he finally meandered in the day after. He'd already seen Iruka during his plan C Period, so he knew most of what was discussed in the meeting (the newsletter), but the big thing he wanted to hear about was the union meeting.
"Yo!" he greeted.
"You're late," Iruka barked.
Kakashi didn't even bother to offer an excuse and merely plopped down into a chair. "So, Gai, how was the union meeting?"
The social studies teacher sighed dramatically. "More of our brethren must attend these meetings!" he exclaimed passionately. "We seek to improve positions for these guardians of youth, yet with so few there to discuss their vested interests, how can we progress towards continuing the education of the next youthful generation?"
"For the few who did attend, what was discussed?" Kakashi cut through Gai's rant.
Gai flashed a sparkling smile. "Ah, Kakashi, I know you are far too busy to come to our meetings, and that you often have important duties to attend, but I think you would have had much to say at the union meeting! It would appear that our budget is yet again in doubt, and we are encouraged to try and order all necessary items for the year in now, before our source of income is turned into a block of ice as it has been for the past three years. Our new union representative seems most argumentative, and I feel that he does not appreciate the vigor of youth!"
Frowning, Gai continued. "He is also demanding that all new teachers come see him at his convenience and he hinted that new teachers might be mandated to come to union meetings."
"What?" Kurenai exclaimed. "I'll come to meetings when I have the chance, but this is my fist year here! I need to settle in, get through Ebisu's and Sandaime's observations of me, get acclimated to the curriculum--"
"We are all in agreement," Asuma interjected. "That's unreasonable. And if that's our union rep, he won't last long."
Kakashi agreed. That type of person encouraged faculty to eat each other alive. This school's faculty couldn't afford that given that the students needed them and politics like that would just destroy the staff and leave less of them for the students. Students would always come first. Some students didn't have anything else to rely on.
"Belying idiots," Kakashi redirected the conversation, "let's move on to brighter topics. I understand the newsletter's gotten a lot of progress yesterday. I did have some time last night and have my own contributions." He put his flash drive on the desk.
Iruka took it and went to Asuma's computer to start finishing up the pamphlet.
"Did anyone else notice the bruise on Sasuke's arm?" Kurenai asked. "His sleeve got rolled up in class today when he was putting on his apron. It's massive!"
"Yes," Kakashi replied. "I asked him quietly during SSR and apparently a cyclist knocked him into a railing the other day."
"Ow," Asuma grunted. "That would hurt."
"So, it's finally been told to we lowly teachers what our professional development will be this year. The half-days are going to be writing workshops." Kakashi thought back, pulling up all the details he had mentally filed away. "We have a guest speaker who's currently putting forth all the new research in education who'll come and talk to us on how to better include writing into our classrooms. The full professional days are going to be curriculum. Our superintendent is insisting that it's getting old again and that it needs to be revamped."
Kurenai sighed. "I'm still trying to make heads or tails of the curriculum left to me. My predecessor seems to have been extremely disorganized."
"Also," Kakashi added, "Open House is just over a week away. We need to induct Kurenai into what we do." He turned to her while he heard the clicks and keyboard thumps of Iruka as he pasted text into the newsletter. "The school day is distilled into an hour; all the classes are squished into ten minutes, and the parents follow the schedules of their kids, wandering from class to class."
"That a little different from what I did last year," Kurenai offered.
Kakashi nodded. "You have five minutes to do your little blurb of what you think is important, and then the parents fire questions at you. Some of them, like the Hyuuga parents, can ask really obscure questions. Others will want to ask how you'll react to their kid's particular quirks. If we're lucky, about half of them will actually show."
"We get more here in the middle school than the high school," Asuma said. "I hear they're debated on whether they should even hold Open House this year."
Iruka snorted in the background, but then got up and walked to the printer. "Here, how's this look?"
Kakashi flipped through the four pages. He hid his grimace at Gai's flourish and the occasional spelling errors, instead grabbing Iruka's pen without asking (and openly smiling when the special ed teacher protested) and marking the changes. "We should also mention parent teacher conferences; they come up in November. Oh, and the Welcome Back dance, and about class dues. They always forget class dues."
"You enjoy making me work, don't you?" Iruka grumbled. He grabbed his pen back angrily and went back to taking notes while Kurenai picked up the corrected copy and went to Asuma's computer.
"Has anyone wheedled out the problem kids?" Asuma asked.
"Naruto is going to be a trouble maker," Kakashi sighed. "He's got too much energy and is quite the knucklehead. Putting him and Kiba together in the same class is almost asking for disruptions."
"Koumaki's good at being distracted," Kurenai offered from the computer. "Are you sure he isn't one of yours, Iruka?"
"No," Iruka sounded relieved. "Having twenty is enough. Especially when all of them are in my room for Resource." Iruka put his head down on the desk, absently rubbing the scar across his nose. "They all need individualized attention and there's only one of me and three paraprofessionals in the room. Gaara will also be a problem with his issues."
"Socially and Emotionally Disturbed kids are like that." Asuma took a deep breath, his fingers reaching for a cigarette that wasn't there. "Yuzuhi and Maname love entering bitch fights in the halls, and there's someone instigating in my B period class. I think it might be Kankuro, but I'm not sure. Let's not forget Chouji."
"Ah yes, Chouji," Kurenai lamented. "The little thief. He's always taking other students supplies. I swear, I'm going to have to stand next to him during experiments to make sure he doesn't steal a microscope."
"Chouji's not that bad," replied Kakashi. "He just needs some level of pertinence. He does fine in my classes. So does Maname, but then, Yuzuhi is in a different period."
Iruka snorted again. "Let's just say that my entire Resource period are trouble makers and leave it at that." Sitting up, he amended, "I take that back. I have about four in there who do what I say and don't waver. Naruto will listen, but he doesn't stay focused very well, and his years of switching foster homes has made his education a little splotchy. He gets frustrated very easily."
Asuma grunted in agreement, rubbing at his eyes. "Let's just face it. Half the grade is going to get into trouble at one point or another. Let's just savor our angels like Haruno Sakura and Hyuuga Hinata and Aburame Shino while we can focus on them."
Author's Notes: Plate spinning chapter. The first few weeks of school, for both teachers and students alike, are a sort of "honeymoon" period because nobody knows anybody and they're on their best behavior. That's reflected in this and the next few chapters, so we spend our time doing what we call plate spinning, where we start drawing attention to certain factoids that will be important later in the fic. Things aren't just going to happen with the students, either. A few big events will be happening to the teachers. Could you count all the threads we started?