Born stupid?

Writers: Jelena, Paula
Date Posted: 9th January 2015

Characters: E'naer, Genna
Description: E'naer wants to see Genna after class, to talk about her latest assignment.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 10, day 6 of Turn 7

Genna

Genna felt she was still blushing as the class was dismissed, eyes downcast
at the sheet in front of her. When E'naer had asked to see her after class,
it had been crystal clear what he wanted to talk about: the big mess she
had made of her assignment.

It was just too embarrassing, how badly she wrote. It hadn't been hard to
hide at first, when the assignments weren't as complex and she had time to
focus on her spelling. But now they were getting harder and longer and in
the rush her old horrible habit had returned.

When her classmates had left, she grabbed the sheet and shuffled her feet
all the way to the front of the class where E'naer was at his desk.

"You wanted to see me, Sir?

"Yes Genna, sit down please," he asked. He gave the young gold rider a
circumspec
look. He didn't know her as well as he would like to, not the way he had
known Teseada, who was weyrbrat. "I noticed that there was problems with
our assignment." He kept all resembling judgement out of his voice. He had
met all kind of youngesters during his time as Weyrlingmaster's third. From
truly illiterate ones, those with reading difficulties to those who were
just lazy and careless with written texts. He didn't know what of those she
was, although her background indicated that she should have had the normal
harper classes. Amber Hills wasn't that backward.

"Yes, Sir," Genna mumbled softly, eyes downcast as she fumbled with her
assignment, a glaring amount of errors marked on it. "I'm very sorry. I
really tried my hardest."

"I noticed there was lot of spelling errors in your text. Do you have
difficulties with your reading or writing?" E'naer asked gently.

"It just.. takes a lot of time, I guess," Genna said, still looking down at
her hands. "If I have the time to read things over and double check, it
usually isn't this bad. But with this assignment it took so long to finish,
I didn't have the time to go over my spelling properly."

E'naer nodded with understanding. "If we know about it, we can work out
something to help you. Do you think that some practise with harpers would
help you? As a goldrider, you will be doing lot of report writing and the
generations go come have to be able to read and understand your texts."

"Perhaps, I don't know. I've never had this much trouble before. Harper
lessons back home weren't as mentally challenging as my assignments here,
so I've always been able to take the extra time to double check and
stuff..." Genna fell silent as he mentioned all the reports she'd be
writing. It was something she'd been very worried about herself. "I'm just
very embarrassed, Sir," she murmured softly.

"There's no need to be embarrassed if it's something you're born with,"
E'naer said. "Meanwhile, I'll ask harpers to make an evaluation of your
skills and we can make sure you have enough time to do your assignments.
The harpers can tell us if you have some sort of inborn problem with
writing and reading. They also had the knowledge to help you with it."

Something she was born with? It sounded a bit like he was saying she was
just born stupid, but Genna refrained from voicing that thought. "Yes, Sir,
I'll go see the Harpers." She looked at the assignment still in her hands.
"I'll redo this assignment and turn it in as soon as possible." She didn't
really know when she'd find the time, but how could she not?

"Don't worry about it, Genna, you're not only one with that kind of
problems," E'naer assured her.

Genna just nodded bravely. Maybe he was right and the Harpers would be able
to help her, maybe he wasn't and she was going to disappoint everyone when
she started her goldrider duties. There was really only one way to find
out. "Is that all, Sir?"

"Yes, that's all. Unless you have something on your heart?" E'naer replied
and asked with encouraging smile.

"It's just... I feel like an idiot," Genna heaved a deep sigh. "And if I
don't manage to get my act together somehow, there's a lot of people that
will be disappointed in me."

"You're not idiot, that much I've learned to know you. You're quick
thinking and smart. Just because you write badly doesn't make you stupid.
Some people just get their letters inverted no much how they try to get it
right," E'naer replied.

Genna nodded again, still not entirely convinced but trying to take courage
from E'naer's words. "I just hope they'll be able to help me."

"That's their job," E'naer said.

Genna nodded. "Thank you, Sir, for having trust in me. I'll go see the
Harpers right away, if that's alright with you."

"You go ahead," E'naer said. As a goldrider, she was going to lot of
hidework, so this was matter of some importance. Not that E'naer was truly
worried. She was goldrider for a reason and one of the reasons was ability
to tackle whatever problems she had.

"Thank you for being so nice about this, Sir," Genna said as she got to her
feet in order to leave. "I'll see you in class."

Last updated on the January 27th 2015

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Born stupid?