Maybe We're Crazy.. -- [GISELLE]

[tailung]

Tai Lung walked around the detention room, examining the contents of the few small bookshelves. Of course all of the books were textbooks (and therefore boring), so he put them back and resisted the urge to wipe his hands off as if the books were actually somehow dirty. The person supposed to be monitoring the room had left several minutes ago after giving Tai Lung an ominous warning that if he put so much as a foot outside the door, he would know. Tai Lung didn't know how the man would be able to tell, but something in his voice told him it was true.

Tai Lung dropped into the teacher's chair and sank into it, slouching grumpily. This was stupid. It wasn't like he'd done anything that terrible; the guy in the chair next to him had been pretty much harassing the girl in the next row (It was clear she hadn't wanted the attention), and all Tai Lung had done was given him a knife hand jab in the kidney the next time the guy had leaned over to her. There hadn't really been a way to predict the girlish screaming noise that resulted, and of course the student had decided to be a snitch and turn him in.

Looking at the clock, Tai Lung groaned. No wonder he felt so wired and tense; this was the time he should be in the gym for his afternoon workout. Well, there was no saying he couldn't do anything in here. He climbed onto the desk in front of him, quickly moving into a handstand. Closing his eyes, he extended his legs upward as far as he could, smiling as he felt his toes touch the ceiling. Were those footsteps? Tai Lung opened his eyes, raising (or lowering, depending on how you of the detention room.

[Deleted]

Giselle wasn’t really sure what detention was. They didn’t have that in Andalasia. But apparently when you misbehaved in class you were sent to detention. And detention, from what she gathered, was a place where you just sat and waited until they said you could go. And it didn’t sound too bad really. Although, Giselle didn’t really understand what she’d done wrong. But apparently teachers didn’t like when she just burst into song in the middle of the lesson. And they especially didn’t like that she invited her animal friends into class.

Giselle really didn’t understand that either. She wanted her animal friends to learn too. She wanted them to know what she knew and then maybe she could teach them to talk like the animals back home in Andalasia. Maybe the people here just didn’t appreciate animals. Lottie didn’t like them. She thought that the chipmunks were filthy and had diseases. Maybe other people didn’t like animals for the same reason. Giselle found that very silly. They weren’t filthy and that was that. But no one believed her.

She opened the door to the detention room and looked at the young man who was upside down on the teacher’s desk. That seemed very strange. “Hello,” she said brightly. “What are you doing upside down?”

[tailung]

Tai Lung stared silently at the girl for a moment, hopefully giving the room some awkward tension. He didn't really know why he liked doing that sort of thing, but he did, and it wasn't something he ever felt like fighting. It wasn't his fault people found that sort of thing awkward; they should just learn to be more comfortable with.. whatever it was that made them uncomfortable in those situations. Not that this girl was necessarily one of those people.

Looking at her, Tai Lung was curious as to what on earth she could have done to warrant getting sent to detention. Usually the teachers were more prone to letting the girls off with some sort of warning about the 'next time', plus this tiny redhead looked so innocent it seemed like she could probably get away with anything just by using some sort of I'm-a-sweet-little-girl look.

He considered giving her some sort of boring answer about exercising and strengthening of muscles, etc., but he decided against it, something else occurring to him. "Who is to say that I am the one upside down and you are not?"

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Giselle didn’t know the meaning of awkward. It wasn’t in her vocabulary and it was a foreign emotion. She had never felt awkward in her whole life. So the silence in which she waited for a reply was only that: silence. She didn’t feel awkward or uncomfortable because it was only silence. Silence wasn’t something that was uncomfortable.

Giselle gasped at the boy’s answer. “You mean I’m upside down?” she asked. This wasn’t good. Giselle didn’t want to upside down. “Oh dear. I don’t think I can stand on my hands like you can though. Are you sure I’m upside down and you’re not?” she asked.

Giselle would be very upset to find out if she had been walking around upside down all her life. How horrible to suddenly find out that you’ve been walking around upside down all your life and you’ve been doing it wrong. Oh, this was terrible. Giselle’s whole life had been a lie. How truly terrible.

[tailung]

Well, she didn't look as though the silence was making her uncomfortable or awkward. She gained a very few respect points from him for that, though they were grudgingly given. Her response, though, caught him off guard. Tai Lung didn't really know what he'd expected her to say, but that wasn't it. For a moment he thought she was joking, but she seemed far too serious, and she didn't look like that good of an actress.

He stared at her for a moment more, almost forgetting that he was still in a handstand, but he didn't let his emotions show on his face. Those few respect points, and large number of others she hadn't ever had, had just gone slithering down a non-existent drain. He wasn't sure what else to do except continue what he had started.

"I did not say that for certain," he said, pushing off of the desk with his arms to land on his feet in front of it. "I simply question the beliefs of people who have shown themselves to be uneducated in so many other areas."

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Giselle would have been quite delighted if she’d known that he had respected her for about half a minute. If it was even that long. Because in Giselle’s mind that meant that there was a possibility that she could gain back that respect. But what she didn’t know, wouldn’t hurt her.

But she was very glad when the young man told her that she might not be upside down after all and a smile lit up her face. She hated the idea of being upside down and never knowing it her whole life, so she was awfully glad that the young man told her that wasn’t what he was saying.

Giselle cocked her head to the side though when he continued on talking. She was confused. There were a lot of big words in that sentence and it was worded funny. “I don’t understand,” she said slowly still trying to get all the words to make sense in her head. “Are you saying that I’m uneducated? Or just people in general?” Yes, she was very confused.

[tailung]

"People in general. At first it's just a few uneducated people, but then the number just sort of grows as generations pass and soon there are very few people truly educated. Although I suppose it depends on the area of study too. Even I would have to admit that there are certain things I know nothing about," he said, wandering lazily back around to the teacher's chair and dropping into it. Tai Lung propped his feet up on the desk, intentionally hitting and knocking over a cup of pencils.

"But," he said, waving a hand dismissively, "I digress. What did you do to get yourself thrown in here, anyway?" Hopefully that would distract her from the whole upside-down thing, as she didn't look like she could really handle that anything else related to that topic, and if she couldn't converse intelligibly about it, he didn't really want to try and explain anything (The whole teaching/explaining stuff was Shifu's area of expertise, not his). It was really only a bad attempt at humor anyway.

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Giselle nodded along as the boy explained. The only problem was that she wasn’t following and she didn’t quite understand. He was using big words and Giselle didn’t know big words! Big words were scary! And she didn’t want to sound uneducated in front of this boy so she didn’t say anything for once in her life. And it was a very odd sensation not to say anything. But she needed have worried because the boy knocked over the cup of pencils. “Oh, be careful,” Giselle chirped as she sashayed over to the desk and picked up the pencils.

She looked back up at the boy. “Oh, I have detention because my teachers don’t like it when I sing in class.” She looked puzzled and confused. “I really don’t understand why not. I love to sing.” She paused momentarily, considering it for a moment. Then her eyes brightened. “Oh, I almost forgot. I also have detention because I invite animals in the classroom. I can’t image why anyone wouldn’t want animals in the classroom. They always behave when I ask them.” She smiled brightly at the boy. She hoped they would be good friends. He seemed so nice and friendly.

[tailung]

Tai Lung could tell he wasn't really getting through to her. Not that he had really expected her to follow all that after she actually fell for the whole upside down thing. He actually did feel a little bit bad for doing that, actually, but there wasn't really any way for him to have known it would have that sort of effect. This, he thought grumpily, was why he didn't attempt humor very often, even if Master Shifu did encourage it. He stared at her silently for a moment when she perkily commented on his knocking over the pencils, narrowing his eyes slightly (not that she would be likely to notice it) as he reached over and used one finger to flick a rather cliche looking apple off the desk.

"They don't like it when you sing in class?" he asked rhetorically. "Are you in a singing class, then?" That really wouldn't make any sense, though. Surely she didn't sing in a normal class. Surely no one could be that ignorant when it came to classroom etiquette. The second part of her explanation just completely baffled him. "How do you manage to invite animals into the clssroom?" Tai Lung didn't know how anyone would manage that, but he could see why that might upset a professor.

[Deleted]

Giselle was just about done picking up the pencils when the boy flicked the apple off the desk. So she hurried and finished putting all the pencils back and then chased after the apple. She picked it up off the floor and skipped it back to the desk, placing it right back where it had been.

“Oh no,” she replied chuckling. “I’m not in a singing class. Just a regular class. They don’t really like when I burst into songs about conjunctions and or square roots. I’m not really sure why. It helps me remember them better.” She smiled at the boy. Singing about things really did help her learn. Unfortunately it was frowned upon in the classroom.

Giselle perked up even more when he asked how she invited animals into the classroom. “Oh, I’ll show you! It’s really very easy.” She then proceeded to sashay over to the window, open it, lean out and give her musical call. It was then returned by a bird who flew into the room. Giselle clapped her hands excitedly. She turned to Tai Lung. “See? I told you it was very easy. I really don’t understand why teachers don’t like it.” She reached out her hand to the bird who perched on her finger. “It’s always nice to make new friends!”