James Stanton and Cally enjoy each other's normalness and Ako embarrasses James, for the fourth time

[coming-west.livejournal.com]

Cally walks into the bar looking damp all over. Her brown hair drips slightly onto her shoulders as she moves.

She goes to the bar and orders a large cup of tea. She then begins to make her way toward the fireplace so she can effectively dry off.

Comments

[sixth-son.livejournal.com]

"It seems a fairly common culture in the bar tonight," James says, scowling. "That's the third one."

He is, however, not as vexed as he might be. He is, at least, apparently improving.

"And yes, tea would be lovely."

[coming-west.livejournal.com]

"Third?" Cally repeats, raising an eyebrow. "Quite popular with the ladies, you are," she says, maintaining her innocent demeanor.

"Any particular type of tea?" she asks, as she turns to go to the bar to get it.

[sixth-son.livejournal.com]

"Not really," James says glumly. "The highest I've been rated is a four out of ten."

Yes. This really does make sense, in context.

"And, um, any kind - I'll pay," he adds, rather belatedly, since he is a polite young boy.

[coming-west.livejournal.com]

Cally blinks.

"Four out of ten? Is this something the girls at your school are doing?"

Cally grins at him as she heads to the bar. "I'll treat. You deserve one after being, er, molested traumatized tonight."

And she's back moments later with another steaming cup of tea for James.

[sixth-son.livejournal.com]

"Hardly from my school," James says, grumpily. "There was this girl here who seems to have organized it, it's maddening -"

He takes the tea, still grumping rather.

[coming-west.livejournal.com]

"Ah. I'm beginning to see now."

A beat.

"Any particular reason why this girl would organize such an interesting...ploy?"

[sixth-son.livejournal.com]

"Because she's hideously bored?" James offers.

[coming-west.livejournal.com]

Cally nods her head. "That is certainly a plausible reason." If Cally weren't so darn polite and nice, she could see the amusement in sending random girls to kiss a single boy. Especially if that boy reacted the way James did.


Then, in an attempt to steer the conversation back to something more normal (Cally seems to gravitate towards it. It's a pity.), "So. What's it like having a large family? It sounds rather nice in some respects, though I imagine it's hard to find private time for yourself."

[sixth-son.livejournal.com]

James likes polite and nice people! James is a polite and nice boy himself! Random kissing is not a situation with which he is accustomed. Darn Susan Cooper and her value system.

"There are," he says, still a trifle grumpy, "far too many of us. Although it's not as bad anymore, now that most of the older ones are off at Uni."

[coming-west.livejournal.com]

Darn her value system, indeed.

Cally nods.

"I imagine the house feels quite empty with out the whole lot of you around. I'm an only," she adds. "Even my extended family isn't very large. My mother was an only child as well, and my aunt is really the only family I've ever had around growing up and she's not married."

[sixth-son.livejournal.com]

James considers this for a moment.

"I can't imagine that," he says, finally, honestly. "I mean, even now, there's never less than five of us at home at any one time -"

[coming-west.livejournal.com]

Cally chuckles.

"And I can't imagine that! I spent two years in a dormatory and thought our floor was noisy, even though it was a quiet floor. It was always quiet at home." Especially after mum and dad became sick. She can almost hear the wind in the poplar trees inside her head; it's a comforting sound.

She shakes her head. "I have my own flat, now, though and it's much quieter. Except when my neighbors downstairs play their music too loud," she adds, after a moment of reflection.

[sixth-son.livejournal.com]

James looks envious. "Oh, I can't wait. Having my own space -

but," he adds glumly, "I'll probably end up rooming with a sibling or something, even then. That's the way our family does things."

[coming-west.livejournal.com]

Cally smiles.

"I think it would be nice to room with a family member. You'd at least know in advance what you were in for. And you could always blackmail them in to keeping their half of the room clean and doing their share of the rest of the cleaning. I roomed with my best friend, Jen, and it was very nearly like family. I would have taken her as a flat-mate, but she wanted to live closer to her boyfriend." She shrugs.

[sixth-son.livejournal.com]

"You'd always know in advance, yes," James says, wryly, "but that doesn't make it any more pleasant. It wouldn't be any sort of change, you see?"

[coming-west.livejournal.com]

Cally nods.

"That's true. And college is about change."

She finishes her tea.

"It's getting late for me, I'm afraid and there's some reading back at my flat for me to do. It was nice meeting you James." She stands and grins at him. "Good luck with the ladies."

And she turns and walks out the door into her flat.