Friday morning: Dani and Forge's Mom
Jun. 2nd, 2006 10:38 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsForge's mother drops by the school office to fill out a bit of paperwork and finally meet this "Dani" that her son's mentioned. Dani discovers that yes, it is indeed possible that flakiness is hereditary.
It wasn't that Dani didn't like Parents Weekend, it was a great time of non-crisis and general normalcy. It was that she was insanely jealous of those with family. Hers had a good reason for not being there, death does make travel difficult, but as logically as her brain kept repeating that, her heart was not listening. That was something that her grandfather had always cautioned her about - listening too much to her heart and not enough to her mind.
Fortunately the school was large enough to hide in if she wanted to and that was what she was steadfastly doing in her office, albeit with the door open and soft music playing in case someone actually did need to seek her out. She was working hard on beating her pinball score on the computer, mashing the keys with vigor to get the little silver ball where she wanted it to go.
A small knock on the open door, and a short, slightly heavyset woman with a shock of curly red hair leaned inside. "Excuse me," she said in a soft voice, "I'm looking for... Danielle?"
Dani leaned around the computer, pausing her game. So much for avoiding the families. "I'm Danielle," she said politely, running through a mental list of whose parent she might be. "Can I help you?"
The middle-aged woman stepped forward, manicured hand out for a handshake. "I'm Cheryl Anne Forge, Johnny's mother? It's nice to finally meet you. He and Richard have told me so much about you. I understand you took Johnny to a powwow last year? That's so wonderful, his father and I both have been wishing he'd take a bigger interest in his heritage." Her rapid-fire delivery made it easy to see where Forge had inherited his speech patterns from, that much was certain.
Dani blinked as Forge's mom paused for a breath, this explained so much about him. "It's good to meet you," she finally said, shaking Mrs. Forge's hand firmly. "Forge...ah...he's been learning to speak Cheyenne, too." This was not what Dani was expecting in Forge's mother.
Cheryl Anne's eyes crinkled as she giggled in a high-pitched voice, then hiccuped and covered her mouth. "Excuse me," she exclaimed, "It's just that his father has been trying to get him to learn for, oh, about all his life. Someone here's obviously been a good influence on him," she added with a conspiratorial wink.
"I think he just likes being completely unintelligible to the people around him and we're finally catching on to his science babble," Dani smiled, relaxing. She gestured to a chair for Mrs. Forge to sit, she was not as scary as Dani first thought, "And I have a tendency to yell at him in it when I'm upset. Shocked me when he yelled right back."
Forge's mother let out another giggle, taking the proffered seat. "Oh, it's so wonderful to see him now. He loves it here, the chance he has to grow, the friends he's making. And did I hear that he had an actual date to the prom? As soon as his father asked him about it, I swear that boy turned redder than a beet. Of course, some things I suppose he can't talk to his mother about..."
"He took Jennie," Dani told her, "I think she has dark hair right now, she was blonde for a while. Girl from Vegas by way of Greece. She's my suitemate, likes the number 13 and appearantly thinks Forge is cute when he gets all flustered. All the time around girls, that is. Appearantly, I don't count as a girl to him," Which was fine with her. She wasn't a feminine girly-girl by any stretch of the imagination and was more at home under the hood of a car than in a beauty salon.
"Boys will be boys," Cheryl Anne explained with a grin. "Even that one." Mentally, Forge's mother made a note to find this 'Jennie' girl and give her the full motherly third degree at some point. She hadn't become senior counsel for the human resources department for nothing, of course.
"Oh! I almost forgot," she exclaimed, hands fluttering to her purse. "The forms we had to sign for Johnny's college entrance paperwork. I'd have faxed them, but since we were going to be here anyway..." She smoothed out some papers, squaring them up against the edge of Dani's desk and handing them over. "My little boy's going to college.... oh listen to me, I sound like one of those old ladies whining about their ducks leaving the nest."
"He'll be fine, Mrs. Forge," Dani accepted the papers and set them in the appropriate desk tray along with Forge's file. She was very organized and thorough with her work. "I think he's still going to live here and commute, so don't worry. And it's not like he doesn't like school. He'll probably drive his professors nuts and have the time of his life."
"Oh!" Forge's mom exclaimed again, as if a completely unrelated thought had crash-landed into her brain at high speed. "You just reminded me, dear, Richard and I are supposed to meet with Charles about that very thing. I tell you, I would forget my own head if it wasn't sewn on. And my, isn't it foggy outside? We certainly don't get summer weather like this back in Dallas..." she mused, distracted by the sudden cloud cover that completely obscured the backyard.
This was a senior lawyer from a top firm? Must be why they invented secretaries. So people like Mrs. Forge and Mr. Summers could actually accomplish something. Glancing out the window, Dani tried not to smirk as a tell-tale fog descended with unnatural swiftness, "The weather can be like a woman, warm and fun one minute and craving chocolate the next."
"Oh, you are so right," Cheryl Anne said, placing a hand on Dani's arm conspiratorially. "And speaking of chocolate, dear, you really don't need to be cooped up in here today. I'm sure I saw a wonderful chocolate layer cake downstairs that's just begging to be sampled!"
Dani stiffened as she felt her power kick in, "Don't touch me!" she managed, jerking her arm back as images flooded her brain. Fortunantly, she was able to stop them from projecting and turning a mental nightmare into a visual one. Pushing her palms against her temples she tried to will the images away.
"Sorry," she managed after a few minutes, "I...my control is iffy. You go have some cake, I think I'll head outside for a while," and digest the new fears in her head.
Cheryl Anne stammered for a moment, then stood up, "Of course, dear," she said with a tone of understanding. "John's told me enough, I'm sorry. I should have realized - I'll set a plate aside for you down there?"
"Sure," Dani agreed, not really paying attention to what Mrs. Forge was saying. She just wanted to get out of there as fast as she could. Get away from the people while she still had some control. In the back of her mind she made a note to work with Jim some more on control when she wasn't the one initiating the contact.
Tucking her purse under her arm, Cheryl Anne smiled. "It's nice to finally meet you, Danielle," she said sweetly. "We'll see you at the graduation ceremony, if not before."
It wasn't that Dani didn't like Parents Weekend, it was a great time of non-crisis and general normalcy. It was that she was insanely jealous of those with family. Hers had a good reason for not being there, death does make travel difficult, but as logically as her brain kept repeating that, her heart was not listening. That was something that her grandfather had always cautioned her about - listening too much to her heart and not enough to her mind.
Fortunately the school was large enough to hide in if she wanted to and that was what she was steadfastly doing in her office, albeit with the door open and soft music playing in case someone actually did need to seek her out. She was working hard on beating her pinball score on the computer, mashing the keys with vigor to get the little silver ball where she wanted it to go.
A small knock on the open door, and a short, slightly heavyset woman with a shock of curly red hair leaned inside. "Excuse me," she said in a soft voice, "I'm looking for... Danielle?"
Dani leaned around the computer, pausing her game. So much for avoiding the families. "I'm Danielle," she said politely, running through a mental list of whose parent she might be. "Can I help you?"
The middle-aged woman stepped forward, manicured hand out for a handshake. "I'm Cheryl Anne Forge, Johnny's mother? It's nice to finally meet you. He and Richard have told me so much about you. I understand you took Johnny to a powwow last year? That's so wonderful, his father and I both have been wishing he'd take a bigger interest in his heritage." Her rapid-fire delivery made it easy to see where Forge had inherited his speech patterns from, that much was certain.
Dani blinked as Forge's mom paused for a breath, this explained so much about him. "It's good to meet you," she finally said, shaking Mrs. Forge's hand firmly. "Forge...ah...he's been learning to speak Cheyenne, too." This was not what Dani was expecting in Forge's mother.
Cheryl Anne's eyes crinkled as she giggled in a high-pitched voice, then hiccuped and covered her mouth. "Excuse me," she exclaimed, "It's just that his father has been trying to get him to learn for, oh, about all his life. Someone here's obviously been a good influence on him," she added with a conspiratorial wink.
"I think he just likes being completely unintelligible to the people around him and we're finally catching on to his science babble," Dani smiled, relaxing. She gestured to a chair for Mrs. Forge to sit, she was not as scary as Dani first thought, "And I have a tendency to yell at him in it when I'm upset. Shocked me when he yelled right back."
Forge's mother let out another giggle, taking the proffered seat. "Oh, it's so wonderful to see him now. He loves it here, the chance he has to grow, the friends he's making. And did I hear that he had an actual date to the prom? As soon as his father asked him about it, I swear that boy turned redder than a beet. Of course, some things I suppose he can't talk to his mother about..."
"He took Jennie," Dani told her, "I think she has dark hair right now, she was blonde for a while. Girl from Vegas by way of Greece. She's my suitemate, likes the number 13 and appearantly thinks Forge is cute when he gets all flustered. All the time around girls, that is. Appearantly, I don't count as a girl to him," Which was fine with her. She wasn't a feminine girly-girl by any stretch of the imagination and was more at home under the hood of a car than in a beauty salon.
"Boys will be boys," Cheryl Anne explained with a grin. "Even that one." Mentally, Forge's mother made a note to find this 'Jennie' girl and give her the full motherly third degree at some point. She hadn't become senior counsel for the human resources department for nothing, of course.
"Oh! I almost forgot," she exclaimed, hands fluttering to her purse. "The forms we had to sign for Johnny's college entrance paperwork. I'd have faxed them, but since we were going to be here anyway..." She smoothed out some papers, squaring them up against the edge of Dani's desk and handing them over. "My little boy's going to college.... oh listen to me, I sound like one of those old ladies whining about their ducks leaving the nest."
"He'll be fine, Mrs. Forge," Dani accepted the papers and set them in the appropriate desk tray along with Forge's file. She was very organized and thorough with her work. "I think he's still going to live here and commute, so don't worry. And it's not like he doesn't like school. He'll probably drive his professors nuts and have the time of his life."
"Oh!" Forge's mom exclaimed again, as if a completely unrelated thought had crash-landed into her brain at high speed. "You just reminded me, dear, Richard and I are supposed to meet with Charles about that very thing. I tell you, I would forget my own head if it wasn't sewn on. And my, isn't it foggy outside? We certainly don't get summer weather like this back in Dallas..." she mused, distracted by the sudden cloud cover that completely obscured the backyard.
This was a senior lawyer from a top firm? Must be why they invented secretaries. So people like Mrs. Forge and Mr. Summers could actually accomplish something. Glancing out the window, Dani tried not to smirk as a tell-tale fog descended with unnatural swiftness, "The weather can be like a woman, warm and fun one minute and craving chocolate the next."
"Oh, you are so right," Cheryl Anne said, placing a hand on Dani's arm conspiratorially. "And speaking of chocolate, dear, you really don't need to be cooped up in here today. I'm sure I saw a wonderful chocolate layer cake downstairs that's just begging to be sampled!"
Dani stiffened as she felt her power kick in, "Don't touch me!" she managed, jerking her arm back as images flooded her brain. Fortunantly, she was able to stop them from projecting and turning a mental nightmare into a visual one. Pushing her palms against her temples she tried to will the images away.
"Sorry," she managed after a few minutes, "I...my control is iffy. You go have some cake, I think I'll head outside for a while," and digest the new fears in her head.
Cheryl Anne stammered for a moment, then stood up, "Of course, dear," she said with a tone of understanding. "John's told me enough, I'm sorry. I should have realized - I'll set a plate aside for you down there?"
"Sure," Dani agreed, not really paying attention to what Mrs. Forge was saying. She just wanted to get out of there as fast as she could. Get away from the people while she still had some control. In the back of her mind she made a note to work with Jim some more on control when she wasn't the one initiating the contact.
Tucking her purse under her arm, Cheryl Anne smiled. "It's nice to finally meet you, Danielle," she said sweetly. "We'll see you at the graduation ceremony, if not before."
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