xp_logs | Ice Climbing: Nathan, Yvette

After dinner, Nathan comes to check on the littlest would-be climber, and a not-so-surprising offer if made.

Yvette didn't feel the cold as much since her awakening, but it didn't mean she couldn't appreciate the goodness of hot chocolate with little marshmallows. Retreating to a quiet corner with her mug held carefully
between her hands, she sipped at the sweet frothy liquid and decided the outside world wasn't as scary as she'd thought. Certainly the people helping Mr. Dayspring instruct them in climbing hadn't been too frightening.

"I was just going to come check on you to make sure you had hot chocolate if you had it," Nathan said kindly as he came over to Yvette's corner. The lounge area wasn't particularly crowded this evening; there were a few quiet knots of conversation, but that was it. Most of the other kids were in their own rooms, or exploring the
town.

She looked up at his approach, giving him a little smile. "I am being quick when it is being the chocolate, thank you," she told him, mock-seriously. "I am being glad you are making this field trip, Mr. Dayspring. It is being the much fun."

"I'm glad." The instructors at the climbing school had been fabulous; he'd gotten a sense that they would handle a group of mutant kids well, over the phone, but he'd been hugely impressed by meeting them in person. "It's beautiful up here, isn't it?" Nathan said, sinking into the chair beside hers. "I need to do this more regularly. Maybe you'd all like to come back to do rock-climbing in the summer."

"I am thinking the rangers are not like my way of the climbing so much when it is not being ice," Yvette observed wryly, sipping at her chocolate. "But it is being very beautiful, yes. Maybe we can be walking too?" The thought of exploring the woods surrounding the area was a tempting one.

"We could definitely do that. Plenty of excellent hiking trails around here, too." Nathan's expression was a little distant as he gazed out the window at the falling snow. "I don't think we do enough... active things like this, at the school. I know there are a lot of teachers who think that an... outdoor curriculum is a good idea. To get students out and about in the natural world a little more..."

"I would be liking that. I am being exploring the woods at the school with Kyle, and Mr. Logan, he is saying he will be teaching me to be the moving quiet so I can be touching the deer, when I am being learning the control," she responded with enthusiasm. "Maybe when the spring is coming, we are doing the more field trips outside." A certain spark of mischief set her eyes glowing briefly. "There is being less things to be making it the curse if we are being away from the people, yes?"

Nathan laughed. "This is very true. I think," he went on more thoughtfully, "that we assume that the grounds are enough 'outdoors' for all of you. But there's so much to see, even in this part of the world."

With a nod, Yvette's expression turned contemplative. "I am being nervous, to be leaving the school. But Mr. Logan is saying to be brave is to be doing the right thing, even if we are being scared. And it is the right thing, to be being outside and seeing the people, even when I am not being the same. They are being..." She halted, frustrated with the mangle of tenses her English was sliding into, and switched to Serbian. "~It is important that the world sees us as normal, and doing normal things. Like climbing waterfalls.~" Then she amended, with a slight giggle. "~Well, as normal as climbing waterfalls can be.~"

"~I think it's very normal,~" Nathan replied in the same language, winking at her. "~I think I told you - I used to climb mountains. Very, very high mountains. I miss it, but it's a little too dangerous for someone with a small child like me.~" He switched back to English. "It's strange, but I miss the people I used to climb with almost as much as the climbing itself. They didn't care that I was a mutant. We all felt the same way about what we were doing... we loved it, and we loved the scenery. When you have common experiences like that, little differences like mutation mean less. Which is very, very... nice."

Yvette nodded. "~This is how it should be. Sometimes, it is hard to remember that, when bad things happen.~" But this wasn't improving her English, so she made the effort to change back herself. "Like the not being waking up."

Nathan's expression softened. "That was hard for you, I know, with all your friends caught up in it. Did anyone tell you how well you did, though?" He went on before she could answer the question, which was after all mostly rhetorical. "You didn't panic, you let us know that they needed help right away, and you stayed with them until help got there. That's exactly what you should have done. You kept your head."

A small, proud smile flitted across her face, and she ducked her head a little, using the hot chocolate as a cover for her bashfulness. "I was being scared," she admitted. "But they were being needing me to be brave. Like Piglet being helping his friends when he is being frightened of the Heffalump." She paused a little, and then added. "Sometimes my mother, she is being very sad and she is not being the getting out of bed. So I am helping her."

"It makes you happy to help people, doesn't it?" Nathan said, his voice still gentle but his gaze more penetrating. He hadn't spent much time talking to Yvette, but certain things were there to be seen if you looked closely enough. Or felt the same way yourself. "I've had a lot of bad things happen in my life," he said after a moment, carefully. "I know that it's always helped me, to help people. Makes me feel like the bad doesn't matter quite so much. It's one of the reasons I founded Elpis."

She nodded. "My mother, she is being working very hard for the making the home for me, and it is not always being easy for her. She is being doing so much for me, I am wanting to be giving the back to her." She looked down at her mug again, this time not drinking, but watching the marshmallows bobbing in its depths. "When I am being changing, it is making the things very hard. If I am being the good girl and learning much, I can be making things better again." Then she looked up at Nathan. "Sooraya is being helping Elpis, yes?" she asked suddenly.

Keeping a very straight face - if he hadn't thought this was where this conversation might go, he would never have steered it that way in the first place - Nathan nodded, smiling. "She enjoys it, I think. I have her reading about some of the issues she feels most strongly about. It's good practice for her English, and I value her thoughts on what she reads. People who've been in need of help themselves," he said steadily, holding her eyes, "very often have a lot of insight into how to help others."

"Sooraya is being liking what she is doing, yes." Yvette paused, then, hesitantly, asked: "Am I being old enough to be helping too, Mr. Dayspring?" Fourteen was better than thirteen, she had decided upon reconciling herself to missing her birthday, but with so many of the students being older than her, it felt too young to do anything sometimes.

"A few hours a week," Nathan said very softly, unable to help the smile that broke over his face. "Like Sooraya. That gives you the chance to learn, and help, but it doesn't cut too much into the time you need for other things. I would be very happy to have you down at the boathouse from time to time, Yvette. I think you'd like it, too."

"Yes, I think you are being right." Yvette's own smile was as broad as the small girl could make it. "Thank you, Mr. Dayspring. I will be trying very hard to be helping."

This really was turning into rather a wonderful field trip. Almost too good to be - no, not going there. Nathan grinned at her. "You're welcome, Yvette," he said simply. "I'll let you be the one to tell Sooraya you'll be down working with her?"

Yvette nodded eagerly. "We are being helping each other with the English," she said proudly. "I think she will be happy that I am helping Elpis too." She giggled. "And not only with being bringing the food for Mr. Angelo when he is being working too late."

"Army of little girls indeed," was Nathan's murmured, amused reply.