Wednesday Lunch-- Scott and Lorna

[x-polarisstar.livejournal.com]

During the picnic lunch, Scott and Lorna have a chat about Alex, classes and the school.



"The food, as always, is excellent," Scott said, coming up behind Lorna with a plateful. "As is the weather, thankfully. It really would have sucked had it been raining."

"There are other ways of determining the weather than just begging Ororo for sunny skies. I checked the forecast." Lorna was pulling breading and skin off her fried chicken and shredding the meat over her heaping salad. "I thought that we should actually spend some time out in it and since the only way to get some of these kids in the sunshine is bribery, food worked."

"They don't know what they're missing when they hide from the sun," Scott said idly, spearing some of his own salad onto his fork. "I'm thinking of starting up some sort of organized outside activity this summer. Entirely selfish, of course, but hey, it benefits them, too..."

"Most of the students don't get quite the boost from sunshine that you do, fearless leader. I'm sure they'll appreciate the activity anyway so long as it's non-traumatic." Lorna pointed out. She gestured vaguely with her iced tea, "I stuck the lesson plans for the rest of term in your box, by the way. I told you about the conference, right?"

"No, I think you were planning to run off and leave me to find a sub at the last possible moment," Scott said dryly, then arched an eyebrow at her. "Maybe I'll keep it in-house and ask Garrison."

"He did a good job when he subbed for Angelo in self-defense, much as I often wanted to bounce his head off the floors. I'd prefer someone else for geology though. Someone who actually has background in the field would be nice so that they can get their questions answered. Cooking--basic needs someone with a steady disposition. Advanced just needs an occasional supervisor." Lorna pointed her fork at Scott, "I want philosophy back next year, by the way. I keep meaning to tell you that."

"Done. And don't fuss, Lorna, I'm already well-into the class-covering. I actually got a retired geology professor who lives in town to handle that class in particular - nice old guy, I think the kids'll like him." Scott paused thoughtfully. "I should ask Rahne, about the cooking classes. She's agreeing to try her hand at being a TA, did you hear?"

"Rahne would be perfect," Lorna usually looked relaxed these days so the draining of tension from her shoulders practically qualified as melting. "You're talking about...what's his name? Wrote bits of the Planet Earth book? Good choice. And I'm not fussing. I'm just trying to make sure everything is taken care of. It's called being responsible."

"Yes, well, I think you can depend on my affection for responsibility, too," Scott bantered back, then took another bite of salad. "So," he said, without further ado, "have you talked to my brother since prom? Inquiring minds want to know."

Lorna's salad was suddenly fascinating, must have been the jicama. "No, we haven't crossed paths." Exactly how much did Scott know about prom anyway?

It had been a stab in the dark, based on a couple of things he'd seen and heard, and a couple of things Alex hadn't said. Apparently he'd been right in guessing that something must have happened. "Pity. The two of you seemed to be getting along pretty well for a while there."

"We're friends," Lorna tried to make it not sound defensive. "Things have been busy. I don't think it's cause for alarm that we haven't talked in a few days." She didn't know what was happening with Alex and Shiro. Was afraid to find out because if they didn't reconcile it was her fault. And if they did...what would she do then?

She hadn't succeeded in not sounding defensive, and Scott filed that away for posterity. "You're probably right," he said placidly. "I'm just being a busybody."

"You're like an old woman that way. Always in everyone's business. It's a bad habit to be in. No one likes a busybody." She jabbed at him again with her fork for emphasis. "And busybodies get no pie."

"Actually, being a busybody is literally in my job description. Charles wrote it in. Right there in my contract, along with a drop of blood, twenty years of my life, and half my immortal soul."

"Don't be flip. This is different. How I am getting along with your brother is of no consequence to school security." She lowered her sunglasses and turned to look across the lawn where various pockets of students were having lunch, "I've been thinking of turning the sprinklers on. Just to see what happens."

Very defensive. "Oh, but see, the contract also says that Charles is God and I'm his right hand. So knowing everything really is part of the gig." Scott smiled disingenuously at her. "Being omniscient is such work. But I have spies everywhere."

She made a face back at him. "Seriously, no pie for you. Stop being a pest. Why are you asking me anyway?"

"Boredom?" He waved a hand before she could respond. "Never mind, subject dropped. I am a born gossip - comes from overcompensating for being surrounded by telepaths during my formative years."

"You were well past your formative years by the time you were surrounded by telepaths, Summers," Lorna retorted but accepted that the subject would be dropped. And if it was brought back up again...well, she'd come up with something interesting. "The kids seem like they're in good moods. I can't decide if that means they all need a lot of therapy or if we're kinda doing well."

"I think possibly the latter. We're getting used to handling this sort of thing, Lorna - it's not new to us anymore." There was none of the bitterness in that comment that there might have been even six months ago. "Doesn't make it any more desirable to have it happen, but if we weren't getting a better grasp of crisis and post-crisis management after everything that's happened over the last few years... well, we'd be deliberately slow learners."

Lorna made a noncommittal noise, still watching the students. "We had things easier when no one knew what 'gifted' meant. I came here just to learn to control my powers. I never intended to sign up for the rest of it."

"There's no going back in time. And the 'old days' always look a little better, I think." Scott gave her a sideways look, wondering about that last comment.

"I wasn't thinking about going back in time. I was thinking about what chance a school that wasn't this one would have. Is the school the target or is it blowback from the team or is it just that we're mutants or..." she shrugged, "We give them security, sort of. We give them training. But are we really doing the best we can for them? Providing the most normal life that we can? Life at Xavier's isn't like life anywhere else. No wonder people don't leave--nothing equips them for life out there."

Scott just shook his head. "It's all a trade-off, Lorna. We can give them certain things - training, questionable security, as much support as we can. That means they don't get the experience of dealing with their mutations out there in the world, maybe prevents them from integrating properly."

"It's a problem my high school has too. Every year a hundred intelligent, academically prepared girls go to college and half of them fail horribly because they were never taught to live in the world. They're smarter than everyone else but they're completely unprepared." Lorna didn't really know where she was going with this. She didn't have a point, exactly. "I don't think that anyone would say not to send them to school, but that doesn't mean we can't do better."

"Charles and Ororo and I would certainly be open to any ideas."

"I really don't know. Community service, maybe. Intramural sports. They spend too much time here and even when they do leave, they're together." Lorna shrugged, "Heck, maybe even have some exchange students. There are other gifted kids out there who aren't mutants."

"The first two ideas are something to consider, maybe, once this latest situation has faded a bit more into memory," Scott said. "Although intramural sports would be fifty different kinds of complicated for obvious reasons. That I have looked into before."

"Even if it was just exhibition games? Our kids all have different gifts, that doesn't stop them from playing against each other. If it doesn't count, why not play?"

Scott raised an eyebrow. "Do you want an itemized list?"

"No. I'm sure you have one. I think at the bottom of it it probably adds up to 'because it's impossible'. But we do the impossible all the time. And if we can't even play nicely with the rest of the world, how do we live with them?" Lorna tipped her sunglasses up into her emerald green hair and raised an eyebrow right back at Scott, "One of these days, we're not going to be asking that question for the students. We'll be asking it for your kids. For mine. I'm not okay with the idea of raising children here."

"I've noticed when you get into discussions like this that you're long on opinions and short on solutions." Scott's voice was mild, unbothered. "You pound home your point and then leave the ball in the other person's court."

"I'm just a cook. I can propose an open house, offer to make food, but there's not a whole lot I can do elsewise. My ability to effect change is quite a bit smaller than yours." Lorna rolled her shoulder and flicked her hand at the picnic lunch, "I can do this. Take them out of their lunchroom and put them in the sunlight. I can send my Advanced students to Serv Safe courses out of the school. But I can't put together a soccer team or open the school to more students."

"That was a very elegant passing of the buck. I give it a perfect 6." Scott set his plate down and picked up the iced tea he'd left sitting on the edge of the table. "Since you don't want to hear my defeatist itemized-list-making talk, go see Charles when you get back. Maybe the two of you can conquer the practicalities through sheer force of vision."

Lorna sighed and shook her head. "That's the only way the impossible ever gets done. By picking a goal and going there." She got up and cleared away her half-eaten salad, "Enjoy your lunch."

"Commentary from the sidelines accomplishes nothing, Lorna. You might want to keep that in mind," Scott said, and sipped at his iced tea, reflecting that she really had made sure that the conversation stayed well away from Alex. "And if you thought 'Talk to Charles' was a brush-off, think again. Just because I've run into obstacles doesn't mean that someone else would."

Lorna turned back, regarding Scott with a little smile. "I'll work on a proposal," she said finally and walked away.