Kurt & Cammie: Zombie Jesus Beef

[x-scorpion.livejournal.com]

Kurt brings some food up for Cammie and she asks about one way she could possibly take herself.

It was Zombie Jesus Sunday. Cammie wasn’t Christian. She wasn’t really anything. Her adopted family hadn’t subscribed to any religion, her father calling it all a bunch of hog wash so to her, Easter Sunday was just another weekend. With everyone else down munching on bland food, Cammie had her suite to herself and put her laptop on the coffee table, turned on some metal and pulled out a book.

She had been reading more lately than she ever had in her life and was developing a taste for sociology – they studied some pretty funky things – and action/bad science fiction books. She was reading Battlefield Earth. Awful, awful book so far but you had to respect a guy who made up a religion out of his ass and used it to make fuck tons of money.

"Cammie?" Kurt called through the door. "You were not at the barbecue, so I have brought you some food."

“Oh?” Cammie said, she got up, tossing the book aside, and walked to the door, opening it. “You didn’t have to do that, Kurt,” she said. It smelled okay. He must’ve put something on it. “Um, wanna come in? It’s kinda a mess.” Neither she nor Jane ever really cared much about how something looked.

"It is your space, you are entitled to have it however you want." He came straight in, offering her a tray of steak liberally laced with peppers. "Besides, I shared a caravan with my brother until he was eighteen. Stefan has many virtues, but neatness was never one of them then."

“Hey, it’s not as bad as it was at least,” Cammie said, taking the tray. “That must’ve been cool,” the food smelled good, the peppers tickling her nose. “At least someone down there knows how to cook. To the fork drawer!” she went to fetch one and came back. “Thanks, you didn’t hafta bring it up for me.”

"Someone has to make sure you eat", he said, mock-seriously. "As many people have done for me in the past. And yes, it was."

“I eat plenty,” Cammie said, taking a bite of the steak. That was good with the peppers adding enough of a bite to it that it was enjoyable and not just eating to stay alive. “Oh, that’s nice and hot,” she said. “Yeah, not many people can say they’ve had a cool life like that. Better than growing up in the middle of nowhere,” she said brightly.

"Well, sometimes it was in the middle of nowhere", he said with a shrug. "But not often. We relied on nearby towns for our income, for one thing. My brother and I were always close."

“So what, you guys still hang out and stuff?” she asked, around a mouth full of food.
"When we are in the same country, yes." He smiled. "He is clan leader now, so I am usually the one who visits."

“Clan leader?” Cammie was a bit confused on that, “Is that like a gypsy thing then? Like the guy in charge?”

"Yes", Kurt confirmed. "Our father and then our mother led the clan before him. It is inherited, you see, like royalty."

“So, he’s like a gypsy king or something,” Cammie said, with another bite of food, “I thought that was like just a set up for a romance novel or something.”

Kurt snorted. "He is quite happily settled with a girl we have known for many years. Not exactly the material of a romance novel."

“I dunno. I thought there was more to romantic fiction than guys who look like Fabio wearing clothes no one would wear back then riding into the night with girls who have tear-away bosoms,” Cammie said, making it look like she was really thinking about it.

"Maybe so", he said easily. "Though I cannot say I have read much romantic fiction."

“Good thinking. Most of it’s a waste of time,” Cammie said with a grin and a fork in her mouth. “Hey… you don’t think it’d be totally stupid if I started like going for my GED or something, do you?”

"Not at all", was the instant reply. "In fact, I did it not long ago, though I had no formal education growing up."

“I haven’t set foot in a school since I was 15,” she said with a laugh and a shrug, licking the fork a bit. “I mean, I don’t even know if I can do it.

"Of course you can", he said firmly.

“My math scores are going to be horrible. So is anything science related,” Cammie said. Social stuff, and lit, she was sure she could do that easily. “I don’t know, it seems like a silly idea to me but I figured I’d say something. Second opinions and all that junk.”

"Well, no one is good at everything", Kurt pointed out. "As long as you pass overall, it does not matter."

“Yeah, but I’m not sure I’ll pass those. It’s funny, Dad wanted me to be a doctor. It was always hard to explain to him that I just wasn’t that kind of smart,” she said with a laugh.

"You will pass those if the teachers here have to coach you intensively into passing them. And then perhaps you will end up joining us, hm?"

“Heh,” Cammie snorted, “No. I don’t think I’d be a good teacher,” she said. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I know back in high school I thought about law and stuff. Kind of funny the way I ended up.”

"You could still go that way", he said thoughtfully. "If your name is cleared, and that can be done, then you could do whatever you want."

Cammie thought about that, “Yeah, I guess. And it’s not like anyone ever caught me stealing stuff. So I don’t have much of a record except… you know… that,” she said. For the longest time, and still some now it seemed wrong to do things that might make her happy, because Greg was dead. And it was her fault.

“I mean, it’s an interesting subject. How it works and stuff. Not as fun as a barfight, mind you,” Cammie said, “but still fun.”

"That", Kurt told her firmly, "was an accident. You could talk to Nathan, he is a lawyer."

“Yeah, I might,” Cammie said with a shrug, “It was just a thought. I mean, I’m working two jobs and still managing to be bored. I’m not going to go around starting fights here, so I figured it’d be something to do.”

"As good a choice as any", he agreed, letting the subject go.

“So we’ll see,” Cammie said, “Thanks for the food. I was so caught up in the bad book that I almost forgot to eat.” It really was that horrible.

"You are very welcome", Kurt assured her, laughing.