Sam and Catseye

[x-catseye.livejournal.com]

Catseye visits Sam to inquire about some books and makes it very clear what she thinks about his hurting Kyle.


Sam laid in bed silently. He had a fan running for white noise and he still couldn't do any more than stare at the ceiling. He still wasn't sleeping well; more than a few hours a night. He was treated fairly by the Professor and Scott, by all rights he should have been thrown out of the mansion, he thought. Kyle had forgiven him and Jay even seemed to be pretty understanding. The country boy still didn't feel right, he had given up a lot to find out what he did and he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to get back what he was. It made him as sad as he'd ever been.

The latest book Catseye was reading with Jean-Paul was causing her a great amount of interest- more than the usual dictionary could alleviate, so she thought to seek Sam out for a history book to help her understand it better. Tail swishing, she knocked on his door eagerly. “Mister Sam? Can Catseye come in? Catseye is looking for a book! Can Mister Sam help Catseye?”



It took a moment for Sam to sit up and get moving. "Just a second, Catseye." After a deep breath and a stretch, he stood. Walking over to his dresser, the country boy pulled on a t-shirt and turned his stereo on low, letting Lynyrd Skynard help him wake up. "Alright, come on in." He moved to his desk to close up a couple book, several stacked up in queue to be searched for an answer to... something.

He looked awful. Catseye's face showed plainly that she was surprised. "Is Mister Sam alright?"

"Just not sleeping well. What kind of book are you looking for?" This was the kind of thing Sam did well and he was glad to be put back into his element, even if it was only for a short moment.

She frowned at him to show him that she wasn't convinced that he just wasn't sleeping well, but Catseye let it drop. "Catseye is reading a book called Bob, Son of Battle, with Mister Beaubier," she explained. Had been reading it for ages, but it was hard going due to the Cumbrian dialect. "It is a good book but Catseye thought she would read about other things in the book while she is reading the book. Catseye would like to learn about Cumbria and Catseye thought Mister Sam might be able to help with books?"

Sam nodded to her question. "I have a few books in the office I can get and bring to you in the morning. Some of them can probably help give you some context for the book." He didn't want to overstep the bounds of what he was allowed to do at the moment but he didn't think simply loaning books would be out of line.



“Okay Catseye will wait until the morning for books,” she agreed in a compromising tone. “Does Mister Sam want Catseye to go or can Catseye stay and maybe Mister Sam can tell Catseye about it?”

"I'm not a teacher at the moment, Catseye." Sam sighed, he knew she wasn't going to take this well. "I don't mean just because it's summer; I mean I've been suspended for a while. I'd be more than happy to explain to you but I can't tutor at the moment. How about I clear a little field trip after school starts back up and I'm teaching? Maybe I can fly you out there."
"Catseye does not need a tutor," she clarified. Tutor sounded like it came with homework. "Catseye just wanted to ask questions if Mister Sam has time. Suspended, it is like being grounded, yes?" She thought Cammie might have explained it once. "Mister Sam did something wrong and made someone upset?" she asked curiously, before remembering that he might not want to tell her, even though he had said he'd be happy to explain. "Or is it private?"

Sam nodded, "It's like being grounded. I hurt someone and now the Professor's monitoring me to make sure that it won't happen again." He sat at the desk, leaving a chair open for Catseye. He didn't jump immediately into the topic she asked about, he wanted to give her time to ask questions at her own pace now that several things were going on in the conversation.

"Catseye thinks it is a verygood thing that the Professor is looking after Mister Sam to make sure he does not hurt anyone," she nodded, assuming it had been accidental.

"I think so too." Sam nodded in agreement. He didn't know what else to say to Catseye about the topic. Although he'd say the incident was an accident, others may not agree.

The catgirl took the chair. "Did Mister Sam hurt someone being an X-Man?" she inquired. "Catseye knows the X-Men are not supposed to kill but Catseye thinks sometimes they have to hurt bad people and if Sam hurt a bad person when he was being an X-Man then Catseye thinks he should not be suspended."

"I hurt Kyle when I was very angry and it very much worth being suspended for." Sam nodded, watching Catseye as she sat across from him. He had vowed to have this conversation with anyone who wanted it and he was going to stick to that. It's how people learned, after all.

"Mister Sam hurt Kyle?!" she exclaimed, shocked. "But why did Kyle make Mister Sam angry?" Kyle was one of her best friends and she suddenly felt very defensive of him.

"Kyle didn't make me angry. I was already angry and I handled it very badly." Sam saw Cstseye wanting to defend Kyle and he wanted to make sure she knew that it wasn't her friend's fault at all. He wondered if anyone one had ever defended him like that for the briefest of moments.

Catseye spun around in the chair a little, propelling herself using her tail. "How come Mister Sam was angry?"

Sam thought for a moment, trying to think of the best way to briefly explain a very complicated issue. "There's a certain way I felt some of my peers were treating me and I wanted to make sure they were wrong. I had to be pretty aggressive to do that and I was already pretty angry about some things that had happened. That's when Kyle walked in."

The catgirl gave him a disapproving look. "If Mister Sam wants to show everyone he is aggressive he should hunt deer not people, like Lex does and like WrongN... Morgan. Then he can give the meat to people and they will know he is aggressive. But Catseye thinks Mister Sam hurting people to show he is something he wants everyone to see is SillyStupid." She gave him the once-over, contemplating if she could haul him up, drag him through the mansion, and dump him in the lake before he fought back.

"I wasn't trying to show anyone anything... I was trying to find out for myself, so that I would know." Sam tried to patently explain. He had been doing that a lot lately and he know he'd probably keep doing so for a long time to come.
Catseye rose from her chair angrily and strode to the door. "That is even more SillyStupid!" she cried out. "Hurting someone just to find out something for yourself! Catseye is glad Mister Sam is suspended because Mister Sam should not be allowed to do anything except think; think how SillyStupid he was!"

Sam let Catseye stomp off, just wanting to correct one last point. "I didn't hurt Kyle to find that out; he just walked in when I was trying to. Hurting him was an accident he has forgiven me for... I think. I'm trying to make it up to him either way."

"Mister Sam better make it up," she snapped, turning back from the dooway to glower. "Or Catseye will throw into the lake for being SillyStupid!"

"Then wouldn't you be dealing with your problems the same SillyStupid way I was?" It seemed that when people got mad at him for what he did they threatened him. Other then being the situation that started the mess he had to face it also seemed very hypocritical to him. He wanted to at least help his former students from making that mistake. It's what teachers were supposed to do.

"No, because laking doesn't hurt anyone," Catseye informed him matter-of-factly. "It just makes people wet, and makes SillyStupid people see they were being SillyStupid."

"I know I was." Sam nodded in the same matter-of-fact tone. He didn't need anyone to point out what he did was wrong and he knew he deserved the punishment he got. He also tried to remind himself that forgiveness couldn't be expected.


"Good. Then make it up to Kyle and Catseye will not have to lake," she responded as she moved into the hallway, tail slashing behind her in anger.