Kyle & Dori, SATs and Doughnuts!

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In the morning, training with Kyle is followed by Dori letting something slip which is in turn followed by doughnuts and getting her to talk about things she doesn't much care to talk about.

Instead of the morning jog, Kyle had opted for the gym - it was getting too cold for anyone not used to running in the winter to go running, and also he'd very quickly figured out that being mean to Dori just didn't have the same impact as it had to him. Her reasons for joining the team were very different from his. Not any more or less important, but very different.

And it meant he didn't need to wear socks to keep his toes from being cold all morning long, which was a plus in his book. So he'd pulled some mats out into an open area and pulled with no small effort the heavy-duty heavy bag out of it's little cubby in the wall and gotten it hooked up so that it hung suspended over the mats. "Okay, so today is totally more about figuring out what you can do, rather than like, what you'll do if you're too tired to argue with me." He'd explained. "So, basically, all I want you to do is hit the bag."

"But what if the bag breaks?" Doreen asked tiredly with a nervous edge on her voice.

"It's special. Meant for folks like Garrison." Kyle said, and to demonstrate, he made a loose fist and punched the bag once, and then caught it as it swung bag. "Worst thing that is gonna happen if we find out you can punch like Gar or Piotr is that we get a shower. It's full of water." He shook the bag so she could hear the sloshing.

"Ah, okay," Doreen said, "I really have to punch it? I kick better," her hands had claws, so that was more around the slashing thing.

"We're gonna get to that." Kyle said, with a grin. "But if anything is gonna bust this thing, it'll be you kicking it and I wanna see what you're working with all around. Sometimes the right thing to do is punch a guy in the nose, and sometimes it's kick him in the knee and sometimes it's claw him up." He gave the bag a little shove, and caught it again as it swung back. "It's just like when you had to hit those pads in the self-defense stuff."

"Yeah, I guess," Doreen said, "I guess I should start hitting it now," she said, giving the bag the eye, "I normally don't work with the bags."

Kyle grinned again, and then pulled a folded piece of paper from the pocket of his shorts. Unfolded, it was the printed-out face of M. Night Shyamalan, which he taped to the bag at about Dori's eye level. "There you go, work out some anger. This guy messed up the movie about that Avatar kid!"

Dori giggled, she couldn't help it, "Oh, that's mean!" then she paused, "So I really get to beat him up?" she said, still giggling, "'Cause I'm gonna."

"That's why I printed out like twenty copies. Tabs is never gonna forgive me, I totally used all the ink in the library printer." The rest were in his locker, but that was okay. At worst he could go get them. Kyle grabbed the bag to hold it in place and leaned into it slightly. "He made Sokka not funny. There was no sarcasm or meat!"

Doreen turned and hit the bag, hard and again, "And that's for mispronouncing Iroh's name!"

After four or five punches, Kyle had a good idea of how hard Dori could hit, and that she had remembered enough from the self-defense classes that he didn't need to try to undo bad habits. He slid the now crumpled and torn paper off the bag and removed the tape with a claw. "See, that wasn't so bad, right? You actually hit pretty hard. I wouldn't want you punching me in the eye." He held up the paper, which had a large tear right along the eyes. "I'm gonna go get the rest of these, you um... I dunno, do some stretching or something."

A few minutes later, Kyle returned from the locker room with the stack of printed out faces, which he set on a weight bench. He taped one on the bag. "Okay, basic kicks, just to see how hard you can kick, and then we're gonna look at stuff like speed and what's most effective for you." He lifted a knee and kicked the bag lightly with his foot. "Real simple, right?"

"Yeah, I guess," Doreen said, copying the motion, it really wasn't the best way to kick, there wasn't much force behind it at all, "Like that?"

"Yep. Just like that. Lets do a couple more of those, because I wanna see how hard you can actually do that." Kyle put his shoulder into the bag again, bracing it. "Oh, hey, when do you guys have like, winter exams and SAT's and stuff like that, because whenever that is, I'm not making you get up at dumb early in the morning. Grades are important, yo."

"Oh, um, I'm not taking that test," Doreen said quickly, suddenly becoming very intent on the bag.

Kyle let the bag drop, which was a mistake, because it came back and hit him in the shoulder. "What, the SAT's?" He said, wincing. "Dude, you kinda need 'em. Even for like, community college, it'll let you skip the lame placement exams." Placement exams sucked eggs. Rotten raw eggs.

"I... um... notgoingtocollege," Doreen said quickly and quietly. Maybe he wouldn't catch that.

"The hell you're not!" Yeah, he'd heard it. "Fuck, this is what it was like for Haller and everybody to deal with me." Kyle raked his claws through his hair and groaned. "Okay, hold that thought, because the gym is not the place for me to be giving you the education is fucking important lecture, and it'll just make you twitchy. So we're gonna finish here, and then I'm gonna get you ... I dunno, waffles or something, and we're gonna talk, kay?"

"Do we have to?" Doreen said meekly. She had her reasons, and they seemed like good ones and she didn't want to get yelled at for suddenly being too poor to afford this type of stuff, it wasn't her fault there wasn't really a college fund left for her after all.

"Which, the hitting the bag or the talking? Because yeah, both." It was pretty weird because Kyle knew why he hadn't know about stuff like student loans and Pell Grants, nobody ever expected him to go to college. But Dori was a smart kid, and her parents had money and stuff, they should've known about it. But obviously nobody had told her, so someone had to. "Hell, we'll go to Donutlas and I'll get you an all you can eat ticket. But we're at least gonna talk about why you're not gonna go, okay?"

"I don't mind the hitting part," Doreen said, "But... okay, I mean, I guess." She was torn, there was food involved, but it was a conversation she really didn't want to have for various reasons.

"Hey, you've heard me talk about my folks, right? They're not paying for me to go to college." Kyle offered. "But yeah, hey, lets see what you can do to the big with a kick with some real power behind it, and then we'll deal with the rest later." He put his shoulder into the bag, holding it steady. "You know the one, see if you can put me into the wall." He flashed a grin, and made the gesture of "bring it." with his free hand.

There was more than just the money, but the money WAS a big deal. But right now, Dori wasn't going to focus on that right now. Right now, she was going to kick the bag. She took a deep breath and did it like she was taught.

And the bag exploded.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!"

Kyle looked up from where he'd ended up on the floor, and collected himself. Soaked t-shirt, soaked hair, soaked... everything. "Okay, didn't expect that..." He dripped for a few moments, and then stood up, wringing some of the water from his shirt. His expression was that of barely restrained laughter. "Right, remind me to check and make sure I used the heavy duty bag next time. Okay, so, I've had my shower..."

"I'm sorry. I didn't think I'd break it, but you said to do it as hard as I could, pretty much, so I did, but I didn't think it would break the bag," Doreen said, repeating herself due to being flustered. After all, wet shirt Kyle. No, bad brain! BAD BRAIN!

Still...

"It's okay. We're just gonna skip the whole part where I ever let you kick... me." Kyle said, grinning to show he wasn't mad at all. "Good news, it means you're gonna use the Danger Room a little sooner than I'd expected. If you're kicking that hard, it's better you learn to do it on something that doesn't break as easy as a person." Maybe he'd see if he could get Garrison or Piotr or someone to help out too. They were durable. "How about we go put on clothes that aren't wet and go get donuts, huh?"

"Oh yeah... I'm wet now," Doreen said, finally noticing that she had managed to soak herself pretty good too. Sometimes, the obvious went right over her head. She blamed the wet Kyle. "Okay, then, change and doughnuts, right? I like doughnuts."

Yeah, the last thing he needed was to think about Dori in a wet t-shirt. Kyle nodded. "Dry clothes, hot donuts or waffles or whatever." Besides, he needed breakfast.

"I'll meet you by the front door?" Doreen suggested, not able to stop staring.

A hot shower and dry clothes did wonders.

Doreen was waiting by the door. She REALLY didn't want to have the conversation that was going to come with the free breakfast, but she wanted the free breakfast and time with Kyle. She wrestled with the internal debate, rocking back and forth on her heels while she waited for him.

I am gonna have such epic hat hair today." Kyle announced as he arrived. He'd pulled a winter cap down over his still damp hair, and since he was overdue, as usual, for a haircut, the ends stuck out the back. "I'll be like, extra tall blond Logan. It'll stick up all over the place." He waved the keys at Dori. "Donutulas has cashew donuts this week. Also pizza donuts, which dude, I don't even know what."

Dori giggled at the description Kyle gave of himself, "No you won't, you're like way nicer than he ever is," she said. And a lot cuter. And more fun. And she could talk to Kyle without having the urge to run and hide pop up so that was a bonus too, "Pizza doughnuts?! We have to try those!"

"Dude, you haven't seen me when I'm really pissed off." Kyle warned. He did worry about that, that the first time Dori was on a mission with them and saw either him or Logan go full on fighty-time, that she'd freak. But hopefully that was something they could deal with in the Danger Room ahead of time. "Tomato and cheese, I guess. I'll eat one if you will."

"I will totally eat one," Doreen said. It sounded good, "Let's go!"

Even with the morning rush, Count Donutula's didn't have a lot of people sitting in and eating. Most of the clients were grab-and-go, coffee and the 'normal' donut of the day. Granted, the 'normal' donut of the day was chocolate-cashew, and half the customers got herbal tea or an energy drink instead of coffee. Most of the tables were empty, despite the line out the door, and Kyle and Dori grabbed one close to the machine that made donuts. Which had both of them watching, fascinated, until it finished the current batch. "Watching that thing make donuts is never gonna get old..." Kyle said.

"I want one of my own," Doreen said, tail happily up, "It would make life perfect. Can we get one for the kitchen? Please?"

"It's kinda big..." Kyle said, laughing. "and I'm pretty sure Lorna would kill us." He tore his own donut into pieces - eating it the normal way made his face feel sticky and he wasn't really up for -another- shower. "So, here's how this works. You tell me how many donuts it's gonna take to get you to talk serious about college for fifteen minutes, I buy you that many donuts, kay?"

Around a mouthful Doreen said something that might have sounded like 'one-hundred billion.' Or it could have been her coughing as a result of eating to fast.

"Okay, a number of donuts under like, twenty five." He had enough cash for two dozen, and if he had to, he'd just put it on his card and figure something out. Kyle figured he could talk Laurie into buying him lunch a few times if he got Dori to be serious for fifteen minutes. "I'm serious here. I just wanna hear your thoughts, I'm not gonna get in your face about it, okay?"

Doreen sighed. What it came down to was she didn't want him spending money on her he didn't have, but she didn't want to talk about this, however, he had bought her doughnuts, "I dunno," she muttered, "College is for people who can afford college and can get scholarships or pay back loans." She was a clerk in a comic store whose entire high school track record before coming to school out here could be described by the letter 'F.'

She was SO college material.

Kyle groaned. "Okay, you know who you sound like? Me, three years ago." He'd come prepared, with the same kinds of pamphlets that Mr. Haller had given him. "Okay, so first of all, there's community college, which is way less expensive and totally designed for people who aren't sure about college. And second, you've got a job, and there's stuff like Pell Grants." Which were covering a third of Kyle's own tuition, thank God, because otherwise he'd be eating ramen.

Yeah, but I bet you didn't spend most of high school getting Fs because you had a tail or clawing your way out of lockers, Doreen thought to herself and shrugged, picking at her food, "I don't exactly make that much, not enough to really cover anything," though she had to admit she didn't have any idea how grants actually worked. "I mean, there used to be an account for this but I don't think it's there any more."

Kyle's eyebrows shot up, and he had to dig his claws into his leg to keep from growling. "Your dad's a real piece of work. There's a bunch of stuff to help kids go to college who can't afford it. Just, do me a favor, okay? Take your SAT's, and make sure you tell Doc Grey to get you the thing that lets you take the test the long way, cause they'll give you extended time since you're basically ADD, and maybe talk to the Professor? Cause if you -wanna- go, they'll find you a way. I mean, would you wanna go, if you could?"

"He didn't used to be," Doreen muttered in regards to her Dad. It was still hard to think of her Dad as the guy he had been the last few years and not who he was before. Then again, secretly hoping he'd come around wasn't really doing any good either. "There's a long way to take the test?" she asked. She had assumed that they threw you in a room with a pencil and gave you twenty minutes to panic over it until you died or something. Because that's what timed tests always felt like.

"Aw, jeez. You used to play sick on the day everyone else took the practice SAT's, right?" Kyle took his PSAT's, but he'd been at Xavier's already. "Dude, it's like a four hour test, with breaks, and that's the regular one people take. For folks like you and me, they give you like seven hours, and there's a lunch break and you get bathroom breaks and everything. Jesus, what did your old school tell you?" This was so why he was going to be a teacher, because for fuck's sake, people just did not treat kids right.

Dori shrugged, "I don't know. 'Hey you, why aren't you in the hallway'?" she said, "Or I might have been in a locker. I was in lockers a lot."

And there went a piece of Kyle's donut squished between two claws. He was absolutely going to go get some anger management done on a heavy bag later. "Okay, one step at a time, right? Just like training, right? SAT's, and I'll help you review, cause dude, the English part? Not that hard, if you read a lot, and the essay part is pretty simple. It's just the math that's rough." Focus on the positive, he decided, and worry about the rest later when it came up.

"Math sucks," Doreen said. English she was good at and had been since she had gotten here. Math and science were still iffy, but the stuff she liked she actually got good grades in. And even the stuff she didn't like she wasn't failing any more, so maybe she could... "I can try to take it anyway."

Kyle nodded. "Yeah, it's not my idea of fun. I don't need to like, get you to do some weird pinky swear thing, do I? I mean, I'm already being a hardass and dragging you out of bed at stupid in the morning to run and crap. I don't wanna have to be a hardass about this. I'd rather just bribe you with donuts."

Hardass... wait, was she giggling out loud at that? OH CRAP SHE WAS. Time to bury said chuckle under mass of doughnut, and hope the blush could be covered up as lack of air due to subsequent choking.

"What, do I have donut on my face?" Kyle asked.