Log: Matt and Adrienne

[x-daredevil.livejournal.com]

Trigger Warning: discussion of drug use

Matt encounters an obstacle most foul. Thankfully, it is not insurmountable



"Ms. Frost!" Matt exclaimed, rushing into her classroom looking a little panicked. "You gotta help me!"

Adrienne jumped to her feet immediately, visions of an attack on the mansion, or a powers mishap by one of the students, running through her head. "What's wrong?!"

"You're the shopping expert! What do I get Sue?" He asked, slumping into a desk. Bring on anything but holiday shopping!!

Adrienne raised an eyebrow, amused. She had a pretty good idea what he meant, but it had been a slow day, and she felt like screwing with him a little. "Why do you need to get her something? What did you do to make her mad at you?"

He huffed, thinking back to Thanksgiving with her family. "I don't think I did anything..." Matt trailed off, unsure."Why? Did she say something?" It wasn't like Sue not to say something to him.

"No, no one said anything, you're safe," Adrienne smirked. But she wasn't done messing with him. "Before I can give you suggestions on holiday gifts, I need to know more about your relationship. How long have you two been going out now?"

Making a face, Matt thought for a moment. "A month? Ish?" They'd started going out officially at the end of October and now it was the end of November. It'd be about two months when Christmas came around, if they made it that far, but Matt had no reason right now to think they wouldn't. "I'm shi- I mean crap at getting stuff for people anyways, and I've never shopped for a girlfriend!"

"A month, huh?" Adrienne pretended to mull this over. "Have you two slept together?"

"What?" Matt's voice almost squeaked, he was so surprised. "No!" What the hell was she on about?! He wasn't ashamed that they hadn't slept together yet either, that was...that was definitely something he wanted in the future, preferably with Sue, but with everything else going on with applying to college, the newness of the relationship, his addiction counseling, it was better to wait. And that was without her feelings on the subject!

Adrienne was glad Matt couldn't see her biting back a laugh at his indignation. Okay, enough messing with him. "Okay, I have the perfect thing. Do you have a credit card?"

Matt shook his head. How was it that Wade had phrased it? "Because of my addiction I can't be trusted with money," he replied, clearly quoting. "I have some cash, but not a lot. If I need money for a date or something specific, I have to get it from the professor or Mr. Summers or someone similar."

Raising an eyebrow, Adrienne opened her mouth to comment, but closed it after a moment. He had clearly been told this by someone, and while Adrienne didn't agree, she didn't want to step on the toes of whoever had told him that. "Okay, no worries. I'll spot you. You can pay me back. I'm gonna get my laptop, why don't you sit down at your desk?" She grabbed her laptop off her own desk and put it on his, pulling up a chair beside him. "What we're gonna do is go onto MLB dot com and we're gonna get a gift certificate from the Yankees shop. It's too early to buy single game tickets, so you're going to get her a gift certificate. Then you're going to attach a note to it, and it's going to say that you want her to use the certificate to get two tickets to a game. You're going to make it clear that she can take whoever she wants. Her brother, her dad, Tandy, you. No pressure. When's her birthday, again?"

"Oh, that's cool!" Matt agreed. He'd been envisioning a trip to the mall for a sweater or jewelry or something equally terrible. This he knew Sue would like, "Her birthday? Um..." He thought for a minute, "It's August 20."

"Okay, let's see here." Adrienne clicked a few buttons. "Ooo! The Yankees are at home that day. And they're playing the Blue Jays. Okay yeah, you put that in your note, too. That you'd like her to use the gift certificates for that game."

"This is a Christmas gift," Matt replied, unsure. "I don't want her to have to wait to use it until August," that was a long time away. If her birthday was in March, then maybe. But August? Not so much. "I'd rather do something more...soon."

Adrienne shrugged. "Well, don't tell her what to use it for, then. Let her decide for herself. First game of the season is against Boston, April first. Or, scrap the gift certificate idea and just get her a jersey or something?"

Matt had to think for a moment. "I like the tickets idea. But she should use them when she wants. How much are they?" this was a lot better than getting her something from the mall or a jersey where he would have to guess her size.

Shrugging again, Adrienne clicked a few more buttons. She actually hadn't been to the new Yankee stadium, so she wasn't too sure. And when she went to games that weren't in her box at Fenway, she went using comp'd tickets from associates, or made Garrison buy them if they were going to the Rogers Centre, and never really took notice of the price. "Probably somewhere around twenty bucks each for the nosebleeds? They'd change according to the team that the Yankees are playing. Might be around fifteen if it's a team that isn't a big draw. But if it's someone in the AL East or Central, maybe closer to twenty-five. With the tickets not actually being on sale yet, the exact prices aren't posted."

Oh. Hm. Matt could handle $40 or $50 for her present, but that was his extreme upper limit. Not knowing what the price would be though was a problem. "Maybe a jersey then..." He trailed off, unsure. "I guess I could promise the tickets...I just need to make sure I have the money when she wants to go." He wished that he could better than the nosebleeds, but there was no way.

Adrienne bit her lip, contemplating something for a few moments. "Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but a jersey is usually around three or four times the cost of tickets to a game, so if you don't have the money for tickets now, a jersey probably won't work either. But, if you want, I know someone with season tickets. I can hook you up with his corporate seats, for any game, and you can just pay me later for whatever the cost of the cheapest ticket is, even if it's not for that game, because I don't think you're the kind of person who would take charity. And you'd have to promise me that if you use again at any point before the game, you understand you forfeit this deal."

Thinking hard and taking the offer very seriously, Matt finally nodded. "I don't want to use again so unless someone straps me down and shoots me up, I'm not going to," of course he had said that the last time and then Genosha had happened. He knew better now though. Had better cooing mechanisms that he was developing. "Alright. It's a deal," he sat up, offering her his hand to seal the deal.

The teacher took his hand and shook it firmly. "You should find some way to dress it up though, like explain what you're doing in a nice note in a Christmas card and put a 2013 schedule in it or something so she can think about which game as soon as she sees it. Girls like that sort of effort. Especially when you didn't have to drive yourself insane going to the mall for a gift," she grinned, obviously pleased with herself.

Not having to go to the mall was definitely a plus. He'd probably have to at some point during the holidays, but at least the most important gift was done. "I like that. Can you help me print off the right pages? My printer only does Braille and I usually email my assignments in digitally."

"Sure," Adrienne nodded. "No problem. It's just really too bad the Yankees are going to suck so bad this year," she teased.

"No they aren't!" Matt protested, "They're the Yankees. Even when they have a rebuilding season they do better than most other teams!" It was more of a perfunctory defense than anything though. He wasn't into baseball nearly as much as his girlfriend or teacher, but he did like the Yankees and he was getting into it more just because it seemed as if everyone around him was baseball-obsessed. He preferred boxing and was getting more interested in MMA.

"That was when the rest of the teams in the division were being stingy about salaries and were screwing around with coaching," Adrienne responded. "Now that Baltimore seems to have found a formula that works for them, and the Jays owners finally opened the coffers, Tampa and New York are going to have a much tougher time of it this upcoming season." She conveniently didn't say anything about the Red Sox, hoping he wouldn't notice. "So hopefully Sue picks a game against an NL team or a West Coast team or something. One the Yankees could actually win."

Baseball politics. How he did not care at all. All he wanted was for his team to win. "Of course she will," he replied confidently, though he had no idea, "Anyways, you didn't mention your precious Red Sox. Maybe Sue can choose that game and watch when they beat the pants off them!"

"Do you want me to flunk you?" Adrienne inquired sweetly, eyebrow raised.

Matt grinned shamelessly, "My grade depends on how well your favourite baseball team and my favourite baseball team does? Really? That seems...rather....out my control. I vote we make it more fair. My grade can depend on the weather!"

Adrienne appeared to be thinking this over. "How would that work? Sun's out, better grade? Or vice versa?" Laughing, Matt stood, "Same problem with baseball," he pointed out, "Red Sox win I get a bad grade? Or vice versa? I'll stick with doing my homework. And now that I have a present for Sue, I think I should go do that." "Good plan," Adrienne smiled.

Grinning and feeling accomplished, Matt headed out of the class to go find a snack. And then go do his homework. Growing boys needed food after all.