Gabriel & Rogue | Lessons

[x-velocidad.livejournal.com]

Gabriel and Rogue hang out in the boathouse and gripe about responsibility, kind of.

An unseasonably warm winter had been torture for Gabriel. It wasn't like he enjoyed winter; its layers of clothing masked hard bodies, and he hated dry, itchy skin. But he was counting on miserable weather and shorter days to keep him to a loose study schedule, and that was hard when it was unexpectedly warm and sunny.

And now it was spring, and instead of frolicking in the outdoors, he'd brought his GED prep book, a coffee and a bag of gummi bears out to the boathouse. It was quiet there, but he couldn't help halting all progress every few minutes and staring wistfully outside. Maybe a break wouldn't be the worst thing...

"Stupid exams..stupid midterms...stupid Rogue...stupid school." Rogue was not in a good mood, as she headed towards the boathouse. After how many years of being out of school, it was a lot more difficult than she'd imagined getting back into the school routine. To be fair, it wasn't like she did much -- basically, sat around, helped Scott with some administrative things, ate, trained kids.... even her art had been suffering. She couldn't remember the last time she actually painted, although, she did watch a lot of Bob Ross. Like a lot.

She was so in her thoughts, that she continued cursing to herself as she walked into the building. "Piss, shit, fuck, ass, bollocks, damnit.."

"Oh my stars, sugah," Gabriel's voiced piped up in a Southern accent more Texas than Louisiana. "Ah don't think those words are paht of mah vocabulary." He grinned at her.

"Motherfucker!" Rogue was so startled, she leapt in the air, her backpack dropping to the ground in the process

"I've been called worse," Gabriel said without missing a beat. He watched her hovering for a few seconds, then reached for the cup of coffee.

"Frick, man," she said out loud. "Where did you come from?" Rogue landed hard and reached down for her bag. "You scared the bejeezus out of me."

"Where did I come from? I've been sitting here." He sipped his coffee, the very picture of cool and casual. "For like, 6 hours. Or maybe a month. I'm not really sure, but it feels like it's been forever."

Rogue glanced over at his set up and nodded understandably. "You got the school time dilation blues, huh? I hear you. My semester JUST started and I've already crept into the whole 'who gives a fuck' territory." She gestured to her backpack. "I have a midterm already, and I haven't studied once. Logan thinks this is all absolutely hilarious, watching me stress from my own procrastination." She sighed. "Oh well. Misery loves company? What are you studying anyways?"

"Oh, uh..." He shrugged, looking a little sheepish as he took another sip, then scratched the back of his neck. "I'm gonna take the GED test. I don't know when, but..." Gabriel shrugged again. "I dunno. It felt like the thing to do. Well, a thing to do. I'm not sure if I'm gonna go through with it."

"If you're already doin' all the work, why wouldn't you finish it?" Rogue cocked an eyebrow. "Seems like a dumb thing to do. Kinda like people who audit classes and just never actually sign up for it. I get it if you're poor and all, but if you can afford it, and you did alllllll that work...why wouldn't you want the credit?"

"I haven't done that much work, to be fair." Gabriel reached for a few gummi bears, than offered the bag to Rogue. "I just feel like — I don't know, like, it's one of those things that doing it makes me feel like I'm doing it because I think I have something to prove, which I don't, you know?"

Rogue shrugged before taking a few candies. She popped one in her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. "I think," she replied slowly, "we all have something to prove. Whether it be to ourselves or to someone else. The problem is when the two ideas don't jive. Cognitive dissonance." Rogue peeked at the GED book. "I bet that definition is in there somewhere."

"Probably," Gabriel agreed, "but words aren't really my problem. Never have them. I mean, math?" He wrinkled his nose. "Forget it. I was a dumb jock. I could barely handle it the first time around. Listen to this." He turned quickly and flipped to the back of his book, scanning the page. "Tom made a scale drawing of a triangular park. The coordinates for the vertices of the park are here. What is the area of the triangular park?"

He turned back to Rogue, his eyebrow raised. "Who cares? All I've learned from reading this is that Tom needs to get laid."

Rogue opened her mouth to respond, paused and then closed it again. "I don't even wanna go down that rabbit hole, sugar. But, since y'all are in my space let's do this together. I can't cook worth a darn, but I definitely can do math. It's fun, like a weird puzzle that half the world hates. Want some help?"

"Uh, yes." A beat. "I mean, no, because I need to learn how to do this shit, since I can't bring you with me. It'll be fine. I just find the whole thing kind of..." he shrugged. "Inane?"

"Good teaching is learning how to do it yourself," she responded. "I know people give Logan some slack, but he knows how to teach, and I got him in my head." She thought for a moment. "Erik also is a pretty good teacher....and I promise not to try to convert you to the dark side there either, so see? I have all the skills in my head to help you out. Also, yah, school is inane. It's a weird measurement system. I mean, even the IQ system is only based on how well you'll do in a standard school, it's not really representative of your intelligence."

"And school is stupid," Gabriel added, "because I have managed to get this far in the real world without finishing it. And yet, here I am, taking a test." He shook the coffee cup to see if he had anything left. And he considered asking her about Erik — he had so many questions — but it didn't seem like the right time. "You are also studying," he finally pointed out. "What?" Why?"

"Hm?" She'd already forgotten her purpose for going to the boathouse. "Oh! Right. School." Rogue made a face. "Silly ol' me decided I want to be a school counselor or something. I already have my Master's in counselling psychology, but I guess I need a few more courses before I can apply.since the rumour is the old bat down at Bayville is finally gonna retire."

"Well, well," Gabriel said approvingly. "Look at you, all ambitious and shit." He grabbed another gummi bear. "I can see it, though, honestly. You're like..." He shrugged. "I dunno. You seem like you'd have good advice."

"Yeah, yeah, ambitious. Want to help people, and crap like that. Whatever. Wanna know why I really got into psychology," she asked with a twinkle in her eye. "I just like learning people's dirty secrets. Makes me feel so much more normal. The things I've learned over the years..." Rogue fanned herself. "Spicy."

"Aw, that's no fair," Gabriel crossed his arms. "Can't say things like that without sharing."

Rogue looked at him with a twinkle in her eye. "Well. Since these are mostly Canadian patients, I guess I could share a little...you have no idea how many people's family trees are right twisted up in a very..compromising way, you know. Let me tell you about this one guy who ended up being his own uncle..."

((end?))