xp_logs | LOG: Nathan and Clarice discuss Manuel (Reply)

Clarice saw Angelo leave room and knocked on the door, Arabic book in hand. She'd be doing a lot better in the class is she would only stop thinking the letters looked more like childish scribbling than an alphabet.

Nathan, in the process of settling back down on the couch, blinked at the door. "Come in?" he called hesitantly, reaching out with his mind. Not Angelo having forgotten something... Clarice. He sat up
again, the smile coming a little easier after the more-or-less relaxing conversation with Angelo.

"Hey there," he said, spotting the Arabic book she was carrying. "Problem?"

"I guess...It all looks like scribble. I can't concentrate," she smiled slightly, looking sheepish.

"It's hard, when you're dealing with a completely new alphabet," Nathan agreed, gesturing at the spot on the couch next to him and then reaching up hurriedly to adjust the ice pack as it started to
slide. These things really needed straps or something. "Want to sit down?"

Clarice sat, fidgeting for a moment before blurting out "Manuel pissed me off again."

Nathan froze, completely blind-sided by the sudden change in subject. "Oh," he finally said, a bit lamely. Why couldn't it have actually been about her Arabic homework? part of him whined
shamelessly. "Uh... why? Or how, rather... how did Manuel piss you off?"

"I don't know!!" Clarice whined, obviously frustrated, "He posted that he was not happy earlier for some reason and it was the same type of post I did just before the Boston trip. Remember? And no
one's mad at him!"

"Oh," Nathan said, then could have kicked himself. He took a deep breath. "Well, Clarice," he said heavily. "You're right. It is similar."

She nodded, glad that he agreed, but cautious because she knew there was a 'but' coming. There was always a 'but'. "I don't care why he's mad, but no one is jumping all over him saying he shouldn't act like that."

Floundering. The word was floundering. Nathan could feel the muscles in his shoulder developing knots on their knots. "Do you want to know the real reason why?" he asked finally, his eyes
narrowing a little as he looked down at Clarice. "Or do you want me to agree with you and go jump all over Manuel?" Please don't pick option B, please...

"Why he's mad or why he gets special treatment?" Clarice asked, unsure she wanted to know. She knew that Nathan was not going to jump all over Manuel on her say-so, teachers just didn't do that, but that didn't mean nothing would be done either. "I don't care why he's mad. Someone probably said his socks were mismatched or something."

"Why he gets special treatment," Nathan said as levelly as he could. "Why you got jumped on and he didn't."

"Yeah. I want to know that."

"Because we expect more of you." Clarice blinked at him, but he went on, just as steadily. "You may still be in the process of growing up, Clarice, but you've got an edge on Manuel in a lot of ways. You know yourself, your own emotions. You can control them when you're interacting with other people, not get all tangled up in what they're feeling." He sighed. "Manuel doesn't have that. At
least not yet. It's one of the things he's working on, but it's going to take time."

"Oh. But I thought that's why he couldn't use his powers except in the box or whatever." Clarice tried to process what Nathan had said about expectations. No one had ever really had expectations of
her outside of 'you will make reasonable grades and not go to jail'.

"He's learning," Nathan said. "Learning isn't easy, especially when you're facing a problem this hard."

"Is he?" Clarice asked seriously, "Learning, I mean. Not just how to control his powers, but anything else? He's the same ass he was when he got here. Even I've stopped saying 'fuck' every
fourth word. It may not be much, but it's something we can see and measure."

"The problem with a... problem like Manuel's..." He really needed a nap, Nathan thought glumly, "... is that so much of it isn't able to be seen and measured."

"I guess. Everyone here except Amanda hates him. Or at least doesn't like him. Doesn't he realize that and y'know, try not to piss everyone off?" Clarice continued, "Sorry. I just...don't get it."

Nathan tried to smile. "I know it's... difficult to relate to him a lot of the time," he said as gently as he could. Oh Lord, do I know... "But you need to keep in mind his situation. You may not want to spend too much time around him, but so long as he's not doing anything to actually harm you... you maybe ought to think about cutting him some slack." He reached out and patted her arm a bit awkwardly. "Be the well-adjusted, adult one, Clarice. There are rewards. And it's the... kind thing to do."

"Only here would I be considered the well-adjusted, adult, Mr. D. And I'm still avoiding him from our last fight, don't see any reason to stop." Clarice grabbed her textbook and stood up, "But I
still don't like him."

"And believe me, I'm not suggesting you start," Nathan said seriously.

"Oh, good. Then hell hasn't frozen over yet! Thanks...I think I'll go do my homework now."

"Wait... didn't you have a question about something?" he asked, confused.

Clarice grinned, "Yeah, on why I couldn't concentrate on my homework. I think I can now. But I have to ask, does my Arabic look like scribble to you?"

Nathan blinked at her. "Uhh... no, it looks like Arabic."

"Then it's just me then. Good," she sighed in relief. "I thought it looked like scribble."

With a chuckle, Nathan waved at her. "Go do something fun, Clarice," he suggested. "Don't worry about Manuel or the scribble, okay?"

Clarice nodded, and waved before leaving the suite. She had a lot to think about before doing anything fun though. And she still had homework to finish.