Log: Jubilee and Pete Wisdom

[x-jubilee.livejournal.com]

When: 20th July 2004 8:10pm
Who: Jubilation Lee and Pete Wisdom
What Happens: Jubilee wanders into the kitchen to get a soda and manages to run into Pete Wisdom who is looking for food. They talk about what happened between her and Amanda and about lines that shouldn't be crossed. Jubilee gets defensive but listens. It ends with a warning from both sides.




Pete was rummaging through the fridge, looking for the leftovers takeout he knew he'd shoved to the back with his name on it. In the end he gave up, muttering to himself about needing to eat more healthily anyway, and reached for the vegetable drawer, intent on making himself a salad. He was just straightening up and closing the fridge when he caught sight of Jubliee entering the kitchen.

"Afternoon." he said, in a controlled voice.

She hesitated, pondering whether she could simply walk the other way without looking like she had something to feel guilty over. Not that she was feeling guilty...Okay, so she was feeling guilty but it wasn't like Amanda hadn't said stuff to her that was just as bad. "Hey, was just lookin' for some soda." she said, her tone even.

Pete stepped out of the way to let her get to the fridge, looking a little lost in though. He muttered under his breath "Sod it.", and then said in a more audible tone "A word in your shell-like, Jubilation, while you're here."

'Huh? Shell like? Oh right, weird British slang for ear.' she thought, grimacing as she grabbed a can out of the fridge. She looked up and Pete and closed the door to the fridge with a thud. "Sure, why not?"

Pete set what he was holding on the countertop, and turned back to her a remarkably calm look on his face. "You don't like Amanda any more than she likes you. That's fine. I ain't going to tell the pair of you to grow up. You'll get round to it. And if you both want to keep tearing strips off each other, then I think you're both fucking stupid, but whatever rings your bell."

A beat.

"But there's a line, for both of you, and you went shooting past it the other day. Now, I'm going to do my best to stay out of what you two have between you, because I'm supposed to be staff here, and fair and impartial and the rest of that crap, and because Amanda wouldn't thank me for stepping in. But if make me think I need to, the next time you go past that line, you're really going to wish you sodding hadn't. Am I crystal bloody clear?" Pete's _expression didn't waver from that calm look, and his tone was never less than even.

Jubilee hooked a chair with her leg and sat down, her _expression suddenly cold and guarded. "Dude, you're clear alright. Heck, maybe I should just get one of those crowd control barriers and stick it outside my room, that way you guys won't all fall over each other tryin' to kick my ass. Like, as I've already said to two people today, I'll lay off her. Your fuckin' golden girl comes lookin' for trouble though, all bets are off."

"No, apparently I'm not clear. This isn't about kicking your arse, or getting you to lay off her. This is a friendly warning about the limits of acceptable behaviour. And I'll be saying the same thing to her, too." He washed the lettuce and the peppers as he spoke, the set to chopping the peppers and some cucumber. "There are shots you just don't take, no matter how much you dislike someone. Call her a bitch, move in on her boyfriend - these things are normal teenage crap, and I don't give a toss. But neither of you have had the most stable and well balanced lives before you came here, and I don't expect to see either of you using them as sticks to beat each other. Either of you."

"I didn't know..." Jubilee said softly, her eyes on the can of soda in front of her. "It was just something to say after she made that crack about my... well." She broke off, blushing and wishing she could sink into the floor. She did not want to discuss the status of her sexual experience with a teacher. "Look, we may not get along but if I'd known about anything like that, I wouldn't have said it. Don't really care whether you believe me on that or not but I ain't that much of a bitch."

"Good. So long as that's clear, and I'm glad to hear that you're not planning to pick any more fights" Pete didn't look up from the vegetables he was chopping. "That's the impartial teacher crap sorted out. This next bit's personal. Amanda's family to me. I don't have a lot of family, and I get really shirty when people fuck with them." He looked up, ice-blue eyes fixed on her, the rhthym of the knife never faltering. "Don't fuck with my family, Jubilee."

For Jubilee, that was enough. She didn't care who he was, or whether he could probably kill her in a number of nasty ways if he so wanted. She didn't like being threatened, and she'd never allowed anyone to intimidate her, not since she was twelve and had realised she could fight back. "Dude, whatever it is that Amanda and I have against each other. That's like, our business. It's nice that she's got someone that thinks of her as family, people need that. I'll tell ya somethin' though, you may be an adult and you may be a teacher. Heck, you may even be someone that can like, kill me a dozen different ways before I even move a muscle. But you like, don't ever get to threaten me. Not in a subtle way, and not in an outward one. Thought I'd tell ya that, since we're bein' all honest and shit."

One side of Pete's mouth quirked briefly, in what might have been a supressed smile, as he chucked the chopped vegetables in a bowl, before continuing in exactly the same tone. "Wasn't a threat, and I'm sorry you thought it was. Like you said, I'm a teacher. Wouldn't do for me to go threatening the students. I'm trying to make sure that there aren't any misunderstandings, here. Didn't think it was fair to pretend that I'm always going to be so fair and even-handed when the two of you kick-off." He turned and opened a cupboard, looking for salad dressing.

Jubilee eyed him, somewhat unconvinced by his words. Still, she didn't exactly know Pete and perhaps he really hadn't meant to sound so threatening. 'And my Grandmother is really the Queen of England,' she thought to herself. A real, honest-to-God truth then, nothing hidden at all? It was a somewhat unusual thing for her, adults weren't exactly square with her, 'least none except the teachers around here. It still freaked her out sometimes that they were willing to treat her like an adult, even when she wasn't sure what the hell being one meant. "Okay...I can dig that. We done here? Cause like, I'm totally finished my soda and as much as I could lie and say this has been a barrel of laughs, it ain't been."

Pete turned back to his salad, adding dressing, and starting to toss it. "Yeah, we're done. Just remember what I said about that line."

Jubilee paused for a moment by the door, thinking about what he'd said. For a moment, she looked like she was about to say something but stopped, looked at him for a moment more, and then continued on.