Scott and Angelo, Thursday morning

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Angelo's turn for a driving lesson. Much less conversation this time.



Time for a driving lesson, and Angelo was looking forward to it. He badly wanted to get his license - driving legally would be a good thing. Getting into the car and buckling up, he waited for Scott to get into the passenger seat.

Scott was seriously wondering if he had cracked. He both could have and probably should have passed Angelo's scheduled lesson off to someone else. Angelo was a nice kid. Easy to get along with (most of the time). It wasn't like Manuel, whose lesson he'd taken just because he didn't want to have to make anyone else do it.

Yet here he was. He got in, doing up his seatbelt without looking at Angelo, and then gestured at the open garage door. "Whenever you're ready," he muttered.

Angelo grinned and started the car. He could drive, he knew he could. Just had to prove it. He started driving carefully out of the garage.

Oh, this was better than Manuel already. "Let's head for town," Scott suggested. "We can stop and get some lunch if you want." He wanted to see how Angelo handled a little more traffic.

Angelo grinned, turning the car in the right direction. "Sounds good." Unlike Manuel, he couldn't put traffic cops off at will, so he wouldn't be doing anything stupid.

Sticking to the speed limit, staying on his own side of the road... so far, so good. "Try not to bounce in the seat," Scott said dryly. "Excess enthusiasm makes me nervous."

Angelo laughed. "Sorry. Just wanna get my license soon as I can."

"Mmm. You have plans for it?"

He shrugged. "Not particularly. Just now, if I want t'go into town on short notice, I have to get Clarice to take me. Be good to have my own way."

Scott smiled humorlessly. "Make the mansion feel less like a prison, huh?"

Angelo blinked at him for a moment, before returning his attention sharply to the road. "I don't think it does. Like I said, I can go out whenever I want now, I just don't wanna depend on Clarice too much."

"Right. Sorry. Watch the road, Angelo." Scott leaned back in the seat, trying to find something approaching a more sociable demeanor. "You've been doing well in the lessons. I can't imagine you'll have trouble with your road test."

Angelo grinned. "Thanks!" He chose not to mention the part where he'd been driving for years. Discretion, and all.

Scott didn't respond to that. He stared at the road ahead of them, part of him still registering all the little details of how Angelo was driving, making mental notes and coming up with suggestions for when they got wherever they were going, but most of his mind was elsewhere. Or nowhere in particular, to be more precise.

After the silence drew out to a certain extent, Angelo got vaguely uncomfortable, and came up with a conversation topic. "So did you have anywhere in mind for lunch?"

Scott shrugged. "Anywhere you like," he said. "My treat. I'm not all that hungry myself, so just pick whatever you'd prefer."

Angelo nodded. "Okay - I'll choose when we get there, then." That topic having been a non-starter, he tried to think of something else...

"Watch your turns," Scott advised as they turned onto the road heading for town. "They're a little wide."

Angelo nodded, making a note of it. Finding something else to talk about, he asked lightly, "So you an' Alex are off to Hawaii?"

"Sunday," Scott said. He hadn't thought much about it, had just let Charles make the necessary arrangments, since it was an academic matter and that was his sphere of responsibility. "Alex is looking forward to it." He'd have to ask Haroun to cover his engineering class. Hadn't made those arrangments yet.

Angelo nodded, grinning. "Yeah, I know he misses Hawaii. 's good he's gettin' to go back."

"He'll get a look at the college he's applying to, which'll help him decide if he really wants to go there," Scott said. "I imagine he'll probably love it at first sight."

"Sounds good", Angelo answered with a smile. "I guess you'll miss him if he goes, though?"

"Yeah," Scott said briefly. "I will. But he'll probably be happier away from the mansion. Someplace a little more settled, with fewer crises..."

"An' he can come back pretty much whenever he wants, I figure."

"I imagine he'll come back for visits. There are people he won't want to lose touch with."

Angelo nodded, realizing they were about to enter the city. "Yeah - I know I couldn't leave the place altogether."

"Why?"

"Too many ties, now. There's Paige, of course, but not just her."

"Ah," Scott said, and paid closer attention to how Angelo was driving, now that they were almost in town.

Angelo was being deliberately careful - he'd read the rulebook, back at the school, and was doing his best to stick to it. Concentrating, he let the silence continue a little longer.