stbethadettes | (no subject)

He, the star pitcher, catches it easily. Todd's eyes light up at the mention of a frisbee.

"You know, that's really a super idea, Beth. I think I'll do that." He nods as he moves over to join her, sitting upon the bed and cracking open his Coke.

"Great. You let me know when you bring it in." She opens her own Coke can and takes a sip.

"Tell me something, Todd. What is it like to go back to Santo Donato and face your parents and go to school while knowing this place exists?"

Todd's face goes almost stony blank. Here's another question that no one's asked before - at least, not so straightfowardly.

His nostrils flare a little. "It's...not really a big deal, Beth."

He can't tell her the truth. The truth is always a weapon. "...Why do you ask?"

She notes the change in his expression.

"I just think it would be weird, trying to go through the motions of everyday life and high school with the knowledge you have."

She shrugs slightly.

The knowledge that disappears when I'm there, you mean. Todd just smiles and shrugs a little. "Well. It's...no big deal. I seem to manage just fine when I'm there. I concentrate on the things I have to get done, and I do them. No biggie."

No biggie.

She looks at him blankly for a moment, uncertain of what to immediately make of that answer.

She ends up taking another drink of her Coke, feeling rather doubtful and saying nothing more about it.

"You're an only child, right?" It's just something that occurs to her. She doesn't remember him ever mentioning any siblings.

"That's right." Todd smiles and nods, privately relieved to have a change in subject. "How about yourself?"

"Yeah." She nods back at him, moving her Coke can in gentle circles and feeling the liquid swirl around inside.

"Adopted. I never really knew my biological father, though, so I guess it's not impossible to believe that I could have some half-brother or sister somewhere."

She catches herself. "Or had."

This place makes her talk about males in the present sense.

"You're adopted? Gee, Beth, I had no idea." Todd's voice is soft and sympathetic. "I'm sorry. That must've been rough."

She smiles at the show of sympathy.

"It wasn't so bad. It could've been much worse. I was adopted as a baby and my parents never tried to hide that from me."

In the mood to share and share alike, her smile turns into an almost impish grin. "Now tell me something I don't know about you, Todd."

She doesn't expect it to be anything major. Not at all. But she's making an effort to get to know him.

Todd taps his lower lip thoughtfully. Then he removes it and says, "Did you know I had a dog once?"

Her eyes brighten.

"You did? Me too. What kind? What was its name?"

"His name was Sunny. He was a Golden Retriever." Todd grins rather widely. "How about you?"

She blinks and then laughs. "Of course." The fact that Todd once had a Golden Retriever named Sunny is probably the least surprising thing she's ever been surprised to hear.

"My parents owned a Yorkshire Terrier when I was born. Her name was Molly." She grins again. "I know. It's a terrible name for a dog."

Todd giggles a little. "That's cool, though. What happened to her?"

"Her life ran its course, I guess. I was about 12 and had been at boarding school for just a week when I found out she died. I took it pretty hard at the time."

Beth doesn't get worked up about it right now, though. She had her chance to mourn over a decade ago and can't still be upset that Molly died after living a full life.

Todd looks sad, of course, and pats Beth's shoulder. "You went to boarding school?"

She kind of expected him to do that. She smiles at him over her Coke.

"Yeah. An all-girls Catholic boarding school."

Todd laughs a little. "Wow. That's pretty different from my schooling experience. What was it like?"

"An all-girls school can be simultaneously relaxing and awful," she admits. "But it certainly shaped me in a lot of different ways."

"What ways?" Todd's eyes briefly flicker over her. Well, he knows for a fact that it couldn't have shaped her in one way, because she's dating Spike, but still...one wonders...

She considers him for a few seconds.

"I went through the most rebellious stage of my life in a Catholic boarding school, surrounded by other girls. I did things I probably wouldn't have done in a co-ed, non-religious school environment."

She's just a little vague.

"It was also where I first started smoking, where I began to really question my religion. That kind of thing."

Todd looks at her evenly. There's a lot of questions he could ask. Tons.

But he just smiles (a little mischievously) and says - "What's the worst thing you ever did there?"

She gulps down the last of her Coke, not quite successfully hiding the amused grin on her face.

"I guess that depends on what you consider really bad, Todd."

"No, it's what you consider really bad." Todd nods to himself, grinning fiercely.