stbethadettes | (no subject)

(no subject)

Hands in her pockets, Beth whistles a tune while approaching the door to Todd's room.

She withdraws one of her hands and gives the door a firm knock. She hopes she isn't about to catch him off guard again.

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"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.

She raises her eyebrows and laughs. He does sort of have a point, she thinks. Sort of.

If Todd weren't about sixteen or seventeen and if she didn't remember the picture she saw of his mother, she would be completely open about everything.

But he is and she does. So she scratches her nose in a spot under the scar and gives a vague answer. Vague, but honest.

"I don't consider it all as bad now as I did then, but I was just a bad Catholic." She grins, knowing he won't be content with that. "You familiar with Catholicism?"

"A little," Todd admits. "Some of my friends have been Catholic, but I was raised Methodist, so you'll have to enlighten me."

"Oh, you're Methodist?" She looks interested.

"Are you really religious? Or are you just doing what's expected?"

Todd half-shrugs. The wording of that is uncomfortable to him, so he dances his way around it.

"Oh, my folks...don't really go much anymore. We went more when I was a kid." He smiles, dimples and all, to make up for it. "But how were you a bad Catholic?"

She either doesn't know that he's dancing around the answer or she just doesn't mind.

"I didn't approve or believe in much of what I was taught. I questioned a lot back at the school." She shrugs. "I also broke rules, smoked in the bathroom, had premarital sex, skipped classes and confessions, and threw in some sinning just for fun."

Todd laughs, surprised. "Gosh, Beth. You were a regular bad girl, huh?" He half-winks, and one wonders how they might've gotten along were they in the same school...

She smiles a little.

"Oh, don't let all that fool you. I may have been a bad Catholic schoolgirl, but I was a very good student. Good grades, pretty perceptive, usually polite. I just have a mind of my own."

"Oh, well, that's good," Todd grins. In fact, that's much better. "It's important to keep your grades up." This last part he says almost automatically. He is on partial automaton mode tonight.

Also acting automatically, she reaches over to tousle his hair. "It is important to keep your grades up, golden boy. But I bet you hear that from everyone."

She rises to her feet. "I should go on my walk while I still feel like it. Will you be able to get the pictures to me later?"

"Sure thing, Sure Shot." Again, automatic. And he stands up too, as usual, so he can walk her to the door. "It'll be a snap." He winks at his own bad joke.

She wrinkles her forehead in disapproval of the pun, but still grins.

"I'll see you around then, Todd," she says as she opens the door and steps out. "Don't get into too much trouble."

"I won't, Mom." He says it as a joke, but the word kinda...hangs in the air for a moment. Then he waves and grins again. "Take care of yourself, Beth. Say hi to Spike."

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