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[stbethadettes]

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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[stbethadettes]

"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.

[toddbaby.livejournal.com]

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

[stbethadettes]

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.

[toddbaby.livejournal.com]

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

[stbethadettes]

Her eyes brighten.

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

[toddbaby.livejournal.com]

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

[stbethadettes]

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."

[toddbaby.livejournal.com]

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

[stbethadettes]

"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.

[toddbaby.livejournal.com]

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

[stbethadettes]

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

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

[toddbaby.livejournal.com]

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

[stbethadettes]

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

[toddbaby.livejournal.com]

"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...

[stbethadettes]

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."

[toddbaby.livejournal.com]

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?"

[stbethadettes]

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."

[toddbaby.livejournal.com]

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

[stbethadettes]

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?"

[toddbaby.livejournal.com]

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

[stbethadettes]

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

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

[toddbaby.livejournal.com]

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?"

[stbethadettes]

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."

[toddbaby.livejournal.com]

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...

[stbethadettes]

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."