Xaviers!

"Hmmmmm..." Basil tilted his head thoughtfully, but kept his eyes on the road.

"Gentle, southern people. The sort of God fearing, mama loving folk who marry their high school sweethearts in the church they grew up in and lay out under the night sky to count the stars in the bed of Jimmy's pick up."

He spoke in an accent not his own that was actually pretty convincing, but not at all in line with the narrative he was painting. Basil's southern accent was much more attuned to sipping mint juleps on a muggy porch in the Louisiana heat than it was to hunting bucks and barn dances.

Haley looked over at him, impressed at the accent even though it most certainly wasn't Texas. "Maybe my Gram. She still lives out in the country. I'm more city girl than anything. Austin isn't much like the rest of Texas. Big college town.

"Yeeeaaaaaa... I don't know what that one sounds like." Basil joked, getting serious.

"Ahhh, so it's Texas Oxford."

“Does Oxford have a shitload of food trucks, a big bridge with a lot of bats under it, tons of live music, and the finest college football in the land?” She boasted. “Oxford *might* be the UT of the UK.”

Basil laughed. "I doubt it. Oxford is one of two prestigious schools in the UK referred to together as 'Oxbridgre'. They're roughly akin to your Ivy League in terms of 'hoighty toighty'.

It has been around for centuries and the city has developed a wonderful nightlife atmosphere around it, meant to cater to the students. That means lots of food trucks as well as actual restaurants and clubs.

No bats that I'm aware of, and while I'm sure they have a football club I wouldn't know their record. But I doubt it's fantastic as the majority of students are there for the philosophy, literature, and language classes."

Basil smirked. "And until my parents yanked me out I was on the fast track to my undergraduate there, so I'll thank you not to 'drag her' as you Yanks say."

"Daddy works at UT. He's head of the chemical engineering department. I was gonna go there until... Well all of this."

She paused a beat. "Wait, fast track? Did you like. Graduate high school...or whatever it's called here early?"

"Not exactly.

It's difficult to explain to Americans, but secondary or 'high school' stops at year 11, or the tenth grade as your folk call it. You've effectively graduated secondary once you pass your GCSEs, a sort of exam.

The kicker is you have to stay in school in some form until you are 18.

Once I passed my GCSEs, I did all my sixth form in a year through home study so I could start Uni at 17.

This is my last year. "

“What? Bullshit. You’re not allowed to leave when I have at least three more years here.” she pouted.

"What would you have me do Princess? Get a Master's in Library Sciences and Information? Get the current Librarian fired? Become an X-Man?"

“All sound feasible. The librarian is a bitch.”

"She doesn't mean to be, she's old and she's not used to all these kids ruining her library. And she's normal, so she isn't used to dealing with all these... special powers."

“Job hazard. Time for her to retire and cute, sassy invisible man to step in.”

"Retire after a year? What a pensioners dream." He joked.

"I doubt anyone would want to take orders from a 20 year old."

“Not the librarian: the haunted library,” she smirked

"So I'm just supposed to give her a heart attack and usurp her."

“No! She’s supposed to retire and then no one will fill the position—her ghost will. But her ghost will be you. It’s super easy, c’mon,” she laughed.

Basil started laughing.

"I'm going to have to start rummaging through Headmistresses mail to keep the seaside postcards out. That would be a strange occurrence to be happening from beyond the grave.

Not to mention she doesn't strike me as the type to believe in the spirit world."

Haley realized that her sentence made no sense and started giggling. “I’m so tired. That was barely even English.”

"Go to sleep Princess, if you want. I'll make sure you're home safe.

Mostly because I don't want a shotgun barrell shoved in my face."