Xaviers!

"Huh. I never considered going into teaching." Victor leaned back more on the bench. "But then again, it's only early yet."

"I honestly don't think it was his intention to go into teaching either. He was miserable."

"Now that sounds about right." He looked over at Emilie. "Is this kinda talk opening old wounds for you?"

"No." She replied, sounding earnest enough.

"Besides, trying to avoid asking questions won't help you understand me."

"Oh, alright.

"So if he hated the job, why'd he do it?"

"He wasn't sure what else to do with himself." She took a puff, then continued.

"He and Melchior had spent considerable time training to be professors for the Institute, but near the finish-line, an economic downturn caused the institute's funding to dry up.

Melchior went home to teach law, and Freud followed. They were platonic room mates."

"Not always a happy ending, huh." Victor leaned back on the park bench, just staring out at the horizon. "Can't win 'em all."

"If I'm honest with you, Freuds are rarely happy people at the point I get placed into their lives.

You are something of a rarity."

"What, most aren't as good of actors as me?"

"Maybe. You'd have to tell me. I'm not psychic."

"A redhead who attends Xaviers but isn't psychic... you really are from another dimension."

"No, they're usually that way in other dimensions too. I'm just special." She remarked of herself.

"You'll get no arguments from me."

"I'm not a bad person for not wanting to go home for the summer, am I?"

"No.

But now that you ask, I have to ask why you're asking. It's customary. "

"I dunno, it feels like I'm being a jerk by not wanting to be around my family right now."

"I'll have to know your reason for avoiding them to really decided whether or not your behavior is justified."

"True 'nuff. It's not everyone either, or anything anyone did or said, I just...

"You ever heard of Department H?"

"Yes." She replied.

"Yeah, well, someone got a scholarship to a private school in Toronto. Where they can study science and dance. Weird combo but it's the 21st century.

"Except that it's not actually a scholarship, you dig?"

"Someone being... Ronnie?"

"Bingo."

"...

You don't want to go back and deal with her gloating... or worse, your parents comparing you two."

"No, no..." Victor shook his, leaning forward and resting more on his hands. "Ronnie's not like that, at least not on purpose. She'd be super excited to tell me everything she's doing because she knows I've been doing similar stuff. And mom & dad're not those kinda people, they don't really compare us to each other. Daniel became a mechanic, Jeremy went to agricultural college because the farm life is what he enjoys, especially now that dad's just as eager to try new things as he is. And Lily... I'm pretty sure she wants to be a unicorn princess." He managed to smile at that.

"But, like, they're all doing their own things. And when a sibling is doing your thing, but better? Even if no one else compares us, I'll be doing it. And I don't wanna get all bitter toward my sister, I love her too much."

Emilie sat in her cloud if vapor, listening quietly as Victor explained his situation. She sat I silent consideration behind her shades, like some gothic, pierced wise woman.

When she spoke, it was deliberate.

"No, you are not a bad person.

Just a young one who hasn't yet figured out how to handle certain situations, so you're being abundantly cautious."

"It's still really weird every time you call me young, since you look, like, my-age. This is like one of those animes Jeremy is into."

"Too bad you're not guaranteed to get laid like in the ones Jeremy hides from your parents in incognito mode on his cell phone." She joked back.

"I guess you're too tame by those standards, you're not a vampire that lives in my shadow or an ancient dragon that's also a maid." Yeah, that's a word that could describe Em, tame.

"Tame, or real?"

"Not so sure about the latter yet." Victor quipped.

"What else you got for me besides goats big guy?" She asked.

"Are you hungry? There's a bunch of different restaurants that're just a short walk away. Proper sit down ones too, not just take-aways. And then, maybe, if you're good... there's a minigolf course."

"I'm rarely good.

Let's go."

Victor pushed himself up off of the bench and put his hands back in his coat pocket, walking along the shoreline in a somewhat north-westerly direction, back toward the more developed part of the city that housed more of the restaurants.

"What're you feelin'?"

"I'm not particular. Free food is best food."

After a few minutes the pair came across one of the first restaurants, a very tiny place that boasted 4 4-tops and a selection of fried fish & chips. Victor glanced at the menu taped to the inside of the window before looking back at Emilie.

"D'ya like fish? Looks like they've got burgers and kebabs too. I mean, it ain't fancy but..." He looked down at himself picking one of the pieces of straw off of his coat. "... I dunno if a white tablecloth place is gonna wanna seat us. We smell like goat."

"I like fish well enough." She responded, seemingly admiring the ones in the pictures on the counter meant for decorative purposes from afar. "And Kebabs are good too."

"Alright, well you decide what you want, and I'll get something different, and you can try mine too if ya want."

"Maybe I'll just eat all of yours and all of mine and then you'll be sad and hungry."

"Were you gonna put it all? You'se just a little baby."

"That's what you think. I bet I could clean this place out."