self_composed | high school is kind of boring really

high school is kind of boring really

School plods along. Bella is native-quality fluent in Spanish, professor-level at math, well and thoroughly versed in the workings of the United States government, capable of doing actual independent research projects in biology, and she's been speaking English since she was one. Alas, these skills only make classes easier for a short time. After the novelty wears off they're just tedious. Bella winds up squaring her homework done more often than not so she can work out the kinks in her design for telekinesis, or play music, or attend soccer practice, or write little computer games, or read, or just fly around. This works out fine. Magic is pretty good at homework.

She winds up not attending most of the dances, but she does want to go to the end of year one, as she will be leaving Forks High School forever and it has some good points. Alice promised her a dress...

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In due course: pie!

Nom.

Piiiie.

Alice enjoys the pie very much. It is excellent pie.

"So did you enjoy Europe, too?" Charlie asks Alice, slowly.

"Yep!" says Alice. "It was fun!"

"Hah," says Hilary.

"You were in Europe?" says Judith.

Alice laughs.

"Got off my plane, and there he was," Bella says.

Technically true.

"I can't decide whether that's adorable or creepy," says Hilary.

"I think that's Bella's call," Alice says cheerfully.

"I was happy to see him," Bella says contently.

Alice beams.

Hilary looks between them.

"Adorable it is," she concludes, and glances at Charlie for his take.

Charlie's expression is neutral, and he's mostly looking at Alice, occasionally flicking his eyes over to Bella. He doesn't say anything.

"Do I taste nutmeg?" Bella asks.

"You do!" Hilary confirms.

After pie has been consumed, Charlie wishes to go put in a half-day at work. On his way out, he catches Alice's eye. Too quietly for anyone else to hear, he says, "As long as Bella's happy, so'm I. You make her unhappy, and you will be too. Clear?"

"Yep," says Alice. And does not point out that Bella being unhappy is itself worse than any threat Charlie could possibly make, except maybe breaking his dad out of prison.

"Right now I bet you care a lot about keeping Bella happy. But you're eighteen, and you might stop even if it seems like you never could. I'm her father, and I'm not going to," Charlie says.

And with that he leaves to catch up with his daughter and drive her home.

Well, that just happened.

He doesn't really get it. Well, he gets that Charlie is threatening him to protect someone he cares about, and he gets that Charlie would be particularly inclined to give advice about falling out of love; what he doesn't get is what he is supposed to do if he ever, somehow, inconceivably, stops loving Bella. He cannot plan for that. He has no idea how or why he ever would. But he is pretty sure, regardless, that Charlie Swan's vague threats would continue to mean nothing to him.

[He doesn't know that you have magic powers - or at least has no details,] Bella says. [The fact that he can't really do anything to you isn't something that occurred to him. I think what you're supposed to do if you fall out of love with me - according to him - is let me down easy.]

[Yeah, I wouldn't really care if I didn't have magic powers, either,] says Alice. [What's he gonna do, shoot me?] Which Charlie probably wouldn't do, and which Alice does not find to be a motivating factor even if he would. [Bust my dad out of prison?] That, he'd care about, but he still doesn't think Charlie would do it. [Anyway, it's not gonna happen, and if it does you'll have way bigger problems than my feelings.]

Problems like rains of jelly beans and things being on fire that probably shouldn't.

[No, he wouldn't shoot you. More like watch you and be sure to catch you if you do something illegal. I know you don't drive, at the moment, but if a cop wants to pull a driver over, they have to follow the average person for two minutes before a genuine traffic violation will appear. There are probably similar things in other domains. He might look into the prostitution accustaion,] she adds thoughtfully. [If he were really pissed off.]

Pause.

[I'm not going to tell you my plan for what happens if you go rogue.]

[Why not?] he asks cheerfully.

Bella is smart. She probably has a better plan than he himself could come up with. Also, she can read his mind, and will continue to be able to read his mind even if he stops wanting her to.

But anything he can think of that she might use to stop him from wrecking things - wishing herself a pain power and hurting him until he sits down; killing him outright - are things that he thinks it would be fun to talk about, and wouldn't defend against, unless he fell out of love with pain when he fell out of love with Bella. And he has been in love with pain for much, much longer. He has no idea what could possibly make him stop loving Bella, but he admits it could happen; he could not stop loving pain and stay himself in any meaningful way. It is a fundamental part of his life in a way that very few things are.

['Cause you haven't thought of it, you wouldn't like it, and while me telling you about it might either make you fall in love with me all over again or hate me forever, the first outcome is sufficiently redundant and the latter sufficiently inconvenient that I'd rather avoid the discussion. I did think of both options you did, but I don't know how easy you'd be to actually incapacitate with the first thing - or how long I'd have to keep it up, for that matter - and if there's any chance you could be un-rogued I'd rather avoid the second thing. Death: Not a fan. News at eleven.]

Pause.

[How easy you are to incapacitate with a pain power might afford... testing,] she tosses out.

...Alice really, really likes that idea.

Also, if she thinks telling him her plan will either make him fall in love with her all over again or hate her forever, he thinks it will definitely be the first one. But he doesn't expect that to change her mind, so he won't bug her about it, or dwell on it any longer.

[You really wouldn't like it. Whether you're enough of a Möbius strip of twistedness to like it because you don't like it the way you are about many other things, I am unsure,] she muses.

[Are you going to make a new lair near Stanford or just a door to your current one?]

...What the hell is she planning to do? No, not dwelling, not dwelling. Although 'Möbius strip of twistedness' is a beautiful phrase for which he definitely loves her some more.

[Dunno,] he says, and considers the question. [Depends if I find a really good place to put a lair that's close enough to wherever you'll be. It's probably way easier to stick a magic door somewhere.]

And by the way, just how hypothetical was that offhand reference to testing out incapacitating him with a pain power? Because he is all for that. Anytime she wants. Yes please.

[Just wondering about how challenging it would be to slip off to your lair once I'm at school. Probably best to conduct the test this week, though. Charlie's still working most of the days I'm home. Tomorrow morning?] she suggests.

Pause.

And then because he has such entertaining reactions: [Gosh, I wonder if a hex-made Cruciatus Curse power will even come with a ceiling, if I don't install one on purpose. I think maybe I won't.]

It turns out that it is possible to transmit incoherent vocal sounds over brainphone! This one goes something like: [Mllrrrrrrrrgh.]

Yes. Tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning is good.

Also, he is heading upstairs right now to go take a shower, and if Bella doesn't want to witness the aftermath of her obvious and very successful attempt to gratuitously turn him on, she might want to quit reading him before he gets there. Or not. Her call.

Hmmmm. She decides she may as well go on reading him.

'Cause why not?

Charlie drops her off and goes to work for his afternoon of paper-pushing.

Bella lounges on the sofa.

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