fandomhigh | Valentine's Day Dance. The Gym. 8.30 pm

"Personally I think they should've been banned under the Geneva Conventions, but that's just me."

He grinned. "But that would just open up a whole can of worms for the disco we inflicted on the world back in the 70s and soon we'd all be dragged up the Hague and chaos would reign."

"Oh, yes, by all means, let's not be held accountable for Disco. Gah." She shuddered. "I still rem...er, I used to hear stories about roller skating rinks and flashing colored lights."

"It was a terrible, terrible time," Josh said. "I blame it on the Republicans."

"And what do the Republicans blame it on?"

"I'm hoping incredibly powerful narcotics, but I've never asked any of them," Josh replied.

"Seriously, how does anything ever get done?"

Josh ran a hand through his hair. "I'm going with luck, personally. And never underestimate the power of vindictiveness. Ram through a bill just to piss off some Congressman who hit on your wife at a Christmas party back in 1984..."

"Your wife got hit on at a Christmas party in 1984?" Sam was confused. "I didn't know you were married."

"Oh, not me," Josh said, shaking his head. "That was the the chairman of the House Commerce Committee a few years back." He grinned. "You'd also be surprised how long some offices can hold grudges about staffer softball games and accidentally forget to include your line items in a final version of a bill."

"Wow, that's petty." She smiled back. "How competitive are those games, anyway?" The ones at the SGC had been pretty bad--until it was decided that the winning team from the prior game had to take Daniel during the next one.

"Well it depends," Josh said. "if you're in the 'you knocked over my beer' league, the 'beer and softball are equally important' league or the 'we recruit our interns based on how well they play baseball' league." He winked. "There's a rumor that the real reason the FBI and the CIA don't get along dates back to a blown call at a softball game twenty years ago."

"And you? Do you play softball?" Sam got an idea, but decided to run it by someone on Student Council first. "See, and I thought it was all the spying on each other that did it. You should write a book."

"I've been known to play," Josh said, grinning. "And maybe some day I will. It's what White House staffers do, right? Set up consulting firms and write tell-alls?"

"Really? Any good at it?" She grinned back and brushed some hair behind her ear. "And run for office. Teaching high school, not so much."

"Well, I'm not going to be picked up by the Mets any time soon, but I do know that smacking a softball off of the Washington Monument is considered a ground rule double and not, you know, desecrating a national monument." Josh grinned. "And I have no interest in running for office. I like having a little more power than that."

"A ground rule double?" Sam made a face. "Although, really, if you're going to smack a monument with a softball, that's the one to pick. No broken windows."

"I suppose next you're going to tell me it's an automatic foul if it goes into the reflecting pool?"

She started laughing. "And you feel like you have power here?"

"That's why we play on the Mall," Josh said, smiling. "And have interns to go wade through the reflecting pool for that ball because, seriously. That water is nasty."

Josh raised an eyebrow. "Who says that being the advisor for the strangest Student Council in the history of ever isn't enough power? Besides, I came here to learn to relax. I'm just not, you know, that good at it yet."

"I have some friends who have done entire ~~theses~~ papers on the composition of that water." She grinned. "Er, tongue in cheek of course. Still? Good choice on using the interns for that. I don't want to say flesh-eating bacteria, but I wouldn't be surprised if it noshed a little here and there."

"What do you like to do to relax?"

"I wouldn't be suprised to find out that there were man-eating ducks coming from that water," Josh said.

He thought about her question. "You know? I have no idea. I haven't had spare time in about fifteen years."

"No, those are from the water in the park here, I think," Sam replied automatically.

"Fifteen years? Wow, long time." Not that she was one to talk. "What about something that sounds interesting? I do physics equations in my spare time, but I'm told it's not really for everybody."

Josh blinked. "Huh. Okay."

He raised an eyebrow. "Think I'll skip out on the physics equations," he said, "and I can probably stop handicapping who'll be the next chairman of Senate Finance, huh?"

"Long story." She shrugged.

"You handicap the next chairman of Senate Finance? What kind of odds do you give? And yeah, probably." She tried to think of things other people did as hobbies. "You could always throw things at the newscasters on television. That's entertaining."

"It all depends on if it's a Republican or Democratic Senate next session, of course, and who decides to retire, and..." Josh cut himself off. "I'm rambling. No one is interested in this. I'm quite the fan of throwing things at the television. It was the only way I could get through the State of the Union this year without accidentally breaking my roommate's TV."

She grinned. "I don't mind the rambling. At least you're enthusiastic about something, which is more than I can say about a lot of people."

"Just don't use shoes," she said, experience talking here, "and seriously, on the State of the Union. I mean, he was kidding about the animal-human hybrid thing, right? Maybe his speechwriters sent him out with the gag speech?"

"I really hope so, about the animal-human hybrid," Josh said. "I mean, there were certain phrases Sam used to toss into early drafts just to watch Leo's blood pressure rise, but we'd never send the President out in front of the public to make an idiot of himself." He grinned. "Not that this guy needs the help, of course."

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman

Re: Chaperones - Professor Lyman