fandomhigh | Outdoor Adventures Time! Tuesday, period 1

Outdoor Adventures Time! Tuesday, period 1

[Week #6 - The High-wire Job]

Another Tuesday, another portal - this one to Virginia Beach, Virginia, and the Virginia Beach Adventure Park.

“I have been waiting all semester for this!” Parker was looking squeeful and other EE! words. “Ropes course! With ziplines and high wires and canopy walks!”

"The courses are rated on all different levels," Eliot said. "So those of us who aren't professionals when it comes to ropes and harnesses shouldn't have any trouble finding something fun to do, anyway." He didn't really anticipate any trouble with enthusiasm from this group. Honestly, he'd been feeling relatively extraneous all session. You know, when they weren't getting attacked by alots.

“You have to wear your protective gear. And listen to the safety presentation.” Parker snorted, then said under her breath, “My stuff is better.”

Eliot patted her reassuringly on the shoulder. "We know, darlin'. But your stuff ain't covered under the park's insurance."

“Just ask if you need help. Or ideas,” Parker added, grinning at them. “There aren’t any diamonds on this course, but you can’t have everything.”

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Maybe they weren't, but that wasn't going to stop Kathy from playing up in the very tops of the trees, running back and forth along the ropes and wires and flinging herself along the ziplines with abandon.

Eliot waited until the end of class, when Kathy would have to be coming back down out of the trees, then approached. "Hey. I got a favor to ask you."

"A favor?" Kathy asked, blinking up at him as if she might have misheard. "Of course! What do you need?"

Kathy, a smart person asked that before agreeing.

Okay, Eliot wasn't quite sure why that question got befuddlement out of her, but he was just going to roll with it. "My team an' I are going outta town next weekend. I was hopin' you could keep an eye on Val for me."

Kathy still wasn't used to people she respected wanting to ask her for favors! Shh!

Besides, that confusion quickly turned into a rush of warmth and appreciation. "Watch Val for you?" she asked, clasping her hands over her chest. A puppy! Kathy'd never had a pet before, not even goldfish. If she wasn't so conscientious, Eliot would end up coming home to find Val had gained 10 pounds over the weekend. "I'd love to!"

If that happened, Eliot would find a way to blame Hardison.

"Great," he said with a smile. "She's pretty easy goin', so she shouldn't be much trouble. She just needs someone to feed and walk her." And pet her and play with her and comfort her when she statted barking at nothing in the middle of the night. . . . Eliot would make a list.

Kathy would be so grateful for that list, too. Because what if she did something wrong?! Or missed something she should have done!

"I'm sure she'll be no problem at all," Kathy agreed. "We'll have a great time while you're gone. She'll get to explore a whole new building!"

Instead of gaining weight, Kathy would just be sending her home with a a hundred dollars worth of new toys and equipment. Because clearly Eliot hadn't sent enough. She'd needed that new chew toy! Needed it!

"Job this weekend?" she asked.

"Actually, we're goin' to the CMAs." Eliot still couldn't entirely believe Hardison had got him tickets to an event he had zero interest in himself. "An honest to god vacation. Which . . . probably means we'll run into one down there or somethin'."

Let's be real, now.

If Eliot wasn't reading that as the declaration of love it was, there was literally no hope for him ~~because I sure as hell wouldn't go for anyone~~

"Wait, really?" Kathy asked, then whistled. "That's one heck of a vacation. Did you get to pick this one?"

Call it a hunch, but neither Mr. Hardison nor Parker seemed the type.

"...Does that mean I get to ask you for Miranda Lambert's autograph?"

Eliot smiled at Kathy's reaction. "I'll see what I can do," he promised her. "And I'll leave you some money for the dog-sitting, too." Far, far more than just about any other teenage dog-sitter had ever earned. Kathy would probably want to give it back to him. "And yeah, sorta. He was braggin' about going to the Oscars and I told him I wouldn't be impressed till he got us tickets to the CMAs and -- he did."

He'd even bought them. Eliot didn't miss the subtext of this one, no. He just wasn't entirely convinced he deserved it.

Or, rather, he was entirely convinced he didn't.

If pressed, Hardison would declare that his actions had stemmed entirely from the challenge of getting tickets to a sold-out event and to show Eliot up. But only because Eliot was stupid about things like emotions and that whole 'I'm not worth your love' nonsense.

"Oh, you don't have to do that!" Kathy protested, because why wait to get the money before arguing it was too much? "I don't mind looking after Val while you guys have a nice weekend together."

Yeah, she shipped them. OT3, baby. This whole thing was adorable.

"Pretty sure payment's traditional," Eliot said. "'Sides, that way if somethin' comes up, you won't have to worry about spendin' your own."

He was deliberately very vague about what that 'something' might be. A new pair of boots, maybe. Or, since this was Kathy, an expensive text book.

WHY WERE THEY SO EXPENSIVE? WHY? IT WASN'T EVEN FAIR! DID THE INDUSTRY CARE NOTHING ABOUT STUDENTS AND THEIR LEARNING?!

Though, knowing Kathy, it would probably go right to improving her Banzai gear. Because priorities.

"Well, yes," she conceded, because he was raising good points, "but it's not necessary. I don't mind watching Val. It really is no trouble."

...Or maybe go to her Future Tattoo fund...

THEY CARED PLENTY! JUST ONLY ABOUT THE RICH STUDENTS' LEARNING.

"Your enthusiasm is noted," Eliot assured her. "You can consider it practice for when you grow up and start totally supportin' yourself. I think the etiquette is protest once and then graciously accept."

"I can be gracious," Kathy said, giving him a small smile. "Just--I don't need paid to do favors is all."

She'd nearly said 'friends don't need', but backed off at the last minute. He was an adult and her teacher, after all.

"...Unless that autograph opportunity comes up. Then all bets are off."

"I'll even rope Hardison into makin' it happen," Eliot said. "I think you're the first person I've talked to on the island who can even name a country singer. Especially without rollin' your eyes at the same time."

"I like all kinds of music," Kathy said, brushing her hair behind her ear. "It was--kinda a thing for me for awhile. I wanted to listen to all types of music because it was a way to...I don't know, appreciate all different walks of life, maybe? It started with my mom complaining about the reggaeton we could hear from our apartment, cause Koreatown has a huge Hispanic population. She complained about it--" in racist terms, not that Kathy was going to point that out "--but I really liked the beat. Then I realized that all that gangsta rap everyone was up in arms about got its start not twenty miles from where I was living, so I started listening to that, too."

Very, very quietly.

"And it kind of grew from there, you know? So while I'm not a huge country fan, there's at least a little I like. I guess I'm a music dabbler?"

Eliot smiled and shook his head. "You're just out to see and hear it all, huh?"

"Is there a better way to do it?" Kathy asked, eyes sparkling. "It's why I like learning languages, too. I want to be able to communicate with everyone, you know? Relate to them, even if it's only through some music we both know."

"Music's a better way of goin' about it than what I did." Fighting wars in as many countries as possible was not really the best way to "see the world."

"Who knows?" Kathy said, deliberately ignoring what little she remembered of the dark future Fandom had shown her. "Maybe after undergrad, I'll give my parents heart attacks and go backpacking around Europe and Asia for a little while. See more of the world besides LA and Samjicheon. That's the village my grandparents live in," she explained.

"That sounds like a damn fine plan to me," Eliot said. "And don't forget Africa and South America. I know the news makes 'em sound pretty scary a lot of times, but some of the most gorgeous places I've seen were well south of the equator."

"Those will have to wait until I finish at least the first half of grad school," Kathy said. "Well...maybe South America and Asia? I speak fluent Spanish, and read enough Chinese to maybe get by. I was thinking Europe, because I speak Spanish and Italian, but I can go to more places in South America on the languages I speak. And Portuguese is close enough, right?"

"Very close," Eliot said. "If you've got Spanish and Italian, you'll pick up Portuguese in no time."

"Well," Kathy amended, not wanting to claim ability she didn't have, "I'm still learning Italian, I can't really say I speak it all that well. I just started studying it last year. But knowing Spanish is giving me a boost. It's like how I can muddle my way through reading Chinese because I know hanja."

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