AU: New Kid Blues

[Joshua Bernstein]

Pilot Ridge was so different from the City. It was small, quiet, without the hustle and bustle he was used to. There was no subway, and even taxis required a phone call rather than stepping onto the corner. There wasn't a constant stream of events and parades or even important dignitaries gumming up the works by visiting.

And it was unnaturally quiet at night without honking cars and the whirring of traffic and other city noises.

Because it was the summer he still hadnt made any friends. He wanted to,of course; he didn't know what to do with himself without people his own age to spend time with. Talia was so much younger, and Matt was away at college, and he was bored. But since he hadn't been to any classes yet he hadn't met anyone. There were no other children his age in the neighborhood, at least not that he'd encountered.

Maybe they were all away for vacation.

His family hadn't taken a vacation in a few years. His dad had lost his job during the financial crisis of 2008 and although the Bernstein's had plenty of money saved up that buffer was carefully used for necessities. After all, if an emergency struck they would need that money.

He had hoped that they might go on vacation this year, since his dad had a job again. Not anything as high paying as his job on wall street had been, but a professorship at a community college wasn't terrible. But as they'd spent all summer moving vacation hadn't been feasible.

He had taken to wandering downtown, memorizing the shops and restaurants. It all seemed so quaint, so rural, and very lonely. Everything made him miss home.

He wanted to go back. At least he had friends there.

This was the mood he was in when he entered the movie theater.

He didn't really care about movies, but Talia had wanted to see something and his mother had asked if he wanted to come. He'd agrees, but then parted ways when Talia chose her movie. He could watch something by himself, he decided, carrying a bucket of popcorn down the aisle.

Or maybe not!

For the first time since moving he spotted someone who looked close to his own age, and he hurried toward the other boy.

"Hey, is anyone sitting here?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean Neville hadn’t gone on a vacation in several years, either, although his family went each summer. The Neville family had plenty of money, and thus plenty of opportunities to engage in luxuries, even with the Great Recession that was upon them. The Nevilles hadn’t been affected by that very much; most of their investments were outside of the housing bubble, Doctor Neville’s salary was paid irrespective of whether patients could pay the hospital, and society always needed experienced doctors.

Sean couldn’t go on vacations due to his school schedule, and because nobody trusted him to go too far from Hammel, even when school was in recess.

He didn’t do much that other people considered “fun.” This was, in no small part, due to the fact that the young telepath had no friends to do “fun” things with. Many of the students were afraid of his powers, and some of the others were a hot mess of hormones and violence, so the mild-mannered teenager did everything he could to stay out of their way.

One of the only things in which he took pleasure was watching movies. Sean loved movies. He had a small television in his dormitory room that his parents had given him, and it was perpetually tuned to TCM. His parents sent him pocket money, most of which he used on movie tickets and sweets.

More than that, he liked watching movies because, if he saw them in a group, everyone’s thoughts were focused on the screen. His telepathy wasn’t as problematic or noticeable if everyone had the same focus, and Sean craved that.

The movie theater was largely empty, since Pilot Ridge was small, it was the afternoon, and most people had better things to do than see “The Butler” on a gorgeous day. There were available seats elsewhere.

Thus, the question as to whether the seats around him were free came as a surprise. They were free, but so were most of the other seats around them.

More surprising was the fact that the person asking appeared to be a boy around his age. Nobody from Hammel, because Sean knew everyone, even if none of them interacted with him.

“It’s free,” the telepath said quietly. To make that point, he moved his drink to the other arm rest, to make more room.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"Thanks," Josh replied, gratefully plopping down into the seat beside the other boy. His newfound companion was very tall, he noticed, and handsome. Not that he would say that aloud, not unless he managed to make some friend he could talk about attractive men with. Vermont was supposed to be accepting about that sort of thing, but he still didn't want to let this be known here in a movie theater where the sole other customer was someone he'd never met.

Even if he did hope they could be friends.

Since the advertisements and admonishments to turn of cellular devices were still rolling he decided to introduce himself. After all, he didn't know the other's schedule; his parents might be very strict and expect him back promptly, with no idle time for conversation.

"I'm Josh!" He extended a hand, his mood somewhat improved by finding someone else his age. " are you local? My family just moved here and I haven't met anyone yet. I was starting to think only old people lived here."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Josh’s attempts to hide his thoughts were for naught, as Sean was a particularly gifted telepath. The faculty said “particularly gifted” because it was more polite and less alarming than reciting details about his range, scope, and potential. For himself, Sean didn’t know what to do with that information because, to his knowledge, nobody had ever thought he was handsome before. Certainly not other guys. His mother might say “You look handsome” when he dressed for Church, but that was a mother’s politeness and affection, nothing more.

Fortunately, Sean was good at ignoring what people thought. Or, at least not mentioning it aloud or reacting to it in any detectable way.

“I’m Sean,” the telepath introduced himself, taking the other boy’s hand because he had good manners.

“I go to school here,” Sean explained, which wasn’t the same as being local. However, it did make him a resident for most of the months of the year, which was close enough for the purpose of Josh’s question.

He didn’t gesture around them, but he added, “Most of the schools are on summer break, and the town isn’t very big. A lot of the people go away when they can.” There weren’t many points of interest in Pilot Ridge, and spending one’s entire summer there could bore one out of one’s skull. Which, Sean had to assume, had happened to the other boy.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"It's nice to meet you." Josh replied politely, blissfully unaware that Sean now knew that he thought he was attractive.

The wording Sean used to mention his schooling piqued Josh's interest. "Are you in college?"

Nobody said I go to school here unless school was the only reason they were there, which meant that Sean almost definitely wouldn't be attending the same school. That was a disappointment; the only person remotely close in age to himself, and they wouldn't even attend the same school. "My dad just got a job teaching at Greenview."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean didn’t care too much about the commercials or the coming attractions that played in the theater. His father had complained before about the ads, mentioning how, once upon a time, there had been no commercials in movie theaters. The telepath couldn’t remember that far back, although he was assured that he had been a child when the formatting changed.

At the question, Sean shook his head in the negative. “No.” He wasn’t old enough to go to college, not yet. He knew it was hard to tell, since he was tall, and he could pass as a freshman, if he wanted to. “I go to boarding school,” he explained.

The students weren’t supposed to talk about Hammel to people unaffiliated with the school in some fashion. Their school might be the worst-kept secret in Vermont, but it was still a secret.

He recognized the name Greenview as belonging to the local Community College. That would explain why Josh’s family had moved. Sean didn’t know everything (or even all that much) about academia, but he knew that professors had to move wherever they could find work. In this economy, it was all the more important to be flexible, especially if one had a family to support. “What does your dad teach?”

[Joshua Bernstein]

Hammel was, as it turned out, a terribly kept secret. At the mention of boarding school Josh's face lit up with fascinated admiration. "Do you go to the Institute on the hill?" He asked in hushed awe. He'd heard adults discuss it, including his own parents. It was supposed to be special, the sort of school one had to be fantastically smart and skilled to get into. His mother had looked into their requirements, because of course if there was a school for intelligent children in the area then she thought Talia and Josh ought to attend, but she'd been told they didn't qualify.

He wondered how smart this Sean was that he'd been able to get in.

He must be a genius.

It was only after several moments of intense staring that he realized a question had been asked of him. "Oh! Ahh...he teaches economics and finance."

Those were the subjects he was most familiar with, after all. Too bad he hadn't been able to impart his skills to his children.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean wasn’t surprised to hear that Josh knew about Hammel. He also saw no reason to hide the fact that he went there when asked directly. “Yes, I do,” he answered. However, he didn’t go into specifics, because the teachers discouraged them from doing so.

Additionally, he could hear in the other boy’s thoughts that Josh’s impression of Hammel was what the school pretended to be. An elite school for gifted children rather than a school harboring hundreds of meta-human children and teenagers. In one sense, it was flattering to hear the other boy’s thoughts drift immediately to academic aptitude and intelligence. In other sense, it was disconcerting, because it wasn’t accurate.

Sean wasn’t a genius. He was smart, and although modest, he knew that he was smart. But he wasn’t a genius. Not like the Hammel librarian, who was a real genius and was the smartest person that Sean had ever met.

He wasn’t a genius. He had no artistic ability. His singing voice was dreadful, his ability to play the piano was competent at best, he couldn’t write music, and he could play no other instruments. He wasn’t a Chess Master. He had invented nothing and had no plans to invent anything in the future. He was, however, a gifted telepath.

Sean couldn’t say any of that, and he hoped that, perhaps, Josh wouldn’t ask any follow-up questions.

Instead, the telepath focused on what the other boy had said regarding his father. His father taught economics and finance. Josh had an unmistakable New York accent. While one didn’t necessarily have to do with the other, Sean was curious if Josh’s father had always been a professor, or if this was a second career. Too polite to ask that outright, instead he queried, “Where did your father teach before you moved here?”

[Joshua Bernstein]

Sean's question caught Josh off guard. He had been talking without any real regard for what he might be revealing to the other boy and only now realized that bringing up his father would, of course, bring questions about his dad.

He shifted uncomfortably, changing positions so that instead of leaning toward the other boy he was facing the movie screen. "Oh. Ah. We used to live in the City."

That was admittedly an evasive answer, but he was well aware that Wall Street investors were not particularly well liked in the current political climate, and although he understood the reasoning behind the unpopularity he also didn't want to ruin his chances of making a friend. So instead he shoved a handful of popcorn in his mouth, then held the bucket out to Sean.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

The other boy’s reaction, coupled with the evasive answer, confirmed Sean’s suspicions. Josh’s father hadn’t had a prior teaching job, which meant that he had followed a different career path. One that had involved economics and finance, which meant that he was probably in some portion of the financial sector. Particularly with how embarrassed Josh seemed to be about it.

Josh’s thoughts further confirmed Sean’s suspicions. He didn’t know if Josh’s father had been a stock broker, or if he had managed a hedge fund, or if he had been in management at some big bank. Whatever his job, it was apparent that he no longer had it, and he no longer had the avenues to find a comparable position.

Although teaching was rewarding in its own right.

“My family lives on Long Island,” Sean offered. That was a way of switching the topic from Josh’s family and his father’s career to some form of common ground. That the telepath was also from downstate New York, although he lived in the suburbs and not the biggest city in the United States.

“New York is very different,” he added. New York had a different, more vibrant culture and far more diversity. All of the diversity in Vermont was concentrated in Pilot Ridge, it seemed.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh latched onto the comment about Long Island, relieved that Sean didn't pursue any further questions about his father. Swallowing his popcorn he asked, "Long Island? How did you head about the Institute? I'd never even heard of it until we moved here."

He was genuinely curious; how did geniuses hear about schools designed for them? Maybe when they took IQ tests or something it was recommended to them, or maybe the school counselors all knew about the options. They'd never said anything to him, but he also wasn't a genius, no matter how often his mother insisted he was exceptionally bright.

Since Sean hadn't taken any popcorn he sat the bucket back in his lap. He should have bought something to drink; the popcorn was so salty he was beginning to get thirsty, and the movie hadn't even begun yet.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

“They invited me.” That wasn’t entirely true. Although the recruiters had sought him out and had extended an invitation to attend Hammel, they had made it clear to him and to his parents that the phrasing was mere courtesy. Hammel had the authority and the intention of taking him to Vermont with or without his parents’ permission.

William and Mary Neville had been concerned enough about Sean’s mental state and the effects of his powers that they had consented without hesitation.

The telepath had attended Hammel ever since. While most of the students chose not to engage with him or verbally share their backgrounds, he knew that his recruitment had been far less traumatic than many other people’s. Some people didn’t consent, and then matters grew far more troubling.

The previews were terrible. Everything except The Box Trolls, which looked amusing, although it was also a children’s movie. One that had no release date.

“I’ve been there for a few years now,” he added, in case Josh was curious about how long he had lived in town. That was fair, since the other boy had already volunteered that his family had just moved this summer.

He noticed that the other boy was thirsty, and so he asked, “Would you like some of my water?” He had a full bottle.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"They invited you?"

Josh's tone conveyed a deep sense of awe over this fact. He had never even been invited to a summer camp for gifted students, let alone a special school. He wondered how Sean had attracted Hammel's attention. It couldn't be grades alone; maybe he'd gotten perfect scores on every standardized test he'd ever taken. Or maybe one of his teachers had suggested his name to the school because he'd shown aptitude in a particular class, or skill.

Wow.

It was pretty cool that geniuses went to the movies, too.

"Do you like it there? It's a pretty small school, right?"

It had to be, since it was so elite.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean didn’t want Josh to be in awe of intellectual prowess that didn’t exist. The telepath considered this to be an ethical quandary, since he knew that he couldn’t put the other students at risk by revealing the nature of his “gift.” At the same time, it was uncomfortable to be next to someone gazing at him as though he was a genius because he went to an elite private school.

Perhaps he could shift the conversation away from this topic.

Or not, since the other boy continued to inquire into the Hammel experience.

“It’s nice.”

That was, perhaps, an understatement. His teachers were competent, and he was getting a good education. He liked the grounds and the facilities; there was a pool that he could use. His dormitory room wasn’t cramped, even if he didn’t talk to his roommates often.

However, Hammel was lonely and socially isolating. He had no friends, and even some of the faculty proved judgmental about his powers. More than one trainer declared that they refused to train telepaths, even trainers who purported to specialize in psychic powers saw no irony in excluding telepathic students from their ranks.

“It’s smaller than my school back in New York.” The Jesuit high school had twice as many students as Hammel had.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh nodded. He knew nothing about it, but given that it was elite it had to be nice. It probably had amazing tennis courts, maybe a place to play polo. He wished he could get on campus just to see everything. To see what an elite school for geniuses was like.

But his thirst eventually got the better of him. He had unintentionally ignored Sean's offer of water, because he'd been so interested in his school. But he really was thirsty, and so he stood, and then stared at the seat he had vacated.

The trouble with the chairs in movie theaters was that the seats flung upwards when nobody was sitting in them, to allow people to walk through the rows. But this left him with no place to leave his bucket of popcorn. If he tried to sit the popcorn on the seat, it wasn't heavy enough to keep from being flung all over the place. But he also didn't want to take it with him; that seemed like more trouble than it was worth.

After a moment he said, "Would you hold this for me? I'll be right back. You can have some, if you want."