How I Spent My Summer Vacation [Renee]

[Ferris Macklin]

While Ferris's hours weren't as long as they were normally, Ramadan had started on the 8th and he was coming in at 4 a.m. on the dot every day to cook for it. There were only a handful of kids observing, but Ferris was very concerned with making them a meal that would get them through the month-long fast without any medical problems. He'd gotten a few recipes from one of the kids but otherwise served slightly more protein and carb-rich breakfast foods (and nixed the pork). He wasn't on the skeleton staff that was scheduled to serve iftar, or the post-fasting meal, but he did a lot of the prep for it so that all that had to be done was to put the required things in the ovens or on the stove to heat.

His day was over a little after lunch service but before most of the kids had finished eating, or around 12:30, but he usually ate lunch himself in the staff lounge before he left. It was quiet, and usually smelled like coffee, which he didn't drink but still liked the scent of. Today he had two roast chicken sandwiches with lingonberry sauce, radishes and baby carrots liberally sprinkled with vinegar, and little squares of what looked like compressed dirt. They were his second attempt at homemade wheat crackers. His first batch had both looked and tasted horrible, but the batch in front of him looked unappetizing but weren't too bad in the mouth. A little bit more like croutons than crackers and not anything he'd pass around, but edible to him personally.

He hadn't left anything on the lounge tables since school had let out, but he still packed more than the usual amount of dessert for himself in case anyone wandered in. Today it was double chocolate cookies, oversized milk chocolate chips in a chocolate dough, and they were an unmitigated success.

Sprawled at one of the tables, Ferris chewed thoughtfully as he tried to decide if he dared put off his daily nap to buy another two bushels of peas at the market to put up. The cookies were spread temptingly on a napkin for whoever was lucky enough to come in and ask for one.

[Deleted]

Renee had to hand it to some of these kids, they were pretty determined to meet as often as they could over the summer break and interrupt all the plans Renee had for doing nothing while they were at it. Quite literally, Renee had no plans for anything this summer and while that was a little annoying, she supposed it was a good thing that she was being given something to so. After all, the kids couldn't just waltz into the club room and use the equipment, piano, and sheet music as they pleased, they needed an adviser around to supervise. Outside of that, the kids were actually quite diligent in doing everything else themselves, sometimes Renee wondered whether her direction was even necessary.

So for the moment, Renee decided to leave those kids to their own devices and hope they didn't break anything, she needed a break. "Must be feeling my age," she murmured to herself as she stepped into the staff lounge. It was mostly empty save for one of the newer staff members that Renee had yet to introduce herself to. "Good morning," Renee said with a slight bounce in her tone. She placed a finger to her lower lip, pondering. "Or is it afternoon already? I really should keep better track of the time."

Firsts things first, however, and Renee headed straight to the counters to fix herself a cup of Earl Grey. One steeping bag and a saccharine packet later, and Renee was in business. She strolled her way to the comfy chairs and looked down at the table, eyeballing the cookies like they were the epitome of desire. "Are these for anyone?" she asked the person sitting beside them, "or were you just going to hog them all to yourself?"

[Ferris Macklin]

At the table, Ferris had his head propped on one hand and was all but laying down over the tabletop, the way the kids laid down at their desks with their heads on their arms and their butts way back in their seats. When another person entered the lounge he didn't alter his posture, but looked up with a lazy smile of greeting.

"Good morning. Or is it afternoon already? I really should keep better track of the time."

"Oh, it's afternoon. Barely. But it is." She was awfully perky, but then, she'd probably gotten up after sunrise.

Continuing to eat his sandwich and think about peas, he smelled tea brewing and smiled a little. Ferris had never much been one for hot drinks, even on very cold days, and didn't really get how his colleagues could drink hot coffee on days the temp soared into the 80s. Summer in Vermont seemed to be a never-ending series of three to five day cycles, cool days in the mid 70s that ramped quickly into heat and humidity and exploded at the end with storms. He'd heard this summer had been unusually rainy, though. Still, why anyone would want hot drinks in 97% humidity was beyond him.

"Are these for anyone? Or were you just going to hog them all to yourself?"

Laughing, he sat up and then back in his seat, reversing his sprawl. "Oh, they were mostly for me, but since you asked so politely I should probably share." Gesturing to the pile, he said, "Go 'head."

Putting down his sandwich and wiping his hand on a napkin, he stuck it out with a grin. "Haven't met you yet. Ferris Macklin. Kitchen staff."

[Deleted]

Renee giggled at the man whose posture resembled that of her students. "Ah, then I guess it's nap-time, isn't it?" Not a big deal, a lot of people, students and teachers alike, got bitten by the snooze-bug shortly after noon, usually after their lunchtime meal. Renee hated that feeling which was why she treated it with regular cups of caffeine laden tea. "Need a pick-me-up?" she offered, holding up her steeping tea. "Can't have you falling asleep on the job, now can we?"

Renee chuckled, amused by his friendliness, and with a "don't mind if I do" attitude, she set down her tea and plucked one of the cookies up from the napkin, taking a bite just as he introduced himself. Her eyes went wide and she let out a sensual groan of satisfaction as the overwhelmingly delicious flavors of chocolate washed over her taste-buds. Renee held up a hand to hold off her self-introduction while she took the time to savor the chocolaty goodness that was cookie. When she finally swallowed, Renee licked her lips and giggled like a blushing school-girl. "I'm so sorry!" She covered her face, hiding the flush the probably wasn't as bad as she thought. "I couldn't help myself. That was so good!" Her words were vibrating as she tried to speak and giggle at the same time.

Clearing her throat and calming down as best she held out her hand to take his. "I'm Renee Hendricks." Another snicker. "A trainer. Also choir director slash adviser." She poked the air with her finger. "Kitchen staff, huh? You know, now that I think about it, I think I do remember seeing you around. Sorry for not introducing myself earlier." Renee cocked her head to let her auburn hair flow down over her shoulder, giving him a broad "movie-star" smile.

[Ferris Macklin]

"Ah, then I guess it's nap-time, isn't it?"

Almost, he mouthed, taking his hand away from where it cradled his head to pinch two fingers together to show her how close. Then his hand went back to being a head stand and he took another bite of sandwich.

"Need a pick-me-up? Can't have you falling asleep on the job, now can we?"

That got a brief laugh and Ferris shook his head. "No, after I eat I go home. I've already drunk enough Coke to get a horse excited."

He chuckled again as he watched her eat one of his cookies and nodded to her held up hand. Yes yes, one moment while the station delivers these messages. Ferris finished his sandwich and ate a few carrots before he packed all the empty bags and containers up.

"I'm so sorry! I couldn't help myself. That was so good!"

"S'okay," Ferris drawled, with a quirked smile. "I was about to ask if you wanted some privacy."

Taking up one of the cookies for himself, he took a bite and did not feel any of the things the redhead might or might not have felt. Though they were good. Ferris typically reserved that sort of reaction for exquisitely done sushi or aged Parm... and new issues of Hawkeye.

"...Kitchen staff, huh? You know, now that I think about it, I think I do remember seeing you around. Sorry for not introducing myself earlier."

He waved her apology away. "It's a big school. We'd meet eventually." Renee's glamorous leanings did not affect him, though he appreciated her appearance. Stretching his arms over his head, he smiled at her again, crossing his ankles under the table. "Music in school was something I didn't do. I can't say I had no interest, but I didn't have a lot of time."

Ferris's electives had been languages and other things that he could use in real life, like typing and home ec, as opposed to ones that would've broadened his knowledge, if not his talent base. "So what's training involve? Do you take... certain kinds of kids? I know some trainers take the kids who have the physical stuff, some take the ones with mental stuff."

[Deleted]

Oh, now this one was funny. She liked him. Renee held back a snort at his horse comment. "Are you sure you should be driving in your condition? That's an accident waiting to happen." That was something that Renee had indeed seen before. It was always a "sleep well, drive safe! Hopefully not in that order!" thing with a lot of the teachers and staff here at Hammel. Renee herself would sometimes get that far if she wasn't careful. That's why she depended so much on the caffeine. It wasn't much, but it was enough to prevent tragedy.

Renee helped herself to the seat across from Ferris after she had finished her sensational encounter with the double chocolate cookie. "I don't know. I might have to kidnap the lot for myself. Next time you see us, we'll be headline news. "Woman elopes with cookies in Vegas!"" Renee panned her hand across the air, envisioning the newspaper article before her. The woman erupted into soft giggles, obviously amused at her own jokes and not particularly caring if anyone else found her funny.

That was understandable, there was a long period where music in schools wasn't considered a priority. Well, even these days, the focus has been far more on academics while ignoring the importance of the creative arts in the public schools. Luckily, this was Hammel, and they were fairly well-rounded between the academics, training, and extra-curricular activities. Despite her colored history at Hammel when she was a student, she was quite thankful that it was as diverse as it was. "What? Don't tell me. You were in the home-ec classes?" Being on kitchen detail and having produced such delectable confections as those cookies, Renee had to assume it might've been a passion of his. "It's alright, I'm not offended!" She laughed again.

Oh? So he wanted to know about how she trained the kids? That was a little unusual(not that she hadn't answered such questions before) but usually meta-adults had a pretty good idea of how training went, considering they had to go through a lot of it themselves...that was assuming that the kitchen staff were also meta. "Well," she pondered, bringing a finger to her lips, "I really take all kinds of students, but I supposed they all typically have one thing in common. It's like," How to explain? "A lot of them have a broad range of use, and we try to fine tune their abilities. Like tuning a piano...or an organ." The organ was a better analogy, actually, since it had a larger range of pitches." She was also known for being extremely patient with her students, especially when they easily got flustered in using their powers. "Also, I tend to take some manipulators and voice related powers, I guess, since those are similar to my own." Renee had had a lot of students in the 9 years she'd been a trainer. It was actually a little hard to categorize them all, since she wasn't the one who got to pick which students she had.

"So...Are you a Hammel alumn, or....?" Did he come from one of the other schools, maybe?

[Ferris Macklin]

"Are you sure you should be driving in your condition? That's an accident waiting to happen."

Ferris snorted a laugh. "I bike. And you learn to pay attention on a bike."

There were no vehicular confrontation situations where a person on a bicycle came out the winner, and very few bike-meets-other-object scenarios that didn't at least end with repairs.

When she came over to sit, Ferris pulled his legs in a little to seem less... slovenly, he guessed.

"I don't know. I might have to kidnap the lot for myself. Next time you see us, we'll be headline news. 'Woman elopes with cookies in Vegas!'"

"You try to raise them right and they run off," he sighed, chuckling a little. "Ingrates."

Nodding at the pile, he took up another cookie and slid them toward her. "I won't tell if you have more." Taking a bite, he smiled. "I'll have to bring these in when school goes back in session. And set up a live feed for reactions."

"What? Don't tell me. You were in the home-ec classes? It's alright, I'm not offended!"

"I did take home-ec," he said, amused. "But it's not what led me to institutional cooking. Or those." He pointed at his cookies.

Ferris did know how training went in theory, but had not had much practical experience. His own power could not be shut off or controlled in any way, and it was so benign that even at Hammel he rarely thought about it. Once the school had identified what his ability was and how it worked, there wasn't much more they could do. So he found trainers' areas of expertise quite interesting. He wondered now who would train a power such as his and doubted it would be Renee.

"So... Are you a Hammel alumn, or....?"

And there it was, the million dollar question. In all this time, Ferris had not been asked if he'd gone to the school or what he did or even if he was meta. He'd wondered exactly how long he could go without the question coming up. Well, now he knew. Roughly two months. Kind of impressive.

"I am," he said. "But my stay here was brief. Four months."

As a trainer, Renee would probably understand the implications of so short a tenure, though Ferris mentally steeled himself for questions. It wasn't that he didn't like talking about his meta ability, it was that there wasn't anything to talk about.

[Deleted]

She laughed. He was right of course, when on a bike nobody else notices, so you have to pay extra attention just to make sure you don't get run over by absent-minded drivers. Boy, did that bring back memories. "I can relate. I used to ride a bike myself...well, a motorbike. Long time ago, but the concept's the same. I had to dodge cars all the time." Well, weaving in an out of them at high speeds wasn't exactly dodging...

"Oh, don't worry, we'll send you a postcard. I wouldn't want you to get worried."

She nodded, taking another bit of cookie and savoring the flavors, albeit less intently this time. "I'm sure you'll be the life of the party if you bring these. All shall love thee for thine sensuous culinary prowess." Another chuckle and another bite to be washed down with her tea. Renee pulled the teabag out of the cup and set it upon a napkin, then brought the steaming cup to her lips. "Mmm...still pretty hot." Her eyes darted back up to Ferris. "I think we're going to have to put up a hidden camera for that. Then sell it to the students and staff for profit."

"If it wasn't the home-ec, then what, pray tell, did pull you into such a tasty profession?" She grinned at him from behind her cup, awaiting the beginnings of his epic tale of sweat, tears, and strife which led to his current position.

Renee was visibly surprised by his answer, her eyebrows shooting up in interest. Only four months? "That's pretty...unique is the best word I can come up with right now." There were few cases where a Hammel student was allowed to leave early, usually they kept students here for their standard compulsory educations, then even longer for meta-power training. Meta-powers manifested at an early age, around adolescence, so even if he finished his training early, he should have been kept at the school for the rest of his high schooling. "Either your powers manifested extremely late, or you finished school early. I guessing the latter on that." He was lucky too. To only have to train for four months. In addition to the training she got while in school, she had to train for 3 more years after completing the academic requirements.

[Ferris Macklin]

"Motorbikes still have it better than cyclists, but I hear you." In some situations, the speeds motorcycles could achieve worked against them in collisions, but Ferris was too tired to think much about it.

"I'm sure you'll be the life of the party if you bring these. All shall love thee for thine sensuous culinary prowess."

"...Or something," he agreed, grinning.

"I think we're going to have to put up a hidden camera for that. Then sell it to the students and staff for profit."

"Yeah, it'll be fun for that hour before we're caught."

Unfortunately for Renee, how Ferris got into cooking was not epic and did not contain tears or strife. "I was biking Europe. No itinerary, no schedule. One night in Spain I came across a guy ranting in an alley on his phone, how he'd gotten short staffed, and I volunteered. He was suspicious, but I said I didn't want anything in return, just to help. I wasn't doing anything. Didn't need to be anywhere. And he was desperate enough to let me. I washed dishes for seven hours that night." He smiled, remembering. "A week later I was working the salad station, and it went uphill from there."

"That's pretty... unique is the best word I can come up with right now."

Ferris spread his hands as if to say 'yeah, unique, right here'.

"Either your powers manifested extremely late, or you finished school early. I guessing the latter on that."

"Kind of a combo of both," he said. Fourteen was near the upper end of the manifestation spectrum, but it was an exceptional age to enter college at. It wasn't that Ferris was overly modest about his intelligence, but it was edging into territory that was aggressively guarded by his Repression Security Team.

"Not much to say about it." He hoped that would cut things off, but he smiled at her to let her know there was no foul.

"So how did you decide to become a trainer?"

[Deleted]

Renee decided she liked Ferris very much. He was very forward with his responses and some even seemed to be fairly jestful, despite his obvious lack of functioning brain power at the moment. "Oh, you underestimate the one and only Dr. Sean Neville. I'd give it...half and hour." She nodded to herself, fully confident at her ability to predict Sean's troublemaking radar. "He's very good at finding trouble. You wouldn't believe how many times I ended up in his office because I did something stupid like that." Not really exactly like that, though. Renee's troublemaking wasn't as diabolical as making embarrassing videos of people and selling them. Her's was more direct and stupid. Like demanding a "friendship" toll from her goonies. Only the newbies though.

Ahh, memories.

"Wow. So I guess the culinary profession just kind of landed in your lap and you went with it." That was actually more amazing than he made it sound. So few people knew how to live freely like that, without a plan, only to find their calling at the most random of moments. Then again, Renee hardly planned on becoming a trainer for Hammel before she actually became one.

"Well," Renee started, wondering from which point she should begin. "I guess my uphill climb started when I manifested. But the biggest leaps were made when I finally graduated Hammel and started college. At that point I was just thankful to be away from this place." She swifted her hand out before her before settling it back on the tabletop. "At first I thought I just wanted to be in music. You know, take the world by storm and become the next American Idol or something." She giggled at the childish thought. It was after that, however, that Renee found out about Kurt and his condition. Her eyes faded into her tea as the memory came back to her, though her smile never left her lips. "By the time I graduated college, though, I started to remember that being a meta can be pretty traumatic for kids. I guess I just wanted to help them out to make the transition as smooth and painless as possible."

[Ferris Macklin]

Ferris blinked, and then laughed a little. "Oh. If we're bringing Dr. Neville into it it never gets off the ground."

"He's very good at finding trouble. You wouldn't believe how many times I ended up in his office because I did something stupid like that."

"You? Really?" Ferris chuckled. "And you look so sweet and harmless." Of course, this was a lie. Anyone who could make the noises she had while eating her first cookie had probably had a much more eventful school career than Ferris had. Eventful in terms of meeting school officials, not in the skipping of grades.

"Wow. So I guess the culinary profession just kind of landed in your lap and you went with it."

Ferris snorted. "I guess you could say that." He'd never thought of it that way. He smiled. "Guess it's good that we agreed with each other."

He listened as Renee spoke, nodding. He drank from his yellow aluminum water bottle (filled with strawberry lemonade today) and wondered what sort of singer she was. Ferris could carry a tune decently and wasn't horrendous, but that was the extent of it.

"That's part of why I took the job at Kocher," he remarked. "If I was going to cook for people who complained and were snobs about everything, why not do it for meta kids?"

He popped the rest of his cookie into his mouth. There was one left and he didn't move to take it. "If you sneak that into a coat pocket or something I'll never tell."