Shooting the Breeze (Connor)

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar sprawled across the floor in front of the couch in the living area he shared with his roommates. Whether Tomer was out or holed up in his room he didn't know; either way he had invited Connor over to spend the evening with him. 

"Have you been in Dr. Parker's class yet?" He asked, propping his chin in his hands. "She looks so young!" 

And yet she had doctor appended to her name. Her parents must be so proud. 

"When I first saw her in the hallway I thought she was another student." 

Maybe a senior, but still, not one of the teachers. 

[Connor Anderson]

At the other end of the couch, Connor shook his head at Sunar's question. "Nuh uh. Not yet. What's she look like?" He couldn't recall seeing such a young teacher. Or if he had, perhaps he hadn't even known she was a teacher.

Digging in his backpack, he pulled out and offered some Twizzlers to Sunar. "Hammel gets young teachers all the time I guess. Maybe people just never want to leave." That wasn't his plan, though. Once he graduated, he wanted to study business. "What are you gonna do after you graduate, Suny?"

[Sunar Chugani]

"She has long dark hair and green eyes and she looks like a Disney princess!"

This was probably not the best description, but Sunar was much better with drawing features than describing them verbally.

He accepted a twizzler, peeling back the wrapper halfway. "I dunno. I was thinking maybe graphic design. Or children's book illustrator! I can draw faeries riding ladybugs. Or knights on snails like on all those old manuscripts."

His tumblr feed was always full of medieval manuscript illustrations of knights riding snails.

"What about you? Are you going to ride horses?"

[Connor Anderson]

"Ohhh." Cue a mischievous grin. "Do you liiiiike her Suny?" As a little brother, Connor had often been subjected to that kind of teasing at home. And Sunar was his friend. That only meant that friendly teasing was fair game.

Shifting around to better talk to Sunar, he took another Twizzler for himself. "You'd be really good at that. You're such a good artist." Tilting his head, he smiled. "If you ever want to practice animals, you can come with me to see Sona sometime. Miss Morgan has lots of horses you can sketch. Ponies, too. To go with your knights on snails."

As for what he wanted to do, he smiled and shook his head. "I'm going to study business, like my Mom, so I can help run the farm. I'll always ride, but I don't think I'll ever do it professionally. That's my brother's job. He's the jockey in the family." He loved to watch Curtis, yes, but he couldn't do what he did.

[Sunar Chugani]

"She's a teacher! I can't like a teacher!" Sunar objected, ignoring the fact that students had fantasized about their teachers forever. She was pretty enough, but the idea of crushing on a teacher made him a little uncomfortable.

"I just want to know how old she is really, because she seems so young to have a doctor title!"

And he thought it might be nice to draw her, but he thought it might be nice to draw plenty of people he had absolutely zero sexual or romantic interest in.

"Running a farm sounds difficult," He mused before biting into the candy his friend had handed him.

[Connor Anderson]

"Hey, it's not a bad thing! It's like liking celebrities. Totally harmless!" Okay, except they actually saw and talked to their teachers, but still. It wasn't awful. "I totally used to have a crush on my riding instructor." He'd been very young at the time, but he'd adored her.

"Maybe she's super smart or something. Bypassed a bunch of grades?" He was sure there were ways to do that.

"My mom makes it look really easy, but I know she's always really busy. She has to keep track of money and training schedules and racing entries and employees... It's a lot. I want to be able to help her." He shrugged and rolled his shoulders to stretch them out. Sona had been a beast the last time he'd ridden him, nearly yanking his arms out of place multiple times. Maybe he needed to start schooling him again prior to getting in the saddle. "I think my Dad would be happy if I learned how to train instead, but it's not what I want to do."

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar could certainly understand parental pressure. 

"Mmm. My parents think I should go into something more stable than art. You know, so I can support them when they're old and feeble." 

His sister would probably be married and thus taking care of her in laws. At least, that was the expectation. He had never actually asked her whether or not she wanted that. 

"But I like drawing! And at least you're helping out with the family business, that should make your dad happy, right?"

[Connor Anderson]

Connor smiled at Sunar and shook his head. "You'd make a killing as an artist. You're really good, Suny." Surely artists could make lots of money when they were good? He didn't actually know about things like income for a job like that, but maybe it would be okay for Sunar?

He supposed he was lucky. His parents made money from selling horses, from racing them, and from stud fees. A lot of what they earned went back into the farm for racing fees, feed, and payroll, among other things. If he won his races, Curtis was already putting money back into the farm too.

"Yeah, and I like what my mom does. I like the business aspect. I'll always be around the horses, but I think it's cool to do the planning behind it. If my mom didn't do what she does, we'd never be successful." Shifting around, he pulled out another Twizzler and offered the bag back to his friend.

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar shoved the remainder of his twizzler into his mouth so that he could accept another one from his friend. "Fanks," He mumbled around his licorice treat. Once his first candy was swallowed he shook his head. 

"It's not just about being good. You have to attract clients. And repeat clients. And there are lots of artists already working for the big name, big paying companies. But it's okay, I think I can manage with smaller clients. Just....I'm not going to become a doctor or a software developer." 

He knew his parents were less than thrilled with his artistic pursuits, but he doubted he would even be accepted into a technical or medical college given his math grades. 

"Or a business manager. That sounds hard." 

[Connor Anderson]

"Yeah, but I bet you could, no problem. You have lots of followers on Tumblr, right?" Art wasn't something he knew a lot about, and he wasn't going to pretend he did. But Sunar really was good, and he deserved recognition for it. "No matter what you do you're going to rock at it, though. You're that awesome."

As for his own goals, he shrugged. "I like math, though. And problem solving. It sounds a lot more fun than teaching a horse to run like hell in a circle." Which was... pretty much what his dad did. Yeah, there was a lot more to it, but that was the gist of it. "Or risking my neck riding them in a real race." He still had no idea how Curtis did it. His brother had nerve, he'd give him that.

[Sunar Chugani]

"Lots? More like thirty."

Not enough to really do commissions.

"It's not just about being good, you have to be active, and get someone who has a lot of followers to reblog you or something."

He wrinkled his nose at Connor's declaration regarding math. "Nobody likes math, don't lie."

[Connor Anderson]

"Thirty's lots," Connor countered. "You'll get more, Suny. You're seriously talented." He offered what he hoped came across as an encouraging smile. "It'll happen. You'll see." He had no doubts about that.

"I'm not lying!" He had to laugh, because Sunar's clear distaste for math was obvious. "I like math. It's not so awful. Sometimes it helps to apply it to stuff." Like budgets. He'd seen his mother do enough of them to know they were important. "You want help with it?"

[Sunar Chugani]

"I tried to get help with it and I just can't do it," Sunar shook his head. "My parents are both good at math so they're no help, they just think there's something wrong with me that I can't get it."

[Connor Anderson]

Connor shifted and sat up properly, wrapping his arms around his legs and resting his chin on his knees. "There's nothing wrong with not getting math. My brother was always terrible at it. Apparently my Dad was too, when he was in school. But he got better at it. ... Curtis not so much." Even if he couldn't be a better rider than his brother, at least he could be better at math. "I'm serious, Suny. I'll help you if you want. I don't mind. We can try to make it fun, even."

Well, as fun as math could be.

[Sunar Chugani]

"Maybe," Sunar shrugged. He doubted that he could ever understand math. Everyone else in his family could do math with no problems, while he struggled. That was clearly a sign of something wrong.

"But thanks for the offer."

(maybe wrap?)