Time Warp: One Day This'll Make You Proud [James]

[Nikolai Campbell]

Set on a Saturday seven years in the future.

Nikolai knew that for most of his peers Hammel was just a high school stay. Four years, and then they moved on to bigger and better things if they buckled down enough during their stay. For him it was all he could remember. It'd been elementary school on, leaving him more familiar with the building than most now that he was seventeen. Having both adoptive parents working at the school hadn't helped the situation, either. That was one of the things he attributed to being bored more often with his surroundings and his peers than the average student.

To be fair, there was always something going on, and yes, there was always something productive to be done, but Nikolai spent more of his time coercing his peers to entertain himself than studying these days. Unfortunately today was a day he found himself stuck at home. Apparently he was expected to finish his college applications today- ick. He'd do it for James and Chase, and he'd do it because he knew he wanted to leave Hammel behind, but it was a tedious task all the same.

It'd been a while since he hadn't had plans with someone. One may expect Nikolai to like the time to relax and be alone with his family and to plan for his future, but he was bored. To occupy himself he sat in the kitchen drumming his fingers on the table top. His free arm was bent at the elbow, his palm upturned to support his cheek so that he had a better view of the motion of his fingers. A notebook was open with the beginning of his college application essay, but all the page said was,"My name is Nikolai," which wasn't exactly a promising start. Truth be told, it was only there as an alibi. Nikolai certainly didn't know what to write about, and as far as he was concerned, there was plenty of time to figure it out.

Across the room he had a berry smoothie chilling in the freezer that he'd just made. There was a bit of a mess on the counter, and he hadn't gotten around to cleaning the blender as he probably should have, but he knew he'd do it after he'd eaten his smoothie. For the moment, he forgot about it in favor of focusing on his moving finger while silently continuing to wait for the timer to go off, letting him know his smoothie was ready.

The sudden ringing of the timer made Niko jump, but he recovered quickly and jumped from the chair to retrieve his smoothie before turning off the still chiming timer. Instead of returning to his chair, he stood by the timer, sipping the cool smoothie with a satisfied smile. Maybe today wasn't as bad as he initially thought. This smoothie was delicious!

[Dr. James Campbell]

Both of Niko's fathers were exceptions to the four year standard stint at Hammel. Chase had manifested late, but graduated on time; he'd spent about three years within Hammel. James, on the other hand, had entered when he was twenty-two, started working as a recruiter when he was thirty, but only stopped taking training courses when he was thirty-six. Fourteen years of training, and James was still a poster child for why metas needed training early. Of course, neither the fact that it was Saturday nor the fact that he was now pushing fifty--Chase was going to be unbearable when he actually reached it--was enough to keep James from working most of the morning at the computer they had set up in Ginny's old room. Now that it no longer looked like the second home of a teenage girl, it made a pretty decent home office. And as most of James's job was research and coordinating the rest of the recruitment staff, it hadn't taken long before it had become his home office.

After a morning of mainlining coffee and keeping up with the recruiters scattered across the country--early fall saw a spike in recruitments as teachers identified new students' quirks as manifesting abilities that parents were just too close to their children to notice--James was in need of a break. He rolled his shoulders and got up, then headed out to the kitchen to check on Niko and his essay.

James winced slightly at the mess on the counter, but as Nikki was right there, he didn't do anything else but look pointedly at him. The teenager knew how to clean up after himself. "How are the applications going?" He walked over to the table and looked at the notebook, and the single, lonely sentence. All morning, and that was all he'd finished? "Well, it's concise, at least. Which school is this one for? What's the topic?" His Ph.D. was in English Lit. but he wasn't going to help with the essay unless Nikki asked for it.

He plucked a ripe, red apple from the bowl of fruit, went to the sink to wash it, then began to slice it, same as always, eating each slice as he went.

[Nikolai Campbell]

Niko bit his bottom lip nervously when James came in; oops. It was almost like a reflex now. His attention immediately went to the mess he'd left, and, well, now he just felt bad about it. Maybe he shouldn't have let himself be lazy about it. It wasn't that he minded now so much as he knew James did.

"Uh- Great, dad. Really getting underway. I like my work so far."Came Nikki's automatic response. Not exactly true, but he'd made progress from a blank page. It seemed like a good answer, too! Well, until James went on to look at the paper. Then there was no denying that. He wasn't about to say anything like 'that's my twelfth draft' or anything. No point in pushing a partial lie that far. Niko held his breath for a moment without realizing it, waiting for his father's reaction. James' statement that it was concise rather than an outright statement of disappointment left Niko giggling, pleased with himself. He would have went on- 'yeah, dad, no reason to beat around the bush', but James' next question made him pause, a look of surprise on his expression rather than any clever comeback.

"You're kidding, right? Messing with me, aren't you?"Niko questioned as he set his smoothie down, his full attention on James."They have to be different, dad? I can't think of what to write for one, how am I supposed to write multiple ones? Are you sure that's how it is?" Niko's now free hand went to cover his mouth, his expression still one of disbelief. Oh. No. What happened to one essay, sent in five different places? That's what everyone said he'd have to do! Of course, it hadn't come up all that often or with credible people, but still. That'd been the plan all along. If he had to write a separate essay for each school, that'd take forever! Leave it to Niko to not bother reading any instructions on the topic. Niko took a deep breath, realizing defeat as his hand dropped back to his side.

"James. This is really hard. Will you please help me? You majored in English, right, so it won't take long. I promise. Then you can get back to work. Please?"Niko pleaded, his attention momentarily shifting from his father to the mess before he quickly added,"I'll clean that up, too for a slice of your apple." Oh. Yes. Because he was still a kid at heart and knew everything tasted better when it was someone else's to begin with. Not that he actually needed the apple to clean up, but if he could get it offering up something that was given anyway, all the better for him.

[Dr. James Campbell]

Of course, as Niko made his excuse, that was when James was heading over to read what had been written. Busted, kid.

Honestly, his son's questions surprised James. Hadn't he been paying attention to all those emails sent out by Collegeboard? (He knew his son was on the mailing list. In fact, he was doubly sure of it because he'd made a point to request more information, and had added Nikki's email to the list.) It was all so much simpler, so much more available than it had been when he'd been the one applying to schools. Of course, he'd only applied to one school, and when he'd gotten in on early admission, he hadn't even finished a second essay.

"It depends on the school, Nikki. Some of them assign their own questions; some use the common app, the one where you fill it in the one time and just submit it online. All the SUNYs use the same app too." He knew his son wasn't into this, but he'd been slacking for a few weeks now, and if he didn't actually get these applications out, then they actually might just send him to Sedona Community College. Chase had only been joking when he'd suggested that Nikki apply there on the drive back from yet another college visit--James had only been able to go on one with Ginny, and like so many skipped family experiences, had been doubly enthused when it was Nikolai's turn--but then the teenager had actually wanted to apply, just in case. Perhaps living with Chase's parents would be more appealing than staying in Pilot Ridge and going to a community college closer to home, though.

James shook his head, laughing slightly as he bit into a slice of apple. Once his mouth wasn't full any more, he responded, "I majored in Economics. My Masters was in American History and my doctoral studies were in English." He took another bite, then added, "Yes, of course I will help you. Have you got a prompt for that one, or is it whatever you wish?"

The recruiter took a step back and eyed the mess on the counter again. And this was a real mess, the kind that even Chase would agree was a mess. Unqualifiable. "And you'll clean it up anyway." But he still cut another slice of fruit and held it out for his son. "Here."

[Nikolai Campbell]

Mailing list? Aha. Niko'd probably been told about it a dozen times, but he had absolutely no memory of it. That was definitely one of the e-mails he skipped. Actually, e-mail was too slow for him, so he rarely checked any e-mails anyway. Why read a 'Collegeboard' e-mail if he wasn't even in college yet? ... It was very likely that Nikki didn't even know what the Collegeboard was, but that's beside the point because Niko wasn't pointing that out. But James was right- Nikki had it easier and he knew it. Not that he was admitting that, either.

"That doesn't sound hard,"Nikolai agreed. Anything online was a piece of cake- instantaneous gratification. And the idea that maybe some would allow for him to send the same one in, well, that was great, too. The only problem was that that Nikolai didn't want to apply to more than he had to, or more than he would consider attending. Sure, he was setting his sights low with the option of Chase's school on the table, especially with his knack for the field of science, but that just proved he wanted to apply to schools outside of New Jersey.

"Really?"Niko questioned, genuinely surprised. He hadn't thought there'd be a difference in what his father had his doctorate in and what he'd majored in, though that seemed like something he should have already known. It was times like these when Niko knew he had to be more observant. It proved he cared to know about his parents, at least in his mind. So he'd right the wrong. "Why'd you chose Economics first, and why didn't you just chose one rather than all three?" Maybe now wasn't the time for asking about his father's past, but he couldn't resist stalling, and he really did want to know now.

"I don't know for sure,"Niko answered, walking over to his notebook before lifting it up to retrieve the applications tucked under it. Since he hadn't yet decided what one he wanted to start with, he chose the top one, flipping through it quickly to find the answer. This was one that he could write about anything, but Niko found it a bad sign because it meant he actually had to put some thought into it."This one doesn't have a prompt- anything, I guess."his tone revealed his disappointment.

"Maybe there's an easier one,"he added,"One that takes less thought." Niko began to look through the other applications for what they required, but he set them down the instant James offered him a slice of the apple as he'd asked. "I know I will- I just wanted you to share. Thank you. You're a good person, dad." Just like when he was a kid, his eyes lit up as though James had done something truly spectacular rather than just giving him a piece of fruit as he took the slice of apple. Even the statement that his dad was a 'good person' was spoken with the utmost respect. He wasn't sure he would have wanted to share (though he would have, of course) so he meant it. That was one way to Nikki's heart- he loved fruit. Always had. Speaking of fruit, Nikki suddenly looked to his smoothie that still sat on the counter.

"Oh! I was drinking that."he muttered to himself before taking a bite of the slice of apple as he walked back to his smoothie. When he'd swallowed, he spoke again. "What did you write yours about, dad? Would you still chose the same thing now that you're older?" He prompted, trying to buy himself some time to finish his apple and drink some of his smoothie.

[Dr. James Campbell]

If Nikki wasn't reading the emails sent out, then there really wasn't much James could do about it, in addition to his already-tired nagging.

The recruiter carved another slice off of his apple and pointed at the notebook. "It's not hard, if you actually sit down and write the thing. I know they're annoying, but not half as bad as I'm going to be if you let these go for another week. There are deadlines for the first round of acceptances."

James sighed slightly and paused, trying to figure out how to word it. He didn't even remember if he'd ever told Chase about why he'd changed his major in junior year. "I'd been a history major, with an econ minor. I had finished the minor already, and Ginny's mom convinced me that I could get a better job if I made it my major instead." He shrugged; it had been a long time ago and didn't really matter as much now why he'd changed it. "I went for the masters degree because I couldn't do anything else, really. I was doing powers training a lot and working, but I didn't have anything else to do, and there was a grant available for Hammel students that no one was using, so I went back to history. Once I finished that, and figured out I could get more grant money and still have time to work, I started my Ph.D. It took eight years, though." But he was a nerd at heart, and hadn't minded the work. Most of his dissertation had been written his first year and a half as a recruiter, between his trips across the country.

"I would never have chosen the topic. I had to write about what I could contribute to the Princeton community. Whatever I said--and I really don't remember what it was--it was good enough to get me in." He finished off his apple, and though it took not a little effort on his part, didn't clean up the aftermath of smoothie-making on the countertop. Instead, he just put the knife in the dishwasher. "It would probably be easier to write something now, though. They'd probably be happy with something about a significant event in your life and why it meant something."

[Nikolai Campbell]

"Eight years? You spent eight years in an English class, James?"Niko sounded truly baffled by that."And you survived? No lasting damage from such severe levels of boredom?" English was unbearably boring- Niko wasn't taking more than he had to, so to hear that James spent eight years studying it was surprising to him. By choice no less! He probably could have figured it out sooner by realizing that a doctorate was that same degree that doctors had, the one that took 'a million years' and was far more effort than Niko was capable of, but Niko took a backseat when it came to education. And why shouldn't he, knowing that James seemed to derive so much pleasure from handling it for him? Niko often thought those college tours were more for James' benefit rather than his own, but he wasn't complaining about a road trip with the two men. And while he didn't usually think it'd be fun to visit a school when he got in the car with them, he was normally enthusiastic about the school and the possibilities by the time they left the campus. In fact, it was hard to calm Niko down once he got excited about it- and without fail, Niko found at least one thing to like about each school.

When Niko realized that James was keeping his explanation short, his disappointment was evident on his expression. Not because of what James had said, because it answered Niko's questions and cleared things up for him, but just because he didn't jump into a story that would take more time. He took another sip of his smoothie, listening to his dad talk about how his own essay wasn't memorable, but must have been good enough. Apparently so- a school like Princeton seemed out of Niko's league. Niko looked down at his glass, taking into account how much was left, then looked up again only to notice James was putting away a knife. He smiled, getting an idea then of how to stall further.

"Mhm,"he agreed. An essay about something that was important in his life? It was hard not to turn his attention to James as memories flooded his mind of being a little boy at Hammel. James had helped him then, too, just as he was willing to help him now. Hm. Writing about James and Chase wouldn't be so hard, would it? It was because of James that he was writing this essay in the first place, so it made perfect sense to him. Niko wasn't one to write something that personal and show it off, though, so it was more likely for him to go to an English teacher rather than James to review it. James might think of him differently, or act like it was so great that he had written it if he wasn't careful about it. Niko wasn't one for gaining praise in such a fashion. But maybe. He'd write it before he decided either way.

"That doesn't sound too hard."Nikki relented, feeling more optimistic. But he didn't want to do it at this moment, no matter how manageable James made it sound. Playing upon James' preoccupation with the mess he'd made, he put his glass down again and moved to the blender, putting the washable parts into the sink to rinse off as he spoke."I'll do it just as soon as I clean this up, okay?" Niko turned on the water, letting it run over the glass as another question occurred to him.

"Do you review all college essays? To make sure no one says anything they're not supposed to about Hammel?"Niko asked curiously. It seemed like risky business to let metas write essays like this without any sort of censorship. Having spent years at least partially knowing what James dealt with in his job and the types of things he prevented made the question seem valid to Niko.

[Dr. James Campbell]

As he always did when someone in his family questioned his sanity for going for a Ph.D. because he was bored, James pretended to be offended. "Well, you've spent a lot longer than that speaking it. And most of that was time I spent working on my dissertation; the classes part I was able to finish pretty quickly." All throughout his grad and post-grad studies, he'd been working. First at a variety of skilled and unskilled jobs in Pilot Ridge, then finally as a recruiter. For a while, he'd even considered becoming a professor, but he realized he didn't have the endurance to be in academia. He enjoyed it, and having a Ph.D., no matter how irrelevant, was impressive, but he didn't want to continue writing papers. Recruiting suited him, and he felt like he was actually doing some good. There hadn't been any delayed recruitments in years, at least not to the extent that his had been. The internet helped for that, delivering information to them so quickly and easily.

James grabbed a dishtowel and moved next to the sink, so he could dry the dishes as his son finished washing them. It was part reflex, and part a response to Nikki's reordering of his priorities. "I'll give you a hand." He didn't say "So you can go back to your essay sooner." but it was implied.

"They're all submitted online, these days, and we monitor everything coming out of Hammel for references to the school. That guy, the technopath on the security team, does it. For you, and for the rest of everyone who lives at home, there's a big lecture about keeping the school secure. Well, for everyone else, at least. I don't think you need it." As James was handed the clean pieces of blender, he meticulously dried them, still thinking.

"I suppose, if I was going to write another entrance essay, it would be about how much things have changed in my lifetime. For example, I didn't have the internet to help me submit anything."

[Nikolai Campbell]

"Guess I have, haven't I?"Niko mused, his tone subdued as James' logic sunk in. James had a way of surprising him with odd statements like that. Statements that Niko couldn't help but pause after. He more or less ignored the fact that James seemed offended, though. If he really did upset him, Niko was sure he'd know it. He hadn't said anything really vicious to James, so he wasn't going to take it seriously.

"Thanks,"Niko offered automatically when James came up to him to help. Though Niko knew that James was doing it to speed the process along, Niko accepted it with a smile. It was a nice gesture anyway, and it was less work for him, too. Besides, he knew he had to stop stalling so that James really could help him and still have time for work. As for the comment about the lecture, Niko ignored that, too. Sean's lecture was still fresh on his mind, despite the time that had elapsed since he'd sat through it, so he wasn't going to open that can of worms by saying something negative.

"That'd be weird. I can't imagine that. I mean, I know everything changes, but it's weird to think about a really big change, at least with technology. Everything just transitions, nothing's really miraculous when you disregard the bogus advertising claims. And, like, going to the moon. I missed that. I missed everything important."Niko explained now that he was considering it.

"Adults say one day our kids reality will amaze us- like, one time someone said they'd have holograms, and we'd feel like technologically impaired fools, but I don't see it happening." It was weird to think about getting as old as James at all, really. Though Chase was aging too, it was more noticeable with James because, well, James acted older to begin with. But sometimes- those rare times- he surprised Niko by proving he really wasn't in the 'senior' category yet. Niko handed the last rinsed part of the blender from the sink to his father to dry while he considered the validity of James' age.

[Dr. James Campbell]

There were a few things that James could get snobby about, and the English language was one of them. Sometimes it astonished him that people could grow up with a language, and still hit adulthood without learning how to put a sentence together properly. Not that Nikki had that issue; James still went on recruiting trips and met a lot of adults who couldn't speak correctly. (And he couldn't even correct them, because he was trying to convince them that their children would be safe with him, and making them feel foolish usually didn't help.)

"Don't worry about missing that. I missed the moon landing too." James grinned at his son, nodding. "I was born later that year. But there really are big changes; you just don't notice them as they're happening. When I was little, my parents had a rotary phone. You know, the ones with the spinning wheel thing that you dialed by turning it?" Yes, James actually did mime dialing it. "Now I can just tell my cell to call Chase, and it does. Little things like that don't seem like much, but if you showed that to me as a kid, or to my parents as kids? It's practically magic." He didn't like thinking about how old he was, or about how much gray had grown into his hair since he'd started working as a recruiter.

He took the last piece of blender and dried it carefully, then began assembling the appliance again. "I don't think you'll be one of the fools, because you grew up with changing technology. But your Grandma still doesn't understand text messaging." Once it was assembled, he put it away, then carefully folded the dishtowel. "But things are changing all the time, and that's something worth writing about. Since you've been born, the US has had a black president and a meta-human secretary of state. There have been earthquakes and hurricanes, even some that you didn't start. Facebook was started, gay marriage has been mostly legalized, the Diamondbacks won the World Series, and the Mets have won twice. History keeps happening." After a moment, he added, "And that wasn't in order of importance."

[Nikolai Campbell]

"Ahhh, I think there was a special on phones on the history channel once or something ..."Niko shrugged passively. Super old phones were also in television shows and movies occasionally, especially if the movie involved a spooky house. He'd never actually seen one in person, though. But he still knew what James meant, even without the miming. Actually, the miming only made Niko giggle at his father. Giggling aside, James made sense. But Niko kept quiet, listening. Even he had to admit the voice feature of phones was a nice advancement, though.

When James moved on to talking about him being prepared for changing technology, Niko's mind wandered back to the phone. Though he was listening, he was just waiting for a chance to ask the questions now swimming in his head.

"Uh-huh."he agreed with a nod, smiling at the little recap. It had been an interesting lifetime after all, hadn't it? Despite missing big events, obviously history had been made with him. Now, hopefully he didn't forget those important things before he got old enough to tell his kids.

"Hey."Niko muttered indignantly, mildly surprised by James' comment about him not being the cause of some of the hurricanes of his lifetime. But as mad as he had wanted to be, he had to grin at the cleverness of the comment. James was a very amusing man in his own way. So Niko wouldn't argue with the playful jab- it was true.

"I guess you're right."Niko relented. It shouldn't have come as a surprise, though. James was always right."Anyway, do you think grandma still has one?"Niko questioned."An old phone, I mean. I want to see it. How'd you get it to work? Would it work now? I mean, is it so old school it's completely obsolete?" Of course Niko would avoid the point and focus on such a small detail. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate what James said, it was just James got him thinking about something that interested him more and deserved more than a 'uh-huh' of acknowledgment.

"Because I could so write a paper on the advancement of phones! I'll rent that history channel documentary, and it'll practically write itself." Niko's tone was gleeful for the last statement and the prospect of getting out of doing any work. James just implied that he could do it on technological advancements, so why not do it on a specific one and reap the benefits of someone else's research?... Okay, that sounded bad when he thought about it.

[Dr. James Campbell]

Wait a minute, how did they get hung up on phones.? One of the problems with being such a history buff was that he was very easily distracted when it came to stuff like this. He could get lost in little details.

Okay, so maybe that was a problem with being James Campbell. He could get lost in the details of just about anything. "No, she doesn't have it any more. It was a little distroyed when I was fifteen or so. Your Uncle Mike was playing with his basketball in the house and it got away from him. He had to mow every lawn on the street to pay for a new one for her." James hadn't even thought about that incident in years, but it was still there in his memory, the thump, thump CRASH of the ball bouncing and the phone being knocked to the floor. Ma Campbell had not been happy. "We teased him for years, 'Mom always said, don't play ball in the house.'" But as soon as he said that, he looked at his son and added, "You don't remember The Brady Bunch at all, do you? You make me feel old." Almost fifty, he really was old.

"Um...No, Nikki. That wasn't what I meant at all. They're supposed to be personal essays, telling something about you. The changes in telephones have happened during my lifetime, but the only big change during yours so far is that they can go on the internet now." He could see his son's point, it was just easier to write about something other than yourself, particularly because he didn't want to come across as bragging. There was no way to win, but he had to sell himself to the colleges anyway. "You want to stand out, but not because you're the only one who wrote a research paper. I could write about changes in technology, because that's my experience. You should write about yours." After drumming his fingers on the counter for a moment, he added, "And you don't have time to wait to watch a documentary anyway. I'd like you to finish this by Monday. Your applications are due soon."

[Event !]

Thank you for your participation, the Time Warp has now ended.