TIME WARP: Kodachrome

[Dr. Sean Neville]

“That would be great, thank you,” Sean said with a smile. He looked forward to reading it, and he wasn’t surprised to hear that Josh’s mother had kept a copy. His mother was the same in that regard, although that was one of the few similarities between the women.

The telepath shrugged slightly, not believing that it was a praise-worthy trait. Honesty was important, it was a trait so important that Sean strove to embody that trait. Of course, he also frequently pretended to not know what he knew, but that was because the secrets in his head weren’t his, and thus he had no right to divulge them. “I try my best,” he said, and then left it at that.

“My father doesn’t ask for directions either,” Sean told him. Of course, his father was also good with maps as a result, and decades older than Josh. Sean, by contrast, had a good sense of direction, was good with maps and didn’t mind asking for directions when necessary. As his friend explained the last time he’d been lost, the telepath listened and then said, “It doesn’t matter what a stranger thinks about you. You know who and what you are.”

With Josh’s turn, Sean curled a finger towards his palm. He was now down to two as well. And after taking a bite of cookie, he explained without any shame, “I eat a lot of baked goods and sweets. I don’t make a habit of eating cakes all by myself, but it’s happened. I need more glucose than most other people.”

He finished off his cookie and then took his next turn. “Never have I ever gotten into a non-protest argument with a stranger.” It was necessary to qualify that because of some of his weekend activities.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh was pleased with himself for correctly guessing that Sean liked cake enough to eat them in their entirety without help. That wasn't very healthy, but then he smoked copious amounts of marijuana and stayed up until two or three in the morning, so he wasn't exactly the model of healthy living himself.

And besides, this gave him an excuse to drag Sean home with him. "You should come visit my parents with me next weekend." He suggested, eyes wide with hope that this offer would be accepted. "My mom makes the best flourless chocolate cake, I'll ask her if she'll bake you one."

He sighed at the next question, lowering another finger. Now he only had one remaining; he was so close to losing. If his exploits in journalism hadn't been enough indication that he took his politics seriously, this surely was.

"Uhhh, last week, actually." And so many times before that, even. But it wasn't as if he remembered those arguments to discuss them; he had them, and then put them from his mind. "I was on the subway and heard these two girls talking, and they couldn't have been older than us!" He added as an aside, clearly shocked that the Democrats didn't have a monopoly on youth loyalty, "And they were making fun of President Carter and calling him useless and that he isn't doing anything for the energy crisis. So I had to defend him, because he's a good person and he's been working really hard on achieving peace between Israel and the Arabs."

Peace in Israel was a subject near to his heart, if only because it came up in temple a lot, and he felt some loyalty toward what was supposed to be his religious holy land, even though he'd never been there.

"But they wouldn't listen."

He shook his head in disappointment at the folly of other people's inability to appreciate President Carter.

Now it was his turn again, and he had to think long and hard about what sort of question to ask, because they'd covered so much of the typical nosy gossip-related questions.

"Never have I ever attended another religion's worship service."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean typically didn’t go anywhere on weekends. Occasionally he was summoned back to Long Island, but that was rare. And there were no road trips planned with Greg, and he had no girlfriend currently whose family he had to visit or who would want an independent road trip. As such, his weekend was clear. More than that, he was flattered by the invitation. “If your parents wouldn’t mind, I’d like that a lot.” It would be interesting to meet Josh’s parents after hearing so much about them.

The telepath then refilled his cup and sipped from it when Josh lowered yet another finger. It was 2-1 now, close to the end. And the story wasn’t surprising at all, which is why he’d chosen that as a turn.

Sean didn’t argue with strangers except when engaged in a protest and approached first. Perhaps it was the telepathy; arguing with strangers was unfair because he had an upper hand, and as a young telepath, it was a good adaptation strategy: don’t be confrontational and don’t speak unless engaged to make sure that what you were discussing should be discussed and wasn’t the result of his telepathic knowledge.

“Unfortunately, politics gets sticky.” Jimmy Carter wasn’t his favorite president by a long shot, but he was infinitely better than Ford and Nixon, and Sean was always in favor of peace. “The same with religion, unfortunately.”

And speaking of religion, the telepath lowered one finger; now it was 1-1. The next turn might win the game. “I’ve been to a couple of Quaker meetings before, which I think everyone should go to once at least. I’ve been to Episcopalian services and once to Temple. It was interesting.”

The telepath took another sip and then contemplated his turn, because it was potentially his last chance. Then he said, “Never have I ever interrupted a speech.”

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh scoffed at the idea his parents would mind if Sean came home with him. "Course they wouldn't mind." He reassured the telepath hurriedly, "They love meeting my friends!" Donald and Bekah, and even sometimes Richard, had shown up unexpectedly at the Bernstein house on more than one occasion and rather than being an imposition they were invited in with delight no matter what else was going on at the time. The Bernstein family was nothing if not social.

"Besides, I've told my mom all about you." He confessed to the floor, which was suddenly quite interesting. "She's been asking when you were gonna come over anyway."

If she had any inkling that her son had a crush on the older boy she wouldn't have been nearly so pleased, but as it was she was thrilled that some nice young upperclassman was looking after her baby.

"Wow, a Quaker meeting!" Josh looked thoroughly impressed by this, because while Quakers were Christians, they had an almost mystical aura of Peace and Love, enough that he thought they ought to affiliate with the hippies and the other radicals.

With Sean's last question the game ended, and Josh dropped his arms down across the back of his chair. "Yeah, I have." He lowered his chin almost to the chair, as well, looking up at his friend unapologetically. "Yeah, I have. This one guy I went to high school with, he was very...anti-semitic." He grimaced at the memory. "But he was good at school and good with people, and he got to be the Salutatorian and he tried to hold the audience captive" Which was something Josh would have done if he'd been in that position "And he thought it was completely appropriate to give a speech accusing Bekah of bribing her way into the Valedictorian position just because she's Jewish. So I threw my hat at him and uhh there may have been yelling, but I honestly don't remember what I said. Pretty sure it wasn't coherent, though."

He had gotten in trouble for that just as much as Todd had, but he had no regrets about it.

"...So uhhh...I guess that means I lose the game, huh? So what do you get as the winner?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean was reassured that he wouldn’t be an imposition, both by Josh’s words and by the sincerity of his thoughts. Since he wouldn’t impose, then he certainly wouldn’t mind going at all; it would be nice to meet his friend’s family and compare them to stories and memories. “Then count me in. What day do you usually visit them? So I know when to meet you.” And could learn the address; he didn’t want to wander around the upper city looking for an hour.

He smiled at his friend upon hearing the confession, although Josh’s attention was on the floor instead of on his face. “That’s very flattering. All good things, I hope,” he added in a joking tone.

The telepath then nodded in affirmation. He liked the Quakers for similar reasons that Josh did, and with the added bonus of how their meetings functioned. Wholly the opposite of Church. “They’re very nice there, and the meetings are mostly silent reflection coupled with sharing.” He’d enjoyed them thoroughly because he could pray silently and listen to what others thought was important enough to share.

What joy Sean took in the victory – which was largely Pyrrhic anyway since it was just them playing to pass the time and learn about one another – evaporated immediately as he listened to Josh’s story, and he frowned. His classmate’s conduct was inexcusable. “You did the right thing.” As if there had been any doubt. “How did your school allow that? Did they pull him off stage or eject him from the ceremony?” It was hard to retaliate at a graduation ceremony but not impossible, and surely that was cause enough for intervention.

A kiss. It wasn’t an appropriate thought, and it was one Sean kept to himself. Instead, he looked over at the other boy and said, “Well, usually the winner is just a little more sober than everyone else and that’s the prize. But if I get to choose something, maybe I could have your helmet?” He smiled, hoping that wasn’t asking too much; he only wanted to borrow it for the party, even though it clashed with his costume.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"Uhh, usually I go down Sunday. I can wait til you get off Church." He usually went earlier than that, but he was well aware that the telepath was a practicing Catholic and he didn't want to make him miss Mass.

Josh's head snapped up at Sean's joke. "Of course it's all good things!" He shifted in his chair, expression defensive despite the light, teasing tone. "There's nothing not good to tell."

He continued to scowl at the memory of graduation. "They made both of us leave. Then we got lectured on interrupting. I don't know if they did anything else to him other than that," He admitted, "But I hope they did, because Bekah was extremely upset about it. She cried about it at our after party, and she never cries."

While he hesitated to say he'd ever been in love with his girlfriend, he was certainly fond of her as a friend, and that alone was enough to earn his enmity. The fact that his family was Jewish only added to his ire.

Fortunately, Sean was the telepath. If Josh had known what the upperclassman's first thought was when prizes were mentioned he might have died from a mixture of desire and embarrassment. As it was, he offered a cheerful smile before removing his headgear and handing it across his chair to the other boy. "Absolutely, I relinquish my throne to Mr. Trout. Are you gonna wear it or just leave it as a trophy?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

“Would it hold you up?” Sean did go to Mass every Sunday, but there was a night Mass he could attend on Sunday, if morning services would interfere with Josh’s schedule. “If it would, I could always go at night and we could leave first thing in the morning or Saturday. Whatever works best.” He was along for the ride, after all.

The telepath smiled wider at the quick assurances, although it seemed that his joke had been lost in translation. “You’re going to swell my ego if you keep that up.”

Sean shook his head as he listened; his frown deepened when he learned that no special punishment had been set-aside for the clearly prejudiced boy who had ruined the ceremony for everyone with his bigotry and for Josh’s girlfriend with his pointed attacks. “That’s just awful, nobody deserves that and especially not on such a big day. But I hope you were able to console her.” Sean could imagine how upset he would have been if someone had done that to Maggie at graduation.

The telepath returned the smile and he reached out for the helmet. He held it in his hands for a moment, running his thumbs to trace it, before he lowered it onto his head. “I think I’ll wear it, so everyone can see and share in my victory.”

[Joshua Bernstein]

"NO!" Yes, absolutely. "It's okay, I don't mind going a little later. I'll just sleep in." He did enjoy sleeping in, after all, and if he told his mother he was late because Sean had to attend Mass she would understand.

"Yeah, more or less. I mean, I tried to but she was still hurt about it, you know? I don't think there was anything I could say to make her completely not upset about it." But he had taken her home with him and gotten his mother to feed her, and she'd eventually stopped crying into his shoulder.

The mood was lightened considerably, however, when Sean placed the hat upon his head, proclaiming his victory.

"I suppose that means we have to go back down, then." He was slightly disappointed, but only because he wanted to keep Sean to himself, not share him with the rest of the party. "Unless you plan on wearing it around campus tomorrow."

He slid out of the chair, running one hand through dark hair and giving the other boy another smile despite his desire to stay right where they were. "That was really fun! And interesting. You've done some cool things."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

“If you’re sure...” Sean didn’t want to inconvenience his friend or his friend’s family when they were to host him, but he also didn’t want to argue with Josh about his schedule. One thing he’d learned these past few months of knowing the freshman was that he was extremely persistent; arguing didn’t usually do much good, even when Josh seemed to be arguing against his own interests.

“But at least you were there for her. That’s important.” Being able to support another person in need was one of the pinnacles of Sean’s moral code, and he wished that his friend had been able to take comfort in that at the time, although it was asking for a lot.

After placing the crown atop his head, Sean gave it a shake, satisfied to find that it hadn’t fallen. His smile had become a wide grin. “I suppose we have to. Greg probably needs me to help him with Karen.” He hadn’t been scanning, but he could just imagine the blond’s irritation about not being able to shake her the entire party. “And I would, but I don’t think I could get away with it. Not without arousing too many questions.”

Sean then hopped down from the bed and rose to his feet. As he moved to Josh’s side, he reached out to pat his shoulder briefly. “So have you. You gave me a run for my money this game, and it was only your first time.”

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh rolled his eyes at the reminder that Greg was still probably fending off Karen, fighting a smile at the thought of their mutual friend. "He can deal with it, he's a big boy." He protested, though he moved towards the door regardless of his objections.

Greg probably would notice that they had disappeared, perhaps accuse them (or at least Sean) of abandoning him. He'd probably expected Sean to help him get Roger's attention, anyway, and that wasn't going to happen with Karen draping herself all over him.

He gave his friend an uncharacteristically shy smile at the pat, shifting his weight uncomfortably for a moment before following him out of his room.

"Suuuure. I haven't gone to places like Canada, though." He pointed out, trailing close behind the taller boy.

But he was glad that Sean thought he was interesting. And he was even more glad to know so many interesting things about Sean. No matter what else happened during this party, he would consider it a success.