|
  |
Julie is in the garage, by a desk sipping a beer, wagging a smoke toward a pair of the high-school age students, one of them conspicuously-iguana-tailed named, appropriately-enough, Iggy, and his friend Tom. while she grades some homework. "Awright, boys, down tools, they'd gonna be calling lights-out pretty soon, so get outta here before I gotta test youse on something." She winks, though.
At some point, Sage had come in through one entrance. She didn't say anything. Just sort of remained in the doorframe, watching and listening. When people finally start to file out, she steps to one side to allow everyone to leave, greeting the students by name as they go.
Julie gives a wave over to Sage as she comes in. "Hey, Tessa, how's business withyou?" She adds, "These two got hold of a Hudson Hornet, they been doin extra hours getting her up to grade." The shop class's Studebaker project seems to be making some measurable progress as well, in one of the bays.
"The usual, mostly. I've been helping a few students with some extra credit projects they've decided to do." Not that she's exactly telling them what to do, of course, but she knows she doesn't have to say that. "Where'd they find a Hudson Hornet?" she wonders.
Julie hrms, "Poughkipsie, I think it was, some fellow getting rid of it. You might just like those, for an American car, come to think of it. Handle great for the time,don't even need to channel em, …don't cost much of anything, got a straight six with real potential, a lot of em." She offers a beer from an aluminum cooler, since apparently the parts-washer she usually uses is actually being implemented to wash parts.
Sage is not that much of a beer drinker. Truthfully, Dizzy is the only one she makes this exception for, and she's not about to change that. She accepts the drink with a murmured thanks and immediately cracks it open. That said, she nures it as usual. "It has a nice look to it," she admits. "I couldn't imagine parting with a car like this."
Julie nods. "Well, I like to have a couple, since, well, I got my Stanley about how I like him already, …if my cousins ain't got something going I gotta be doing some modifications to something, though. Been kind of thinking about getting into some more road course racing, though, maybe sports cars. Got a bit salted away from a few high-class gigs I'd been doing, maybe when that woodie project sells I could go for something Italian. Just so's I can tease the Prof about that Aston Martin of his."
Tessa lifts an eyebrow. "What's wrong with an Aston Martin?" She's not a car person, but she rather likes the look of the DB5 model. "Other than the American allergy to English cars, of course."
Julie smirks. "Hey, everyone loves those Jags, beautiful motors in those. I'd get one of the coupes if the nose wasn't so freaking long for the city. If I wanted to be all American about it, I'd just get myself one of those new Shelby Mustangs. But, you know, it's just kinda been this running joke thing."
"I've never seen a Shelby Mustang," she admits, shrugging slightly. "How do they compare to a Jaguar?" She misses the entire idea of it being a joke. Or seems to, anyhow. She focuses in on the car she hasn't seen.
Julie hrms. "Haven't driven one yet, probably pretty competetive with those Jags, and more power. Still a live axle and leaf springs, rather than fancy stuff, but, ah, " she points at her head, and says "Might be easier to kinda tell how that kinda difference feels with your stuff. Prof can pick up a lot about matching revs that way."
Sage sips at the beer in her hand, glancing at it for a moment. "I didn't realize Charles was into cars… at all." Not something that came up when he was helping her over in England. Then again, her training and education was more about getting things under control.
Julie smirks, there. "I get the feeling he thinks it's kinda like I'm encouraging a bad habit, but, hey, he's the guy letting me teach Advanced Driver's Ed. I got my powers if anyone's gonna roll something."
"That could very well be. I won't claim to know his mind." Tessa might be a telepath, but Xavier taught her well. She doesn't poke and prod into another's mind unless there's an emergency or she was given explicit permission. "Have you stopped an out of control car before?"
Julie nods. "First time I really used my stuff, that I remember, actually, there was a pretty big crackup starting to happen at a stock car race I was watching. Could just tell what was happening when someone kissed the wall and how it was starting to escalate, so, I …Kinda did some stuff. Thought I was crazy, but I think it really helped." She rubs the back of her neck, "I dunno, they say it'll come out when you're upset, I was pretty upset. "
She listens, and as she does so, she finds a place to sit. Or barring that, a counter to lean against. "I was lost in London on my own," she says. "Everyone seemed so tall, and the city was just so crowded. I remember all those voices hitting me at once. A cacophony unending." She nods slightly, chasing the ghosts of the past away by assuring herself that yes, she's here in the present. "I would have made do with an accident at a racetrack."
Julie smirks, and shrugs, apologetically. "Does really sound like I got off easy by comparison in some ways. Just, kinda glad I don't mind pretty much feeling all the spinning parts in everything all the time, but, well, yeah, I can stop car accidents, used to think that was kind of enough till Sacramento, and then, well, the Prof caught up with me doing his …thing he does without bringing his body places. I kinda had a bit of a lapse of control when they shot the President, so, with the riots it seemed like a good idea to come back East a while.
"I should apologize," Tessa offers. "I wasn't trying to make it sound as though I had it worse. We were both young, and they were upsetting situations for us both. I was just suggesting I'd have traed one upset for the other. Which… is a bit selfish, I admit." She tilts her head. "The telepathy, or he appeared before you? The latter would be astral travel - at least that's how Charles named it when I asked." And so she continues to use the term.
Julie nods, and waves her hand. "Well, with that, if it's a way I can teach folks to drive, it's all right. I don't think anyone else really digs what it's like in my head otherwise that way, you know, except other people that really drive, and then we got words." She lights another cigarette, tentatively, adds, "Trying to switch to filters, here, I dunno. " Dizzy wags that ciggy toward the door, though. "I don't mind, though. I had it easier than a lotta people, so I'll use that. Iggy couldn't go to regular school cause he's got that tail, so we're gonna be his school. Pretty natural welder, though. he could be working high steel even without this kind of education if someone let him. Tail means he's got real good balance for someone that ain't a walking gyroscope, and he's real steady."
"Prehensile, or just a tail?" Genuinely curious. Tessa is always curious about her fellow mutants, and how being a mutant shows up in different people. When kids are practicing their abilities, she's often there if she can be, watching. Her head tilted to the side just slightly, her own little quirk, showing just how interested and curious she is.
Julie wags a hand. "Kinda. He can wrap it around stuff and hang on. It's real strong, though, and if he plants himself with it, he's real steady.
Iggy's not one of her students, or she would have tried to (politely!) be nosy and ask. She nods. "Forgive me. You know how I am about these things." A hazard when one of her favourite subjects is genetics. "I'm glad he found a place with us, then. Especially if he shows talent at something. Everyone deserves to be able to pursue what field they'd like to."
Julie nods. "Well, he's a smart kid, too, could maybe be an engineer if he wants to." She shrugs, there. "Studying that, myself, sorta been thinking maybe I like being more hands-on, too, he could be like that, too, but who passes up a chance, you know?" She does a thin smile, and hand-talks vaguely. "It's all right if you can crack out a slide-rule, though. I started getting ideas maybe I could do some business in custom oil pans. Sell em out of speed shps and all that."
Sage lifts an eyebrow. "It sounds like you're trying to convince me that it's okay," she notes, then shrugs. "I have nothing against making extra money. Legally, of course." Everyone needs extra money. She knows that, understands it.
Julie shrugs a bit. "Nothing's OK, just, sometimes I dunno what I'm doing. I never been a teacher before, what do you do when you're in a place like this and you don't know whether to say 'You could get a real good job with this,' …except maybe they can't yet, and then there's all the stuff we could learn here. What's the better plan, and all that. And I guess all's we gotta do is save the planet for either in the meanwhile." She waves the ciggy around. What do you tell people about that, or tell yourself, I dunno."
Sage shrugs her shoulders. "We do what we can. I want from being a teenager in a small village to a student to the assistant of a CEO and now I'm a teacher. We do our best with new experiences."
Julie nods, and smiles. "Well, hey, it's *mutant* teaching stuff, that's pretty cool. But, speaking of that, I been trying to get the Danger Room some idea about driving on the other side of the road out of National Geographics and the international driver's license book and I dunno why aliens went to England sometimes, maybe you could tell me if they got that right. I kinda figure we could end up in Australia next thing you know or something, so I been working on this."