The Park, Wednesday Afternoon

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

It was a warm day, Juli had been out walking after giving her final of the semester, and she had a hot chocolate from the Perk. She… didn’t like hot chocolate. At all. But it was better than the decaffeinated coffee that seemed to be the only thing around. It helped a little at least. Not much though.

Now she was sitting neatly on one of the park benches with a notebook in her lap and trying to decide what, exactly, she was supposed to teach for the summer. Going home was, apparently, still not an option.

‘Fun’ was not really her style. But it seemed to be what was expected…

[Open!]

Comments

[mike-cannon.livejournal.com]

Mike was in a good mood. He'd gone over to the mainland this morning to satisfy his need for caffeine. He wasn't going to be so happy when he got back to his apartment and found that the pound of French roast beans he bought was actually decaf.

He smiled at Juli, recognizing her from the faculty meetings. "How's it going?" he asked.

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

She smiled back, faintly, but that was more her way than because of her mood. "Well enough, despite the lack of coffee on the island," Juli said, tilting her head slightly as she tried to place his name. His face she knew, the name was temporarily escaping her. "And you?"

[mike-cannon.livejournal.com]

"I'm great!" said Mike. "I found a gourmet coffee shop on the mainland. It's a bit of a drive, but I brought some home to make tomorrow morning," he added with a grin. Too bad he didn't check the label a bit more closely.

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

"If there is still no coffee by tomorrow I might have to follow your example and head for the mainland," Juli mused. "Hot chocolate is not nearly the same thing."

[mike-cannon.livejournal.com]

Mike frowned. "Definitely not. It's not nowhere near the same kick you get out of a good cup of coffee. Thank goodness my final exam is done and I can take it easy for the rest of the week. How about you?"

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

"And it doesn’t taste nearly as good either," she said, almost mournfully. "My class had their exam just this morning actually, thank goodness, though I’m not so sure about relaxing for the rest of the week." Juli offered him a small rueful smile. "I must, after all, come up with what I’ll be teaching next before I can relax."

Not that she was good at relaxing anyway.

[mike-cannon.livejournal.com]

"Good luck with that," said Mike. "It's hard to believe the semester is over already and graduation is just around the corner."

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

"Good luck?" She raised her eyebrows inquiringly. "Are you not staying? And it is, yes, time passes quickly here."

[mike-cannon.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I'm definitely staying," said Mike. "There's nothing for me to go back to, plus I want to stick around for my friend's wedding."

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

"Nothing to go back to, hmm." Juli sipped her hot chocolate, and glanced at him. "At least a wedding is a happy occasion."

[mike-cannon.livejournal.com]

"Hopefully it will be," said Mike. He wasn't sure entirely what was going on with Mary's wedding plans, except that she had totally thrown out all her plans for a church wedding.

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

Her lips twitched slightly. "Who is it, if I may ask? And is there a chance that it might not be?"

[mike-cannon.livejournal.com]

"Mary Connell, the manager at the Arms Hotel, is a friend of mine from back home in Las Vegas," explained Mike. "She's marrying George Michael Bluth, the guy who runs that frozen banana stand. They had a date set in June, but now they've scrapped those plans and haven't set a new date."

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

“Ah,” she smiled. “I’ll have to offer my congratulations, however belated they may be then.”

Juli tilted her head at him. “And what of you? If you are staying, are you staying to teach?”

[mike-cannon.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I will," said Mike. "I had an idea for a really fun workshop, so I'll stick around for the summer, maybe longer. I like it here."

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

"It is a pleasant enough place, I do agree.” She liked it better with coffee though. “’Fun’ is so subjective, don’t you think? What is fun to me may not be to others.”

[mike-cannon.livejournal.com]

Mike liked it better with coffee too. "I had that issue with my class this semester," said Mike. "It seemed that my idea of 'basic computer skills' didn't match the level of someone of my students. I had to improvise quite a bit."

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

She laughed softly. “I’m sure many of the classes had similar problems,” Juli said. “For all our good intentions we are still what our homes made us to be and so what’s simple to us, may not be to them.”

[mike-cannon.livejournal.com]

"As long as they were able to learn something from me, I'll be content," said Mike, grinning.

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

"I'm more interested in seeing if they learned anything from themselves really but then, that is merely a personal preference."

[mike-cannon.livejournal.com]

"Well, if you need someone to listen to class ideas for the summer, I'm all ears," offered Mike.

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

Juli smiled ruefully. "The offer is appreciated but so far I'm at a complete loss for any idea."

[And I'm fleeing homeward bound now, so I'll be AFK for about an hour. SP good?]

[mike-cannon.livejournal.com]

Mike thought about it for a moment. "To be honest? My inspiration was trying to come up with something that worked outside an ordinary classroom. No blackboards, no desks, no computers, just me and a group of students," he suggested.

[last-mizrahi.livejournal.com]

That got a soft laugh. "I haven't done much outside in years and years. My natural habitat is either a lab or a conference room, I'm afraid."