fandomtownies | A Street in Town, Monday Afternoon

"I feel like a jackass," Sam said, still trying to get used to the uniform. He was so used to worn t-shirts and comfortable pants. This was not working. "These uniforms are reason enough to drop out again!"

He wasn't being serious, he just really hated being forced to wear something so stupid.

"No they're not." They were hideous, but things could have been worse, and even though Natalie knew he was joking, she still felt it worth saying. "Should take a little more than clothes to drop out right before graduation."

"I wasn't serious," he said, tugging at the shirt and vest and just generally looking unhappy for a few seconds before shaking his hands and dropping them to his sides. "My mom would kill me and I'm pretty sure you'd glare at me until I cried so don't worry, I'm not planning on dropping out."

"You'd cry from my glaring?"

Actually, she didn't find it that hard to believe.

In a few years, even less so.

"Maybe."

In a few years, maybe even more.

"It wouldn't make me happy to be glared at or anything."

Natalie gave that a quiet little shake of her head. "Well, don't drop out and I won't glare at you."

"Hey, I survived disappearing into nothingness for awhile so I think I can survive this," he said, glancing over at her. "That doesn't mean I'm gonna like it though. Never had to wear a uniform for school in my life."

"We had uniforms at my last school," Natalie shrugged. "But they weren't this ugly."

The plaid pants were awful, but she hadn't wanted the skirt either.

"I'm actually a little sad you didn't go for the skirt," Sam said, trying to make light of the bad situation. "I've got some found memories of you and skirts now."

Very fond.

Natalie snorted and was about to say something, except just then a man walking in the opposite direction with his gaze down on his phone finally looked up and immediately stopped walking, raising his eyebrows at her.

See, Gideon thought he'd recognize this particular feminine form anywhere. He had, in fact, people working on dress options for it even at this moment. "Oh, what a surprise, I was just thinking of you and --"

Whoops. He'd forgotten, just for a second, that there was a Natalie Adams that went here. He remembered now, though, a knowing little smile spreading on his face. "Ohhhh."

Natalie... raised an eyebrow.

"Uh."

Sam glanced at Natalie and then back at the other guy and then back at Natalie, trying to see if he'd just missed something. It didn't look like Natalie knew him so hopefully he was in the clear. Still...

"Someone you know?" he asked, looking over at Natalie.

Natalie didn't really get to answer, because that drew Gideon's attention towards Sam. "Oh, look," he said brightly, "it's Diet Coke Australia!"

... Natalie blinked. "How do you know that?"

Sorry, Sam.

"What?"

Yeah, Sam was totally lost here both by Gideon's remarks and Natalie seeming to recognize them. He felt stupid and dumb and a little left out.

"Someone wanna help me out here? Fill me in?"

"Oh, it's a meta thing," Natalie explained, distractedly. Though not so distractedly as not to shoot a mildly judgey look his way. "Diet Coke, though, seriously?"

"It's still better than being obsessed with Coke Zero," Gideon cut in, which in turn was a comment that went over Natalie's head, so guess they were even now.

Except for Gideon, of course.

Sam was kind of curious on why he was getting judged for being completely in the damn dark right now. He frowned at her and crossed his arms a little protectively over his chest.

"Look, I'm not meta or whatever it is that's bonding the two of you right now," he said, shaking his head. "Sorry."

"Ooh, this one's touchy," Gideon said. Sounding pretty darn amused by that, too.

"We're not bonding," Natalie said, dryly, eyeing Gideon. He didn't seem to mind. "No, we're not," he said. He wasn't even bothering to look at Sam as he said that, far too busy marveling at her instead. So this was Natalie. "You just look a lot like someone I know."

And yet not at all. This girl was so mousey compared to who was waiting for him back in New York.

"Things like that happen all the time," Sam pointed out, trying not to feel...weird about how this guy was looking at his girlfriend. It just seemed really oddly familiar or something. Like it was more than just a resemblance. He stayed where he was, though.

"You look kind of like a shaggy dog I once saw." Sarcasm was a strong suit even if he was feeling out of the loop.

Gideon glanced over, clutching a hand to his chest, to his heart. "Ouch," he said. "Why so hostile?"

Natalie could think of a few reasons, to be honest. She was still giving Gideon a wary look.

"Who the hell are you, anyway?" Sam asked, looking over at Natalie. If she wasn't gonna talk, he'd talk enough for the both of them since he had no idea what the hell was going on right now.

He couldn't read anything off this guy emotions wise and the colors were just telling him he was a regular human, but still. "There something I can help you with, guy?"

"It's Gideon, actually," Gideon said, even going so far as offering his hand to the kid. He figured there was no real harm in revealing his name in front of Natalie. What did he care about timelines? "Gideon Graves. Fandom High school board treasurer."

He was going to ignore that other question.

Yeah, he could picture this guy being in charge of a lot of money, he really could. To be polite, he did take his hand and shook it though he was still feeling pretty on his guard and Natalie's silence didn't really help. She did this when Todd's name came up and now this so he was...a little wary.

"Sam LaCroix," he responded after a moment. "Treasurer, huh? That come with a little badge like the Girl Scouts get?"

Gideon was borderline impressed, honestly. Pilgrim, by all accounts, was not too quick-witted with words, and Ingram could barely string a sentence together.

That didn't mean Sam's little quip warranted more than an eyeroll as he turned to Natalie again, offering her his hand in turn. "And who might you be?" he asked though oh, did he ever know.

"Natalie Adams," Natalie said, coolly. He bowed his head and kissed the back of her hand; she didn't stop him, but she didn't look particularly impressed, either.

Sam watched that little display uncomfortably but didn't say anything since Natalie was letting it go and he didn't want to start anything right here. Later, though, he might say something but that wasn't for now.

"Wow, Natalie, hope your hands were clean since some guys seem to like putting their lips anywhere these days," Sam quipped, raising an eyebrow. "That's how germs are spread, Gideon."

Please, he was not calling this guy, Mr. Graves.

"Kinda gross."

And now Natalie was raising an eyebrow at him because he'd just about toed the line of insulting her, there.

Whereas Gideon let her hand go and gave him a little chuckle, like Sam was oh so funny. Or pathetic. Or maybe he'd just caught that look from Natalie. One of those. "I will keep that in mind, Mr. LaCroix," he drawled. "In the future."

Oh he cracked himself up.

Hey, he was not at his best when random guys seemed like they were...trying to get overly familiar with his girlfriend. It left him trying to get a foothold or something.

"You got big plans for the future?" Sam asked, trying to be conversational despite wanting to kind of just walk away. "What kinds of things do treasurers want in their future? Better tax write offs?"

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