#rivervale_lodge

"A knight should be good with horses, right? And I'm gonna learn how to joust!"

"She's got a horse? It must be HUUuuuuu..... uh. That's neat."

"Oh, he's amazing, yeah! And gigantic, but not always? He's a Fae Steed, and can change size."

"PLUS he's smart, at least as smart as, like, a dolphin or a monkey. He understand English."

"Woah, really??" He glances over at her, impressed.

"Where are we going?"

"Oh, right, ice cream..."

Dagmar directs to the Carvel's, not the DQ...

Adam rocks up, hops out. "What are you gettin'?"

"Um. Mint chip?"

"Nice!" Approving. "Two scoops? Could get more than one flavor, if you wanna get freaky."

"Oh. Um. Maybe chocolate, too?"

"Like a thin mint. Kinda."

"There ya go!" Approving. "I'm getting rocky road and.... Hm. Strawberry!" He leads the way in, they order, he pays, they find a table. "Ok, so.... like.... tell me stuff."

"Like... what stuff?"

Adam takes a bite of each flavor, then a bite of both on the same spoon. "Ok, so.... your folks adopted you; sounds like a good deal. Your mom's wicked talented, I love her YouTube stuff. What's your dad do?"

"Dad works at the Stop'n'Go. He's the shift lead!"

"The adoption was all official in April, and Dad married Tove in May."

"Aw, neat." A grin.

"Yeah." Sigh - a happy one. "I'm pretty lucky. I got a good gig, nowadays."

"So.... what's school like here?"

Shrug. "Okay enough. I don't like it that much."

"I mean, who does?"

"But shop is a lot of fun, and I'm good at it. And gym!"

"You take shop?"

"Sure I do."

"I like making stuff. It's... straightforward."

"That's cool. I didn't take shop before, maybe I will here. Gym's good too. And lunch." A grin.

"And lunch. Yeah. I usually eat with May and Gonzales."

"They're on the team."

"Yeah? Cool." He stirs his ice cream a little. "Are they.......?"

"Human? Yeah."

"I will eat with Sylvi sometimes, but she has her cheerleader friends at school."

"Symon doesn't usually eat lunch..."

"Sylvia's a cheerleader? Cool." That grin again. "Yeah, Symon... what's his deal?"

"Symon's a sluagh. He can't eat regular food."

"That's.. like, with everything, there's good and bad, right?"

"I guess... what's the bad, for you?"

"Oh... well, we get to be strong - but we can lose it, if we screw up."

"Yeah? Hey, want to try some?" He offers his ice cream.

"Sure! Wanna try mine?" Spoon trade!

A grin, and he tries it. "That is like Thin Mints. Ok, so.... hey, Symon said Sylvia was seeing some guy."

"Sylvi." She corrects. "And yeah, Colton."

"He's decent. He likes superheros, too."

"Sylvi? Oh. Ok." He nods. "Big guy?"

She nods. "Like me and the rest, yeah."

"Oohhhh...." Full picture. He nods. "Yeah. Ok. And Siv's not looking for a rebound. What about you?"

"Uh... what?"

" are you dating anyone?" And there's that cute, cocky smile again

Purple. "Oh. Uh. No."