”Well, then, lucky for you it’s not one of those things you find when you’re actively looking.” the Medium said, refusing to allow Locke’s pessimisms to dampen his spirit. ”You wouldn’t believe the revolving door of women I went through before Lee.” Tarin said with a wan smile…the boy probably wouldn’t.

” Besides, you can’t tell me that you haven’t noticed pretty girls. I won’t believe it. Try talking to one sometime. As soon as you stop stammering you‘ll have a decent conversation…that is if she‘s worth talking to.”

The game had already moved into the top of the third inning on the back of some serious play by both pitchers. Tarin watched a few at bats, then turned back to Locke as he spoke about his siblings. He’d already gotten the shirts, and wasn’t thinking about going back any time soon.

”Have you thought about getting a job?” the Medium asked, looking at Locke a little more closely, ”I’d offer you one at the shop, but our workers haven’t ever played out. Besides, we’re not open enough to really justify having someone work anyway. There’s loads of other mutant friendly employers around though.” Tarin said, thinking about the bookstore Shin worked at and the clinic that Sebastian had opened.

”It’s a good way to meet people too…eh?” he said, nudging Locke and giving an eyebrow wiggle. It was meant to be a joke, hopefully the kid would get it. ”You should ask around at the Mansion, because if you’re planning on staying for a while and don’t want to ask your Step Mom for help….” he trailed off and shrugged, ”You’re doing okay right now, though, right? They take care of you over there?”

Tarin couldn’t imagine anything else, everyone he’d met from the School seemed well fed and taken care of…but it couldn’t hurt to ask. It didn’t seem like anyone else was right now.

“Yeah I’ve been thinking about getting a job,” Locke said, “It’s just kind of hard to find anything. The economy is bad, I’m only sixteen, which means anyone who hires me has to play around school schedules and laws of employment for minors, and I have to rely on public transportation because I don’t know how to drive.” It was hard to think of any job that he could get other than the typical McDonalds fry slinger. Tarin said something to the effect of offering Locke a job if there had been any logic behind it. He didn’t blame the man for not being able to do so. For one Locke was too much of a skeptic to be working in a business where you need to make people believe in something.

He pulled his hat off and played with it in his hands, his attention still mostly on the game. “It’s cool. If you remember I am not the best person to promote the ghosty business.” Still it was nice to have it mentioned the possibility of a job offered. Even nicer was that the adult was interested in how he was doing. “School's alright. I hate my math and science classes. And there was that Cthulu thing and the gun fight I ran into, but generally speaking things are good. Better than in San Francisco.” Locke sneaked a peek at Tarin to see how the medium would react to the whole gun fight thing.

Yeah, I had that problem. It’s why I started the whole Medium thing. It wasn’t always the best option for me because before I actually figured out how my powers really work it caused problems you wouldn’t believe. I also get blazing headaches when I work too much. I guess my brain can only take so much.”

Tarin wished he could give Locke a job, or do something more to help him figure out what he needed to be doing to land one. The kid had a point though, it was difficult to find places this year that didn’t involve deep fried grease that would hire a sixteen year old. Especially a mutant.

”I didn’t work jobs until I was in college. My mom didn’t think it would be good for me. School was bad enough, everyone thought I was nuts. Again, you should talk to Sam or Shin or someone at the Mansion. Surely they’ve got some connections for jobs. Heck, there’s probably something at the Mansion you can do.”

He was impressed by school, that much was obvious and Tarin cast a wan smile in the kid’s direction. ”That’s not out of the ordinary. Math and Science can be a huge pain.”

On Locke went, explaining something about something called Cthulu that Tarin didn’t even want to ask about, then he brought up a gun fight he’d been in. The kid looked alright, and probably wouldn’t have been talking so casually about the event if it had ended in physical harm, but still…

“Sam doesn’t already have you running missions with the team, does he?” the Medium asked, brows drawing together slightly. Locke was young, too young to be running around the X-Men and getting himself shot at. Knowing Sam, though….

One would think since Locke followed logic and analyzed, sometimes overanalyzed, everything that he’d like those two subjects. Science logic didn’t seem to want to work for him, and math… well Locke had problems understanding the rules at times. His math teachers never seemed to understand how to term things in a way that he could understand. The more liberal classes were Locke’s pace. He was did well in his English classes, and not just because back in San Francisco the major requirement was to read one book each marking period. Gym had been a good class before the accident. Locke groaned as Tarin commented about his hated classes. “You have no idea.” It didn’t help that Locke was confusing himself with research he was doing about earth and dirt stuff, as well as some basic human anatomy. Was it helping him with the golems? Eh that wasn’t important right now, since the next person up to bat hit a foul ball. Though it did not go towards their section, Locke had the same excitement that one of those sitting where it was headed did. Watching someone catch a foul ball was almost as good as it was to get your own.

“Nah, I stick to my room usually at the school, or go to the library. There was this crazy guy who ran into the fight with a crowbar. He was going to get killed if I didn’t do something.”

More empathy. High School was rough. Tarin really did understand, probably doubly so for someone who seemed as shy as Locke obvious was with people his age. Tarin thought about it for a few moments, the kid was probably what could be considered an old soul. That was slightly more difficult for the Medium to relate to, he’d never been considered anything close to overly mature.

They were at a ball game and Tarin snagged the nacho guy, procuring two orders. If Locke hadn’t wanted any, he’d simply eat them himself. This was the American Past time after all…overeating was a must.

Luckily for Sam, Locke hadn’t gotten involved in any of the more intricate workings of the X-Men yet. Tarin was noticeably relieved, there was no way Locke was good enough with his powers to actually go on missions yet. The X-Men picked them up young, though…Tarin could hardly believe how young they were on the whole…right down to their leader.

Tarin shook his head at Locke’s description of the fight he’d gotten himself into. ”Well. At least you didn’t get hurt.” Tarin said.

There was no way he was going to lecture the kid about the safety of such activities. Locke was smart, surely he knew how dangerous what he’d done was.

”The hardest thing you’re going to learn about people, Locke, is that sometimes in spite of everything you do. You can’t save them.” he said by way of words of wisdom. Tarin ate some nachos, then chuckled wryly.

”That’s the other way you know she’s the one…that rule completely stops mattering.”

Not only could Tarin see ghosts, or at least the illusion of ghosts, but he could also see straight into the stomach of the average American teenager and tell exactly what they wanted. “Aw hell yeah,” Locke exclaimed while taking his share, showing more excitement then he normally did. He was a sucker for the so called “Mexican” food. More than the stereotypical McDonald’s/Burger King and pizza combined Locke would gorge on Taco Bell. Spicy and strange foods were his weakness, and the messier the food the better it was. It made little difference to him that the nacho cheese was sliding down his hand. This was the food he dreamt of. “If karma does exist, you have major good waves coming at you.”

The loud crunching in his ears from the delicious nachos almost drowned out Tarin’s sly comment about ‘the one’. Locke rolled his eye and groaned. “What’d you do before coming? Watch A League of Their Own? Look, I might, and that’s a big might be wanting a girlfriend, but if I want the love advice I’ll let you know Dr. Ruth. Right now I’m here for baseball and to get out of a rut.” It wasn’t a rant really, more like a lecture of sorts. Baseball was baseball, girls were disaster and confusion. “And the flaw with that statement is that it would mean incest for me.” Not that Locke wanted to be in the date love with his little brother and sister, parents usually want their child to be safe, even if it meant the parent wouldn’t be. “And it’d be whatever the reversal of the Oedipus and Electra syndrome for you when you have a kid of your own.”