The boat banked hard to the left, sending off a spray of water as it turned. Moving in the opposite direction now it gained speed, hopping the wakes of the other boats on the broad expanse of water. The sun was shining, throwing bright sparkles off the surface where it wasn't broken by white caps.

It was a gorgeous day, perfect for driving a boat, even if it was from the shore. Even if the boat was remote controlled.

Man. Jameson missed being a kid.

They were everywhere in Central Park, standing on the shores, eating ice cream, and just having an awesome time. Because it was summer, and they were kids. They weren’t almost-adults who had to deal with things like end-of-year projects that were assessed in June and SAT scores that would determine the course of the rest of their lives.

The study book was huge...one of those monstrosities that was 'guaranteed to raise your score'. Sure. IF you read the whole thing, and did all the practice problems. It sucked. It sucked a lot, so instead he'd sat and made whistles out of grass for 15 minutes, and sat and watched the kids for another. He was running out of stall tactics though and at some point he was just going to have to study.

Flopping back against the tree he'd sat under for shade, Jameson opened the book and started trying to work through one of the math problems. The torture of the work simply had to be better than coming home and showing his parents an empty work book.

Soooo, yeeeeah. About all that flagrant goofing off and end of year stuff she'd been working on? Well. The good thing was that she'd gotten the project pretty much wrapped. The bad part was she still had plenty of studying left to do. She'd been studying, yeah. She was a good girl. A smart girl. But she could be smarter. And she felt she needed more studying. Because this was important.

Kids were playing in the park and having a blast. It was just too bright and beautiful to pass up. She could study outside.

Her backpack was heavier than a golem, and she hadn't even brought that many books. Ugh. She was pretty sure when she sat down on the grass and dropped it, it would leave an imprint, but what the hell? She'd brought it along.

Her eyes drifted as she walked over towards the shade of a tree. Children, playing. Boating. Eating. Soccer. Frisbee. Life. It was amazing. Unfortunately, she didn't see the guy on the other side of the tree when she heaved her book down by where she was planning to take her nice spot in the shade. The bag dropped.

The bag dropped and Jameson jumped. Thankfully though, he managed to stay in his skin and avoid messing up the white polo he was wearing. By this point, his mom was used to random stains, but Jameson tried to help out where he could. Still, this meant he had company, and company was another excuse to put off studying!

Peeking around the side of the tree, fully planning on taking advantage of whatever he found to provide at least another quarter-hour of distraction, he was pleased to find a girl. A girl about his age that looked familiar.

"Hey." He said, hefting his book in a wave of greeting. "Looks like you're still in school too."

It was Amelia's turn to jump. She hadn't thought there would be someone using her spot. Because this was her spot. Obviously. And nobody in their right minds ever sat in the shade under trees... she mentally facepalmed at herself for not checking. Whoops.

"Sorry! I was distracted."

That had nearly crushed him. And his. And him. Why was she suddenly flustered? Oh yeah, he was cute. That hadn't occurred to her. Still didn't. Nope.

Why was his face familiar...?

"S'alright. No harm, no foul." Jameson said with a smile, scooting a little to the side so he could see her better. Yeah, she was definitely familiar. She was cute too. Maybe today wasn't a total bust. She didn't say much, and a slight smirk worked its way across his features.

"I'm Jameson." He said. "But I think I might already know you. You're familiar"

"Yeah..." She pursed her lips, thinking. "I thought that, too."

Okay. Flustered time was over now. Her bag was already on the ground, so she supposed she might as well join it.

Amelia plopped onto the grass by the tree. Her back bumped the bark as they sat in the shade. Her eyes fell on his study materials and she arched an eyebrow.

"Studying?" She leaned forward and hauled her bag towards her. Surprisingly, there was no crater where it had been. With effort, she retrieved her behemoth of a book from its depths. "Me too." She waggled it. As best she could. Because it could have been the next Colonel Sassacre's Daunting Text of Magical Frivolity and Practical Japery. It already had it beaten on 'daunting'. Only a matter of time.

Damn. Her book was bigger. Jameson whistled low and shook his head.
She'd said he was familiar too and Jameson looked at her again, a little more intently. "Where do you go to school?" he asked, almost sure that was it. There were lots of girls at his school, and a fair number of them were attractive.

"Wherever it is, it looks like they're at least as evil as where I go." He smiled.

"At least we're in the same boat..." he said, looking wistfully towards the lake, "Just too bad it's not one of those, huh?"

"Yup," she tried to rest the book on her lap, failed, and rested it closed on the grass. She looked at the cover for all of a second, then looked up at him to answer his question. "I go to Beacon." And evil, yeah. Probably described them very well.

"I may or may not have been procrastinating some studying..."

She set the book down, and Jameson did a little happy dance in his head. Distraction. Engage. She was procrastinating on studying? Perfect. They could procrastinate together.

Also. "Beacon? No wonder you look familiar. I go there too. Finished with your Performance Item for science yet?" He asked. He'd doubled up this year and the last so he could only take one science his senior year. Not his thing, but he'd done alright so far.

"I wrapped mine up about a week ago. Just been putting finishing touches on." He paused and looked at the book with venom. "Now if the SAT would just fall in a hole and die, I'd be golden."

So they both went to Beacon? It was a small world.

She bit her lip. "Pretty much finished," she replied. "Just have to do a few finishing touches." She wanted it to be perfect. It was practically perfect already, but practically wasn't always good enough. "My first one went belly-up."

She listened to his battle story and nodded. "Yeah. Same, pretty much." And she followed his gaze towards the massive book. "And agreed, there too. I've been studying, at least... I'm kind of being a perfectionist." She frowned.

School was important.

Perfectionist huh? Jameson looked at her and nodded his head, "I can see that." He said with a grin. "There's also nothing wrong with that. Apparently being self-sufficient now means you'll be some kind of rock star in the real world."
If nothing else it meant she'd be better than half the spoiled brats they went to school with. And dammmit...now he felt guilty. She was a perfectionist, and he was using her to procrastinate.

"Well...maybe you shouldn't be procrastinating then." He said, reaching out for the book she'd set down. "I could ask you some of the questions."

>>"There's also nothing wrong with that. Apparently being self-sufficient now means you'll be some kind of rock star in the real world."

"Here's hoping," she agreed.

He reached out and took her book. She opened her mouth, but his comment made her shut it... then open it again to say "Sure. Why not?"

She supposed that would work. It was far more interesting than reading it.

Cool. She was okay with him quizzing her. It was his way of compromising between what he knew he should be doing, and what he wanted to be doing. On one hand, he wasn't reading his book, on the other....hadn't someone said sometime that the best way to learn something was to teach it?

Vocab was easy enough to do in a group setting, so Jameson flipped through the book until he found the questions in that section.

"Alright. Here we go." He said, taking a deep breath.

" Because King Philip's desire to make Spain the dominant power in sixteenth-century Europe ran counter to Queen Elizabeth's insistence on autonomy for England, ------- was -------." He paused for a second to let all that nonsense sink in, then gave the possible answers.

My God, that was all a mouthful....honestly, he was a little horrified. He was going to fail the SAT and get kicked out of life.

"Good luck."

Ah, SAT questions. Always good enough to make a young girl smile. Er. Look horrified. Yeah. That was more like it. Or at least blank for a second. Frown, maybe? She did one of those things. Maybe two. Certainly not all three.

"Damn," she mourned, pressing a her hand against her forehead as she leaned back against the tree. "Why couldn't it all be science?"

Jameson couldn't help but smile at the look on the girl's face. At least he wasn't going to be the only one kicked out of life. It was nice to have company.

Why couldn't it all just be science? "Because they want someone to do well?" Jameson said with a mildly incredulous look on his face.

It faded back into the lop-sided smirk that had been there before when something occurred to the teen and he closed the book, using his finger to hold the place. "Let's try an easier one first then."

"What's your name?"