Straight Up Kind Of Girl

Brennan returns the wave. It's good to see Hannah laughing with her friends over lunch at school. That, more than any conversation they've had over email, the phone, or in Milliways, tells her that Hannah is okay. Hannah is going to be just fine.

The reaction of the other students does not go unnoticed. She glances sidelong at Booth, who is carrying a couple of pizza boxes.

"I don't remember outside visitors being this big of a deal when I was in high school."

On the other hand, the FBI had never turned up at her high school, so she may not be in the best position to judge.

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"Lucky for you, I called ahead," Booth says, a bit smug. When he was in high school, school shootings were very, very rare. They're still not common, but administrators get very tetchy when strangers show up these days. "So we're cool with the administration, at least. The students...we're just gonna get stared at. Sorry."

He can't wave, thanks to pizza, but he beams at Hannah.

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Brennan shrugs. She's not bothered by the students' stares; she just finds the phenomenon interesting.

"Hi Hannah." They have by now crossed the courtyard. "I hope you don't mind us dropping in again. We have to catch an afternoon flight back and wanted to 'hang' with you a little more before we left."

She's picked up 'hang' as an idiom during this trip to California. She believes it is somehow related to surfing in this context.

"The pizza was Booth's idea," she adds.

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"That's . . . great," says Hannah, working very hard to keep a straight face over the use of the word "hang" by Brennan (and not in the context of a death's impact on the neck vertebrae).

"Agent Booth, Dr. Brennan, this is Emily Conlin, Geoff Adams, and Sam Keith, who I think you've met," she adds, getting a little dry there at the end.

There's a somewhat muttered round of inarticulate hello's.

"So, case is all solved?"

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"All solved. We got a confession." Booth's pretty pleased with that. It's not every time he gets to claim win over the physical evidence side of things.

He drops the pizza on the table. "Dig in."

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"It's nice to meet you all," Brennan says to Emily, Geoff, and Sam as she takes a seat beside Hannah. Technically she's met Sam already on this trip, but the sentiment still applies.

"The stunt people have been arrested for the murder," she explains further. "None of Lynn Echolls's family was involved as it turns out.

This is nothing that they won't be hearing on the news this evening. It's okay to discuss it.

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That's a first, really. A case none of the Echollses were involved in.

"That's great," says Hannah, taking a slice of pizza.

Her friends are still visibly perplexed by the new arrivals, and then Emily begins to giggle.

"Hey, Hannah," she says, "it just occurred to me. Do your friends have enough pirate points for pizza?"

Hannah starts to giggle, too.

It may be Booth and Brennan's turn to be perplexed.

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Booth is pretty good at looking confused. He's confused in the lab a lot.

"Pirate points?" Booth asks.

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"You get them for sports, activities, same stuff you would put on college applications, really. And then you can trade them in for things like having your lunch delivered."

In case either Booth or Brennan is wondering, there are a lot of pirate points among the students at this table.

"And," Emily adds, "there are people who like to keep tabs on whether or not anyone is cheating."

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Brennan nods as she helps herself to a slice of Veggie Supreme. "A rewards system that reinforces a school related hierarchy while simultaneously encouraging participation and conformity in the student body."

Not necessarily a bad thing--just yet another of the techniques school administrations use to promote a socially acceptable standard of good behavior.

"It's safe to say that Booth and I don't have any, but as non-students we'd have no way to earn them anyway."

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Sam and Geoff are looking at Brennan as if she just started spouting Greek.

Hannah's losing her battle with a straight face.

"I kind of don't think anyone is going to harass Agent Booth about pirate points," says Hannah.

It might cause him to loom.

"So," says Sam, to Booth and Brennan. "You'll be going home to . . . wherever?"

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"D.C.," Booth says, nodding. "Back to the real world and away from...well. Neptune." He grins at Hannah, showing that he finally understands what people mean when they say, well. It's Neptune as if that explains everything.

He helps himself to a slice of meat lovers - nothing like a little artery clogging to celebrate the end of a case. "And you guys are all seniors, right?"

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Well, it's Neptune is something you either get or you don't. Hannah's glad Booth gets it.

She nods. "Yep. Counting what's left of our high school experience in months these days."

Hannah is looking forward to getting away from Neptune herself.

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It's about time he got it. It took a few lessons, but he got it eventually.

"Nice," he says, helping himself to another slice. "And then you're off to all reaches of the globe. Or the country, at least, right?"

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"Probably just the country, but most of us haven't really definitively decided yet. Except Geoff, who's going to USC come hell or high water."

Geoff, who clearly still doesn't quite know what to make of these stange adults crashing his lunch table, shrugs. "It's a good school."

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"It is," Brennan replies, oblivious to any WTF-ery on Geoff's part. "Depending on what you're planning to study, of course, but a good school overall."

"And I have letters to send off for you whenever you need them," Brennan adds to Hannah.

A recommendation from an expert in the field never hurt an applicant's chances.

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No, never hurt in the slightest. In this case, it's probably even better than having a recommendation from Oprah.

"Thanks. I should know in the next few weeks. I really appreciate it."

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"And then you'll have to pick from all of them," Booth says, clearly proud. "Leaning toward any in particular yet?"

No, he's not pushing for GW. Not at all.

Edited Date: 2007-11-09 02:06 am (UTC)

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"Like, maybe GW?" Hannah asks.

Because he is, if not pushing for it, at least doing a bit of casual lobbying.

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"Maybe," Booth says, grinning. "I'm just saying, it's a good school. And D.C."

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The table jogs slightly as Brennan's foot makes contact with Booth's shin underneath its surface.

"Booth. We are not pressuring or pushing," Brennan warns in a not-so-subtle aside voice.

She would love for Hannah to go to GW. But not just to make them happy.

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"Of course not," Booth says, pretending to be offended. "I wouldn't do any such thing."

He grins at her, and then at Hannah. He might have been lectured on this subject before.

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"I really don't feel pushed or pressured Bre--Dr. Brennnan," Hannah says.

Geoff and Sam exchange who-are-these-crazy-people looks.

"I still don't understand why you want to go so far east," Emily says.

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"Good," Brennan says, but still not without a brief warning look at Booth.

"You have a very good range of options. And while there are notable cultural, not to mention meteorological, differences between the east and west coasts, they are by no means insurmountable."

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Sam, Geoff, and Emily are openly staring.

(For that matter, so are the sophomores at the next table, who aren't being half as casual about eavesdropping as they think they are.)

"I'm sure I'll adapt," Hannah manages, but she's now fighting a bad case of the giggles.

This is just surreal.

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