"The Blakes always send their kids to Stony Lake. I don't even have to apply the normal way, there's an arrangement. Whether I want to go to Stony Lake like my mother and her mother before her is a different question." She sighs. "I mean, I don't know, it's probably fine, I guess? It's a normal university, a normal town slightly bigger than ours, a normal lake slightly smaller than ours, normal woods way less spooky than ours. I could take normal classes and learn normal things. I don't actively object to anything about it. I don't have some kind of burning passion for some specific subject that's taught better at a different school. I just, maybe, want to... be something besides the latest Blake heir. You know?"

"That makes sense, and sounds like it sucks," he consoles her. "You feel like you're not even getting to choose, that you're just stuck doing what you're forced to do, right? That... sucks." He isn't sure what else to say besides that.

She sighs and nods. "Yeah. Yeah it does." Then she smiles tentatively at him. "How about you? Any plans for your future? Any burning passions?" (It's possible that her eyes might flick to his lap when she says 'passions'. Maybe.)

(He picks up on and blushes a little when she looks there. She's so cute and very into him and it would be a very bad idea to do anything about it. Yet.) 

"I'm going to Carnegie Mellon," he tells her. "For math and stuff. It's what I'm good at, as you've, well, noticed, and a lot of fun! And Carnegie Mellon is a pretty good place, I think." 

"Math is fun. How does calculus on the couch rate in your eyes as a Normal Date Activity?"

"I... hadn't considered it one before. Um. I guess if you want to come visit I could tell my parents that I'm tutoring you in math, and they won't think anything of it. It's happened before. As you know. It might even be true, if we're doing calculus. Though um, actually, you said you like it, so you probably don't need any tutoring in it. How do you feel about learning other math, like logic and group theory and sets and things? That's the real fun stuff. Er. I mean, that's the stuff I really like, and am currently leaning about." 

"I would love to learn anything you'd like to teach me." She's gazing adoringly at him again.

He blushes. 

"Okay, um. Sure. How did you get here? I biked, but it's not too far if we need to walk? Though you probably came in a car, didn't you." (The Blakes are rich.) 

"Oh, I just hadn't gone home yet. I would be very happy to walk home with you. Fair warning, I am going to be super obviously in love with you the whole time. I have no idea how to turn it off. Your parents might notice even if you tell them we're just studying."

"That's..." he pauses. His parents will probably be happy to see him dating someone. (Possibly less so if that someone is a Blake? Not sure, honestly, the big (magical, apparently!) families in Lakeview (how many of them actually are there?) are families to be wary around, but their favor is also coveted, so...) "...we'll deal with that if that happens. I think. I'm not sure if I want my parents to know that I'm dating you, yet? I don't entirely know if I plan to be." (He wants to be, oh how he wants to be. He just isn't sure it's a good idea.) "But... it will probably be okay?" 

"Well, I think you should date me," (she bites her lip to stifle a comment about what else she thinks he should do with her), "but I am a known biased source. We can do normal lowkey datelike activities while you figure it out."

"That... makes sense," he tells her. He stands. "We can go to my house and um, learn math in the meantime? Since you suggested that as a date activity. My bike is over there." 

"Yes, I remember where you put it."

She does the reaching-for-his-hand-and-then-no bit again as she stands up to follow him.

That... definitely makes his heart quicken for a moment; part of him wants her to actually hold his hand and part knows it's a bad idea. (Other parts want other parts of them to touch.) 

He leads her to his bike, unlocking it from the pole. "So... how many magic families are there in this town, actually?" he asks, as he prepares to leave with her. Then pauses, and looks around. "Or wait," he whispers, "should I not be talking about that out where anyone can hear? I'll be more careful, sorry!" 

"What you said there was pretty fine but it's a good idea to start developing that kind of caution anyway. To answer your question without fully answering your question, I'm sure you've heard of the Blakes, Favreaus, and Strands. The... lesser major names, let's say... are Ellsworth, Van Allen, Carpenter, Hedlund, and Payne. Do I need to explain all the politics there or have you picked up on it since the Linda incident?"

He's pretty sure she didn't mean that as a negative comment on his ability to understand what's going on around him (it doesn't fit her character or mannerisms at all, or the way she's talking about it) but he still feels a bit slighted by it before he catches himself. "Some of it?" he tells her. "I definitely know that the Favreaus and Strands are... at odds, and the Blakes are generally in the middle, I think? And I think the Carpenters tend to side with the Blakes, and the Hedlunds with the Faveaus, right? I'm less certain about the others. Knowing there's magic involved... puts a different sort of perspective on it all, and knowing the names involved lets me at least make certain guesses. I certainly would never could have possibly guessed that that helping Linda Ellsworth would have gotten my stuff lit on fire, thanks for that by the way." 

"You're welcome! Yeah, the thing about Linda and Jess is a headache for everybody. They've been on-again off-again besties since elementary school and every time they're off again Jess starts hounding anyone who gives Linda the time of day until they make up, and of course the Ellsworths aren't keen on Linda crossing the divide because they're a Strand family—them and the Van Allens, and you're right about Carpenter and Hedlund, and the Paynes are with the Favreaus too." She lowers her voice a little. "Um, by the way, the Paynes are pretty bad news and you should probably just stay away from them." Back to more normal tones, "Sorry, I grew up with all this stuff, I have no idea what a normal amount of understanding Lakeview politics would even look like. I feel like that lady with the banana—you know the meme, 'what could it cost, ten dollars'—wildly out of touch with how most people live their lives."

"That's fair," he tells her, "we've only been here for six years or so, mom moved here for work -- she works at the Lakeview Hospital now -- so I don't have a full perspective on everything, just what I've picked up from well, living here." He lowers his voice a little too. "I'll um, keep in mind what you said about the Paynes, thanks." There aren't any in his grade, he's pretty sure, so he's not sure where he'll run into one, but he'll keep that in mind. He doesn't have any good reason to distrust the magical (part fae?) girl who is telling him all of these facts about magic in the town he lives in. (This is not how he expected his birthday to go. Cake and ice cream and presents are much more normal surprises. A girl who belongs to a magical family and wants to literally belong to him via some magical ritual is a different class of surprise altogether.) 

"Oh, your mom's a—doctor? Nurse? Oddly specific janitor? Neat! I wonder if hospitals do need special janitors. They might. You'd probably need more biohazard-related training than a regular janitor," she muses.

"I don't know if they need special janitors. I could ask if you want? They do probably need some sort of special training now that you mention it. And mom is a doctor, not a nurse or a janitor. Not that there's anything wrong with either of those!" He wrinkles his nose in thought. "Other than being magic, and well, rich, what do your parents do? If anything, being magic and rich is possibly all one really needs, isn't it." 

"You're not wrong about that. My dad restores old paintings but I think that's less of a job and more of a hobby for rich people, at least the way he does it. He's really good at it though. —oh, uh—Blakes always have daughters so the men always marry in, but that's specific to us."

"It... huh. How does that work? Like, what makes you only have daughters and no sons, and why is that specific to you?" 

"That's a great question that I can't really answer. As far as I know, nobody really knows what started it. It's definitely been happening for as many generations of Blakes as my mom had me memorize when I was a kid. She won't tell me if we're using magic to keep it up or not at this point; she says it's none of my business unless I decide to have kids. I do know it tracks something about the household or the town or whatever else I'm heir to, because again, memorizing generations of Blakes. We have distant cousins whose ancestors moved out of town ages ago and they seem to be having children normally these days."

"That's..." huh. "Well, that sounds like magic, to be honest," he tells her. "But clearly, it is. Okay then. Are there any other strange facts about your family I should know?" Probably a lot, now that he thinks of it, but too late to take back the question. And he's learning! 

"I mean, I'm sure there are plenty, the question is which ones."