School was a busy place, and there was no student that would tell you otherwise. Well, a slacker who was failing everyting might, but even that guy would say that there were plenty of places they should have been, and just were choosing not to. Jessica always made a point of seeing her dad, though, at least once a day. She didn't always succeed at that, but she tried her best. She had a free period that day, since there was supposed to be football practic, but it had been canceled. So she had a free couple of hours, and she took that time to go to er dad's office. Everyone at the school had known her since forever, ever since her dad started working there and she'd been around.

Then she'd started going there for school herself, so she was a pretty well-known face and nobody questioned her or where she was supposed to be... unless they just didn't like her. She didn't meet many people, though, on her way to her father's office, and when she got to the door, she opened it and slipped inside. When she got inside and closed the door behind her, she was dissapointed to find that the office was empty. Her dad was a busy guy, and he had a school to run, but she wished he'd been there. Well, the only thing for her to do now was wait... which she wasn't a big fan of, but was getting more used to.

After a few minutes of sitting down, then standing up and walking, before sitting again, she decided that she had better things to do. She still had her ball with her, after all. It wasa big office as well, which almost made it perfect. She pushed some of the furnature aside and made the space in the middle bigger, then started bouncing the ball from foot to foot, practicing her foot-eye coordination. The goal was to keep it off the ground, and not use your hands, so it wasn't as easy as it looked. Well, she'd been doing it for quite some time, so it was actually pretty easy for her now. Still, you had to practice to keep yourself in goood shape. She was certainly dressed for it, wearing a pair of shorts and her long-sleeved jersey, with her hair pulled back.

James was all over the place. Lyxara strode beside him confidently as he worried and quickly moved around the school, trying to sort everything out. For some reason, there happened to be extra paperwork to work through, as well as taking a small group of potential new students on a tour around the Academy, as well as Berryn Falls as a whole. The man had a great deal of responsibility on his shoulders to deal with both an Academy and the running of an entire town, but it helped him in its own way, too. James didn’t have to think about the past, or problems in his personal life. All he had to do was concentrate on others, and everything was fine. He could even convince himself that he was totally happy some of the time.

Now, he was on his way back to his office. More work? Probably. Then again, it would be good just to sit and relax for five minutes before trundling through the rest of his day. Fun, fun, fun. Oh, of course the headmaster wouldn’t have it any other way: this was his life, and had been for a few years now. As long as he had his children and the Academy, nothing could ever be that bad.

“Are you alright?” Lyxara paused for a moment, the lupine form pricking up her ears at her other half.

”Of course. I just need to sit down. Get some coffee, that sort of thing.” Smiling reassuringly at his daemon, the man walked down the halls a little more slowly than he had been for the rest of the day. In all fairness, James was exhausted. Not that he would ever admit it to anyone but himself, of course.

As he finally saw his office come into view, he sighed in relief. Opening the door, he then spied his eldest child, Jessica, playing ‘keepy-uppies’ near his desk. The smile widened as he could see only the obvious way of breaking her concentration. Raising his right hand, he stopped the ball in mid air, and let it fall softly to the ground, watching it roll under his desk. “You know, I’m sure there’s a rule about no ball games indoors,” he then exclaimed loudly, shutting the door behind him. Lyxara shook her head, going over straight away to greet Jessica’s daemon. James, on the other hand, would wait to see his daughter’s reaction.

Jessica had been really into her own private game, but her consentration broke when her ball refused to fall back down for a moment. That was against ravity, and then it went away from her, going under her dads desk. Her half a second of confusion stopped when she looked up and saw her dad standing int he doorway. That was just like him. Rolling her eyes, Jess crossed her arms in front of her, listening to her dad scold her, or at least, pretend to scold her, she didn't think he was actually upset with her.

"Daad, I was going for a record!"

Jessica groaned at her father. It was always like this, they teased the other, and Jessica could always go into the teenage daughter act, instead of the mature older sibling one. She could switch back and forth very quickly, and it was a lot of fun. But that was all it was, fun. She couldn't remember the last time she had her dad had actually gotten into a real fight. They just teneded to see eye to eye. Although dating had been interesting the first couple times. She shook her head and he watched her dad's daemon go over to greet her own.

"Yeah, sure, take his side."

Maybe you weren't supposed to talk to another persons daemon, but there were two reasons Jessica talked to her dads. For one, she didn't like rules all the much, and followed them when they suited her... unless they were very serious. For another, it was her dads, and she'd been doing it since she was a baby, before she knew the rules. There was a special bond between her and her father, he'd always been her best friend, so it always felt natural to talk to his daemon, little things here and there.

"Whats for lunch?"

Jessica's attention had returned to her dads, and she moved to take a seat on one of the chairs nearby. She sat ont he back, with her feet in the seat, which was another annoying habit of hers. Annoying for other people, at least, she thought it was fun. As for lunch, it was about that time, and she figured if her dad wanted, they could eat together, instead of going down to the noisy cafeteria.

“A record? Bouncing a ball is a record?” James grinned at his daughter. He had never been particularly sporty at school, so he didn’t know where she got it from. Well, there was one obvious source, but he refused to think like that. His little Jessie broke the mould, and that’s all there was to it. “And Lyx would take my side. She’s not daft, like someone else I know.” Lyxara rolled her eyes, then yawned, sitting down as her tail wagged half-heartedly. She was just as tired as James. Just because she was a daemon, that didn’t mean she didn’t want to curl up and sleep!

Walking over to the room, the man threw his arms around his daughter, giving her a tight squeeze before letting her go and sit on his chair. “Jessica,” Lyxara scolded, “you’ll ruin the chairs. They’re leather, you know.” James grinned. Yes, you didn’t usually talk to another person’s daemon, but Jessica and James were so close, it was always happening. Lyxara loved and trusted her just as much as James did, so it was different for them. Family was family, after all.

“Oh, Lyx,” James laughed. The man was probably far too lenient as far as his children were concerned in some ways – even if it wasn’t schoolwork – and it was Lyxara that had to remind him at times to be a little more strict.

When Jessica mentioned eating, though, James’ stomach seemed to rumble on cue. “Ahh… I don’t think I’ve had time to eat today,” he confessed. “But I don’t have anything here. Unless you have a master plan, or you fancy eating paper and ink, we’ll need to grab something from downstairs.” He paused. “But are you alright, Jessie? Everything okay?” Possibly a little too paranoid for his own good, James couldn’t help but worry about his kids… it was just the way he was.

Jessie looked over at the two daemons and watched them both laying together. Jessica could understand why hers was tired, she practiced with him all the time, he was around running around. It was a lot of fun, but it meant that when he got some downtime, he tended to rest. Her dad's was probably tired because James was always tired.... or something. Jessie didn't spent too much time thinking about it, but it was still funny. It was cute to see both of the wolves lying like that. That was another thing she and her dad had in common. They were a different breed, but still both wolves.

"How did they ever get to be so lazy?"

Of course, she was only joking. She would never call either of the two daemons lazy for real, they both worked very hard to keep their humans sane and happy, and htye deserved a breather. That was just Jessica's sense of humor, which everone in the room was very used to. Glancing up at her father, Jessica submitted and slid down to sit properly in the chair. It wouldn't last for long, but at least she did it for a couple of seconds. His next question made her think for a minute.

"No..."

She said the word very seriously, but didn't go on. Instead she stood from the chair, before going down on her knees to get under her dad's desk. That was where her ball had rolled, and that was where she had to look in order to get it back. Some might have used their powers, but she didn't always feel like it. She picked and chose when she wanted to. When her hands finally grasped her ball and pulled it out, she stood once more, looking at her dad seriously.

"I need food."

James smiled. Jessica was just like that, wasn’t she? Happy enough to ignore the bigger questions, and even ignore her father’s worrying for something as mundane as food. Where James could eat a horse, he often forgot to take time out to feed himself properly, making sure that his figure would always stay just as lithe as others could see. Oh, Lyxara moaned at him to sort himself out, but her chastising never helped. He just physically didn’t often get the time to relax and get more than a simple bite.

Now, of course, there was more of a reason to take time and look after himself. As well as spending time with his daughter, which he loved, James had to set a good example. He didn’t want her doing anything daft because she thought it was alright for her father to do, after all. Well, this was something he still thought, even though she was nineteen now. A fully fledged adult, as far as the law was concerned. And, unlike her father, Jessica’s daemon had nearly set fully already. However, there was no way that he was going to tell her that his daemon didn’t set until way after she was born.

“Okay, then. Lead the way. I suppose I’ll be paying, though?” James grinned widely. Of course he didn’t mind, but he liked to tease Jessica, making her think he believed she only wanted him for his wage packet. Which was rather respectable, thank you very much. Lyxara rolled her eyes before transforming into her smaller second form. The bright magpie then settled on James’ shoulder. “Canteen? Or off site for something a bit more private?”

Grinning, Jessica went right along with her fathers assumption. She could pay, if she wanted to, she had been saving up since she was a little kid. But, if she was with her dad, she was more than willing to let him pay, as willing as he was. He was the dad, and she was the daughter, and she knew that she would always be his little girl.... so why not play the part? No, she certainly didn't hang out with him for his money. If she did, there were plenty of other people she could hang out with.

"Come on, puppy"

Jessica went over to her daemon and scratched his head to wake him up a bit. She always called him puppy, it was her nickname for him, and had since she was a baby. Puppy had been her first and favorite word growing up. She'd even called her dad puppy once in a while, but she'd grown out of that particular habit. When her daemon had gotten up and sctreched, she opened the door of the office, and allowed the others to leave before she did.

When she was the last person in the office, she stepped outside and closed the door behind her, using her power. She was busy using her hands to toss her ball from one to the other. She didn't like to be still, sitting or walking, she needed to have something to do, which was one of the reasons she always carried around her football. Well, not an american football, the round one.

"Where do you want to go, I don't care. Italian?"

James watched his own grin mirrored in his daughter’s face. It was uncanny at times how alike they were, but he was more than proud of that. Both of his children couldn’t be mistaken for anyone else’s. It was what he had always dreamed of. Even if they could be disobedient at times… but that’s what kids were like, after all.

Jessica walked to wake her daemon and leave the office, James walked out of the door first, watching how she dealt with her power of telekinesis. A movement, and the door was closed. James couldn’t have done better himself. Oh, where was the little girl that could sneeze and knock things off shelves with her mind? Okay, so that was when she was much younger, and a lot of these memories were dreams that an exhausted, younger James had, but they were still sweet images.

“Italian. I like Italian.” James put his arm around Jessica, like his own wing of protection. It would never matter how old she became, she would always be his little Jessie. “How about Nando’s? Pizza, pasta, anything you like. Ice cream for afters, if you’re a good girl,” he teased.

Making his way down the corridor, the man enjoyed having an excuse to break the routine. He hated it when he had to tell his kids that he was working and needed to be alone, so times like these were precious together.

Leaning against her dad as they walked, Jessica couldn't deny that she'd always liked it when her dad did little things like put his arm around her. It was a simple gesture and fathers did it to their kids all thetime, but it meant a lot to her. She always felt safe when he was around. Everythign else changed, but he always stayed the same, and his love had never wavered, no matter how obnoxious she'd gotten as a pre-teen. Alright, she hadn't really been that bad, but the point was still the same. She knew he would always be there for her, like he always had been in the past. It meant everything to her, and it was why they were so close.

"Only if I'm good? You only say things like that, just so you won't have to get it, don't you?"

Jokingly, Jessie pushed her dad with the ball in her hands. She didn't have much trouble behaving herself, but she got teased a lot about how much of a trouble maker she was. Honestly, she was pretty good almost all of the time, it was just something about being one of the guys, it got you noticed as more than just a girl, but one that was capable of doing things like teepee a building or something. She hadn't done that in a while though... months....

His idea of lunch sounded really good, though, the pizza or pasta, or both was actually really good. Pizza with a pasta topping, she'd invented that whe she was eight. Follow that up with ice-cream and hot fudge, and put it with not being in the schools cafeteria, and you had yourself a pretty darm fantastic way to spend an afternoon.

"We've got a game saturday."

“Oh, I’ve never been able to hide anything from you, have I?” James laughed. Oh, it had been rare that he had ever said that his kids couldn’t have something they wanted. Well, obviously unless it was ridiculously expensive or dangerous, of course. He still loved to treat his little girl, even if it was something daft like taking her out to dinner. In fact, he was just grateful that Jessica still wanted to spend time with him, considering she was getting older. So many children hated having to spend time with their parents, he realised quickly how lucky he was.

Then again, maybe that was because of his age. Jessie was almost twenty, after all. Twenty! Oh, he remembered being twenty… although he wasn’t what he thought it should have been. He should have been out partying, having fun, but he was married and looking after two kids, where his wife partied for the pair of them. Okay, so he lied to Jessica and Daniel about a lot of things about their past, but he didn’t see that as bad. Not when it saved breaking their hearts. No one seemed to notice that one day, he just stopped wearing a wedding band, Only photographs would now show the difference.

“A game, hmm? So I suppose I’ll be outside in the early damp of the morning cheering you on, then?” He gave her shoulder a gentle tap as she pushed him with her football. “And no cheating with your power. I’ll know if you did, you know.” He paused. “Okay. Charles will know, and he’ll tell me!”

A few minutes passed with walking, and they were at the edge of the grounds. Just a few roads to cross, and they’d be there. James was just glad he carried his wallet around with him all the time.

"You'd better be there!"

Jessica always looked up into the stands, she'd never missed a single game, and she'd never not looked. She'd also never not seen her family there, and it always meant the world to her. If she should go, and not see him there... well, she would still play, but she would feel aweful, worried, angry, sad... Jessica had a lot of emotions, it was a shame that she kept a lot of them hidden. That was how she was used to dealing with her pain, though, she ignored it. It had been that way ever since her mother left, she rarely ever cried.

"Hey, I never cheat!"

She really didn't, although never might have been a strong word. She certainly had when she'd been younger, and didn't know better. She'd used her power like she used her legs, her dad had to teach her right from wrong. That was every paretns job, and Jessie took his lessons to heart, or at least she took most of htem to heart. She knew better than to cheat in sports, though, plus, it was a hell of a lot more fun to win knowing that you did it all by yourself without using any ability that she might have.

"I hope it rains, though."

She loved the rain, and she loved toplay sports in the rain. Playing in the sun was all fun and good, you get your temperature up and you sweat, and you really feel like your worknig hard. But then again, she enjoyed the cooling water that fell from the sky too. Plus, it made the game more exciting, and added an extra little challenge. It was a lot of fun.

James deliberately rolled his eyes. “Of course I’ll be there. Have I ever missed anything you’ve ever done?” James wasn’t into sport that much – he was more of an intellectual – but when Jessica was on the field, then he was as bad as any other fan. As headmaster, he shouldn’t really show an obvious preference, but considering he didn’t coach or back a team money-wise, then he was pretty much allowed to call his daughter on. It didn’t matter whether she could hear him or not, it was that he was there, and he supported her no matter what.

That had always been the way, though. James had never missed anything. Her first word, her first steps, her first remembered children’s rhyme… he still had every drawing that she and Daniel ever did safely tucked away in a box up in the attic. James was a sentimental old thing, really.

He ignored her sentiment about cheating, though, and concentrated more on the fact that Jessica actually wanted it to rain. “You’re joking, right?” James couldn’t help but groan. “You know I can’t use telekinesis on every tiny drop of rain above my head, right? Are you a sadist?” The idea of standing out in the rain for a few hours was utterly repulsive to him. Then again, he would do anything for Jessie, so he was complaining about nothing. “Do any of your friends have control over the weather? And if they do, can we borrow them on Saturday?”

Across a road, along some paths, and there was Nando’s. Holding open the door, James then waited for Jessie to go inside.

"There is such a thing as an umbrella, you know."

Jessica laughed at the wierd factor of her dads worry. Why would he think he had to waste all of that energy just because of a little rain? Not everything had to be hard, he could just pick up one of those two dollar umbrellas to keep himself out of harms way of the water. Not that getting wet would actually do him much harm. It was only water, it wasn't going to make him melt. Jessica tossed her ball from one hand to the other, before she looked at her father with mock surprise on her face.

"What happened to not using your power for the game?"

He'd just said not two minutes before, that she had better not use her telekinetic powers to try and win the game. What difference was it for one of her friends with weather control to use their power to give her that little added advantage? She knew he probably wasn't serious, but it was a funny thought, anyway. To think that he could be putting on a double standard for his kid, and other kids. If he started that, there would be problems.

"Trust me, though, if I do get control over the water, you can bet I'm only going to make a small cloud, and it's going to stalk you the whole time."

Sticking her tounge out at her dad, she stepped inside the the open door, into the building. She could smell the wonderful foods as soon as the cool air hit her, and she got more hungry just in that second. She loved italian food, and this place made some of the best in the city. It was really lucky that it was right next to her school. Jessica took a seat as her usual table, and put her ball down on the corner of it, out of her way. Her daemon jumped up into the seat next to her, and Jess looked over at her dad.

"What'll you have?"

“Oh, an umbrella? I’d look camp,” James complained. “I have enough problems without someone asking for my opinion about some drapes,” he then carried on, joking. Oh, he was far from prejudiced, but he did have to admit that he could easily pass for gay, if he just changed his stance a little. In his own way, he was still trying to prove his masculinity, despite the love affair that he had been a part of for quite a while, now. Not that he had officially told his children anything really about it, yet. It was talk of the town, that on-again-off-again romance, but he would never say that he knew it was going to be a certain, concrete thing. Maybe James was frightened of commitment, in his own little way, after he had been burned so badly.

“That’s different,” he decided. “That’s controlling the weather, and would help everyone. You using telekinesis on the ball, making sure it went in the goal et cetera, would obviously be cheating.” He paused, trying to think of a decent example. “It’s like, if you were in an exam hall. If I used my own telekinesis to make your pen write all the correct answers on your paper, that would be cheating. However, if I used my glamour to make the hall seem like a friendlier place for everyone to work in, that isn’t cheating. That’s helping everyone. See what I mean?”

Pleased with his quick thinking, the man felt Lyxara shake her head at him. “Oh, thanks. I’ll remember that come Christmas time. Santa won’t be a happy bunny, I’m sure!”

Walking into the restaurant, James smiled at the smell of fine cuisine. Following Jessica to their usual spot, the headmaster didn’t even need to look at the menu to know what he was going to have. “Oh, the porchetta. Definitely.” Lyxara, setting herself down beside him and taking her Ethiopian wolf form, starting lolling her tongue in anticipation. She didn’t need to say a word about his excellent choice. “You know what you want, Jessie?”

Jessica simple rolled her eyes at her dad, knowing full well that he wouldn't really approve of her causing it to rain by asking one of her friends to use her power. It wouldn't actually be fair, since the rain tended to make it harder for the players, and so it wasn't like helping at all. He was being silly, which was his way. She loved it, too. She got a lot of her habits, good and bad, from her dad, although she wasn't exactly like him. They had many similarities, but at the same time, she was very different. She was like him, but only to a certain degree, and then she sort of broke out and became her own person. That had probably started around eight years old, or so.

You don't spend all of your life hanging out with boys, and then become the same as all the other girls, it just doesn't happen, and she was more than glad to find that out. She didn't want to be like one of the other girls, a lot of them sort of creeped her out with all of their make-up obsessions, and dating games, and all sorts of other little things that they did. It was gross, in Jessie's opinion, and she didn't need to start getting involved with any of that nonsense. As for food, she was pretty sure she knew exactly what she wanted.

"Pizza, with spagetti on top."

She had very odd taste in food sometimes, chop that up for a tomboy thing if you like, but that was actually a really good combination. It was good with Mac and Cheese, too, but she didn't feel like that right then. Jessie never really felt uncomfortable with herself, and she always knew she could talk to her dad if she needed to, but there was one thing that they hadn't really discussed, and that was the rumor going around about him and that woman friend of his. Jessica preffered to ignore it, but she knew it was getting to the point where it was too obvious to ignore.

"Hey dad, What's up with you and that teacher?"