MM: Academic excellence.

[americas_son]

Homework: Cal has it.

Conducive to concentration: Milliways isn't.

But he's trying anyway. He's got a solid B+ so far in this class, and a really good paper could push that to an A. And Cal refuses finish his first semester of college with anything less than straight As, as much to spite his mother as out of academic pride. Good enough to get by hasn't been good enough for Cal for quite some time now. (And he's always wary of backsliding.)

Comments

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

"Okay," Cal says agreeably. He does, after all, have the luxury of not making money be a point of pride.

And he can always buy Sam a meal or something in Milliways later.

"Thanks."

[defies-time.livejournal.com]

"No worries. Aaaand here we are!"

El Retiro park is a vast expanse of green stretching well off into the distance. There's a huge pond - lake is probably a more fitting description - with a statue of a man on horseback in the middle, and boaters flitting across its expanse in little boats. Around the pond is an array of market stalls, and in the distance there are elegantly-arranged statues and trees and the definite suggestion of old and beautiful buildings. On a day like today the park is, naturally, full of people, both tourists and native madrileños enjoying the sun and a break from work.

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

It's impressive - expansive and graceful and suggestive of history in a way that nothing in New York can quite match. New York, after all, for all its size and bustle, is an infant compared to millennium-old Madrid.

Cal is not really thinking about lunch anymore as he takes it all in.

[defies-time.livejournal.com]

Sam smiles at the look on Cal's face, shoving his hands in his pockets again and whistling under his breath as he watches the kid.

"I take it this place meets with your approval, then?"

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

"It's amazing," Cal says.

". . . is that a rose garden?"

[defies-time.livejournal.com]

Sam doesn't quite shake his head, but it's a close-run thing. Trust Cal to want to see the one place in the world with a Lucifer statue.

"Yep. It's one of the newer bits, actually - I think they started on it in the Thirties."

[americas-son.livejournal.com]

Cal has a radar for these things. Plus, the garden is eye-catching.

"Yeah, it kinda looks it."

He can't really define how. It just does.