14466/The Road to Independence Day

The Road to Independence Day
Date of Scene:	05 July 2022
Location:	West Harlem, Manhattan
Synopsis:	A cat and a witch run into each other. Columbia University will never be the same again!
Cast of Characters:	Jax Miller, Willow Rosenberg

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Jax Miller has posed:\<br\>    July, oh sweet July. Month of summer, month of freedom, month of holidays and parties. A celebration of life, of freedom, and a love of all things that go boom while consuming heavily processed food cooked outdoors by inexpert amateurs on barely adequate grills. In short, a time to celebrate all things American!\<br\>\<br\>    Including, of course, that long standing tradition of hopefuls coming to see the Campus of the college they are to call home for the next three years, while trying desperately not to make a fool of themselves. This is, of course, easier for some than others. A fairly rigorous selection process has already weeded out the no-hopers, of course, because anyone without some sense of self reliance would be hard pressed to even finish the application papers for Columbia. Of those that remain, well over 90 percent are culled as unsuitable. It takes brains to be admitted to this Ivy League institution... serious brains.\<br\>\<br\>    Serious brains or a fat wallet and a family with connections.\<br\>\<br\>    Or some serious skill on the sports field.\<br\>\<br\>    Exactly which of those categories the mutant happily strolling along towards the Campus falls in is hard to guess. Dressed like a typical New York teenager, he may not even have come very far. But even here, there are some people who are starting to recognise Jax for who and what he is... the son of an extremely good quarterback and a top flight lawyer, ticking both the potential sport and brain categories.\<br\>\<br\>    Only the admissions staff at Columbia knows about the family and connections, and they're not talking.\<br\>\<br\>    Still, Jax strolls along without a care in the world, looking around like a tourist out in the big city for the first time.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:\<br\>Willow should have gone to an ivy league school from the beginning. That or CalTech. But Buffy was going to Gotham U.. Which meant *Willow* went there too. And because she had applied too late for scholarships her first year was iffy as far as finances went.\<br\>\<br\>Funny thing. Willow had more choices to choose from for her Masters, seeing that Buffy wasn't going on.. and she /still/ was late!\<br\>\<br\>Though for some reason Columbia snapped up Willow, including a full ride scholarship!\<br\>\<br\>This would be her first time on campus. And she was a bit nervous! Gulp!

Jax Miller has posed:\<br\>    It's pretty easy to spot the visitors coming to visit: they were all wearing one of two things... a 'visitor' badge, or a slightly terrified expression. And in many cases, both. Tours were being organised around the main campus, with bus rides to the different satellite schools around the area, some as far away as 136th street. Clubs are trying to attract new prospects, school teams are scouting for talent, and the more serious students are even already registering for their majors. It is, in short, a loosely controlled chaos where everyone either finds their path or falls at yet another hurdle to admission.\<br\>\<br\>    Among this chaos, Jax has bounced from one spot to another, first of all checking out to make sure his details on file were correct (they were), his final grade average was enough to meet the criteria (it was, just), and that there was in fact space on the football team for him (there was). So now he's looking over all the paperwork he has to sift through, navigating the throng by extensive use of all the cat-like senses he possesses, and yet still manages to walk straight into Willow. "Woops!"

Willow Rosenberg has posed:\<br\>Meanwhile, Willow doesn't precisely need to take the undergraduate tour, after all, she's in her Masters.. Oh gods! What if she were wrong?! Maybe she misinterpreted the letter? What if it was for next year?? What if it was a denial??!\<br\>\<br\> What if..\<br\>\<br\>Willow had to see the letter again (for the tenth time today!).\<br\>\<br\>~Dear Ms. Rosenberg.. yada yada.. (things about the school, the lineage,etc).. yada.. ~\<br\>\<br\>Here it was:\<br\>\<br\>~We are pleased to accept you for a combined Master's of Maths and Computer Sciences.. yada yada..~\<br\>\<br\>It was true! And here she was checking it out on the main campus. For a moment people wandered around her in slow motion, while she stood still and drank it in. Columbia. Her school.\<br\>\<br\>Squuuuueeee..woops?\<br\>\<br\>"Huh!? Oh!" Willow blushed. "Did I hurt you?" She scrambled to pick up her letter.

Jax Miller has posed:\<br\>    Papers! Papers everywhere! The letter, the admission papers, the whole shebang, it all lands on the floor in a jumble, and Jax stoops down immediately to start picking them up. Behind him, his tail sways as he leans away from his center of gravity to grab the scraps of paper that have started blowing away, snatching them with an almost superhuman speed and returning them to a semi-neat pile that is, undoubtedly, in nowhere near the correct order. He manages an apologetic smile towards Willow, his ears perked up in amusement.\<br\>\<br\>    "Nah, nothing bruised but my pride. My fault." And of course, one of the bits of paper he picked up was Willows letter, and after glancing at it for a moment, hands it over. "Sorry, this is yours I think. So, I guess that might be mine..." he points at the paper in Willow's hand, which has his application details on it.\<br\>\<br\>    Jax Miller\<br\>    Major: Business\<br\>    Course: MBA, 1st year\<br\>    Columbia Business School\<br\>    Scholarship: Sports (pending)

Willow Rosenberg has posed:\<br\>Willow looks at the letter in her hand. Sure enough in the crash she'd rescued his. Not hers. "Oh!" For a moment she held onto his papers, then blushing (again!), she held it out. "Could I have mine back.. Please?"\<br\>\<br\>That paper was the only thing she could remind herself that here was where she belonged.\<br\>\<br\>"Hey! You have a scholarship too!" That made her feel more secure. "I've got one based on my grades. I guess." Then she added, "I really don't play sports. But I do do taichi! Oh! Willow. My name is Willow. Gosh this is such a large school. Bigger than my first one."

Jax Miller has posed:\<br\>    "Jax. Jax Miller." the cat mutant says unnecessarily, since it says so right on the letter that gets exchanged for Willow's. He even ends that with a wink, and an offered... hand? Paw? It looks like a human hand, mostly, except for the parts where it looks like, well, a human version of a cat's paw. But the cat mutant's eyes seem to sparkle with mischief, a deep cerulean blue with typical feline vertical slits. In a sea of humanity, he clearly isn't.\<br\>\<br\>    "Honestly, they offer everyone willing to play in the Lions a sports scholarship these days. I mean, they need all the help they can get, so they finally got lucky and I'm old enough to enroll. Not sure I'm going to take the scholarship, but it'd be funny."\<br\>\<br\>    Except, of course, a lot of people would confuse him with the team's mascot, Roaree the Lion. Yes, the situation is that desperate.\<br\>\<br\>    "What was your last school? Mine was a private place up state, kind of my dad's idea." Kind of. Because eventually, all lucky mutants end up at Xavier's.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:\<br\>"Gotham U. My best friend went there." As if she couldn't go anywhere else.. Well she couldn't.. ish.. for other reasons as well. Namely the Scoobies, and the Justice League.\<br\>\<br\>Willow showed no fear with shaking his hand. After all, she worked for X-Corps in the summer. The only human employed in the entire company!\<br\>\<br\>"Uh.. what are the Lions?" Yes, she doesn't know.

Jax Miller has posed:\<br\>    At that question, Jax puts an arm around Willow's shoulders and motions grandly at the display showing the Columbia Lions in all their glory. It's... it's a very small display. There is, suspiciously, no mention of any trophies. "The Columbia Lions, Columbia's own College League Football team. Consistently places last, except for that one stretch last century in the mid seventies when coming last would have been an improvement. The only team ever to go seven years without a single win!" Yeah, he's... surprisingly enthusiastic for a future scholarship in a team that would have difficulty winning more than one game in a whole season.\<br\>\<br\>    "My dad was hoping I'd go to Buffalo and play for the Buffalo Bulls, but grandpa made it pretty clear that if I did that, it was goodbye trust fund. Not that I found out about that until, like, four months ago. I'm telling you, going from an easy ride in Buffalo to a scramble for the grades to get into Columbia..." and he drops his voice to a conspiratorial whisper "I actually had to study! That was, like, nearly work. Don't know how people do it, it was awful."\<br\>\<br\>    But awful or not, here he is... so can't be that much of an idiot.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:\<br\>Willow was friends with Giles. Football meant a whole different sport to her (even growing up in the USA). "Soccer?" Yes, Willow said soccer. "Are you happy.."\<br\>\<br\>The rest of the conversation gave her the giggles. Even though she worked for her grades, she didn't need to. Witness the 4 majors she took in her undergrad. That and her jobs and her other jobs, kept her quite busy. Though she was giggling at the thought of working hard.\<br\>\<br\>"You only worked for the last semester? Really?"

Jax Miller has posed:\<br\>    "Football, not ballet." Jax corrects, but in the tone of voice of someone who doesn't take it all that seriously, and would probably be fine with either.\<br\>\<br\>    The giggle seems to get his ears perking up again, as if he's the kind of person who's not truly happy until the people he's with are smiling or laughing. "Well, sorta, kinda, but not really. Worked for the last couple of years to get something half decent, y'know, nothing great, nothing so terrible I wouldn't even get into Buffalo, even with my dad's sponsorship. Y'know, coast. Kick the skateboard down the hill, let it roll, occasionally get out of the way of a pothole." Ah, the way of the lazy teenager.\<br\>\<br\>    "So really, I was a good way there already, just... had to actually engage a couple of braincells to get the average up from 'Buffalo freeloader' to 'Columbia'. And what made you come all the way from Gotham..." as if it's that far away "... to Columbia? I mean, I heard the food's great here, but really."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:\<br\>"Ballet? You mean tutus and pirouettes? I meant soccer. Booting around the ball with no hands allowed." Willow pretended to kick a soccer ball around. "See?"\<br\>\<br\>How did he get ballet from that?! Did they even /have/ a ballet.. team? That diddn't sound right. Troupe? Yes, troupe. Phew.\<br\>\<br\>"Why Gotham? My friend went there. If I would have chosen my own school, I would have gone to the west coast. I had some of the highest numbers in the US, but, I guess I thought I needed to be with her.." And the Scoobies. "But now she's done, and my friend talked me into applying here. I actually am surprised. I even put my application too late."\<br\>\<br\>That part she had no clue how she did it. But she's not going to argue!

Jax Miller has posed:\<br\>    "Yes, ballet. Round ball, eleven per team, run to one end of the field and back again. Ballet." Another wink, to make it clear that Jax is trying to extend a very poor joke. "Although I'm told I look pretty good in a tutu."\<br\>\<br\>    Wait, what?\<br\>\<br\>    "Maybe it's because you're amazing, and they were hoping you'd apply? Thought of that?" That arm is back around Willow's shoulder, and with his free hand, Jax motions at the letter in her hands. Free hand being a bit of a misnomer, of course, because he's still toting his own sheaf of papers, but miraculously they don't go sailing out of his hand again. "If this was a sports team, and the whole Ivy League a... well, a league..." pause, as Jax mentally checks to see if the rest of what he's going to say is actually coherent, and then he continues "... then you'd be what we call a first draft pick. Sounds like they're happy to have you, because if they have you, another team... college, I meant college... then another college didn't get you." Pause again.\<br\>\<br\>    "That made a whole lot more sense in my head. I think it was fine in my brain, but then my mouth got involved, and things got complicated. That happens."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:\<br\>"Actually, it made a lot of sense to me, too." Come to think of it, her counsellor at Gotham had said something to her.. what was it? She's been too worried about Buffy that she hadn't actually digested the information.\<br\>\<br\>(There were several letters at home that she had opened up, and put them on the 'to be read when I have time' pile, which she hadn't had time to look at them. Columbia was one of those letters. As far as Columbia was concerned she had picked /them/!)\<br\>\<br\>"Most of the time I can see people's attention drifting away when I talk to them. Trust me, I made sense." Well not the portions that referred to teams. She grokked it in theory though!

Jax Miller has posed:\<br\>    "Ooh, you had that problem too?!" Yup, excited Jax. It's something to behold, when he seems to go from cat-teenager to exhuberant kitten. Having something common with people was rare outside of Xavier's, rare enough that he's hanging onto it. "I mean, in my case, it's 'cause my attention sort of drifts after a while anyway, but I'm getting better at that. But after a short while of me talking to them, a lot of people always seems to want to be somewhere else for some reason. Like, somewhere I'm not, y'know? Dunno why, but that's getting better too."\<br\>\<br\>    Possibly because Jax is the kind of person that is best experienced in small doses. The kind of mutant that never seems to run out of energy while awake, and goes at everything at full speed. It's almost enough to feel sorry for his future team mates.\<br\>\<br\>    "Hey, so, there's a party this evening in the quad, want to go check that out? I mean, it'd be a shame to come all this way and then not actually go to the party, right?"

Willow Rosenberg has posed:\<br\>"Even worse!" Willow wasn't a cat, but.. "Most people can't follow me even if I was slower." Yep. Most of what Willow gets excited about is too hard for average people to follow. It's not that she tries to talk about things that are too intelligent - it just happens when she's excited.\<br\>\<br\>Wait.. did he just ask her on a date? As his friend? ..Does it matter?!?\<br\>\<br\>"I gue.. " No. She was adamant. "Sure! Yes. Let's do it! I think the sororities and fraternities are having pizza beforehand?" Might as well make it a whole day!

Jax Miller has posed:\<br\>    "Awesome!" Yes, that was loud enough that half the hall was looking at Jax, and in consequence Willow too. But he carries on as if half the new joiners weren't staring in his direction, although this time once more at a normal volume. "And hey, that means we can pick what sorority or fraternity we're joining, 'cause there's no way there's any other student half as interesting as the two of us."\<br\>\<br\>    Speaking to Jax is like taking a warm bath in a sea full of confidence. His self-assurance could float a battleship. And it seems he's intent on making sure the people with him feel just as good about themselves.\<br\>\<br\>    "Mind you, not a date, 'cause I'm already spoken for, but kinda sorta. A friend date... is there something like that? How do you call it when you meet someone awesome and want to take them places in an awesomely platonic way?"