Twelve Ways To Spend One's Christmas Eve

Four Calling Birds

        “What smirk?” Anna questions innocently, but her grin's only grown, the overall effect being a little too oxymoronic. “Is it hard?”

        “Very,” Jonathan replies with a wry smile, sitting on the floor by the window and leading Anna to follow suit. “But in a good way. Well, a kind of good way. Finals really aren't fun.”

        “Finals?”

        “Final exams,” he explains. “We tend to have them before important breaks.”

        “So you're on break right now?”

        “Of course, it's Christmas.”

        “But you're not at home...” she says slowly, frowning.

        “I'm going down tomorrow,” he assures her with a smile. “I couldn't book a bus earlier because I was too busy studying. I'm on a scholarship, so if I don't pass my classes with good grades I'm pretty much screwed.”

        “Scholarship?” Anna repeats unsurely, the phrase vaguely familiar.

        “Sorry,” Jonathan shakes his head. “It's this thing that the college offers if you get really good grades. They pay for all your fees and stuff. I was really lucky I got one, actually. I wouldn't have dreamed of going here without one, it costs boatloads.”

        “Why?” she peers around the room, as though trying to find something worth paying so much for. “Is this a good college?”

        “What, Princeton?” Jonathan says with a chuckle. “I guess you could say that.”

        “You never told me you were smart,” she nudges him with a grin.

        “Ah, well,” he scratches the back of his neck sheepishly. “Not exactly something that comes up in conversation.”

        “Oh, I don't know,” she says lightly. “With your people skills I would've thought you'd find a way to work it in. So, what are you studying?”

        “Anatomy. I, uh, I wanna go on to do medicine, so...”

        “A doctor?” Anna says dumbly, although she isn't sure why she's surprised at all. When she thinks about it, Jonathan would be a perfect doctor.

        “Yes, a doctor,” he elbows her lightly. “I'm thinking along the lines of pediatrics - ”

        “Okay, stop there,” she holds a hand up. “If you're gonna start using big words and going all biology student on me - ”

        “I'm not!” he protests. “Pediatrics isn't a big word!”

        “It is for a simple present-deliverer like me,” she jokes.

        “You're not simple,” he returns steadily, looking her in the eye. Anna suddenly finds it a little difficult to breathe, her eyes drawn to the thin thread of light streaming from the window and reflecting softly off his hair, rumpled and messy from sleep. “Okay?”

        “Okay,” she replies, a little dizzily. She blinks suddenly, shaking her head. What is wrong with her? “So, uh, what's - um, what did you call it again? Something with a p...”

        “Pediatrics,” he smiles. “It's a branch of medicine. It deals with, uh, just kids.”

        “Like babies?”

        “Yeah. But kids of all ages, really. I guess I've always liked kids, so...”

        “Yeah,” Anna says softly, recalling the way his eyes brighten whenever Flynn is brought up in conversation. She clears her throat. “Well...that's really cool,” she offers. “Like, more than cool. Super cool. Amazing. Really amazing, like if there was an amazing scale it would be right at the top with - ”