“So princess, how did you like it? Did you meet Dr Mathias?”

Gabriel Tam leaned against the front edge of his desk, and smiled encouragingly at his daughter. He craned his neck, trying to search for her eyes, but she refused to lift them.

“Yes, we talked a bit.”

“About what?”

“School…Simon. That sort of thing,” she shrugged, and played with her necklace.

Gabriel shared a look with his wife, and continued, “Did you see the place? Didn’t you like it?”

“It doesn’t look any different from the GenEd Institute.” Came the ungenerous answer.

Reagan Tam pressed her lips tightly together, as she was want to do when was choosing her words carefully. In the end, all she come out with was, “How was Dr Mathias?”

“He was…okay…” she frowned, and chewed on the chain of her necklace, a habit from childhood that came to the fore when she was nervous, “…but he creeped me out a bit.”

Gabriel made a face, “What do you mean princess?”

“He…he said the Alliance…wanted to…needed my mind. I think…he phrased it funny…he said they wanted my mind to do everything it could do…I didn’t understand…”

Reagan laughs breathily, “These academic types…they’re all a little eccentric. I’m sure he only meant to imply that you’d be challenged in more ways than you’d be in GenEd.”

River didn’t want to reply. Gabriel regarded his daughter with a worried eye, “River?” he said softly, trying to gauge her reaction.

“I…” River shot a look at her mother, who was positioned languidly, with one elegantly shoed leg crossed over the other, on the chaise. Her eyes were half-lidded so River couldn’t really determine her expression, but for some reason she decided on a need for caution, “Daddy I’m not sure…it might not be…I still want to dance.”

“Oh darling,” Reagan Tam says before her husband could answer, “I’m sure there’s some sort of dance programme at this school.”

“For the money we’d be paying they’d better have one!” Gabriel said with a bluntness which made his wife cringe.

“Don’t be so vulgar Gabriel…” Reagan’s hard look softened, and she came down to sit next to her daughter and put a loving arm around her.

Gabriel saw River wince, and try to cover it, as his wife put one of her long, silken covered arms around her shoulders. River’s eyes looked at him, wide and pleading as his wife began to speak, “Now my little comet, let’s stop being so silly about this and just-“

“You know what,” Gabriel said taking his daughter’s hand and helping her to stand, practically taking her from her mother’s arms, “We can talk about this later.”

“I think we should talk about this now…my dear,” Reagan said through her teeth, still trying to smile. Mr and Mrs Tam had made a decision early on never to fight infront of their children.

“Nonsense!” Gabriel said flippantly, much to his wife’s chagrin, he looked down at his daughter and winked, “After all, it’s not like we have to make a decision tonight. We’ll look around at some other options over the next few days and we’ll make a decision when you’re ready…okay?”

River hugged her father gratefully and kissed his cheek, “I love you daddy,” she whispered before leaving the room at great speed.