Whose Side Is Thee On

She laughed. "That was terrible, 'mate'. And I'll have the same, thanks."

"Two Diet Cokes, it is." Nestor said to the waiter. "Eh, I learnt it when I lived in California. Lots of celebrities went pass and they don't exactly all have an American accent."

"You see a lot of celebrities around there?" she asked, wondering if she'd ever been on the brief times she'd joined her mother on tour.

"Yeah! Some of them were my dad's old students. They visit us often. I remembered meeting a singer. Kate or something. I couldn't remember her name. My dad had backstage access." I shrugged.

She felt more than a twinge of alarm at that - Kate was precariously close to Katrina - but she hid it behind a sip of her drink. "That must have been so cool. Your dad teaches?"

"College professor. Big reputation in California." Nestor nodded. "Knows a lot of people too, and connections are big."

"Makes sense that Athena would like him," she said, trying to carefully draw the conversation away from Kate-who-might-or-might-not-be-Katrina.

The burgers and beverages came. The waiter laid it on the table. "Thanks, man. How about you, though? How did Apollo like her?" he asked.

Great job, Alice. Great job. The conversation has been steered directly onto the topic you were trying to avoid. Brilliant work. "She's really into music," she said, which technically wasn't a lie. "Maybe that's it."

"Ahh. That's how most Apollo children have their parents met." Nestor began to eat the burger, which was gigantic. "I bet she's a musician because Apollo is often attracted toward musician celebrities."

"Yeah, a lot of my siblings' mortal parents are musicians," she said, playing for time. "My mother's not a musician, she's, er, I mean she is a musician, well, sort of, she sings, but she's not, like, a celebrity or anything. No."

"Ah." Nestor finished his burger, and wiped his mouth. "You still haven't touched the burger. C'mon, open the wrappers."

OOC: Das ist ein two floors burger or something which is a burger with two layers of meat and buns instead of one

"Oh, right." She'd completely forgotten about the food, so she unwrapped it and took a bite. It wasn't half bad, even for a girl who'd been raised on the most expensive food money could buy. "How's that physics thing going? Disproving the theory of relativity, right?"

"Yes. Right now I'm so close to a breakthrough. Then my dad would be like 'you're always close to a breakthrough'." Nestor shrugged. "So I guess right now I'm proceeding to more researches in metaphysics."

"And metaphysics is...?" She took another bite of the burger.

"Basically things like time, space, matter." Nestor shrugged. "It's like everything physics."

She nodded, accepting the explanation, and took another bite of the burger. She glanced up at the clock. "I hope one of my siblings has fed my snake. They said they would but you can never be sure."

"You have a snake?" Nestor raised an eyebrow. "What's his slash her name?"

"He's called Charlie," she said, "and he's a corn snake. I've had him for... It must be six years now."

"Six years. Mhm. Do you wanna head somewhere else later? Three choices. The boring Central Park, an amusement park or a water park up north?" Nestor listed. "They're all parks, ironically."

She cocked her head slightly, considering. "Amusement park sounds good. I've actually, um, never been to one of those, either."

"Well, it's that place with the rollercoasters and rides. It's fun." Nestor shrugged. "We can proceed as soon as you finish the meal."

"Oh, right." She quickly finished the burger, having already finished the drink. "We good to go?"

"Yes we are." Nestor grabbed her hand and walked out of the store, whistling for a cab. A fainted yellow one stopped and he opened the door. "Ladies first?"

"Gentleman, are we?" she said, smirking, and slipped into the cab. "I assume you know where we're going?"