Tea Parties in Boston

57 - No Control

December 18th, 2022, Boston

"So what do you think, Em? Which one of these two would you like to go to?" Logan asked, as he sat beside Em at Rory's dinner table, Rory's laptop open in front of them.

"Now, Em - remember, we promised we'd take your opinion into account but in the end we are still making the decision. Because we've talked to the teachers and we need to figure out all the logistics...," Rory explained, frowning a little towards Logan.

The plan had been to involve Em in the decision making by showing her the two schools in pictures and talk about little what their differences were and hear her opinion. But Logan seemed to have taken things up a notch by actually giving the impression her say would be enough to make the eventual decision - at least it was how Rory saw it.

"Yes, I'm sorry - I should've worded that better. Your mother is right," Logan replied apologetically. "Though they're both pretty close I would say," he added.

They were down to two options for Em's school, one, the small school in walking distance, starting from next school year, the other, a little bit more prestigious and modern, but still just a short drive away that they'd just toured last week, that had a opening as soon as January. For that reason they felt the pressure of time on this decision.

Em clicked through galleries Logan had pulled up on the screen in front of them.

"The playground is kind of small in this one," Em commented, squinting her nose adorably whilst sounding very grown-up.

"Yes, that is a smaller school," Logan reflected.

"But it's closer - it's like 10 minutes by walking," Rory pitched in.

"Yeah, if you live here all through her school years," Logan wanted to mutter but didn't.

They'd had this discussion that day when they'd visited the second school - the one located in Watertown, which was techically just outside of Boston. And while Logan had just barely even mentioned the possibility of moving anywhere from Beacon Hills Rory had been very reluctant to discuss it in any capacity, which frankly, had caused some bickering, making them probably sound very much like a couple that had been together a lot longer than their track record spoke of, leaving possibly a rather believable image of the two parents.

"The other one is not that far either - 15 to 20 minutes drive. It's near where your mom works," Logan added.

"Yeah, but that'd mean I'd have to take the car every day," Rory shot back, whining a little.

Logan took a deep breath, not wanting this to turn into another bickering match.

"This one has maybe twice as many students as your current school. So it's really not very big," Rory added, having an obvious favorite in the smaller school.

"Yeah, it was cozy. I imagine you'd get to know all of your teacher really well and they said they would take you out to the town a lot - like to the library and the pool," Logan pitched in, wanting to offer Rory an olive branch.

He didn't mind the smaller school either, but he could also see its faults. He didn't like the idea of there just being one music teacher, one French teacher and two math teachers etc. In his experience, being able to have a parent pull strings if need be to switch to another class was invaluable - and he figured that was the very least he could offer her daughter - options. Options when it came to what sports to play, what languages to learn and so on - everything he hadn't had. The bigger school was also more modern and more expencive, but to him there was no money in the world he wouldn't spend for her.

"I like the pool," Em commented.

"Yeah, but it's the public pool...," Logan added, with a hint of contempt. He couldn't help it. "This one, however, has their own pool. So you wouldn't even have to step a foot outside when there's a blizzard outside," Logan added, pulling up the other school.