"I will be taking my leave now, I shall prepare myself for our journey in two days time." Deccanus said, stoically as he turned and walked off, heading to his hotel. Adam followed suit, heading back to The Layover to book his room for another two nights. No layover package, just the room. He now had a little over 3500 caps, unless something crazy happened that would be more than enough to fund his lifestyle while he was over at the Pier figuring out why the Caravans stopped. He likely wouldn't be able to go scavenging while he was doing Mr. Cantelli's request so he would have to be satisfied with what he had on hand.
He was actually pretty excited to visit The Pier, he had only seen Midway and Naper up till now, he could only guess how other places looked. Half the reason he enjoyed his freedom so much is so that he can do exactly this, explore. Truly his lifestyle now suited him far better than being the resident IT guy at Second Life. Though maybe that was the clone in him speaking? Either way this life suited him well.
He took off his gear in his room, changed into his military uniform and put his Vault suit into the wash, meanwhile he himself took a shower. When he was out and his clothes were clean he headed to the food court to grab dinner. He was back earlier than usual today thanks to the warehouse being so close, so he was able to be very leisurely about his time.
He grabbed his dinner, using the voucher to pay off the food and grabbed a nuka cola to go with his burger and fries and then took a seat to eat his meal, only paying 20 caps. However, about halfway through eating he saw a young woman, about his age, wearing a long blue skirt, glasses, and holding a folder walk up to him.
"E-excuse me… are you Adam Baxter?" The woman asked him timidly.
"Uh, yes? I am." Adam said after he wiped his mouth and swallowed, turning to look at her now.
"Oh wonderful!" She said a bit more energetic now. "My name is Mary, Ms. Watson if you prefer." She said as she used one hand to gently lift up her skirt in a mock curtsy as she let off a soft laugh.
"Nice to meet you Mary." Adam smiled back politely.
"Do you mind if I…" She began, gesturing to the empty seat across from Adam. Adam chuckled and then waved at the chair magnanimously, gesturing for her to join him. After taking the seat she started again.
"I was wondering if you might be interested in helping out some children, Mr. Baxter." She began with a soft smile. Adam looked at her suspiciously, this sounded like a perfect set-up for a scam. 'Helping the children' by donating his money seemed like a great way to get robbed. However she noticed the look on Adam's face, blushed a bit in embarrassment and then quickly spoke back up.
"I-I promise it's not anything weird!" She said quickly, trying to clear up the misunderstanding as fast as she could."I am one of the teachers at Midway Elementary school." She began with a nervous smile. "We are having a job fair of sorts for the children, a chance for the kids to hear about all the different roles people play in life in Midway, just to give them an idea of what they might want to do when they grow up." She said with a warm tone and a soft smile, her tone now calmer again and clearly joyful when speaking about the children's futures.
"I am currently tasked with gathering experts from various fields who would be willing to speak to the children on their jobs, and your name came up. If you are interested." She said, a hopeful tone in her voice.
"Well…" Adam paused to think. "I certainly don't mind. I would love to speak with the kids, if you want me but…" He paused again, considering his words. "To be honest with you, ma'am… this line of work I'm in, it's the kind of job that is easily glorified by children of that age, but it's very dangerous, I probably shouldn't be saying this myself but there are plenty other safer jobs the children should probably be introduced to." Adam offered. Her smile warmed further upon hearing these words.
"Honestly, Mr. Baxter, if you forgive me for saying, I agree with you." She said as she gently lifted the rim of her glasses. "Personally I think Scaving is far too dangerous of a profession and most of those who do it are not…" She paused, considering her words, looking at Adam for a moment before looking away shyly. "...very personable." She ended, as diplomatically as she could. The message was clear to Adam. She felt other Scavengers were likely the thug type, honestly not a terrible assessment, not that he knew many other Scavs. Adam just waved her off with a smile and a soft laugh.
"You certainly aren't wrong, Ms. Watson." She peeked at Adam's face and saw he was not offended and then smiled again looking at him once more.
"But our job as teachers is to help these children grow into the adults they want to be, to be the best versions of themselves, not to mold them the way we want them to turn out." She said thoughtfully. "Life is full of unexpected surprises and knowledge is power, it's only fair to expose the kids to all kinds of legitimate work they could do in the future." She paused again for a moment as she put the folder down on the table.
"I asked around a bit, looking for someone who might be willing to speak to the children on the behalf of Scavs and your name came up more than once…" She looked into Adam's eyes. "After speaking with you I am more convinced than ever that you are the right man for this role… if you would be so kind as to agree." And considered for a moment and then nodded.
"Alright, If you want me to expose the children to my lifestyle I agree, as long as you are okay with me talking about all the ups and downs that come with it." She giggled girlishly for a moment before speaking up again.
"Well just keep it PG for the children is all I ask." She smiled. "And besides you won't be the only person who will be attending that has a dangerous profession." Adam smiled and nodded again.
"Well that's fine then. When is this 'job fair'? Just so I can plan around it." Adam said before sipping at his Nuka Cola figuring he no longer needed to give her 100% of his attention. She seemed to get nervous and fidget in place for a moment tapping her fingers on the back of her hand while she didn't look Adam in the eyes.
"It's um… tomorrow…" She said nervously.
"What?" Adam asked, more confused than anything.
"I'm sorry!" She apologized fiercely. "It took me nearly a month to get this all set up in the first place. By the time I got around to finding someone to fill the position of a Scaver it just got really late." She said, her cheeks once more flushed with embarrassment. "Besides, if there was no Scav that showed up it wouldn't be the worst thing the children could lose out on…" She mumbled quietly to herself, Adam only picking up on pieces of it. Adam sighed.
"Well luckily for you I happen to be free tomorrow. So I guess you lucked out." Adam smiled. Her mood immediately perked up.
"Oh you are? Wonderful! Thank you Mr. Baxter! Thank you!" She said joyously, standing up quickly. She quickly opened the folder and began to write Adam's name and the job he does on a long list of names and jobs she had inside. "I really appreciate this, Mr. Baxter. And I'm sure the children will too!" Once she finished writing Adam's information down she picked back up the folder and gave Adam a beautiful smile.
"Thank you for this. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow!" She said with a chipper tone. Adam chuckled.
"Think nothing of it. Though one question… where is the school?"