"In my opinion, you're better off just leaving him out of it." Shrugging, Jamie added, "But meet him first and see what he's like for yourself. You certainly don't have to take my word for it." He thought briefly of Reading Rainbow at his last comment, chuckling to himself. He'd mention Lavar Burton as a celebrity chef, but the guy was more a celebrity in Jamie's twenties than he was now. Not many of the kids here today would have been impressed enough to see him walking through the front doors. Except Tabitha. She was young, but she had good taste in what she liked to watch. "Gordon Ramsay would give a few of those kids a run for their money in the mouth department, that's for sure. I can just see it now...Mary, you stupid fat cow! Can you smell anything at all? Does this smell like anyone could eat it?" The whole idea was just too funny.
"Didn't your mama ever teach you that you can't buy love with chocolate?" It sounded a lot more teasing than Jamie meant it. Whatever worked for the kid. He'd just feel bad if they ended up stepping all over him. Not because he was learning how to care about people other than himself, of course. It could never be that. "You should try some sort of competition that has a kick ass prize at the end of it. Goals can be good motivators." His goals had always been on the shady side, but Jamie knew his goals always kept him working to better himself.
He did know what Dante meant about fitting in. While Jamie didn't have any sort of physical mutation himself, when he'd been wandering and having issues with duping himself at every sneeze, startle, and sound, he'd been looked at like a complete freak. It wasn't fun and it made him a little more empathetic toward those who looked so much different from everyone else. "People tend to look twice at you here only once. It's...safe." Which was an odd word for him to use since Jamie never felt fully safe anywhere. "I have no idea what you just said, but consider me sufficiently impressed."
For a long moment Jamie just stood there staring at his dupe. There were always slight differences to the duplicates whether it was style, mannerisms, likes or dislikes. This one seemed perfectly happy with what he was doing at the moment. He was even smiling, which Jamie hadn't done as much as he used to for some time now. Too bad he had to ruin the moment. "Let's see if he cooperates first." Looking at his dupe, Jamie called, "Hey, smart ass." The dupe looked up, surprise on his face that slowly gave way to disappointment at seeing Jamie. Jamie himself lifted his hands in a shrug. "What the hell, man?"
With a great sigh the dupe got to his feet. He tossed the finished apple core away and closed the book as he made his way over. It was more than obvious he wasn't pleased at being tracked down. "I'm thinking about writing a book."
It was a statement Jamie prime had made to Tabitha weeks ago, and it made his face screw up. "What?"
"I want to go to school, online classes maybe. Get some sort of an education and write."
"You saying I'm not educated enough for you, smart guy?" The dupe shrugged demurely, casually looking at Dante before introducing himself politely. "Don't make me tackle you," prime warned. The dupe frowned but moved a step closer in acquiesce, walking straight at Jamie and into him before disappearing and leaving Jamie with the book in his hand. He took a moment to evaluate the experiences of the morning from his dupe, quiet all the while. After several long minutes, Jamie sighed and rolled his shoulders. "Nobody's ever happy with just being me," he complained with a grunt. "Whatever."