It felt good and strange to know he would be graduating finally, after being held back a year. John wanted to enjoy his last few weeks at the Academy but he was also getting increasingly more anxious as the time approached. What would he do? Where did he want to end up? Did he really owe the tribe that much? They'd all given up on him when he didn't show signs of having magic at an earlier age.
Of course, most of what he knew of the healing arts he owed to the elders. A Medicine Man was a particular kind of healer that was specific enough to be a rare find at the Academy. The teachers had helped him grow in magic in general, but his personal skills and how they had been honed he owed to the tribe.
But what did he want? Leon was so lucky, in a way. He'd been turned into a vampire before he'd had to make this decision of loyalties.
John was in an ill-fitted suit that once belonged to Mickey and now hung on his thin frame awkwardly, but it was the best he had to wear to dinner that night. Gil and Van didn't seem to mind, and John put his self-awareness and lack of fashion sense out of his mind.
Dinner had been pleasant. The kind of pleasant that he'd remember for a long time. Simply an easy dinner with two people he enjoyed being with. Gil had a way of putting others around him at ease, when he wanted to, and John was immensely glad to be counted among Gil's friends. Even if he had a strange way of showing it, John valued Gilderoi. Looked up to him. Envied him in many ways.
Similar with Van. The dark haired vocally opinionated kelpie was hard for almost everyone to get along with. John thought those who didn't get along with Van were either too stupid, or too nice. Took themselves too seriously. Van had a likable way about him once you got past and accepted the abrasiveness.
John would miss them both.
"I don't know." He replied to Van without looking up from his feet. The heavy winter coat he wore kept out most of the cold. John kept his hands buried in his pockets and was careful not to step on an icy patch under the snow. "I guess I'll go back to the reservation. Continue my training. I'm not a full-fledged Medicine Man yet. Probably won't be until I'm at least fifty." He shrugged.
"What about you, Gil? Accepted to any colleges yet?"