TR: More Stupid Fish (Sam and Brea)

[Event !]

Oh, a sweet young person Sam hasn’t corrupted yet.

[Samuel Rixon]

If Sam was running, trouble wasn't usually far behind. He avoided running at all costs, going so far as to fake injuries during gym class.

He was running now.

His backpack was bouncing against his back as he flung himself out of one of the doors leading outside. He didn't really pay attention to where he was going, all he knew was that he needed to get the hell out of Dodge.

Or, y'know. The school building.

He miiiiight have said some not-so-nice things to his little brother. And might have ticked him off.

Really, he was running so that Bryan couldn't get near enough to him to retaliate. He was also running from the idea of a nasty phone call from his mother, but the fact he had his cell phone on him sort of negated that plan.

He still wasn't looking where he was going until it was too late. Why did he always end up at the little pond with the stupid, ugly, creepy koi fish?

Oh. Hey. Person.

Person!

Sam grinned and practically dove to the grass behind the girl. He hadn't really seen her around much, but that didn't matter. "HEY BABE. HIDE ME."

Brea, don't. Just... don't.

[Brea White]

Brea was sitting by the pond, messing with her plans for plotting. Admittedly, they didn’t go as well as they once had. While before she’d been able to focus on the most intricate plot imaginable, it wasn’t working. She couldn’t help drawing hers and Elliot’s name in little hearts on her notebook. Her brother Chris had found them last week and had tormented her ruthlessly about the whole thing to the point where Brea had actually screamed at him she was so frustrated. Since then she’d been more circumspect.

And she’d also managed to slip frogs and crickets into his bed and had switched out all his magazines for My Little Pony cartoons. Let no one say that justice wasn’t sweet.

So she was very startled and inclined to hit things when someone calling her babe told her to hide him. Yeah, right. She whirled around and glared at him, then blinked.

“Aren’t you, like, that weird girl Harmony’s boy toy or something?” In normal situations, Brea and Harmony would get along. But Brea was, at heart, snotty, and until they had a moment to fall in together, she wasn’t likely to approve of anything she did. She frowned. "Or is that Vincent? You're the one who sets things on fire. What are you running from anyways?"

[Samuel Rixon]

Brea could have been doing homework, for all Sam cared. All he knew was that she was a potential ally and/or hiding place, and he was going to abuse that. ... Maybe he'd go get her a cupcake, or something as a thank you. Anyone that didn't like cupcakes needed to dive off of a bridge because seriously who didn't like cupcakes.

He was completely oblivious to the glare, too busy trying to make himself as small as humanly possible. Which... really wasn't that small, being that he was a nineteen year old boy.

Sam did sit up a little when she asked him a question, though. "Uhhh... no? Who's Harmony?" Wait. Wasn't that the little chick that hung around Vincent? "That's probably Vince." Cue an evil grin for using his best friend's most hated nickname. "I'm the pyro, though, yeah!"

As for what he was running from, well... he could have made up some magical, fantastic story that made him look good. Sadly, his feeble brain could barely keep up with the necessities, like breathing, blinking, that sort of thing. There was no way he had the power to come up with amazing stories. Instead, he just grinned proudly. "I pissed off my little brother and ran away. So... can I hide here with you?" He rummaged in his backpack until he found was he was looking for, and triumphantly held out a squished bag of Twizzlers. "I'll share these with you. ... And get you a cupcake." He was nothing if not resourceful, and definitely not above bribery.

[Brea White]

Brea eyed him, noticing the evil grin. That would definitely place him as Vincent’s best friend, and Brea being fairly well in-touch with the school’s worse troublemakers. Well, not in-touch. She wasn’t a fan of hanging with troublemakers, but she knew who they were and kept an eye on them to make sure that she was aware of all their prank techniques. Not that it was really worth it to watch Vincent Verax. The man was interesting but definitely not the brightest.

Brea stared at him, then leaned over to search for said little brother. Nothing. She leaned back and studied him. She was half-tempted to turn him in just because it was a little brother. But on the other hand, there was a learning experience here. She’d like to know how to make her little brothers scared of her.

Besides, he was offering sugar. How could a girl turn down sugar? Especially cupcakes, which Brea loved but never made just for herself.

“I get the whole thing and I get a cupcake,” she said. “Or no deal. Got it, pyro?”

[Samuel Rixon]

If Brea wanted pranking pointers, she didn't need to look as far as Vincent. While he might have come up with a brilliant idea now and again, his execution generally left a lot to be desired. Sam could often rig up or think of a way to make his best friend's idiot ideas actually work. If only he'd apply that kind of thinking and brainpower into his classes. He might have actually graduated by now.

As Brea looked past him, Sam twisted around to ensure Bryan was nowhere near him. Things seemed safe enough, and now he had a human shield to hide behind. Hey, he'd grown up with a multitude of siblings. He had learned the delicate art of using people to hide behind at a fairly early age. He wasn't above it now, either.

... Even if she drove a really hard bargain. The pyro gave a mournful look to the Twizzlers before handing them over. "Fine. Be that way." He had other junk in his bag. Twizzlers were just... a favorite. Sigh. He'd just have to tide himself over with Red Hots or something.

"Sooo you know me. I don't know you. What's your name?" He hadn't really bothered much with Vincent's little Harmony shadow, so he had no idea who Brea was either. And, because he was obnoxious, he leaned back to look at her notebook. "Were you doing homework? Can I copy it? 'Cause I probably didn't do mine and - ... who's Eeeellllioooot? Your booooyfriend?" He grinned, well practiced at the art of bugging girls about boyfriends. After all, he had sisters. It was always fun to harass them about boys. If the look on Brea's face said anything, she wasn't any different.

[Brea White]

Brea eyed Sam, then sighed in regret and let herself grow bigger to better shield him. She suspected that he deserved whatever that brother of his was planning for him—as an older sibling herself, of course—but she’d promised her help and a promise was a promise. Besides, now she wanted that sugar. For that, she was willing to work as a human shield. For now, at least.

She eyed him at the mournful look, recognizing that expression from her own brothers. She sighed and grabbed the Twizzlers, then pulled out three or four and passed them over to him. “Payment for not squeaking about it. Well done. Most boys only think with their stomachs.” Brea was too young to learn about what else men thought with.

“I’m Brea White,” she said. “Ethan and Chris’s sister. But you probably only know Chris. Ethan didn’t come here.” And she would box anybody who suggested that was in any way a handicap. Only she could pick on her brothers, and even then that was one topic she never touched. “I wasn’t doing homework. Hey!” She hid the notebook and glowered at him. “That’s none of your business. Elliot is a very kind, serious young man. But he’s NOT my boyfriend. To answer your question, I was working on a prank, thank you very much. Now do you want to keep picking on me or do you want me to call your brother?”

[Samuel Rixon]

Sam watched in surprise as Brea actually grew. Sure, he'd encountered a heck of a lot of weird since his first day at Hammel, but growing? That was a new one. Still, at least he was being helped. That was more than he could ask of Vincent, who would have probably acted like he was helping, only to turn him into Bryan the second that he saw him. His best friend was a jerk like that.

And she shared! Be still his heart, if he was still fourteen, Brea would have likely ended up on his radar as pretty damn perfect, thank you very much. He took them gratefully and stuck one in his mouth. "Thanks, babe," he mumbled around the candy. "I'm not most boys." It wasn't meant to be suggestive. He wasn't into fourteen year olds, really. Not when he had his smoking hot college girlfriend. But Brea was pretty cool, for a kid. It was also a lie, because the one surefire way to control Sam was through food. Of course, if you really wanted his attention, well... yes. Brea was too young for that.

Sam had to think very hard as to whether or not he recognized Chris White's name. It took a moment, but he finally clued in. "That's the stretchy kid, right?" He was pretty sure they'd had a class together at one point. Maybe. His memory couldn't be trusted that well. Sadly, his annoy-o-meter worked just fine. Girls with hearts on their notebooks were easy targets. He'd seen Spencer do the same thing with his name once or twice, so this Elliot guy had to be special. He just grinned and shifted backwards, away from possible projectiles like pens. "Easy! I don't care if he's your boyfriend. It's cuuuuute." He had sisters, he knew how it worked. "But pranks are good too. I'm awesome at 'em. Me and Vincent ruled the school!" Well. Sort of. In his own mind, anyway. "Don't call my brother. I'll... uh... two cupcakes?" Bartering was his only way of getting out of trouble sometimes, and he abused it. At least it kept him safe.

Sort of.

[Brea White]

“Yeah, I can tell.” Brea rolled her eyes. “For one, you have the maturity of a ten year old, and for another, you have the sweet tooth of a baby.” Even while she said that, she was still munching on a Twizler. She might’ve claimed to be mature and intelligent, but she was still a young girl at heart. “And don’t call me babe,” she added. “It’s Brea. Remember it or I’ll shrink again.” It was an idle threat. Pranking was fine and it was all good and fun to mess with people, but a promise was a promise, especially since she’d already accepted the rewards.

Brea sighed. “Yup. That’s him. The grossest guy on the face of the planet, and I had to deal with Ethan too.” She made a face and turned her attention away to look for this threat of his, wherever it was. Honestly, she didn’t think he existed, but the guy was sharing his candy, so she wasn’t going to complain about it.

However, she might if Sam kept bugging her about Elliot. Her Elliot. She glowered at him, hugging the notebook close to her. “Not my boyfriend,” she mumbled. “But we will get married one day, you’ll see!” There was just the minor issue of her political career and the tiny age gap…well, not tiny, but there’d been worse!

“If you rule the school,” she added, “why haven’t I heard about it? Seems to me you’re just bluffing.” She sniffed. “Where do you get those cupcakes anyways?”

[Samuel Rixon]

Sam blinked before grinning. Not that either of those things were compliments, but he was going to take them as such anyway. "Maybe, but at least I'm old enough to drive!" That always worked well with his friends and his little brother. A quick reminder that he had his license, and a car, and everyone was his friend again. What, exactly, that had to do with the insults... well, no one but Sam could answer that one. "All right, all right! Brea." He'd nearly said 'babe' again just to bug her, but if she was the only one between him and Bryan's wrath, he'd cooperate.

"Hey, not all guys are gross." He was preeeetttty sure that his older brother had never really gone through the 'gross' phase. He'd never really engaged in things like belching wars at the dinner table like Sam and Bryan had. He was privately convinced that Kevin had just been [i[born

[/i] old. Weirdo.

The pyro offered out another crooked grin as she hugged the notebook. "Fine, fine. But if y' gonna get married, y' gotta make him love you first. Only way to do that is to make him your booooyfriend." It was simple logic. He'd probably marry Spencer, too, but he'd taken the first step there. She was his girlfriend. Brea clearly wasn't that far.

"Hey. I ain't bluffing. I DO RULE. Ever heard of Verax? We're buddies." Just about everyone had heard of Vincent Verax at one point or another. "And I was gonna go into the town and get some. They got the best ones ever at a cake place there." He'd been planning on giving most of them to Spencer as a present, but he'd just get a few extra to give to Brea. Maybe one for his math teacher. Sugar tended to make her smile a little.[/justify]

[Brea White]

“Yeah, but can you?” Brea made a face at him. “I bet you can’t. See? So you may be old enough to drive, but you probably can’t and that makes you just the same as everybody else and even people younger than you.” So there. Brea hated losing an argument, even if she wasn’t exactly losing to Sam’s…”logic.” She sniffed at the correct usage of her name. “Thank you. Was that so hard?”

Brea had to actually consider his statement and weigh its benefits and merits for what they appeared to be. Then, eventually, she reached her decision and firmly shook her head. “Nope. All guys go through a gross stage. Except Elliot.” A wistful smile appeared on her face, then she shook her head to rid herself of the daydreams. “But enough of that. And don’t you dare mention it.”

Brea wanted to dismiss his ideas out of hand as ridiculous and silly, but she found herself listening to them instead, considering them. “What if I just want him to be my political husband?” she said, then hesitated. “Okay. How do you make him love me, then?” Oh, Brea, you shouldn’t listen to this boy, no matter how his love life currently is successful.

She snorted. “Sure I’ve heard of Verax. And no, you don’t rule the school. If it was any other school you would’ve dropped out by now. That’s not ruling the school. That’s just sad. But do they?” She brightened up slightly. “I live in town. Cool, I’ll have to check it out.”

[Samuel Rixon]

Sam snorted at her attitude and crossed his arms in a perfect pout. "I can too! I even got a car." That he babied, even though it was truthfully a step away from being a pile of scrap metal. "So save the sass, missy." There he was, back to nicknames. But when Brea was being a brat, he didn't feel that he needed to adhere to proper name usage. It was same in his own house growing up. (Though truthfully he disliked his full name more than his nicknames.)

The pyro was starting to walk a thin line when it came to antagonizing Brea about this mysterious Elliot creature. On one hand, it was fun to tease her. On the other, she was threatening to track down Bryan so his brother could exact revenge. With a little lopsided smirk, Sam cocked his head slightly. "I bet he did. Unless he's like... a Ken doll. All perfect and stuff." And no junk, but he wasn't going to go that far. Even he had limits, and Brea was too little for that kind of stuff.

Finally! She wanted advice! He knew nothing of politics, and thus ignored that part. "If you marry him, it's for love. That's how it's supposed to go!" As for how to woo him, well.... he scratched his scruffy chin in thought. "Find out what he likes. Guys like presents, just like girls do." Even though Spencer's gifts for him were usually involving things like Family Guy or South Park. "Or talk to him about stuff he likes. Guys like it when girls are into stuff they like too. My girlfriend watches Family Guy with me all the time." It was a poor example, but it was really all he had to go on.

"Hey! I do too, and I'm ten times more awesome than Verax." Never bring up the constant rivalry that exists between the two boys. "I'll tell you where the place is if you say Verax sucks." Otherwise, he'd just go get the cupcakes himself and seek her out to deliver his promised offering for keeping him safe from baby brother revenge.

[Brea White]

Brea folded her arms over her chest and gave Sam the look. “Missy?” she asked coldly. “Did you really just call me…missy? It’s BREA, or I will show your brother here, advice or no advice, and I don’t even care about the cupcakes.”

This wasn’t quite the truth, but she was not going to let herself be called missy. A girl had to draw the line somewhere. It was a rule.

She scowled at him. “He IS perfect. Well, except he doesn’t do English better than a middle schooler. But that’s a character flaw and doesn’t make him any less perfect! It just makes him more…more…human!”

It is time to admit that Brea might have it pretty darn bad. Then again, everyone but her knew that pretty well.

She stared at him. “But throughout history, all the wealthy leaders never marry for love! They go for respect, trust, honesty, money—you know, all those good things, but not love! Love is…love is kind of silly!” And gross, but Brea didn’t think Sam would think anything was gross. He was a guy after all. They liked gross things. She stared at him. “So I should…buy him what he likes and talk about what he likes.” She wrinkled her nose. “Okay, maybe the first one, but the second one is pretty obring.”

She rolled her eyes. “Verax sucks and you do too. Fine. Where is this magical place, Sam?”

[Samuel Rixon]

Jesus. What was with Brea and the nicknames? Sam's sisters had never seemed to mind... maybe it was just her time of the month. (Nice, Sam.) He threw up his hands in defeat. "Fiiiine. Jesus. No more names, I swear." He didn't know why she objected so much, but whatever. The longer he kept Bryan away from him, the better.

The pyro did cop a grin when Brea elaborated on her views of her not-boyfriend. "What grade's he in? It's lame if he sucks at English." Of course, the phrase 'pot calling the kettle black' came to mind. Sam's grades, though somewhat improved since he'd stopped smoking certain things, were still pretty poor. It didn't stop him from prodding fun at other people, of course. Even guys destined to be political husbands of delusional girls.

"Whaaaat. All the presidents and stuff married for love, right?" Okay, his political knowledge was pretty minuscule. "And you don't know. Love is awesome." Love was what made Spencer put up with his ridiculous shenanigans, and bring him all things Family Guy for Christmas and his birthday. Love was how he felt when he saw Spencer on the weekends after spending a full week away from her. Brea was too little to 'get' love and how awesome it was. "It's worth it, I promise. Even if it's boring."

Of course, if he knew he was doling out advice for a relationship with a massive age gap, he might have re-thought what he was saying.

As for the comment about sucking, he just stuck out his tongue and crossed his arms. "Nuh uh. Only Vinnie sucks. I'm awesome, and I'm not telling." Not until she fixed what she'd said. Sam was nothing if not stubborn.

[Brea White]

“Thank you.” Brea crossed her arms over her chest, secretly pleased that she could elicit such a reaction out of him. She was making progress then. She had him quite thoroughly under her thumb and it felt very good. She didn’t mind the names so much—although growing up with two brothers meant it bothered her more than she cared to admit—but she just wanted to prove that she was top-dog in this relationship, and she had. Perfect.

“Umm.” Brea hesitated. While she knew, technically speaking, that she was not that much younger than Elliot, she also was aware that society had a silly view on age gaps. It wasn’t like she was planning to marry him now but people might still find it was weird. “Well, he’s in college.” She tilted her chin up. “But we’re not gonna do anything now!”

Brea stared at him, wondering how silly he could be. “No. It wasn’t as bad as royalty, but people marry for other reasons. Money, a good political alliance. People get married for all kinds of reasons. Love isn’t awesome. Love can get people into trouble. Look at Romeo and Juliet.” The silliest story in the whole world, she thought. Dying for love, really? And what was with the parents? “Besides, now’s not a good time. He’s older.”

She gave him a look and tapped her foot. “You are not awesome, but I’ll say you don’t suck, how’s that? Now will you tell?” She was losing the advantage, she could tell.