Word Count: 798
Rating:
PG.
Category:
AU. Angst/Humour. Teen-fic.
Story Status:
Complete.
Summary:
Rodney's cousin wants Rodney to go swimming...
Beta:
Thank you to Jayne Perry for the beta-reading.
A Rolling Stone: Missing Scene
By Leesa Perrie
“Hey, Rodney, I’m going swimming when Mom gets
home, you
want to come?” John asked as he breezed into the living room,
where Rodney was engrossed in the recently discovered wonder that was
Batman.
“No.”
“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun!”
“Go away, I’m trying to watch this.”
John flopped onto the couch next to his younger cousin, nudging him
with his shoulder as he did so, purposely.
“Quit that,” Rodney said grumpily, shifting up the
couch a little.
John merely shifted closer again and grinned, though refrained from
nudging him this time, ignoring the glare his cousin sent his
way. Had to work on Rodney’s personal space issues,
after
all. Try and reduce it from that two foot radius that he was
more
comfortable with.
They sat in silence, watching the end of the episode, though John
couldn’t help make certain comments when Cat Woman appeared,
which Rodney agreed with wholeheartedly.
“So,” John said once Batman had finished,
“You going to come swimming now?”
“Don’t have any swim trunks.”
“Oh, hadn’t thought of that.
I’ll ask Mom if we can stop at a store on the way and get you
some.”
“No thanks.”
“Aw, come on,” he whined, putting on his puppy dog
face.
“It might have escaped your notice, but I’m really
not into
sports,” Rodney snapped, knowing full well that it
hadn’t
escaped John’s notice.
“You shoot hoops.”
“That’s different.”
Yeah, John thought, remembering the first time they’d shot
some
hoops a month ago, back at Rodney’s foster parents’
house. He’d failed to get Rodney interested in any
other
sport, though his parents were thinking of enrolling the teenager into
a gym and making sure he went at least once a week. Had to
get
some exercise somewhere and walking about town wasn’t really
enough. Of course, Rodney didn’t know about this
yet.
His parents were still working out how to tell the somewhat
exercise-phobic kid about their plans without him arguing too much, or
sulking.
“Look, swimming is fun! Really, it is.
The pool that
I go to has a really cool slide as well. I’m sure
you’d love it.”
“No,” Rodney said stubbornly, looking
tense. John
frowned. He’d quickly learned that when Rodney got
stubborn
and tense, it meant he was feeling embarrassed, usually about something
related to whatever was being discussed.
Oh, he thought to himself, almost seeing the light bulb over his head.
“You can’t swim, can you?” he asked,
keeping his tone matter of fact.
“I can,” Rodney said, raising his chin up
haughtily. “Of course I can.”
“It’s okay, you know, if you
can’t.”
“I told you…” Rodney trailed off and
sighed, knowing
that he sucked at lying, especially to his new family.
“It
doesn’t matter, don’t want to go swimming
anyway,” he
ended sullenly.
“Ah, crap, there’s nothing to be embarrassed
about.
Lots of kids don’t learn to swim. Mom can book you
some
lessons and make sure you’re in a group about your age, or
with
the adults.”
“Not bothered.”
“Right,” John drew the word out, trying to figure
out what
to say, and then continued in a sarcastic tone.
“So, if you
end up in water and in trouble somehow, then it’s okay that
you’ll drown when you could have swum to safety.
Yeah,
sure, no problem, that’s just fine with me.”
“I won’t get into trouble if I stay away from
water.”
“You can’t spend the rest of your life avoiding
water! Besides, even the most serene looking rivers can be in
danger of flash flooding if it rains enough. Even in the
centre
of towns or cities.”
“I…the chances that I’ll ever need to
swim are remote…”
“So? You’re going to take the risk, no
matter how
small it might seem right now, for what? Pride?
Laziness? Or are you afraid?”
“I’m not afraid!” Rodney hotly
denied.
“So why be stubborn? You never know when being able
to swim might save your life.”
“I…” his cousin scowled.
“You’re not going to let this drop, are
you?”
“Nope, and nor will Mom and Dad when I tell them.”
“That’s not fair!”
“So?”
“Fine. I’ll learn,” he finally
agreed, looking very unhappy about it, as well as nervous.
“It’ll be fine, you’ll see,”
John said encouragingly. “You might even enjoy
it!”
“Humph,” Rodney said.
“I’m going to my
room, to read. Have ‘fun’
swimming.”
Rodney left the room, muttering under his breath unhappily.
John
didn’t take it personally; he knew his cousin was just unsure
of
himself and afraid of failing.
Still, it’d be fun when Rodney and he could go swimming
together,
he thought it’d be cool to show him the water
slide. But
for now… he grinned. At least he’d get
first dibs on
any good looking girls there.
Oh yeah, life was good.
The End
