Chloe Richards (rahrahrawr) wrote in supernextdoor, @ 2012-04-15 14:54:00 |
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Entry tags: | 10.03.11, chloe, chloe and jason, jason |
Car conversation
Who: Chloe and Jason
What: Promised talk about getting her a car
When: Monday Evening
Where: Richards’ Home
Warning: Teenage drama
Jason almost hoped Chloe was still studying at her friend’s house as he followed Grace and Charlie into the house. He let the other two girls do their thing, setting his raspberry lemonade on the side table as he shrugged out of his jacket. He was tired, but at least it was because he’d gone straight to Charlie’s match after work and picked up Grace from his mother’s in the city and spent some time with both of them instead of working a case. Sonic had good chili dogs so he was at least well fed for this confrontation. Now he just had to wait for his oldest daughter to pounce on him like an unwary deer.
Unfortunately for him, she'd gotten home within plenty of time to practically meet her father at the door as soon as he entered the house. He'd promised to have the conversation with her and she was determined to make him keep that promise. Hearing her siblings head into their rooms, she bounced down the stairs and into the kitchen where she folded her arms across her chest and looked at her father expectantly. "Hi, Daddy." she said firstly, figuring he deserved a greeting. She also figured he deserved some buttering up, so she smiled brightly at him. "How was work?"
Yeah, she wasn’t fooling anybody. “Hi, Princess,” he drawled. “Nobody was murdered or robbed. Work was quiet. Your sister won her scrimmage match, in case you were wondering.” He shook his head. “Let me sit down first. Jesus.” Jason headed into the living room, steeling himself. He knew eventually he’d have to give in, but he had wanted Chloe to earn her first car on her own. That way she got that sense of accomplishment and it would be just hers. If he gave her a car, it was only fair she share it with Charlie. And drive her sisters around. But he wasn’t clueing her into his thoughts at the moment. Setting down in his chair, he let out a long breath. “Okay, get it out of your system.”
No, she didn't really care if Charlie had won because if she was being honest she wasn't exactly sure what the hell 'scrimmage' was in the first place. Maybe she'd google it later. That, however, wasn't the important thing at the current moment. "Okay." she said as she followed him into the living room and let him sit down. Once he'd settled and gave her the go ahead, she drew in a breath. "I know you said that you wanted me to save up for my own car and I'm okay with that, but I have a proposition for you." she smiled. "I've been working since I turned sixteen and I've been saving up pretty much every penny I've gotten since then. I know it's not enough to get a car just yet, but I'm willing to give you all I got in my savings and keep paying you whenever I get paid if I can convince you to just go ahead and lemme get the car now..." she said, putting on her best 'please, give in to me' face.
"I'd take care of it, I promise." she went on, not wanting to stop while she was on a roll. "I'll work for the insurance and the gas and anything extra I get will go towards paying off the car so that it'll be fully mine. Until then it'll be in your name until I've actually paid for it. What do you think?" she asked, hoping that he'd agree. It didn't even have to be a fancy car or anything shiny. She'd deal with it so long as she had wheels to call her own.
Well, she’d made a good argument. Jason listened to her conditions and wasn’t quite ready to give in yet. “First of all, if you have your own car, you have absolutely no reason to be late for curfew anymore. Unless you’re mugged and then I’d hope you’re calling me to help you get rid of the body.” His daughter was a werelioness. Girly-girly or not, anybody who was stupid enough to try and mug her deserved the thrashing they’d get. “I don’t care about traffic, I don’t care about show times or anything. It is your responsibility to make sure you’re home on time.” He rolled his shoulders. “Until you have paid me back for the other half, you are sharing this car with Charlie. Until she can drive herself, you are going to make sure she gets to her practices and games when I can’t. Unless it conflicts with your own practices or games. Not your social life, the other activities you have committed to. If you brush her off at the last minute because some boy invites you out, that’s the end of this. Same for Grace. The idea of this is make it easier for everybody else, too. No just let you run wild all over the city.”
Chloe thought that sounded a lot like he was close to giving in, but she didn't want to count her chickens just yet. She nodded at his conditions. It would just give her more of a reason to make sure that she paid the car off before she really had to share control of it with Charlotte. "Okay, so if I don't have practice or work I'm in charge of getting the girls to their practices and Gracie to Grandma's house?" she said, making sure she was correct in all her currently processing thoughts. Just having a car would give her more popularity points, even if she wasn't going anywhere in it. And meeting curfew would be way easier when she wasn't relying on someone else to come get her, or worse, public transportation.
Jason was definitely about to give in, but he wanted to make it absolutely clear he didn’t want her running off all the time when he wasn’t home because she could. “You’re still the oldest and the one I really rely on when I catch a tough case,” he reminded her. “If I’m working, I still want you to be here for Grace. Split the nights with Charlie, work it out between you, so that she doesn’t spend every night I work late at Grandma’s because you both are too busy with your own lives. Okay?” That was his main concern, once she understood that, he would move onto the other things.
Chloe nodded. She didn't want Gracie to be stuck at their grandmother's for every second of her life. It wasn't fair to the youngest Richards girl and it made her feel sort of like she'd been being an asshole in wanting the car in the first place. "We can work up a schedule." she said. "Split every other weekend when we don't have games or practices and work out the during the week part." At least she only worked a few hours during the week and football games were only during part of the year before the cheerleaders started cheering for basketball games which were usually only home ones. "I promise I'll split the nights with Charlie and work it out without biting each others faces off." she assured her father. "So... does this mean you're saying yes?"
“Yes, I am saying yes,” he said. He let her get out her triumph before he continued. “But one more condition. No boys alone in the car with you. I don’t care who they are or what you are or are not doing with them. Even if they are bleeding to death. Call 911. If I smell a guy in that car, this deal is over. Understood?”
She squealed at his affirmative answer, but of course he went and pulled the dad card on her and banned boys from the car. She quieted herself and narrowed her eyes at him a little. "Does that mean I'm not allowed to drive to a boy too?" she questioned. Surely he couldn't ban her from contact with the more masculine sex all together. "And can I ban you from the car since you're a boy?" she asked, just to be a smarty pants.
Heh, she just had to push her luck didn’t she? “I can’t stop you from seeing them altogether,” he admitted grudgingly. “But not alone in the car. That’s a setup. Even if it’s your car.” Jason trusted his daughter just fine. He had just been a teenage boy with some really good lines once. Her mother had been smart and together and ambitious too. Didn’t stop her for falling hook line and sinker for his lines and ending up never coming close to achieving any of her dreams. He didn’t regret anything, but he wanted his daughter to choose her future, not make the best of what she had like they had. “I will stay out of it as much as I can,” he said. “But I am going snoop from time to time. Because I’m your father and it’s my job. Deal with it.”
Chloe was smart enough not to push her luck any further. "Fine." she agreed. It was better than the alternative of no car and the bus pass that she hated that was currently stuffed in her wallet. "No boys in the car, no ditching Charlie and Gracie and no missing curfew." she counted off. She was honestly thoroughly happy with the thought of having a car, even with the conditions that were listed. So to express said happiness, she pounced on her father and hugged him around the neck. "Thank you." she murmured, giving him a good squeeze.
Jason chuffed out a laugh when she landed on him. “Don’t thank me,” he reminded her as he wrapped his arms around Chloe and kissed her cheek. “You’re earning this. I just need you to help me out some. This should be a win-win.”
Chloe smiled and squeezed him once more. "Win-win." she agreed. "Now you just have to convince Charlie to ride in the car with me." she told him, knowing well and good that her sister would do what she could to get out of having to be seen with Chloe if possible. "And I've got to figure out a schedule so that everyone gets to where they need to go on the days they need to get there with plenty of time for my practices and games." she said with a little sigh. Yeah, this would be tough, but she was determined.
“I will handle that,” he assured his oldest daughter. “Charlie’s just figuring out who she is. You both need to learn to ignore the other. When you let her goad you, you’re just encouraging her. And then I have to yell and then there’s doors slamming and you two have really got to come to a truce sometime. Work on that too while you’re at it? Please?”
She felt a little badly because her arguments with Charlie did weigh on her father the worst. "I'll try." she promised her father. "She just gets under my skin sometimes and before I know it we're pulling hair and baring teeth." she muttered.
More than either of them could know. Jason felt like he’d done something wrong as a parent when they spatted constantly. Not done right by them or something the way they picked and sniped at each other. Were they really so unhappy they had to attack each other constantly? “It just makes me think you’re miserable and taking out on each other instead of me,” he admitted quietly.
Chloe felt pretty badly that her father even thought that. She shook her head and caught either side of her father's face so she could look him straight in the eyes. "We don't fight because of you or because we're miserable." she assured him. "We're just so... different." she sighed. "I'll try to be better, Daddy." she promised him. And maybe now that she knew how her father felt, perhaps she would.
That made him feel better. He needed to have a talk with Charlie too. He thought she was happier since the move, but the way they fought just made him wonder if she was keeping something from him that was hurting her. “Thank you,” he said. “I’ll try not to take it so personally when you do argue.” He could try, after all.
"I really will try." she promised again before resting her head against his shoulder. "Maybe the car will be good for the both of us since we'll be forced to spend time together and unable to fight." She couldn't exactly have a real argument while driving. She was smart enough to turn off her phone and ignore distractions when behind the wheel so that was to her favor.
Or they’d end up in a fight in the car and have an accident. Yeah, his mind didn’t need to be going there. “I will too,” he promised. “Here’s hoping. Now, get out of here. I wanna watch the game a bit before I put Gracie to bed.” He gave her one more hug. “I love you and I only want what’s best for you, princess. Don’t ever forget that.”
Returning the hug, she carefully slipped out of her father's lap and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "I love you too." she smiled. "Don't stay up too late or you won't ever get up in the morning." she murmured.