hunks_on_ice (hunks_on_ice) wrote in btvsal, @ 2011-03-19 22:43:00 |
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Entry tags: | ~andrea kinkaid, ~eric kinkaid |
School Daze Meanwhile, Andrea's brother, Eric, was poised over a bowl of Wheaties drenched in milk, a glass of orange juice nearby, along with a banana. The elder Kinkaid still looked to have sleep in his eyes as he huddled over his breakfast. Thank God baseball practice was in the afternoons after school - he couldn't deal with being a swimmer or a runner. The whole idea of waking up before the crack of dawn to swim hundreds of laps or run ten miles before school was enough to make him shudder. Andrea, however, was her normal cheerful self, and Eric grunted a greeting to the cheerful teen. "Hey." "Or you could just let me order for you." Andi smirked as she peeled the skin of her banana down halfway after setting her backpack on her lap. She could be quite adventurous for both of them at The Corn Crib.
Who: Eric and introducing Andrea Kinkaid
Where: Kinkaid Residence
When: Morning
Andrea had already gone for her usual morning run, showered and had gotten ready for school, and was now prancing down the stairs for the kitchen to grab a bottle of juice, which she considered to be a decent breakfast to consume on the ride to Regan High with her brother.
"Well, aren't we the little ray of sunshine this morning." Andi teased when she entered the kitchen to her brother's gruff greeting. A definite indication to the younger Kinkaid that he wasn't completely awake, which tended to make for a grumpy Eric. And as she passed him on her way to the fridge, Andrea snatched up his banana for the simple reason that it looked good to her.
"Yeah, yeah - hey!" Eric cried, suddenly wide awake as his sister snagged his banana as she trotted toward the refrigerator. He reached for her wrist but was too slow to catch her. "Come on, Andi, don't be a brat this morning," Eric said, standing from the table and heading toward the counter, snapping off another banana from the bunch resting there. Heading back to the table, he reached for a knife and cut off the top, peeling it and taking a bite before returning to his Wheaties.
"You're such a grumpy bear in the morning." She said with a faint sigh while opening the fridge to peer inside to decide which juice drink she wanted. "And besides, we're family. We're suppose to share." The teen smirked, which was unseen by her brother as she still had her back to him.
"Snatching isn't the same as sharing, Andi," Eric replied, taking another bite from the banana, followed by a sip of his orange juice, glancing over the top of his glass at his sister as she rummaged in the fridge. "Mom's out of town for the next couple of days." Not that this was anything new, of course. The siblings had been dealing with the fact that theirs was a single-parent household for years, and while their mother did the best she could with them, she was out of town a lot.
"Again." Andi groaned lightly finally closing the fridge door and setting her banana down on the counter momentarily while she opened her chosen bottle of juice. "She was suppose to take me for a new pair of running shoes." The teen paused a moment to swallow down some of her drink. "Guess you'll just have to do it." Which wasn't the same as her brother, like most guys, didn't much care for the whole shopping thing. Besides going with her mother, Andrea had a better chance of scoring a couple new things to add to her wardrobe.
"Hey, I don't mind, kiddo," Eric replied, sitting up in his chair a bit to look at her. "We'll go after school sometime this week, alright? No big deal." Of course, he was thinking purely in mind of taking her to an athletic store for her to pick up some new crosstrainers. Girl clothes and accessories were the furthest thing from his mind. Still, he was happy to take her shopping for something she needed in their mother's absence. Andrea could be a pain, but that was basically in the job description for kid sisters. He loved her just the same.
"Thanks." Andrea said with a genuine smile as she reclined slightly to lean against the edge of the counter. She knew she could be a pest at times, but at least he brother seemed to take it in stride and not really get anywhere near angry at her like Andi knew some brothers could where there younger siblings were concerned. When it counted he was there for her, just like she'd be there for him if he ever needed it. It probably could be said that they had a healthy and close brother/sister relationship.
"No worries, Drea," Eric replied. He picked up his bowl and drained the milk from it in one long swig, then got up and set it in the sink, rinsing it out. Retrieving his banana and orange juice, he leaned against the counter opposite from Andrea, taking another bite, chewing it thoughtfully, willing himself to become more fully awake. "You get all your homework done last night?" he asked, sipping from his glass.
"Yeah." She answered. "It's all done and packed up in my backpack." Andrea usually did complete her homework at night after she got home from school and had dinner. "You get all yours done?"
He smiled - maybe he was being a little overbearing, but she was usually a good sport about it, and Andrea really was a good kid when it came right down to it. "Yeah, I did. Calc took forever, but I managed to finally get it done," Eric replied around another mouthful of banana. No need to mention the fact that he'd been late coming home because he'd been over at Payton's. "You've got a meet coming up, soon, right? Two weeks? Three?" he asked matter-of-factly.
"Three," Andrea answered, "which is why I need a new pair of runners now so I have plenty of time to break them in." Three weeks was plenty of time to break in a new pair of running shoes, two would be cutting it. A week before a meet wouldn't do as Andi was a bit superstitious there as she felt trying to break in a new pair of shoes would somehow throw off her momentum cause they would be a true comfortable fit.
"Three, right," he said, nodding, finishing off his orange juice with a long swig, turning and rinsing the glass in the sink. Kinkaid stretched and rolled his shoulders. "Do you have practice tonight, Drea?" Eric asked, heading to the living room, retrieving his backpack. He unzipped the bag, rifling through it, making sure everything was there for the coming day.
"After school," Andrea replied trailing her brother out of the kitchen, "so guess who gets to be my personal chauffuar." The girl grinned moving toward the front door where she had left her backpack and track bag. Andrea had a tendency to just drop her things off just inside the door when she got home from school.
"Fantastic," he replied teasingly, making a show of rolling his eyes. Ah, well. He'd be able to handle one evening without Payton's company, and she'd most likely understand - he hoped. The girl could be ... volatile, though she'd yet to be with him.
"The shoes will have to wait until tomorrow, then," Eric said, zipping up his backpack, shrugging it onto his shoulders. He turned and grabbed his keys off the hook, opening the door. "You ready, Drea? Got all your things?"
"Why can't we go after practice?" Andi inquired shoving the juice bottle into a side pocket of her backpack. "You got a hot date or something." She said with a roll of her eyes as she knew the possible answer to that. The girl her brother seemed to have taken up with didn't exactly live up to Andrea's expectations. Not that Eric would listen to her rational concerning Payton.
Eric flipped the keys in the air, lowering his shoulder and catching them behind his back as he headed toward the car and waited for Andrea to lock the front door to the house. Eric drove a 1999 Chevrolet Silverado pick-up truck - handy for hauling around baseball equipment, as well as kid sisters who were getting a little too big for their britches.
"So what if I do?" he retorted, unlocking the truck and tossing his bag in the backseat, noting those rolling eyes.
Andrea shouldered her backpack and grabbed her track bag with one hand while the other, still holding the banana, managed to scoop her keys off the table just to the side of the door. Setting her bag down momentarily, Andi locked the house up before tracking after her brother toward his truck. "I'll just keep my opinions to myself." She told him tossing her own bag into the backseat before she climbed in an deposited her backpack on the floor board at her feet.
Kinkaid glanced in the backseat, double-checking to make sure his baseball gear bag was in there. It was. He climbed in and pulled the door closed with a heavy thud. As he pulled on his seatbelt, he glanced at her, a slight frown pulling down at the corners of his mouth. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, cranking the engine. The big block roared to life, and Eric checked the rearview mirror, then turned, arm over the seat back, to look out the rear window as he backed out of the driveway.
"Means I'll keep my thoughts about you new girlfriend to myself." Andrea replied. "You know you could do a whole lot better." Yes, Andrea was really keeping to her word and holding back on making any comments about her older brother's present girlfriend.
Shifting the truck into drive, Eric didn't say anything for a moment, the truck rolling to a stop at the end of their street. Whatever Payton may or may not have been before they got together, he didn't believe for a moment that she was running around on him. He genuinely cared about her, and he believed that she felt the same way.
"I think she's perfect for me," Eric replied after a moment, turning out onto the next street, heading for the stoplight that would take them to the main thoroughfare and school. "Think about all the girls I've dated over the years. Kendra, Rebeca, Samantha. Cheerleaders. They were all sweet and good looking. Payton's... something else. She's got attitude, and she likes me. Hell, she's even come to watch me play, Drea."
"And what's wrong with sweet and nice." Andi said giving her brother a questioning look. She had gotten along fairly well with her brother's girlfriends back in Vegas, and Andrea had actually liked Samantha, whom she still corresponds with occasionally.
"Nothing's wrong with sweet and nice," Eric replied, braking at the traffic light, the engine idling as he waited for it to flash green. "Payton makes me happy. I like her, she likes me. We have fun together. I don't see why you have to be such a pain about it. She hasn't done anything to make you mad or been bitchy to you. What's your problem with her, anyway?" Kinkaid asked, pressing on the accelerator and turning left out onto the main street. It was less than a fifteen minute drive from here - plenty of time for his sister to needle him some more about his newest girlfriend.
"Just on the off chance that you haven't heard, your sweet little Payton has a rep, and it's not exactly the good kind." And it wasn't so much that she was just being a bitch about Payton, Andrea was just being protective where her brother was concerned.
The light ahead turned red as Andrea spoke, and Eric stepped hard on the brake, harder than he needed to, bringing them to an abrupt halt. Gripping the steering wheel, Eric looked over at his sister, his irritation evident. "Look - I don't care what you think you're doing or who you think you're helping. I don't want to hear you talk about her like that again, Drea - alright?" Eric said flatly. It wasn't the first time he'd heard about Payton's... reputation. She'd done nothing to hurt him, and he had no reason to distrust her.
The light turned green, and he pressed the accelerator, eyes shifting back to the road.
"Fine." Andrea sulked, slumping down a bit in the seat as Eric started the car forward again when the light switched to green. She wasn't trying to start anything with her brother, really. Talk had just seemed to move onto Payton, and Andrea was just trying to offer her opinion and insight.
They drove in silence through the next few intersections, Eric occasionally glancing at his sister out of the corner of his eye as she sulked in the passenger seat. He breathed a sigh through his nose, resisting an urge to turn on the radio to fill the silence in the truck's cab.
"Andrea," Erik said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so short. I just... I really like this girl, and she really likes me. She wants me to take her to an Angels game for crying out loud. And she's not just with me because I'm a good ball player or whatever." Another stoplight, and he chanced a look in his sister's direction, seeing that sulky look. "Your face is going to freeze that way if you keep frowning like that," he said with a mischievous smile.
The corners of her mouth twitched as Andrea fought to keep a smile from forming. "I know you like her loads," as was quite obvious by the number of times her brother had stated just that fact, "I just don't want to see you be hurt by her." Which, in Andi's mind, had a good chance of happening considering Payton's reputation. Girls like her didn't change over night.
He glanced at her again, smirking a little as she struggled to keep her mouth in a flat, petulant line. The light changed, and they were off again; school was just another few minutes away.
"I know you're just trying to look out for me, kiddo," Eric said, flicking the turn signal and checking his blindspot before changing lanes. "Tell you what - after you're done with practice tonight, we'll go pick up your new shoes, and then we'll grab dinner somewhere. You pick."
"Alright," Drea said perking up a bit at the thought of getting her new runners that night. "And I choose The Corn Crib." The younger Kinkaid stated as she sat up a little straighter in the seat. The name might not say much about the place, but Andrea had found that the vegetarian restaurant had great food, a friendly atmosphere and good service. She had been there twice now since they had moved to L.A.
Eric had the good grace not to make a face when she named her chosen eatery for the evening. Andrea was a vegetarian and had been for a little while - something about not being able to eat anything with a face. She'd tried to subtly steer her brother and mother in that direction as well, dropping hints, making suggestions for restaurants.
"Well, hopefully they'll have something that I can eat there," he replied, seeing the school coming up into view. He had half a mind to tease her that she was being jealous because, lately, he'd been spending more time with Payton than with his sister. But Eric decided to leave that alone - that was a battle for another day. "I... will be able to find something to eat there, right?"
"You need to be more adventurous." Andrea pointed out to her brother concerning his eating habits and dislike of anything vegetarian. "And they do have burgers, you know." Andi added reaching down the grab for her backpack, then, when she spied the high school ahead. Maybe they weren't the meat burgers her brother was used to eating, but in the younger Kinkaid's mind they were burgers just the same.
"Well, I'll be plenty adventurous tonight when I'm looking over the menu at this place trying to figure out what I can eat," Eric replied, changing lanes again and heading for the access road to the school parking lot. He wondered briefly if the burgers she was talking about were anything like the burgers he was accustomed to - but he doubted it.
After a couple of minutes of driving through the parking lot looking for a space, Kinkaid spied one and carefully steered his pickup into the space. A quick check of the clock on the dash showed that they were fifteen minutes early - plenty of time for them to get to class. "Alright. We're here," he said, turning off the engine and reaching for his back before opening the door.
"Yeah, I guess I could let you do that - just don't make it anything weird," he said, grinning at her to show that he was kidding. He had let her pick the place, and he wasn't going to be a jerk about it now just because she hadn't picked Salvatore's Pizza or Big Jake's Burgers.
"I've got batting practice for an hour after, but that's about it. I figured I'd just do homework up in the stands while I wait for you to finish practice," he said, closing the truck door, then punching the remote lock on his keychain. He started walking alongside Andrea toward the school as she ate her banana, hefting his bag onto his shoulder. "So I'll just be at the school until you're done."
"I'll meet you in the stands, then, after practice." Andrea told him as they walked side by side toward the school doors. By the time the pair reached the double doors leading into the school, Andrea had devoured the banana and had plucked her juice bottle out of the side pocket of her backpack.
"Alright, Drea," Eric replied, walking in after her. They were at opposite ends of the school - she in the freshmen hall, he in the junior hall, and the majority of his classes were upstairs. "See you this afternoon, kiddo!" Kinkaid waved at her and headed for his locker.