Aaron "Peanut" Pappas - the next Shaun White
Brad laid back on his futon, reading the music section of the local paper to see oncert listings. He was babysitting Aaron that day, and the kid was happy to just sit in front of the tv watching the Winter Olympics while playing with Transformers, so his job that day was pretty easy.
However, he was getting kind of bored. There wasn't really anything good in the paper, and while snowboarding was on which was one of the pretty good Olympic sports, he just wasn't feeling like sitting around watching tv. He'd asked Aaron if he wanted to go out and do something, but all he wanted to do was watch tv. So, while it was an easy Saturday, it was a boring Saturday. He glanced over at his clock, and let out a groan when he saw that it would be at least three or four more hours before Mia would be back.
"I want to do that," Aaron spoke up.
"Do what?" Brad asked, tossing the newspaper aside.
"That," Aaron said, pointing at the tv. "Snowboarding. It looks cool. Can we do it?"
Brad laughed a little as he sat up and watched the tv. "We don't have a snowboarding place around here, sorry kid. We can go sledding or something if you want."
"Sledding sucks," Aaron grumbled as he rammed his Transformers into each other. "I want to go snowboarding."
Brad watched the tv. Aaron was right, snowboarding did look cool. And, ok, it's not like Stoneybrook had a halfpipe where they could go do it. And snowboards were probably expensive. But, really, wasn't a snowboard just a skateboard without the wheels? His old skateboard was in the storage shed at his mom's house, and her house also had a pretty decent hill in the backyard. And, god, it'd be something to do besides sitting around the apartment.
"Come on, let's go," Brad said, standing up and grabbing Aaron's coat. "Can't hurt to try, can it?"
*
Brad tapped his foot nervously on the tile floor of the exam room at Stoneybrook General Hospital. A nurse was wrapping plaster strips around Aaron's broken wrist.
"You picked a cool color," Brad told Aaron as the nurse took out the lime green bandages that were the outer layer of the cast.
"It's like slime," Aaron said, sniffling a little, but also laughing. He'd been crying since he fell while snowboarding, but the tears had subsided not long before as Brad had joked around with him and helped him relax, and when he'd seen that he could pick whatever color he wanted for the cast.
"Yeah, it is," Brad laughed. "You're lucky, they didn't have these cool colors when I was a kid. I broke my wrist when I was about six, I just had this plain white cast. I got people to sign it though so it started to look pretty cool before long."
"Can people sign mine?" Aaron asked.
"Yeah," Brad said. "I'll sign it, your mom and all your family will, and then bring a marker to school on Monday so everyone else can sign it. It'll look really cool."
"Cool," Aaron said, looking down at the wet plaster strips being wrapped around his arm.
Brad blew out a sharp breath, issuing a silent thanks that Aaron was more relaxed about it all, because that helped Brad feel relaxed. He knew Mia was freaked, even though he'd told her it was no big deal, but he was still nervous.
He glanced out in the hallway and saw Mia walking past, looking around for their room.