tennessee north is an accident waiting to happen (firstaidless) wrote in powerton, @ 2011-02-13 20:18:00 |
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Entry tags: | 02/11/2011, piper north, tennessee north |
a better son or daughter.
Tennessee didn’t like to break rules. He might have been a rule-twister, but not a rule-breaker. He was the sort of boy that, without fail, was on campus by curfew and snug in bed before lights out; one that hadn’t ever had a truancy blotting his attendance record or landed himself in detention, refusing to be stuck afterschool in detention like a primer for the kind of fucked up boredom most of his peers would be subjected to for the rest of their second-rate lives. In all of his academic career, Tennessee had impressively never turned an assignment in late either, not even when his ancient grandmother (God rest her) had passed away toward the end of freshman year and incidentally the whole North family had had to fly to the state that was his namesake for the funeral. Of course, he hadn’t actually given a shit, having only seen her a grand total of three times in his entire life, so cranking out his English project for that week was as easy as locking himself in his hotel room and pretending to sob decorously over his MacBook Pro.
There were some rules, on the other hand, that he knew were absolutely made to be broken. There was one rule in particular that was made to be broken often: students not allowed to be on the opposite gender’s floor. But Tennessee and his sister Piper were inseparable. You couldn’t just expect them to not live in each other's pockets when they had been doing it all of their lives. And so, with dinner just beginning, the grey light outside already fading fast, Tennessee was once again in his sister’s dorm in the Terra building.
Ironing.
Everything.
Sitting on the floor with a compact ironing board, he had already gone through most of the wardrobe she brought to Powerton as they chatted, warm piles of jeans and cotton tees neatly stacked around him, things that didn’t honestly ever need to be pressed into smooth lines. It was strangely cathartic, that weird kind of Zen shit that helped him turn his brain off for a little while and made him feel like he wasn’t going to fly into a million pieces.
Of all the wonderful things that Piper understood about her beautiful baby brother, this was most definitely not one of them. She didn’t share his borderline obsessive need to have an organized wardrobe with everything ironed to perfection. Sometimes, she could understand his unique eccentricities but ironing clothes? She just didn’t get it, and it wasn’t for a lack of trying either. With Tennessee, she always tried.
Piper sat across from her brother as he ironed, the piles of clothing sitting between them. She sat cross-legged, leaning up against the bed, just watching the slow back and forth of the iron against her jeans as they talked about anything that came to mind. How was basketball? The same. Have you talked to dad? Not since Christmas. Seriously, who goes to Maui on New Year’s Eve without their kids? You know how dad is.
Nolan North was always something to talk about. The man, in Piper’s opinion, was not fit to be a father, and as his daughter, she felt that she had the right to say that. It wasn’t a feeling she wished on Ten, though. Every child should love his father and she had always tried her best to keep Nolan’s image, as a semi-decent father figure, intact in Tennessee’s mind. It was quite an accomplishment, considering the amount of disdain that she felt for the man.
As she picked casually at the imaginary split-ends of her long red hair, she suddenly realized what Ten was ironing. She looked up at the boy, an amused smile on her face. “Are you ironing my jeans? Really? I don’t think jeans need to be ironed, Ten.”
“You know that distressed look they sometimes give them?” Tennessee stopped for a moment, iron hovering expectantly, and gave her a little amused smile. "Yeah, I kind of hate that."
In reality, he kind of more than hated that, but now was not the time to vehemently air his hatred of certain trends in fashion. And with Tennessee, it was never the time to be particularly vehement or hateful, at least not out loud. Those were private thoughts, the dark feelings that chased him to sleep. Those were secrets, and secrets weren't something Tennessee gave up freely.
"Sooo, are you going to the basketball game tonight?” he asked brightly, changing the topic with a slight wheedling tone to his voice as if he already knew her answer would be a big fat NO.
Piper nodded slowly, not really understanding what it was about wrinkly jeans, or other clothing, that bothered Ten. She wasn’t going to ask though, she’d asked way too many times in the past and each time, she had gotten no closer to an understanding. Ironing was something that Ten had enjoyed doing from a very young age, and Piper wasn’t going to try and tell him what and what wasn’t appropriate to enjoy. Besides, she had gotten used to having perfectly ironed clothing over the years, so she wasn’t going to complain.
She kept picking at her hair as Tennessee kept speaking, only looking up for a second after he asked his question. “Oh,” Piper let her hair fall from her hands, “Is that tonight?” She frowned, wondering why nobody had tried to contact her about it. Then again, she hadn’t checked her school e-mail in at least a week. She hadn’t showed up for basketball practice for even longer than that.
“Yep, in a couple hours,” he explained, even though he already knew she had forgotten, or at least just didn't care. That she'd somehow barely managed to stay on the Terra team despite making herself so consistently scarce. He couldn't actually remember the last time he had seen her play basketball, though he'd offered to practise with her. Or at least just shoot some hoops for the fun of it. No pressure. No house rivalry.
"You’d still be supporting them, you know, in spirit.” Not that Piper was overly concerned with keeping up appearances either. That was Tennessee’s job: all neat, put together, smiling.
“Terra and-” Piper paused, trying to remember if she had read anything about the game after all. “-Animus?” She was pretty sure that that was the right team anyways. If the team hadn’t contacted her by now, she was pretty sure they didn’t need her to win. Really, all she did was score points and the new kid they had for backup on the team wasn't half bad, even if she’d never admit it out loud.
She snorted slightly at the next statement, but didn’t deny it or anything, “Are you going to go watch?”
Tennessee laughed. Was he going to watch? He was practically expected to make an appearance, by his friends, by his peers, like some celeb in miniature watching from the bleachers. And as the sort of person that could easily fit in just about anywhere, always looking comfortable with his surroundings, Tennessee had a lot of places to be. It would be suspicious if the doe-eyed wonder wasn’t somehow in the public eye. “Of course! I go to all the games. Even the ones I’m not playing,” he smiled softly, but it was a smile more directed toward himself: even the ones he wasn’t winning.
Piper smiled, but her mind was wondering how her baby brother could care about things like that. She couldn’t even find it in her to care enough to show up for her own game. But that smile was a proud one, she was infinitely glad that Ten wasn’t like her. Tossing her hair behind her, she stretched upwards and sighed as she cracked her stiff back.
“What else have you been up to? You know, other than basketball and accidentally terrorizing freshman with your ability?”
“Hey, emphasis on accident, please,” said Tennessee, getting up suddenly to yank the cord out of the wall. It wasn’t like he intended to fall down stairs or run into glass doors on a regular basis. In fact, his accidents were probably the one thing he didn’t have any control over. He set the iron down on Piper’s desk and climbed into her bed with a quiet oof. “More importantly, what have you being doing, Pip?”
Piper noticed that he hadn’t answered her question, but she let it slide, at least for now. The school was big, her brother had probably just been hanging out with friends or doing homework or something. It wasn’t like he was plotting the end of the world or anything.
“Got bored the other night and pranked some sophomore in Animus, with Ira and Sia.” She got up and set herself back down on the foot end of her bed so that she was once again facing her brother, “I think his name was Tommy or something, do you know him?”
Tennessee lifted both brows at her, affecting a look of concern. “Tommy Fletcher. Yeah, he’s a friend of a friend. I heard he went missing or something. You guys don’t know anything about that,” his blue eyes seemed to grow a little larger, a little softer, “do you?”
Piper raised a single eyebrow back at her brother, “He went missing? Since when?” She didn’t know anything about that, but if she had, she would have told Tennessee at the sight of that face he made. She knew he made that face whenever he wanted something bad enough, but that didn’t mean that she was impervious to it, “No, I have no idea where he went. He was fine when we left him.”
“I just thought I’d ask. The people you hang around aren’t exactly known for being... you know, well-adjusted. But I guess if they’re your friends they must be okay, right?” The corners of his mouth turned up in a smile. Really, those kids had the right sort of idea, but their execution was all wrong. Too obvious.
Piper gave him a lopsided smile, “You don’t have to worry about my friends, that’s my job.” She almost chuckled a bit because Piper North didn’t worry about anyone, except Tennessee. Everyone knew this, she imagined that even Tennessee knew this, but she buried the chuckle anyways.
“Oh, have you talked to Sally?” She suddenly remembered that she hadn’t spoken to her step-mother in a while. “She texted me to call her a few days ago, but I haven’t had the chance to yet.”
Tennessee groaned quietly. “No. I told mom I was going to Skype her tonight but I forgot about the game.” It had somehow slipped his mind at the time; he was too busy talking Drama Club, asking her for her aunt’s blondies recipe, patiently reminding her that he and Audrey Mullins had broken up weeks ago and, oh, yes, what a shame it was that Sally never got the chance to meet her. “Think I should call her before I leave?”
“Probably? I mean, I’m surprised she hasn’t texted me again, if you haven’t talked to her in a while either.” Part of the reason why Piper kept putting off calling Sally was because she figured Ten was keeping her updated on how they were both doing. “Or we can Skype her together tomorrow or something. As long as neither one of us forgets?”
“That’s cool! I’ll check first. Wouldn’t want her to get mad at me,” he pointed out, sounding as though his mom was even capable of being upset at him for longer than five seconds. It was always a flash of irritation, a stern tone in her voice; then Tennessee would give her That Look and suddenly everything was fine again.
Grabbing one of the pillows on her bed, he folded his arms around it and tucked it under his chin. “I miss her though,” he mumbled, glancing back up at his sister with a pensive look. And it was so very true. Tennessee adored his mother, admired her, wished he could be more like her. The only other person he loved more was Piper. “I mean, I don’t mind living with dad,” the lie came easily, “but I think I like New York better.”
Piper nodded, giving him a genuine smile. She could definitely understand that. Beverly Hills was her home, but she liked living with Sally a lot more than she liked living with Nolan. She could depend on Sally, the only other person in the world she could depend on was Tennessee, and it was no secret he was her favourite person in the world. “I know what you mean. Living with dad isn’t even like living with him, he’s barely ever home.” She frowned, it wasn’t like she wanted him around more, but it seemed like an appropriate thing to say at the moment.
“Right?” The same frown appeared on Tennessee’s face. “Whatever. I know he’s busy. I’m not mad. But, hey, you left before you could meet the new housekeepers. Cristina was teaching me to make like these tamales with banana leaves. Preeetty cool.”
“Cristina?” The look on Piper’s face suggested that was probably another one that would end up sleeping with Nolan and inevitably have to leave anyways. Piper had stopped trying to make friends with their housekeepers after the fifth one left because of the same exact situation. Still, she was glad Tennessee still liked to make those connections. “She sounds... nice. Did you teach her how to make those crazy brownies of yours?”
“Pffft, no way. I’m taking that secret to the grave,” Tennessee quipped, gently tossing her pillow at her. He wasn’t going to even touch on that look Piper was giving him. It was common knowledge at this point that female staff members were as disposable as tissues, just another depressingly desperate fact about their promiscuous father. What was he paying for anyway? The help or the help?
With an easy shrug he slid off the bed and went about picking up all the stacks of clothes he left folded on the floor, neatly rearranging them in their respective drawers fully knowing that his sister was just going to screw them up all over again by the end of next week; then he’d find t-shirts mixed with jeans and socks in the designated hoodies section, and, ugh, it was a thankless job, really. Just then a familiar tune burst from his pocket. Giving Piper a look that was a strange cross between amused and exasperated, he answered the phone cheerfully.
“Oh, hey mom!” He turned back to Piper with a grin and stage-whispered, “It’s mom. Yeah, no, I’m in Piper’s room right now. I was just going to call you!” He pointed at the door before he took the call outside, his bright voice carrying back to Piper’s room as he wandered down the hall, “No? Why would I get in trouble...”