MONDAY WAS A DIFFICULT TIME FOR ALL INVOLVED. In the morning, her father was talking to her mother about work and how they had gotten someone new on the team, and had someone abruptly leave, which had been unexpected, but they were making it work. Brooke had glowered at him the entire time, holding onto how he never said anything specific and her mother simply took it as truth, Liz asking questions and being happy with his vague answers.
But it made sense. Her mother wanted to keep the family together and Liz had too much on her plate to feed into Brooke's notions of their father being less than the man that he was, the man who had worked hard to get them into an expensive school like Midtown, who was paying for their education in full and wanting them to just experience their lives and enjoy it. If anything, Brooke was being the difficult one.
But she didn't want to live her life under a lie. So she kept her mouth shut and her thoughts to herself, racing up to her room and getting ready for when Flash was going to pick them up and take them to school. She caught sight of her canvases and took her sketchbook with her, hoping that she'd be able to get most of the planning finished with her during break and lunch.
As she waited at the bottom of the steps for Liz, her dad approached her, rubbing his mouth and glancing back to his wife who motioned for him to go with an encouraging smile. Brooke pretended not to notice, letting them play the routine of trying to break through to her.
"Hey, pumpkin," he greeted, "How're the paintings coming along?"
"They're good," she replied shortly, adjusting her bag strap so it was fully covering her sketchbooks.
"Listen, so, uh, it's just gonna be you and your mom this weekend, since I'm leaving on Thursday for another business trip and Liz is gonna be doing her Decathlon thing, and we decided that this weekend is your weekend. Whatever you want, don't worry if it's ridiculously expensive, just have fun with it, okay? I-I don't know, go see an art show, I don't know if they have any of those. Are there any concerts you want to see, any new bands?"
Adrian was rubbing the back of his head and fidgeting as he struggled to connect with his daughter, looking at her desperately for help, and she inwardly sighed; it was clear her parents were really trying, and she wasn't so terrible of a daughter to force her father to flounder, especially when he was offering to potentially pay hundreds of dollars to make her happy.
Brooke figured that her father had never expected to be the one to convince his da
"Thanks, dad," she said, "I mean, I don't think there are any concerts playing near me, but could I get some markers at the art store?"
He nodded, looking rather surprised. "Yeah! Yeah, if that's all you want, sure, but if you can think of something else, go ahead. Maybe you can go somewhere, invite your friends. That Ned kid?"
"Ned's in Decathlon with Liz, so he won't be around for the weekend," she explained, sighing as she caught onto his thinly veiled hint at her to get out of the house, "But whatever, I can try to find a concert to go to or something, I'm sure someone's playing on Friday night."
"Oh! Bea is playing on Friday, you should go to her concert!" Liz said, walking down the stairs, and Brooke took a moment out of her internal fight with her father to share a look with him at Liz's tone of voice when talking about her friend.
"I mean, I don't know..." Brooke said carefully, but Liz was speaking again.
"Don't worry, it's really lowbrow, they usually just open for the other local bands, and she knows about you, so you can hang out after their show, her and her friends are really sweet, and it's pretty cool, Matty knows Flash and Sabine knows Michelle, and they're both in your grade. Trust me, it'll be fun," Liz said, grabbing a banana for the road, and Brooke knew that when Liz really fought for something, there was no use trying to fight her.
"Okay, I'll go see the concert," Brooke relented, smiling when Liz squealed and cheered, the both of them heading to the door where Flash was waiting on the other side, honking his horn to let them know he was waiting.
"Hey, pumpkin," Adrian called out, causing Brooke to stop on their steps, Liz looking back from where she was about to cross the street to Flash, watching the scene closely. The man gave his youngest daughter a small smile. "Have a good day at school."
Brooke raised her eyebrows, but smiled back, nodding. "Thanks, dad."
Her father loved his family. That was all that she could certainly say about him. She wished that it could be enough.
º º º
She was sitting with Ned during lunch, as the boy informed her that Peter was in rather hot water for shirking his work and responsibilities at school for reasons Ned couldn't expand upon, but seemed to be valid if his tone was any indication.
"He's just really focused on his Stark Internship, and I'm happy for him, really, but...you know, we never hang out anymore, I miss him," Ned explained, trailing off as he thought, his hand stilling from where he was designing the recording device for Brooke.
The boy had approached her during break with a slew of ideas, as they had been texting over the weekend about what they wanted to do about Brooke's problem, and she was more than happy to settle on a recording device, though she felt rather uncomfortable about the entire thing, especially when she thought about the consequences of getting caught.
Now it was lunch and Ned was starting to flesh out his plans, working on graph paper alongside Brooke who was working on the plans for her paintings, sitting side-by-side in the empty band room, as all the band kids went out onto the field to practice and eat during lunch.
"I'm sorry, that must really suck," she said, looking up from where she was trying to come up with phrases to write on the person she was going to paint, "But he does still hang out with you, right?"
"Yeah, totally," Ned said, nodding, "Yeah, we've been hanging out after school, though I guess that's for his internship...but it's still fun and we sit together at lunch and watch—" he paused, choking slightly as he stared at her before going back to his own work, clearing his throat.
Brooke didn't need to ask him, she knew what he meant. "It's okay, you can say it, I get you have a crush on Liz."
"Oh, I don't," he said, shaking his head wildly, "I mean, she's really great, but Peter's more into her. But he kind of stopped at one point because of his girlfriend and I don't know...what about you, who do you like?"
Brooke shrugged, glancing over to where Ned was writing notes in the margins to himself, raising her eyebrows at his drawing; for all he said he wasn't good at art, he knew how to sketch.
"I don't really know a lot of the kids in our class," she admitted, "And I don't really talk to anyone else outside of school..." The more she spoke to Ned, the more she realized she was rather lonely, and had been for some time; no wonder she sought out Liz, her sister was the only other person in her age group she had in her vicinity.
"Well, that's okay," Ned said, giving her a good natured smile, "If you want, I can find you people."
She snorted, shaking her head as she continued to draw. "I'm okay, Ned, thanks."
After finishing up half of her plans—she was pleased with the batch of confessions she had chosen, and didn't want to speed through them too quickly—she turned to Ned who was starting to look up alternatives to parts on his laptop.
"How do you know what to do?" she asked, shifting to look at him, and he shrugged, shifting the page so she could see.
"Practice," he explained, showing her his laptop screen and pointing to the alternative parts he was looking for, "You know, I take apart stuff, and I look up how they work, what the pieces are used for, it's really complicated, but we learn about this stuff in Robotics. Which Peter quit..."
He shook his head, shrugging as he continued to search. "He and I are hanging out later tonight, so I can get him to help me with these. You know, I think he got most of his own supplies from the Robotics lab. Come on, let's go."
"Wait, what are we doing?" she asked, tucking away her sketchbook, standing as she watched him toss his things into his bag and push himself onto his feet.
"We're gonna borrow some stuff," he said, rushing to the door and peering out the deserted hallway before heading out, motioning for her to follow.
With no other choice, she followed close behind him, rolling her eyes at how they were crouched low to the ground, as if they were going to get caught at any second. They were at a school, going around the classrooms wasn't really considered a capitol offense.
Regardless, they stepped into the Robotics lab which was teeming with other students who were working on projects, the teacher reading a book and being generally uninterested in what they were doing, which was a win for the two teens.
"So I'll probably get this finished by Thursday so we can test it out before you plant it on your dad, but basically you just stick it on something you know he's gonna have on him at all times and you can just listen in," Ned explained, rummaging around in the various drawers and buckets while Brooke hopped up onto one of the empty tables, watching him work as she pulled out her sketchbook, opening to a new page to relax.
She still had yet to return the art book back to Mr. Wayland, but she did enjoy looking at it and taking in the angular style of Art Deco. She implemented it once into one of the paintings, but she wanted to try and add it into her own style without it clashing so greatly. But she would need her book for that, so she wrote herself a note in the corner of the page and worked on drawing something else.
Looking towards Ned who was now stuffing things into his bag, she hummed, figuring that she might as well try to draw him. He was all round features, not sharp angles, but she liked that about him. He oozed a feeling of softness, and seemed very open about everything.
She decided to work on full body figure studies, sketching him out as he crouched down to peer further into the lower cabinets pressed up against the wall, then him bent over his laptop, lips parted as he read whatever article or Wikipedia page he had opened up to.
It took a few tries to get his features right, and she wasn't too pleased with all her iterations, especially the earlier ones making him thinner than he was; it didn't suit him at all, and she wanted to accurately depict his wide nose and big lips, which took her a few tries all, though she was glad to have already gotten a head start with Liz who had big lips of her own.
"What're you drawing?" Ned asked, stopping just before he looked over at her work, averting his eyes, "Can I see?"
"Uh, no, they're sketches, I don't really want to show you those," she said, stammering her way through, hating to say no, yet not wanting him to see the terrible renditions she had done of him.
"That's okay," he said, giving her a dopey smile, and she relaxed, feeling her lips curl into a smile as she looked at him, "I don't mind. I don't always like showing people everything I do. But I bet it looks nice."
Brooke glanced down at her work, biting her lip. "You're a really great friend, Ned. You know?"
"I try," he said simply, and she had to wonder why he didn't have many friends; his interests were very niche, and he seemed to respect women more than some of the other nerdy boys at their school, but he was very genuine and that was admirable.
"Hey, you know," he said, rubbing the back of his neck, "Peter won't actually be getting home until about five...I could come over to your place and we could work on homework together. If you want, we don't have to."
"Yeah, no, that'd be great!" she said, nodding, "Yeah, you can just ride home with us."
"Cool!" he said, grinning before going back to his work, "This'll be fun. I've never had a girl friend before. You know. Like a girl. Who's a friend. Not like, you know, a girlfriend girlfriend—"
"Ned," she interrupted, laughing, "I get it."
"Oh, okay," he sighed, clutching at his heart, "Great. Cool."
"Yeah," she said, turning back to her work, "Cool."
º º º
"Your dad is very intimidating, but he seems nice."
Brooke snorted as she opened the door to her room, wincing at the mess she had made, rushing towards her chair to hide the bras she had just tossed over the back of it, hiding them in her closet.
"He's just the typical dad, you know?" she said, shrugging as she motioned for him to take a seat wherever he wanted, smiling down at his socked feet, "But I think he trusts you since he didn't tell us to stay in the living room or keep the door opened."
Ned blushed at that and she waved it off, pushing her easel to the corner of her room and opening up her bag. "I have to write an entire essay by this weekend, and I'm really not looking forward to it."
"Oh, do you have Perkins?" he asked, and she nodded, making a face.
"She's a sweet old lady, but I'm getting slammed and we just started," she groaned, falling back against her mattress, feeling it sag as Ned moved to lie down next to her.
She turned her head, raising an eyebrow. "What about you?"
"I've got a lot of science," he said, reaching out towards his own backpack, "But no essays. Since I'm in Decathlon, the teachers are giving me some extensions on the work that's gonna be due next week, so I'm planning on getting a head start and some extra credit."
"I can't imagine doing so much work if you don't have to," she commented, turning on her side to face him, closing her eyes, "And about Decathlon, I heard Peter wasn't going, and Liz was so not okay with it."
"Really?" Ned asked, looking surprised, "Peter told me she was super nice about it, said that she understood that being a sophomore was really hard and was fine when he pushed that he couldn't."
"Well, of course she did, she's Liz," Brooke scoffed, "My sister never wants anyone to feel bad for taking care of themselves and saying no, but that doesn't mean she can't get upset. But she would never act on it."
Ned smiled at her. "You really like your sister, huh?"
Brooke fidgeted, shrugging and looking away from him. "I mean, she's the best, you know? Everyone knows it. And she's the only one who doesn't rub that in my face, which is why she's the best."
There was a moment of silence and she raised an eyebrow, turning back to look at him, only to hear the sad of sad violin music coming from his phone. Biting her lip, she turned to smother her face into her blanket, laughing silently, her shoulders shaking and stomach clenching, her cheeks starting to hurt, laughing harder when she heard Ned start to laugh, his high pitched wheeze filling her room.
She turned back onto her back, laughing as she turned to look over at Ned who was trying desperately to turn off the music, his hands shaking as he laughed. Sitting up, she looked towards her door, only to find her father standing there, bags of chips in his hands.
"Thought you kids might want something to eat since you were at school all day," he said, setting them on the ground before backing out of the room, nodding towards Ned who had frozen up at the sight of him.
As soon as the door closed, the two dissolved back into a laughing fit, Brooke cackling at Ned's horrified expression, the boy looking between her and the door, hardly breathing, slowly starting to laugh.
She looked up towards the ceiling, her cheeks hurting from how much she had smiled that day. She could get used to this. She honestly could.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
( 07.21.18 )
What even was this chapter who am I? But I wanted to give Brooke something happy 'cause you know stuff is happening, we got ten more chapters until the end so let's get lit ya'll!
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!