groovygamers.com

On a chilly day in November Sarah and her brother Martin enjoy a lunch at a sandwich shop in Chicago.  This far from Oak Park it's not likely any of their friends will see them getting along, which would blow their cover of rival siblings.

"Just because you bring your boyfriend home is no reason for me to let mom and dad know I have a girlfriend.  She's a little older than me, but not like a lot, I just don't want them freaking out"

Oh!  "A little older?  How much older?"  Older than me?  Is he dating Stacy's mom?  Oh crap!  Psst.  Jumping to conclusions again.  Right.

She schools her expression to more one of neutrality and steals a chip of of Mart's plate. 

"She's a freshman, so it's only two or three years.  We're both scaters, so it's cool."

OOC: Grr!  Thought I had posted first thing this morning.  Got distracted and never hit send.

IC:
"Is she a freshman at Oak Park?  Is she in my class?  Oh my god!  You little stud."  Sarah tries to keep her voice quiet but she's sort of proud of her little brother.  And she is a little mortified that she might be in the same class as his girlfriend though. 

OOC: Who the hell is Pam?  :)[/color]

"Yes, she goes to Oak Park, and I'm not telling you if she's in any of your classes.  I don't want you telling her lies about me, jeez."

OOC:
um... in SecretOracle world Beta Sarah is known as Pam.  yeah.  that's it.  And with all her teleporting she accidentally crossed dimensions.. but it's all better now. 

IC:
"I wont!  I wont say a thing!  I promise.  Aren't I good sister to you?  Do I tell Mom and Dad about any of the insane stuff you do?  I mean other than the obvious times when you come home torn and bleeding.  It's a little hard to say you got chased by a dog when your arms and legs are bleeding all over and your board is broken in half." 

"Yeah, but still.  I'm not sure I could handle my sister and my girlfriend hanging out and stuff.  Too creepy."

Evil sister urges rising...
"Oh but it would be so cool!  We could talk about how cute you were as a little boy and all the baby pictures!"  Sarah smiles so nicely at Mart that it might actually make him lose his lunch.  "We'd be bff and she'd be over to see me as much as you.  Then she'd tell me ALL about you.  Gosh that would be awesome." 

She rolls her eyes and sticks her finger down her throat.  "Yuck.  Like I want to truly know just how weird and disgusting you are.  Don't worry your girlfriend is safe from me but it is totally a big sister prerogative to check up on her little brother's life."

She takes a drink of her milkshake and gives him the straight truth.  "You can either spill the beans or I'll use my resources and find out waaay to0 much on my own."

"Yeah, I know all about you and your friends.  I guess it's only fair."  He takes out his wallet and hands her a picture of him and the girlfriend in a photo booth.  Sarah recognizes the girl, it's Brandi Beck.  They have an Elgish class together.  Brandi is a straight A student, but unlike most of the straight A crowd she has a skateboard strapped to the back of her pack.

"Oh my gosh, you're dating a brain!  She seems pretty nice.  Good job."  Sarah waits for a minute, preferably timing it while he drinks to ask, "So did you show her your Ollie?"  

When the spasm hits, he makes sure to point it in her dirction so they're both wearing soda.  "Very funny."  he says, wiping the mess from his face.  "Has Colin shown you his little Crow yet?"  he says laughing.

"Ha Ha," Sarah grumbles as she wipes off soda from her hoodie.  "Did you two met at the skate park?  I'm guessing it wasn't at the library."

At the word library Mart gives her the look.  "It was too at the library.  Jeez, you make it sound like I can't even read or something."  He tosses the wadded up napkin at her head, bouncing it off her shoulder.  "I was practicing my rail riding and she was coming out."  he says softly.

She grins, "Oh right, I forgot they had a good rail there."  And a nice roof. 

"Well I wont give you a hard time.  I'm glad you two are happy," says Sarah but adds in warning,  "but don't do anything stupid together that will have Mom and Dad screaming murder.  You won't see a skateboard until your eighteen except on TV... if you even get the privilege to watch it again."  Yeah like I'm sooooo experienced and knowledgeable about this stuff.

To smooth out her big sister scolding she says, "And no I don't think you're illiterate.  Rude, and pushy, but you are pretty smart and a really good cook.  Does she know you are such a good cook?"

"I've made dinner for her a couple times when the gang gets together to practice.  Her folks have a half pipe in their backyard.  Her dad built it, it's pretty wicked."

"Oh my gosh!"  Sarah covers her mouth in surprise.  "It's a match made in heaven.  Just be sure to give mom time enough to buy a dress for the wedding."

"That's cool.  Don't date her too long before you introduce her to Mom and Dad.  Not just because Mom will blow her top.  A girl might think you are embarrassed to be with her if you don't make the intro."  She pauses to think for a second and adds, "Unless it's the other way around?  Is she worried what anyone might think about dating a younger guy?"

"She is way smart.  She knows mom may not be too cool with it.  Besides, we're not going to be together forever or anything.  Romance stuff is come and go, ya'know?"

"Oh, right," says Sarah.  It is?

"Nevermind then.  As long as you two are cool.  Let me know if I can acknowledge this information to her at some point okay?"  At least she's not in my math class.  Then a certain cat might be out of a bag.

"I guess, just don't make a big thing out of it."

"Right.  So the banner in the auditorium is out.  No problem."

?You know I thought you were going to tell me you've been crossdressing or something, I even looked in my closet to see if you'd been scamming my stuff.? says Sarah before rolling her eyes.  ?Then I realized that you would probably grab Mom's stuff.  She has way more and it's all nicer.  I decided to just drag you out and find out what was going on.?   

OOC: Posted from my DS... eventually.

"Right, drag queen."  Mart shakes his head, "I may have to use a fork to selectivly edit my memory for that visual."

Urge to mess with brother's head...rising... Ah bad!  Wrong!  Stupid power that makes me feel guilty.  I should spill the beans to Colin... but will he still trust me?  I could tell him and if it goes badly I could get him to forget!  BAD!!  Psst.  Little brother staring at you.

Sarah blinks out of her wandering thoughts and grins foolishly at her little brother.  "I don't know.  You'd look pretty cute in a couple of mom's summer dresses.  You've got the legs for them."

Sarah switches topics to keep her brother from running away.
"I have to ask you something.  Have I been acting weird this year?  Weirder than normal?  Or different?  I know your school and friends have a rumor mill, am I brought up at all?  I mean, other than in my role as Homecoming Queen?"  at the last question she sits straight and takes on a lofty, royally benign expression.  It lasts for all of two seconds before dissolving into usual Sarah snarkiness, "Which was totally due to that nice makeup job by the way."

Mart shrugs.  "No wierder than normal I guess.  you're getting sort of girly, but I guess that can happen as you get older."  He takes a sip of soda.  "You are like staying out later and leaving at strange times and mom and dad don't seem to care, so I'm thinking maybe you're actually adopted and they don't care about your well being as much as me, their real child."  He says that last part with a smile.

So he has noticed my weird hours.  It figures.  Nothing goes on in the house without everyone else knowing.  Sarah nods, "Yep thats me.  The little red-headed orphan.  They found me in the street and are just waiting to sell me to the workhouses."  She bites her lower lip with indecision.  Should I tell him?  I promised Mom and Dad I wouldn't.  But he's thirteen already.  Yeah, but he's only thirteen.  He might be convinced he's got super powers.  Heck he might have super powers but should he find out about them at thirteen?  I probably shouldn't have found out about mine at fifteen!  Wandering again.

Sarah says, "Yeah, Mom and Dad and I had a talk and I guess I convinced them that they didn't have to worry about me too much.  I've been taking self defense classes with my friends lately and I'm usually along with one of them that can kick some serious butt.  Do you know Kelly Stilley?  He's got martial arts coming out his ears.  Then there is Dave, he has a knack for always having a dozen friends around when he needs them.  My friend Sylvia can cripple someone with her temper.. between the lot of them I'm pretty safe.  I think in a couple more years Mom and Dad will cut you some slack if you can avoid any serious injuries for a while.  Besides, chicks may dig scars but we also like guys without neck braces.  It's hard to make out in a full body cast."

Mart laughs.  "Yeah, her and I have compared scars.  I have a lot more, plus I beat her in broken bones too."  Mart explains this with no small amount of pride on his face.

Sarah just shakes her head.  "You know it's not normal to enjoy broken bones.  I haven't broken one bone in my entire life.  I've strained and pulled muscles but that's about it."  She crumples up the scraps of her lunch and packs it all up to toss out.  "You want to hit some rails here in town for a while before I get you back out of the dangerous city?"

A comment that had flown by earlier buzzes an internal alarm, finally.  On their way out the door she asks, "What did you mean you know all about me and my friends?"

Mart stops to look at Sarah.  "You know, I know who you hang out with, and where you sit at lunch, and all that stuff."  He gives her a suspicious look.  "Why, is there something I shouldn't know?"

"Isn't there always?  But yeah, we've had a couple run-ins with some nasty people this year who have nothing better to do than cause trouble and spread lies.  So I wouldn't be surprised if you heard some weird stuff." says Sarah by way of explanation. 

"Yeah, well she doesn't say much about the rumor mill stuff."

Sarah spends an enjoyable afternoon with her brother in the city.  After they return to Oak Park she challenges him to a race home.  "Tell you what Mart.  It was really nice that you opened up to me like that and told me about your girlfriend, so I'm going to give you the chance of a life time.  If you and your skateboard can beat me home then I will... I dunno how about I do the dishes for you for a month no matter what obscenely messy creation you attempt in the kitchen even if you manage to get every plate, cup dish and piece of silverware in the house dirty.  And if I win, you teach me to do makeup or you get your girlfriend over for lessons."  She grins at her brother and finishes, "What do you say?"

Mart looks at her for a long moment.  "Why do I smell a rat?"

OOC:  Make a Fate Roll for me.

OOC:
Sorry couldn't be much help with this one...  Fate Roll (1d20=10) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1240135)

IC:
Sarah grins and says, "Maybe I know a shortcut you don't. "

"You're on."  Mart says with a smile.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=D-2qmcJv-O8 (http://youtube.com/watch?v=D-2qmcJv-O8)

Sarah says, "Okay then, on the count of three... and no hitching.  If I see you hanging off the back of a minivan I'll bring Mom down to the park to meet your girlfriend.  We'll take pictures.  Three!" 

She sprints and vaults over the fence across the way making a bee line for home.  She tries mapping out the shortest route possible on foot, over, through or along whatever buildings are in her path.  Failing that she'll make a few inconspicuous ports along the way.

alternatively
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aF-9ks8aeVM (http://youtube.com/watch?v=aF-9ks8aeVM)

OOC:  Wow... I'm pretty neutral with IC.  D20 modified by Teleport (1d20+4=14) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1240983)

Sarah narrowly beats Mart to the house.  As she crosses the fence and sprints the last few yards she hears his board on the pavement.  She hits the door and turns in time to see him vault over the fence, his board rolling under the split rail, and him landing on it in a handstand, then quickly with a bounce he lifts the board and himself off the ground, rolls into a tight ball and flips over putting the board under neath his feet as he lands.  He stands up and coasts the last few feet along the path to the front porch, stepping off the board as it taps the porch.  He's breathing heavily and smiling.  "Almost had you."

"I invited you to watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off with me over at Greg's last year.  And now it's made all the difference," replies Sarah.  She opens the door and heads in with Mart feeling a little more sure of her world.