Teenage Rebellion
Title: Teenage Rebellion
Characters: Claire and Lyle
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Word Count: 400
Setting: Season 2 or 3
Notes: Written for heroes_contest drabble challenge #32 - “Trouble”
“You are going to get in so much trouble.”
“Stick it, Claire,” Lyle muttered as he bent over the piece of paper. He chewed his lower lip as he tried to convincingly render a signature that wasn’t his own. He’d already used his dad’s computer to print out an invitation to a sleepover, an innocent movie night masking the party Lyle actually wanted to go to. The final touch would be a parental signature, which he was practicing on a spare page. “Does this look girly enough?” He showed off his last two tries.
Claire smirked. “You are going to get in sooo much trouble.”
He huffed. “I am not. All Dad wants is for us to be normal. What’s more normal than teenage rebellion? You’re the one who’s the freak around here.”
Claire winced from that and Lyle glanced up at her. “It’s true,” he added.
“I didn’t say it wasn’t,” she said icily.
Lyle regarded her for a moment and then went back to perfecting his attempted forgery. “You know that’s why he keeps all those files and talks to you all the time about being careful. He doesn’t say anything to me.” Lyle’s nose wrinkled as he kept practicing. He wasn’t happy about who got all the attention in the family.
“He cares about you,” Claire said guardedly, because she knew what Lyle was getting at.
“Not as much as he does about you.” He looked at his last attempt with a critical eye. It would have to do. He pulled over the printed invitation and prepared to sign.
“You know he’s going to call,” Claire said. “You even included a phone number.”
Lyle signed the invitation, doing what he hoped was a passable facsimile of an adult woman’s cursive signature. “That’s why I included a phone number. Do you really think that goes to Dave’s mom?”
Claire’s lips tightened in a failed attempt to keep her smile to herself. She didn’t think he’d get away with this.
“Come on,” Lyle laughed. “What’s the worst that can happen to me there anyway? Maybe I’ll get drunk and a have a good time - two things you can’t do, for all your so-called ‘specialness’,” he added, leaning close to her, raising his brows and making a mocking gesture with his hand.
Now Claire laughed. “You are so going to get into trouble.”