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 Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 5:41 pm
Paris grabbed Peter under the arms again and lifted him back up. He wasn't light, but still small enough to where Paris could manage it so long as he didn't have to hold onto him for too long. He vaguely considered the consequences of allowing Peter to do this, but doubted he'd even be able to make it up very far in the first place. Might as well let him continue to try and tire himself out.
"You know what I think?" he patiently began, keeping his voice level and calm. He grabbed onto Peter's waist once he had a hold on the pole and lifted with all of his might to see if he could get him up a little higher. "I think you're making things up about Chris seeing other girls, because you want me to go after him about it so that I'll tell him it was you who told me, and he'll come find you and yell at you and you can yell right back. I think the both of you secretly enjoy the bickering, because it lets you let off some steam."
Why he was even trying to work this out, he didn't know. He shouldn't even care. He didn't, or at least he didn't think he did. What Peter and Chris did or said to one another wasn't any of his business.
"I also think that you are jealous, because he's your older brother and you've always followed him around and tried to emulate him, but he got annoyed by it and just wanted to be left alone, because I'm sure he was going through that moody teenage phase parents always talk about to explain away their kids' behavior. Now he's out of it and he's dating again, and spending time with his college friends, and not going home all that often anymore, and you don't get to see him, and you blame him for it even though it's not really his fault that he's grown up, and you don't think you'd get any attention from him by being nice anyway, so you purposefully act up, when really you'd probably be happy if he took an interest in your science projects at school or asked you to play catch or something."
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Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 6:11 pm
Peter scowled at Paris's yapping, not knowing how this conversation turned around to be about him instead of about how much of a cheating jerk his older brother was. And as Paris lifted him up, he really wished he'd had some gas stored up because he would have totally farted in her face. Immature? Yeah, whatever. He was still only ten. He could get away with it.
"What are you, my mother?" he frowned, pulling himself up onto the pole, wanting to get up to the top in the hopes of getting a phone signal. He pulled himself up, if only to get away from her, using his bare feet to push himself up farther.
"Are you guys even boyfriend and girlfriend yet? Or are you just dating?" he wondered, gritting his teeth as he pulled himself up a few more inches. "Chris is so annoying. He thinks he's a saint reincarnate or something. Always bossing people around or telling them how they're doing things wrong or how they can be better people." He was already only ten, so being treated like he was five was a huge blow to his ego.
"I don't want attention from him, I just want him to leave me alone and stop being such a nag all the time," he said, pulling himself successfully out of Paris's reach up the pole. He was going to get to the top and never come back down.
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Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:18 pm
Paris kept a neutral expression on his face, even though he knew Peter was just going to continue fighting him on the topic. Stubborn little brat, was he?
"What do you care if we're boyfriend and girlfriend or not?" he asked, releasing Peter once he got too far up for him to hold on anymore, though he remained standing by the foot of the flagpole in case he should need help, tilting his head back to stare up at him and lifting a hand to shield his eyes from the sun. "For someone who doesn't care what he does, you sure seem pretty interested in Chris's love life."
He was pretty sure he'd hit the nail on the head with his previous speculations. Peter, of course, was unlikely to admit to it. Paris knew there probably wasn't much else he could say to make him.
"Though, I wasn't under the impression that saints were saints because they bossed people around," he said, raising his voice just slightly so Peter would still be able to hear him as he scaled the pole. "But then what do I know? I never really paid attention in church. Too boring for me. Hey, if you manage to get all the way up, make sure you at least take a picture even if you don't end up getting a signal. At least you'll be able to prove you did it."
Paris figured he might as well fall back on an old piece of advice: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
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Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 9:54 pm
Yeah, well, someone had to be a stubborn brat.
Peter frowned as he pulled himself farther up the pole, trying to ignore the annoying girl below him. He had half the mind to get to the top and the not come down.
"I don't really need you to preach to me, too, you know," he called back down, having to hold on tighter as his hands slipped. Ugh. Maybe this was a bad idea. "Why did you bother talking to me in the first place? I wasn't bothering you. You didn't have to waste your time," he grumbled, righting himself and pulling himself closer to the top. It took him about a minute longer until he got to the top, and he hoisted himself up onto the metal sphere, his arms shaking a little from having climbed all the way up, and also because... damn, that was a long way up. He'd been so annoyed that he hadn't looked down until just now.
He made sure to keep his feet flush to the pole, holding onto the part of the pole he was sitting on for balance as he shakily and slowly pulled out his phone to check to see if there was any signal.
Damn, nothing... and he'd been so sure he would get at least one bar.
He took a couple pictures though, as suggested, wanting to be able to prove that he did it later. Maybe even try to blackmail Chris for not watching him close enough.
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Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 10:12 pm
Paris took a step back once Peter got to the top, wanting to keep a close watch on him, even if he seemed to be doing relatively okay. Crap, that had probably been a bad idea to let him do that, hadn't it? What if Peter fell now that he was up there?
Chris would kill him.
"I thought you might want someone to talk to," he said, keeping his hand shading his eyes. "I didn't really want to come to camp either, you know. But your brother asked me and I wanted to have some time with him, and it hasn't been so bad, though, yeah, it kinda sucks not having any phone signal or internet, but it's not like there isn't anything else to do here."
He hadn't thought he'd survive it before, but he was surprising himself more and more each day.
"Why don't you come down now? I'm pretty impressed you got all the way up there, but if Chris sees you he'll kill us both, and however boring you think he is, I happen to like going out with him." He paused and figured that probably wasn't enough to convince Peter to make his way down. In fact, he thought it more likely that Peter would stay up there just to make things difficult for him, unless he gave him a little incentive. "If you come down, I'll sneak your phone back to you if Chris tries to take it from you."
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Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 8:47 am
"Not really, I don't really need someone to talk to," Peter said, trying to keep his voice calm from on top of the flag pole. Yeah, it was kind of cool up there, but he wasn't stupid. If he fell, his best bet was to try to jump and clear the cement and brick surrounding the pole and land in the grass. Even then, it was a pretty long drop, and although he was sure a broken leg would be an excuse to stay inside and watch the Travel Channel all day, he still wanted to get outside and have fun every once in a while.
Maybe this was a dumb idea. He could probably stay up there if he really wanted to piss people off, but weighing that against the chance of him falling off... well, he figured he should probably be careful as he did get down.
He did like Paris's suggestion, though. "Throw in twenty dollars and it's a deal," he called down to her, slipping the phone back into his pocket so he could hold onto the pole a bit better.
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Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 10:55 am
Served the little brat right, thinking he's a badass and climbing all the way up there like that. While he hoped Peter wouldn't fall, he also hoped the height of it and the thought of what could happen to him struck fear into his little, bratty heart, so that he would learn never to try something like this again.
Or maybe he enjoyed the thrill and would just try to do even more dangerous things, and this entire plan of Paris's was just backfiring in his face.
He sputtered as Peter bartered with him. He had half a mind to say "no," but then he knew this circumstance would only be prolonged if he did, and so he muttered under his breath about how he wasn't being paid enough for this, and finally agreed. "Fine. But when you go off and brag to your little friends about this, don't tell them I helped you up. I don't want Chris thinking I'm irresponsible."
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Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 12:48 pm
What a mean thing to think. What if he slipped and fell and died? How would she feel then?
Peter frowned at her hesitation, but nodded when she agreed. Okay, now he just had to get back down, right...? Easy as pie. A really tall pie made of metal, but now wasn't the time to be really picky.
He held onto the top as tight as he could with his hands, and the pole with his feet, before carefully reaching down to start his descent. And very nearly lost his grip and fell then, but he grabbed hold of the pole and slid only as far as the first metal loop that kept the rope from blowing everywhere. Of course, he was pretty sure he cut his foot on it, but at least he hadn't fallen the entire way down. That would suck.
Very carefully, he slid the rest of the way down, stumbling onto the concrete once he was at the bottom and landing on his bum, breathing heavy from the energy he'd used. He might be used to running around and all that, but he was still little and didn't have that great of arm strength.
"There... happy?" he breathed, clutching at his chest to try and get his heart to stop pounding away.
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Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 12:57 pm
As Peter descended and almost fell, Paris decided he made a horrible babysitter and was never going to take care of kids again, because he let them do dumb things without considering the consequences of it until he was too late. Then, when Peter didn't fall, Paris told himself it was the kid's fault in the first place and he was in no way responsible for Peter being a brat, as Peter probably wouldn't even have listened to him if he'd tried to stop him, therefore he would have ended up scaling the flagpole anyway, and it was better that he was at least there to help if he was needed.
Yeah... he'd go with that...
He knelt down beside Peter once he was finally on the ground again, trying not to look like he'd been worried for a few seconds. "Very," he replied, reaching out to grab onto Peter's ankle before he could put his shoes back on, wanting to make sure his foot was okay. "I think you need to lay off the Disney movies, though. Just because Mulan can do it doesn't mean you should try."
The cut on Peter's foot didn't look too bad, at least, but it'd need to be cleaned and bandaged. Paris was just glad it didn't look as if it would need stitches. "Let's go get your foot patched up before Chris notices, okay? Then I'll give you your twenty dollars. And if anyone asks, tell them you were running around without your shoes on and stepped on a rock."
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Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 1:24 pm
Peter rolled his eyes at her, but nodded in agreement, picking up his shoes and socks so he could hobble off with her to get his foot bandaged. He might not have gotten any internet or cell service, but he got twenty bucks out of it, as well as a promise to get the phone returned to him whenever he needed it back from his brother. Awesome. That had gone better than he'd been expecting.
"You know what, Paris...? I don't think I mind you all that much." At least he knew he could get what he wanted out of her. Bwahahaha. "And Mulan is awesome, what are you talking about??"
It wasn't exactly the start of a beautiful friendship, but tolerance could go far if he played his cards right.
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