On a Metro Bus Somewhere Between the Valley and the Hyperion, Monday Afternoon

[cantgetnorelief]

Anders closed his eyes and tried to tune out the annoying kids sitting across the aisle from him, humming along with a tune stuck in his head. He really needed to get an MP3 player or something, but he didn't have the money to spare yet.

Good thing about that? At least if his phone rang right now he could hear it.

[OOC: For a specific call, but

Comments

[nolan_kidlets]

*riiiing*

Katrina's had her own phone since she was six. She totally doesn't have to tell anyone what she's doing.

[cantgetnorelief]

Oh, hey, look at that, a phone call.

"Hey, Anders here!"

[nolan_kidlets]

"Hi Uncle Daisy!"

There's only two sets of kids who call him that. He'll figure it out in a minute.

[cantgetnorelief]

"Oh, he -- I mean, hey!" It was that time of year again, wasn't it? Anders recovered fairly quickly, though not quite as well as he might recover from a footwork mistake on the court or a bad read on a blistered fly ball. "Well, hey there, kiddo. It's kinda loud on this bus. Who is that?"

[nolan_kidlets]

Katrina giggled and teased, "I should make you guess! You won't get it right! Should I give you a hint?"

[cantgetnorelief]

"Well, how about you let me guess?" Anders leaned back in his seat and promptly hit his head against the window. "Ow. Does your mommy . . . wear a lot of shoes or change her hair color a lot?"

The giggling girls across the aisle stopped their giggling long enough to look at him strangely. He ignored them.

[nolan_kidlets]

"Did you just hurt yourself? Uncle Daisy!" Katrina chastised him, and if that wasn't a giveaway, nothing was. She giggled and did a little spin on the sidewalk. "I'm telling Moooooom."

[cantgetnorelief]

Anders laughed out loud. "No, I'm fine, kid. How's the shoe collection coming along?"

This was a fun game.

[nolan_kidlets]

"Darn." Katrina pouted, then snickered. "She has two closets full! Two! I think there might be two hundred shoes! Bronwyn 'n' me played in there, the last time she visited, and didn't even hear when we got called for dinner." She did a little hopscotch step on the sidewalk. "Are you playing ball yet?"

[cantgetnorelief]

Anders laughed. "Not yet, nope. You hang out with Bronwyn a lot, huh? How much trouble do you guys get into? Does it make your mom make that face?"

[nolan_kidlets]

"Sometimes, yeah, we get to hang out. I live in Ireland with dad..." Whoops, more clues. "And yes! She makes that face, you know, the face that says she's grinding her teeth and having a migraine and you better duck fast!"

[cantgetnorelief]

"Ireland?" Well now. Anders was going to have to tease some people about this later. "You guys are good at making her make that face, I bet. Hey, listen, your uncle Daisy's gotten a few knocks to the head in practice lately. Refresh my memory about your name?"

[nolan_kidlets]

"You don't know it yet!" Katrina protested, laughing. "'Cause I'm not born for another five years!" She grinned and jumped in and out of the gutter, balancing on the edge of the sidewalk. "Nice try!" With a tiny bit of relenting, she said, "My middle name's the same as the one of mom's that we never ever ever say."

[cantgetnorelief]

"Hey, c'mon, be nice to your poor uncle from the past," Anders wheedled, and the girls across the aisle started nudging each other and whispering something about how the hot guy was crazy. "Tell me your name? Please?"

[nolan_kidlets]

"Ohhhhh kaaaay," Katrina sighed. Uncle Daisy was one of her favorites for a reason. "Katrina. I'm eight. And we go see you play on opening day every year!"

[cantgetnorelief]

Anders couldn't possibly have perked up more at that. "Yeah? You do? Cool." He was grinning, now, and the girls across the aisle were now engaged in a furious whispered debate about whether or not being crazy made the cute guy even more of a draw.