At his olympics remark, she visibly cringed. He was mad. At least a little mad, that much was obvious, and well, she probably deserved mad. It certainly harkened back to her earlier conversation with her uncle, reminding her that Lying Is Bad and all that, especially considering how betrayed she'd felt by Bella doing it. But, it was instinct. It was the only way she had left to protect herself in this place.
When he called her out on her lie, she opened her mouth to argue at first -- no, I'm normal. I am. She might as well have been a wooden puppet masquerading as a real boy. So, she just snapped her jaw shut and let him talk. It made a lot of sense -- she'd noticed that it seemed like almost everyone had something special about them here. Even Bella had some dark secret she was hiding that was supposedly going to get her killed.
She didn't feel the need to mention that Peter had talked about his openness with his abilities. It didn't need to be said, because it wasn't an argument she was going to have with anyone but her uncle. Things were different for him. He hadn't been some eternal victim whose abilities had brought him nothing but pain and his family nothing but complications. Peter was a hero. He could tell people about what he could do knowing that they might need his help. When Claire told people what she could do, it just painted a target on her forehead.
And she was fully determined to tell Pete as much -- to retort that he didn't understand what not normal was. The agility, the strength, the -- whatever else went with that. It wasn't the same. She'd preach that until she ran out of breath, or at least, she'd meant to. Until he finally came to the end of his rant and she felt her blood run cold in a numbing, shocked way. Without bothering to ask her rational, conscious mind if it was okay, she felt her eyes begin to sting, the telltale sign that they were watering, but it wasn't nearly to the point where she'd actually cry. Just the stunned, touched kind of surprise.
That exasperation and hurt in his voice sounded so familiar. Everything about it was familiar because it was exactly how she acted about all of it. It was like staring in a mirror -- a significantly less creepy mirror than the one that had released a monster that looked like her and set it after her and Bella. Okay, bad choice of simile. She shifted in her seat, lower lip jutting out some.
When he called her out on her lie, she opened her mouth to argue at first -- no, I'm normal. I am. She might as well have been a wooden puppet masquerading as a real boy. So, she just snapped her jaw shut and let him talk. It made a lot of sense -- she'd noticed that it seemed like almost everyone had something special about them here. Even Bella had some dark secret she was hiding that was supposedly going to get her killed.
She didn't feel the need to mention that Peter had talked about his openness with his abilities. It didn't need to be said, because it wasn't an argument she was going to have with anyone but her uncle. Things were different for him. He hadn't been some eternal victim whose abilities had brought him nothing but pain and his family nothing but complications. Peter was a hero. He could tell people about what he could do knowing that they might need his help. When Claire told people what she could do, it just painted a target on her forehead.
And she was fully determined to tell Pete as much -- to retort that he didn't understand what not normal was. The agility, the strength, the -- whatever else went with that. It wasn't the same. She'd preach that until she ran out of breath, or at least, she'd meant to. Until he finally came to the end of his rant and she felt her blood run cold in a numbing, shocked way. Without bothering to ask her rational, conscious mind if it was okay, she felt her eyes begin to sting, the telltale sign that they were watering, but it wasn't nearly to the point where she'd actually cry. Just the stunned, touched kind of surprise.
That exasperation and hurt in his voice sounded so familiar. Everything about it was familiar because it was exactly how she acted about all of it. It was like staring in a mirror -- a significantly less creepy mirror than the one that had released a monster that looked like her and set it after her and Bella. Okay, bad choice of simile. She shifted in her seat, lower lip jutting out some.
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