Holes in the Ceiling
Title: Holes in the Ceiling
Author: ladygray99
Fandom: Numb3rs
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Don, Charlie
Word count:537
Warnings/Spoilers: none
Summary: It's Charlie's turn to sit in detention.
Notes: A little snippet of Don and Charlie in high school.
Beta: none
Holes in the Ceiling
Charlie stared at the desktop. Someone had scratched the word fuck into it, probably with a compass point. Someone else had colored in the word. Charlie looked at the ceiling. The tiles had little holes in them. It took him less than thirty seconds to calculate how many hung above the entire classroom.
He looked around. The half dozen other students were all pretending to study but they knew Charlie liked to study so made him put his books away. The student nearest to him was scratching away at some beginning algebra.
"I can help with that," he whispered.
"No talking!" the teacher at the front of the room snapped.
Charlie looked back down to the desk and picked at the edge of the carved letters. Most of the teachers in school liked him. 98.3% of them in fact. He mostly followed the rules and made the school look good, but there were a few who looked down their noses at him and muttered about not being kindergarten teachers.
The classroom door opened and Don walked it.
"I'm here to get Charlie Eppes," he said to the detention teacher.
"He's got another half hour."
Don handed the teacher a slip of paper. "Vice Principal Walden wants to talk to him."
The teacher look over the paper then pointed to Charlie. "Eppes, get your things."
Charlie grabbed his bag and all but ran from the room.
"What does the Vice Principal want?" he asked when the door had closed behind them.
"He doesn't, I forged the note."
"What? You'll get in so much trouble."
Don just waved at him. "You think that teacher is going to follow up. Believe me the teachers who get stuck in detention want to be there even less than you. Besides, I am not going to get into half as much trouble as you when mom finds out. I mean I don't know what's dumber, you ditching class, you ditching class and getting caught, or you ditching class, getting caught, and being completely unable to think up an even halfway plausible lie."
Don's stride had lengthened as he walked and Charlie had to trot to keep up. "I just needed to clear my head."
Don snorted. "That's a lost cause."
Charlie didn't reply. He knew he couldn't explain the way he'd get tired and his brain would just scramble things up. Math was easy, math was clean and simple, but throw in English and History, the hell of PE and there were days he could barely open his eyes not wanting to add anything to the chatter of thoughts. So instead of going to Social Studies to learn about economic causes behind World War One he'd taken a walk to the little stand of trees at the far end of the football field. It was only bad luck that he'd been spotted by the PE teacher who didn't like him.
They reached the parking lot where their dad was waiting.
"Where have you been?" he asked.
Charlie opened his mouth to try to explain.
"He was spaced out in the library. He's lucky he didn't get locked in."
"Good thing your brother found you."
"Yeah." He gave Don a little smile. "Good thing."
Author: ladygray99
Fandom: Numb3rs
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Don, Charlie
Word count:537
Warnings/Spoilers: none
Summary: It's Charlie's turn to sit in detention.
Notes: A little snippet of Don and Charlie in high school.
Beta: none
Holes in the Ceiling
Charlie stared at the desktop. Someone had scratched the word fuck into it, probably with a compass point. Someone else had colored in the word. Charlie looked at the ceiling. The tiles had little holes in them. It took him less than thirty seconds to calculate how many hung above the entire classroom.
He looked around. The half dozen other students were all pretending to study but they knew Charlie liked to study so made him put his books away. The student nearest to him was scratching away at some beginning algebra.
"I can help with that," he whispered.
"No talking!" the teacher at the front of the room snapped.
Charlie looked back down to the desk and picked at the edge of the carved letters. Most of the teachers in school liked him. 98.3% of them in fact. He mostly followed the rules and made the school look good, but there were a few who looked down their noses at him and muttered about not being kindergarten teachers.
The classroom door opened and Don walked it.
"I'm here to get Charlie Eppes," he said to the detention teacher.
"He's got another half hour."
Don handed the teacher a slip of paper. "Vice Principal Walden wants to talk to him."
The teacher look over the paper then pointed to Charlie. "Eppes, get your things."
Charlie grabbed his bag and all but ran from the room.
"What does the Vice Principal want?" he asked when the door had closed behind them.
"He doesn't, I forged the note."
"What? You'll get in so much trouble."
Don just waved at him. "You think that teacher is going to follow up. Believe me the teachers who get stuck in detention want to be there even less than you. Besides, I am not going to get into half as much trouble as you when mom finds out. I mean I don't know what's dumber, you ditching class, you ditching class and getting caught, or you ditching class, getting caught, and being completely unable to think up an even halfway plausible lie."
Don's stride had lengthened as he walked and Charlie had to trot to keep up. "I just needed to clear my head."
Don snorted. "That's a lost cause."
Charlie didn't reply. He knew he couldn't explain the way he'd get tired and his brain would just scramble things up. Math was easy, math was clean and simple, but throw in English and History, the hell of PE and there were days he could barely open his eyes not wanting to add anything to the chatter of thoughts. So instead of going to Social Studies to learn about economic causes behind World War One he'd taken a walk to the little stand of trees at the far end of the football field. It was only bad luck that he'd been spotted by the PE teacher who didn't like him.
They reached the parking lot where their dad was waiting.
"Where have you been?" he asked.
Charlie opened his mouth to try to explain.
"He was spaced out in the library. He's lucky he didn't get locked in."
"Good thing your brother found you."
"Yeah." He gave Don a little smile. "Good thing."