peanut butter. fudge ripple.
Title: The Basis of Fear.
Author: Zombz
Rating: PG
Challenge: peanut butter 8. dark // fudge ripple 13. doubt
Extras/Toppings: whipped cream. sprinkles.
Word Count: 500.
Story: Hoppers: Hoppers in Training
Summary: Slick and Zeez share a bonding moment.
Notes: My 200th tale! As pathetic as that seems since I've been here almost since the comm opened...
Slick pushed the door to the gymnasium open, jamming it with his shoulder until there was a space large enough to for him to pass through. He had been on his way to sneak a midnight cigarette when he noticed that it had already been slightly ajar. He was the only person who taught lessons there and knew he had closed it. Tentatively, Slick entered the darken room.
“Am I in trouble?” A voice that Slick instantly recognized as Zeez asked from the bleachers near the pool. The preteen boy wasn’t looking at his instructor but rather at the tarp covered pool where the HITs had weekly swimming instruction.
“Well, you know there’s a curfew,” he replied as he looked at the boy who sat in the dark with such a serious expression on his face that it unnerved Slick. Sometimes the HITs, who he loved training and working with, all gave him the creeps for different reasons. “But I’m not going to tell anyone so it’s not a big deal.” Slick took a few more steps closer to Zeez, hoping to get a better sense of what had brought the boy out in the middle of the night. “What’s up? What’re you doing in here?”
“Do you think I suck?” Zeez asked abruptly. He looked up at Slick with a pleading, desperate look. The HITs all reminded Slick a bit like puppies. They tended to get into trouble without really meaning it and all wanted nothing but to make everyone in charge happy. The older man sighed and sat down next to Zeez on the bleacher.
“Did Risk say something to you? I thought everyone had stopped listening to her-“
“It wasn’t Risk,” Zeez interrupted.
“Then what?” Zeez moved his gaze back to the pool.
“Why isn’t anyone else afraid of the water? Why am I the only one? It’s so stupid. It’s just water.” He shook his head. “I’ll never graduate if I can’t get over something as stupid as this.”
“And the throwing you in really didn’t help?”
“No. Not in the slightest. Made it worse I would say.”
Slick grimaced slightly. Well, that had been how he learned to swim. It had worked obviously. He supposed it just wasn’t for everyone. Or maybe it just wasn’t for people with inexplicable fears of water. But really Zeez’s fear of water wasn’t inexplicable. It was totally rational all things considered. But was it? Shouldn’t he have no recollection of what had been done to him when Muzange and Zack were having their fight?
“Sir?”
“Uh, look, I want you to graduate. I want you to be a Hopper. I’m here to help you Zeez. Anything you think I can do just let me know and I’ll try and come up with some ideas of my own. Okay?”
“But… isn’t that unfair to everyone else?” Slick placed a hand on the blonde’s shoulder.
“We’re like a family here, boy, and in a family there’s no such thing as fair.”
Author: Zombz
Rating: PG
Challenge: peanut butter 8. dark // fudge ripple 13. doubt
Extras/Toppings: whipped cream. sprinkles.
Word Count: 500.
Story: Hoppers: Hoppers in Training
Summary: Slick and Zeez share a bonding moment.
Notes: My 200th tale! As pathetic as that seems since I've been here almost since the comm opened...
Slick pushed the door to the gymnasium open, jamming it with his shoulder until there was a space large enough to for him to pass through. He had been on his way to sneak a midnight cigarette when he noticed that it had already been slightly ajar. He was the only person who taught lessons there and knew he had closed it. Tentatively, Slick entered the darken room.
“Am I in trouble?” A voice that Slick instantly recognized as Zeez asked from the bleachers near the pool. The preteen boy wasn’t looking at his instructor but rather at the tarp covered pool where the HITs had weekly swimming instruction.
“Well, you know there’s a curfew,” he replied as he looked at the boy who sat in the dark with such a serious expression on his face that it unnerved Slick. Sometimes the HITs, who he loved training and working with, all gave him the creeps for different reasons. “But I’m not going to tell anyone so it’s not a big deal.” Slick took a few more steps closer to Zeez, hoping to get a better sense of what had brought the boy out in the middle of the night. “What’s up? What’re you doing in here?”
“Do you think I suck?” Zeez asked abruptly. He looked up at Slick with a pleading, desperate look. The HITs all reminded Slick a bit like puppies. They tended to get into trouble without really meaning it and all wanted nothing but to make everyone in charge happy. The older man sighed and sat down next to Zeez on the bleacher.
“Did Risk say something to you? I thought everyone had stopped listening to her-“
“It wasn’t Risk,” Zeez interrupted.
“Then what?” Zeez moved his gaze back to the pool.
“Why isn’t anyone else afraid of the water? Why am I the only one? It’s so stupid. It’s just water.” He shook his head. “I’ll never graduate if I can’t get over something as stupid as this.”
“And the throwing you in really didn’t help?”
“No. Not in the slightest. Made it worse I would say.”
Slick grimaced slightly. Well, that had been how he learned to swim. It had worked obviously. He supposed it just wasn’t for everyone. Or maybe it just wasn’t for people with inexplicable fears of water. But really Zeez’s fear of water wasn’t inexplicable. It was totally rational all things considered. But was it? Shouldn’t he have no recollection of what had been done to him when Muzange and Zack were having their fight?
“Sir?”
“Uh, look, I want you to graduate. I want you to be a Hopper. I’m here to help you Zeez. Anything you think I can do just let me know and I’ll try and come up with some ideas of my own. Okay?”
“But… isn’t that unfair to everyone else?” Slick placed a hand on the blonde’s shoulder.
“We’re like a family here, boy, and in a family there’s no such thing as fair.”