MAYBE I'LL GET LUCKY !

[*NICHOLAS ADAM PASCALE.]

"goodnight," he told his sister before he, himself turned and made his way to his room. the only reason he was at alkaline was because of his sister who happened to be a patient. if his sister didn't need to be under the care of the staff at alkaline he would've never imagined venturing within it's walls to help potentially troubled souls, rather, it was because of his sister. sure he liked his job on occasion. really, he was just there because he was a protective brother who told his parents (who were worried for his sister's wellbeing) that he would look out for her. so he came as a security guard and found that it was a lot different from what he imagined.

nick had made a stereotype out of alkaline. he had imagined something out of the new yet-to-be-released movie, SHUTTER ISLAND. he pictured people who both appeared mentally ill, and also acted that way. his first day he was beyond nervous, though he didn't show it. he kept on waiting for screaming patients to run down the hall insisting there was a fire, or a murderer. he kept on waiting for patients to cling to his hand with a shaky voice and give him an eery warning. he kept waiting for a lot of things for the first few days before he became accustomed to the surroundings. they didn't appear to be different from normal teens. looking around he saw young adults that should be in high school. sure, there was the occasional older patient, but from first glance they didn't look too roudy. and they weren't. generally they minded their own business. there weren't a lot that got very physical, only the level threes and an occasional level four. he hadn't witnessed any SHUTTER ISLAND incidents, at least not yet. the creepiest thing was probably when a girl was sitting in a dark hallway, rocking back and forth, muttering quick nothings to herself, and when he turned on the light she turned to him stood up and slowly approached, still muttering odd things. following this she had turned off the hall light again, walked back to her previous place, and continued with her walking. it was strange and a little chilling, but that was about as creepy as he had witnessed. once he stopped a patient from running off of a roof, and he had to hold back a patient after quite an incident. occasionally he confiscated items, and gave stern warnings, but that was what he did.

nicholas was good at his job. he was serious about it. he wanted to protect his sister, and he saw many other patients on the same level as her. he took all of them seriously, as if they were next to kin although many of them he didn't even know of their names. he only knew some of the staff, his sister, and a few of his sisters new found friends. many people thought that the security guards didn't do much. while this was true, nick was an exception. he could be counted as one of the most grounded on the staff, and he liked it that way. he also liked how after a good long day he could go back to his room and watch some t.v., a privaledge not many beyond staff had. in fact, none of the patients could do that unless they snuck into a staff room.

nick sat on his bed and took of his shoes. letting out a sigh, he straightened out on his twin bed and grabbed the remote for the t.v. he had a few video games thrown under his bed with the system that he constantly had to plug in and remove. when his system was plugged in, it messed with his t.v. once it was shut off, thus it had to be disconnected. today he wasn't in the mood for his video games (sure he was twenty three, but he was a sports guy and madden was an exception), so he just flipped through the channels. all day after being surrounded by teens, he wanted to either have a chance to be with other staff members or be on his own, which was the reason he left his dorm door open. if a staff member walked by and wanted to say hi, he wouldn't object. if a staff member walked by without a thought to him, nick wouldn't object to that either.

tags: open - staff only, please.
notes: yay for nick's first thread : D

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[BREXTON "REX" PEELER]

Rex made his final round, walking down the hallways with heavy footsteps as though warning the patients to stay in their rooms because if he found one out somewhere when they were suppose to be in bed then god help him he would make them see that the rules were made to be followed. He had never really been a stickler for rules and such but Rex needed to do his job and do it well. If someone was out of line he would throw 'em right back in and if someone disobeyed the rules and might make him look incompetent at his own job then things needed to get done about it.

Rex Peeler had always been more of a doer than anything else. He liked doing what he sets out to do, even as a child it was the same way. His dad had always wanted him to be a football star and all his life, that was the only thing Rex had really set out to do. Everything else came second and people in that town knew it, they even respected it and most of them knew he would make something of himself and get out of that damned place but one stupid game and one stupid mistake had to go and ruin it all

Everything he had done and everything he had worked so hard for was gone, just like that. Rex didn't even make it to the end of the season and that was the absolute lowest point of his life. He couldn't do the one thing he was good at and he had nothing else. His dad was the worst. The man had practically given up on him and everything else just started falling apart after that. Rex couldn't get to college without that scholarship and without that he had nothing.

That was how he ended up here. Working security only led him to vent all that frustration and anger out of the easiest targets and when he lost that job because of that, the asylum was his next option. Who cares if he was a little hard on a bunch of crazy people. No one would care and they certainly didn't deserve any kind of sympathy either, that just made a person weak in his opinion. Rex had a lot of anger issues but he wasn't the worst person in the world. He knew how to be nicer to people, it just so happened that the only ones he could be nice too were the other staff members and patients who were able to act normal and not piss him off.

The end of his shift came quickly enough and Rex managed to get some down time. After a little while of that though he grew bored. Interacting with the patients was damned annoying half the time. It made him feel like he was stuck in a place filled with stuff that made little to no sense and his down time was nice but sometimes Rex just didn't want to get lost in his own thoughts. That was the sort of thing that might drive him insane too.

Walking down the hall, he stopped at the first open door and peered in. The sounds and lights of the TV had got his attention first and Rex figured an open door was as good as an invitation so he simply stood by the door way and spoke,"What are you watchin'?"

[*NICHOLAS ADAM PASCALE.]

alkaline didn't get that great of channels, but then again it was an asylum and nobody could really expect much. it had the necessities: news, channels that only showed movies, comedies, and most importantly - sports. nick had gone through about twenty channels before he reached ESPN: SPORTS CENTER. he could've pressed the numbers on the remote to send him straight there, but he decided that he would see what caught his eye before he watched his usual channel. ESPN was generally all he watched except for SNL and THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, but that was only on at night and half of the time he had night shift so he couldn't watch it. either that, or he'd have to wake up really early, or was so tired from a long day that he just closed his eyes and let the tv put him to sleep. so really he didn't get to watch that much t.v. whenever he got the chance however, he'd go to ESPN. tonight it was a football game between the pittsburgh STEELERS and the tennessee TITANS. out of those two teams, he was rooting for the STEELERS. he was from pennsylvania, and played football there. he was the star of his team, however things went astray once his sister had to come to alkaline.

nick really missed football. he was going to college on a football scholarship and played for a bit before coming to work as a guard. most people would ask him, 'what are you crazy?' no, he wasn't crazy. he was just very protective of his sister and promised his parents he'd take care of her. for that, he came to work at alkaline and check it out. with his general approval his little sister came and he watched over her and everyone else like they were his sister and meant that much to him. sure, sometimes he wished he wasn't there and back on the field, but really, nick was just that kind of guy to give up his sport for his family. a lot of people would then say, 'so you took someone's spot on the team to play a sport you don't care about?' he did care about the game. he missed it nearly everyday (except for when he was tired than he was thankful he wasn't forced to work out).

one would think that after a trying day like nick's, he'd want to just relax. football didn't do that to him, especially when it was his state playing. pittsburgh scored a touchdown and he quietly exclaimed to himself, "yes!" while at the same time he shook his fist a little, only it wasn't the bad kind of 'i'm going to pumel you' shake of a fist, but rather a 'i'm happy but not going to look like a moron by getting too excited' kind of fist shake. it was the classic guy gesture during a sports game. right after he did that, he looked up to the voice he had just noticed. it was rex. he knew rex and they occasionally had shifts together. they weren't exactly friends, but they weren't enemies either. they rarely conversed and just knew eachother from the grapevine. the staff generally had an idea of one another.

"i am watching football, and the steelers just scored," he told rex so that he'd be aware of why nick had given the mini fist pump - although any male could easily figure out that sports were involved by that reaction. he put his eyes back on the game and while watching the unfolding play, told rex, "you can come in if you want - and there might be a few beers in the mini fridge if you want one." might was the key word. nick wasn't exactly a drinker. he did keep some beers but didn't drink too often. hey at least nick offered, and it wasn't like it was the creepy guy asking someone to come in and have beers like there always is in movies. guys could bond so easily over football and beers and it was a common offer.

tags: brexton peeler.
notes: warning, i know nothing about football, so i'm probably going to make some stuff up if i have to : P

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[BREXTON "REX" PEELER]

[[It's okay, only kind of sport I know enough about if Aussie Rules Football. I know absolutely nothing about the American kind lol]]

w eye to eye with some of the other staff members. A number of them tended to be quite sympathetic toward the patience but Rex didn’t see that quality as being particularly helpful. Most of the time they were acting out more than they otherwise would and you had to show them that you wouldn’t stand for it. In Rex’s mind, it make it easier to get through to them and have a better understanding of how things were going to go. They were here for a reason and so was he. It was their job to get better and it was his to keep them in line. It all made perfect sense to him but then, he wasn’t afflicted with some of the mental conditions that plague these patience. He didn’t care to see them as people needing his patience and compassion. They had the doctors and the nurses for that crap. All he was here to do was to help keep everything in order and he had been doing just that. Things were running smoothly enough.. Or at least as well as can be expected in a building full of crazy people.

Standing at the doorway, Rex was still waiting for the sign to show that he wasn’t going to be intruding if he stayed a few moments longer. He could hear the TV and he knew it was ESPN. It had to be with the cheering and the commentating he could hear. He hadn’t paid enough attention to the details of it but he figured he’d find out soon enough anyway. He could have stopped by any other door but this one seemed most inviting and he knew Nicholas from work too but not as well as some of the other staff members did. Rex tended to keep to himself a lot when he first arrived at Alkaline Asylum but as it turned out, isolating yourself was a great way to make a sane person go mad. He was only just starting to realize that making a few friends around here might actually be beneficial so why not at least try?

He grinned when Nick told him the steelers had scored and been the keen observer that he was, Rex could tell right away who Nick was rooting for and thankfully it was a team he was happy to support. Nodding at the news he took a step inside the room, in time for the invitation to get in here. “Great, thanks,” He said, moving to the mini fridge and grabbing himself a beer. Now this was good, this was a sense of normalcy that he had been lacking for a while. Just two guys with beer watching a game. That was about all he really needed after a long day at work.

“Go, keep goin!” Rex shouted, getting into the game a little more as one of the played ran with the ball. He wasn’t yelling loudly or anything but it was hard not to want them to win when the played get close to scoring. He never got why people did that but it was sort of like a habit of something. Either way, he never really thought too much about it.

[*NICHOLAS ADAM PASCALE.]

nicholas was aware of of rex in the doorway, and he was still paying him attention, though focussing on the game as well. he listened as rex went over to the mini fridge to get himself a beer. "are there any in there?" he asked, looking over. when rex turned with a beer in his posession nick nodded. that was good. there was nothing like an offer of beer to ease the stresses of the day. nobody had any idea what kind of pressure these guards were under. first they had to keep everyone in line. then they had to keep everyone safe. then they had to patrol late at night. then they had to patrol during the day. then this. then that. there were too many thens and it felt like on occasion there was no room for breaks. it was a very difficult job. probably one that not many expected. the security guards tended to be lazy, but not nick, and he knew rex wasn't either.

the STEELERS were in possession of the ball and the play was going surprisingly well. the TITANS, nick knew, had a good plan in mind. one of them was gaining ground, closing in on their opposing team member. rex was rooting for the STEELERS too, which was a positive for nick. this way he knew that him and rex weren't going to get into a brawl over which team was better. nick generally didn't fight over better teams, but at the same time, he was very capable of it. of course he wouldn't get physical because that'd be stupid. besides, when he was angry he generally just got up and left to cool down. since this was his room, if he and rex got on eachother's nerves, he could kindly ask him to leave. nicholas wouldn't have a reason to do this however, because they were on the same side in this game and so far they weren't eating eachother alive.

almost in unison the two boys were saying enthusiastically, "keep going, keep going!" but then nick's words changed. the titan was gaining on the steeler with the football, and was close to tackling. "no, no, no. keep going!" were his words, as he sat up and became more into the game unfolding before him. the titan dove, aiming somewhat low - just above the knees of his opponent and... he didn't miss. he was right on target. the steeler fell, and at the same time threw the ball to a teammate parallel to him. now, this would've been an amazing play if the other steeler was able to run the ball, however, he didn't cover more than a yard and a half before he too was tackled. nicholas frowned, "that would've been so good too!"

he had done a play like that in his high school career. it was his last game of the season junior year. he was running parallel to his teammate who had gotten tackled. his teammate threw the ball in the air, and out of nowhere nick came, caught the ball, and ran. he ended up scoring a touchdown. it was a great play, though somewhat common. rarely they actually succeeded, which was what made it so great when it did. it was obvious that rex liked football. it made sense too because he was a guy, and guys generally liked football at least a little bit. "did you ever play football?" nick asked looking at rex. he kind of seemed the football type. strong build, like nick. it wouldn't be strange if they had gone the whole game not talking because football and guys didn't require conversation. however, it'd be nice to just get something going so it wouldn't be completely awkward during half time or anything. besides, at the moment there was some down time - they were repositioning on the line and getting ready for the next moments of the game. that's how teams had to take football, one moment at a time.

tags;; brexton peeler.
notes;; i'm sure they're generally similar. haha.

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[BREXTON "REX" PEELER]

All Rex did was nod when he turned with the beer. He figured Nick would see it and get his answer anyway and what was the point of confirming that verbally when he didn’t have to. Rex had always keep his talking to a minimum. Often striking up conversations but then sitting back and not adding terribly much to it. He tended to rely on others to keep it going but then that was just how he had always been. Even in high school, before his chance at getting a scholarship was ruined, Rex had had always been the type to get by not saying a lot unless the rare moment came when he actually had a few things to say.

“No!” Rex was saying. It was funny how cheering a team on tended to have you saying the same sorts of things. It wasn’t as though there were set guidelines on what to yell at the TV screen when your favourite team was doing this or that but still things tended to go the same way. Everything was either good or bad and you tended to know pretty quick in things were going to go badly.

“Damn it! Yeah it would have,” Rex said when the ball was lost to his team. It definitely would have been pretty spectacular had it all gone according to plan but then these things happen and as much as he hated when things went badly, it was all part of the game. If it were an easy win, that would be great too but it wouldn’t be anywhere near as fun without all the up’s and down’s and just plain not knowing how things were going to go. It was all part of the fun of it.

Rex nodded when asked whether he had played football but still kept his eyes on the screen for a moment longer before actually turning to look at Nick. He figured he should probably give the guy a more detailed answer since that was generally how things went when he were trying to be nice and socialise.

“I was Captain too, tore my ACL one game before the finals,” he said, not feeling the need to elaborate too much on that. He figured Nick was enough of a football guy to realize just how bad that would have been. Getting to be captain of the football team meant that he would have to have been pretty good and close to the finals were when you’d get close to having those guys come out there and potentially getting a football scholarship which he figured was every player’s dream but having lost that chance would have been pretty awful so he knew he didn’t need to say anymore that he had.

“What about you? What’s your story?” he asked Nick, looking over at him curiously. As far as he could see, Nick seemed like the football type. He had the build of a player and a clear interest in the sport so it wouldn’t be much of a stretch at all if he had played the game.

[*NICHOLAS ADAM PASCALE.]

brexton had played ball. that explained a lot. actually, not really, it just gave him reason to be built the way he was as far as worked up muscle went. it would've explained a lot if they were close and nick had some unsolved mystery about why rex sometimes acted the way he did. however, that was not the case. if anything, it left some unsolved mystery. what landed a past, probably-quality player a job position in an asylum? it surely wouldn't have been his first choice, right? who willingly chose to spend their days as a guard for people, some so unstable they probably would confuse a footbgall with a bomb flying at their face? it was sad that people could mistake things like that, but it was how some people lived. some people lived with manicured lawns and picket fences, others lived within the walls of an asylum trying desperately trying to find reason behind everything. yet there were some people who went from the picture perfect home to the desperate search for something more.

as staff, they generally chose to go from one to the other for many reasons. nick had a story behind him that many would find sweet, and perfect. any little girl would want a brother like nick after his story was told, however, not many guys would want to be nicholas after a story like that. who goes from town football star to guard? after hearing rex's shortened version of his football career, it was realized that there were more reason's than one to land where these two men were and nick wasn't the only one that had to give up something he was passionate about, even though his was given up by choice.

"man, that sucks," nicholas muttered. "i'm sorry to hear that." he was sorry to hear it, though he knew that not many, especially a guard who was supposed to be all tough and manly, would want to have a pity party - even if it was only a party of one.

it came to no surprise that brexton recognized nicholas as a football player. nick had done the same for him, only hadn't quite jumped to the conclusion. jumping to a conclusion like that didn't bother nick because it made him feel good inside. it made him very happy to know that he still fit the part - not that he'd been off the field long. "i was captain too, went to college for playing," he began, trying to keep his short and simple. "was halfway through my first year of grad school then my sister had to get enrolled and that landed me here." now this story could go one of two ways. rex would either realize, oh he's a wonderful brother who happens to be a complete idiot - but his love for his sister makes up for it, or he'd think that a 23 year old's parents are still controlling his every move and forced him to become a guard. hopefully brexton would be smart with his beliefs and choose the first choice.

tags: brexton peeler.
notes: ...

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[BREXTON "REX" PEELER]

[[OOC: I think you meant ‘institutionalized’ instead of ‘enrolled’, confused me for a sec there]]

“Shit happens,” was Rex’s calm response to it, even throwing in a shrug as though it didn’t bother him but it did and it would probably plague him for the rest of his life. He didn’t want sympathy or pity or anything like that. It was part of the reason he never liked going into detail about it. Usually he wouldn’t hold a grudge or get so absorbed in something and lost in it but this one thing he just couldn’t let go of. It was the one thing that was constantly stuck in his head and if any kind was ever to succeed in driving him crazy it would be that but then Rex had always known something that became quite clear that day. Everyone had their problems.. Even the sane people.

Sometimes when he managed to see the not-so-bad side of it all, he could see that at least he had something. If he had been more severely injured things would have no doubt been a hell of a lot worse. He probably would have had much fewer options. At least this way, he got through high school even without that football scholarship and even managed to get a job after all of that. He didn’t really like elaborating on the past but at least all that anger helped him be intimidating enough to do some security work really work. It was just too bad that the anger got out of hand that one time but like most people, Rex still needed a trigger, a real good reason to get that way with someone.

Rex nodded just slightly as he listened to Nick’s words, still curious when he mentioned college. That was what Rex wanted to do, that was what he should’ve done and Nick had managed to do it which left one big question that he couldn’t quite figure out.. Why was he here? If he had all that going for him why in the world would he end up in a place like this? He said nothing though, knowing the answer for probably follow shortly.

“And whose decision was that?” Rex asked, choosing his words carefully enough. He didn’t want to jump to conclusions with that one. He ended up here because of his sister but he could’ve wanted that or not wanted it and that one bit of information was vital for Rex to form a proper opinion of all of that. If Nick had no choice then he could understand that. The guy had no choice and had to leave all that behind, that would suck but if he did then that was a whole other thing and Rex wasn’t sure what to think of it. He was an only child. He never had siblings to look out for and care about. He didn’t really know what that might be like but he figured to leave something you loved for someone.. That’s saying a lot about a person, a lot of good things.

[*NICHOLAS ADAM PASCALE.]

nick should've known not to say sorry, but it was just instinct. he was the type of guy that if you said, 'stop saying sorry,' he'd say, 'sorry. oh, sorry for saying sorry.' it was something a lot of girls did, but he did it too because he was brought up to be a really nice guy and nice people said sorry. okay, that wasn't true. a lot of bad people said sorry. anybody could get away with saying sorry, it was only a matter of whether or not they meant it. nick always said what he meant, or at least what he meant in that moment. perhaps if he was furious, he'd wish someone to fall off the face of the earth. now, in the moment he'd probably mean that, but then afterwards, he wouldn't. he would feel sorry for it, and know that it's wrong to wish that upon anyone. he was just good like that. he was that guy that a lot of girls dreamed up, but never met because they assume every guys a jerk and doesn't give them a chance.

and nick could be a jerk. sure, it was rare, but it was possible. he was mostly a jerk when he was angry, and he was grumpy in the morning. so if someone were to wake him up he'd be an ass for the rest of the day - or at least the morning. same with if he were hungry he could get nasty. that was typical stuff for a guy though. so see, nick wasn't anything special. when he was angry, he could control his temper. he raised his voice, sure, and occasionally punched walls, but really he could just walk away. he was good at that, only in this job the point wasn't to walk away. the point was to deal with the patient and if they were angry calm them down, not get angry and leave the scene. sure, he had his many moments, but those all happened with detentions. he wouldn't walk away from a scene outdoors, but if it was something in detention, hell he could let them bite eachother's ears off if he were in the right mood - and by right mood, that means terrible mood.

this was the part that would make him sound stupid for throwing away a great career... not that he actually had the career yet, but it was still the same. he had thrown away the ability to get a great career. it wouldn't be too late though if he waited just one more year. maybe that's what he would do. wait a little bit, see how things were shaking out for his sister, and see how he felt about it. if he felt good, or really needed to get away from the asylum, he'd go back to school and get the career he wanted in sports management or something with sports anyway. so here he was about to admit that he had given that up to come to an insane asylum. it said a lot about his character though, which was a good thing because it showed good qualities.

"it was my decision," he said while the tv showed commercials. "i haven't decided how long i'll stay before going back to school though." yes, he planned on going back to school, of course. unless, for some odd reason, he decided he wanted to stay a guard. he liked the guard part, but wasn't sure of this particular 'branch' of it. did he really want to spend a lot longer taking care of people who were incapable of taking care of themselves? he didn't mind helping, but he wasn't going to play the part of assistant for the rest of his life. he was twenty three, he had too much life to live to spend it all within these walls.

tags: brexton peeler.
notes: yeahh, that, haha. i couldn't think of the right word.

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[BREXTON "REX" PEELER]

Rex tended to get pretty involved with whatever he was doing. He never knew any other way of living his life. Everything was all ‘shoulder to the wheel’ and ‘110%’ with him, even work so it wasn’t unusual for him to get carried away with something but he never let it effect the overall result. The fact was Rex was effective. He was a hard-ass and loved shoving the rules and regulations at people but he got things done and he got it done efficiently. It just happened that his way was to intimidate people into doing what they were suppose to or what they should. So far it had worked well with minimal problems and Rex hardly saw a need to change.

If he ever did find something that needed to change, he’d do it. He’d form a plan and get on it immediately. This was part of that plan. That work, focusing on your work thing wasn’t the best idea and he needed to try to make a few friends around here to avoid going crazy and that was exactly what he was doing. Everything had a purpose behind it and a motive driving it. What Rex does might seem pretty normal and basic but almost everything with him could be explained.

Rex nodded when Nick explained that leaving football had been his decision. It would have been a hard decision to make for anyone who loved the game so he didn’t’ envy him that but he could see how that could have been a hard thing to do. Rex wouldn’t judge though, he just wasn’t the type. He might be pretty set in his ways with a lot of things but he wasn’t about to start judging people if they went with something different. He just didn’t see the point in that. Now if it was something stupid like drugs that they were getting into then he wouldn’t keep his opinion to himself. He was the kind of guy you could trust to tell you, “You’re an idiot”, when you were being an idiot.

“Least you have that option,” Rex stated, not meaning anything by it except that it was probably a good thing, having the chance to go back and finish up what he started. This place wasn’t the worst but it wasn’t the kind of thing you’d want to spend the rest of your life doing if you had other choices but this was Nick decision and if it was what he wanted to do for now than that was great. Good for him. There was no way Rex was going to see that as a bad thing.

[*NICHOLAS ADAM PASCALE.]

the more nick thought about it, the more he realized his move was stupid. really, it was a spur of the moment sort of thing. his parents told him that they were thinking about putting his sister into the care of the people at alkaline because they knew how to deal with her unlike his parents. this bit of information had nick fuming. he was far beyond furious. his sister wasn't that bad of a mental case and she wasn't 'clinically insane'. she had leukemia, was depressed, had something else wrong with her, but it was nothing that was really difficult to handle. sure, she had her moments where nobody knew how to calm her down, make her see eye to eye, but nobody didn't include nick.

nicholas was probably the most uncommon brother anyone would find. sure, everyone had really nice brothers when it came down to it, but nick and his sister were close for a really long time. when she was younger they had their issues. nick would get pissed when she followed him around, and he hated how his parents constantly told him to treat her well. why didn't he get the special treatment? of course at his age it was considered 'so cool' if you were in the hospital. so why was somebody, a girl, who was SECOND get to go to the hospital for every little thing that was wrong with her? his friends parents would always ask about her, and never about him. that phase of frustration died quickly because he too had taken trips to the hospital with her, and found them the second most boring place in the world. second to his own house when mrs. abernickle from down the street baby sat when nobody else could and his parents were at work or spending time in the hospital with his sister. nick quickly learned not to complain because by that time he had discovered what it meant to have leukemia, and he had gotten 'jokingly teased' by his friends for still being baby sat. totally uncool.

it really wasn't a stupid idea though, coming to alkaline. it gave his sister some fight and he got to brief the medical staff and pyschiatrists which would be someting not many had the chance to do. now whether or not they actually took his word was unknown. they generally didn't take the patients word becuase they could be classified as unstable information from an unstable mind. maybe they didn't take his word because he was family and could try to persuade them to let her out quicker. it could make him out to be the bad guy, but that wasn't nick's goal. his goal was to stick around, help his sister, and give her what was needed. so what would she think when he got up and left? abandonment, but it wasn't. he was getting on with the life he left which wasn't a crime, and his sister would forgive him for that. she was already thankful enough that he had even come and she never ceased to smile to him even from a distance. it was the same smile she had given him when she was younger and first diagnosed with leukemia, when neither of them really understood. so maybe it wasn't that stupid. it just sounded stupid.

with brexton's words, nick almost commented. he almost said, 'oh, you can go back to school too,' but he didn't. first off, they were too guys. going into a deep conversation about each other's life and how they can continue on even when they think they can't was meant for girl's and lovers. it would just be strange to go into a whistful speech, would it not? nicholas sure thought it would. so instead he just shrugged. it wasn't his place to question brexton's decisions. he knew enough about his past for now, and didn't need to know about his future with 'no self made decisions'. nick figured he'd save that for some pretty girl who wanted to know rex and wanted rex to know her. at least, that's what he invisioned a girl would do if they liked someone enough. he didn't really know. he hadn't really had a good girlfriend. he always went out with the cheerleaders because it was what he was supposed to do, and they were all snobs. it was a stereotype, sure, but in his case it was true. he did date one girl though, she was really nice. they were perfect for eachother. then came school and they slipped eachother's mind. this girl, named olivia, was gone into oblivion.

right when there was a silence settling in, the commercial's ended and the football game was back on. that was a lie, it wasn't the football game, it was the ESPN news room and an older man recapping what happened during the commercial. "JAMES HARRISON, the STEELER'S linebacker is sitting out for the remainder of the game, perhaps longer, after a knee injury moments ago. in this shot you can see the awkward position of his left leg and the unatural position of his knee." a play unrolled upon the screen. it was true. HARRISON was caught in a play resulting in him going down. his leg was bent strangely and his knee - from what nick could tell - popped out of place to the point where it almost broke through the skin. he was then taken off the field before the screen flashed back to the ESPN news room. "now back to the game," the animated voice said.

tags: brexton peeler.
notes: none? oh. i made up random stuff about the steelers and players, sports reports, etc. randomness was spurting out of my head : P

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