Neptune High Graduation

[watching_you]

Graduation at Neptune High is an event. Always has been. Neptune's rich and famous love to see their children all done up, and this event is no exception.

The auditorium is decked out in Pirate colours, green and yellow, and everything matches - the banners, the balloons, the gowns. There's an air of excitment, of pride, of anxiety.

Up on stage, Van Clemmons starts calling names.

Comments

[obligatoryass]

An important distinction, and one Logan would do well to remember.

"I don't - " Logan stops, not knowing if he's going to say, "I don't think so," or "I don't want them to."

He settles on "I don't know." It seems the only thing he knows for sure.

[dead_hooker_2]

"I know you don't. I don't either. I mean, God knows as a family we're screwed up enough to be the most popular episode of Tinseltown Diaries ever.

"And I don't think I can continue this conversation completely sober. You want me to drive?"

[obligatoryass]

Logan nods. "Please."

He can always come back and pick up the offensively yellow XTerra later.

He wants to say something nice, a compliment, because she's right and being smart and kind and he appreciates it, but he doesn't know what, exactly. Anything he says will come out wrong, either patronizing or smug or just idiotic.

So he says nothing, just gets in the car.

[dead_hooker_2]

She wouldn't believe any compliment he paid her, or know how to respond anyway, so it's just as well. But, hey, it means a lot that he didn't insult her.

"I think this is the first time I've driven you away from this school when you weren't drunk since . . . did I drive you home from my play junior year?"

He'd been eight, she'd been sixteen, and something (she hadn't known or cared what) had happened with Logan and Dad on their way to the play.

[obligatoryass]

It's something, anyway. Not much, but something.

"Yeah," he says, remembering the night. "And then you didn't make me go to dinner with them, which I thought was the best thing ever."

Logan had been whining about the play - he didn't want to go AT ALL, to watch stupid high school kids in their stupid play he wouldn't understand. He wanted to stay home and play video games.

Aaron dragged Logan to the car and physically restrained him with seatbelts. As in, using the center one to tie him to the others.

Logan really appreciated Trina's license then.

[dead_hooker_2]

"Well, you know, I hated your mother's taste in restraunts."

Logan and Trina don't give each other a whole lot of credit, but then, they're not take it for themselves, either.

As for the play, well, Logan was probably a little too young then to properly appreciate the vision of his tone deaf older sister with the endless parade of boyfriends warbling about being a girl who "cain't say no."

"We went to McDonalds. All you wanted was chocolate milkshakes. I bought you four of them and you were so sick that night."

Trina pulls ouf of the parking lot, keeping her eyes carefully on the road ahead.

"I was good older sister occasionally, wasn't I? I mean, not all the time or most of it, or even close to half, but I got it right once or twice, right?"

It's easier to ask when she has an excuse not to look at him. Traffic is handy for that.

[obligatoryass]

"It was awesome," he says, grinning. "I ruined mom's favorite rug. It was even more hideous than her taste in restaurants."

But Lynn never told Aaron what happened to it, not really, a fact he's also grateful for.

Logan's quiet for a long moment. They stop at a red light, and when it changes, and Trina's eyes are on the road again, he says, "Yeah."

Another pause.

"More than once or twice, really."

[dead_hooker_2]

"A whole three or four times, then," she says, looking over at him for just a second.

And then, because this isn't something they do, she changes the subject.

"I'd forgotten about that rug. The first time I stayed with them, after they got married, before you were born, I was like, terrified of that rug. I refused to walk on it. I made Dad carry me across."

[obligatoryass]

"Really?" he says, laughing. "I never heard that story."

Which is odd, because Lynn kind of loved telling those kinds of Trina stories in just the tone of voice that told everyone how dumb her adopted step-daughter was.

"I can't blame you, really. It was terrifying. I'm impressed we didn't go blind looking at it."

[dead_hooker_2]

Lynn's ability to make Trina sound stupid frankly pales in comparison to Trina's ability to make Lynn sound stupid.

Trina nods, and laughs. "Yeah. It was in the hall outside my room and I'd stand in the doorway and scream for Dad. After a day and a half, they moved it."

It was less about the rug than about proving to Lynn that Aaron would come get Trina if Trina wanted him to. And it worked.

"That rug looked like being really hung over feels."

[obligatoryass]

That's probably why Lynn stopped telling those stories, really.

"And I ruined it. I think I deserve a medal for that, don't you? At least a ceremony honoring my achievement."

[dead_hooker_2]

Probably.

Trina laughs, and turns abruptly into the parking lot of a McDonalds.

"How about if I buy you a chocolate milkshake? Or four?"

[obligatoryass]

"I'll drink as many as you buy," he promises, beaming. "But only if you promise not to bitch about how many calories are in every fry. And possibly eat a Chicken McNugget."

It's too bad the house burned down.They could go and let Logan ruin something else they hated.

[dead_hooker_2]

Let's hope McDonalds takes AmEx.

"No bitching," she promises, stopping the car. "Fries, milkshakes, McNuggets. Possibly a Happy Meal, with some sort of crappy plastic toy."

McDonalds cannot really be called "swank" and Logan's fake ID is gonna do him no good at all. But neither of those things really seem to matter, at the moment.

[obligatoryass]

If McDonald's will make Trina a good big sister for a fourth or fifth time, it becomes nearly holy, which is way better than swank, and booze is overrated compared to sibling bonding. Even for these two.

"Awesome," he says. "I'm thinking a double quarter pounder, too, so I can get good and sick. Too bad I can't ruin the dress mom wore to the Oscar's in the '80s. That thing was worse than the rug."

[dead_hooker_2]

It won't last, and they probably both know it, but it's nice, for a day, to be normal siblings.

"Oh that pink thing? God, what was she thinking? And, hey, it's not like it'll be the first time you've thrown up in my car, so no worries."

[obligatoryass]

Especially since it's the last chance they'll probably have for a really long time.

"Yeah, I mean, I know, it was the '80s and all, but still, someone should have known," Logan says, then laughs. "Dude, did you ever get that stain out? It was pretty skunky."

[dead_hooker_2]

That would seem to be a fair bet.

"Are you kidding? I sold the car."

[obligatoryass]

"Best possible move," Logan says. "That car kinda sucked anyway."

[dead_hooker_2]

"Well, it was no neon yellow Xterra or anything," she says. "Maybe we'll roll the windows down, though, for the trip home. I like this car."

It's a bright blue Audi. The Echolls kids don't go in for cheap or subdued, in their automobiles.

[obligatoryass]

"It's hot," Logan agrees. "The car, not the weather, but windows will be good. Sunroof too."

[dead_hooker_2]

"Thanks," she says.

She gestures expansively at the menu on the wall above the cash registers.

"So, what'll it be? Aside from milkshakes."

[obligatoryass]

"Double quarter pounder with cheese," Logan says. "Massive fries. And if you don't get a Happy Meal I might throw a fit."

[dead_hooker_2]

Five minutes later they're at a table, and true to her word, Trina is not bitching about the number of calories on the trays in front of them. (She is thinking about them, but she hasn't said a word.)

She's studying the Happy Meal toy. "What the hell is it supposed to be? Some kind of fish?"

[obligatoryass]

Logan is very please by her lack of audible calorie-counting.

Logan plucks the toy from her fingers. "Dinosaur, maybe?" he says, examining it closely. "I don't think it's anything that's alive in this era, anyway. Wonder why they made it chartreuse?"