Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters or am affiliated with House, M.D. in any way.
This story is from the outside looking in. Please review.
A Little Insightful
Gregory House is ditching clinic duty, and a young boy is ditching the last two hours of school. The boy looks a little rough, his short blond hair is disheveled and his eyes are glassy behind his spectacles. House is walking his motorcycle through the park. He's grumbling about it not working as he walks past the twelve-year-old boy.
"Hey, wanna play checkers?" the kid says crouching beside a marble table and sifting through his knapsack. House looks skeptically at the kid. He hobbles over to the grass and leans his sputtering bike against a tree.
"Aren't you supposed to be in school, or are college co-eds progressively getting shorter these days?" he jeers as he slides onto a bench.
"Do adults have jobs these days or is every working person laid off?" the kid shoots back at him.
"Red or black?" House says tempered. The boy sits opposite of Gregory and starts laying out red pieces. He forms a bridge with his fingers, and he eyes the board with a sense of concentration.
"So what's your name kid?" House asks out of boredom.
"Jeremy," he answers. Jeremy moves his piece. House makes a similar move with one of the scuffed black pieces.
"So, why aren't you in class?" House points out. "Too cool for school?"
"No," Jeremy moves, " I find their lack of 'real knowledge' pathetic."
"What is 'real knowledge?" House intercedes. He moves his piece and cracks his knuckles.
"What is the sound of a hand clapping? If a tree falls in the woods and no one's around to hear it does it make a sound…" the kid begins and slides his pieces across the board.
"Huh?" Gregory expertly jumps the kids piece sacrificing one of his own.
"All I'm saying is learning things like the transitive property and trigonometry are all expected and learnable," Jeremy states, "but they never teach you how to deal with the 'un-teachable'…life itself."
"What's wrong, parents filing for divorce," House smirks, "you feel responsible?"
"No, my parents and baby sister all died in a car crash today," the boy's eyes seem to solidify, "I ran from school."
"Tough break, kid," House practically whispers. He remembers an ambulance rushing to the hospital that day and the call over the PA. Jeremy moves.
"King me," he offers a weak smile. "Why are you out here in the middle of the day?"
"Believe it or not, I'm living up to everyone's standards of me," House finishes. The kid stares obviously confused. "I'm a doctor, but people don't expect me to be all rainbows and smiles. I hand out death warrants everyday, sometimes it gets to a person, you know?"
"Well, I don't think I'm really up for checkers, anymore." Jeremy gets up and cracks his back. He starts packing the board away and dusts off his jeans.
"I hope things work out for you," House consoles. The boy pastes a strained smile on his face.
"Well, you too," he says.
"Look me up in Plainsborough Hospital sometime, and buckle up"
"Wise words," the kid frowns and starts away. The two are the same and yet so different, but real things can never be taught so both must deal with their hardships.