A/N: I've been quite a busy bee today! I've released one new story (two if you count this one,) and I've updated a story that I hadn't touched in over two years! I've deleted two stories off my profile, though only the ones that I know are lost causes, and I happened to have no plans on touching. I've felt a compulsive urge to write and study for college all day. I made the awful mistake of never going to bed last night, so I might write this story and then one more if I have any ideas. After that, I'll be taking myself off to bed.
Brave
In the eyes of some, Chuckie Finster was a coward. A young, freckled boy who always wanted for things to be easier than they were. A goody-goody who had no backbone, and needed Tommy Pickles to fight his battles for him.
Those people were seeing Chuckie Finster on the surface. On the surface, Kimi Finster would admit that it was easy to see her brother as a coward – she had thought so a few times throughout her youth, when she had heard him asking a soccer coach to let him sit out on a game, or when he fought with Tommy Pickles over whether or not they should do something. She had even called him a coward once, in an argument. She had been wrong, just as they were.
On the surface of everything, there is a ground underneath, something much, much deeper. She never talked about it, but Kimi found it easy to see what was underneath everyone, under the mask that they frequently wore. She liked the fact that she could see underneath a person's mask. It was like knowing some kind of dark secret, and she'd never tell, but she loved it.
She could see through them all. Tommy was afraid. Susie wasn't so perfect. Lil was still the same bug-eating girl deep down. Phil wanted to be mature in the way of his peers, but he liked holding onto his childhood. Dil wanted for people to think of him as normal. It was all much more complex, and yet she could sum it up in a number of words – people were easy to read like that.
And maybe, from glancing at them, someone would be able to see what was under the surface for her friends. Yet, when it came to her brother, no one ever looked peeked through the cracks of the surface.
No one ever looked at Chuckie and thought about how brave he must be, but Kimi knew it. She remembered the look of worry on Chuckie's face when he had to show their parents a bad test score, and yet he did it. She remembered the way that Chuckie had cried and cried when he was learning to ride his bike. She remembered all of the bruises and bandages, and yet he'd gotten right on through it.
He wasn't brave in the way that boys like Tommy Pickles were. He wasn't daring, and he wasn't always looking to make things in his life exciting, but he pulled through with what he needed to do, and that was the bravest thing that any boy could possibly do.
She hated what they said about him. She hated hearing of girls who had broken up with her brother because he was "such a coward." She wished that she could pull through to them, explain to them, show them somehow that her brother really was strong. But they'd never listen. He'd never listen, if she told him. He'd say that she was lying, because the words of others had destroyed him in little ways, ways that he didn't like to talk about.
One day, someone else would realize it. She couldn't quite imagine how, but she knew that someone would watch Chuckie and see it for themselves.
Yes, she was hoping, most of all, that someone would tell him. She wanted for someone to remind him, really, that he was better than he thought. He was always walking with his head down, as though he really were a coward, but that was only because he didn't think that anyone saw under the surface. When people tell you too much of something, you come to believe it. And Chuckie Finster, sad as it was, had truly come to believe that he was afraid of everything. He'd come to believe that he wasn't as great as everyone else was.
But no. He'd get his moment. Kimi could see it, in his future. But that moment wasn't now, and it wasn't today. No, today she'd be watching. A little observer on the sidelines, knowing but not saying. And hopefully, that was not how it would always be.