Title: Cliffnotes June 5, 2000
Author: Chance
E-mail: chance1562@aol.com
Feedback: Yup g
Category: Humor, family
Spoilers: None
Season/sequel/series: Cliffnotes
Rating: G
Content warnings: None (wow does that feel alien to write g)
Summary: None
Archive: The Wanderings, ELF Command, Avant Guard, WWOMB, anyone else ask g
Disclaimer: I dontt own them, never have, never will but I do own the story and concpet, nyah, nyah g
Author's notes: Thanks again to Shannon for the beta g For AT, I miss you.
****
"That's right Lucas, you can do it! Come on, just a little further!" Nathan ran along side his youngest son as the five-year-old wobbled down the sidewalk on his bike, the training wheels only having been taken off that morning. He couldn't count how many times he'd run up and down the sidewalk since then, trying to help Lucas stay on the seat without taking control.
It wasn't easy to stand by and watch the boy fall off the bike time after time, scraping his knees until Nathan had thought to get Robert's old knee pads out from his oldest child's skateboarding days. From then on the landings had gone a little easier but he could tell that Lucas was getting tired. Nathan wanted to call an end to the bike riding for the day, but he knew that would crush Lucas. The little boy was trying so hard to learn this new thing and Nathan didn't want to stop him unless it was absolutely necessary.
Even as he watched the front wheel wobbled and Lucas and the bike went sprawling onto the Hooper's front yard. He ran over and lifted the bike carefully away, already checking with his eyes to make sure Lucas wasn't injured.
"Are you all right Lucas?" he asked helping him to sit up.
"Yeah," child sighed and blew the hair that had managed to escape his helmet out of his face. He looked up and blue eyes met brown in a silent query. "Why can't I get this Daddy? It was never this hard to learn something before."
Nathan sighed and sat down on the grass next to his son. Lucas was right, it never_had_ been this hard for the boy to learn something before. Ever since "discovering" his accelerated intelligence just before his second birthday, Lucas had been soaking up knowledge like a sponge, sometimes even astounding his family with something new he had discovered. Besides his morning Kindergarten class, an excuse to get him around children his own age, Nathan and Carol took the time each day to home school him in other subjects to feed his voracious mind. Robert even did his homework around Lucas just so the boy could see what it was. More often then not by the end of these "work" sessions, Lucas had managed to grasp a mathematical concept that should have been far beyond comprehension for someone his age.
However his quick learning didn't apply to more physical activities. He was exactly where he should be for his age when it came to that. It didn't mean he was any less frustrated, or any less determined to learn though.
"Sometimes," Nathan began slowly, rubbing his son's back through the thin T-shirt, "it just takes a little time before we learn something. It doesn't mean we aren't any good at it, it just means we need to work a little harder on it."
"Betcha it didn't take Robbie this long to learn to ride a bike," Lucas said petulantly. His older brother was forever going off with his friends to go play a game of some sort and Lucas was always too little to play even if Robert brought him along to watch. He wanted to be able to do _something_ athletic with his older brother.
Catching this Nathan thought hard before answering.
"No, maybe it didn't, but I can tell you, he used to come home covered in bruises when he was first learning how to ride the skateboard." Lucas looked up at that. "He never gave up though. You've seen how he rides it now."
Lucas nodded.
"Yeah, he's real fast," he said eyes lighting up.
'Ah, hero worship,' Nathan thought with a smile.
"It took a long time to get to that point though, and it will take you a while until you learn how to ride a bike, but that's okay. When you're older you'll look back and see how far you've come. Now," he said grinning at the little boy, "you ready to get back up?"
"Yeah," Lucas said grinning back. He stood up and wheeled his bike back onto the sidewalk. Nathan held the back of the seat and watched as Lucas climbed back on, his sneaker clad feet sitting firmly on the pedals.
"Okay, one...two...three!" With that father and son were once again running off down the sidewalk back towards their house. Had someone been watching they'd have seen Nathan let go of the bike seat and stand back as his son continued to ride down the street unaware that he was alone. They would have seen the boy slow to a stop and look back with astonishment at his father standing twenty feet behind him, smiling proudly.
"I did it!"