Winning
Summary: Gregory House always saw everything as puzzles and games, and even as a child, he hated to lose.
A/N: I absolutely hated the finale. It was so depressing! So because I have no exciting abilities to see into the future, I decided I'd like to go into House's past and give the explanation (in my mind) for why he is the way he is.
Welcome to high school. I look around at the others in my math class. Algebra, Geometry, Calculus; they've always come natural to me. But as a freshman, I'm forced to take Geometry. Honors, of course. I wonder how much smarter than my classmates I am. I wonder how much smarter than my teacher I am. Lazy as I may be, I want to show these people that I'm better.
The bell rings.
"Good morning class…" That's when I tune out. I don't even bother to learn my teacher's name. I don't write down a damn thing. I want him to know that I can ACE his class without trying.
"… to start with a little game."
Game? I'm there. Unfortunately, I have to pay attention to the rest of his little welcome speech. Rules, I don't care that much about. But I need to know the objective.
"… like the game show Jeopardy. Normally, I would put you into teams, but I want to see where you all are. Individually. It's every man for himself. When you know the answer, raise your hand. I'll write the names of the first three people whose hands I see. The first person to get the right answer wins. If none of those three gets it, I'll just tell you the answer and we'll move on."
He turns on the overhead before he continues. "I'll pick the first category. Then, whoever wins the round will get to pick the next one."
He clicks on a three hundred point question with what I see as an evil smile.
I solve the puzzle that appears in an instant, but when I look up, there's already a name on the board. The answer that the owner of that name gives is identical to mine. The answer is right.
Furious, I solve the second problem twice as fast as I solved the first. Again, my name appears second on the list. Six problems later, my name has been first only once. Every other time, I was second. With each TOTAL failure, I become increasingly frustrated. Just when I think that my head will explode if I lose one more round, the bell rings.
As I pass by on my way out the door, my teacher tells me that he is proud of me for being "consistently in the running" and that he is looking forward to working with someone who tries so hard. This only makes me angrier, of course. I don't want to be known as the kiss-ass kid who tries too hard.
I frown. He doesn't know me. He'll never know me. And this is when I start playing a game that will last the rest of my life: the You-Can't-Figure-Me-Out Game.
Everything is a game, and all that matters is winning.
A/N: So that's it. That's my thoughts on why House tries to be so stand-offish. Review?