"Wishing you'd gone to Vegas with Cam and the team?" Johnathan asked when he found Natalie sitting in an armchair, staring pensively out the window.
"I'm not actually old enough to do any of things that make Vegas worth going to- Unless I want to go see Donnie and Marie," she replied and turned to face her brother with a smirk.
"I don't think they're in Vegas right now, actually," Johnathan quipped back. He walked over and sat on the arm of her chair and looked down at her. "Seriously, though, do you regret not going? 'Cause there's still time to put you on a plane. You'd have a couple of hours before the show starts when you land." It was still morning in New York, which meant it was early morning in Nevada.
Natalie shook her head. "And miss watching the crowd in Time Square lose their minds when you 'magically' pop out of the screen?" She used airquotes around the word magically and grinned. "Not a chance." She stood up and stretched her arms over her head. "Why? Are you trying to get rid of me?" She dropped her arms to cross them over her chest and smirked. "Is this about a girl, Johnny? 'Cause you know I can hide in my room with some noise-cancelling headphones if you wanna-"
"Whoa!" Johnathan made a face and waved both of his hands in a gesture for her to stop talking. It wasn't that the subject of sex made him uncomfortable, it was that his baby sister talking about sex (to him, of all people) just seemed wrong. "Geez, Nat, you've been spending too much time with Jordan."
Natalie shrugged. "Just saying."
"Yeah, well. . . Don't. Ever again."
"Fine. But, in exchange for my silence, you should make me breakfast." Natalie was already walking to the kitchen, carefully scratching the back of her head so as not to pull hair out of her loose bun.
"You're almost seventeen. You can make your own breakfast," he replied even as he followed her to the kitchen.
"I can, but I like it better when you make it," she said with a bright smile that reminded John of when she was little. "Pleeaase, Johnny?"
He sighed and, before he said anything, his sister was already drumming her hands on the counter in celebration. "Pancakes okay?"
"Yes!"
"Okay, but I'm not doing everything. You can pull your weight and make the eggs." They'd passed the mornings like this before many times over the years, often with Cameron and the team pitching in. Except for Dina. After what they all referred to (dramatically, but playfully) as The Breakfast Fiasco of 2010, it was unanimously decided that Dina Clark was not allowed in the kitchen. As the siblings moved around the kitchen grabbing what they needed with a practiced ease, Johnathan kept glancing over at Natalie. "So what were you thinking about, then?" he asked once he had the pan heating up and began making the batter for pancakes.
"When?" she countered innocently.
He pointed with the whisk, dripping a little batter on the counter. "Two minutes ago. You were staring pretty hard out that window."
"Oh. . ." Natalie cracked a few eggs and started beating them together with a fork. "Mama," she finally answered in a soft voice. "I was trying to remember what her voice sounded like. . I just kept hearing Dina's, though," she admitted with quiet embarrassment.
"Oh." Johnathan felt a pang of empathy. His own mother had died when he and Cameron were still young, and he understood the struggle to remember even basic details about her. Most memories had long ago faded. It bothered Cam more than it bothered him (they'd never talked about it, really, but he knew), but he still understood Natalie's struggle. He didn't want his sister to feel guilty though, and from the look on her face, it looked like she was feeling just that. "It makes sense," he offered casually as he stirred the batter, slowly now. "Dina's always kind of mothered all of us, you most of all. . It's okay, you know. You were practically a baby when your mom died. . . It's okay, Nat."
His sister's eyes (blue, like his and Cameron's) filled with tears as she stared ahead of her rather than meet his gaze. "Yeah." Her voice was barely louder than a whisper. She blinked and the tears fell, some of them landing in the bowl with her eggs. Natalie laughed suddenly. "Guess I don't need to put salt in the eggs," she joked weakly as she rubbed the sleeve of her overlarge sweater long her cheeks.
"You should probably still add some," Johnathan said seriously, kindly pretending he didn't notice the tears while he poured some batter onto the frying pan. "Just because you're used to Gunter's bland cooking, doesn't mean the rest of us don't like flavor."
"You can always add seasoning, but you can't take it out," Natalie quoted the curmudgeonly effects designer.
Johnathan groaned. "You've been spending too much time with Gunter."
"I thought I've been spending too much time with Jordan."
"Him too." Johnathan waited to flip the pancake. "You know what? We should take a trip, just the three of us. Go to some small town with no internet, where no one knows The Amazing Cameron Black-" he did jazz hands to accompany his already jesting tone "-and just. . . be a family. What do you say to that?"
"I say that sounds amazing. But you'll never convince Cammy to go somewhere he won't get recognized and stopped for selfies. You know he dies without his ego being constantly stroked," Natalie teased.
That got her big brother to chuckle. "That's true. But as I recall, you've given his ego plenty boosts over the years, I'm sure you'd be able to compensate for the lack of adoring fans, 'cause God knows I'm not gonna do it. And if not. . ." Johnathan shrugged. "Maybe you and I could go somewhere. Cam can lie low for a while, work on a new act or something, and we can go have some fun. And we won't even have to make up a reason to sign you out of school."
"One of the many beauties of homeschool," Natalie agreed. "Let's do it, Cameron or no Cameron."
"Great." He grabbed a spatula to flip the pancake over, but Natalie grabbed his arm. "What?"
". . Do the thing."
"'The thing'? What thing? . . Are you seriously still amazed by that?"
Nat nodded. "And I will be until I figure out how to do it myself without dumping an uncooked pancake on the floor."
Johnathan smiled and shook his head. "Okay, fine." He gripped the pan's handle with one hand and flicked his wrist, sending the pancake up into the air, landing on the pan, raw side down. He glanced over to see a delighted grin on his sister's face and couldn't help laughing at her. "You're too easily impressed, Nattie."
She shrugged, unoffended by his laughter and the teasing criticism. "Simple pleasures, Johnny. Simple pleasures."
This is obviously the morning before the big show in the pilot. Next chapter will be Johnathan actually getting arrested, and what follows immediately after.
