Prompt: "reticent" and "Neanderthal"
Many people agree with the statement "Near is very reticent." Probably even Near himself, but we wouldn't know because the only way to know is to ask him. And he doesn't say much.
But being reticent doesn't mean he has no sense of humor.
Linda had decided to drag Near and I to a local park, having declared that he and I were too introverted to be normal teenage boys and other stuff I hadn't payed attention to.
I don't really know how long we were there for due to my spacing out after just five minutes of boredom. But I snapped out of it when I spotted some kids picking on Near. They looked to be about only a few years younger than us, maybe twelve or thirteen. They were calling him names and making fun of him for being an orphan.
I was just about to intervene when one of them came to the conclusion that Near must be stupid because he wasn't saying anything. So they started using what they must have thought were intelligent words, trying to make him feel dumb. They didn't know that they looked like idiots for misusing the vocabulary that Near used correctly on a regular basis. They even managed to mess up calling him a Neanderthal.
And I swear, as unbelievable as it is, I heard him laugh.