Daniel was not pleased. He was not pleased at all. Not only was he called at work, but he was called at work to pick up his sister early because of something she did. He had to give his excuses and persuade a coworker to take his next appointment so that he could do so.
Now, Daniel by no means had a spotless disciplinary record at Warwick. It was somewhat hypocritical of him to be so cross with his sibling, and yet, it was his responsibility as her guardian to do so. Unlike him, Samantha did have a spotless record, but for the first time in her entire school career, she has gotten in trouble. Has he failed her? Did he do something wrong? Certainly, he was going to get to the bottom of this if it was the last thing he did!
The car ride was silent as the man rehearsed in his head what he was going to say to his sibling once they both got home. "What were you thinking?!" he would say. "Why would you do that?! I've done some shit when I was younger, but I've never broken into a teacher's office!" Now he was the responsible one of the two. Indeed, once they did get in the door, words were exchanged, but not the ones that he had planned on.
"What were you thinking?" he began like he rehearsed.
"I had a good reason to do it, Dan." Samantha retorted. "I wouldn't do this for giggles. I had an objective in mind."
"Oh, yeah? And what's that? Get Geraldine and Revy in trouble too?"
"Revy wasn't even there. If he was, we wouldn't have gotten caught because he would have been guarding the door."
"And you went with it anyway? You're supposed to be the smart one!" Daniel accused with a roll of his eyes. He folded his arms and was a bit ashamed at the fact that he felt as though his sister was too much of an amateur for this kind of hijinks.
"I am! Unlike you, I didn't do it for just a stupid prank!" his sister snapped at him, brow furrowed and face obviously flustered. Her reaction startled Daniel enough to stun him, allowing her to stomp away to her room without much of a fight.
"Wait! Get back here!" the man demanded, following after her. "Sam-!"
Without another word from her, the girl slammed the door in her brother's face and locked it. It almost hit the older Westley's nose, but fortunately he was able to react fast enough to miss. He was shocked by his sister's strong reaction and had expected. He wasn't sure what he was hoping for, but as he thought about it, he hadn't accounted for the girl's strong will.
Samantha had been making her own rules for years and sneaking around Nathan's when he was around. They were typically good rules, however, that kept the household up and running. Their mother had no idea that the maid had quit a long time ago, and that Samantha was cleaning the house and taking the money. That, however, stopped when she moved in with Daniel. Now Daniel was trying to be a parent to her, when that's not what she wanted.
"Sam, come out of there!" Daniel instructed, only to be met with silence. He jiggled the doorhandle and called for her several times, only to not get a single response. Eventually, however, he checked his watch and realised that he needed to get back to work.
"I need to go. We'll talk about this later." the man said, receiving the same lack of answer he had been getting for the last fifteen minutes. It worried him. It stayed with him the entire drive back to Gehenna.
He continued to think about it during work, and had this worried feeling in the back of his mind for the rest of the day. Even while talking to clients. There was no other option but to bear with it just a little longer. During break, he did discuss it with his coworkers. The women who worked at the front desk also had siblings, so they had a bit to say.
"Sounds like you were being a jerk." bluntly said the ruthless Forsetti. The Elf leaned against the wall in the break room while the others sat down nearby.
"Huh?"
"I think what she's trying to say is that you were a little hostile." answered Helen, the succubus who worked closely with her at the front desk. "You didn't give her a chance to explain herself. She says she had a reason for doing it, didn't she?"
"Well… Yeah, but I just figured it was a prank." Daniel answered confusedly.
"You said she's not the kind to do that, though, and neither are her friends." said Sybil. "It doesn't add up."
"I just don't know what else to think about it..." the man said.
"Maybe try thinking of it from her perspective." suggested Helen. "That's what I did for Logan and Elvis."
"You know my sister, Dan?" asked Forsetti.
"The police chief?" answered the Westley with a question. "Yeah. I hear she's really nice."
"Do you think that we've never fought over stuff? When she started living with me, she got into some stuff a few times. Sometimes, it was bad." Began the elf. "In the beginning, I tried to be a parent and scold her without really listening to why. I figured that because I'm the oldest, I'm in charge and nothing else matters, but she only resented me for it." Daniel looked down at his hands, but said nothing, inviting the woman to finish what she was going to say.
"The thing is, she was going through some stuff that I had no idea about. She didn't feel safe talking to me about it anymore because of what I did. It was only when I tried talking to her- actually talking to her like a person, did things get better." she said. "I didn't sound like someone who was actually there for her anymore. I was just there to discipline her, not to help her. If your sister really is the kind of person you say she is, she's probably got something going on. It sounded like she wanted to tell you, too, but you were too busy trying to be a big-man to listen."
"Shit…" Daniel let out, shaking his head. Forsetti was right. He needed to fix this.
The rest of his shift was spent thinking about how he was going to do so, playing out various scenarios in his head as to how this was going to work. Even as the day ended and he stepped into his car, he was accounting for things like whether she was out of her room or not yet and how mad she was. He might even have to wait it out until the next day.
He walked slowly into the house, trying to make as little noise as possible. If his sister was still out, he didn't want to scare her off. Daniel was behaving as though he was dealing with a wild animal, but given his knowledge on how to handle the situation, he might as well have been.
Sure enough, Samantha was sitting in the living room, changed out of her uniform and into more comfortable clothes. She was sitting on the couch watching TV rather contently, but noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. They flickered over to her brother, taking in a good glance at him before turning back to the television.
"Hey..." Daniel greeted.
"Hey."
The man wasn't sure at all about how to start this conversation. Not matter what he thought of, all of it just sounded so awkward. There was no smooth progression. There was just diving right into things. Fortunately, that is what Daniel did best.
"Sam, I'm sorr-"
"I know." Samantha interrupted, keeping her eyes on the screen. "You're just trying to be a parent when you're not."
"How did you know?"
"I did some thinking while I was cooling off, too." she explained. "I'm guessing that's what you did?"
"Yeah..." the man replied, walking over to the girl and taking a seat next to her. "I did. I'm sorry for not listening to you."
"You better be." harshly replied his sister. "I didn't break into coach Ainsley's office for nothing, you know. I had a very good reason."
"What reason is that?" Daniel questioned, prompting his sibling to sigh.
"Gathering evidence." Samantha replied. "I was hoping to find his phone. There's probably damning texts and pictures on it."
"What for?" the other asked further. "What are you trying to prove?"
"Well, one of the second years got pregnant, y'see." The Westley girl continued. "She didn't say who it was, but she's been going in and out of his office on a regular basis. Other girls have done the same."
"Okay? And?"
"And he's super-creepy. He keeps making excuses to go into the girls' changing room after gym. He's got all kinds of nasty rumours surroundin' him, so we were trying to see if it was legit."
"He watches you change?!" demanded Daniel, standing up abruptly.
"Not me. Other girls." Samantha clarified, noting the panic on her sibling's face. "He would if he could, though. Geraldine and I have taken to wearing our gym clothes under our uniforms and the trend is catching on fast. He always makes up some excuse to come in there, but we all think it's creepy."
"Good! Listen to your creep-senses! They're there for a reason!" the older sibling said. Sitting back down, he grabbed Samantha's hand and held it tightly. "You tell me if anybody tips you off like that, okay? I'm going to call the bloody school and complain!"
"Probably won't do any good." the girl said as her brother stood up again and reached for his phone. "From the sounds of it, these rumours have been around for a while and the school hasn't done anything."
"I'm not going to call the school first." Daniel replied, looking over his shoulder at her with a cocky smile. His contact list was open on the phone's screen and he was going over the chain of communication in his group of friends. "It might not seem like it, but your big brother knows people. Those people know people, too. Geraldine is in on it too, isn't she? I highly doubt Sir Midford is going to like this, and the social elite of Britain isn't, either!"
Slowly, a wide grin spread across the Westley girl's face as she watched Daniel dial the phone with such a serious expression. Even though he wasn't always the most knowledgeable, and even though he wasn't the most perceptive, he was a good guy, despite his many faults. Although he wasn't quick to get it, once he was aware of such a serious problem, he was quick to do something about it. His brashness came in handy, sometimes. Daniel wasn't keen on subtlety, and in this situation, it was his greatest weapon.
"I have the best big brother." Samantha said aloud, alerting him that he was doing a good job.
"Damn straight, I am." Daniel replied. Although his back was turned to her, it was obvious just how much that meant to him.
A/N: At least I THINK the coach's name was "Ainsley" in DLTD... I didn't look it up. Watch me totally be wrong... It started with an "A" and ended in a "Y", so close enough.
The Westley Siblings... They're not very similar, I don't think, but they still get along really well, normally. My brother an I get told that a lot. "You get along really well for siblings." I don't really know how other siblings act around each other, but apparently that's not normal? Sure, we fight sometimes, but we talk about it later after everybody's calmed down and it gets fixed.
I don't have this problem with him, though, so I don't know how accurately it was portrayed... It concerns me...
Samantha is mature for her age. Sometimes, it's too much for her own good. The reason why she didn't share her plan with Dan was because she tries to be completely self-sufficient. While this is possible, sometimes people need outside help. It happens.
I run into that problem sometimes actually... Usually while I'm bleeding? "Why didn't you ask for a first aid kit?!" I didn't wanna bother anyone. I had duct tape and a paper towel. I handled it.
Ah, sculpture class...
Anyway, I don't think I made that evident in the actual chapter... I just moved things really quickly in general. I was struggling with this one a bit. Don't know why.
I think I'm gonna go back to the duo next chapter. I want them back. I miss them. It's been so long. Three chapters. The horror...
Lots of questions about those two and their condom use. It's funny. I like questions like that; they're always fun to answer.
Oh, and it did say in DLTD earlier that they don't use them... often. They don't use them often, but they use them, so yeah, you were right in a way. Ciel is a perv.
Until the next chapter, my duckies~!
