The Runt of the Litter

Not So Fast Friends

Note: The good news? My writers block is cured. The bad news (maybe good depending on your perspective)? I'm back to writing stories that are meant to be 5k words and end up being more than 10k words. I'm also going to post a second chapter today because it's a one shot that seemed too short to fill a weekly update on its own.

This story, though, is very much centered around Anna and Claire Novak. There is a lot of interaction with the boys and Jody as well, because that's just how I roll, but the story is more about the similarities and differences between Anna and Claire. I really like Claire as a character for a lot of reasons and tried really hard to get her right in this. Let me know how I did. Anna is sixteen and Claire is eighteen.

Not So Fast Friends

Anna balanced a pretzel on her nose, one OSIRIS high top on the table in the library as she slowly tipped her chair back to balance on two legs. "You're appealing to emotions that I simply do not have," she sang along to the Fall Out Boy song playing from her phone on the table. "I've got the red carpet blues, baby." She dropped her chair forward again and just managed to catch the pretzel as it fell off her face, then reached forward to turn the volume up. "So put your hands in the air and don't make a-"

She was interrupted from her personal rock concert by the sound of Dean's phone ringing on one of the other tables in the library. Reluctantly, she turned the music down and moved toward it since she didn't hear any footsteps to indicate that either one of her brothers were on the way. "Let's see who Dean slept with last week," Anna said sardonically to herself while lifting the phone off the table. "Oh."

Accepting the call, she greeted, "Hey, Jody."

"Dean's not there?"

Anna raised both eyebrows and laughed shortly. "Gee, thanks, Jody. It's good to hear your voice too."

There was a smile in the sheriff's voice when she answered. "I'm sorry, kiddo. It's great to hear from you. But I did call your brother. He's not around?"

"I dunno. It's like four, right?"

"Six."

"Oh, then he's probably cooking. One second." Pulling the phone down and holding the speaker against her stomach so Jody's eardrums wouldn't be blown, Anna hollered as casually as possible, "DEAN!" There was an audible crash in the kitchen, which was literally about six feet and a doorway away from her, and Anna winced. "Yeah, maybe that was a little loud," she muttered to herself.

"What the hell, Anna?" Dean demanded angrily without coming to the room. Her tone had implied that there was no danger to speak of, just that she wanted something and was being an annoying little sister, so Dean probably didn't have any big brother alarms going off and instead was just pissed that she'd startled him.

Anna sighed in resignation and walked into the kitchen to bring the phone to him. Smiling sweetly as she walked in to see him wiping some sort of sauce off the front of his t-shirt. She smirked a little, but also felt a little guilty. It passed quickly. "Jody," she informed her brother, holding his phone out to him.

"And it would have been so hard to walk ten steps and then tell me that instead of yelling?" Dean said harshly and snatched his phone out of her hand. He gave her a glare of irritation before turning around to answer Jody and check whatever was on the stove. Out of curiosity, Anna leaned over his arm to try to see what it was. One pan was covered with a lid that had fogged up too much for her to see what was in it, which meant he was boiling something. The other pan on the stove was filled with red sauce. Boiling water and red sauce meant spaghetti or some other kind of pasta dish. Anna grinned at the sight and went to get a root beer from the refrigerator.