A Touching Scene: Part I

It was on their Dad's special day when Dark and Weiner heard that they were to take swimming lessons.

“What?!” Dark expressed his contempt for the idea by stamping on the front seat of the car, while Weiner merely spat out her Sprite in surprise. "Why?"

“Dark," Weiner mouthed. As his older sister, she was determined to keep him from ruining their Dad's birthday. She gestured for him to shut up. Guess what? He didn't get the message.

“Dad, when was this decided?” he demanded with an almost fierce expression on his face. Weiner hoped that he wouldn't pester their Dad on like this, but she was disappointed once again.

Dad merely yawned widely, and took a careless glance at his cell phone. It didn't occur to Weiner that he was stalling, at least not until he took a sideways glance at her and winked.

“So, kids, you'll be in a big class for 8 year olds with two swimming coaches,” he started off. Bad start. Dark looked as if he could barely suppress himself from leaping out of his seat. Weiner, too, squirmed with indignation.

"Dad, we're not kids anymore," Dark snarled. "I'm 15, for Christ's sake! And Weiner is 17, about to head off to college. So we're NOT looking forward to attending swimming classes with a whole bunch of little kids."

Silence once again. When their dad finally spoke, his voice was much softer. "I thought you two would be happy."

"You must've thought wrong then," proclaimed Dark. He twisted himself to an awkward angle where his dad was unable to look at his face.

Typical teenagers. Weiner felt this urge to kick her younger brother, but restrained it. What was the use anyway?

"But I can tell you why you'll be attending," the older man said hastily, looking determined to win over his kids' approval. "There are two very good reasons why."

"They better be good," growled Dark, but he turned back to listen to his dad.

Their dad immediately launched into a discussion about asthma and how it was harmful. The two teens listened, with a grunt and a nod every now and then. Weiner was getting impatient for her dad to get to the point, and judging from the bored expression on Dark's face, he was too.

“So?” Dark finally asked. "What's that supposed to mean? What does swimming have to do with asthma?"

At that moment, the car skidded to a sudden stop. The family had already arrived at the house, but the father turned to look at Dark in the eyes.

Using this time to attack, Dad retorted, “Don’t make a decision you will regret, Dark. Once you turn sixteen, you’ll have no chance to get rid of asthma. This year is the only chance you'll ever have. Take advantage of this summer!" His final tone had a much happier tone to it, and perhaps that was the reason why Dark had a countenance that could shoot daggers out of it.

"No way!" Dark jumped out of the car so quickly that for a very scary moment there, Weiner actually felt one half of the car tilt in one direction.

"No way," he repeated, anger darkening his usually handsome face. "Don't you dare force me to go swim with a bunch of little kiddys! I haven't had an asthma attack for two years, and even if I did have one, I could care less! That's not important in my life!"

And with that, Weiner watched as her 15 year-old brother sprinted across the lawn, back into the safety of their house. She turned away, unable to endure her father's pleading eyes, and sighed.

"I know what you're asking me to do," Weiner said aloud. It wasn't easy to understand who she was talking to. "And my answer is no."

She left her dad back in the car, all by himself.

Author's Note: A very odd story to make, I know. But it was floating around on the top of my head, so I thought, "What the heck?" and just wrote it out. Feel free to look over with a critical eye!