Survival Of The Fittest

Parents? She had to talk about her parents?

Words were not enough to describe Amy and Thomas Peters. If Rena was being brutally honest, she would say that her parents were work-centered, too busy being high profile lawyers to bother with their own children. Which did always bring up the question of why two lawyers would even have five children in the first place.

Amy did deserve, if anything, some sort of award for at least attempting to pretend she cared. She was always offering the head nod, or the slightly under her breath "mmmhmmm", or the occasional half-hearted "Oh that's just awful dear." But mostly all she had to offer was "Maybe you should talk to Clara dear, I'm really busy with this." Still, it was more than her father had ever offered, which was, at best a small grunt every 15 minutes or so, and at worst complete lack of awareness that anyone was talking to him at all.

With parents like that, it had always been a challenge to get noticed. Clara was naturally smart, and, being the oldest, took the most responsibility. Jake had always thought that acting out would get him noticed, and once he realized it didn't, he continued to act that way towards Rena, in some attempt to get noticed. It never worked. Ryan had long since given up on trying to get his parents to notice him, and focused on getting Jake to notice him, which worked well in his favor. And Daisy was overdramatic, throwing tantrums, having fits, claiming she was dying, and even, at one point, attempting to starve herself. Haircuts, dye jobs, questionable boyfriends, bad grades, detentions, suspensions, and dramatic lifestyle and wardrobe changes were all commonplace when it came to Daisy. She never got in trouble for it though. She was officially diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and she always hid behind it, even if there was no way she could blame her actions on it.

And, while Daisy did get some attention, it was just never enough.

As for Rena, she took the passive-aggressive route, sinking within herself and just waiting for the day when her parents actually had a real, sitdown dinner and asked her how her day went.

She had been waiting for that for 17 years.

But she could barely think that, much let say it aloud. But what else could she say? How else could she sum up her parents without sounding rude.

"They're...uh...lawyers." She figured Harun could take from this what he pleased. "What about yours?"

Lawyers, eh?

Resisting the urge to make a corny lawyer joke, Harun wondered what it must be like to have BOTH parents as lawyers. From what he'd heard from a friend, lawyers were extremely demanding but also extremely distant parents, which made sense, considering their high-brow and time-consuming occupation. Of course, there would be exceptions, so Harun tried not to make any assumptions about Mr and Mrs Peters. He hadn't seen any proper evidence that made them fit the stereotypes or his friend's experiences.

Now...his parents. "Well, my mum works as a computer technician, and my dad is a zookeeper." Yep. Now that Harun thought about it....that work accident involving a cougar Ibrahim Kemal had had when Harun was just a kid was probably the real reason Harun was an only child. Now that he thought about it, his father may very well have been left infertile by that. He'd have to grill his parents about that incident over dinner. Oh, what a wonderfully awkward conversation that would be. Harun grinned to himself thinking about it.

"They're good people", Harun continued, which was true. They were good people. They took care of Harun well, loved each other, helped charity work, tried to be devout Muslims and were friendly and helpful in general. "Not without flaws, however, but everyone has flaws." Which was also true; he decided he'd leave Rena to fill in the gaps. His mother was nosy and preachy, his father was hypocritical and a bit of a couch potato. And he sometimes found their (at times hypocritical) devotion to Islam and Turkey grating and annoying.

He ended his answer there, hoping Rena would find a good way to continue the conversation.

Zookeeper?

Rena had always figure someone had to do that, but had never met anyone who actually knew one. How very strange. Being raised by lawyers, Rena was always taught about the "important" jobs; lawyer, doctor, teacher. Never had she considered a zookeeper.

After a second of thought, she decided it was not a job that was well suited for her.

She felt a slight sting of jealousy at Harun's comment that his parents "were good people". She wondered if her parents were good people. Upstanding citizens, philanthropists, good Samaritans; yes. But what made a person good? Wasn't being a good parent a part of that.

She didn't really want to dwell on the thought that her parents might not actually be good people, and instead decided to forge onward on the conversation.

"So I know you listen to music...what else do you do?"

"So I know you listen to music...what else do you do?"

"Well", he bit his lip, trying to think. A lot of internet stuff. Roleplaying forums, political forums, whatever he felt like. "Internet", he said, summing it all up nicely, without unnecessary detail. "Writing", he continued. He liked writing. He'd tried writing a few novels a few times, but always gave up when he hit writer's block. He remembered playing this game...Tropico, when he was, like, 10, 11, 12, and it giving him an idea to write a murder mystery and political thriller set in a fictional banana republic. Considering his age and writing skill at the time, it weren't very good (or, as his mother put it, "it's an interesting idea, and good for your age") but he got to 40 pages on that book.

Talking about Tropico, he liked computer and video games as well, and politics too, and added them to the list.

That was his list of major interests. "So, yeah, politics, internet, video games and writing", he said, repeating them for no real reason. "Oh, and reading's pretty cool too, I guess. What do you do?"

"Ballet" was her immediate response. Of all the things she did, it was no doubt the one that best suited her. It was graceful, elegant, and required precision. Everything Rena lacked in social skills she made up for by dancing.

"And Chess." Chess was a close second. She was good at it, the strategy and surveying. The fact that you needed to make every move count. It was what she thought mattered. Making everything count, knowing exactly what your opponent was going to do.

"Politics, eh? I was never good with political stuff. Too much arguing and debating and circling around. How do you manage with all that...chaos?"

"Ballet and chess." Harun weren't into either of these things. He could understand the appeal, but neither one was a hobby for him. Ballet just didn't interest him at all, and if it did, the teasing would put him off it. And chess. He'd tried getting into chess at least twice. But he'd never gotten the hang of the rules, so he'd just ignored it.

"Politics, eh? I was never good with political stuff. Too much arguing and debating and circling around. How do you manage with all that...chaos?"

"It's not really the debating and such I'm into", Harun said "I mean, I do do some of that, but it's mainly just following politics and government, learning about it, that interests me."

Politics...it was like law. It was all fights, and research. Rena would never enjoy it, she figured. It seemed ridiculous.

It took her a second to realize that she needed to say something to continue the conversation. She thought, her mind racing with things she could say and coming up surprisingly blank. "Um.." There was a slight pause that she hoped wasn't awkward. A deep feeling in her gut told her to say something, say anything for God's sake.

"So, I guess you like English then, cause of the writing? What books do you read?"

Well that sounded stupid. It sounded like a question an eight year old asked. But the words were out of Rena's mouth, and she couldn't think of a follow up. So she stopped talking and prayed to God that he just answered the question without laughing, or looking at her weird, or rolling his eyes.

It was probably too much to ask, now that she thought about it. For her, anyways.

"So, I guess you like English then, cause of the writing? What books do you read?"

Harun shrugged. "Whatever, really. Literally everything I feel like. George Orwell, Harry Potter, comics, whatever kind of book I feel like at the mo." That was the honest answer. Harun preferred more gritty and intelligent books to be honest, but as long as the books he read weren't full of boring or bullshit, he didn't care. Unfortunately, most of the books in the library fitted comfortably into one of those two categories. Exceptions, obviously, but he'd read most of those exceptions over time.

"Do you read any books?"

Books.

It wasn't like Rena didn't read. She did. Quite a bit. More than she watched TV, or spent time with her family, or any of that.

It was just that she like reading books that were very...substance free. Happy, lighthearted romantic comedy novels; pretty much anything where nothing too serious was on the line, and where nothing super dangerous happened. It was safe. Contained. She liked that.

But she knew who George Orwell was. It was hard to be a senior in high school and have never heard of him. She knew he was a political writer. And she knew Harry Potter, and that many, many, many people dies in those books. Comic books could be gritty. She figured Harun would be the type of boy to read what her brother Jake read; books like Lord of the Flies, where everything was dark and cynical, and layered thick with hard to understand motivations, stakes, and "pulse-pounding action."

And frankly, Rena knew that next to that, Confessions of Shopaholic sounded slightly less interesting.

So she did the only thing she knew how to do in a situation like this.

She lied through her pearly white teeth.

"No...not really. Too busy."

She could hear her voice waver on "not". Certain that he noticed, Rena pushed forward to continue the conversation.

"Books, Music....looks like all that's left is TV, huh?"

"No...not really. Too busy."

Harun dedicated a hint of hesitation in her voice, and suspected she did read from time to time, more than she let on anyway. Rena was in the library, anyway, and she did seem the bookish type...

"Books, Music....looks like all that's left is TV, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess. Well, aside from video games, but yeah..." TV wasn't really Harun's thing. He loved some shows (comedy in particular), but some, especially the political commentator shows. They were just bullshit. If the Democrats saved the world from an alien invasion, Beck and such would still hate them; if the Republicans did the same, Olbermann and such would be just as grateful.

And he really hated all those Lifetime movies and conspiracy theory programmes and....well, he hated a lot of TV shows.

"I hate a lot of the things on TV to be honest, political commentators especially. But yeah, some of the stuff on TV is pretty good."

To be brutally honest, Harun preferred to play games or read than watch TV, but meh.

Rena felt herself breathe a near audible sigh of relief when he said he hated most of the stuff on TV. She didn't watch it herself, honestly. Especially not the shows her family watched. Those trashy reality shows, where unrealistically awful people get together and do nothing but whine and drink were pretty much all her mother and Daisy watched.

And her brothers were into crime shows. The gore that made Rena feel like passing out even when she just thought about it. She shoved the thoughts and nausea away.

"Yeah, I'm not that much into TV either. Most of it's really horrid." She let out a light laugh. Of course, it was still on her to continue the conversation. She paused for a second to think about what he had said only a few moments ago.

"So, you said video games? I think I can honestly say I've never played a video game in my entire life."

She knew what was popular. There were the games with the red guy, where he hopped around a screen chasing a dinosaur. Or...maybe he was friends with the dinosaur? She thought she saw them playing tennis one time, during the commercials for the news.

And then there were the shoot-em-up games her brother played. The mega violent ones that she chose to ignore. Most of them were about aliens. One was about an alien trying to get an angel or something. And the other was about...something very hard to comprehend. What had Jake said? It was about the captain trying to stop the total destruction of all humans? Something like that. Frankly, all of them started to blend together in Rena's mind.

"Yeah, I don't think I've ever played one before. I guess that makes me lame, huh?"

Crap. Great way to make yourself look like and idiot Rena. Just go around insulting yourself. Way to show self confidence. She bit her lit slightly. She knew she should say something, but quickly decided that a much safer alternative was to shut up. He would respond, she told herself. And if he didn't...well, then maybe she would just run away. Much safer that way.

"Yeah, I'm not that much into TV either. Most of it's really horrid."

Harun was glad to hear that. It would have been awkward if she was one of those couch potatoes who lived on a diet of chips and reality TV, or one of those fanatics who believed everything the political commentators said. Rena didn't seem to be like that (how many fanatics or couch potatoes do ballet?) but you could never be too sure.

"So, you said video games? I think I can honestly say I've never played a video game in my entire life."

Harun was used to people saying that, but he still could not grasp how it was humanely possible.

Wait, not even one of those casual games like on the Wii or something like The Sims? Harun swore everyone under the age of 40 in America had played one of those, at least once.

"Yeah, I don't think I've ever played one before. I guess that makes me lame, huh?"

Harun quickly opened his mouth to reassure her. "No, no, no, it doesn't. Seriously. I mean, I can't see how you can survive without games personally, but yeah. Matter of taste really."

"But, you gotta have played one game. Like a Wii game, or the Sims, or something like that?"

"But, you gotta have played one game. Like a Wii game, or the Sims, or something like that?"

Rena thought about this for a moment. She had honestly no idea what a Wii was, but she was pretty sure her brothers didn't own that one. No, they had a black...box thing, and white thing CALLED a box, even thought it really wasn't all that box shaped at all, come to think of it.

And as for the Sims, she thought Clara had once tried to get her to play that, but she found it simply boring. It was a weird thing where you control and raise people to go through the motions of a mundane life. It was real life, only poorly animated. But no, she had never really played it.

She thought for a moment over what exactly she was going to say. Should she just up and admit that she had never played a game in her life? Or would that destroy any image Harun had of her in his mind? But lying was bad, she couldn't lie and pretend to hold up a conversation based entirely on something she knew virtually nothing about!

"I've played Solitaire! And...minesweeper?" It came out more sheepish than she had intended, but it was all she had. She felt very very silly all of the sudden, and felt her cheeks go hot. She was pathetic. What a surprise.

"I've played Solitaire! And...minesweeper?"

Harun couldn't help but chuckle at this. They weren't videogames, more like....well, just games that were there to mindlessly past time. Poor girl. She obviously had no experience with video games whatsoever, but videogames weren't to everyones tastes anyway. Harun felt sorry she'd missed out completely, but meh, he had enough people to discuss videogames with anyway, and if she didn't like them, he wouldn't push the subject.

Then again, Harun had no idea how to play solitaire (or any card games, bar snap and poker) and he sucked at minesweeper, despite his dad having an obsession with both of those games.

"Heh. Yeah. I wouldn't really say they're video games, but, meh. Games aren't for everyone." Harun stopped talking briefly, glancing at the desk only to see Ms. Collins had just returned, and was dealing with a younger student who had gone over there while he and Rena had been talking. "Yeah...erm....you ever travelled? Like holidays and stuff?"

Harun weren't that good at finding ways to continue a conversation with a person he'd just met.

Rena wondered if, for a moment, he was laughing at her. It was a small, nagging thought; the kind that nipped at the back of your head, buzzing around like a mosquito. She tried to push it away, as she always did, telling herself that he simply found it funny that she hadn't played video games before.

But the thought still buzzed.

She didn't have the heart to tell Harun that she didn't even really play Solitaire or Minesweeper outside of times when she was desperately trying to avoid doing her homework. She thought it better to let him think that she did play some games. Besides, she probably would have died of embarrassment had he ever learned that.

"Yeah...erm....you ever travelled? Like holidays and stuff?"

Despite having always wanted to go to France, Rena had never once stepped foot outside of America. And here she was, talking to someone who probably spent every holiday somewhere cool and exciting. She smiled a little larger than she usually did, trying to appear more calm than she was. She felt nerves slink up her spine, and that nagging voice telling her that he was laughing at her and how pathetic she was got slightly louder.

"I've been to Seattle, once. And Chicago, and a couple national parks." She'd been to Yosemite. Which wasn't really a couple. But, as far as Rena was concerned, that didn't really matter. "How about you?"

As if she didn't already know that his answer was going to make her look small and pale and pathetic in comparison.