#cs:ps003

It should be the recipe for a great night--him and Parker on the same team, both of their parents are here to watch them play, and it’s his birthday week too. But it’s hard to appreciate it when they just lost for the third time when they were so close this time, and now the two of them have to pretend like they haven’t been speaking for the past few weeks for their parent’s sake. Charlie doesn’t want to spend their parent’s visit fighting, especially when it’s such a big deal for them to take off work and drive so far, but it’s beyond frustrating that Parker put on the team player act tonight, so if he does anything but act civil he’ll look like an asshole.

It’s hard to stay present in the conversation when he’s replaying the whole game in his head, from Indigo’s red card to Jasper missing that final goal. He can’t control anyone but himself, which is his age old mantra that he has to tell himself at least once a day, but he can’t help but feel partly responsible. Indigo’s a striker now, but at one point they were both under his guidance. Maybe if he convinced her to stay in the goal, away from the action, maybe if he did a better job at amping up Jasper, or maybe if he dedicated more time to work with River, who’s still new. He’s not exactly a shining example for the potential captain right now.

“It was fun to watch you to play together again,” His mom announces, forcing him to stop staring daggers into his pancakes, “I know you wanted to win, but I was just happy to see you both out there.” Charlie’s pretty sure she means that she’s just happy to see Parker following the law, while he keeps an eye on her, but he’s not going to argue. He is glad she’s here, even if he’s spent the last few weeks wondering if it’s worth the risk. 

“Parker scored our only goal our first game,” Charlie signs and speaks at the same time, knowing that his sister probably missed having the option to sign lately. Although, the other day Sterling tried to sign something to him, so he’s thinks she found a creative way to make up for it...unless he’s teaching himself bad ASL.