The Best Friends You'll Ever Have | 20: Cavorting with the Enemy

[luxken27]

Chapter Title: 20 | Cavorting with the Enemy
Prompt: #087 – Join
Universe: Post-canon
Genre: Friendship/Romance
Rating: T
Word Count: 3,519
Summary: Charlie nodded, and grinned, and was unable to stop himself from laughing at her astonished expression. “What’s the matter, Janine?” he joked. “Can’t handle a bit of friendly competition?”

Links: FF.net | DW | LJ | AO3

Written for baseballchica03, for the 2015 fandom_stocking holiday exchange ~ because writing Charlie/Janine fic for baseballchica03's fandom stocking has practically become a tradition :D

Because it has been my tradition to write Charlie/Janine fic at the holidays, I decided to go back to universe I'd started with my 2011 Yuletide fic Chance Encounter, and then continued with 2014's Double Date. I pretty much only had to *think* about going back to this universe when suddenly my head-canon exploded, and I went on a total Charlie Thomas fic-writing tear, LOL. Sometimes my muse doesn't know when it quit :P

This fic is set approximately 6 months or so after Double Date. In my headcanon, these two had a fun, kinda casual dating relationship during the summer after the events in Double Date, and then they went back to their respective schools on their respective coasts. When they reconvene in Stoneybrook for Christmas holidays, they pick up where they left off - only they end up on two completely different planes. Janine thinks they're still in the intermediate "getting to know you"/casual dating stage, but Charlie is ready to step things up to another level and become totally committed. When he tells her this in an incredibly intense way, she completely freaks out and basically bottles it. They part company again under considerably murkier circumstances, and Janine agonizes over her dilemma.

I think this is quite in character for her. She had a boyfriend in canon, Jerry Michaels - and apparently their relationship took a few twists and turns off camera - so she's not totally naïve when it comes to romance, but she doesn't exactly have Stacey McGill levels of expertise, either. I don't know that she and Jerry ever got to the "I love you" stage, but even if they did, I have a feeling it was more on his side than hers, considering she's the one who dumped him (twice). Even then, however, she doesn't have nearly the same kind of history with Jerry as she does with Charlie - even if, in my headcanon, they weren't exactly childhood friends or playmates, they are at least aware of each other, especially after their sisters form the Baby-sitters Club and inadvertently bring them into each other's orbit.

So there's all this subconscious history that she shares with the person who's now confessing love for her (well, tbh, it's a bit more on the "lust" side of the spectrum at this point) and she doesn't know how to react. It takes her a long time to figure out how to react, and when she finally does pluck up the courage to reach out to Charlie again, he more or less makes it clear that it's her move to make - and then gives her the space to make it.

Meanwhile, picking up a bit from baseballchica03's fic (which I absolutely adore ♥) I decided that one of Janine's long-standing interests is robotics. I picked this for a couple of reasons: (1) it's from baseballchica03's work so I thought she'd get a kick out of the reference :D and (2) I knew that collegiate robotics competitions existed in some form or fashion, so it would be the perfect excuse to bring them together outside Stoneybrook and outside of summer or winter holidays.

Trying to break into the world of collegiate robotics competitions for a more or less quickly written fic was a trip, let me tell you :P I tried several things, but ultimately ended up Googling to see whether MIT and UCLA actually *had* robotics teams, and then to see which competitions they'd entered. MIT's team was easy to find, though their website doesn't appear to be up-to-date. I had better luck with UCLA's team - there is lots of information about the team itself, their adviser, and the sorts of competitions they entered regularly.

More Googling led to my ultimate choice of the Vex Robotics competition. There is a separate collegiate competition called Vex U, which is held at the same time as the middle school & high school competitions. It appears they hold the competition annually in April, and which builds up from local/regional to a truly international world championship. Perfect!

Though it appears Vex U always holds their world championships in Kentucky, I decided it was easy enough to handwave this and have it be like most competitions, rotating venues every year. And, if the competition was at UCLA, suddenly Janine didn't have an excuse NOT to talk to Charlie about what was going on between them.

She hems and haws and agonizes, but ultimately realizes that this is sort of opportunity doesn't crop up all the time - and that she needs to make a decision for herself as much as for anyone else. There is some fear and reluctance at play, but her problem is with the unknown, not with Charlie himself. She just doesn't know what to expect, and feels that she has very little control over the situation. She is not an impulsive person, but she's also not someone who cowers in fear.

Emotions are tough, man, especially when hormones come into play :P

Charlie, of course, is ecstatic that she's there and that she wants to see him. He has no reservations. I think he has a very clear vision of romantic relationships and what makes a successful partnership work, if only because he saw the devastation that his father left in his wake when he decided to up and leave. He saw what that did to his mother, and of course experienced what that did to him, as the oldest child. He became very wise and mature and responsible at a very young age, and I think as he grows older, he takes relationships of all kinds very seriously. He isn't one who easily gives up, because that's what Patrick did, and he's long vowed to be nothing like the man who abandoned him as a child.

I think that he has no problem pursuing things with Janine, if she gives him even the slightest inkling of interest. Especially after their disastrous post-New Year's lunch in Stoneybrook, he's come to understand her reticence. He didn't realize that they weren't on the same page then, but he's determined to make sure they are now. Hence the differences in their kisses here - as happy as he is to see her, he's not going to bulldoze her, considering she ran away the last time that happened :P It's not until she tells him that she wants him (if not in so many words) that he really kisses her the way he wants to, and its only then, in the aftermath, that he drops the bombshell that they will be competitors at the Vex U competition.

Him joining the RoMeLa team was another way in which he didn't give up on her. As a psychology major, he'd be waaaaaaaaay out of his depth, but as an athlete he'd have very good hand-eye coordination - and this year's Vex U competition would make *perfect* use of that skill.

And yes, I am planning to write about the competition itself, if only to resolve their bet :D

Maybe my favorite thing about these two is the fact that they *are* so different. Their differences make them interesting, in an irresistible opposites-attract kind of way, for me. It's fun to write them in serious moments and in silly moments, like their flirtatious banter about the competition at the end of this fic. They are alike in very global ways, even if it doesn't necessarily show in their chosen interests (physics vs social sciences, programming vs varsity sports). They have such different ways of looking at the world, and its refreshing to bring them together.

This is also why I don't think this pairing would really work in high school - the social strata is much more regimented, and Janine feels like a total outcast. I think they could be friends, but she'd be even more reluctant to take on the social consequences of an attempted romance with him there. At MIT, she is surrounded by her intellectual peers, and it's much easier for her to feel confident in all aspects of her life - she's not waiting to escape an unhappy place, as she seems to be when she's stuck in high school in Stoneybrook.

On a side note, I think I might've found one of - if not THE - first time(s) that this pairing was mentioned in BSC fandom. It was in the comments on one of 3_foot_6's snarks at bsc_snark in 2008, back when people still snarked books out of love instead of hate.

Rather amazing to see how far we've come from our jokey beginnings, no? =)

This fic basically opened the floodgates of my own personal headcanon for these two, which I've been inspired to serialize. Much as with Allegiance, this is going to be a non-linear post-canon continuum, so if you'd like to read it in order, check out my series index on DW or the series page on AO3.

Comments

[baseballchica03]

I love these so much.

There was an even earlier reference back in the days when the fandom was pretty active on proboards! Check it out: http://babysittersclub.proboards.com/thread/1340/charlie-sam-thomas?page=4&scrollTo=50344

But yeah, there was quite a bit of joking around before the first few fics were written. Then it got to be such a popular pairing that I'm even seeing prompts for fests that specifically ask for no Janine/Charlie!

[luxken27]

I love that you love my notes! ♥ I probably put way too much thought into these sorts of things, but I want to make my work seem authentic, if not realistic. (I mean, considering this *is* Stoneybrook, CT we're talking about, LOL!!)

Ooh, thank you for the reference!! I've poked around those boards but I guess I didn't go back far enough. 12 pages of nothing but Charlie and Sam chat? Heaven!! ♥ I'll have to go through it when I have the chance.

I couldn't believe it when I was reading 3_foot_6's snarks and saw those comments in the comment section, LOL. I knew the ship started as something of a joke, but never figured I'd stumble upon evidence of just that!

Then it got to be such a popular pairing that I'm even seeing prompts for fests that specifically ask for no Janine/Charlie!

Really?! Where is all the Charlie/Janine fic hiding, then?! Even when I wrote Chance Encounter in 2011 I had people coming out of the woodwork telling me they'd never really considered that pairing (and a couple of people saying they wanted Charlie/Janine fic but didn't ask for it so that fic was a pleasant surprise).

They are quickly beginning to outpace Sam/Stacey as my all-time BSC OTP, and that's no mean feat considering Sam/Stacey actually happened in the books (so there is more than ample material to get all swoony over :P)!!