STICKS AND STONES ↝ S. HARRINGTON

[21]

"Deal!" he exclaimed, desperately.

Anna sighed as her brother continued to give her the puppy dog eyes. "Fine," she sighed, grabbing her purse from her bed and rummaging around inside until she found her coin purse, pulling out eight more quarters. "But the kitchen better be spotless."

"You got it!" he assured her excitedly as she deposited the quarters into his hand. "Thanks Anna, you're the best, love you, bye!" he yelled in a rush, disappearing as he raced out of her room and towards the front door to get his bike and meet his friends.

As Dustin left, Anna grabbed her things, bidding her mom goodbye and heading out to where her car waited in its new regular spot on the side of the road at the end of the driveway, conveniently just out of sight from the window in the living room so her family would never notice Anna's car gone in the middle of the night. When Claudia had first asked about the switch, Anna insisted it was simply easier to park on the street than in the driveway, so she never worried about her car blocking her mother's in, and to Anna's relief, Claudia agreed, not thinking twice about the switch or her daughter's potential ulterior motives.

Anna reached the Forest Hills Trailer Park, the gravel crunching under her tires as she followed the familiar path to Landon's trailer. The light was on inside, illuminating the window enough for Anna to make out three figures inside, alerting her that Becca and Michelle had already arrived. Anna parked next to Becca's car in the grass, killing the engine and grabbing the bag of chips she'd bought earlier that day for the occasion as she hurried up the steps, knocking on the door.

"You're late," Landon chided playfully as he opened the door, stepping aside to let her in. "I thought maybe we'd have to start without you."

"Arcade fund emergency," she said, waving it off as she stepped further into the living room, setting the bags of chips next to the other snacks each of them had brought for movie night that evening. "So, what are we watching?"

"I got these two from Family Video earlier today," Becca explained, holding up a VHS in each hand, one reading Children of the Corn while the other read Footloose. "Figured we'd put it to a vote."

"I voted for Children of the Corn," Landon explained. "But so far, I'm outvoted by these two for Footloose."

"Two words," Michelle retorted. "Kevin Bacon."

"Yes, thank you," Becca agreed, giving Michelle a high five.

"Alright Anna, help me out here." Landon said. "Vote with me and we tie and move onto Heads or Tails to decide, or betray me and vote with them."

Anna looked over at the tapes Becca still held onto, studying the covers of each of them. To Landon's credit, Halloween was only a few days away, and a horror movie wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, moving them into a tiebreaker game to let the fate of a quarter decide their entertainment for the evening. On the other hand... a guaranteed two hours of looking at Kevin Bacon on a screen didn't sound like such a terrible idea.

"I'm so sorry, Landon, but I think I'm going to have to vote Footloose." Anna said as Becca and Michelle began to cheer excitedly.

"Boom!" Becca exclaimed. "I knew I could count on you, Anns."

"Yeah, yeah," Landon playfully rolled his eyes as he took the Footloose tape from Becca's outstretched hand, taking it out of the case and placing it in the VCR.

Anna grabbed a can of root beer from the table along with one of the chocolate chip cookies from the container Michelle brought, leaning back on the couch as Landon got the movie ready. "So where's your mom at tonight?" Becca asked, flipping the light switch so the four of them were bathed in darkness, except for the illuminated screen of the television. "Night shift at the hospital?"