𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 ━ shawn hunter¹

11│THE FATHER/SON GAME

The bell rang to signal the end of class. "I'm out!" the boy called without a moment's pause.

🌎🌎🌎

"Parents don't understand how important the weekend is, you know?" Cory asked as the three of them sat down to lunch.

"Yeah. Like there's enough not enough pressure on us being in the sixth grade all week," Shawn agreed.

"I don't know how you're gonna cope when we get to high school," Juliet commented as she opened her package of Oreos.

"And then they want us to do stuff on our only days off," Cory said, rolling his eyes at the redhead's sarcasm.

"Only three days 'til Monday," Minkus said cheerfully as he set his tray down opposite Shawn.

"Minkus, I'm sure that if you check your ticket stub, you'll see that your seat is in the goon section," the dark-haired boy told him.

Juliet immediately poked her friend's side. "Be nice!"

"Don't worry, my sweet," Minkus said. "I'm just leaving my tray here for a minute while I get an apple."

"Bye, Minkus," Shawn said. His eyes narrowed at the boy as he left.

"I mean, my weekends are jam-packed. I have no spare time." Cory was still whining about his problem but neither of his friends were paying attention.

Shawn's gaze was fixed on Minkus' hamburger while Juliet was focused on separating the icing from her cookies.

"Don't do it, Shawnie. You know it's gonna backfire on you," the redhead said before the boy even spoke.

"Minkus left his hamburger here," Shawn argued, almost pleadingly. "It's very hard for me to be left alone with Minkus' hamburger."

"I get up Saturday morning and watch X-men," Cory was still saying. "My next stop is the comic book store."

"Especially when it's just sitting there, begging for more salt."

Juliet rolled her eyes as he uncapped the saltshaker and opened the hamburger to pour it on top. "You're asalting the poor thing, Shawnie. Let it be."

"Then in the afternoon, I hang out with you guys," Cory said as Juliet's pun went unacknowledged.

"I don't know if it's a personality disorder with me or what."

"I'm totally gonna say 'I told you so' on this one," the redhead told him.

"Then it's home for Saturday night pizza night."

"But I'm never happy unless I'm doing stuff like this," Shawn said as he looked for something else to put on the burger.

Deciding to prank her friend, Juliet pointed to his pudding cup, to which he shot her a pleased smile. As he slathered the stuff on the burger, Cory was finishing up his schedule: "and then it's four hours of video games and it's a good night."

The redhead passed Shawn the bare cookies from her Oreos.

"I don't just mean a little happy," he continued as he took them from her.

"Where's a spare minute?"

"I mean, I'll have this moment and know it was a good day," Shawn grinned as he replaced the top bun and popped one of the cookies into his mouth.

"I can't take the pressure of the father-son softball game." Cory finally got to his point.

"Oh, I hate those," Shawn agreed, finally paying attention to something else besides Minkus' food.