꧁꧂
ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴏɴᴇ: ꜱɪᴛᴛɪɴ' ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀᴄᴋꜱᴇᴀᴛ
"LUCAS? PARK? DO YOU COPY?" Hearing Dustin's voice from the radio I groaned, picking it up from the other end of the bed and listening. "I've got four quarters. What's your haul?"
Smirking down at the money in my hands, I pressed the button on its side and spoke. "Double that shit, over." I told him proudly before Lucas spoke up.
"Take your puny haul of four and multiply it by five." The other boy said. Bitch.
"How?" I could hear the disbelief from Dustin.
"While you guys were scrounging around like a homeless bum, I mowed Old Man Humphrey's lawn." Lucas explained, causing me to pull a face.
"Old Man Humphrey?" Dustin repeated in shock.
"He's still alive?" I added on the question. I haven't seen him in a while, okay? I assume shit.
"Just call Mike already." Lucas told us.
"You call Mike." I say, pulling a face.
"I have to go take a shower from doing real work, like a man." Rolling my eyes, I saw Will at my bedroom door, listening in, laughing at the expression I had on show. "Over and out."
"That bitch." I say, radio on for Dustin to also hear and laugh at. "You find Mike." I tell him after a moment of seeing the look on Will's face. "I get the feeling Mom is about to kill me for finding out where I got the money..."
As the boy chuckled again, he asked where. "Nowhere for you to worry about. Over and out" (Johnathan's wallet) as I finished my sentence, I dropped the radio onto the bed and pushed the antenna down. "Hey horse, why the long face?" I asked my brother, still at the door.
"Mom's still not sure about us going tonight." Will said, reluctant to even say it. Sighing at his words, he smiled at my exhausted ways. "I tried talking to her, Park." He always tried his best, really, but I got the feeling Will thought he wasn't enough for others. He was enough.
"It's fine." I smiled, holding back any uncalled-for words for my brother to hear as I stood up from my bed. "MOM?" I called for her from the other side of the house, no interests of actually moving any further from my room's door frame.
"PARK, IF THIS IS ABOUT-" Before Joyce could even finish her sentence, I cut in with my lovely sense of humor.
"WE'RE NOT DOING DRUGS, DON'T WORRY." I say, giving Will a little smirk, while he still looked nervous. It didn't make that much sense to me; how Will and I can be twins, but act and feel almost the opposite.
"PARK!" My mother shouted my name like it was a curse as she started towards where the two of us stood, angry look for me. "Do not joke about that." She told me, now giving me a stern warning, pointing a singular finger at me. Oh, shiver me timbers. "If Will is going to go, you have to be with him the whole time..." Picking up the jacket off my chair, I nodded as she listed on, and on, what I had to do if we were to go arcade. "And Park? You can't let him out of your sight-"
Pulling a face at Mom, I argued. "You're treating him like a toddler." I told her, making Joyce sigh while Will just stood there, desperate to try and beat my score on Pac-Man like he has for the last three months. "We'll be fine, I'll glue him to my hip or something." As I spoke to Mom, I gestured for Will to book it towards the door.
"Where'd you get your money?" Joyce asked after a moment of silence, with Will slowly walking down the hallway, trying to pretend he was still listening.
"Uh..." I thought. "Johnathan let me borrow it." I say, nodding.
Mom gave me an expression telling me just where I could take my lie of the day. She nodded, with both eyebrows raised as the two of us walked closer and closer to the door before she called out, again. "I'll drive you both!"
God, what the fuck.
⊹˚˖⁺
The car ride was long with Mom still going on about every single detail, with me in the back hitting my head against Will's headrest as she did so. When she did stop, finally not at a traffic light, but at the arcade, she turned to me.
"Okay, so I'll pick you up in two hours." She began, filling me in like she hadn't just said it all. "That's nine O'clock, on the dot, okay?" The boy sat in front of me was getting more and more excited as she spoke, both of us nodding vigorously.
"Okay! Okay." I said, smiling at her.
"If anything happens, if you need to come home, just ask them to use their phone and call home." She repeated... Again. Smiling at her nervous and anxious ways I dismissed it. "Okay?"
"Yes, of course-" Before Will can get out, she turns to him.
"Don't-" My twin's head turned quickly to our mother.
"Don't walk or bike home." He finished the woman's sentence. "I know." As Will went to open the door once again, Mom stopped him, and I was ready to start throwing shit.
"Okay, but, sweetie-" As Joyce turned him back I glared.
"Mom!" I shouted at her, smiling a little at this chaotic car ride. "We have to go." She looked over at me and then at Will.
"Have fun!" Shaking my head in disbelief, me and Will finally got out of Mom's car and waved her off, walking towards the three boys. Mom, Johnathan and I had all changed since the Upside Down situation began. And don't get me wrong, she had every right to be the anxious, nervous, paranoid and caring mother she is and always was. But she'd gone over this several times, now, and Will was getting tired of it.
⊹˚˖⁺
"To slay the dragon, use the magic sword." She pointed at the sword while the five of us watched, not knowing what we were doing with our lives at this point. We'd only seen Lucas get this far in the past, and even then, it was far too late in the evening for kids OUR age to remember. Do you really think I'd remember?
"Oh, Jesus. I'm in unchartered territory here, guys." Dustin told us from where he stood.
"DOWN, DOWN, DOWN!" The three boys shouted at them while I watched the screen, not understanding.
"I'M GOING, I'M GOING-" As the four boys shouted in unison, I apologised to a few people who were staring at the group I was friends with or passing us by, close to embarrassment. "NO- NO! NO!" My eyes darted back to the screen to see Dustin had lost. "I HATE THIS OVERPRICED BULLSHIT." He shouted, too loudly. "SON OF A BITCH! PIECE OF SHIT." He cursed it on and on, kicking the arcade game.
"You're just not nimble enough." Lucas said calmly. "But you'll get there one day. But until then," He turned back to the screen, bragging. "Princess Daphne is still mine."
"Whatever." Dustin muttered. "I'm still tops on Centipede and Dig Dug. Park's top of Pac-Man, too-"
"You sure about that?" The five of us all turned to Keith's voice. There he stood, eating his Cheetos so proudly as we watched.
"Sure about what?" Dustin asked him. We all stood there momentarily before me and Dustin practically flew across the arcade to find our scores. "You're kidding me. No, no, no-" I moved two kids out of the way as I walked towards one of the Pac-Man machines
1,528,920....... PARK
1,511,890....... MADMAX
Smirking, I felt relief take over my body before I heard Dustin from across the room. "NO, NO!" Running back over I read the screen as he wallowed in despair.
"751,300 POINTS?!" Will repeated the number as I stared.
"That's impossible." Mike muttered.
1ST 751300 MADMAX
2ND 650990 DUSTIN
3RD 641183 LUCAS
"What the fuck." I muttered, making Will nudge me. He didn't like it when I swore, but there wasn't a big vocabulary for me like there was for the other four boys. Mine was simple and to the point.
"Who is Mad Max?" Dustin asked, all of them turning to Keith.
"Better than you." He fired back and I rolled my eyes while Dustin flipped him off.
"Is it you?" Will asked him.
Keith scoffed. "You know I despise Dig Dug."
"Then who is it?" Lucas asked him.
"Whoever it is, they were close to getting my Pac-Man score, too." I muttered to them all.
"Spill it, Keith." Dustin told the guy.
"You want information, then I need something in return." He said, still eating his Cheetos as he glanced over at Mike. Oh.
When he realised, Mike's protective instincts kicked in. "No, no, no. No way." Mike said. "You're not getting a date with her." Keith pulled a face at the boy's words.
"Mike, come on." Lucas says. "Just get him the date."
"I'M NOT PROSTITUTING MY SISTER." Mike argued, blasting his voice out for the whole arcade to hear.
"BUT IT'S FOR A GOOD CAUSE!" Lucas argued, making me glare at him. He was not for real.
"No," Dustin stopped Lucas from going any further. "don't get him the date. Know what?" Dustin moved so Keith could see him better. "He's gonna spread his nasty-ass rash to your whole family."
"ACNE ISN'T A RASH," Keith argued, with thirteen-year-olds, "and it isn't contagious, you prepubescent wastoid."
"Oh? We're wastoids now?" I asked. "Trust me, Keith, she wouldn't go on a date with you by choice, or not." I told him. "You make like, what? $2.50 an hour?"
"Nice haircut." He told me and I sent him a glare. It wasn't the norm for a girl to have short hair, it was the norm for a girl to have it permed and all fuzzy that way I didn't understand.
"So original Keith, make fun of my hair-" As the argument went on, and on... and on, I began to realise that we were missing one person.
Fuck. I had one job tonight, and I couldn't even do that properly.
Glancing in one direction and the next, I slowly walked away and looked down the aisle we were just at. No Will. Panic began to settle in my chest as I paced around the arcade before I found him outside.
"WILL?" I called, and the boy turned to look at me. He had just had an episode. "Are you okay?" He let out a shaky breath, which basically told me all. Nodding, I held out a hand for him to take. "When we get home, I'll make you a hot cup of coco and we can take up the whole couch, watching whatever is on cable, okay?" He nodded, taking my hand nervously as I pulled him into a hug. He was going to have to go into the lab tomorrow, and he knew that.
"I'm fine, Park." He told me, mid hug. When I pulled away to look at him, I pulled a face, trying to determine on a scale of one to ten how false that was. Answer: VERY.
Trying to not copy his shaky breath, I patted his shoulder. "It's your turn on Dig Dug." I told him with sincere smile, and he nodded, walking towards the arcade door as I spoke. "We're gonna take top back, alright?"