As they walked to the car in the school parking lot under a twilight sky, Jace asked, “Are you going to tell me what’s up with Wessy? And about this July 3rd party?”
Wes replied, “Don’t worry about my kid self. It’s normal. I can remember being really contemplative for the first time tonight, like I had discovered thoughts that were new to me. I think it was hitting me all at once what everyone else felt over months.”
“Well… I guess I get that. But this get-together you’re setting up…”
“It shouldn’t be a problem, Jace. I want to go out on a bang and give my old class a good time. I should still have some extra cash to blow to pay for it, too.”
“Sure, but just… putting everyone together like that, when originally…”
“Don’t worry. I planned it on my last run, right before I left—I just didn’t have the cash to fund it. Every kid’s in town, with nothing on their schedules. Some are back from a trip; others are about to leave, and no July 4th plans get ruined. Perfect day for it.”
“And it has nothing to do with a certain big movie coming out, huh?”
“That’s just a bonus. I was probably going to buy everyone a ticket to that, too.”
“Geez, how much extra money did you save up before Eddie got busted?”
Wes shrugged and open his car’s door. Once they were both seated inside and he got the air going, he replied, “I don’t really need it, bud. If I withdraw it all and bring a bunch of twenty-five-year-old bills to the present, I might draw suspicion on myself somehow. I’m well-off in 2020, anyway. So I may as well spend it on a big blowout.”
“I mean, I guess you can just rewind time and cancel it if anything really does get screwed up. It could be fun seeing the whole class at the arcade in a month.”
“We’re almost done here, Jace. Though I have a feeling Warren’s going to drop one last surprise on us before we return to the present. So… I know you told me all about what happened today during dinner, but how was school overall?”
Jace sighed. “Different in a lot of ways to our time, similar in others. I guess the experience was worth it. The pre-internet video game rumors were always fun. Oh, and I forgot to tell you. Lex, the new Dump owner… is one of Laurie’s parents.”
“That so? Huh…” Wes started the car. “I wonder if Laurie knows about that.”
“Maybe not? It’s not as if the club existed anymore by the time we went here.”
“Yeah. Shame about that. But hideouts were a generational thing, anyway.”
Jace murmured as Wes backed out, “I dunno. It would’a been fun to have one.”
The boys had given Jared the honor of hosting a celebratory sleepover that night, since he wouldn’t be going to camp with most of the others. His backyard—the very same where Sadie hid in an artificial pond almost a year ago and won her team a Bullet Water game—was now wild with overgrown grass and weeds. With Colin in the nearby old wooden play fort, the rest sat around a metal firepit toasting marshmallows. It was a clear, dark night, and quiet except for the crackling fire and a faint breeze in the trees.
“This isn’t so bad,” Zach said, his shades hanging on his collar as he blew out the flame on a sugar-pillow at the end of a twig. “See, camp would probably just be this for two weeks, minus the option for an air-conditioned interior and television.”
“I got no desire to sleep out here, trust me,” Jared said, pressing a s’more together. “This is still a nice change from the usual, though.”
“Your dad doesn’t exactly make you do any yard work, huh?” Arthur remarked and looked around at the tall grass. “Or do much of it himself, I’m guessing.”
Jared shrugged. “He’ll mow when it gets high enough and Mom gets mad. But they usually just hire a yard crew twice a year. If any of you wanna do it instead, he’ll probably pay you. But you’d have to clean up Sadie’s Pond, too.”
“Sadie’s Pond?” Zach replied with a laugh and eyed the small lily pad pool. “Is that what you’re calling it now? Man, we gotta get a water gun game in sometime soon.”
“Hey, I found Hale-Bopp again,” Colin said from the fort, where he had planted his telescope that he brought over. “You can still see the tail. Who wants a go?”
Arthur hadn’t seen it yet, so he climbed up the small wooden ladder to look.
“Nice,” he said after a moment. “It’s supposed to get a lot closer next year, right? I wonder if my dad could get a good telephoto lens so he can shoot it.”
“Wes, you’re in some kind of funk, man,” Zach said to him. “You okay?”
Tepidly chewing on a graham cracker and staring into the fire, Wessy replied, “Don’t worry about it. I just got a lot on my mind. And my dad kind of made me mad.”
“What’d he do to set you off this time? Hey, I’m no Gerald or Jason, but I know your dad better than they do. You can talk to me, it’s cool.”
Wessy slumped in his patio chair, groaning. “He congratulated me for graduating. And then he’s all like, ‘go have a good time, tomorrow you leave the kiddy stuff behind.’ Like, what the hell is he talking about? It just ruined my night. But, all this… helps.”
“You mean being out here, relaxing? Keeping any stimulation on the light side?” Zach waited for a response from Wessy, and when one didn’t come, he changed his tone a bit. “Sorry, man. I don’t hear you curse that often, so I can tell he really did upset you. But don’t let it get to ya. You know that’s what he’s like. It’s not like you’re going to wake up tomorrow and be an adult, though. We all grow at our own pace.”
“It’s the ‘kiddy stuff’ crap I don’t like, Z. He just doesn’t get any of the things I find fun to do, or buy. And… you know, I like my fun, interesting, colorful… stuff.”
“I know ya do, man. You were never gonna be the kind of kid that went with the ‘plain’ binders others brought to school. Always had, like, game or cartoon characters on all your notebooks and lunchboxes. A funky eraser on every pencil. Ah…” Zach leaned forward in his chair. “Look, Wes, I’ve been preparing for middle school. Watching the right movies and shows that take place in ‘em… I even signed up for that ‘shadow a sixth grader for a day’ thing our school did that most of us didn’t care about. I gotta be ready, you know? And, uh… I’m not trying to take your dad’s side here, but you will want to tone it down a little. You can still be you, but if you bring your race car pencil sharpener to Cookton, you’re gonna make yourself a target.”
This is actually valuable wisdom for me, too, Jace thought.
Wessy scowled at Zach for just a second, but then seemed to take his advice—or warnings—to heart and went back to just looking conflicted about everything. Jared stared at Wessy from two chairs away, but didn’t have anything to say.
“What about you, Jason?” Zach asked him. “Looking forward to Cookton?”
“Actually, I…” Jace stopped, realizing that Wessy was not in the mood to hear about a friend leaving soon. “Y-yeah, I guess. Mostly. Middle school will be different…”
“No playground. This place called a homeroom. Everyone has different classes and schedules. And there are things like the art, theater, and athletic programs… It’ll take some getting used to. But we’ll always have lunch. We’ll survive.”
Colin added from the fort, “Yeah, Wes. We’ll still have some classes together. And don’t forget, it’s not like the other sixth-graders will be older and wiser than us. Some of ‘em will still be into, er… youth-oriented things, too. If you think about it, we’ll only be a few months older than we are now. How much can we be expected to, like… mature?”
“You just gotta get things right with Jared before Cookton,” Zach suggested.
Wessy and Jared glanced at each other, neither ready for a heart-to-heart.
“Zach, I’m not clueless about middle school,” Wessy told him. “Gavin tells me about it when I hang out over there. I’d still be talking to him, but he and Vanni just haven’t been around recently. And, also… stop worrying about me and Jared.”
“But I can’t help it. Hey, you two are kind of like rivals in a few ways, sure, but you’re still good buddies first. C’mon, remember when J got Nicky Becker off your back in third grade, when he kept making fun of your looks? And Wes, you came over here and played video games with J every day when he was sick for a week last year.”
“Careful, Zach,” Arthur cautioned him from his spot up on the fort. “You didn’t see how bad it got during the blackout sleepover. Those two are tightly wound right now.”
“Yeah, I can see that, Arty. But this is the perfect time to work out some feelings, know what I mean? No more school to worry about, just us out here by the fire…”
“Zach, could you please not try to make us hug and make up?” Jared grumbled. “Isn’t it enough that we’re still hanging out together? Don’t try to force more out of us.”
“We’ll work it out on our own time,” Wessy added. “We got all summer.”
“Sure, but I don’t want you going to summer camp with a grudge, Wes,” Zach said. “If you’re not around Jared all day, you could, like, stew in your feelings.”
“Or, maybe, two weeks away from him is just what I need right now.”
“Ease up, Zach…” Arthur warned, with Colin watching on in morbid curiosity.
“All right, all right,” Zach muttered. “Tell you what. Just… sit side by side for a bit, o-or shake hands, at least. Tell the other one that they’re a buddy, how about that?”
Jared winced. “Z, you’re good at a lot of things. This, maybe not so much.”
“I just don’t like bad blood in our group, dude! I don’t want to live under the threat of things breaking apart. We’re supposed to keep things real cool, remember?”
Wessy crossed his arms and glared at Jared, who shot up from his chair and exclaimed, “Feuds happen among friends and family, Z! For once, stop… trying to control everything! Geez, man! That’s one of the reasons I got upset at Wes!”
“Whoa, Jared, I… I, uh…” Zach was at a loss for words, and Colin and Arthur seemed surprised that he, of all kids, would ever get yelled at by anyone. “Sorry, man.”
“Just forget it. Look, you guys do what you want. I’m going inside. Jason…” He turned to him and exhaled. “Can I talk to you in my room for a minute?”
Jace obliged and walked into Jared’s smallish house with him, passing through the living room first where the sleeping bags were waiting around the smallish TV set. Jared’s room was also smallish, barely able to fit another two sleepers on its floor, so like the past sleepovers Jace had at the house—all two of them over the year—they would be snoozing elsewhere. Though Jared’s room wasn’t big, it wasn’t spartan like Wessy’s place at his dad’s. He had a tiny TV of his own, wall posters mostly for music albums and movies, and shelves loaded with old games and secondhand or knock-off toys.
“Jason, you’ve been a reliable friend to us since we met,” Jared said after closing his door. “Even if I’ve known you the least amount of time… Well, maybe that’s actually a good thing, you having less history with the others. And you’re good at secret-keeping.”
“Compared to how we started, um, thanks, Jared. So, what’s up?”
“Look, this will sound a little weird, and I’m going to share something I’m just not ready to with the guys. When you go to camp… Keep an eye on Wes and Sadie for me, okay? I get it if you think I’m paranoid and should just drop it, totally, but…”
“You really think you see something the others don’t.”
Jared put his hands on Jace’s shoulders and confided, “I know I’m not as smart as Colin or Arty, or as cool as Wes and Zach. But I’m good at reading people. The others don’t appreciate that, but maybe they will by the time we’re in high school. I’ve seen it before—boy-girl friend groups can get broken apart by crushes. The two romantics go off on their own, and fracture the remaining friendships. It’s stupid, but it happens.”
“You really think so? I think it’s Celeste that Wes needs to worry about. She’s the one who, um…” how best to phrase it? “has a past with him, and might see… a future.”
“I know, I know. But she’s, like, in our ‘orbit,’ as my mom calls it; not down here with us. It’s different. If she pulls him away, he can bounce back to us. But Sadie is…”
Jace crossed his arms and hesitantly asked a big question, “J, do you like Sadie?”
“What? N-no! Not like… Not like that…” Jared breathed deep and stepped back. “Our friendship is one of debates and passionate arguments. She scolds me all the time, but I don’t even really mind. And there’s… the way she looks at me every now and then, and tells me things in private that she doesn’t tell anyone else, kind of like I’m doing right now… Jace, I always thought having a sibling would be fun. And Sadie? She’s…”
“Jared, do you kind of see her as a sister or something?”
“M-maybe.” He grimaced and rubbed an elbow as he admitted a truth that must have embarrassed him. “And, you know, I want to protect her for some reason. Like, even more than how I stand up for Wes—or, at least, used to… I don’t want to see her get hurt. So, in my absence, make sure that he doesn’t do something stupid, okay?”
“He always does, but I still think he’s pretty oblivious to that sort of thing.”
“Sure, he is now, but two weeks of summer camp together? Who knows, right? I’m telling ya, those two talk and joke differently around each other than the rest of us do with Sadie. And maybe I’m wrong, yeah, but my gut’s telling me something’s up.”
“All right, Jared. I’ll report back to you what I see.” Maybe there really is something to all this that connects to modern boss-Jared, Jace thought, and then added, “We good here?”
“Yeah.” Jared huffed out a big burst of air. “Feels good to finally get that off my chest. Um, so… you know I don’t get many channels, but we should be able to catch some Unsolved Mysteries reruns before conking out. That is, if we can sleep afterwards.”
“Heh. Those ghost and alien episodes freak me out a little.”
“Oh, Colin hates those, and the cursed object eps, too… Thanks, man.”
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