something_incredible | [october 6]

Entry tags:

bev,
lucy

[october 6]

Carnivals. Autumn carnivals, those are a thing he remembers from his youth, from his years with Sara, the sort of thing most kids like being taken to, and so without giving it a lot of thought, Hopper takes a Saturday off work, checks with Lucy to make sure she's free, too, then plans a whole day of it.

It's only once all the planning is done and the tickets are bought -- wristbands for all of them, so they can go on unlimited rides and play unlimited games -- that he realizes this is the sort of thing Beverly might want to do with her friends instead of a couple of adults. Looking down at the wristbands, he frowns at them, trying to figure out what to do, then shrugs. If she wants to go with her friends, he'll give her the wristbands to give to Eddie and Peter or something.

But when he floats the idea by her, she doesn't even ask to go with her friends and her boyfriend instead, there's not even a flicker of something that suggests she doesn't think it's a good idea. Hopper feels pretty damn good about that.

The weather the day of is nice. Still warm, warmer than it likely would've been in New York, and he arranges for Lucy to meet them at their apartment as he gets their stuff together. He's got some cash to buy dinner or any snacks they might want, plus a beer for himself a little later and wine for Lucy if she wants it, and he's holding Beverly's jacket by the door, waiting for her to finish getting ready.

This is the most normal thing he's done in a long damn time and he's really looking forward to it.

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Just at the thought of it, Beverly can't help but let out a laugh. It sounds pretty fun, actually, and she can't pretend she doesn't like the idea of taking this hypothetical future truck out on her own down the line, showing up to pick up friends or something in some big truck. It's just also a pretty hilarious mental image, too.

"Can you picture someone my size driving a truck?" she asks, sounding somewhat delighted. She's never been tall, and when she's only supposed to have another year or so to grow, she doubts that's ever going to change. She'll probably be this height, or close to it, for the rest of her life. "That'll be fun."

"I've never driven a truck either if it helps," Lucy says with a shake of her head. "A van. And I've been in...larger transports."

The Lifeboat certainly qualifies, doesn't it? She'd just never driven that. Just a passenger who tried not to get sick.

"You could always get one of those scooters that I yelled at every time I got behind one on the highway."

"Christ, only if you want to give me a damn heart attack," Hopper says with a rough laugh as he pulls into the parking lot of the carnival. He very much does not like the idea of Beverly on any sort of busy road on a scooter. She's too small and a scooter is too damn small and Hopper might not be able to do much about the sorts of things like what killed Sara, but he can avoid scooters and people bearing down on her in much larger vehicles.

"I'll teach you both to drive a truck," he says, giving Lucy a small, teasing smile as he parks the cruiser, then turns off the engine. Getting out, he goes around to open Beverly's door from the outside, since she can't from where she's sitting. At the same time, he reaches for Lucy's door, too.

Hawkins might not have taught him much in the way of being a gentleman, but he can damn well try anyway.

"Gross, stop flirting," Beverly says as she climbs out of the car, wrinkling her nose, though her grin makes it clear that she's hardly serious. It's nice, actually, seeing the two of them tease each other, evidence that they really do like each other. She's not used to that, especially not with all the time she spent just tiptoeing around her father at home. He never brought anyone else back. It wouldn't have been good for anyone if he did.

"Just a year and a half to go until I'm sixteen, you know. Guess you better start saving for that truck."

Lucky makes a face and then glances over at Jim before saying, "You know, I've heard great things about bicycles. They tend to last quite a long time, they're good exercise and you don't have to worry about gas."

A wonderful invention, the bicycle! "A lot of great men and women in history were solely bicycle users. I think she could emulate them quite well. What do you think?"

She's kidding, of course, but not about the history part. There were a lot of historical figures that stuck to bicycles to get to and from their places of work.

"I think if she keeps giving us a hard time about flirting, a bike is gonna be the way we go," Hopper agrees, his tone thoughtful as he loops his arm over Lucy's shoulders. "You're full of good ideas today."

He has no idea about the history of the bike and who might have ridden one, but he trusts that Lucy is right about it. Given her background, the things she's told him she's written about, he figures she knows better than he does on this particular topic. On a lot of topics, probably.

"Maybe we can steal one of those shitty ones the Home has," he suggests to Beverly, trying not to smile. "Then we don't even have to pay for it."

"Hey, I'd take a bike," Beverly says with a shrug, though she can't quite hold back her grin. "I used to bike everywhere back home." She sort of misses that, if she's honest, the openness of Derry. Of course, she still wouldn't go back for anything, would take this place over it in a heartbeat. It wouldn't be worth it to do otherwise. Still, living in a city after the way she grew up is a little strange sometimes.

"That is a whole year and a half I still need some way of getting around. A bike might be good for that. I mean, obviously you're going to want me to be able to get out of the apartment sometimes."

Lucy turns to Jim and, smirking, says, "Rollerskates. I think you should both invest in rollerskates. Can you imagine that way of getting around Darrow?"

She, again, isn't serious but it's easy and fun to tease back and forth like this. It's soothing even though Lucy hadn't really needed the comfort but it's nice to just be comfortable and secure with people and not worry what they might think of her.

"This might surprise you, given how damn graceful I am in other parts of my life, but if you get this bulk on roller skates, you're gonna end up wheeling me around when I break both my legs."

But he's thinking about something else, too, about Christmas and what to get for Beverly. Maybe she'll be sixteen soon and he's intent on teaching her to drive, because everyone should know, but a bike might be a good gift for her, too.

It's a funny thing, thinking about Christmas presents again.

"But it would be very funny while it lasted," Beverly says, brow raising. She doesn’t think it would be quite as bad as all that, anyway, or worth the trouble, but the mental image is kind of amazing, and that would be reason enough to play along with it. Hopper just sailing around the city on roller skates is something she would probably pay to see.

"You could get elbow and knee pads. A helmet. That might help stop you from breaking anything."

"As long as no one expects me to do anything but stand there and take pictures, then I think this is all a very good idea."

Because she wasn't graceful. She wasn't elegant. She would hold the phone and take video and pictures and send them far and wide because that is something she's good at.

"You two have fun and I will document this event for history."

"Hell, no, if I'm up on roller skates, you're up on roller skates," Hopper answers. "The both of you."

They're inside the carnival gates now, with the fairway rides and games spreading out before them. He sort of wants to get himself a beer right off the bat, but he's trying to drink less lately, trying not to let that shit part of him always get the better, so he pushes that aside for now. Later. That's when he can have one. At a much more reasonable time.

"Games first?" he asks. "Someone needs to win me a pink teddy bear before this day is through."

"Oh, I can totally do that," Beverly says, teasingly overconfident. Really, it's probably a tossup — games like these usually either seem really easy or really rigged — but it seems fun regardless. She does have pretty good aim, anyway; one of those games that involves trying to knock down bottles or throw a ball into a certain hole seems like something she could manage pretty simply. Anyway, she didn't come here just to look around, so she might as well make the most of everything, from the games to the food.

"Come on, let's see what they've got."

"I feel like I should be announcing the two of you like you're about to have a boxing match," Lucy quips, snickering. She'd be a terrible ring girl but she is going to take her phone out and try and get some video of this.

"No cheating," she warns. "I'm referee as well as the videographer."

"Hey, no, I'm not competing against her," he says with a shake of his head and a small grin. "She's gotta win me a prize. You can definitely film that, though."

Because he wants the memories and if he's honest, he's still not that great with his phone most of the time. He tries and he can text, but when it comes to using his phone as a camera, he can only make it work half the time. Video is even further beyond him.

"Yes, please record my imminent victory," Beverly says, all teasing bravado. If she doesn't do as well as she's planning to, she'll probably want any footage destroyed immediately, but she figures if she could hit Henry Bowers in the head with a rock, she should be able to beat a carnival game. Only her pride is at stake here — enough for her to want to see it through, but not so much that she won't be able to laugh it off if she doesn't.

"Seriously, we're gonna get the biggest, most ridiculous stuffed animal. I really hope you like giant teddy bears."

"Ah, we've found Jim's true use," Lucy says, stepping closer and kissing his cheek before saying, "He's the person to carry all the overly large stuffed animals that people win at carnivals. I knew those big arms were good for something."

She reaches to pat one of those arms and then kisses his cheek again.

"There," he says, smiling in a pleased sort of way after Lucy kisses him. "What about that one?"

It's a simple enough looking game from what he can see. People use water guns and they shoot a stream of water at a target. As long as you're on target, the little boat connected to your station rises. He knows he'd just said he's not competing against Beverly and then pointed out a game that's an undeniable competition, but he can't help it. A little part of him does want to compete and not just to let her win.

Although he'll probably do that, too.

Beverly makes a show of rolling her eyes, but she doesn't try to hide her smile, either. It really is kind of nice, actually, seeing how much they seem to like each other, taking in what at least seems to be the utter normalcy of a situation like this. Besides, she knows there are probably plenty of people who wouldn't want to date someone who's the guardian of a teenager. She just won't pass up an opportunity to tease them for it.

"That one looks good," she says, looking over at the game Hopper's pointed out. "I can definitely beat you at that one, yeah."

Lucy chuckles, eyeing the game that Beverly's chosen. It doesn't look like anything she could beat anyone at so she's glad this duel is between Beverly and Jim. She'll be the cheerleader. That wasn't anything she'd ever done while in high school so she was going to take advantage now.

"I feel like I should go get some pompoms so I can cheer you both on," Lucy says, smiling.

"Could get you a whole cheerleader outfit," Hopper answers and he knows he probably shouldn't say stuff like that in front of Beverly, because she's old enough now to figure it out what he's talking about. He also kind of can't help himself. Lucy has put the idea in his head.

Hopper steps up to the game and pays for both him and Beverly to play, then looks back at Lucy once more.

"You sure you don't want to take a shot, too?" he asks.

"Wow, you guys," Beverly says, too amused to really play at being scandalized. It isn't as if she's oblivious, or like she really cares all that much, as long as she's not getting actual details. If a cheerleading outfit ever is actually involved, she wants nothing to know about it. But she's heard stories from friends, since she actually has some of those now, and it's mostly just because of her own weird hangups that she and Peter haven't done anything more than kiss, and it would seem silly to be annoyed or shocked or grossed out over something normal.

Turning her head, she grins at Hopper. "Ready to get your ass kicked?"

"Don't kick it too bad," Lucy says though she doesn't sound all that serious. She's already got her phone out, ready to record. "Mostly because I don't want to hear him whine about it."

Lucy knows he wouldn't do that but she's going to have fun at his expense.

"I've been known to whine," he says, his voice dry as he passes Beverly her water pistol. That's not far off when he gets drunk, he's been known to feel pretty damn sorry for himself and he's not proud of that, but at least he can admit it's true.

"Ready?" he asks as the game is set up for them. It's still a little early, so they're the only ones playing, just the two of them pitted against one another.

Above the station, a little light begins to count down from five.

Whining seems like a risk worth taking with her dignity on the line, but Beverly doesn't see the need to say so, too focused on the game and counting down for that. The five seconds give her time to check her aim, eyes narrowed over her raised water pistol, target in sight. Shooting is a bit different than throwing, but enough of the same principles apply that she thinks she'll be able to manage alright.

Then the bell dings to start them off, and her finger immediately pulls back on the trigger, a smile breaking across her face as she watches the little boat rise.

Lucy's just hoping that these games aren't rigged or anything like that. Isn't that what carnival games were? Rigged and a little impossible. But, Beverly looks like she's doing pretty well so Lucy just does her job as a cheerleader and...cheers. With whistling and whooping and everything.

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[october 6]

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