nine
With the help of one very cool teenager named Cole, who was hired to drive Evan and Pandora home during the school year, Evan quickly got over his ‘I don’t want to grow up phase’. Cole had his own car and was the star of the football team, what other conclusion was he supposed to come to?
That being said, this summer was a big one. He just turned nine, which was one step closer to ten, which was another step closer to thirteen, so he was basically a teenager now.
A bunch of trees fell between last summer and now, making it much more difficult to get through the woods. Which meant that Barty beat him to the creek this time around. Evan could just barely see him through the brush, but could still hear ‘ Oh, you’re joking! ’ and ‘ Fuck this! ’ clearly, which only meant one thing – Barty was trying, and miserably failing, at skipping rocks across the surface of the water. Even after lessons each summer from both Evan and Pandora, he’d never gotten the hang of it.
Once closer, Evan almost didn’t recognize Barty at first. His hair had been completely buzzed off. Only a little bit of his signature hair remained, not even enough to run a hand through.
“Nice haircut.”
“Evs!” Barty spun around, crawling up the bank of the creek to pull him into a very wet hug. Evan squeezed him back as tight as he could, brushing his hand over the buzzed hair. “I dyed my hair green. Father didn’t like it, so he shaved it all off. Kind of like it like this, though.”
Evan frowned a little, wondering if his parents would shave his head for that. That seemed a bit drastic, really.
When they untangled themselves from each other, he could see little tiny specks of green hair remaining.
“I bet it looked awesome. Where’d you get hair dye from?” Evan saw it once at the beauty store Mum drags him into, but it seemed a bit daunting. Far too many colours to be able to make a decision from. Not that she would let him dye his hair anyway.
“Nicked it.” Barty shrugged, initiating their handshake. Evan struggled to remember it for a moment, but got it right in the end.
“You stole it?”
“Yep. Wasn’t caught, either,” His eyes were bright, excited. He explained the rest of the story, saying he had taken it from the corner store by his school. Some of the older kids bet him he couldn’t get away with it, so ‘of course’ he needed to do it.
Hearing about it made Evan’s skin itchy, he was nervous. There were so many things that could go wrong if he had gotten caught. On the news last week there was a bank robbery, all of the robbers were sentenced to life in prison. He didn’t want Barty to go to prison. Then they couldn’t hang out anymore.
“Oh,” His forehead creased as he thought, “Why’d they do that? The older kids?”
“Hi, Gracie! I dunno. I’ve wanted to hang out with them for a while, they’re neat. Much cooler than anyone else in my year. They said if I nicked something, I could hang out with them.” Barty pressed a kiss on Gracie’s muzzle, which had gotten almost completely grey in the time since last summer. “They lied. Gits.”
The conversation ended there. Usually they tried to not talk about school, or anyone else outside of their little summer group. It reminded them that this wasn’t forever.
—
Only two days passed before Barty asked to stay the night. Evan's Grandma told him that he was more than welcome to stay the whole summer, if he wanted to.
They pushed the beds together again, facing each other and making up stupid stories every night until someone fell asleep first. Evan liked having Barty there all the time. He wished it could be that way year round.
—
“My dad said I have to go to this boarding school soon. When I’m eleven. I don’t know if I’ll be here as much,” They were playing football when Barty piped up. Evan paused mid-kick to turn around and face him.
“What? You won’t be here anymore?” His voice was high, it sounded weird to his own ears. Sure, he'd gone the first six summers of his life without Barty being there, but that didn't mean he wanted to do it again.
“Not sure,” Barty kicked at some of the weeds sprouting from the field, “He didn’t tell me much, just that I had to go there. Guess he graduated from there. It’s called Hogwarts, who even comes up with stupid names like that?”
That was a really ridiculous name.
“We have two years, we’ll figure it out,” Evan promised. He repeated it, more to himself this time. “We’ll figure it out.”
That night, as soon as Barty fell asleep, Evan went downstairs and looked up Hogwarts on the family laptop. The website said that it was one of the top academic schools in the country, so maybe he’d be able to convince his parents to let him go. It was awfully expensive, not to mention they’d need enough to pay for both him and Pandora. He wouldn’t leave her behind.
—
After the first night Barty went home, Evan brought a bunch of the first batch of this year’s tea to the creek. It took a bit for him to show up, which did nothing but remind Evan of what had happened last time he was unusually late. For a second he wondered if he'd only brought the tea as a reward for Barty, for having to deal with his family.
He dug at the dirt in front of him with a stick, looking around every time a twig so much as snapped.
“Hey,” Barty popped up behind him, having snuck across the river without making a sound. His shoulders were slumped over as he sat down in the dirt, lazily running a hand over Gracie’s back. “Sorry I’m late, my Father’s at the house. Some of his friends are here with their kids, so I had to sneak away.”
“Don’t get in trouble because of me, B,” They had decided that B would be Barty’s nickname from now on. Evs, or as of recently, Ev and B.
“Nah, it’ll be fine. One of the kids is kind of decent, I might bring him tomorrow if that’s…,” Barty trailed off, noticing the jug of tea and opening it to sip out of it – still straight from the container, even though they’d gained cup privileges this year.
“Fine by me,” They could probably use more friends than just themselves, Evan figured.
So the next day, after spending the night at his own house again, Barty brought along a pale and gangly boy named Regulus. He didn’t talk very much, spending most of the day petting Gracie or watching instead of playing with them. Evan thought he was okay, but was weirded out by the silence and staring. His eyes always looked intense and freaky.
“Regulus is going to Hogwarts, too,” Barty pointed over at him while tossing rocks into a hole in the dirt they had dug a bit away. “His family is a big deal there, I guess.”
Honestly, Regulus looked like his family was a big deal everywhere.
“I told Mum and Dad about Hogwarts,” Evan tossed his rock, holding his breath while it skidded across the ground and into the hole. He’d told them the night before after hyping himself up for two weeks. He really didn’t want them to say no.
“Really? What’d they say?”
“That they’d think about it. I guess they want Pandora and I to go somewhere fancier than the schools at home anyway. Maybe it’ll work out.” He didn't say it aloud, but it had to work out. He'd already spent weeks thinking about what life would be like there, letting himself get far too exciting.
“We could be roommates! You’ll be sick of me in a week,” Barty shoved on Evan’s shoulder, grinning when he landed on the dirt.
“I don’t think I could get sick of you,” Evan yanked on Barty's leg to pull him down, the two of them tumbling into a fit of laughter while wrestling in the dirt. When they separated, Regulus was scowling at them. What a party pooper.
Evan was glad when he left. Barty came back to stay with him after everyone was gone. He liked it better when he knew his friend was staying out of, well, whatever he got into.
—
A few weeks later, they had a bonfire. Evan’s Dad built the fire for them, saying that he didn’t trust any of them with lighters, but he still let them build their own s’mores and sit by it alone. Xeno, Dorcas, and Pandora were there too.
Xeno was much more tolerable this year, especially after his family bought a ping pong table for their garage. Dorcas remained on Evan’s good side, too. For now, at least.
He and Barty sat next to each other cross-legged, their knees touching. Pandora was next to Evan, with Dorcas and Xeno on the other side of her.
“When we’re old and married, do you think we’ll still come back here?” Pandora asked, ripping open another box of graham crackers. Evan still thought she sounded like Mum whenever she brought up the future.
Barty groaned loudly, blowing on his very-much-on-fire marshmallow. “I dunno what I’ll be doing when I’m old, maybe I’ll be here. Maybe I won’t.”
“I’ll come back here,” It wasn’t up for debate in his mind. “I hope you guys will too.” Evan looked at Barty when he spoke, lifting his knee a little bit to jar the other boys.
Dorcas sighed, laying back into the grass. “I live here all the time. I hope I won’t still be stuck here.”
Xeno didn’t have anything particular to say, just that he’d also come back if we were here. Evan figured he’d come back regardless if they were there or not. Pandora agreed with him, but added that she’d want to bring her own kids here one day.
Evan didn’t understand why she was thinking about kids, that wasn’t important for, like, fifteen more years. He, for the most part, had never spent more than a second thinking about marriage or kids. Or family at all, for that matter.
Some of his friends back home managed to get girlfriends, or whatever you’d call the stupid handholding and half-hugs they’d do at lunchtime recess. Whenever they’d talk about marrying them or their future families Evan would try to mentally plug his ears.
It all seemed kind of silly to him. Not necessarily getting married, that made some sense. He’d probably grow up and marry someone. The family aspect weirded him out, though. Especially after The Talk the school gave his year. He’d rather just get a dog or two.
—
While they were setting up the tent for their last night, it started to rain.
Obviously, the only solution was to set it up inside. Somehow it managed to squeeze into Evan and Barty's bedroom, as long as they put the bed’s against the wall vertically at least.
Pandora wasn’t there this year, she chose to stay at Dorcas’ instead. Her family had a pool in the backyard, which was apparently much cooler than their annual camping sleepover.
Evan brought the family laptop into the tent so they could watch Real Steel together. Even though they'd already seen it several times since it released, it was still the go-to. Both of them thought the robots were the coolest things ever.
“I want to be a professional robot fighter when I grow up,” Barty announced, slapping his hands against the tarp floor when the credits began to run across the screen. “We could be a team, like Charlie and Max! But not father and son, best friend and best friend.”
Best friend.
Evan beamed and both of their eyes lit up. “As long as I can be the one with the controller.”
“Hmmm. We’ll talk about it next year,” Barty smiled and gave a knowing look. “You’ll be here next summer, right?”
“Yep. Every summer,” Evan knew their little routine was a bit dumb, but he was glad Barty wanted to hold onto it too. “As long as I live, too, according to the other night.”
Barty laughed, “Swear it?”
“Swear it.” Instead of touching their fingertips together, they linked their pointer fingers and shook on it.