#astrostarter

" jade, johnny, come on, no runnin' off, " frankie calls after his niece and nephew but he's pretty sure his voice gets lost in the noise all around them. with his entire family back in town for the 4th, frankie—despite kinda working right now—has been designated babysitter. he doesn't mind, he likes the kids, he'll take spending time with them over hanging with his brothers any day but they are testing him today.

when he catches up to them, they're queuing for the popcorn stand and already chatting up the person in front of them. " with what money are you guys paying for this, huh ? " he says and the look the twins give him is enough to make frankie take out his wallet. " one bag to share. one. you guys already had too much junk. and then we're gonna go wait for the fireworks, yeah? "

when the kids settle and start talking about stuff he knows nothing about, he turns to the person in front of them. " hope they weren't bothering you too much. they're at the age where they love lying and telling stories. " they take a step forward but the line looks like it's going to take forever. " anyway—enjoying this thing? "

since his twin had run off somewhere after the dunk tank and he hadn't tracked down any of his other peeps yet, jonah was occupying his time in the games section of astroland ( skee ball to be exact ). he was probably just going to go home and skip the fireworks after too long. to be honest, he's not sure he can get down with the noise of astroland, the extra screaming children, and loud explosions played to shitty overture music tonight. it was an overstimulation nightmare bound to happen. maybe the wolfe's den would be quiet, at least for a little while, until the show was over.

in particular jonah fashion, he was fucking around. juggling three skee balls while talking, not paying attention to who might be listening. "you know when i read children free on the flyer, i thought it meant there would be no five and unders, y'know? but here they all our," he shook his head ever so slightly, trying to keep stormy blue eyes on the balls in motion. "i swear the noise today is goin' to be the soundtrack to my fuckin' hell, that and anything by fucking will smith, am i right?" he snickered.