#kid reply

Six: CarnivalThe bright lights. The shining colors. The bleeping sounds. The smell of grease and food. All of it there and new and exciting.

Darting forward, Adam leaps in the air with a half spin, his heel catching on too-big-trousers. He nearly tumbles back, falling on his arse, but George is there. Before he can hurt himself, George is wrapping Big Brother arms around his waist and swinging Adam up on his shoulders.

A trilling, happy laugh shrieks from Adam’s lips as he tugs happily at Tall George’s hair. Strong George, Good George, Adam wants to be George.

“Careful, Kiddo. You get lost and Mum will never let us hear the end of it,” George chuckles, tilting his head back into Adam’s tiny tummy, as if he could look up to see the squirming menace bouncing on his shoulders.

“I won’t get lost!” Adam insists, loudly. “You’re right here!”

“I am right here, until you go running off. And then you’ll be over there,” Patient George points out around a grin. “If I put you down, do you promise to stay close?”

“I promise!” Adam nods, already leaning to one side as George flips the little boy over his head and plants him on the ground. 

Adam takes off towards the nearest booth at a dead run, and George – Good, Patient, Big-Brother George – shakes his head, sighs, and takes off after him. “Mum’s going to feed your cake to the neighbors!”

Sixteen: ChampagneBubbles.

The first thing Adam notices is bubbles.

Promptly followed by the taste.

“Gyuh-kgh! What?!” Adam coughs, shaking his head and sticking his tongue out. Scraping the surface of it against his top teeth as his family all laughs, someone claps him on the back, another lifts their glass to toast him. “God, that’s fowl. Why would you drink that?”

“Just keep going, Addy-kins, you’ll figure it out!” Bradley says, and George tops off Adam’s glass. He hasn’t even drunk enough for there to be anything to top, but Adam doesn’t protest.

He looks down at the tinted liquid about to spill onto his fingers and takes another sip. He’s braced for it this time, but it still makes him shudder. “It takes like vinegar and uncooked bread,” he fusses, shaking his head.

“Welcome to legal age, Little Brother,” Mark teases, arm slung across Adam’s shoulders.

Twenty-Six: Star Wars“How have you never seen Star Wars?” Jess’s face – and the bushy, blue mane that halos it – appears around the door jam. “You’re twenty-five, how have you never seen Star Wars?”

“Twenty-six,” Adam corrects her, rolling his eyes as he continues to draw, “And of course I’ve seen Starwars,” he protests. “It’s one of the reasons I went into animation in the first place.”

“Not the new ones, you goober. The old ones. Han shot first, Chewy, The Cantina Song?”

“Aren’t all three of those things in the same scene?”

“No. Chewy isn’t there.”

“I think he’s in the new ones anyways.”

“No, they just go to his planet.”

“Either way-… it’s kinda hard to avoid the character Chewbacca entirely in pop culture in this day and age.”

“Jabba The Hutt then,” Jess huffs, plucking Adam’s tablet pen from where he’s working and sprawling across his lap.

Heaving an over-exasperated sigh, Adam peers indulgently up at her. “I’m pretty sure you can know who he is without having seen the movies either.”

Jess simply glares at him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and waiting. One leg crosses over the other. She isn’t going anywhere.

“Alright, fine. I’ll bite. What do you want?”

A tricksy grin slithers across Jess’s face. “I knew you’d cave.”

“I always do.”

Jess leans in, planting a chipper little kiss to Adam’s lips. “There’s a marathon showing this weekend at the film festival. Sponsored by Lucas Arts, and I need someone to go with me.”

“You can’t go by yourself?”

“Who would pay for my popcorn if I did that?”

Adam smirks, shaking his head. “Alright. Somehow, I’ll manage to suffer through.”

Jess bounces to her feet, raising her arms in triumph. “Score! Oh, Happy Birthday, by the way. Your present is in the kitchen.”