Life's Next Chapter

The Plan 2.0

He heard snippets of everyone's voices here and there. But he was too lost in thought right now. In his hand he held a little black velvet box, and inside it, was the ring that took him close to a year to find. Yup, that's right. Mush had started to seriously think about his future around a year ago. Give or take. It started off slowly enough, casually windowing shopping, paying more attention to ads, then it moved onto looking at prices and the next thing he knew, he was asking Feister if the promise ring he gave her for her sixteenth birthday still fit out of pure curiosity since she usually wore it on a chain around her neck. When she had confirmed it did he started rummaging around his room to find what size it was. He knew he wrote it down, it was just a matter of where it was laying around.

Then, oh then he got Brooklyn to do a bit of snooping by getting her to ask Feister what kind of styles she liked in a ring. Mush already had a good grasp on what she'd like, but he wanted to be sure before diving into it. He figured she wouldn't like the giant, flashy kind. Mostly because he remembered her saying something about needing sunglasses to see properly. When Brooklyn came back with the information he needed, that's when he dragged Kid Blink to jewelry store after jewelry store for feedback. It never clicked in his head that this was actually going to happen until he finally got the little box in his hand. He came up with a million ways to finally pop the question to the point the boys gave him sometime to figure out on his own or they'd step in and lend a hand. To say the least that's what ended up happening.

"How about you have a movie night with her and when the time is right you get down on one knee," Elmer suggested.

"May I suggest playin' The Clone Wars TV Special," Albert spoke up. "Or Empire Strikes Back. either way make it Star Wars. You know how much she loves those movies."

"That's just it, I don't want this to be another run of the mill date night. It needs to be special."

"Ya know Feisty doesn't care bout grand gestures. She loves the little things," Finch chimed in. "You could serenade her."

"And give her another excuse to tease me?"

"She's always teasin' ya Mushy," Race yelled out. "Ya new round here or somethin'?"

While the boys continued to throw out random, half baked ideas left and right, Brooklyn sat quietly to the side while the boys racked their brains for something that would meet her brother's want for something special without being too over the top for Feister. She watched Jojo pace back and and fourth to the point she swore he'd make a hole in the floor. Crutchie had a notepad in hand with a pile of crumpled up paper around him. And everyone else laid about here and there, doing their best to think. Her eyes then turned back to her phone so she could continue to mindlessly scroll through images for simple engagement ideas while also listening to music. She had put on her "Hopeless Romantic" playlist on shuffle in hopes it would bring some inspiration.

Then, at the very first word of the next song a light bulb turned on in her head. How could she not have realized this sooner!? It all made perfect sense. "That's it!" she shouted, quickly shooting up from her seat, which caused several of the boys to either flinch or even fall over with a heavy thud. All eyes were suddenly on her. Usually Brooklyn would sink back down and act like nothing ever happened to begin with. But at the moment, her excitement had gotten the better of her. And perhaps she had found her voice among the group. It was still quiet, but she was more open to letting loose. "A walk down memory lane. It's special, it's sentimental but it's not too over the top. Simple yet-"

"Are you gonna tell us the idea or are you gonna keep ramblin'?" Albert cut off. He couldn't hold back his laugh even if he wanted to. It goes without saying he loves that she had found her voice among the group. It was still rare for her to really get loud and crazy, but she had gained more confidence in the past few years.