I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM | Alan Frog

Finally, A Day Everyone Has Off

Now, there were very few days during the summer when Steven Turner didn't work. Not that he was required to work everyday all day, but he liked to keep himself busy. But today was a day that he and his friends had been planning since the last week of school. 

A day that they have annually, the day spent together and doing whatever they wanted. It was the day after Steven answered the Frog's phone in their comic store.He had completely forgotten about it already. 

Steven had taken Mrs. Peacock to pick up everyone to start off the day. They had all decided to sleep in a little bit longer than normal, seeing as they wake up around six o'clock. It was almost nine thirty when Steven pulled into the Beckett's house. Marcy stood beside her older sister who was lying on the driveway to 'cloud watch'. 

There weren't any clouds that morning. 

Regardless, Steven didn't say anything about it and went around to open the door for Gloria. She thanked him and set her brown tote bag in Joseph's seat and sighed as she sprawled herself out onto the seat. Marcy threw her small backpack into the back of the truck and climbed in next to it. Steven got back into the truck and looked into the rearview mirror to see the younger girl crossing her arms and glaring at him. 

"Okay..." He starts making his way to Joseph's house. 

Gloria spent the ride telling Steven about a strange dream she had the night before, it was about a relative having a mansion that had a bad vibe to it. Steven interacted with her and nodded whenever he saw fit to. 

Joseph lived on a road in the middle of nowhere compared to where the rest of the friend group lived. He had a relatively nice house, two story, with a small flower garden his mom had been growing since they met and some veggies in the backyard. Their mailbox was always open and they rarely got actual mail. It was awfully painted by him and his younger cousins the summer before. 

Steven honked the horn and soon came out a smiling Joseph. He wore a tank top with red shorts, and had his hair tied up into a ponytail. 

As Joseph awkwardly made his way to his seat, Gloria not moving for him, Steven notices the boy with the Frog's a few days ago. He was the one on the phone, Sam? Yeah, it was Sam. 

Sam was taking his bike from the porch and about to get on it when Steven called over to him, "Hey, Sam! We were gonna go to the beach if you wanted to go man." The older boy offered. 

The younger's eyes lit up at the idea. But he had other plans for the day and he was determined to see it through by the end of the day. "I would, but I was going to go talk to Edgar and Alan about something important." He said mustering up his courage to decline. 

But he didn't make a move to leave. It seemed like he was rethinking his answer, and Steven didn't want to push him into anything. But the Frog's were near where the beach was, "You need a ride?" 

Sam looked up, snapped away from his thoughts. He smiled at the thought. Edgar had told him about how weird and annoying Steven was, but he thought that the brunette was nice. And he had never been in the back of a truck before. 

"Are you sure?"

"Totally, Comic Store's on the way to the beach. Don't stress about it, man get in the back." Steven pointed to the back of the truck but stopped him right before he got in, "Hey, is it cool if we make a quick stop before we drop you off?" 

The younger boy just nodded. He didn't really hear what Steven said. He was going to ride in the back of a truck. 

Once Steven knew that Sam was safely seated he drove to Eric's house. It took a lot of convincing for his parents to let him spend the day at the beach and not at the family shop. And by some miracle, he was allowed. When they pulled into the driveway Sam let out a small, 'woah,' he hadn't seen a house that nice in Santa Carla. He didn't even know that there was a nicer neighborhood there.