#bergen_county

"Do you wanna play a game?" Connor asks his new friend. "We could play Cowboys and Braves. I know you said that you're a coward, and I don't know if that's true, but I'll play the Brave and you can be the cowboy. You're Jackie the Kid. ....get it?" He giggles at his own joke.

"Yeah?" Jack Flap says "Okay... I can do that. We can let the Indians win for once, but sure"

"You're not 'apposed to call them indians any more, because they're not from India. And it's not fun to play Indians and British because that wasn't much fun for the Indians. I play Jungle Book sometimes, and Oak makes a pretty good Baloo, and Edie gets to be Bagheera."

"Oh..sorry, " he says "I'll try to remember " Not wanting to upset his friend. "oh.. uh, the troll wearing the mostly black .. is she your sister?"

"Oh! Did she have spooky eyes, like..." He draws fingers over his eyelids in a cats-eye eyeliner pattern. "That's Gerd. She knows me REAL well. You should be careful, she's a smart cookie and hard to trick. I like her even if she has chocolate chips."

"Well, apparently I'm supposed to know how lord howlett is doing and I don't know the guy so I didn't answer and she got superspicious!" Jackflap says

"Oh, that's me! Wow. There's a lot of stuff to remember. It's like when they take me to school and tell me a hundred hundred things and then have a test, but most of them leaked out while I was out playing." Sympathetic.

"Oh? What's school like?" He asks "Do you sing a lot like on TV?"

"No, we don't sing." Thoughtfully. "But maybe that's 'cuz I'm not in highschool. That's when they turn all musical. Tove singes really well though. I like to listen. And she got me a broken whistle. She's awful nice."

"She sounds nice." He says

"Yeah! She's gonna have a baby. I hope she's not too busy afterwards. I got a job helpin' at the store where her Mister works, so that he can finish up stuff faster and get home. And there's a sidhe who works there too, at nights." Remembering something from earlier. "The ones who you ran away from, are they muggles? Or do they sparkle like us?"

"I don't wanna talk about them" Sour look

"I just wanna know so that I can avoid them if I ever see them." He offers. "But if they came here, Olgar- that's our best Rover, I'm gonna be a Rover when I grown up - Olgar would bash 'em on the butts!"

"He would?" A pause "But he doesnt' know me"

"He's the ROVER. That means he protects everyone here in Rivervale. He travels all around on the trods, and beats up bad guys, and keeps us all safe." A hint of hero worship in his tone.

"Wouldn't it be ROVERvale then?" The satyr grins in a 'look, I'm clever too' way

He laughs happily. "I like that!"

"Thanks" A smile

"I think we're doing a good job hoodwinking everyone." He says, a bit smugly. "And we didn't even need to use a hood."

"TRUE... Okay. I need a hat ,do we have a cowboy hat?"

And costumes are assembled, but not Culty Proppriraty ones

just fun

................

In his bedroom, Adam lays on his back, tossing a basketball in the air and catching it over his face.

"Hey,Adam" Nabuni!

She comes in through the window "I wanna apologize"

"Hey Nab. For what?" He catches the ball, holds it.

"For pushing on with Dagmar...trying to fix things" She says

A sigh. "Yeah. No, I mean.... I wish it was different. But." A sad shrug.

"Well, she blames herself a lot I think"

"She shouldn't......"

"Nope, but that doesn't mean she doesn't. Nabuni seems a bit different. More detailed in some ways

Adam checks her out.

"Hey. Did you do something different?"

"Touched up my hair and nails" SHe says

A grin. "You look good."

"THANKS" she twirls.

Her skin seems more ...photo realistic in some ways

Curious, he reaches to touch.

He feels a bit turned on.

Another grin. "Hey."

"Hey yourself" She says

He glances at his phone, then back again. "School tomorrow. Sucks." He beckons her, inviting her to join him.

And she sits on his lap "Now big guy. You're gonna have fun at school. You'll see Piper"

Fascinated, he strokes her hair with a fingertip. "Yeah, I like that."

"And I know you like hanging with Zane" SHe purrs

"He's a pretty cool dude." He watches her raptly.

She twirls "Now...if I were 5 feet tall..." A sigh "There are things I'd do... but.. " She strokes his chin "But nope"

A soft groan. "We gotta find a way to.... or maybe shrink me?"

"Maybe.. but don't forget the other parts of your life mm.."