Chapter Text
There was an old lady sitting in a chair at the back of where the crowd had been.
“Hello mum,” said Clark as he walked up to her.
“Granny! Granny! Did you see me?” said Maddie excitedly as she held out the medal she had won
“Yes, I did kitten” she said, “and I cheered for you, and your Daddy and Mummy as well”.
“Meow” Maddie replied.
Sitting next to her was a lady holding an infant to whom the boy in the cowboy get-up ran followed by the girl in the pink sunglasses, they must have been siblings, but they were already on their way to getting dressed and leaving.
Klaus was standing around greeting people as they left the area saying “danke, please come back again”.
Hayden and Samantha were already at the showers. Samantah had taken off her Mermaid fins almost immediately after the contest was over. The adults stayed in their costumes for a little bit longer.
“It looks like it’s about time for supper” Clark said, looking at the nearby clock.
Steve looked around for Jonh and Mindy but they must have left already. However just then Sarah came up beside him and said, “John and Mindy just left, but I did get Mindy’s contact info”. “OK I guess we could plan to meet them later; I just wish they would have said goodbye”, Steve thought. However, he did see John’s parents headed to one of the cabins, perhaps they lived here.
They headed to dinner, along with Clark’s mother. It was spaghetti with meatballs made to look like eyes, and a side of “mummy dogs” which were hotdogs wrapped up to look like mummies. There was also plenty of candy all around but that wasn’t considered part of the meal. You could also have a side of soup with breadsticks made to look like fingers or a salad with fake spiders in it. For dessert it was Jack O’ Lantern pie. Basically, just pumpkin pie with a jack O’ Lantern face put on it.
“OK who wants to say Grace?” Sarah asked.
“Grace” said Clark in jest.
“No, does no one want to pray to bless the food?”
“I don’t know about the rest of the lot here, but I am an atheist” Clark said. Still, no one else volunteered.
“Fine I guess I’ll do it.” Sarah said. Everyone else around the table folded their hands and followed her lead, including Clark who folded his hands quietly out of respect and Tammy who had seen Sarah pray a few times so knew the motions.
“Dear Lord, bless this food, bless everyone here, Amen.”
“Amen” repeated a few of the others.
“Short and sweet” said Steve “Kind of like you” he added and pecked her on the lips.
“I’m not that short” said Sarah “I’m 5’2 and a half”. Steve was 6’ tall, so he practically towered over her. Although the height difference was about the same between Dave and Maria as well.
They were all eating the meal before they realized someone was missing. “Hey, has anyone seen Samantha and Hayden?” Dave asked. They hadn’t come back from the showers.
“Aye aye aye!” Maria said. “We forgot about them”.
“Ooh, they’re in trouble” Maddie said tauntingly.
“Shut up Maddie” Isabella said.
“Hey, don’t tell me to shut up!” Maddie replied and pushed Isabella.
“Hey, hey, hey! Girls, stop fighting!” Dave said. The girls separated, scowling at each other. Maddie stuck out her tongue at Isabella.
“They mustn’t’ve gotten lost” Clark said “they knew we were going to dinner. I assumed they would follow”.
“Do you want me to go look for them?” Dave asked. Although he wasn’t really asking, he had already made up his mind that he would. Just as he was getting up to leave, Maria grabbed his arm.
“Look” she said pointing. She was pointing at the door where Samantha and Hayden were just coming in, holding hands.
As Hayden and Samantha walked up to the table, Dave asked “where have you been?”
“Dad, we were just hanging out. Hayden wanted to go off without asking but I said we better ask you.” Samantha said.
“Hanging out?” Dave asked.
“Aw come on, Dad It's not like we were doing anything” Samantha said as she rolled her eyes.
“I’m not liking the attitude young lady "Dave then turned his attention to Hayden “you better not have done anything”.
Clark then chimed in “we don’t want anything to happen to you”.
“It’s not like we’re little kids” Hayden said “we’re noting going to get kidnapped or anything”
“And we were only gone, maybe 20 minutes” Samantha said “I knew you would be mad, so I told Hayden we needed to come back here”
“It’s not so much kidnapping I am worried about” Dave said. “go order your food and come back here”
Samantha and Hayden went up to the counter to order food and came back and sat down at the table.
Dave turns to his wife Maria and says “we should start trusting them, they are almost adults”
”Yes almost, but not quite” she replied.
“They are randy teenagers” Clark added.
“What does Randy mean?” Maddie asked.
Clark turned to Leeann “why don’t you go take Maddie for a walk?”
“But I haven’t had dessert yet” pouted Maddie. “And what does Randy mean?” Her voice getting more whiny as she said this.
“Only for a bit, you can have some when you get back” he said completely ignoring her second question.
With that, Leeann took Maddy along with her Granny for a walk.
“Remember when we let Robert go out on his own” Dave asked. “Yes, but trust requires honesty, they ran off without our permission.” Maria added. The adults thought about this for a moment as Samantha and Hayden came back in with their food.
After dinner was through everyone started getting up to go their own way.
It was getting dark but Samantha speaks up again and asks to go off alone with Hayden.
She begs her father “please let us go by ourselves this time”.
“You know what Sammy, you are 17, and Hayden is 16. You are almost adults. We should be able to trust you with more responsibilities.”.
“That’s also a prime age to be having sex” Clarke added.
“Let’s put it to a vote” Dave said but before he could Clark interrupted.
“I haven’t told many people this, but I actually have an older daughter” said Clark. “From before I was married to Leeanne, back in England. We were both 17 when she was born, now she is 30”. That explained why Clark looked to be about a decade older than Leeann.
“I was a young mother too.” Maria said “I was 19 when I had Robert Remember?”
“The point is” Dave said “We want to make sure that nothing happens. We have told our stories so you can learn from them”.
“I will be careful” Samantha yes.
“I will be a gentleman” Hayden added.
“Ok we trust you” Dave said “Right?” he turned first to his wife then Clark and Leeann. They all nodded in agreement. With that Samantha and Hayden went for a walk on their own agreeing to meet back with their parents in an hour or so.
Later that night was the dance. It was a costume dance so many people were still in their costumes but a few were naked. Stee and Sarah dance as did Samantha and Hayden and of course the married couples and Tammy found random people to dance with. The song “It’s getting Hot in Here So Take Off All your Clothes” was played rather ironically, but it was a tradition at all the dances and the queue for those who were still dressed at that point to get undressed. Steve, Sarah and Tammy stayed a little bit but couldn’t stay for very long. Steve and Sarah had to get ready for church the next day, and it was a rather important service, so they stayed for about two more songs before leaving. In the corner of the room Samantha and Hayden were making out. Steve, having chaperoned several school dances considered going over to them but decided against it and simply went to their parents and said “make sure to keep an eye on your kids”. Steve drove to Sarah’s house and crashed on the couch, exhausted.