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As soon as the kids approached Sportacus with the idea of carving their own pumpkins, Sportacus imagined having to supervise five children with knives and quickly enlisted the help of Bessie and Milford. They were all too happy to assist.
After the pumpkins were hollowed and lectures about knife safety were repeated, each child was given their own small carving knife and set to work. Town hall was soon filled with pumpkins and laughter as the kids brainstormed increasingly ridiculous carving ideas.
Eventually, Robbie slunk in to join them. Apparently the lack of noise around town had drawn him to the surface.
“Join us, Robbie!” Bessie suggested, sliding him a pumpkin.
With a lopsided smile, Robbie settled on the floor with the others and set to carving. After a few minutes, one of the kids looked over.
“Whoooa,” Pixel said, leaning forward to look at Robbie’s pumpkin, “That’s a cool skull, Robbie! It’s creepy!”
“Of course it is,” Robbie said, though he looked delighted.
Pixel slid his pumpkin over, “Can you sketch a scary face like that on mine? I want mine to look spooky too!”
Robbie huffed as if it were beneath him but ended up tracing a face onto Pixel’s anyway. Soon, the rest of the kids asked for sketches and Robbie had a line of pumpkins to draw on. He didn’t protest and Sportacus had fun watching him create different designs. It was refreshing to see him smile so much.
“How about you, Sportastare?”
“Hm?” Sportacus blink and realized the kids had left. He had just been staring blankly at Robbie perfecting his own pumpkin. “Oh, sorry.”
Robbie rolled his eyes, “Did you want me to draw something on yours too?”
Sportacus shook his head, “No, I finished mine. In fact, I wanted to give it to you.” Sportacus stood, carrying his own pumpkin. “It’s not as good as yours—”
“I’m sure it’s not.”
“—but here you go!” Sportacus placed the pumpkin in front of Robbie and quickly zipped away to help Ziggy cut out his cat face. When he dared look back, Robbie was still staring open mouthed at the pumpkin, where Sportacus had carved possibly the sloppiest heart ever.
Sportacus thought no one else had noticed but the way Milford nudged him and Bessie winked at him put that idea to bed. They let out actual cheers when Robbie later handed him a pumpkin with a expertly heart carved on it.
“Happy Halloween, Sportaspook,” Robbie said. And he kissed Sportacus on the cheek. Bessie and Milford clapped.