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Hal Cooper has a death wish.
Penelope knows the thought isn’t kind and perhaps not even entirely true but the scene in front of her makes the argument in favor of “Hal Cooper does not wish to continue living on the mortal plane” quite good. She could probably suggest the topic in debate, the argument was just that strong.
The boy in question - Hal Cooper of the “no longer wishing to make it through the night” - is laughing at the top of his lungs. There’s a red plastic cup in one hand that he waves around with all his might. Penelope can’t be sure it’s empty just as she can’t be sure exactly how many drinks Hal has had since arriving at the Mantle residence, but the way the cup is being tossed this way and that it couldn’t have more than a few drops in it at the most. She eyes the keg, prepared to jump between it and Hal should he try and get another refill.
“You’re on, Man,” Hal’s words slur and he makes a face, unsure of himself, “-tle.” He tips his cup so it taps against Marty’s broad chest. “You’re on, Mantle.” And he’s overcome with such a ferocious bout of laughter that you’d think he was sitting front row in a comedy club downtown.
Marty purses his lips in amusement and glances around. It’s a football party and he’s surrounded by his teammates, but the look around isn’t for their approval. It’s a look Penelope knows well, a look she herself has thrown over her own shoulder many times. Marty is looking for the shrew that so often slings herself around Hal Cooper.
Alice Smith.
“We’re on!” Marty finally says when he’s convinced the shrew is nowhere to be found. He gives FP Jones a sideways glance, but FP is feigning interest in a spot on the sleeve of his letterman. He makes no move to go to Hal’s rescue and once Marty seems convinced he isn’t going to intervene, he shakes Hal’s outstretched hand. “Let’s say $100?”
Hal tries to scoff but it comes out more like a maniacal laugh. “I don’t want your money.”
“Yeah but I want yours.” It’s a silly want really because the Mantle’s home is larger than the Cooper’s and Penelope is sure the used car lot pulls in a lot more money than the local newspaper. “Especially when you lose your nerve like the chicken shit you are.”
Marty flashes a grin with that line but he doesn’t quite have the charm to get away with stuff like that the way FP Jones does. There’s something a little cynical in Marty’s face that Penelope doesn’t like and she slinks closer to the boys. She stares pointedly at FP but he’s switched his fascination to his other sleeve now.
“Chicken shit?” On another other day, in any other situation, Hal would back down. Would have backed down long ago. But today Hal is fresh off some fight with his nutty girlfriend and he is drunk in a not-very-Hal-Cooper-like way and well -
Hal has never been a good drunk to begin with.
“Penelope!” Hal is suddenly looking at her with enormous relief, a smile plastered across his face that makes her stomach lurch. He jogs the few feet to her and takes her hand to pull her towards Marty. “Here. Penelope will tell you.” Hal puts his hands on her shoulders and forces her to face the football player. “Tell Marty I’m not chicken shit.”
Penelope glares at Marty with all the annoyance she can muster. “Hal is obviously drunk and you teasing him is quite childish, Martin.” She takes Hal’s arm and tries to steer him away. “I didn’t realize you were still in grammar school.”
There are a few low whistles that make her heart thud-thud-thud even harder but Marty is unfazed.
“You need her to fight your battles, Coop?” Marty says this as if he doesn’t know her name, as if she wasn’t just cheering him on in a home game a few hours ago. “Don’t let that crazy Southside girl of yours see -”
“Hey!” Hal waves a finger but stays positioned behind Penelope. “Alice isn’t crazy.”
Penelope rolls her eyes but Hal doesn’t catch it. She tries for his arm again and with his defenses finally down, he actually moves with her.
“Come on, Hal. Lets get you some water. Maybe a snack.”
“Water is what we’re talking about, Penny!” Marty’s grin drops when he sees the look of venom on on her face. She was never a Penny. “I was just making a little wager with Coop here. Dared him to dive into my swimming pool.”
Penelope’s smile tightens. “Nice try. Everyone knows Thornhill has the only pool this side of Sweetwater River.”
“An above ground pool is still a pool.” And he gestures to the set up behind the garage.
An inflatable pool had been set up between the snack table and a bucket full of ice. It was a decent sized one, bigger than a regular kiddie pool from the drug store. About six feet long and at least three deep. Three giggling girls had taken off their sneakers and rolled up their jeans to wade in it and a boy in a baseball cap had gone right for it and was sitting inside fully dressed.
“That?” she asks. Her ponytail whips around and hits Hal’s shoulder. “Fine. Hal will jump into your little pool if it’ll get you to leave him -”
“Not jump.” Marty waves his finger quite rudely in front of her face. “I said dive.”
“Dive? You can’t dive into a toy. There isn’t even a diving board.”
Marty points. “From there.”
She follows his finger above the pool to the back of the flat roofed garage where a few kids were hanging out. A shadowed figure up there waves but she can’t make out who it is.
“I know you can be a bit mean, Martin,” she tries to control the anger in her voice, “but I never took you for cruel. Jumping from there would kill him.”
“The water will break my fall.” She jumps at Hal’s voice, nearly forgetting the subject of this conversation was right behind her. “Water is soft. No different from diving into your pool.”
“Very different.” She drops her voice. “Hal, you - you don’t even dive into my pool. You always wade in from the shallow end.”
Hal stares up at the garage and lets out a sigh. “This feels safer. The bottom of the pool is soft, Pen.” He covers his mouth as if he doesn’t want Marty to hear and then says in a louder than normal voice, “It’s inflatable. Water, soft. Air, soft.”
“And the ground is hard!”
Hal doesn’t listen, just waves to the people on top of the garage. “I think they’re telling me to do it.”
“I think anyone who climbs on top of a garage is probably smoking marijuana and not necessarily the people you should trust to make judgement calls for you.”
“And who are you to make judgement calls for him?” Marty pipes in.
Penelope turns on him and thinks she may actually shove him if she wasn’t digging her nails into Hal’s arm to keep him put. Instead she looks at the crowd around them that’s slowly wandering off, clearly not certain enough they’re going to see blood splatter on the Mantle’s lawn tonight. Her eyes fall on FP again who’s ten feet further away from them now.
“Forsythe!” It earns her a few laughs and she knows he sounds like a school teacher when she does that but she’s beyond caring. He doesn’t look at her despite the thinning crowd all looking his way. “FP! A little help please.”
FP’s playing with something in the pocket of his jacket - a packet of cigarettes at worst or some type of illegal substance at the very worst - but he comes over slowly. He kicks the grass as he walks as if he’s trying to tell the entire crowd he’s doing this completely against his will.
“What’s up?” he asks as innocently as a Jones probably ever can. She glares and he matches her gaze. His voice drops. “What do you want me to do? I’m not getting involved.”
“This entire thing is silly.” She keeps her voice level so Marty and whoever else is close enough can hear too. “Hal is drunk and not thinking straight and Marty is taking advantage of that. Can you just -” FP rolls his eyes and she groans in frustration, “just get him to back down?” She grits her teeth. “Please, FP.”
FP chews his lip for a few seconds, staring dead at her. “Look, Pen.” She almost kicks him with her Mary Janes for that. Pen was a reserved nickname for close friends. Well, for Hal at least. “This doesn’t involve either of us so why don’t you back down, okay?”
She lets go of Hal’s arm and grabs FP by his letterman. He gasps but it’s low. She doesn’t know for certain but she thinks he cares a lot more about the blue and gold jacket than he does for his leather one.
“You listen to me.” Her voice is now low enough that no one else can hear. The crowd seems to have doubled around them. Her eyes dart to Marty and he looks as smug as ever. “Hal is my friend and, incidentally, a terrible drunk. I do not want anything happening to him because he was unwise enough to get into a tiff with some Neanderthal football player.” FP opens his mouth but she keeps going. “And I know you’re good enough friends with Alice that she will tear you limb from limb if she knows you witnessed this happen. So can you please spare us both and either talk Marty down or help me drag Hal away?”
He chews his lip again, his eyes perched right above her shoulder. Without letting go she turns around and -
He’s gone.
Her heart starts beating out of her chest. She makes a grab of FP again.
“Help me find him.” It’s not a question. “Beer makes him slow, he can’t have gone -”
“Are we interrupting something cozy?”
This time Penelope’s heart stops all together. The voice is teasing instead of it’s normal harsh tone but Penelope was never one to take teasing well. Especially from Alice Smith.
Alice’s head is cocked in a look of amusement and Fred Andrews parrots her, turning his head so far it nearly touches his shoulder. His eyes are tinged red and there is a hovering smell of marijuana around them both.
“FP, be nice to Penelope,” Fred says even though Penelope is the one with her nails digging into FP. “We were waving from the garage.” Fred points in that direction. “Didn’t you see us?”
A gasp escapes Penelope before she can help herself. She spins around and squints at the top of the garage.
“Oh no no no.”
She almost takes her glasses off to polish when a hand on her shoulder makes her jump. Fred spins her back around and whispers loudly, “No, Penelope. We’re not up there anymore. We’re standing right here.” He laughs heartily but no one joins in.
Alice’s eyes slit. She looks at FP - who once again is acting like the sleeve of his jacket is the be-all end-all - and then back at Penelope. Her eyes travel back and forth two, three, four times. She finally looks around once then whips her hair so quick that it flies over her shoulder, her lips pursed together in a little O.
“Wh -”
Her question is answered before the word is even out. Hal Cooper screams from behind them. Not a blood curdling “I’m about to die from jumping off the Mantle’s garage” scream, but rather a “I’m on top of the Mantle’s garage and I’m looking for attention” scream.
“Hey!” Penelope can’t make out his features in the dark but the broad shoulders are a give away. “Up here!”
Penelope turns away, nearly pushing Fred over in the process. Alice’s face drains of color and her blue eyes widen. She looks innocent and scared for a few moments - a look Penelope can’t believe she pulls off often - before turning on the crowd fire in her eyes.
“What the fuck did you do?”
The question is directed at her and before she can help it she spits back, “He’s your boyfriend, Alice, why are you asking me?”
She supposes that’s a good enough answer because the blonde immediately turns on the boys. Before she can get a word in, Fred holds up his hands in innocence.
“I’ve been with you, Al!” She glares at him but moves on.
“And you?” Alice hisses at FP. Fred steps into the space between them that Alice is quickly closing. FP, finally bored of his jacket sleeve, tries to jump behind Penelope for another layer of protection but she side steps. “Do you have anything to do with this?”
“Hey!” Hal screams again. There are a few whoops of laughter from the yard. Penelope fixes her eyes on him and offers a small wave.
“It wasn’t me.” FP grabs Fred by the shoulders, as if ready to toss him into Alice if she makes any sudden movements. “Some guys -”
“What guys?”
“- dared him to -”
“Oh my God.” Alice grits her teeth and keeps her voice low. “You know he can’t turn down a dare when he’s drunk! Why would you -”
“He’s your boyfriend, why weren’t you watching him?” FP snaps back, his voice rising.
“Because I’m mad at him!” she yells.
“Alice!” Hal yells. “I’m up here!”
“Yeah, Hal!” She spins so she’s facing the back of the garage. “I can fucking see you! Get down!”
“I’m going to!”
Penelope’s eyes adjust a little to the dark and she can make out his flushed face a little better now. He yells through his cupped hands as Alice walks closer. Coopers were not yellers by nature. “Marty is just filling up the pool a little more!”
“Pool?” Alice’s face screws up. “What pool?”
Hal points down to where Marty is topping off the water with a garden hose. Alice is still for a moment before breaking into a sprint. Fred and FP follow on her heels, but Penelope walks at a steady pace, not nearly in the right shoes for running.
Alice stops short when Marty sees her coming and turns the hose on her. Fred bumps into her and FP into him and Alice and Fred end on the grass like a bad slapstick skit. FP is the one who gets a face-full of hose water.
Alice gets up and snatches the hose from Marty while he’s still laughing with the rest of the crowd. FP peels off his wet jacket while Fred looks around like he can’t remember why he was running or why he’s on the ground. Alice points the hose at Marty just as Penelope reaches them.
“What did you do?” She holds the hose with two hands, as if it’s a gun. Penelope shoves away thoughts of wondering if Alice has ever held a gun before. “I don’t have all day, Mantle!”
A stream of water shoots out of the end of the hose, but Marty jumps back, hands held up as if he’s under arrest. Alice may be small and skinny but that leather jacket goes a long way.
“He wanted to make a little bet,” Marty says plainly. “I thought it’d be fun.”
“FP says you dared him to jump off your fucking garage?”
Marty looks at FP but he’s too busy shaking water off his jacket. Penelope knows he’s probably waiting for his chance to slip away unnoticed.
“Into the pool.” Marty’s defense is weak. “It’s inflatable. It’s safe!”
“It’s filled with water, Alice!” Hal yells from above them. “Water is soft! So is air! That’s what’s in the pool.”
“No one asked you, Hal!” Alice screams. “Do you want to die?”
“Oh come on, it won’t kill him.” FP was pulling Fred up from the ground. “He’ll probably just break his leg or something.”
“If you don’t break a bone, I’ll pay double!” Marty yells at Hal. “What?” he asks the group glaring at him. “Last thing I need is my parents finding out the paramedics were here.”
“Last thing you need is Hal’s nutty mom coming here and murdering you for killing her only son!” Alice hisses. “Not like there’s going to be much left of you once I get my hands -”
“Slow down there.” Fred slings an arm around Alice, mostly to hold her back from pouncing. “Lets tone down the threats.”
Alice groans. “Can you go get him down, Fred? Please?”
“Sure thing, captain!” Fred ruffles her curls before walking off with FP. Penelope hears him whisper, “Is water soft though?” before they disappear around the garage. Penelope gets a sinking feeling that she won’t see either of them again until the funeral service for Harold Lewis Cooper.
Penelope places a tentative hand on Alice’s shoulder that is met with a harsh, “What?”
She keeps her gaze on Hal as she talks. “Do you really think those two are going to do anything? Maybe we should just - just talk to Hal?”
“Wow, Penelope.” Alice’s voice drips sarcasm. “Why didn’t I think of that?” She lets the hose drop and cups her hands around her mouth. “Hal, get down here right now!”
“Don’t jump!” Penelope adds in a hurry as she squeezes Alice’s arm. “He is very impressionable right now! You don’t want him to think you mean take the quickest route, do you?”
Alice’s mouth opens and closes, as if she’s preparing to argue, but nothing comes out. Her nostrils flare and she yells, “Go down the ladder right now!”
Hal’s close to the edge. There are still a handful of people up there - although Fred and FP don’t seem to be among them - and no one tries to pull him back. Likewise there is a huge group now gathered around her and Alice watching the commotion.
“Maybe you should go up there,” Penelope insists. “You can just grab him.”
“I’m not taking my eyes off him for a second. Why don’t you go up there?”
“I don’t trust that rickety ladder. I’ll watch, you go.”
“Well you were watching him a few minutes ago and you let this happen.”
Penelope stomps her shoe against the grass. “Excuse you, but it is not my job to babysit, Hal. I just so happened to witness this exchange and tried to intervene.”
“Well you did a shit job.”
“Are you guys fighting?” Hal asks. “I hate when you two fight.”
“So come down and stop us!” Alice crosses her arms over her chest. Hal peers down at them.
“Are you still mad at me?”
Alice runs her fingers through her hair and seems one word away from ripping a chunk of it out. “No, Hal. I’m mad at you for an entirely different reason now! Get down!”
“Using the ladder!” Penelope adds in. She bites her lip and asks, “Why were you mad at him?”
“That was like an hour ago,” Alice scoffs. “You think I still remember?”
Hal looks down towards the pool, not noticing the group around watching his every move. “Hey, Pen?”
“Yes?” she asks. It’s Alice’s turn to grip her arm now. “I’m right here, Hal.”
“Can you tell Alice something for me?”
“Of course.” She doesn’t add that half the school can hear them, including his girlfriend. “What do you want me to tell her?”
His shoulders slump. “I’m too high up. I’m afraid to climb back down that ladder.”
“Jesus Christ!” Alice screams.
“It’s not stable! Totally unsafe”
“Hal, get the fuck down! If you can climb up there you can climb back -”
A lot of things happen all at once.
Alice’s yell turns into a scream and Penelope joins in almost immediately. Hal takes one, two, three large backwards steps and then takes off at a run. Penelope knows there is no way he could possibly have judged how far to jump given his inebriated state, but he jumps all the same. The crowd around them is drawn to attention by Marty letting out a howl of excitement.
Penelope isn’t sure if Alice reaches out for her or if she grabs Alice first, but they’re clutching each other before Hal’s sensible sneakers leave the garage roof. Her one hand is digging nails into Alice’s back while the other squeezes one of her hands as if the two of them can will Hal to simply float down with their minds. She wants to look away with all her might, absolutely not wanting her last living image of Hal being him plunging to his death, but she can’t tear her eyes away. There is an awful imagine in her head of her needing to give a statement to a police officer, to the sheriff, to a tear struck Mr. and Mrs. Cooper.
Just like all the worst moments in life that you can’t control, this one happens in slow motion. Hal jumps off the garage. And he falls. Was it eight feet high? Twenty? Scope was all but lost to her now. By some miracle of miracles he hits the pool. Hits it hard. Half the water splashes over the side and before Penelope can comprehend what’s happening, Alice is dragging her to him.
“Hal? Hal! Hal!” They're both screaming and it’s not until they get there that he starts to stir. Penelope shoves an arm in front of Alice to stop her from jumping in the pool too. “Hal?”
One of his eyes opens. He’s on his back and the water is now just too shallow for it to reach his mouth. “Did I do it?”
There’s a great cheer from around them now that everyone sees he’s alive.
“No shit,” Alice says as Penelope asks, “Are you okay?”
Fred and FP are on the other side of the pool with Marty hovering behind. “I think so.” He sits up and looks around. “I really did it?”
“I told you he wouldn’t break anything,” Marty says, his voice tinged with relief.
Fred grabs one of Hal’s arms and FP the other and together they pull him to his feet. FP rubs a wet hand along his t-shirt to dry it off. Hal offers Alice and Penelope a sheepish grin.
“Nothing broken?” Alice asks. She’s still close enough to Penelope that she can feel the fear rolling off her and the anger coming in strong. “Not hurt?”
“My back is kind of sore.” The dive seems to have sobered Hal up a bit. “I think I’ll be okay though. I just need to dry - hey!”
Penelope reaches out and shoves Hal with all her might in the chest. On a normal day he probably wouldn’t have moved but he doesn’t expect it and falls right over, back into the water.
“What the fuck were you thinking, Harold Cooper?” she screams. The crowd, previously thinning out after seeing Hal was still alive, turns their attention back. “How could you do this? You could have broken your leg! Your back! Snapped your neck! You could have died!”
Alice’s arm is on her elbow and she half expects Alice to shove her to the ground next. Instead Alice merely uses her arm as leverage and kicks at the inflatable pool so hard Hal gets splashed in the face.
“You’re a fucking idiot!” Alice screams louder than Penelope could ever wish to. “All of this for what? Some pissing contest with that idiot? You think this is funny?”
“He dared me,” Hal whines. “What was I supposed to do?”
“You were supposed to not do anything!” Penelope hisses. She mimics Alice and gives the pool a little kick.
Fred leans over the pool again to help Hal back up. “Don’t you dare help him!” Alice gives Fred a threatening look and he backs away. Alice digs into the inner pocket of her jacket until she pulls out something. Car keys. Hal’s car keys. “Have fun getting home tonight.”
“Alice, you can’t leave me here.” Hal pleads. He gets up himself this time, slopping more water over the side of the small pool. “My parents -”
“You clearly weren’t thinking about your parents a few minutes ago, now were you?” Penelope asks. She knows Alice would typically laugh at a comment like that but she nods along in solidarity.
“Yeah, Hal.” Alice crosses her arms over her chest. “As if your parents wouldn’t love to blame you killing yourself all on me.”
“I knew I could make it!” Hal’s sneakers make uncomfortable squishing noises in the grass. “I wouldn’t have done it if -”
“Bullshit.” Penelope’s crassness gets a few laughs from the crowd but she doesn’t mind. The attention is actually nice. “You’re drunk and impulsive and, quite frankly, stupid.”
This gets a few hoots from their peers. Alice jingles Hal’s keys in her hand and grabs Penelope by the wrist. “We’re leaving.”
“Alice, come on.” Penelope hears his squishy sneakers follow them a few steps. “Penelope? Come on, Pen. You drove here yourself!”
It’s true but Penelope doesn’t turn around. Alice just shouts, “Have one of those idiots take you home!”
She’s not sure which idiots Alice is speaking of but there is a chorus of “not it” that echoes around the yard. They run into Hiram on the front lawn. He raises a brow at them but doesn’t question their walking together or nearly holding hands.
“Marcus said Hal was about to jump off the garage into that dinky pool.” He lets out a bellowing laugh. “As if. He won’t even get into my hot tub without checking the chlorine levels first.”
“He did.” Alice sounds almost bored by it at this point. “You may want to drive him home.”
“Wait, what?”
“I hope your leather interior dries fast,” Penelope adds as Alice tugs her along. Hiram shouts after them but the girls just share a grin as they walk towards Hal’s car.
“Serves him right,” Alice says. Penelope doesn’t know if Alice means Hal or Hiram or one of the idiots they left back by the pool but she nods along, feeling a strange connection with the blonde she’s never felt before.
“Yeah,” Penelope agrees quietly. “Serves them all right.”