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“Pumpking Patch! Pumpking Patch!”
A loud screech silenced the kids' chants as the car turned sharply into a parking space. Well… less of a parking space and more a large dead patch of grass. With a click of the brakes, the doors of the minivan were thrown open as everyone scrambled out. Each of them taking off towards a farmhouse that looked recently painted with its bright mint color. Right next to the porch was a swinging sign that read “ Pumpking Patch! Home of the Twisted Corn Maze! ”.
Pearl sluggishly slid out from her seat and climbed out of the car. Grumbling about her feet being stepped on by the kids that hurried out.
She’d thought her trip would have been just her and Marina when Marina had invited her to come. Just the two of them going to a pumpkin patch a few miles outside of the big city. Instead, she got a one-hour car trip as Marina’s siblings(actually her niblings, but she saw them more as siblings), yelled about going to some farm. It wouldn’t have been as bad if the twins hadn’t asked her about her relationship with marina; asking every question they could think of that would get Lake to kill her if she answered.
“Stop standing around my car, Shortie!”
Speaking of the devil, Pearl gave another grumble and turned to give a glare at the older Iida.
Even though Lake was Marina’s older sister, they both were nothing alike besides from appearance. She had found out quickly the stark difference between the two when Lake threw her into a lake. Whereas, Marina was calm and more soft spoken; Lake was loud and extremely protective over her kids. Both of them had a high intellect, and physical skills that Pearl couldn’t ever imagine having. The one mistake she’d had made before was calling Lake, “ Nerd ”. It practically had taken two weeks for her to recover from the beating she got when Lake challenged her to an unofficial boxing match just because of the nickname. Now, she felt like everything she did was walking on eggshells with Lake; especially after she had started to date Marina.
A hand rested upon Pearl’s shoulder that distracted Pearl away from her thoughts. She looked up and was met with a soft smile from Marina. Pearl couldn’t help but let her frown fall as she gently wrapped one arm around Marina’s.
“C’mon,” Marina smiled. “Let’s go catch up to the others.”
Pearl nodded. “Yeah.”
While they walked, Pearl thought about how amazing Marina looked. She had said it earlier when they had been leaving, but the outfit Marina wore was just outstanding . She wore a long tawny sweater decorated with a leaf pattern, alongside a pair of black skinny jeans and her combat boots.Though Pearl wouldn’t admit to have been the one who stole Marina’s boots to reach the mayo jar in the cupboard. Resting on her chest was a necklace with a little octopus pendant that matched Pearl’s own squid one. They both had picked out the necklaces on their date at the aquarium. Thinking about it, Pearl remembered that it had already been exactly a year since Marina had asked her out at the cafe.
“So our first activity is to pick out pumpkins to carve, and then we can check out the corn maze.” Marina spoke up, holding out a piece of paper.
“We’re not on vacation, Marmar. Why bring a whole itinerary?” Pearl asked with a chuckle. Which ended up with her taking a light punch to the shoulder making her laugh even more. “I’m not wrong!”
“You know I like to have things organized!”
“Yeah, but sometimes ya get the whole day planned out when it’s just for something small. Like when we went out to visit the music museum your great-granduncle works at. Even he agreed that you should loosen up a bit.”
“Octavio says that to everyone!”
“Alright, now that’s not wrong.” Pearl leaned closer to Marina. “It’s nice you got everything planned out but let’s just relax for the small stuff. Give that big brain of yours a break from all that planning work.”
“Fine… I’ll take a break.” Marina agreed, putting away the paper in her hands. “Let’s go see where the twins went.”
“I think I already found them…” Pearl trailed off, looking at the two teens fighting in the pumpkin patch while a small child watched them.
Taller than the other with blue dyed curled hair was Chirps. She wore a large sweater with paw prints and a device around her neck. From what Pearl knew about it was that Chirps had designed it to where it would speak for her since Chirps couldn’t formulate words. The device was connected to a tiny keyboard that Chirps always carried around. It appeared she would be the winning twin as she pushed down her brother’s head with ease while he punched away at her side. A large pumpkin lied right behind her, which Pearl was surprised that she hadn’t-
Chirps fell back as soon as Pearl was about to say watch out. She was about to walk over when the shorter twin grabbed the pumpkin and held it up. Almost opposite of Chirps was Squeaks, who had dyed his hair red and was quite a bit shorter than her. Even then, Pearl knew that the both of them were insanely smart in different topics. While Marina bested everyone in engineering and knowledge of music, Chirps beat her in her understanding of bio-engineering and astrophysics, and Squeak's knowledge of marine life went all the way down to the microbes in the sea. The three nerds of the Iida family as Pearl once joked about.
“Mariiiiina! Squeaks won’t let me have the big pumpkin.” Chirps’s electronic device called out. She held up her keyboard and pointed at the pumpkin.
“You don’t plan to carve a masterpiece like I do!” Squeaks exclaimed, hugging the pumpkin closer.
“I want to carve a cat though! Cats are always the perfect masterpiece in art!” Chirps voiced, pushing herself back up.
“You two don’t have to fight over it!” Marina walked over and took the pumpkin with ease from Squeaks
“Pearl, help me out here!” Chirps cried.
Squeaks attempted to push her down, but failed. “Don’t listen to her, Houzuki!”
“Jerome, stop being mean to Jamie.” Marina set down the pumpkin. The twins lowered their heads after hearing their real names. “If you two can’t get along, then neither of you can have the pumpkin.”
“Why not let Pearl just choose who gets it?” Chirps asked.
“Yes, let Houzuki decide who gets it. She knows who is the smartest out of us both!” Squeaks exclaimed.
“Well if it’s my choice,” Pearl walked over and picked up the pumpkin. Handing it back over to Marina. “The biggest pumpkin should go to the best girlfriend!”
“Traitor!!” Both twins called out to Pearl as she busted out laughing.
She spotted Marina blushing which made her laugh even harder. Pearl loved seeing Marina's cute little blush that would happen each time she gave a compliment or flirted with her. Even just calling her girlfriend would earn a small one.
Although what Pearl didn’t see coming was the small terror that was Lake’s youngest. While Pearl continued to laugh, she was cut short as a stick whacked her side.She let out a small startled noise and stepped away as fast as she could. Looking up at the culprit who barely was taller than her was Hachi. They shared the twins' amber eyes but Hachi’s looked more like a hazel. A small beanie decorated their head to keep them safe from the cold. While Chirps could make noises, Pearl had found out from Marina that Hachi couldn’t speak at all.
“What was that for Hachi?!”
‘Revenge’ Hachi signed out slowly. Pearl wondered if they did it that slow to help her understand it better since she herself was still learning from Marina.
“Hachi, what did I tell you about hitting other people!” Marina exclaimed
‘Hit it where it hurts.’
“I did not say that!” Marina scoffed, handing the pumpkin back over to Pearl. “Who taught you that?”
The twins giggled and pointed towards Marina. Pearl could already tell all three of them were going to get in trouble. And she was correct...
Hachi and the twins took off the moment they saw Marina start heading towards them. Pearl giggled as she watched them take off into the pumpkin patch. It wasn’t surprising Marina had caught them all in moments since Chirps had tripped on a pumpkin stem and pulled Squeaks down with her. Hachi was caught simply because they attempted to hide behind Pearl. Pearl looked away as each of them received a stern talking. She knew exactly what it was like to have younger siblings. Once Marina was finished, the kids each took off again; probably to find a different pumpkin.
“I love them, but sometimes they can be-”
“Annoying little shits.” Pearl interrupted.
Marina shook her head at Pearl’s words.“Not that vulgar word choice, but yes they can be annoying.”
“I know exactly how that feels.” Pearl gave a light chuckle. “Still gonna take the big pumpkin?”
“They already decided they would look for other ones so I guess.” Marina shrugged and took the pumpkin back from Pearl.
“Now we just have to find one that’s rad enough for me!” Pearl beamed.
She looked out towards the vast field of pumpkins and saw all sorts of sizes. Some were crooked and bumpy. Others were tiny or very thin among the large round ones. Walking over to one of them, she tapped at its side to test its durability. Feeling it sink under her hand, she assumed that one must have sprouted early and now just grew soft. Moving onto a different pumpkin, she noticed it had a long shape but thick with bumps. Too bumpy for what she planned to carve. Until there was one that caught her eye with its shape.
“Aha! Look at this one, Reena!” Pearl held up a plump pumpkin. It wasn’t large in size, but was certainly very round.
Marina smiled. “That’s a good size one.”
“Yup! Now let’s go grab one of those carving tables!”
“Actually, I think Lake already did.” Marina noted, pointing towards the other three sitting down at a table where two people were already carving.
They walked over to the table with their own pumpkins, and sat down opposite of the twins. Pearl noticed Lake already carving on one pumpkin, but she saw someone else struggle with their own. Missing an arm was Shuri, Lake’s oldest and the one she had adopted alongside Hachi. She wore an identical winter beanie that covered her hair. Pearl remembered the day when she helped Shuri dye her hair red with blue tips. When Marina was teaching her how to braid, Shuri was the one who let Pearl braid her curly hair. Out of all of Lake’s kids, Pearl found Shuri the easiest to hang out with since she was more “chill”.
She watched as Lake stopped carving her own pumpkin and start helping Shuri with hers. From what Marina had told her, Shuri had lost her arm after a drunken driver drove through their school parking lot. Lake had been able to grab Shuri and shield her to prevent her from taking the full brunt of hitting the ground, but wasn’t able to save Shuri from serious wounds. Because of it, Lake became very protective over all of her kids, but especially Shuri. While Pearl wouldn’t admit it out loud, especially not to Lake, she kind of admired how much Lake cared about her kids. Sure, Pearl had her overbearing but loving father that demanded her to be a perfect daughter, but her mother was a whole different case. It probably was because of how distant Pearl had grown with her ever since she moved away with her brothers to handle business in Shibuya.
Pearl noticed after Lake had gotten the pumpkin carved, she gave one of the painting sets that were lying on the table over to Shuri, who appeared happy to have the set; and then pulled out a tiny pumpkin from underneath the table. She set it down, and gave a sinister smirk towards Pearl.
“Alright, now listen up.” Lake clapped her hands together which gathered everyone’s attention. “You see this pumpkin represents the pink-haired gremlin over there.”
Lake took out one of her combat knives that she always carried around, and stabbed the tiny pumpkin as hard as she could. Its orange shell couldn’t do anything against the sudden force and broke apart, sending its seed guts everywhere around the table.
“-And this is what I’ll do if that small shrimp breaks Marina’s heart.”
Pearl shuddered at the image.
“Mom, stop being mean to Pearlie!”
“Fine, but the threat still stands.” Lake nonchalantly shrugged.
“Alright, alright. I won’t threaten her for now.” Lake stood up and stretched. “Now who wants some of that apple cider they’re selling?”
Everyone raised their hand besides Pearl. She didn’t particularly like the taste of it since it felt off to her. Although that was something a lot of foods did, at least it wasn’t uncomfortable for her to eat apples. Only the drinks had a weird texture which she disliked.
As Lake left, Pearl decided to focus on carving her own pumpkin. She thought it would be pretty much easy to do, but that turned out to be so severely wrong. Barely able to dig the knife in, Pearl wondered how she was going to carve a sick guitar into it. Looking at Marina, she could see that she was pretty much deep in thought about what she was carving. To Pearl it looked liked somebody smiling, but she couldn’t tell who it was. Although, she thought it was amazing how fast Marina had gotten with hers. Deciding to give hers another try, Pearl repeatedly scraped away at the pumpkin with the small blade. If she wasn’t able to dig straight into it, she could just scrape at it until it worked for her!
“What are you making, Pearl?”
Pearl stopped scraping away and looked at her pumpkin. It looked more like a mess than a bass guitar. Maybe she had done something wrong with the shape? “Just making a carving of you playing that cool bass guitar riff.”
“You really thought that was cool?” Marina asked, resting her cheek in her hand.
“Well, duh! Name who else could play several instruments like a pro! You’re a special gal with music, Mar!”
“Awww, Pearlie!” Marina gushed, setting aside her tools and pulling Pearl into a hug.
Pearl felt her own blush start to creep up, but she tried to hide it away with her scarf. Snuggly fluff can protect her from embarrassment. She’d be screwed if the twins found out she could get flustered easily by Marina. Those two
“What are you making?”
“Not telling~” Marina teased, pulling away from Pearl.
“What?!” Pearl exclaimed, shock evident on her face. “That’s not fair! I told you what I was making.”
“You just have to wait until I’m done.”
“You’re no fun…” Pearl pouted and slouched forward against the table. She looked at the other four. “What are ya guys carving?”
“I’m carving Phanta holding a cat and Hachi is drawing a puppy!” Chirps exclaimed holding up her and Hachi’s pumpkin. It appeared that Hachi had just painted theirs while Chirps already had a finished carving. Damn that’s got detail… Pearl would add pumpkin carving to the list of what Chirps is insanely good at.
“I’m drawing the best sea species to exist, the Praya dubia!” Squeaks responded, holding up his pumpkin.
“Cool.” Pearl had no clue what the creature was or even looked like, but she assumed it was whatever Squeaks was talking about. She returned back to her pumpkin and tried to switch it to what she had said. Which… turned out to be even more of a mess of pumpkin guts. At this rate she could just take all the seeds and use it to bake some roasted pumpkin seeds. Maybe if she just… there! Replacing parts that she had cut out, Pearl remade her drawing. Only to realize… It was terrible.
Lake came back with several drinks in her arms and set them all down. Sitting back down, she took a sip of her cup and closed her eyes.
“I heard from some workers there’s some sort of treasure hunt inside the corn maze.” Lake said, opening her eyes and turning her attention towards Marina and Pearl. “You two aren’t allowed to go ‘cause I don’t trust you two alone.”
Marina rolled her eyes, “Lake, I’m twenty-one. You don’t have to treat me like a kid anymore”
Lake held up one finger, “One, you’re always a kid to me.” She raised another finger. “And two, you and shrimp smooch faces all the time. Don’t want some random kiddo to walk in on you two, and then I get in trouble for being associated with you two idiotic adults. So no, you’re not being let out of my sights. Even if it’s to head into some small maze for a candy prize or check out the zip line.
A candy prize? Reena would love that. Pearl thought as she looked towards Marina who seemed intent on listening.
“We won’t run off…” Marina said with a pout. Pearl could tell Marina must have been coming up with an idea that differed from her words since her pout was fake. If there was one thing Marina was good at, it certainly was tricking Lake into believing she was telling the truth. Or well full truth as Marina put it.
“Good.”
As the others continued to work on their own pumpkins, Marina tapped Pearl’s shoulder. “It’s finished!”
“Really?” Pearl looked at the back of the pumpkin.
“Yup!” Marina turned the pumpkin around to reveal it was a carving of Pearl smiling.
Pearl immediately recognized it from the background of jellyfish. It was based on a photo Marina had taken of Pearl on their most recent date. Presumably, Pearl guessed that it would glow once a candle or those small little electric candles were put inside it. She could only say one thing about it.
“ Wow …” Pearl trailed off.
“It was kind of hard to fit the jellyfish, but I managed! What I’m really proud of is how I kept it thin enough for light to come through. So later on when it gets dark, it’ll make your face glow real bright!” Marina explained, holding up the pumpkin proudly.
Pearl quickly whipped out her phone and took a picture of Marina and her pumpkin. Marina’s smile was just too gosh damn adorable to not take a picture of! She really wondered why Marina liked her so much, but she knew Marina was the real soft type. While Pearl wouldn’t admit to it, Marina was the only person that Pearl felt comfortable being soft with. Mostly because Marina was someone she could trust, and indeed she trusted her with heart.
“It looks ugly, Marina.” Squeaks called out, which earned him being shoved off the table by Chirps.
“Don’t listen to him! I think it’s amazing, Marina!” Chirps praised.
“You got skill, but picked the wrong person to model after.” Lake chimed in.
“Hey Mom, since we already paid to grab eight pumpkins, why don’t we go put these ones in the car?” Shuri asked suddenly, catching everyone’s attention.
“Eh, why not.” Lake shrugged and picked up her and Shuri’s pumpkins. “Everyone start handing over your pumpkins.”
All of them(even Pearl who was surprised Lake would take hers) pushed their pumpkins forward. Lake took the ones she could carry and walked away from the table. Pearl was surprised by the sudden action, because she didn’t understand why Shuri would recommend that.
“I’ll distract Mom and have Hachi keep the twins in check. You two annoying lovebirds go off and have some fun.” Shuri said.
“Huh?!” Both Pearl and Marina exclaimed in surprise.
“I know you want to go check out that corn maze, Marina. So you just go run off, and make sure to avoid Mom.” Shuri explained, standing up and grabbing a pumpkin.
Marina gave a nod towards Shuri, “Thanks, Shuri.”
“Yeah... thanks kiddo! Don’t make your mom mad!” Pearl said, standing up and sliding off her seat.
“Bye you two!!” Chirps called out, giving them a wave.
“Just don’t get in trouble, please you three.” Marina quickly told them, hurrying out of her seat as well.
“To the corn maze, Reena! We’ve got some prizes to win!” Pearl yelled, already running for it.
Both skidded to a stop once they arrived at the entrance of the corn maze. Marina made sure to grab a flyer and look over where each location of a treasure lay. It didn’t seem too hard for the both of them. Not wanting to wait, Pearl took Marina’s hand and led her into the open pathway between tall corn stalks. The both of them giggling with giddiness.