Chapter Text
Night had once again fallen on Cloney Island, drawing the clones’ fourth day of summer vacation to a close. The humid air smelled vaguely of firework smoke and the park was quiet due to the absence of guests. In this absence, the clones were allowed a little free time until curfew forced them to bed before the next day of work.
And it was during this fourth night that it finally occurred to Abe that he hadn’t seen JFK around since they’d all been launched off the tram on their first day. Out of all his friends, he’d seen Joan the most due to them being in Leader Lagoon together and thus sharing a dorm building, but he’d seen Confucius too as he’d gone with Joan to visit him at Sage Summit the previous night. Besides visiting Sage Summit, they’d also explored a few of the other themed areas, and while doing so they’d run across plenty of the clones housed in these sections, including Frida and Harriet. But not JFK. Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen anyone from the ‘Historical Hotties’ section in the past four days.
So, now on a mission, Abe walked through the park looking for Historical Hotties, hoping to find it before the inevitable lights out forced him to return to the lagoon. Luckily, the theme park wasn’t too big, and it didn’t take long before he found just what he was looking for: the large sign that framed the entrance to the Historical Hotties area. Walking past this sign, he was surprised to find a lack of attractions in this section of the park. There was nothing like his own log ride or the theater where Joan performed. In fact, the main draw of the area seemed to be a large wall seemingly made of windows and topped with barbed wire.
Curious, he walked over to look through these windows and found himself looking down into an enclosure. Reminiscent of something found in a zoo.
“Weird,” he muttered to himself, “I didn’t know Scudworth added animals to the park.”
But just as Abe was about to leave to look elsewhere, a figure walked out of a door located on the back wall and into the enclosure. It took Abe a moment to remember the other teen’s name as he began banging on the glass to get his attention. “Hey! Uh….Kublai Khan!” The other teen jumped in surprise, clearly not expecting anyone to be calling out from the other side of the glass, but he did turn in that direction, and now that Abe had his attention he continued shouting, “Is JFK in there with you?!”
“Uhhh, yeah, why?” The other boy shouted back.
“Could you tell him I’m here then?” Abe asked, and he saw Kublai Khan turn back for the door but didn’t catch his answer, so he wasn’t sure if he was actually going to tell JFK or not.
Abe waited around anyway and sure enough, a couple minutes later the door opened again, and JFK stepped out into the dimly lit enclosure. He glanced around for a moment before he caught sight of Abe, and his face lit up as he ran over with a shout of the taller clone's name.
When he got to the windows, he pressed his hands against it, and instinctively, Abe put his hands up as well. Placing them so that the two would be touching if not for the glass. “Hey, JFK! Been awhile,” he greeted, but JFK didn’t return it.
Instead, the shorter clone shouted, “Oh my God, Abe! How did you escape your enclosure?” which caught Abe off guard.
“Escape my what?”
“Your enclosure,” JFK repeated.
“I don’t have an enclosure,” Abe explained, “just a ride.”
“And you can uh, leave it?” JFK questioned, brows furrowing as his head tilted slightly to the side.
“Yeah…. You can’t?”
“No!” JFK shouted, starting to look frustrated, “I’ve been locked in here since we got launched!”
“But can’t you go into that building over there?”
“Er uh, yeah, that’s the dorm, but we can’t get out of there either! Except to come out here all day," he gestured vaguely at the surrounding area, "But you’re really tellin’ me everyone else is allowed out of their dorms and attractions?”
“Yeah,” Abe admitted reluctantly.
“That’s not fucking fair,” Jack muttered through gritted teeth. Not that Abe heard him, but he saw the expression on his face and the way his jaw tensed.
“Well, at least it’s only a summer job,” Abe said, trying to offer some positivity.
“But that’s still uh three months. That’s a long time!”
“At least it’s not forever?”
JFK was silent long enough that Abe thought the other boy wasn’t going to respond, but eventually, he gave a resigned “I er uh guess so.”
“Anywaaaaaays,” Abe stalled as he looked past JFK at the enclosure, searching for something to say as he fully took in just how empty the space was except for a few barren trees, “what exactly do you do in here all day?”
“Stand there and let people stare at you,” JFK explained simply, and Abe waited a moment, thinking the other boy would elaborate further, but he never did.
“Oh, that sounds boring.”
“It’s starting to be,” Jack said, voice sounding hollow for a moment before he continued, “but what about you? You uh said you work at a ride?”
“Yeah, I just stand at the start of the log flume and help people get started.”
“Wait, a Lincoln-themed log flume? Isn’t that just like-”
“The old Unspecified Rodent Themed Amusement Park? Yeah. You think Principal Scudworth will get sued for copying?”
“If it gets me out of here sooner, I hope so,” Jack said darkly, and Abe was about to comment on the other’s shift in mood before their conversation was interrupted by the door once again being thrown open.
Abe could just barely make out Cleo’s form backlit against the lights of the dorm as she shouted, “JFK, stop yelling at whoever that is! Some of us are trying to get our beauty sleep!” She then slammed the door shut.
“I er uh, guess I should uh, go…”
“That’s okay,” Abe assured, “I should go too. It’s getting late and I have to walk halfway across the park to get back to Leader Lagoon. I’ll try to visit again tomorrow, though.”
“Alright, you better,” JFK said with a grin, and Abe nodded. The taller clone then glanced around the enclosure one last time before walking away, and JFK watched him go. The grin slowly sliding off his face to be replaced with a frown before he returned to the dorm.