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Since meeting Nancy Mulligan - Much to his mom's dislike - She and Bill had been a tightly knit pair of workers, running a completely legitimate and successful operation. Or- About as successful as a business run by a couple of kids could be. Bill wasn't always particularly eyeful about what may be a shady job, so having Nancy around with her street smarts to keep them out of trouble made them more than efficient as a duo.
Nancy had shown up early that morning, something about her dad trying to convince her into another odd job of his, and with Alice less than happy with the girl's reputation, they were out of the house before breakfast ended.
"I was thinking, Bill Green," She tells him while jumping on her bike, rolling the grips on her bicycle handles eagerly, "I figured that we should try going to some houses further out of the country. You know, the bigger farms."
Bill gulps gives her a wary eye, "I don't know about that, Nancy. Ma always says those folk have themselves sorted. Why would they need our help?"
"Pft, I know that," She tells him, buckling her helmet, "But think about it. The farms down that way are bigger. You know why?"
He pauses, "Cause they make more money?"
"Exactly!" She exclaims, "If we could get the odd jobs from like- Half the houses down there that we usually do in the country and Big City, we'd be making even more cash! That'd help your mom and my dad out a ton!"
Bill taps his chin, "I dunno, Nanc.. We're already pretty set doin' what we're doin'. What if we don't get any jobs at all? Then we'd go home completely empty handed!"
"Yeah, there is that.." She agrees with a sigh, but then pats a fist on her handle and tells him confidently, "But I think we should try anyway. It'd just be one day-"
"One day can have a pretty big toll on things, Nancy.."
"-And besides," She pats his shoulder firmly, reassuringly, "There might still be time today to go make a quick couple bucks in our usual spots. Whaddya' think?"
Nancy holds out a fist, with her typical rambunctious smile and confident mien; The one that always complimented Bill's more sheepish, responsible demeanor. Just as, he smiles back, and plants his knuckle against hers. That Nancy Mulligan surely was something.
They start riding off down the dirt road, Bill honking his bicycle horn a few times while Nancy's wheels growl like a motorcycle from the card in her spokes. She holds a fist in the air while challenging Bill to a race, who follows in suit with a hoot of his own.
Having always been so busy helping Ma with the farm, Bill hadn't gotten many chances to make friends out in the country. Nancy, despite his mom's warnings, was always nice. Even if she was sneaky sometimes- She still always had their best interest at heart.
Like he mentioned, the farms further out in the country were much bigger. Much, much bigger. It took the two of them forever just to get to the front door step of the first house, because of the span of the field it had behind it. They both look at each other and swallow hard (As well as they can, at least, with how dehydrating all this biking was to them). Having to work out on those fields wouldn't be anything sparing.
Once their bikes are parked in front of the house, they stand by the road and catch their breaths together by the road. With how tiring it was, they both looked at each other with reconsideration. These houses were too far apart for the travel alone to be worth it if they weren't gonna get any work. Still, they've come this far. Hopefully one of the first farms they visit can offer them something to do.
On the deck, Nancy takes the initiative to click the doorbell and tells him, “We probably shouldn’t test our luck if this is what we gotta go through.” Bill nods along and looks around. Aside from the farm, the house was large as well. It had two stories and was nice, cool teal. The windows on either side of the front door are drawn shut with blinds, and there’s a small table on one end of the porch surrounded by three chairs. Bill stares at a stuffed animal sitting in one. Nancy knocks an elbow against his arm and mutters upon noticing it as well, “Hope we don’t get any babysitting job. Not like that one time..”
Bill shivers. Babysitting was no responsibility like farm chores, he learned the hard way.
The front door swings open, and a man is standing there, looking down at them both curiously. Tilting his head, Bill could swear he looks familiar, but Nancy is patting his shoulder roughly so he remembers to introduce them both.
“Hi, mister,” He begins his typical spiel, albeit a bit more anxiously, “Me and my friend here are both looking to make some money. We can do just about anything you need!”
“That’s right!” Nancy adds on, “And we mean anything. We could paint your fence, clean up your yard, help on your farm- We could even give you a hand with any animals! I even started carrying a pair of rubber gloves, ever since that lady and her cow!”
The man listens with an agogged expression, planting his hands on his hips and exclaiming once they were finished talking, “Well, isn’t this neat? A little growing business! Can’t say I’ve had many kids stop by offering this sort of thing up, now.”
He crouches down to their level and holds out both arms, crossed over each other, “What are your names, you two?”
Nancy takes the offered hand assuredly, shaking it eagerly up and down and telling him, “I’m Nancy Mulligan, sir! At your service, if you need any!”
“I’m Bill,” He tells him more sheepishly, gently winding his hand up and down a few times before letting it go and putting his hands behind his back anxiously. The man narrows his eyes at Bill for a moment, pursing his lips before snapping and standing back up straight to state, “Bill Green. You’re Ernest Green's boy, aren’t you?”
“Yes, sir.” Bill nods.
“I’m sorry for your loss, son.”
He looks down shyly, “That’s alright, sir.”
There’s a pause, then the man moves on and tells them, “At any rate, I really think what you two are doing is a great thing. Real nice, honest work. Although, I’m not sure there are any jobs I can think up for you two.. I’ve got a good bunch of farm hands out back working, and I can usually handle the house on my own..”
“We can do more than that! We can- Um..” Nancy stammers, tapping her chin and drawing blanks. Bill jumps in, “We could run to the store for you! Or go to the city and get you something there! Anywhere- except Joe’s Arcade, we can do it, sir! Promise!”
“Yeah!” Nancy continues, “Like we said! Anything you need, we can handle it! Check out our reviews!” She pulls a piece of folded looseleaf out of her pants pocket and hands it over for him to take a look, at the five star reviews she claims she didn’t at all make up. He reads over them carefully, tapping his chin some more before his eyes widen.
“You know, I think I’ve got something you can do. But, it might be a little different, so if you two aren’t up for it, I understand,” He crouches back down again, “Now, tell me. How much do you usually get paid in a day?”
Bill and Nancy share looks, both jumping to turn around and whisper some things to each other before Bill finally comes to a conclusion to tell. The man nods along, patting his knees and telling them both, “Alright, well, what if I told you I’d double- Heck, I’ll triple that number if you can do this job?”
Nancy and Bill stare wide eyed, both immediately straightening up and nodding along to whatever he was saying. That much money would be pivotal in helping them and their parents, even if it only helped for the month. Bill could only imagine how happy it’d make his ma, and Nancy had that same look on her face. The man smiles at their excitement, but pats both of their shoulders and tells them, “Okay, okay. Sounds pretty good, yeah? But like I said, this is a pretty big thing. It won’t be easy..”
“We can do it!” Nancy says confidently, “Nothing’ll be harder than the lawn mower clippings. Now tell us what we’ll be doing!”
“I’m sure,” The man says without a second thought, “Alright. Now, I know this sounds shady.. But I want you to hang out with my son for the day.”
Bill and Nancy both blink, and each tilt their heads confusedly, looking at him like he’s crazy. He’d pay them for.. hanging out with his son? For a day? That didn’t seem shady. That just seemed like a silly offer, on his end.
“You mean you’re saying that if we just.. Hang out with your kid for a day, you’ll give us a ton of money?” Nancy looks at Bill and puts her hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes back towards the man and stepping backward suspiciously. Bill assumed she’d be dubious; She was always the one keeping a sharp eye out for what could be scams or strange situations. Nick must have taught her how to find those sorts of things when she was helping him with his own scams, which she had since excused herself out of doing. Bill, however, hadn’t learned more than screaming and biting if someone tried to abduct him.
“I know, it sounds weird! But between you two and myself-” He leans in in a whisper, covering one side of his mouth with the back of his hand, as if someone was going to read his lips, “-He won’t go out and make friends on his own, not for the life of him! Not many kids come by this way, either, so.. He doesn’t really get the chance to.”
Nancy’s eyes soften up and she lets out a huff, looking at Bill and grabbing him by the arm to turn him around.
“Alright, what’re we thinking, Bill?” She whispers, peeking back at the man apprehensively, “You think his kid’s a weirdo or something? I don’t wanna be stuck with some snobby mean kid all day.”
“I mean.. Who cares? This guy’s really nice- How bad could his son really be? Besides, think about what that money could do for us! My ma will be so happy!”
She puts a hand on her chin in thought, glancing back and staring at the man for a while longer before spinning herself and Bill back to face him and holding a hand out, telling him confidently, “Alright, mister. You’ve got a deal. What do you want us to do?”
“Oh, whatever you kids do is up to you,” He tells them both, shaking her hand, “Just as long as my son’s home before sundown, not hurt at all, and- You know, not in any sort of sour mood. I’ll pay you afterwards. That sound good?”
“Mhm, mhm,” Nancy hums, “So- Where is he, anyways?”
The man looks back into the house and mutters to himself, striding off somewhere and calling out for his boy. They hear his voice, talking to someone in another room, and then there’s a quiet response; So quiet, they can both hardly understand what was said. Nancy looks at Bill and shrugs, and he listens closer.
“They’re here asking to play with you! Come on, bud. You can’t stay in here cooped up all the time. You’ve gotta make some friends!” The man tells his son, who audibly groans and then huffs.
“You’re my friend already,” The other kid states matter-of-factly, to which his dad sighs and tells him, “I’m your father. That’s different. I want you to have friends your age.”
“I don’t want any. I want to stay home with you! I never cause any trouble, dad!”
“I know you don’t. I’m not saying you do! I just want you to get out of the house for a little while! And- You can’t stay home with me. I’m going out soon to do some co-op work, and your nanny canceled.”
“I can stay home by myself! I’m old enough!”
The man sighs again, “I don’t want you to. I want you to go out, and have some fun with these kids. Get into some trouble, even! Not a whole lot- Not police trouble- But some. Climb a fence, ding dong ditch someone, whatever! Just go have fun!”
The boy huffs, and his dad goes quiet. After a pause, he talks softly, sweetly, and tells him, “I know you’ve been having a hard time with everything, son. I know it’s hard. But you can’t just stay in all day by yourself. You need some friends. And these kids are real nice- You remember my friend, Ernie?”
“Yes..”
“That’s his boy, out at the door. I’m sure you two will get along! Will you at least try for me, baby?”
There’s silence.
“Okay.. How about a deal?”
Quietly, there’s a hum.
“How about.. If you go out and play with these kids.. We can eat out tonight. Wherever you wanna go, we’ll go. Cross my heart and swear to Wholesome Foods.”
After another pause, the kid speaks up, “..Diner. I wanna go to the diner.”
“I never would have guessed,” The man jokes sarcastically, “And, if you have a good time, we can get milkshakes, too. That sound like a fair deal?”
There’s a pause, and Bill and Nancy can only assume his son agrees, because the next thing they know, the two both walk out and back over to the door. His son follows him shyly, still clearly not comfortable or even happy with the situation, but the promise of being given treats was clearly too overwhelming for him to decline. He stares at them both with a mean glare from behind his dad’s leg, who simply pat’s the back of his head and tells him to introduce himself.
“Hi..” He says quietly, not going as far as to offer a hand like his father, but nonetheless resembling him. He had brown hair, though a darker, more red-orange complexion than his fathers easy-going yellow. He’s dressed more than comfortably.
“My name's Nancy! Nancy Mulligan!” She reaches and grabs his hand, lightly pulling him out from behind his father and giving him an aplomb, excited shake, to which he turns away and puts a hand on his face embarrassedly. Bill follows her lead, though with a much more lull approach, simply offering his hand out instead and letting the other take it, telling him, “I’m Bill. Bill Green.”
“..I’m Chip Whistler.” He says through a light lisp. Bill eyes Nancy, telling her through the look in his eyes not to comment on it. She shrugs back, uncaring.
“Well!” Mr. Whistler says spryly, holding his hands out and getting on a knee, “If that’s all well and good, then you three can be on your way. Stay careful if you go to the city. I’ll be home a little after dinner time.”
Chip jumps eagerly into his dad for a goodbye hug, which is immediately reciprocated. After a kiss on the head goodbye, the front door shuts, and Chip looks at the two behind him. Without a word, he glances behind them, at the bikes laying in his front lawn, and scratches the back of his head anxiously.
“You do have a bike, right?” Nancy asks, crossing her arms oddly, “‘Cause if you don’t have a bike, it’s gonna be a pretty long day of walking for all of us.”
“I have a bike..!” He tells her, “I just.. Don’t use it a lot. It’s in the shed.”
He starts leading the way down the stairs, over to a small, nice shed beside their house. It looks more like a mini garage than a shed, really, with a door that Chip pulls up over his head with a bout of struggle before sighing and looking in for his bicycle. It’s sat against a wall, with a large - especially heavy looking - plank of wood propped up above it. Chip sighs, glaring back at them anxiously, before going in.
At first, he stares emptily at it, seemingly trying to think of what to do. Then, he grabs either side of it and gives it a stiff pull with all his strength. It doesn’t move at all. He huffs frustratedly, giving it a kick before grabbing his sneakered foot in pain and biting back a yelp. He stops after a jump and stares at Bill and Nancy, who are watching in puzzlement. Nancy lets out a giggle, covering her mouth in hopes Chip doesn’t see, while Bill gives her a side eye and Chip crosses his arms at being laughed at.
“Here, I’ll help,” Bill tells him, kicking the stand of his own bike out and following in after him. He takes a curious look at the plank and the bike, and firmly grabs the plank before either of them can say anything. Effortlessly, he pulls it off the wall and holds it upright, giving Chip the chance to scurry and get his bike out, bringing it outside next to Nancy and watching Bill set the wood back down in its place carefully.
“Don’t worry, Chip. Bill’s like the brawn between us. I’m the brains!”
“Hey!” Bill exclaims, picking his bike back up and hopping on, “I’ve got brains!”
“Well, yeah, but you’re way stronger than me. My dad says I’m the wittiest girl he’s ever met.”
“Yeah, well-” Bill scoffs, rolling his eyes and letting his eyes blankly land on Chip's bike, raising an eyebrow curiously before he could talk back to Nancy and asking, “Do you have training wheels on?”
Chip jumps and looks down at them, dropping to his knees right away and exclaiming, “No! I don’t use these anymore- I swear! I just haven’t been on my bike in a while.. But I don’t need them now!” He scrambles to get them off and tosses them over by the shed, clicking his helmet on eagerly and getting on his bike, clearly uneasy. Nancy gives Bill a look, and he shrugs and starts riding, Nancy following behind. Though, they both look back at Chip, eagerly watching to see if he’d fall. Wobbly, Chip follows far behind, on occasion planting a foot on the ground to stabilize himself before kicking his feet up onto the pedals again and continuing. Nancy pouts. Bill notices.
Chip notices too. He chews on his bottom lip and pedals faster, managing to keep himself steady until he catches up to the two of them and hits the breaks a little in front of them, dragging it back and looking at them both embarrassedly. They both stare back.
“It’s okay if you don’t know how to ride a bike-”
“I know how to ride my bike! Let’s just go!” He blurts out, and they both shrug.
“What should we do all day?” Nancy changes the subject, though she leads in riding slower so Chip can keep up, “We don’t usually get to do just anything, right Bill?”
“No, not really.. What do you usually do, Chip? Anything fun?”
“Um..” He thinks for a moment, still more focused on keeping himself steady than the question, “I like comic books. And I draw sometimes. And I’ll go out and garden with my dad, if he asks me to.”
“Comic books? What kind of comic books?”
“Galaxu is my favourite! It’s awesome! Starmadillo is so cool. I have cards, too- A whole binder full, almost!”
“I’ve never heard of that before..” Bill claims in a murmur, tapping his bicycle handles awkwardly.
Chip exclaims, “Well, it’s the coolest thing ever! Maybe I can show you guys my cards!-” He straightens up on his bike, “I mean- Only if you wanted. It’s probably kind of weird looking at first, when you don’t know it.”
“I think it sounds cool,” Nancy tells him, and he loosens back up with a giddy grin, “But still. What should we do first? I figured the city, since this place is no fun..”
“We could go to the arcade, maybe-” Chip begins, but both Nancy and Bill tug their shirts and dolefully explain that they’d been banned from there by Joe himself, after what happened with Nancy’s dads scheme. Chip is less off put, and more so fascinated by the trouble they had gotten in. He inquires about their stay in jail, but they both brush it off.
“You know, I heard from one of my dads friends kids that the junkyard in Big City,” Nancy tells them, with a pause for dramatic effect, “Is haunted.”
“Haunted?” Bill asks, “That’s stupid. Nowhere in Big City is haunted! They’re still building it- It can’t be haunted!”
“Not the junkyard!” Nancy corrects, “It’s been there since the start! Besides, just because it’s still being built doesn’t mean it can’t be haunted. I’d think it’s more likely to be haunted, actually- Imagine how many construction people have died already!”
Chip and Bill both gag, and Nancy laughs at them both with a snort. She speeds up her pedaling and shouts to them, “I’ll bet you all my allowance this week I can get there before you both! Unless you’re scaredy!”
“Am not!” Bill yells embarrassedly, pedaling faster behind her as well, Chip being stranded behind trying his very best to catch up while howling, “Wait, you guys! Wait for me!” To no avail. He gets better at riding along the way though, although the hill towards Big City’s bridge greatly slowed him down as he was too scared to let off his breaks like the two of them had. Bill and Nancy nearly considered him lost once they had both gotten to the yard's entrance way, Bill concerningly guiding back toward the corner they had turned, but Chip had managed his way and caught up before Bill could go looking for him, out of breath with rosy cheeks.
“You guys- Are mean! What if I got hit by a car, or something?” He claims through pants, jumping off his bike and frowning at them both, to which Nancy shrugs and tells him, “Suck it up, buttercup! Now let's park our bikes and go check this place out! I heard it looks way scarier inside.”
“Wait- We can’t go in!” Bill tells her, immediately noticing her grin and playing his fear off as fact, “The gates shut locked! So, I mean- Unless you can pick locks, we can’t go in.”
Nancy drags her bike across the road and down a dead-end alley-way, setting it up against the fence for safe keeping with the boys following in her lead, Bill crossing his arms stubbornly and waiting for her to admit that they couldn’t break and enter. Instead, she puts a nervy finger on her cheek and struts proudly back over to the fence, telling him, “I mean, I guess I could pick the lock… Or..”
She jumps onto and clings to the chain link fence, climbing up it halfway and flipping her head back to give him a haughty grin, tittering, “We could just climb the fence!”
“Nancy! That’s dangerous!” Bill tells her, throwing his arms into the air frustratedly.
Chip points at a sign that reads ‘Breaking and entering is expressly forbidden’ and states out loud, “And I’m pretty sure breaking and entering is expressly forbidden.”
Nancy lets out a scoff and climbs higher up, sitting on the top of the fence and kicking her legs down at them, “Come on, guys. Don’t be wusses! If I had to guess, I’d say you’re just scared of ghosts. I know I’m not!”
Bill and Chip look at her, then each other, and Chip starts climbing up the fence as well. Bill huffs, and Chip shrugs, simply telling him, “I’m not scared of ghosts!”. Bill watches Nancy climb down the fence, jumping back onto the ground and running off while Chip had just reached the top. He huffs. He wasn’t scared of ghosts. Ghosts weren’t even real. Bill grabs the fence.
When Bill manages to climb up the fence, then manages to climb down it again, he holds his hands on his knees and lets out a couple of pants, wiping his brow before looking around. Nancy and Chip had both run off somewhere, leaving him behind to find his way to them. He considered staying back with their bicycles and waiting for them to come running back after scaring themselves, but his better judgment pushes him in, past the piles of junk.
After stumbling over random discarded parts and bumping into tires, he finds Nancy. She’s rummaging through a box, and he grabs her shoulder, making her jump before she relaxes when she sees it’s just him.
“What’re you doing?”
“Look at all this cool stuff I found!” She tells him, showing off the random stuff she had found in the box, “There’s a bunch of bracelets and stuff! Looks pretty cool, huh?”
“I guess so..” He peeks in, picking a handful up and giving them a look before dropping them back in and letting her set it down, “Wait, where’d Chip go?”
“Oh, I dunno,” Nancy shrugs, sliding a bracelet onto her wrist and taking a nice look at it, “I think purple’s a pretty good colour for me.”
“What do you mean you don’t know where Chip is? We’re supposed to be hanging out with him! You didn’t see him at all?”
“I’m sure he’s fine,” She says with a shrug, handing him a bracelet as well and patting his shoulder assuringly, “Let’s go find him! He’s probably just wandering around, finding other cool junk ‘round here.”
And just as she wraps an arm around his shoulder and begins leading him around the corner, they bump into the other boy, all three stepping back and processing the situation before all relax in each other's presence. Then Chip holds up a bone.
“Look at what I found, guys.” He says mindlessly, Nancy and Bill both staring at it wide eyed before Bill yelps, “Is that a bone?!”
Chip looks at it again, pouting and saying sarcastically, “No, dude, it’s a stick. Yeah it’s a bone!”
“Why do you have a bone?!” Bill cries out, hands on either of his head in stress.
Becoming stressed himself, Chip yelps, “I dunno! I found it on the ground!”
“D’ya think it’s a human bone?” Nancy swipes it out of his hand and stares at it interestedly, to which he wipes his hand on his shirt a few times and tells her, “I mean, maybe. Does it look like it’s a human bone?”
“I don’t know what a human bone looks like!” She tells him, sniffing it before scrunching her nose up and recoiling, “Smells pretty bad, though. Where’d ya’ find this thing, anyway? Maybe we can find the rest of the body and tell the cops! Heck- We shoulda’ brought Keys along! This would have been perfect practice for him!”
“Keys cried yesterday because he didn’t have any napkins and spilled hot chocolate on his shirt.”
“Police officers can get sad over stains too, Bill. Anyway, where was it, Chip?”
“Over there, in a bowl.”
Nancy struts over to where he points and bends over, picking up a slightly cracked kitchen bowl and giving it an eye, Chip and Bill following behind her while she asks, “This thing?”
“No, no,” Chip tells her with a wave, “The other one. The one that’s pink and says princess on the side, and has weird goo on it.”
Nancy looks down and trades the bowl she's holding for another different bowl that fits the description. She looks at him, and Bill’s eyes widen at the sight of it.
“You mean the freaking dog bowl that’s covered in drool and bite marks?!”
Chip takes a closer look, squinting and tilting his head and telling them, “I guess so? I’ve never seen a dog bowl before! How was I supposed to know??”
“Maybe because it has the word princess on it?!” Nancy exclaims, dropping the bowl to raise a hand and shout at him, “What kinda weirdo in this city would eat out of a bowl that says PRINCESS!”
“Well, you’ve obviously never worked at a grocery store. My dad tells me stories about weirdo customers all the time. Like this one guy-”
Nancy covers Chip's mouth with her empty hand and Bill huddles in close with them when she hears growling. Chip is still talking, despite nobody understanding his muffles through her palm, but Bill and Nancy both listen in when they hear blaring, slobbery growling. They both look at each other. Maybe Chip hadn’t ever had to deal with an angry, hungry dog with a job, but Nancy and Bill had. It was not fun.
They each look around anxiously for where the sound is coming from, and both spot the rottweiler trudging over from partway across the part of the junkyard. They both shudder and spin Chip around, who had barely a moment's notice before understanding that he had to run the opposite direction, being practically dragged by the shirt collar until he gets the hint from the barking behind them.
“Bill!” Nancy shouts from beside him, shoving the bone into his chest and directing him to hold it while she speeds up her pace and jumps on the fence they had come from. He looks at it confusedly before facing back to look at the dog, and Chip who’s falling behind, with the dog getting increasingly closer. Bill looks between the bone once more, then at Chip while he yells, and the dog, before stopping in front of the fence, throwing the bone as earnestly as he could, before jumping up onto the fence and beginning to climb. He hears a yelp - a dog yelp, that is, as the tossed treat hits it directly in the muzzle - before getting to the top of the fence and pulling Chip up by the hand. Nancy stands awkwardly with her bike as the two boys climb down, Chip on the verge of tears because of the chase and Bill patting his back reassuringly, while Nancy breathed through her teeth.
“Look what you did, Nancy! Chip almost got torn to bits by that dog in there, all because you made us go in!” Bill tells her frustratedly, taking after his moms tone when he asks, “What do you have to say for yourself?”
She huffs out an apology, kicking a rock along with it and all in shame. Bill pouts, as does Chip, then Nancy seems to remember something and shoves a hand into her pocket, doing some rummaging before tugging out a fist and holding it outward in front of Chip. “Open your hand,” She tells him. In nervousness, he does. It’s another bracelet.
“I grabbed it before we ran off,” She tells him warmly, “So we’re all matching! Do you like it?”
Chip looks at it curiously, handing it back to her and holding his wrist out, for her to put it on. Then he looks at it again. It must look better when he wears it, because he nods.
“Do you forgive me?”
He hums, eyes darting to the ground as he mutters, “Yeah, I guess so.”
She smiles widely, and he follows with a pudgy, more genuine smile, before grabbing his bike along with Bill, who’s satisfied enough with the apology. Then someone’s stomach growls, and they all look at eachother. Chip shakes his head, claiming to have eaten a hearty breakfast with his dad earlier, so Nancy and Bill share looks.
“I had a banana before I left,” Nancy states, scratching her head, “Dad was trying to get me into one of his schemes again, so I didn’t have time to make anything else..”
“And since you came early, I didn’t get to finish mine..” Bill mutters.
Chip frowns, “My dad says breakfast is the most important meal of the day. He’d get mad if he found out you didn’t have anything good.”
“My ma says that too,” Bill sighs, getting on his bike, “Guess we should go home and get something..”
Nancy huffs as well, and while they plan to meet up again after eating lunch, Chip looks at them both nervously. His friends were already leaving? But they barely had any fun yet! He taps his chin anxiously, trying to work something out. Then he taps his bike handles excitedly and jumps on, carefully beginning to ride it while telling them, “We don’t have to go home! Come on, I’ve got an idea!”
Nancy and Bill share looks before shrugging and obliging, figuring that whatever Chip had up his sleeve was something worth trying. His lead isn’t exactly the strongest, with how little he seems to know his way around the city on bike, but eventually he manages to get on a clean path and they end up outside of a tall, tall office building. Nancy and Bill are especially suspicious now. What was Chip planning?
Parking their bikes in the alleyway next to it, they both follow as Chip walks in casually, going over to the elevator and clicking the highest floor level. Some people in suits and ties enter as they go up as well, but none of them acknowledge the three besides maybe a nod or weak “Afternoon” to Chip, and the other two by proxy. By the time they reach the top floor, there’s no adults left, and Chip leads them into a room and passes by another adult sitting behind a desk. Chip tells her casually, “Hi Pam I’m going to dad’s room for a minute with my friends so you can tell him he didn’t get robbed.”
She nods simply, not acknowledging any of the three as Chip grabs the key she slides across the desk and unlocks the door to a room. He struts in happily, while the other two follow sheepishly, clearly not used to being somewhere so professional, nor understanding why Chip is treated like a common guest.
“Where are we?” Nancy asks, planting her hands against the window and peering down at the growing city below with wide eyes, Bill taking a glance himself but not doing nearly as well with the height they were at and instead backing up, to look at the photos on the wall across the room. Chip jumps up onto a chair and kicks himself off the wall to make it spin, “This is my dad’s office! It’s where he does all his business work when he’s not at home. He usually brings me, too, since he doesn’t want me to be home by myself.”
“Office?” Bill asks astoundedly, “Your dad runs a business, too? I thought he was just a farmer!”
“He is a farmer! It’s a whole thing,” Chip says with a wave of his hand, “He has a supermarket that he does to sell his and his friends vegetables and stuff, and then it gets a whole lot of money so he can get more vegetables. I guess. I don’t really know. But I’m gonna one day! He says when he’s all done being the boss, then it’ll be my turn!”
“Wow..” Nancy says, stepping away from the window and turning in wonder, “Is that a yoga ball?!”
She runs over and jumps on it, Bill walking over to watch while Chip jumps down from the chair and pushes it back in behind the desk, “Yeah. My dad says it’s for his back and stuff but it’s more fun to roll around and play with. You’re not allowed to take it downstairs though. Or kick it really hard at the wall. But except for that you can do whatever.”
Nancy grins and starts to take him up on that suggestion, while Bill looks around again before turning to Chip and asking, “So, why did you bring us here? I thought we were gonna go home and eat.”
Chip's face lights up and he turns back around to the desk, opening up a bottom drawer and pulling out a wallet. Bill jumps.
“Chip, there’s no way you’re gonna steal your dads money! That’s not allowed! You’ll get in trouble!”
He scoffs and pulls out a couple bills, snapping it shut and putting it back, “It’s not my dad’s wallet. It’s mine! I just leave it here ‘cause I only ever need it when I go buy something while dad works.”
“You have a wallet?” Nancy asks, rolling over onto her stomach on the yoga ball, “But you’re only a kid! How do you get any money?”
“From my dad, duh,” He states bluntly, “He gives me an allowance sometimes so I can buy stuff. Like Burger Clown! He lets me walk there by myself since it’s nearby. We can go and get food there!”
Bill is hesitant, but Nancy jumps up off the yoga ball and sprints over, excitedly making certain that he said what he said. Chip smiles pleasantly, happy that his new friend was approving of his efforts. And all he had to do for them to be able to stay and keep hanging out was buy them lunch! Friends were easy! It’s no wonder dad had so many.
“I don’t know..” Bill says reluctantly, “We don’t have to spend all your money, Chip. It’ll be easier to just go home and get something, right Nancy?”
“Oh, come on, Bill. Don’t be so cynical.!” Nancy tells him, patting his shoulder a couple times with a raised eyebrow. Chip contributes as well, “Yeah, don’t be so silicle! I wanna use my money! I have a bunch, it doesn’t matter!”
Bill still huffs, scowling and muttering some more excuses, but Nancy and Chip begin giving him the push and encouraging him. He blushes and waves a hand, finally agreeing after some more of their insistent “Come on” and “Have a little fun”.
So, they go to the Burger Clown nearby, just down a couple of streets. It’s a small restaurant, with lots of bustle from the line and behind the registers. Being a particularly new thing, it had since become all the rage for the newly populated city go-ers. It takes forever to wait and get their order in, Nancy suggesting halfway up the line that they sneak into the drive through and order through the speaker, but Bill explained why that was a terrible idea. Finally though, they get their food, and eat at a park nearby. Chip carries the food and tells them to wait despite their practically drooling over it, reciting his dad all the times he had told Chip to wait.
Once sat down, Bill and Nancy tear into their food, much hungrier than they had been letting on, and Chip giggles - especially when Nancy jokes that he must be the bucks between them, to which Bill knocked her with his elbow - But Chip didn’t mind. He was happy to buy them food, really. Even if it wasn’t the most healthy, according to his dad, it was still food. Mostly.
“My mom never lets us get Burger Clown,” Bill grins into his burger, “We always have stuff to eat at home. Plain white bread is yummy, but this burger is pretty good, too.”
Nancy is shoving some fries into her mouth, “Dad gets us Burger Clown all the time. He doesn’t really cook all that much, but I don’t mind. It’s always really good!”
“Well, my dad says Burger Clown is unhealthy and that I shouldn’t eat it a lot. That’s because it doesn’t have lots of nutrients. Vegetables are kind of gross, though..” Chip pulls a pickle out of his burger and sets it aside on a napkin, grimacing, “But you should eat them anyway. And fruit!”
“Your dad sounds crazy about food,” Nancy states matter-of-factly, pointing at him and talking through a full mouth, “Haven’t you ever had a ‘fend for yourself’ dinner?”
Chip looks at her confusedly, and she and Bill exchange that same look between each other.
“What’s a ‘fend for yourself’ night?” Chip asks curiously, a genuine curiosity rather than something mean-spirited or spoiled. Nancy tells him through her burger, “It’s when your mom or dad doesn’t feel like cooking, or isn’t home or something, so you cook stuff for yourself. Like- My dad sometimes goes out and isn't home ‘til super late, so I make stuff by myself! I even know how to make spaghetti.”
“Yeah,” Bill nods along, “Well- My mom is usually home, but when she’s busy with the farm, she’ll put me on dinner duties. Sometimes she takes a while to finish up the chores, though, so I eat alone a few nights a week.. You don’t do that?”
Wide-eyed, Chip is almost stunned by what they’re saying. He doesn’t express doubt, though, and instead explains, “No.. My mom and dad have always been home to make dinner. I used to help, though. I don’t really anymore.. Dad doesn’t explain it as good as mom did.”
“Yeah..” Nancy sighs, “My mom used to make dinner a lot. She wasn’t always on time, but she didn’t stay out as late as dad. I would always sit and eat with her.”
“My dad used to help out with the farm, so it would be finished faster and we could all eat together.. Ma’s been so busy, though, we can’t..” Bill hums, finishing that last of his food sadly while looking at his two friends, who are both just as melancholy now. He supposes it’s his turn to flip the mood back around now, “But.. It’s okay! We’re helping our parents out tons! And I know I’m gonna help even more when I get older!”
Nancy peps up, too, jumping to her feet and claiming, “Yeah! Someday I’m gonna be a mechanic, and fix bikes like my dad does! Then I’ll move out and live all by myself, and eat all the Burger Clown I want.”
“Haha- Maybe not that much..” Bill giggles, “Like Chip said, it isn’t really healthy..”
Nancy laughs, “Well then why don’t you just move into my future awesome mechanic house and tell me what to do then?”
Bill giggles and kicks his feet, to which Nancy’s smile scrunches up at the cheeks and makes her eyes narrow. They both look over at Chip, but he’s still not smiling. He’s sat sadly with his elbows on his knees, holding each of his cheeks and looking at the ground. They both tense up and stop laughing, Nancy scratching her arm anxiously while Bill frowns at the sight.
“Are you okay, Chip?” He asks quietly, sliding over to offer a shoulder pat. Chip only huffs before shutting his eyes and jumping off the bench, picking his bike up off the ground and demanding them, “Come on! Let’s go do something!”
“Well.. Whaddya’ wanna do?”
He rolls his eyes, “I don’t know! Let’s just do something! I want ideas, people!”
Snapping a few times to get the point across, Chip is antsy, and Bill recoils at the sound, though Nancy simply ignores it and puts a finger on her chin in thought. She looks around the streets, then over at a huge, huge hill. Chip follows the look, and points at the hill certainly, telling them both, “We’re gonna have a skid scrap.”
“A skid scrap?” Bill asks, getting on his bike as well and looking at him confusedly, “What’s that?”
“It’s kinda what the name implies, Bill,” Nancy says tediously, “We’re gonna race down the hill, and whoever gets the best skid with their bike is the winner.”
“The winner of what?”
Nancy shrugs and looks at Chip, as does Bill, and he scowls at them both again and rolls his eyes, telling them frustratedly, “The winner of the skid scrap, obviously. Keep up, you guys!”
He then begins pedaling off, still wobbly in his pace but going as fast as he could on the sidewalk. Bill and Nancy only exchange worried looks before biking after him, neither knowing what he was really looking to do - or prove - with this idea. They simply followed close and caught up as he weakly worked his way to the top of the hill, beginning his panting partway, while neither Bill nor Nancy broke more than a sweat.
“Chip, you’re not really gonna bike down this thing, are you? I mean- It’s pretty huge.. You could get hurt. Like you said earlier- What if you get hit by a car?!”
“I won’t get hit by a car!” Chip exclaims frustratedly, “I’m gonna do a skid, and it’s gonna be awesome!”
He speeds up his pace, and Nancy rides up next to Bill, telling him in a mutter, “He’s not gonna do it, Bill. This hill is massive! He’ll probably chicken, and we can do something else.”
Chip must hear the idea, and misreads the tone in her voice as doubt - maybe even malice - and he speeds up even more, reaching the top of his goal and sitting there, huffing and staring down the sidewalk while the two of them sat on their bikes just behind him, watching him clearly contemplate the idea. He swallows hard once he’s stopped his heavy breathing and realizes the large gap between his experience riding bikes and the size of this hill, but then he looks at them both and swallows harder at the idea of them seeing him back down. Even with a quiver in his lip, he sets a foot on a pedal.
“Come on Chip,” Bill tries again with convincing him, setting a hand on his shoulder again, “Let’s just go do something else! We can go to the park.. Or, do something back at home… Maybe you can show us your-”
“Bill! Would you shut up!” Chip shouts, and Bill zips it immediately, Nancy even seeming taken aback at his raised voice and apparent growing frustration. Chip stares down the hill for a minute longer, with Nancy and Bill both realizing that he’s serious just as he shuts his eyes and lets the brakes go, kicking his foot up off the ground. And immediately upon soaring, Chip starts to scream.
Nancy is the first to follow after him, though keeping her pace much slower while his hand tries to hit the brakes on and off so desperately that there’s a loud crack! And then he realizes unfortunately that it’s completely unworkable. Nancy realizes as well while Bill catches up to her when she stops, and they’re left to follow much slower after Chip as the sidewalk becomes more cramped and busy with both the cities articles - Like mailboxes and bike racks, which he narrowly avoids with frazzled jumps and turns - but also the people. Nothing else but an innocent baby smiling and waving from in a stroller could veer him entirely off the sidewalk into the busy road. And after narrowly avoiding being hit by a car, Chip rockets straight into an alleyway, the crash into a dumpster being heard clearly enough for the other two to race down and abandon their bikes at the ingress of the alleyway, both looking at Chip as he lay motionless on the pavement, face planted against the dumpster.
“Oh my god! Chip’s dead!” Nancy gasps, with both her hands slammed against either side of her head as she panics, to which Bill covers her mouth and says, “Shush! Stop it! You can’t just yell that! Even if Chip is freaking dead, oh my gosh!”
Nancy in turn covers Bill's mouth as well, and they both stare at each until they’re both calmed down enough to speak. Then, when they pull their hands back, Bill begins panicking again, immediately yelping, “How’re we gonna tell Mr Whistler that we basically killed his son?! My ma’ is-”
Nancy covers his mouth again before sneaking closer to get a better look, and crosses her fingers as she mutters, “Come on, move move move-”
Chip rolls over and sits up, clearly muddled by the events while he plants his hands on the ground between his legs and rocking back and forth in a daze. Then, a small chunk of his front tooth falls onto the ground, and he mindlessly runs his tongue over the new chip in his tooth before his eyes widen and he touches it with his finger and shrieks, “MY TOOTH! MY- MY TOOTH IS BROKEN!!”
Nancy and Bill both flinch at his shouts, and Nancy is the first to notice the much heavier lisp in his speech, along with the added whistle when he speaks. Chip stands up and covers his mouth, shouting something mumbled into his hand while he begins sobbing, running past them and somewhere down the street. Bill chases after him, leaving Nancy alone with their bikes.
While Bill tries to keep up, Chip is a surprisingly good runner, and quickly maneuvers through the crowd without causing any disruption. Bill, on the other hand, isn’t so lucky, and practically knocks a few people over whilst trying to push through the crowd. He loses Chip, yes, but it’s not hard to find him, following the sound of crying through a crack in the wall to the Big City park, to find Chip sat against a wall behind some bushes, his knees to his chest while he wipes his face desperately.
“Chip!” Bill yelps, sprinting over to catch up and sitting next to him, “Are you okay?”
“No!” Chip shouts back, shimmying away and covering up his mouth again, “No, I’m not okay! My dad is gonna be so upset..”
“Why.. Why would your dad be upset?”
“Because now my teeth look dumb, and- And I’m probably gonna look silly in pictures, and I have a lisp again- And a whistle! I chipped my tooth and it whistles! My name is a joke now!”
“Well- That’s not that bad! You can just.. learn not to do that stuff. It’s okay!”
“I’m not even gonna be taken serious when it’s my turn to own the company! I look totally stupid!”
Bill sighs and hums, plopping down against the wall next to him and looking off into the park.
“Well.. Even if people make fun of you, you’ll still own a whole company, and be super rich, and stuff.. So..”
Chip sniffles, and stares out into the park the same way, but with a glare in his eye instead, fists clenched as he lightly wipes his face onto his sleeves and mutters angrily, “Your name is a joke too.”
Bill pauses, “What?”
“‘Cause your stupid ‘Green Family Farm’ sucks, and my dad is paying you to hang out with me all day. With bills, probably.”
Jumping in his spot on the ground and intending to deny it, Bill simply can’t find the words through his stuttering, and eventually gives up when he realizes just how sure Chip is in it. He sits down facing him and sighs sadly, not worrying about the rudeness that Chip was spitting out towards him and instead asking, “..How’d you know?”
There’s a pause, then another sniffle while Chip's nose scrunches up, and his eyes narrow, and he pules, “Because nobody wants to hang out with me unless he does.”
“That’s not true!” Bill tells him assuredly, “Really! I’ve been having lots of fun with you all day! You’re super fun, Chip!”
“..Really?”
“Yeah! And I bet Nancy did, too!”
“I what?”
Bill yelps as Nancy speaks from behind him, Chip seems to loosen up at the other’s fear and smiles, while Bill asks Nancy, “You’ve been having fun with Chip all day, right?”
“Totally!” She laughs, fishing into her pants pocket and pulling out the chip off his tooth and holding it out to him, “I don’t mean to be mean, but that was really awesome! You didn’t get a skid, but you definitely won in my heart, dude. And this can be your trophy!”
He holds his hands out to form a cup shape, and she drops the chip into his hand. He looks at it credulously, then looks up at her and asks, “You mean it?”
“Duh! I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it!” She holds hands out for both of them to take and helps them up to their feet, then looking at her watchless wrist and tells them confidently, “Maybe we should start going back home now. It’s almost dinner. We can take you home first, Chip!”
He grins, somewhat shyly with his new smile, but nonetheless, he’s cheered up to some degree.
They continue talking for most of their ride home to Chip’s, though Chip himself is mostly quiet aside from the casual comment or relation to something they brought up. Once home, Chip drops his bike at the front of the house next to the deck and goes up to the door, with Nancy and Bill both standing behind him while he opens it up and calls for his dad. Of course, he comes happily to the door almost immediately, clearing having dropped whatever he had been doing previously to give his son a bear hug and ask, “How was it, son? Did you have a good time?”
Chip goes to say something, quite obviously with how he opens his mouth to speak, but immediately shuts it again and simply looks at his dad embarrassedly, not sure how he’d explain such an accident. Mr Whistler notices, as well, and holds Chip out in front of him for a moment before setting him back down in front of his friends and asking, “Chip? What happened?”
Pursing his lips together nervously and looking back at his friends, Chip turns back to his dad only after getting their reassuring nods (Or shrugs), and opens his mouth to show his dad while saying, “Look at what I did.”
“Oh my goodness!” His dad grabs his cheeks and gets a good look at the tooth, tilting Chip’s head to view it from a few slightly different angles before letting him go and simply chuckling while ruffling his already messied hair, “Well, isn’t that something? You look like a whole new kid! These two didn’t bring me a replacement, did they?”
“Noo,” Chip says keenly, “They didn’t.”
“Well, can you prove it?”
Chip blinks a few times, “I think I remember you saying we get to eat out at the diner tonight? With milkshakes?”
With a heavy belly laugh, his dad stands up and shrugs, “I guess I might have said that.. Did I happen to mention anything about inviting your new friends along, though?”
“No,” Chip says matter-of-factly, before noticing the cheeky look in his dads eyes and smiling big, “Can they?!”
“I don’t see why not! Only if it’s okay with their parents, of course.”
“I wanna go!” Nancy calls out happily, “My dad won’t even know. Let's go!”
“Wait! I have to call my mom!” Bill says to her, then politely asks, “May I use your phone, sir?”
Mr Whistler steps aside and waves Bill in and towards the phone on the wall, and while they all wait for him to finish up, Chip's dad piles their bikes up into the back of his truck, so that they can all be dropped off soundly. Once Bill comes back, he tells them, “She said I can go, if I bring her back a burger!”
“That Alice..” Mr whistler chuckles, “Sounds like a deal, kid. Come on now!”
The three pile into the backseat of his dad’s truck, and talk happily throughout the entire ride, Chip completely happy now that most of his worries - His friends not being true, or his dad being upset with him - were shot down and proven wrong. He’ll occasionally notice his dad glancing back from the mirror, with a big smile on his face while he focuses his eyes back to the road after a second of looking, and Chip can’t help but wonder why.
He doesn’t mind it too much, though. Dad is pretty smiley all the time. Chip never knew why.
At the diner, Chip’s dad keeps his promise. They each get to order whatever they want for dinner, with milkshakes included, and eat in a booth together. Nancy and Bill learn that Chip’s dad is just as cool as they thought, as he laughs along when Nancy blows bubbles in her drink, and cheers Chip on when he and Bill try to see who can eat their food faster. Just like Chip has said earlier, he tells them that it’s important to eat vegetables too, but still steers off their case so they can enjoy themselves without a lecture. And again, as promised, he also buys Alice a burger and some fries to go, which Bill holds onto in the car ride back. Nancy knocks out almost immediately as they start driving, snoring against Bill, who stays awake alongside Chip, who looks out the window.
Then, after a little while, he leans over and whispers, “Hey, Bill?”
“Yeah?” He whispers back, following in Chip’s lead for whatever he wanted to say.
“Since you said you're my friends.. Are we gonna hang out, for real? Like.. Without my dad paying you guys?”
“Yeah, of course!” Bill assures him with a nod, “I’m busy with my farm sometimes, and making money with Nancy to help our parents out with bills, but Nancy and I will try to visit! If you wanted, you could even help us do our job stuff!”
“What do you guys do..?”
“Well.. Anything, really. Just odd jobs for people, for money.”
Chip sighs, “But I don’t need money. So why would I do that?”
“Just to hang out, I guess!” Bill thinks his ideas outloud, “You wouldn’t have to do any work, if you didn’t want to get paid, but me and Nancy have fun anyways!”
With a heavy inhale and wide eyes, Chip blinks and asks Bill, “Well.. I guess so.. When are you guys doing that?”
Bill taps his chin, “Whenever we can, really. Maybe tomorrow, or the next day? We’ll come over to your dads house and ask for you when we do, if you want!”
Chip peeks over the seat, looking at his dad for a moment for a reason Bill doesn’t really get, but then sits back in his seat and nods, “Okay. That’ll.. That’ll be fun!”
“Mhm!” Bill tells him, “And you can always come to my house to see what I’m doing, too!”
“I don’t know where you live.”
“Right there!” Bill points out the window, and Chip turns around to see the Green Family Farms, and Bill’s house. The lights are on, as can be seen from the windows illuminating the ground outside as they pull up and Chip’s dad stops the truck and gets out, to help Bill with his bike. He takes off his seatbelt, and crawls over Chip to jump out, leaving Nancy to slump over onto his previous spot, but before he shuts the door behind him, he raises a hand up, and offers Chip a high five. Chip looks at him owl-eyed, then grins and smacks his hand against the others. He watches from his window as Bill goes inside, seeing Alice wave to Mr Whistler while being handed the food he had bought her from Bill. His dad simply chuckles as he gets back in.
Dropping Nancy off was just as easy, simply letting her sleep for the rest of the short ride before Chip shakes her awake when they’re past the Sunny Days Estates sign, and she points out her house in a tired daze eventually. Mr Whistler watches to make sure she gets to the door, and mutters something about the fact she’s home alone and that he hopes it isn’t for too long, Chip making out something happy about Bill hanging out with her. Chip smiles and nods, leaning his head against the window.
“So, kid,” His dad asks, and Chip looks his way with a soft smile, “Did you have a good time? Really?”
His grin widens while he glances back down the road, whistling while he assures his dad “Mhm. I really, really did.”