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The March family always had a tradition of a fun activity to celebrate Holly finishing another school year. Normally, Holly would ask to go for ice cream or go shopping for new clothes. This year, Holly wanted to go to a new arcade that had just opened up.
“Jesus this is hard to read.” March said as he squinted his eyes to make the words on the flier stop moving.
“Need a pair of glasses, old man?” Healy chuckled as he stopped at the red light before Holly's high school.
“No not that, with the car constantly moving and my hands shaking it's just difficult to read. Ah! There! Lunar launch arcade. So it's space themed?” March asked as the car started moving yet again.
“Hell if I know, ask Holly.” Healy responded as he pulled into the school parking lot.
“Alright I got this you stay here.” March said, already opening the door of the car to go and get Holly. “Even though she's in high school they still want me out there so she doesn't get hit by a car or something.”
Walking out to the designated parent pickup area March grabbed a cigarette and lit it, taking a nice puff of smoke right on school grounds. They hated when he did that but what are they gonna do? Talk his ear off when it's his daughter's last day of school and her parents are already waiting for her?
The tacky orange cones marked off the area for parents to wait for students and as March heard the last bell from inside the building ring he saw a swarm of kids leaving the building all at once. Well, Holly will find me. He thought to himself as he watched all the kids run to their buses or parents waiting for them.
March started tapping the rhythm to a song on his pant leg until he heard that familiar noise.
“Dad!” Holly yelled as she ran towards him, just like she did when she was little. This year had been particularly rough for her considering it got out of her friendship circle that she had two dads.
“Sweetie! Get over here!” March yelled as he crouched down a bit for Holly to get a good grab on him and when she did he stood up and spinned with her in his arms.
“I did it! I finished my first year of high-school! And I think I passed all my exams!” Holly squeaked before March put her down.
“That's wonderful Holly! You gotta tell Jack once we get to the car.” March said as they started walking together.
“Oh yeah! Are we going to that arcade I mentioned?” Holly asked, adjusting the bag on her shoulders.
“What do you think? Use those detective skills I know you have.” March responded, rustling Holly's hair a little.
“Well, every year we do something to celebrate my last day of school. Typically something I ask for, and I've been asking for this… so, yes?” Holly asked as she moved closer to her father's side with the sudden increase of traffic.
“Right on the money! Yep we're going just like you asked. We can even get dinner too if Jack lets us.” March replied smugly
“He better! It's my celebration for finishing a school year after all!” Holly exclaimed as she found the car and sprinted towards it.
“HEY BE CAREFUL!” March yelled as he sprinted after her.
By the time he reached the car Holly was already behind Healy's seat with her bag off and on the seat next to her.
“Come on dad!” She said excitedly, she was basically vibrating.
March sighed, and then smiled as he opened the door to the passenger seat. What did I do to deserve these two? He thought to himself before buckling his seatbelt.
As Healy began to drive, Holly started rambling on about her day, the finals she took and passed with flying colors and eventually the arcade.
“I can't believe we're actually going! It's brand new and they have all sorts of games!” Holly exclaimed, still vibrating in her seat.
“How do you know all of this if it's brand new?” Healy asked, looking at her through the rear view mirror.
“Well Jessica was able to go there a little bit ago and she told me all about it. Did you know they apparently have a bunch of crane games with super cute stuffed animals!?” Holly stated, leaning forward and grabbing the back of Healy's seat. “You guys are going to play games with me, right?” She asked with a slight look of concern on her face.
“Well yeah, if we didn't want to play we wouldn't have come with.” March responded looking at Holly whose eyes lit up with absolute joy.
“Plus we gotta celebrate our daughter surviving her first year of high-school.” Healy added as Holly's smile got even wider
“Oh you guys are the best!” She yelled, hugging March and then looking at Healy. “Once we get out of this car you're getting the biggest hug ever.” She continued.
The rest of the drive was filled with small talk of all the things Holly was excited to do there. Before any of them knew it, they were there.
“Come on, come on!” Holly said, pulling the door handle.
“You know the more you pull it the more I don't want to unlock the door right?” Healy said with a laugh.
“Catagory 5 tornado right here.” March said as he opened his door by sliding the lock open.
“Come on Jack!” Holly said, laughing as he pressed the button to unlock the door.
As Holly climbed out and waited for Healy to follow, as he did she instantly pulled him into a hug, burying her face in his chest, directly where he sprays his cologne. The scent was faint but it was there.
Healy wrapped his arms around her as he gestured for March to lock the car. “I love ya kiddo.” He said as he rubbed her back.
“Alright come on, let's go in!” Holly said as she turned to have Healy's arms loosely around her neck and walked forward.
While Holly practically sprinted for the door as soon as Healy could move his arms away. March and Healy quickly followed suit.
Walking in together, all three were taken aback by how large the place was. Not only was it large but it was filled with games, and Jessica had not lied about the crane games with cute stuffed animals. Looking at the games they had little coin slots with numbers ranging from 2 to 10.
“So do we put in quarters?” Healy asked, looking at a skee-ball machine.
“No, there's a converter over there where you take dollars and turn them into tokens. I believe one dollar is 10 tokens.” Holly said.
“How does this place stay in business?” March asked, shocked at the conversion rate.
“No idea.” Healy replied as Holly wandered over to the conversion machine.
Following Holly they learned that 1 dollar was not 10 tokens, but instead 5.
“Guess I heard wrong.” Holly said as she looked at the conversion rate.
March, instantly reached for his wallet that should be in his back left pocket.
“shit.” he muttered under his breath
“What?” Healy asked, already reaching for his wallet.
“I think I forgot my wallet in the car. Or at home. I can't even fucking remember if I brought it with me.” March replied as he sighed.
Healy pulled a 50 dollar bill from his wallet and handed it to Holly, who gratefully took it and fed it to the machine.
The conversion machine made some strange noises and all three of them were 90% sure it was slightly smoking before spitting out double the tokens they should have had.
“Guess a buck was 10 tokens today.” March said smugly as Holly tried to stuff as many tokens in her pockets. “Here I can take some.” March offered. “Maybe I can win you something from one of the hundreds of crane games, yeah?”
Holly laughed as she shoved more coins into her dad's hands.
As he stood up Healy put his hand on March's shoulder which made him jump.
“I swear to god Holland, if your wallet is in the car you're buying dinner.” He said before giving him a little peck on the cheek.
“Let's just worry about having fun with our daughter. Where did she go?” March asked as he looked around and saw Holly putting tokens into a crane game.
March and Healy looked at each other, laughed and interlocked pinky fingers before walking over to Holly.
As the two of them reached Holly, she was already crouching onto the ground grabbing something from the prize chute.
“Look! He's so ugly!” Holly said with a massive smile on her face, hoisting her hands towards March.
In her hands was a plush of a little fish. God was it ugly, it looked like it should be a dog toy.
Before March could comment on the appearance of the fish Holly continued talking. “I was trying to go for that seal plush there but I grabbed him instead.” Holly said, moving her hands a little to emphasize the fish. “It's ok though, I like this little guy. Oh Jack! Come with me, there's a game I want you to try!” Holly excitedly said as he grabbed his arm and wandered into the rest of the arcade.
If she wants that seal, then she's getting the seal. March thought to himself as he put the tokens into the claw machine.
“Here! This one!” Holly said while bouncing and pointing to one of the games. “You take the hammer and hit it there and try to hit the bell on the top! If you do, you get a bunch of tickets!”
Healy looked up at the game, no way this ISN'T rigged. He thought to himself, but he decided to humor his daughter.
“Alright, where's the hammer.” Healy asked, watching Holly's face light up she pointed to the side of the machine where there was a giant hammer.
As Holly started putting in tokens, Healy managed to catch a glance at one of the workers of the arcade watching the machine. Oh yeah, this is rigged. He thought to himself as he grabbed the hammer.
The tower lit up with flashing lights going straight up to the top where the bell was. Healy looked at it for a moment before taking his stance.
“Come on Jack you got this!” Holly cheered
Healy lifted the hammer and swung down with everything he had. Sure the game was rigged but he would at least try and get as many tickets as he could for Holly.
As the hammer crashed onto the pad it sent the cube on the track flying up the tower, directly into the bell.
*DING*
The bell rang so loud almost the entire arcade could hear it. As the machine kept repeating “we got a winner! We got a winner!” Healy looked at the worker who had his mouth agape.
Looking back at Holly, she had come running over to his side and she was jumping up and down while hugging him.
“Oh my god you did it!” She said before looking down “OH SHIT THE TICKETS!” She then scrambled to the floor trying to grab them all.
Yeah, he felt like a pretty good dad.
After Holly grabbed all the tickets and gave them to Healy for safekeeping, he turned to look at Holly before asking, “Where to next?”
…
“Come on March, it's just a seal.” March mumbled to himself as he tried to find the best angle to grab the plush seal from.
Moving to the side the claw looked right over the seal and was in the perfect position to wrap around its belly and pull it up.
March hurried back to the front of the machine to drop the claw but in doing so bumped the joystick, swinging the claw and having it grab a plush bear instead.
“DAMNIT!” He yelled as the claw rose upwards with the bear inside, hanging on by its left arm before politely dropping into the prize chute.
March groaned and grabbed the bear. It looked mad that it had been won at all. As a matter of fact, the bear reminded him of Healy. He chucked to himself before placing the bear against the glass, by the joystick and inserting 6 more tokens into the machine to try and win that seal.
…
“Here, let's try this one Holly.” Healy said while pointing to a wack-a-mole machine.
“Oooo yes!” Holly cheerfully agreed as she scurried over to the machine.
Holly grabbed the hammer, quickly inserted the tokens needed before standing back up as soon as he heard “ready…. Go!”
Rapidly swinging at the little animals popping up from the machine the score climbed as her one minute timer counted down.
“Come on! Faster Holly! We gotta get the tickets!” Healy cheered from the side.
“I'M TRYING JACK!” She yelled as she slammed the hammer down on the little animals harder and faster.
After the timer ran out and the machine spit out the tickets Holly spotted another game.
“Let's try that one!” She said, pointing at a machine that measured the strength of a punch.
“Let's both try this one.” Healy said as he opened his hand for Holly to grab, which she did with delight.
The machine had a punching bag on it which you just had to hit as hard as you could. From the corner of his eye, Healy saw Holly putting coins in.
“Wait Holly, do you know how to throw a punch?” He asked, making Holly stop.
“Maybe?” Holly responded, sliding the last coin needed to bring the machine to life into the slot.
“Here, watch me.” Healy said as he stood back and punched the bag as hard as he could. The bag flung back into the top of the machine and the score rapidly climbed before stopping at 999.
“See what you do is you make sure you have a lot of strength from your shoulder. Moment leaves more of an impact, remember to follow through as well.” Healy started, “Always remember, never tuck your thumb inside your fingers, it could break that way. Lay it across your pointer finger and your middle finger like this.” He said as he showed Holly his fist.
“Uh-huh. Ok I think I got this.” Holly said with a determination in her voice. She inserted the tokens into the machine, stood back, took a deep breath and hit the bag as hard as she could.
The bag flung back into the top of the machine again but the score only rapidly climbed until about 500 before ultimately stopping at 612.
“Not bad.” Healy said, putting his hand on Holly's shoulder.
“Oh we should find skee-ball!” Holly exclaimed as she started looking around the general area.
“Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!” Healy replied as Holly ran off and he followed behind her.
…
“Fuck im running out of tokens.” March muttered to himself.
Looking back up into the machine, the seal still sits in the middle, taunting him.
March rested his hand flat against the glass while looking down at what he had won instead of the seal that Holly wanted. There was a plush dog, cow, lion, shark, another ugly fish and frog. Along with the bear and a goose.
Maybe Holly will still like these. Minus the goose, he's mine. March thought to himself before counting the remaining coins in his hand. Just enough for two more tries at the seal.
His first attempt at the seal moved it ever so slightly closer to the chute. His second and last attempt, the claw grabbed the seal. For a moment there was hope.
Then the seal slipped out of the claws grasp and plopped back down into the prize pool.
“Goddammit.” March sighed. “One hell of a dad you are.”
Looking down at his collection of plush toys, he picked up the bear. It really did look like Healy.
“Dad! Look at all the tickets we got!” Holly yelled, running towards March.
“Holy shit! How did you guys manage that?” March asked, realizing he completely lost track of time.
“Well some games just required a little special something.” Healy said, giving March a nudge. “Whats all this?” he asked, gesturing to the pile of stuffed animals.
“I uh, tried to get the seal Holly wanted but I won everything that wasn't the seal. I'm sorry I lost track of time.” March said with a glum expression on his face.
He expected to hear words of criticism on how he needed to manage his time better or how he needed to not get so carried away with silly things like this but instead he was met with laughter. But not laughter directed at him.
“Dad, I said it was ok! You didn't have to get all this for the seal!” Holly said while hugging her dad, “Thank you for trying though.”
“So what are we going to do with all these?” Healy asked, once again gesturing to the pile of stuffed animals on the ground.
“Well I'm keeping the goose. I like him alot.” March said, scooping up the plush, holding it tightly to his chest. “This one, I think is for you Jack.” March said as he held the bear out to Healy.
“A bear?” Healy asked, gently taking the bear from March's hands.
“It kinda looks like you. Plus it looked pissed when I won it.” March said, moving his free hand towards Healy's free hand.
“Except I wasn't mad when you won me.” Healy said, taking March's hand.
“So the rest of the plushies… Can I have them?” Holly asked with a glint in her eyes.
“Yeah of course. Let's get a bag for them when we redeem the tickets.” Healy said as he squeezed March's hand 3 times, their code for “I love you”
March, squeezed back.
Upon leaving the arcade it was dark outside already. All three of them were walking together, with one bag full of stuffed animals and the other full of candy Holly PROMISED not to eat all in one sitting.
“So, can we get dinner on the way home?” Holly asked, Healy shot a glance at March.
“Yeah, what do you want?” March asked, remembering he was most likely paying as his wallet was most likely, in the car.
“What about pizza?” Holly asked.
“I love that idea, have any opinions Jack?” March asked.
“Youre paying Holland.” Healy said as they approached the car.
Looking into the passenger window, there it was on the seat, March's wallet.
“Yeah I guess I am paying.” March said with a smile on his face.