Just a random fall-themed oneshot. Hope you enjoy.
"5 pounds of apples should be enough for apple crisp, right?" Carey shifted the groceries in her hands as her friend Laura opened the Lodging House door. It swung open to reveal Crutchy and Blink standing at the table with carving knives poised about two large pumpkins. Both girls stopped short and stared; Laura dropped her bag of sugar and an apple Carey had been eating rolled out of her hand.
"What…are you doing?" Carey finally managed to get out as the boys waved happily.
"Pumpkin carvin'" Crutchy chirped cheerfully, stabbing the top of his pumpkin with the carving knife. He carefully began cutting away in a circle.
"Pumpkin…carving?" Laura asked slowly. Blink nodded at her, grinning toothily. "What are you carving, exactly?"
"Jack-o-lanterns. Youse can carve anything youse like." Crutchy gave a few tugs on the stem of his and the top popped off. He set it on the newspapers spread on the table. The girls set their groceries on the counter and came over to examine the boys at work.
"Ise use ta do dis with my ma all da time," Blink explained, beginning to carve his own pumpkin. "She'd take da seeds and roast 'em over da fire."
"Ooohhh, that sounds yummy," Carey said. "Let's try that." She picked up the top of Crutchy's pumpkin and began to separate the goop from the seeds. Laura moved to help her friend but kept her eyes on Blink. Crutchy, meanwhile, was almost finished de-goop-ifying the inside of his pumpkin; unfortunately for him, he was keeping his eyes focused on his pumpkin instead of where he was setting said goop and a rather large clump of it splattered all over Carey. She let out a shriek and jumped back.
"Oh, Ise sorry! Ise am so sorry! Ise didn't mean ta, honest!" Crutchy wailed, waving his arms around and splattering more goop around. Blink hooted with laughter and Laura's mouth twitched at the corners. "Are youse okay? Ise didn't mean ta…" He trailed off, looking extremely sorry.
Carey set her mouth in a firm line and looked at her boyfriend; Laura noticed the gleam in her friend's eyes and quickly ducked behind the counter. With a sudden movement, Carey grabbed a clump of goop off the table and flung it at Crutchy with a war whoop.
"Ise been gooped!" he wailed, wiping it off his face. Carey burst out laughing as Laura sprang up and flung another handful at her cousin. He wailed a third time and picked up his own handful, aiming in the direction of Laura. She ducked just in time and it hit Blink on the shoulder. He stopped laughing and let out a wail of his own.
"Hey! You gooped me!" He grabbed a clump and flung it across the room; with that, an all-out pumpkin-goop fight broke out. It stopped abruptly when Kloppman walked in and narrowly avoided being hit with several large clumps of goop.
"What on earth…?" he asked, looking around at the mess.
"Sorry, Mr. Kloppman, sir," Blink and Crutchy mumbled at once.
"Sorry, sir," Carey and Laura added. "We'll just clean it up now."
The four teens made quick work of cleaning up and went back to carving pumpkins. That night, they enjoyed pumpkins as they watched people walk by and commenting on the pumpkins. They had been arranged to look as though they were flinging orange goop at each other…