Every year the town has a fall festival, it's to celebrate the summer one last time before all the kids have to go back to school. The festival usually falls around Henry's birthday so he would go with a couple friends for his party, but Henry decided not to go the last couple of summers, leaving him at home alone for his birthday last year. Being that both of his parents are higher-ups in town, they're obligated to attend, but this year Henry decided to start the tradition again.
"Ma, could you please try not to embarrass me with baby stories?" Henry pleaded with Emma from the passenger seat of a squad car as she drives to the festival.
Emma chuckles, "What do you mean embarrass you? Those stories are adorable, and everyone loves them." She turned her head to give Henry a huge grin before quickly turning back.
Henry just rolls his eyes. "Yeah, everyone but me. Could you just please promise?"
Before answering, Emma playfully sighs feigning defeat, "Fine, since it's your birthday, I will consider this your birthday present and promise not to embarrass you in front of your date, but I doubt you can get your mother to do the same." Emma shakes her head in doubt that a woman so small could stir up that many emotions in a crowd.
"1: it's not a date, 2: I'll worry about Mom, while you just work on keeping your promise." Emma lifts one hand mocking a surrender.
They arrive to the festival while the last touches are being set up.
Emma drops Henry off at the entrance, then drives off to park the squad car with the rest of them. Henry used to ride with her the whole way, even listen in as she gave the officers the typical "keep the citizens safe" speech. It would be the same one every year; after a while, Henry was able to recite the speech word for word.
On his way in, Henry spots his Mom talking to one of the volunteers running the dunk tank.
Regina is pinching the bridge of her nose, a sign the whole town knows that she's at her wit's end, "Courtney, as I stated in the contract, we can only have water in the tank. I know you think 'it'll be more fun', but we still have to keep the volunteers safe. This is a festival, not a circus. Change it back."
Regina turns around with her fingers back at the bridge of her nose and with her eyes closed as she walks over towards the volunteer booth near the entrance.
"They're still trying to change the dunk booth water into jell-o I see." Henry shakes his head and snickers a bit.
Regina sighs with her head tilted up towards the sky, "Yes, and every year they send a different volunteer to try and convince me to allow it." Regina shakes her head as well and takes a swig of water from the bottle she grabbed out of the cooler. With a grin she finally turns towards Henry and moves to give him a warming hug, "Happy birthday, Henry"
Henry hugs his mother back, enjoying the soft fabric of her volunteer shirt, compared to the stiffness of her usual suit jackets. They let go of one another and Henry looks around at the attractions that were being set up. "When do you think Mr. Jones will retire…again and quit the animal balloon stand?" Henry remembers as a child running up to the same stand every year, asking for the same thing every time.
"Alright, and what would you like, Henry?"
"Mama, how does the balloon man know my name?"
"Well, he's a wise old wizard."
"Then why did he ask what I wanted if he knows everything?"
"…He was being polite."
"Look, Mama, an elephant!"
Just like every year, the festival went well. Anything going wrong is nearly impossible with Henry's Mom in charge. She makes it her life goal to get everything perfect, the complete opposite of his Ma.
"I guess opposites do attract…"
Grace looks up from the cotton candy in her hand. "What was that?"
"It was nothing." Henry shakes his head and looks over to Grace smiling. "Thank you for coming to the festival with me."
They walk over to a bench near the entrance gate of the festival while they wait for their respective parents. "You don't have to thank me. I'm just happy you're back to normal." Both Henry and Grace look down at the ground with slight grief on their face.
Although understanding what Henry was going through, Grace still didn't know what to say, so the two of them sat in silence for a short moment before Grace's father and Emma walked up to them.
"Did you have a good birthday, Kid?" Emma sits next to Henry on the edge of the bench. Henry just nods.
Mr. Jefferson walks closer and places a hand on Grace's shoulder. "You ready to go home?" Grace nods, both teenagers having lost their ability to speak.
Grace and Mr. Jefferson leave the festival and drive off, both Henry and Emma wave goodbye before the two of them walk off to the squad car.
Emma nudges Henry's side, "Soooo, how was your date?" Henry looks up and Emma raises her eyebrows in quick succession. Henry just rolls his eyes and fastens his pace to the car. He knows no matter how many times he tells either of his Moms that this wasn't a date, they weren't going to believe him. Even if they are half right, he doesn't want to give them the satisfaction. Truth is, Henry thought it to be too early to ask Grace out on an actual date, especially since they just became friends again only a few weeks ago, but he was never going to let either of them know about that.
On the ride home, Emma asked all the typical post-first date questions and Henry dodged each one, turning the conversation back on her, trying to get her to change the subject. Emma dropped Henry off at the Mansion.
Henry's parents have been quite gracious with giving him some privacy in his room, and thankfully, because apparently, Henry had left out all the plans he came up with to get his parents back together. Neither of his parents have mentioned anything to him, so hopefully that means neither of them had seen anything.
Henry goes to sit at his desk and takes a look at what he has written down so far. During almost the entire summer Henry had put everything he had ever learned into coming up with the perfect plan, but after the festival, Henry started to rethink a lot.
A/N: Thank you all for continuing to read my fic. Please tell continue to review, tell me what you think.
This is a shorter chapter than most, so let me know if you all want to keep the longer chapters, but have the wait in between chapters be long as well, or have the chapters be shorter with a shorter waiting time.