summary: in which connor and zoe skip out of sunday school

(i didn't find any trigger warnings for this chapter, but if you do please let me know! :D)

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The only bad thing about Saturday was that after that came Sunday. And Sunday meant church. And Connor really did not like going to church. It was boring, the songs were too slow, the Sunday school teacher talked too much, and he had to wear a suit.

He had been so excited when he got to wear his suit for the first time, because it made him look like Larry when he went to work. But it wasn't fair how he had to wear the same suit every week when Zoe got to wear so many different dresses. The only different thing he could wear was his tie.

Today, he had a red one.

He combed his hair neatly in the mirror, splashing some water onto it to make it look neater. That was something he had seen Larry do in the mornings. Larry had said he didn't need so much water, but when it was wetter it was more fun. A little bit trickled down the back of his neck, and he grabbed a towel to wipe it dry.

He went downstairs for breakfast, Cynthia had made bacon, eggs, and toast. Larry was making himself a coffee and Connor liked the smell even if he was still too young to drink it.

"Good morning, Daddy," Connor greeted as he got a class from the cupboard.

"Morning, son!" Larry said, looking Connor up and down. "Looking smart today, huh?"

Connor merely nodded, he didn't know why adults like to say that, it wasn't like you would look stupid, unless maybe you were wearing a clown costume. He helped himself to the carton of milk from the fridge, Larry helping him to pour it into the glass which he set down next to his plate. Larry sat down too, with his cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other.

Connor had finished half of his omelet when Zoe came bounding down the stairs, followed by a less enthusiastic Cynthia. "Mummy curled my hair today!" Zoe exclaimed with a proud toss of her head.

"Burned my finger, too," Cynthia remarked wryly.

"You look super pretty, Zo-zo," Connor told her. She wore a sparkling pink dress with a matching bracelet, necklace, and hairclip.

"Wow! That's very pink!" Larry chuckled.

"I already wore green last week and white before," Zoe informed him seriously, although her mouth was full of toast. "So I'm wearing pink today."

"Zoe, please don't speak when you have food in your mouth," Cynthia gently reminded her.

Larry glanced at the clock. "Hurry up or we'll be late."

"I don't care," Connor said, slumping down in his seat and letting his fork clatter against the plate. "It's too boring anyway."

"Connor, I don't have time for this. Please eat your breakfast," Larry sighed as he cleared his plate into the kitchen sink. Connor grumbled a little but obliged.

In the car, Connor and Zoe decided to have a competition to see who could make the loudest or most disgusting fart noises, until Larry silenced them with a "that's disgusting, please stop it." And then they spent the rest of the trip laughing hysterically at themselves.

They finally reached church, Connor and Zoe dragging their feet behind their parents. Neither of them liked church. Everyone seemed so fake, too prim and proper. Connor squirmed uncomfortably in his stiff suit. He wandered towards one of the pews, just as the pastor's wife passed him.

"Good morning, Connor! How are you doing? I hope you had a blessed week!" Her smile was so wide that he wondered if her mouth would get tired from smiling so much.

"I'm fine," he mumbled, stuffing his hands into his pockets. Her smile stretched even wider before she swished away so quickly that he wasn't sure if she had actually heard his answer or if she was only asking to look polite.

Zoe soon slid onto the pew. The benches were polished smooth, and she and Connor loved seeing how far they could slide on them.

"I'm bored," Connor said, kicking the empty pew in front of them. He checked his watch. "We still have ten minutes before it starts."

Zoe sighed dramatically and flopped down on the pew, but quickly pulled herself up again before their parents—who were standing a few rows away, chatting—could notice. "I don't like Sunday school," she sighed.

"Do you want to not go?" Connor asked, his bright eyes sparkling with mischief.

"Huh?" she looked confused.

"Like when they say the kids can go Sunday school, we go out there," he pointed to the large double doors, "but we go somewhere else."

Zoe looked a little nervous, but eventually she nodded and agreed. "Okay."

"Yay," Connor grinned. They gave each a high-five.

Cynthia and Larry took their seats shortly before the service began, between Connor and Zoe. Cynthia sat next to Connor while Larry sat next to Zoe—the kids used to sit side by side until they talked too much one Sunday. They sang two hymns, and then the pastor did a reading from the book of Daniel. Connor liked this one, it was the story about the lions. Cynthia held the Bible on her lap and pointed out the words to him. Connor could recognize quite a few of them; she had said he would learn to read in kindergarten, but he didn't want to wait until then, so he had asked her to teach him. Whenever she read him stories, she would point each word out to him, and soon she often found him curled up with a book, reading out loud to himself.

Then there was something called announcements, where the pastor talked about things like people at church whom Connor didn't know, or something called 'ministry' which only happed in other countries far away, or 'politics' which was what important people like the president did. If it wasn't confusing, it was boring.

Connor absentmindedly reached over to grab his mom's left hand, playing with her wedding ring on her fourth finger. It was very pretty, and he liked the way it glittered in the light that streamed in through the windows. He used to think it was silver, but Cynthia had said that it was made of a type of gold called 'white gold', and the sparkly glass things were called 'diamonds'. He guessed it must be expensive, maybe it cost a million dollars! And then he had to stop playing with her ring because it was prayer time.

The pastor said a really long prayer where everybody had to close their eyes, and Connor was so bored that he almost fell asleep. After that super long prayer, the pastor said that the children could go to Sunday school. This was the moment he had been waiting for. Connor eagerly grabbed Zoe's hand and they headed out the doors with the other children. But while all the children went to their classes, the two of them slipped down a flight of stairs.

They wandered downstairs for a while, just enjoying the emptiness of the huge church building, and the giddy thrill of ditching a class for the first time. They walked around, exploring some of the rooms they had not seen before. Suddenly, they were startled by an old lady who was getting the refreshments ready.

"What are you two doing here?" she asked, peering at them through her wire-rimmed glasses. "Shouldn't you be in Sunday school?"

Zoe froze. Connor thought quickly. "Um, I was going to, but I—I'm taking my sister to the bathroom but we can't find it."

The lady laughed. "That's so sweet." She pointed down the corridor. "The bathroom's that way."

"Thanks," he mumbled, pulling Zoe along. "Let's go." They headed down the corridor. "That was close," he muttered, as soon as they were out of earshot of the lady.

"Should we just go to Sunday school?" Zoe asked, getting concerned that they might get caught again.

"We can't go in so late," Connor said. "They'll ask where we went."

"Then what should we do?" she asked.

"Let's see if we can go the playground!" he suggested.

"Okay!"

There was a small playground at the back of the church. Usually packed with screaming, energetic children, it was now quiet and deserted. Connor preferred it this way. He sat on the swing set, pushing himself gently back and forth. Zoe slid down the slide a few times before joining him on the swings.

"What time is it?" she asked.

"Ten fifty," he replied, checking the time on his watch.

"What time does Sunday School finish?"

"Eleven o'clock, I think."

"How many more minutes is that?"

Connor paused his swinging to count the minutes on his watch's hands. "Ten minutes."

Zoe nodded. "Can you push me? I want to go high."

"Okay," he obliged, hopping off the swing to give her a push.

"Higher!" she giggled. They played for a couple more minutes, and then went back into the main church building just before Sunday School ended. Shortly after the kids came out of their classrooms, the adult service concluded.

"Hi Mummy, hi Daddy!" Zoe waved as she spotted their parents in the crowd.

"Hi sweetie," Cynthia said as she and Larry made their way over. "How was Sunday school?"

"Boring," Connor lied, a cupcake in his hand and crumbs smeared around his mouth. He shot Zoe a wink, which she returned.

"Why was it boring?" Cynthia questioned.

"The teacher is boring," he shrugged, taking another bite of the cupcake before looking back up at her.

"Connor! Look at your face!" She exclaimed in exasperation, "You're such a messy eater!"

He gave her a cheeky giggle as she pulled a tissue from her bag to wipe his face clean, completely forgetting about the Sunday school issue.

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Later that night, Connor and Zoe were talking together, lying side by side on her bed and just staring at the ceiling.

"What do you want to do when you're big?" Zoe asked.

"I want to have a dog," he replied.

"No, like for your job," she clarified.

"I don't know, but definitely not a pastor," he declared, sitting up.

"Why not?"

"Because they're super boring and no one listens to them." They both giggled, and Connor looked pleased at himself for thinking of that.

"I want to be an astronaut," Zoe said seriously, "Because I want to visit all the stars in my rocket."

"But there's a lot of stars, and you'll be very busy, because you'll need to fly from one star to another."

"It's okay," she tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear. "I like stars."

"I like stars too," he murmured. "But I also like animals. I want to work at a zoo, because I can see animals every day!"

"Oh! I want to work at A La Mode! Then I can eat ice-cream every day!" Zoe squealed.

"Oh yes! I want to work there, then I can work there with you!" Connor said excitedly. "We can try all the different flavors!"

The bedroom door creaked open. "Time for bed, kids," Cynthia called.

The two groaned loudly. "Well, goodnight," Connor said, giving Zoe a kiss on her cheek and heading out to his room next door.

"Goodnight, Con," she said, grabbing her pajamas and shutting the door he had left open.

"I love you," he shouted through the wall of his room. It made him sound funny, and she laughed.

"Love you!" she called back.

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is it bad that i wrote this chapter at church...? oops
also i was going to write a halloween chapter but i dont celebrate it...so i dont really know what you do for it? except dressing up and trick-and-treating and pumpkins?
but yeah, tell me what you dressed up as!

also, hmu on tumblr thewickedverkaiking
if you leave a comment i will love you 4ever