Oh well, I look at you and say it's the happiest that I've ever been
And I'll say I no longer feel I have to be James Dean
And she'd say, yeah well, I feel pretty a happy too
And I'm always pretty happy when I'm just kicking back with you
And it'll be love, love, love all through our bodies
And love, love, love all through our minds
And it'll be love, love, love all over her face
And love, love, love all over mine
-"Five Years Time," Noah and the Whale
"Guys, do we have to go to this stupid carnival?" Dave complained. "It's going to be lame."
"Stop fussing," James said. "It's going to be fun."
"It was fun when we were freshmen," Dave said, fiddling with his phone and squinting at the screen in the late afternoon sun. "We're seniors now, and this is lame."
"Well, I'm only a junior, and I've never been to a carnival before," Emily said.
"See? There we go, you're doing this for Emily," James said.
Dave rolled his eyes. "Fine, but someone's going to have to buy me ice cream," he said.
"One cone, single scoop," Emily bargained.
"Deal." Dave checked his watch. "How long is it going to take Miller to get ready?"
The doors to Roosevelt House opened and Alex ran down the steps. "I'm sorry, I'm here, I'm here," she said. "Thanks for waiting, I really didn't want to wear my school clothes to this thing."
She had swapped her uniform for a short sleeved white dress with a checked rainbow pattern and her boots for sandals, and her red hair was tied back into a ponytail with a ribbon. "Yeah, don't worry about it," James said, his smile wide. "You look great."
Alex smiled, swinging the strap of her bag onto her shoulder and smacking Dave in the process. "Ow, what do you have in there?" he complained.
"Books," she said. "At least three of them. Just in case."
"In case of what, a library emergency?" Emily said.
"Maybe, I don't know!" she said, grinning. "Let's just go, okay? I'm starving."
Dave trailed behind James and Alex as they headed down the path towards the football field, and Emily slowed her pace to match his. Unlike Alex in her summer dress, Emily had chosen a black tee shirt with the sleeves cut off, and black fishnets poked through the holes in her light wash jeans. "So," she whispered, peering conspiratorially at Dave over the rims of her round sunglasses. "How long has this been going on, exactly?"
"This?" he repeated. She gestured broadly at James and Alex. "Ah. The pining. Yeah, that started in ninth grade."
"You're shitting me," she said. "She hasn't figured it out? In three years? And he hasn't made a move?"
He stuck his hands in his back pockets. "Unfortunately, no, on both counts," he said. "I don't know how it's gone this long. But I told him I'd give him a hundred bucks if he asked her to the homecoming dance this fall, and she said yes."
"Ooh, I want in on that," she said. "I'm gonna put my money on prom. If he hasn't asked her out yet and she hasn't put two and two together, there's no way he'll move fast enough to ask her out before November."
"Oh, wow, ballsy," he grinned.
She stuck out her hand. "You want make this an official bet, Rossi?" she said.
"Absolutely," he said, shaking her hand. "It's a bet, Prentiss."
"Guys, are you sure you want me around for this?" Hotch said warily. "Carnivals aren't...exactly my scene."
"Absolutely!" Penelope said. Her pink heart-shaped sunglasses covered her eyes, but she beamed at him broadly. "It wouldn't be the same without you."
That wasn't the answer he was expecting, and he grinned back at her. "Wow, an actual smile," JJ teased. "And your face didn't crack. Good for you."
"Okay, guys, we gotta find out where the food is," Derek said, clapping his hands together. "I am starving to death."
"That's hyperbole," Spencer said. "You had lunch today, you can't starve to death in that time window."
Derek laughed and ruffled his long hair. "You know what I mean," he said. "I...what's the scientific way to say it? Burned a lot of calories and I need to refuel. That better?"
"It's not exact, but it's close enough I guess," Spencer said, grinning impishly at him.
His sneaker caught in the grass as they walked down the hill and he stumbled; Hotch caught him by the back of the shirt, then took him by the hand. "Don't wander off too far, you guys," he said. "Remember, it's still a school night, we still can't stay out too late."
The football field had been transformed, covered with brightly colored snack stands and game booths as far as the eye could see, streamers and string lights waving overhead while the early evening sun was only beginning to sink down. The stadium speakers pumped out music and the air smelled like a summer barbecue.
Derek and the girls ran ahead, Penelope chattering a mile a minute, but Hotch slowed his steps so Spencer could keep up. "How was your first day?" he asked.
"It was fine," he said. "I'll have to actually do my homework here."
"What, you never did homework back home?" Hotch asked.
"I just did it during recess," he said. "I didn't have anything better to do."
Hotch frowned. "So last year you had recess," he said. "What grade were you in last year?"
Spencer sighed heavily. "My last elementary school grade was third," he said. "I've never been so bored in my life. They tried to teach me how to do long division and the teacher made me read Where the Red Fern Grows for my book report instead of what I wanted to read."
"What did you want to read?"
"Lord of the Flies."
Hotch laughed. "Well, I don't know what I expected," he said. "But yeah, I can see why they didn't let a nine-year-old read that book." Spencer screwed up his mouth and looked away. "What's that face supposed to mean."
Spencer glanced around. "You can't tell anybody," he said.
Hotch tugged him to the side. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing's wrong, it's just…" Spencer fidgeted, scratching the back of his left leg with the top of his right foot. "I might have lied on my admission forms."
"You lied?"
"My, um, my mom lied," he corrected quickly. "I'm not ten. Yet."
Hotch knelt down and took him by the arms. "What do you mean, you're not ten yet?" he said.
Spencer sighed. "I didn't meet application requirements if I was only nine," he said. "Which means I couldn't go here. So I told- my mom told them that my birth year was wrong, and I was really ten, and then they accepted my application."
"So you're nine?" Hotch said, bewildered.
"I'll be ten in October!" he said. "You can't tell anybody though. They'll send me back home and I can't…" He stopped. "I don't want to leave."
Hotch squeezed his arms. "Okay," he said. "Okay, I won't tell anybody, but...jesus, your mom let you come all the way out here by yourself?"
He nodded. "It's a good school," he said in a small voice. His lower lip dropped in a pout. "Please don't tell on me, Hotch."
Hotch sighed. Spencer's arms were skinny and birdlike in his grip, and he was suddenly, horribly aware of just how young and fragile he was. This was definitely more than he bargained for. He wasn't equipped to be in charge of an actual baby. "I'm not going to tell on you," he said. "But this means you've got to stick with me, okay? The kids in your class are a lot older and bigger than you. I don't want you getting into trouble."
"I can take care of myself," Spencer said. "I just don't them to find out that I'm not old enough. At least until October and then I'll be ten."
Hotch straightened up. "Yeah, I'm sure you can take care of yourself, but it can't hurt to have some backup, right?" he said. "Come on. Let's get something to eat before Derek eats everything."
"And then I'm going to get cotton candy," Spencer said.
"No, you don't need that much sugar."
"God, Emily, have you never had hot dogs before?"
"No!" she said. She slapped the top of the ketchup pump. "I had no idea what I was missing."
Alex laughed as she tossed her paper plate into a nearby trashcan. "So you're making up for lost time by eating four of them in one sitting?" she said.
"Five, and hell yeah I am."
"Do you want to know what's in them?" Dave asked.
"Absolutely not."
James slid his hands into his back pockets. "Where should we go next?" he said. "Besides getting Prentiss away from the hot dogs." She flipped him off cheerfully.
"We could go back to Kennedy House and watch TV in the air conditioning," Dave suggested.
"Oh, there's skeeball!" Alex said. She adjusted her bag across her shoulder. "I don't want to brag, but I'm pretty good at skeeball."
"Is that a challenge?" James said. Dave grinned and offered him a sly thumbs up.
Alex tightened her ponytail. "That's absolutely a challenge," she said. "You're on, Blake. Are you guys going to play too?"
"Sure," Emily said. "I'm always-"
"Uh...Emily, how would you feel about hot dogs if they were on a stick and deep fried in batter?" Dave said.
"Shut up, I need to try those," she said. "Where are they?"
"We're gonna go find some corn dogs," Dave said.
"Oh, and maybe some cotton candy," Emily said. "I definitely need some of that."
"Yeah, we'll get pick up cotton candy for everybody," Dave said. "We'll catch up with you guys in a little bit." He winked as he propelled Emily away, and James felt the back of his neck heat up in nervous embarrassment.
Alex didn't seem to notice as she dropped a quarter in the game's slot. She pressed the button to start and the wooden balls rolled down the chute. "You ready to have your ass handed to you?" she teased.
"Uh-huh," he said. "I mean...no, not at all." He fed a quarter to the game next to hers and pushed the button. "I haven't played in a really long time, I have a feeling I'm not going to be that great."
She grinned. "You see that?" she said. She pointed at the display of plush toys above the skeeball game.
"What, the bear?" he said.
"No, that stupid little owl," she said. "That's, what- two hundred tickets? I'm going to win that one."
"I'll just have to win that bear for myself, then," he said.
Alex picked up the first ball and tossed it gently in her hand. "Maybe I'll win the owl and the bear, what about that?" she said.
He smiled. "I'm fine with that," he said.
Alex drew her arm back and hurtled the ball up the ramp. James winced as it bounced off gently and dropped into the lowest-point goal. "That was just a practice one," she said.
"Yeah, sure, take your time," he said. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be right now."
Penelope stopped dead in her tracks and grabbed Derek's arm in a death grip. "What? What's wrong?" he said.
"Look at that!" she said, pointing across the way.
"What? What am I looking at?"
"That cat!" she said, jabbing her fingers towards the football toss game. Garishly colored stuffed animals dangled from the booth, and Derek sighed.
"Baby girl, you can't scare me like that, I thought you were about to be axe murdered or something," he said.
"But it's so cute!" she cooed. "Look at it! I need it."
JJ tossed another handful of popcorn in her mouth. "You have fifteen stuffed animals on your bed already," she objected.
"Sixteen, and I need this one," she said. She dug in the pockets of her short overalls for more quarters. "I'm going to play that game all day if I have to."
Derek winked at her. "Don't worry about it, baby girl," he said. "Give me a quarter. I'll get you that cat."
He strolled over to the booth. A couple of girls in floral sundresses hung around, watching one of the senior boys throw a football through the hanging tire. "Hey, Derek," one of them said, looking up at him from her lashes.
"Hey, Harper," he said. "How were cheer tryouts?"
Harper rolled her eyes. "Stressful for no reason," she said. "It's my third year on the squad, you'd think they'd just let skip tryouts." She smiled, her teeth even and perfect against her pink lipstick. "You-know-who is definitely getting captain again this year too. But whatever, if I'm not captain I can still audition for the school musical." She elbowed the slender blonde girl beside her. "Haley thinks we're doing Big Fish."
"It's just a rumor," Haley laughed. "Hey, I saw you on the field today, Derek. You're really looking good this year."
"Yeah, rumor has it the new coach wants you for varsity," Harper said.
He grinned. "Yeah, you heard that?" he said. "Guess we'll have to wait and see when the roster drops."
Hotch caught up to them. "I was wondering where you guys ran off to," he said. "I thought we were-" He stopped midsentence. "Oh, uh...hi."
"Hi, Aaron," Haley said, smiling up at him.
Derek made a face. No one ever called Hotch by his first name. No one. Not even Gideon.
"Hey, um...Haley," he said. Maybe it was just the setting sun, but it almost looked like a pink flush was creeping up his neck.
"Harper, this is Aaron, he signed up for theatre club," Haley said.
Harper scanned him up and down. "Hm," she said thoughtfully. "Well, god knows we're always desperate for boys." She checked her phone. "Come on, Hay, Alexa's looking for us."
"Oh, okay," Haley said. "Nice to see you again, Aaron. And you too, Penelope! I'll see you at the first club meeting."
Harper linked her arm through Haley's and they walked off through the crowd. "Bye," Hotch said, almost as an afterthought.
"Okay, what was that about, Aaron?" Derek said.
That snapped him out of his reverie. "Don't call me Aaron," he said, irritated.
"Ooh, but you didn't mind when Haley called you that," JJ said.
Penelope's mouth dropped open. "Ooh, does this mean what I think it means?" she said.
The senior boy stepped away from the game; Derek handed his quarter to the bored kid at the booth and picked up the football. "It doesn't mean anything," Hotch said, the pink flush on his neck slowing rising to his cheeks.
"Oh, I think it does," Derek said. "Look at him. He's turning red."
"I'm not!" Hotch protested as he turned red. "I'm just...maybe I'm sick. I don't know. I'm stressed or something. Lyme disease."
"You don't have Lyme disease," JJ scoffed.
"You're not my doctor, little girl!" Hotch said. "Just...eat your popcorn and stop making that face." JJ shrugged, her eyebrow still raised skeptically, and tossed another handful in her mouth.
Derek adjusted his grip on the football. "All right, Penelope Garcia, you ready for me to win you that cat?" he asked.
"Yes!" she said, clapping her hands. "You can do it! I'm so excited!"
He tossed the football easily through the tire and Penelope shrieked in delight. "Yay, you won a prize," the bored boy running the booth said. "What do you want?"
"That cat!" Penelope said. "That one! That one right there!" The kid handed it over and she immediately cuddled it in her arms, then flung her arms around Derek. "Thank you so much, my handsome angel. He is the new love of my life, and you are my hero."
He grinned. "Any time, baby girl," he said.
JJ frowned. "Hey, Hotch?" she said. "You have Spencer, right?"
"Yeah, of course, he's-" Hotch looked down. "Shit."
Spencer scanned the crowd. He'd only stopped for a second to tie his shoes, and when he looked up Hotch was gone. And it was really difficult to find someone in the crowd when he was elbow height at best.
He bit his lip. Really, in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that big of a deal. He could always find his way back to Lincoln House on his own. But he didn't want to think about it logically, he wanted to find his friends.
"So are you just in the habit of getting lost everywhere you go?"
He looked up, startled, to see a familiar face. "I'm not lost, Alex!" he said. "I know exactly where I am. Technically, it's the rest of my group that's lost."
Alex laughed and held out her hand. "Well, technically I guess you're correct," she said. He grabbed her hand and the beginning twinges of you should probably panic died down immediately.
"Who's the munchkin, Miller?" one of her friends asked, a dark haired boy with sharp dark eyes.
"This is Spencer," she said. "Remember? Emily knocked him over the other night."
"I didn't mean to knock him over!" Emily protested.
"I know you didn't," he said. He frowned. "I liked your blue hair better."
"Yeah, you and me both, kiddo," she sighed.
Alex drew Spencer a little closer to her side. "Spencer, these are my friends, David and James," she said.
"Hi," he said tentatively.
"Do you know where your group was headed?" Alex asked.
He shrugged. "I'm not sure," he said. "I just stopped to tie my shoe and when I looked up Hotch was gone."
"Well, stick with us, then," James said. "We'll find them." He held out a bag of pink cotton candy. "Do you want this? I'm not going to finish it."
Spencer brightened. "Yes, please!" he said.
He let go of Alex's hand and took the bag, tearing off a soft handful and popping it into his mouth as they started walking. The sugar melted instantly and he smiled. The older kids chatted above his head. The sun was sinking behind the horizon a little more, the sky shifting from deep pink to a dark purple, and the humid air was a tiny bit cooler.
"Spencer! Where the hell did you run off to?"
He spotted Hotch crossing through the crowd, Derek and the girls following close behind him. "Hotch!" he called, and immediately shrank back. Hotch didn't look very happy. He wadded up the empty cotton candy bag and stuck it in his pocket.
"Where did you wander off to?" he asked as he caught up.
"I didn't," he objected. "I stopped to tie my shoe and you didn't see me."
"See? I told you it wasn't his fault," Derek said. "You okay, pretty boy?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, I ran into Alex again," Spencer said. He brightened. "Alex, these are my friends!"
"I met some of you briefly the other night, I think," Alex said.
They ran through introductions, and Spencer didn't miss the way that David and Hotch frowned at each other. He wasn't entirely sure why, though.
The others, though, seemed to hit it off. "I like your cat," Alex said.
"Thank you!" Penelope said, cradling her new toy like a mother holding a newborn baby. "Derek won him for me. I haven't decided on a name yet."
"Aaron," JJ suggested.
"Absolutely not," Hotch said flatly. He tugged Spencer's shoulder. "Thanks for finding him. Hopefully he won't wander off so much."
"I didn't wander off!" he protested.
Suddenly Penelope grabbed Derek by the arm. "Oh my god!" she shrieked.
He winced. "Baby girl, you gotta stop doing that, you're a lot stronger than you realize…"
"There's a bounce house!" she said. "We have to go! Right now!"
Emily whipped her head around. "Holy shit, I'm in," she said. "Who else is coming with us?"
"I'll go," JJ said.
"I don't think Penelope is giving me the option to say no," Derek said dryly. "What about you, kid?"
Spencer hesitated. "It's probably just a germ factory in there," he said.
"Yes, but a fun germ factory," Emily said. "Come on, everybody, let's go."
Spencer found himself propelled towards the massive bouncy castle, trepidation building in his chest. He definitely wasn't sure about this. "You know, germs and viruses can survive on hard surfaces for weeks," he said.
No one heard him. "Penelope, I'll hold Aaron," Alex offered.
Hotch frowned. "Why would you...oh, you meant the cat," he said. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Please don't name the cat after me."
"Too late!" Penelope said, handing the toy to Alex as she kicked off her shoes. "His name is Aaron now. Last name to be decided. Now come on, boy wonder, let's go."
Spencer took off his well-worn sneakers and placed them next to Emily's Doc Martens. There was a hole in the heel of his right sock, the striped one. "So if this thing hasn't been disinfected recently-"
"Forget the science, Jimmy Neutron, let's go!" Emily said.
James glanced from Hotch to Dave. The four oldest kids sat in the grass at a safe distance from the bounce house in awkward silence. Alex held Penelope's stuffed cat on her lap like a neon-colored toddler and balanced a book on her knee. "So you guys are all in Lincoln House?" Dave said.
"Yeah," Hotch said tersely. "I'm the seventh floor RA."
"Are you a senior?" James asked. "I know I've seen you around, but I don't think we've been in any of the same classes."
"Junior," Hotch said. "Derek's a sophomore, the girls and Spencer are freshmen."
"Spencer's...a little young, right?" James said. "It's not just me?"
"Oh, no, he's...he's ten," Hotch said.
"Ten?" James repeated. "God, he's a baby."
"He's brilliant, though," Alex said, glancing up from her book. "He came to the library today, we had a nice little chat. He's a sweet kid, and so smart."
James could see Hotch's tense expression ease a little. "Yeah, he is," he said. "He and Derek are on my floor, so I guess I feel pretty responsible for both of them."
"Where did the girls come in?" Alex asked.
Hotch shrugged. "Honestly, no idea how that happened. They just started following me around," he said. He pushed himself off the ground. "I'll be right back."
As soon as he was out of earshot Alex smacked Dave's arm. "Stop scowling," she said.
"I'm not scowling!" he protested.
"No, she's right, you are," James said.
Dave scratched the back of his neck. "Look, I'm sorry, but the Lincoln House kids just kind of set me on edge, okay?" he said. "They all got sent there for a reason, and the reasons make me nervous. Maybe Hotch is supposed to be in juvie or something."
James glanced over the bounce house as he tugged absently at the grass; JJ was turning backflips while Derek, Emily, and Penelope counted and cheered her on. "You can't be serious," he said. "They're nice kids, Dave."
Dave threw his hands in the air. "Maybe I'm wrong!" he said. "I don't know."
"You have got to get your head out of your ass, Rossi," Alex said, turning back to her book.
Spencer tumbled out of the bounce house and scrambled to his feet, grabbing up his shoes. "Hey, you okay?" James asked.
"It's gross in there," Spencer said, dropping down beside him. "It's fun, I guess, but every time I started to enjoy myself I remembered that it's disgusting."
Alex set her book aside and dug around in her bag. "Hold out your hands," she said, and when he obeyed she squirted a healthy amount of hand sanitizer over his palms. "Does that help?"
"Yes, thank you," he said gratefully, rubbing it over his hands. "What are you reading?"
Alex held up her textbook. "Trying to get a head start on my ASL class," she said.
"Oh, is that what you're taking for your language credit?" Spencer asked. "I haven't decided what I want to take yet."
"This is her sixth language class," James said. "Which ones have you taken, Al?"
"French, Spanish, Latin, German, and Russian," she said. "ASL is new this year, though. Plus I've learned a couple on my own time."
"Yeah, she and Dave both speak Italian and leave me out," James said, elbowing Alex playfully. "Emily's fluent too, but I'm hopelessly bad at languages. It took everything in me to slog through my language requirements."
Spencer brightened. "I want to learn!" he said. "Can you guys teach me? I can read in other languages if I have a dictionary, but speaking another language is completely different."
"I think we can manage that," Alex said. She glanced slyly at Dave. "What do you think, David? We can teach Spencer to speak Italian, and then four of can talk about James in front of him."
"Hey!" James protested.
Dave smiled. "Yeah, we can do that," he said. "Sorry, James."
James tossed a few loose blades of grass at him. "You're not sorry, don't lie."
"Yeah, you're right."
Hotch crossed over to them. "Here," he said, handing Spencer a bag of blue cotton candy. "Just the one, though, okay?"
"Thanks!" Spencer said, eagerly tearing into the bag. "Blue's my favorite flavor. There actually is a blue raspberry, the whitebark raspberry, but this isn't the correct shade. Really, it should be almost black, but that doesn't look quite as appetizing."
"No, I wouldn't imagine so," James laughed.
"So I think we should go on the slides next," Penelope said, half out of breath as they stumbled out of the bounce house like drunk frat boys leaving a wedding reception. "They look like fun."
Emily caught her balance against the squishy side of the bounce house. "You guys have fun," she called over the roar of the fan. She sighed as she jammed her feet back into her Docs. "I'm getting too old for this."
She slid her sunglasses back on and picked up her bag. It was probably a bad idea, since it was so busy, and it was absolutely against school rules, but...she hadn't been able to get away for a while now, and this was her best chance.
She snuck off to the edges of the football field and ducked under the bleachers. It was quiet and cool, almost dark, and she fumbled around in her bag for her pack of cigarettes and her favorite lighter. Even just the sharp scent was reassuring, and she sighed audibly in pleased relief.
It was so much easier to get away with her habit back home. Then again, she spent her afternoons after school roaming around with her friends, doing whatever they wanted, and if she stayed out late all she got was a quick scolding from her mother, too busy and distracted to do anything more than that.
She dug around in her back pocket with her free hand for her phone, opening the email app. The signal wasn't great anywhere on campus, and definitely not on the football field, but it was worth a shot. She tapped the cigarette, shaking off the ash, and waited for it load.
Nothing. Still no reply.
"You're not supposed to smoke on campus."
Emily jumped. "Holy shit!" she said. "How long have you been standing there?"
JJ crossed her arms. Somehow she managed to cut an imposing figure for someone so small and slight. "Long enough," she said. "You know you're not allowed to smoke on campus. And you're not eighteen, are you? How'd you buy cigarettes?"
"Fake ID," Emily admitted. She stopped and scowled. "I don't have to explain myself to you. You can't stop me."
"I can tell Hotch," JJ suggested.
She paused. "Okay, maybe you can stop me," she said. "All right. What do you want?"
JJ frowned, wrinkling her nose. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"I assume this is an extortion attempt," Emily said. "Not my first. So what do you want in exchange for your silence?"
"Well, I went looking for you because Penelope saw a face-painting booth from the top of the slide and booked it over there," JJ said. A slow smile crept across her face. "Maybe if you got your face painted…"
"Oh, jesus, really?" Emily said. She sighed and ground out the cigarette under her shoe. "Okay, okay, fine. Don't tell Hotchner. He would tattle on me in a heartbeat."
"He's not that scary," JJ said as Emily followed her out from under the bleachers. "But yeah, he'd tell on you."
"Don't tell me he's not scary, he looks like his face might crack if he smiles," Emily said.
It was dark now, strings of lights and round paper lanterns casting a warm glow overhead, but the air still smelled like fresh popcorn and warm sugar. "Hey, I found her!" JJ called.
Penelope was already getting her face painted by a senior art student, lit by a propped up worklamp. "Oh good!" she said. "Emily what design do you want?"
"Oh, I don't think…" her voice trailed off as she looked down at JJ, who raised an eyebrow and shot her a knowing look. "Just pick something for me."
"Ooh!" Penelope exclaimed, nearly knocking the art student's elbow. "Sorry, sorry. I just got a little excited. I'll pick something good! Don't worry!"
Emily looked at the rainbow tiger stripes on Penelope's cheeks. "Oh, I'm worried," she said.
"You've almost got it," Dave said. "A little more of a roll on the R."
"Grazie," Spencer said again, frowning in concentration as he tried to copy him exactly.
"Much better," Alex said.
Spencer beamed. "It's so interesting to hear Italian spoken as opposed to reading it," he said. "Last year I read La Divina Commedia in the original Italian, and I'm realizing that the pronunciations I was mentally using were completely wrong. I think I was reading it more like French. I don't speak French either, at least not yet, but I've read a couple of books in French. Victor Hugo-"
"All right, I think you've had enough sugar for today," Dave laughed. He and Alex had given Spencer what was left of their bags of cotton candy, and that might have been a mistake. "We might need to put you back in that bounce house to get some of your extra energy out."
"Oh, I'm fine!" Spencer chirped. "Teach me more things!" He tripped over his shoelaces, stumbling a little and righting himself quickly. "I want to learn sign language too, can I learn that?"
"Of course," Alex said.
Dave bit back a frown. No wonder Spencer kept tripping over his shoes- his off-brand sneakers were on the brink of falling apart, the colors faded, and the broken laces knotted together in several spots to keep them in one piece. He filed it away mentally to ask the kid's RA about it later.
It was dark now and some of the booths were beginning to close, but bright music still played on the field's speakers, and they were waiting for the others at the face painting booth. "It's a little dark to see," Alex said. "If you sit up here you can see me better. Can I pick you up?"
He nodded and she hoisted him up easily, setting him down to sit on the closed booth next to the face painting stand. "All right, so I'm going to teach you what I learned today," she said. "Honestly, this will be good practice for me too. So, this is thank you."
Dave smiled as he watched Spencer copy Alex. He was a nice little kid, really. Smart and articulate. And he had to admit that Spencer's friends seemed like nice kids too, even the RA with the serious smile. Maybe Alex and James were right. Maybe the Lincoln House kids weren't all bad.
He paused. "Hey, where did James go?" he asked.
Alex looked around. "No idea," she said. "I didn't even see him leave."
"Maybe he started the drive home," Dave said. "It's getting late."
She frowned, disappointed. "No, he would have said goodbye," she said. "He always says goodbye. He's still around somewhere, I'm sure of it."
Dave rummaged around in his pocket for his phone and texted James. He'd been hoping that the carnival would be a good moment for James to finally get some alone time with Alex. Apparently that wasn't the case.
Penelope bounded over to them, dragging Emily behind her. "What do you think?" she asked.
Dave burst out laughing. "Prentiss, you look amazing," he said.
Her face was painted in an elaborate blue butterfly design. "I have glitter on me, don't I?" she said.
"So much glitter," JJ said. She had a floral pattern painted along her temples to her jawline, and Penelope had a full scale rainbow tiger face. "It suits you, I think."
"Spencer, you want to get your face painted?" Derek asked. Penelope had talked him into a blue and red Spiderman design across his cheeks. "C'mon, it'll be cool."
"I think they're closing, anyway," Hotch said.
Alex tilted her head. "Is that a Batman symbol in the middle of your forehead?" she asked.
He sighed. "It was the smallest design option they had, and Penelope wouldn't let me out of it," he said as he checked his watch. "Yeah, it's almost time to head out."
"Just a second, just a second," Penelope said. "What's your favorite color, boy genius?"
"Purple," he said warily. "Why?"
Penelope darted over to the stand, spoke quickly to the art student in charge, and ran back with a paint brush and a pot of purple paint. "Hold still," she commanded.
"It's cold!" Spencer objected, and she quickly painted a big purple heart on his cheek.
"There!" she said. "Perfect."
Spencer touched the paint on his cheek gingerly. "Thank you?" he said.
"Oh, there's James!" Alex said. "Where'd you go, Jamie? I was wondering where you went."
James held both hands behind his back. "Well, I kind of wanted to play a couple more games before they all closed up," he said. "I might've accidentally won something."
"Really?" she said. "What did you win?"
He pulled a plush toy owl from behind his back, its embroidered eyes just ever so slightly crooked. "Here it is," he said.
"Oh, that stupid owl!" Alex exclaimed. She hesitated. "Wait. Are you giving him to me?"
"You've seen my room at home, where am I going to put him?" James said. He held it out, almost shyly. "You, um...you want him?"
"Yes!" she said. "Oh, he's so cute." She held it out to Penelope. "Quick, he needs a name. What does he look like to you?"
"Something classic, yet quirky," Penelope said. "Archimedes."
"Archimdedes it is," Alex said. She tucked the owl in her bag so his round little head peeked out. "Thank you, James. That's so sweet."
Dave tried to catch his eye, desperately trying to telegraph his thoughts to him. But James just smiled, dopey and nervous. "Any time," he said, and his voice cracked a little. He cleared his throat. "Glad I could, uh, help." Dave closed his eyes and shook his head. James was hopeless. And this point, he was definitely going to lose the bet to Emily.
Spencer yawned abruptly, covering his mouth with the back of his hand and smearing the purple heart on his cheek a little. "You okay?" Hotch asked.
Spencer frowned. "I'm just really tired all of a sudden," he said. "And my stomach hurts."
"Well, I did let you have that big bag of cotton candy," Hotch said. "I'm not surprised."
"Three," Spencer said miserably.
"How'd you get three bags of cotton candy?" JJ asked.
He shrugged helplessly. "People kept handing it to me!" he said. "And it's so good! But...yeah, my stomach hurts. And I'm tired."
"Ah, the sugar high has worn off," Dave said sagely.
"You want a ride back to the dorm?" Hotch asked. Spencer nodded; Hotch situated himself by the booth so Spencer could clasp his arms around his neck and lifted him onto his back. "All right, Reid. You've got to go to bed."
"This has been fun, you guys," Emily said. "I guess we'll see you around."
"Do you want to eat breakfast with us tomorrow?" Penelope asked. "We've claimed one of the good tables and there's plenty of room."
"Sure," James said. "Sounds great. Right, Dave?"
"Right," he said. "You guys seem like a lot of fun."
Hotch smiled at him, and without the solemnity of his usual expression he looked like a completely different person. "We'll see you guys tomorrow, then," he said, shifting a half-asleep Spencer on his back.
Author's Notes:
Y'ALL THEY'RE SO CUTE!
It's so nice to write the kids all together. When I write drabbles on my tumblr in this verse, they've all been friends for quite a while, so it's been interesting to write them all meeting and becoming friends.
But now they're friends! And I can really jump into the meat of the story!
We got some angst coming, but this chapter was just adorable stuff, and there will still be a lot of cute shenanigans happening. (who's ready to see Hotch as his first drama club meeting?)
Thank you to ItsEmilyFreakingPrentiss, xGoldentigerlilyx, sweetkid45, Eeltje, Lady Lunera, Bohogal1998, Cat, Tumbles3, Cimminds, and ferret54 for reviewing! Y'all are fantastic!
My tumblr is themetaphorgirl if you'd like to see the FAQ on this verse or you want to chat! And this fic updates on Thursdays, so I'll see y'all in a week!
