Chapter Six: Teddy
Disclaimers: I don't own Once Upon a Time. Also, this story is a spin – off to Lisboa's original "Thicker than Water."
So, I'm not doing a "Voice" for every chapter, anymore. I don't think every chapter of "Thicker than Water Part II" calls for one. But when I get inspired, I'll write one. This focuses on one of the neighborhood kids that Henry played catch with at the park. It starts out on Saturday morning, when Teddy and Eddie first decide to go to the park to play catch.
"Hey, Mom, is it okay if I go play catch with Eddie today?" Teddy asked his mother as he looked for his baseball and glove.
His mother shrugged. "Why not? Your ball and glove are behind the coat rack again," she added.
Teddy chuckled and picked them up. "Thanks, Mom," he added sheepishly.
Teddy ran two doors down to pick up Eddie. "Do you want to play catch? It's great weather for it," he asked, indicating the bright blue sky.
Eddie shrugged. "Why not. I don't have anything else to do." He quickly picked up his glove (Eddie could always find his glove without any help). Then Eddie paused. "Isn't there a new boy riding our bus?"
Teddy nodded. "Yeah, I think I've seen him in school, too."
Eddie shrugged again. "Maybe we could ask him if he wanted to play with us."
Teddy thought about that for a second. What if the kid wasn't cool? Still, the new kid was the only other boy their age. Eddie was great, but it could get boring hanging with the same boy every weekend. "Yeah," Teddy agreed. "Let's try him out. Do you have an extra glove, just in case?"
Eddie nodded and grabbed one. Then they shoved all their stuff in a duffel bag.
They quickly found the house the boy was supposed to be living in and knocked on the door.
"Hello?" a blond woman asked a she answered the door.
"I'm Teddy, and this is Eddie. We live down the street," Teddy pointed down to the area where their houses were. We noticed there's a kid living here around our age, and we wanted to know if he would come to the park with us. We're going to play catch, you know," he explained.
The woman called for her son, whose name turned out to be Henry, and asked him if he wanted to play.
To Teddy's surprise, Henry didn't say yes right away. Teddy had figured the boy would be looking for other kids to hang out with. But instead, Henry looked uncomfortable. "I don't know much about baseball," he told his mother.
Teddy couldn't hold back his shock. The kid didn't know much about baseball? How was it possible to live in America for what eleven? Twelve years? And not know about baseball? He and Eddie laughed at that for a minute. Teddy was beginning to have serious doubts about this Henry kid. He didn't sound very cool at all.
But Eddie suddenly said, "It doesn't matter anyway. We're not going to play an actual game. We're just going to throw the ball back and forth. You can do that, right?" he asked Henry.
Henry nodded. Teddy thought about that. Playing catch was more fun with three people than it was with just two. Maybe it didn't matter that much that Henry didn't know a lot about baseball, after all.
"I don't know," Henry replied. "I just don't know." But Henry's mother insisted that he come with them, anyway. So they all set off for the park.
By the end of the day, Teddy didn't care that Henry didn't know much about baseball and wasn't that cool. He was really fun to be around. Teddy decided he'd start looking for Henry at school, too.