Mike
"Come in, Will. Come in. Over." Mike stared at the walkie-talkie in his hand. Another minute of silence passed before he tried again.
Nothing.
Dustin and Lucas hovered nearby, all eyes glued on the comm.
Still nothing.
Lucas let out an exasperated sigh and grabbed the walkie-talkie from Mike's hands. "Will, pick up." The boys were silent. "C'mon, Will, we're waiting on you. Over."
Mike crossed his arms and leaned into the couch cushions. It was almost noon. Will should've been there twenty minutes ago. They were finishing yesterday's record-breaking campaign – something Will couldn't shut up about over the Walkie-Talkies last night. But now he was a no-show.
"He's not answering," Lucas huffed, tossing the comm onto the couch next to Mike.
"Yeah, no duh," Mike shot back. "We've been trying for ten minutes."
Lucas rolled his eyes. "So now what? We can't play without Will."
Dustin stood up and asked, "Have you tried calling him? Like, actually calling him on the phone?"
Mike paused for a second, staring blankly at Dustin, before jumping to his feet and racing upstairs. From the basement he could hear Dustin laughing and Lucas' sarcastic, "Seriously?"
As he rounded the corner to the kitchen, Mike heard his mom's abrupt yelp. His socked feet skidded along the linoleum in front of the island, where his mom was swatting the cupboards with a dish towel. "That's the fifteenth carpenter ant in twenty-four hours, Ted," she yelled to the living room. "Call the exterminator. You said you'd take care of it!"
"I'll take care of it, Karen," came the exasperated reply.
On the twentieth ring, Mike hung up the phone.
His mom was still muttering to herself when he passed. Before he turned the corner, she stopped him. "How long are Dustin and Lucas staying?" she asked.
He shook his head. "I don't know, Mom," he said. "A while. We're waiting for Will to get here and then we have to finish yesterday's campaign."
She tsked and propped her hands on her hips – that no-nonsense posture – this couldn't be good. "I don't think so," she replied firmly. "Your sister's graduation is at two."
"I'm not going to that!" Mike shot back. Was she serious?
"Excuse me, but, yes, you are. End of story," she said.
Nancy appeared at the other end of the kitchen. "Mom," she said lightly. Karen turned and her expression softened. "Mom, he doesn't have to go." She gave Mike a friendly look and a quick nod. "Seriously, this is going to be, like, excruciatingly boring for him. It's not that big of a deal."
"Mike, you're going to miss Nancy's speech." It was his mom's last effort to get him to the ceremony. But Nancy had a point. He would be bored out of his mind.
"I've already heard it like twenty times," he replied. "She's been practicing it for a month."
Nancy rolled her eyes.
Karen frowned and finally acquiesced. "Okay. Stay home."
Downstairs Lucas and Dustin were debating space travel.
"Why would the Enterprise even have a light speed option if it can travel at warp speed?" Lucas asked, heatedly.
Dustin sighed impatiently. "I'm not saying the Enterprise has a light speed gear. I'm just saying, it can't warp without reaching light speed. So it has to travel at light speed sometimes."
They clammed up and looked at Mike expectantly as he descended the stairs. "No answer," Mike reported.
Over an hour later, Mike knocked on Nancy's bedroom door. She was wearing a white, long-sleeved dress shirt and beige skirt. Her hair was pulled into a twist, hidden pins holding it in place. "What's up?" she asked.
"Thanks for letting me off the hook," Mike said.
Their relationship had relaxed and become more friendly since they'd worked together last winter. They weren't exactly best friends, but they weren't at each other's necks all of the time either. And the small gestures, like Nancy excusing Mike from the graduation ceremony, were more frequent.
She shrugged. "No biggie. Is that all?"
"No, actually," Mike continued. "Jonathan's graduating, right? So he'll be there?"
Nancy looked away and scratched her forehead absentmindedly. "Yeah, I- I imagine. Why?"
"Just, if you think of it, can you ask him to tell Will that we're going to be at the junkyard if he wants to meet us there?" Mike asked. Nancy nodded and Mike added hastily, "Unless Will is at the ceremony, too. Then can you just tell him?"
Nancy gave him an annoyed look. "Yeah, obviously, Mike."
It was then that he noticed the little tremor in her hand as it brushed stray hairs behind her ear. And the puffiness beneath her eyes. Sleeplessness? Or was she crying? "Are you okay?" he asked squeamishly. However their relationship had strengthened, it still felt weird empathizing instead of criticizing. "You look like hell," he added. Well, at least that made him feel a little more comfortable.
Nancy snorted. "Go to the junkyard, dweeb," she said, shutting the door in his face.
