A/N: Hello to all my readers. I don't write a lot of holiday inspired fics and this is my first Thanksgiving one. I got this idea when my daughter (then 8) last year remarked that the wild turkeys around our house look like big chickens. That made me wonder about what would happen if the goblins thought this and let a bunch of turkeys or "big chickens" into the throne room. From those musings came this a three part Thanksgiving fic. I hope you like it, thanks for reading. Please leave a review. Special shout out to my beta RMBiehl for her help.
Toby Williams banged open the back door and dropped his backpack on the kitchen table. He went straight to the refrigerator and helped himself to a juice box that was inside, bypassed the bowl of fruit on the table, and grabbed a cookie from the plate on the counter by the stove.
Life was good now since his mom had taken a job at the antique shop in town run by her friend. For the first time, he was able to walk home on his own and take care of himself until she or his dad came home around dinner time.
Grabbing his snack along with a paper plate to catch the crumbs, Toby made his way from the kitchen into the family room where he plopped on the couch and turned on the TV.
He had just found a cartoon he wanted to watch, his mother would never let him watch Ren and Stimpy if she had been here, when the phone rang.
"Crap," he muttered.
He knew he should have brought the cordless phone in from the kitchen with him. His mom always called to make sure that he made it home from school and wasn't lying dead in the street or kidnapped or something.
Putting the plate with the half-eaten giant chocolate chip cookie, on the couch, along with the juice box, he launched himself out of the room to get to the phone before the answering machine picked up. He slid across the kitchen floor, just like Tom Cruise in another movie his mother didn't know he and his friends watched on cable during a sleepover, and grabbed the receiver just in time.
"Hi Mom," he said a little breathlessly.
"How did you know it was me?" Karen Williams asked. "And why do you sound so out of breath?"
"Um, I was in the can when the phone rang," Toby said. "And you always call me when I get home from school so it wasn't a hard guess."
"Young man lose that attitude now. You know I hate when you talk like that. I can have you walk here after school instead of going home. You could do your homework in the back room," Karen threatened.
"Sorry," Toby mumbled, wanting to get back to his television show. "Well, I am here; I am safe. Nothing bad has happened to me. The door is locked," he turned his head to check to see that he was telling the truth and was relieved to see that he had remembered to flip the latch. "So, I will see you tonight?" he asked, trying to get his mom off the phone.
"Fine, you can have an apple or some carrot sticks for a snack, stay away from the cookies, and no television until you finish your homework," Karen told him.
"Too late," Toby muttered.
"What was that, Dear?" Karen asked.
"Nothing, Mom. Sure, I will see you tonight," Toby said quickly. "Bye," he added before she could ask any more questions, and he hung up before his mom could say anything else.
Toby started to put the phone back in the cradle but changed his mind and carried it back to the family room with him. He settled back on the couch and waited out the commercial until the show started again.
After finishing his snack, he called a friend and talked for a couple of minutes. They complained about their teachers, and agreed that Thanksgiving and after that winter break couldn't come fast enough. When Ben's mom told him he had to get off the boys decided to talk again that night after dinner.
After he hung up, Toby knew he would have to start on his homework. He had to get at least some of it done before one of his parents came home, or his mom would make good on her threat and his afternoons of freedom would be over.
Back to the kitchen he went and grabbed his backpack. He considered working at the kitchen table but after checking the clock figured he had time to watch a little more TV while he worked on his homework.
He completed his math and wrote his spelling words in sentences, completely useless in his opinion, before he turned to his social studies.
It was November, and his teacher wanted them to do a report about Thanksgiving. The report could be about anything they wanted; it just had to be a full essay and had to have something to do with Thanksgiving.
Toby looked at the clock and saw that he needed to turn off the TV or risk getting caught with it on by either his mom or dad.
He put the paper down and took the paper plate with the cookie crumbs and his juice box to throw away in the kitchen. After retrieving his backpack, he went upstairs to his room to think about this essay.
Flopping on his bed, Toby read the paper from his teacher with the assignment again. He hated assignments like this. Why couldn't Mr. Harshman just tell him what to write about like a normal teacher? Write about the Pilgrims and the Native Americans or the First Thanksgiving, he had written one of those a year since he started school. He could do it in his sleep. But no his teacher thought it would be fun for them to be creative. Toby groaned. when he thought about Thanksgiving; his mind was a complete blank.
Thanksgiving was just not that important to him. He liked having two days off of school, but while he was sure he could write an appropriate-length essay about having a break from school, he didn't think that was what his teacher had in mind either.
Fall wasn't his favorite season. The whole pilgrim and Indian thing was overdone. He wasn't into sports, so he didn't care about watching football on TV, or the Macy's parade.
The only thing that he looked forward to at Thanksgiving, besides getting off of school, was the food. Maybe he could write about food, he thought, but then discounted that idea. How could he make his writing about stuffing his face long enough for an essay for Harshman? Well, at least he had a couple of weeks before it was due.
While he had been thinking about his paper, he heard both his parents come home. A knock on the door got his attention, and he looked up.
"Toby, dinner is ready," he heard his mother from the other side of the door.
Tossing the paper aside, Toby sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed.
"I'm coming, Mom," he said as he stood and stretched.
When he arrived at the table, his mom and dad were already there. After they said grace, only a delay tactic to getting to the food in his opinion, Toby filled his plate with the delicious-smelling food that his mom had made and put out. He ate while his parents talked about the usual grown-up stuff. He was almost finished when they both turned to him.
"Well, how was your day, Toby?" his mom asked.
"Fine," he said, shoving another spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth.
"What did you learn in school today?" That question came from his dad.
Ug, Toby thought. ',"Nothin'," he said around the potatoes in his mouth.
"Tobias Williams, swallow please and use your napkin," his mother admonished him.
Toby did what he was told, and after his mouth was free from bits of his dinner, he knew he would have to say something to satisfy his parents.
"It is fifth grade," he said. "We are learning a bunch of stuff that I'll never use once I am out of school."
"Now you know that is not true," his mother said. "What you are learning now is the basis for what you build on later. Isn't that right Robert?"
Karen gave her husband a look.
"Absolutely," Robert Williams agreed before taking a swallow of his drink.
"Name three things that you learned in fifth grade that you use now?" Toby challenged him.
He saw his dad flinch, trying to answer, and decided to let his dad off the hook.
"Forget about it. Harshman gave us an assignment, and it is going to be a pain."
"What is that?" his mom asked.
"We need to write a multi-paragraph essay about Thanksgiving," Toby said.
"What about Thanksgiving?" Karen replied.
"That's it, Thanksgiving. Harshman is the worst. I don't know what to write. The only things I thought of was pilgrims and indians and stuff or food, but he doesn't want us to do the same basic essay we wrote before, and I can't write an essay about stuffing my face," Toby complained.
He opted not to mention writing about the joys of having two extra days off school.
"Why don't you call Gabe or Ben?" Karen asked. "They might have a suggestion.
"Maybe," Toby agreed jumping on any reason to call his friends.
After dinner was over, Toby decided to follow his mom's advice and call one of his friends. He actually did not need an excuse for that, but if talking about homework got him permission to call one of his friends, he would do it.
He sat at the kitchen table with the cordless receiver since he wasn't allowed to take the phone to his room. His friend picked up after the second ring.
"Hey, Ben, it's Toby. I am glad you picked up," Toby said into the phone he hated having to talk to his friends' parents if they picked up the phone.
The boys chatted for a while about a television show that would be on later that night, and a movie they both wanted to see.
They had just decided to talk to their friend Gabe at school and make plans to see the movie together. Most likely they would need an adult with them but they would figure that out later. Then Toby got to the point of his call.
"Have you thought about Harshman's essay?" Toby asked.
He listened to Ben talk excitedly about what he planned. Then he asked if he knew what anyone else had chosen. As Ben relayed what he knew, Toby's heart sank lower and lower. After promising to talk to his parents about the movie for the weekend, Toby said goodbye to his friend and hung up.
Toby wandered into the family room where his mother was looking at a magazine while she and his dad watched one of their boring grown-up shows on television. He flopped down on the floor and stared up at the ceiling, motionless.
"Ok, what's wrong now?" Karen asked, suppressing a smile at the "world is ending" posture of her son. "I thought you were calling one of your friends."
"I called Ben," he said with a sigh.
"So, why do you look so glum? Did you boys have a fight? Should I call Ben's mom?" Karen asked, not sure what would cause him to look upset after talking to one of his best friends.
"No, in fact we want to see Double Dragon at the Multiplex this weekend. I can go, right?" he asked.
"I don't know that seems like it might be violent," Karen said.
"Ah, come on, Mom, I play the video game all the time," Toby whined.
"Well, what is the rating?" Karen asked.
"Darn," Toby thought, "I hoped she wouldn't ask." "It is PG-13 but what if Sarah comes with us? Then can we go?" he asked, turning pleading eyes on her.
Karen sighed. She wished he wasn't so interested in those fighting games or the kung fu or whatever they called it. At least if his sister was there, she knew that if the movie got bad, she would make the boys leave. Sarah had grown up to be quite a responsible young woman.
"OK, if Sarah takes you and stays for the movie with you then you can go," she relented.
"Thanks, Mom," Toby said and smiled before he rolled back on the carpet, his previous expression back.
"So, if you got your way why are you upset?" she asked again.
"Oh, it is that stupid essay. Ben is doing food too, and so are Gabe and George, and Tony from what Ben said," Toby told her. "I'm gonna have a hard enough time writing this thing; I don't want to look like a copycat too."
Karen sat and thought about it for a minute when she had an idea.
"Why don't you talk to Sarah about this? You always complain that everyone expects too much of you because your sister was such a good student. Sarah likes to write, and you know that she has good ideas and is creative."
Toby brightened he loved talking and hanging out with his big sister. "Yeah, I'll call her now."
He ran out of the room to the kitchen again, only to return a few minutes later with the glum expression back on his face.
"She didn't answer. I left a message on her machine."
"Well, if she doesn't call back tonight, why don't you walk to the high school after school tomorrow? You two can talk, and she can bring you home," Karen suggested.
Toby nodded. "Yeah ok," he agreed.
Getting to visit and spending time with his sister would be worth the hike to the high school where she was a teacher. She wouldn't mind him just showing up, he had done it before both with and without his parent's permission.
"Maybe we can have dinner together, and I can do my homework at her place?" Toby mused out loud wanting to get the most out of his visit.
That is fine with me, but only if it is really okay with your sister. She does have a life of her own you know. Don't bug her," Karen cautioned.
The next day, Toby left school and instead of turning right and walking the three blocks to where he crossed into his neighborhood, he turned left.
He waved to his friends, who didn't ask where he was going; they all knew where he was headed if he turned that way.
The local high school dismissed thirty minutes after Toby's elementary did, but with the nearly three-mile walk, the school day would be over by the time he got there.
His sister always worked for a while in her room or had a meeting after school so he did not worry that she would have already left.
The three-story brick building came into view, and the lack of buses in front let Toby know that the students had gone home for the day unless they had after-school activities.
Toby opened the door and walked past the office and waved to the secretary. This wasn't the first time that Toby visited his sister here, and the secretary knew him and was aware that he knew the way to her classroom.
A lot of the staff at the high school knew him by now and waved to him or said hello when he passed their classrooms.
He stopped at an open door and knocked on it anyway. A pretty young woman was sitting at a desk on the other side of the room and looked up at the sound. When she saw Toby she broke out in a smile and flipped her long dark hair over her shoulders.
"Hey, Toby, I wasn't expecting to see you today," she said, waving him into the room.
Toby walked into the room and threaded his way around the desks and chairs. He stopped in front of the ones in the front row. Putting his hands on the desk behind him, he hopped and sat on top of it, swinging his legs.
"Hey, Sar," he said. "I've got a favor to ask and a school problem. Mom suggested that I ask you, so here I am."
"Ok," Sarah said, looking down and making a few marks on the paper on top of the stack in front of her.
She then took the whole stack and slid them into a tote bag.
"Do you want to talk here or at my place?" she asked.
Toby broke into a grin. "Your place," he said.
"Ok, let me grab a couple of things, and we can take off," Sarah said.
She put a couple more things into the tote bag, grabbed her to-go mug, and took a set of keys out of the top desk drawer.
"Let's go," she said.
Toby hopped off the desk and grabbed his backpack off the floor. The two of them walked out of the room, and Sarah turned off the light, closed the door, and locked it. Together, they walked down the hall and out of the building. In the parking lot, they walked to a small older gray sedan. She unlocked the door, and she and Toby climbed inside.
The siblings chatted on the short drive to the small house that Sarah rented. She unlocked the door and Toby preceded her inside. He made a show of looking around the small cottage as he walked through to the kitchen in the back. Sarah knew exactly what he was doing and why he was doing it.
"So… do you have any visitors?" he asked, and she was unsurprised.
Sarah laughed. "As far as I know, no one else is here, but I can never be sure. More likely than not someone will show up before you leave," she said. "Especially if you stay for dinner."
"Yea! Thanks, Sarah," he whooped at the unspoken invitation that they both knew he wanted.
Toby poked around in her pantry and found a stash of pretzels. He had hoped for Oreos but Sarah only got those when she was upset over something. He took them to her small table while Sarah went to the refrigerator and got out lemonade and poured them both glasses. When their snack was assembled, they sat down.
"Well, what's up Toby?" Sarah asked, wanting to get to the point of his visit, so they could enjoy being together later.
Toby swallowed a mouthful of lemonade.
"Well, Ben and Gabe and I want to see Double Dragon at the multiplex, but Mom won't let us go without an adult because it is PG-13. Jeez, we are 10 that is practically 13," Toby complained.
Sarah smiled at her brother. "Don't give away time, Tobes," she told him. I know how it feels to have it taken from you."
Toby nodded. Sarah had told him many times about the importance of time, and not taking it for granted. It was a big thing with her and had been ever since he could remember.
"Well, will you go with us on Saturday?" he asked.
Sarah laughed. "Sure, maybe I will bring Jareth. You know how much he likes movies; they don't have them where he lives."
Toby made a face. "Sarah I will be with my friends. You know I like Jareth. Maybe not nearly as much as you do, but I like him. But he isn't going to, you know, dress weird, or the two of you won't embarrass me by making out or anything?" he asked with a pleading face.
"No, Toby, I will warn Jareth about his wardrobe, and we will keep the PDAs to a minimum," she assured him. "He will be more interested in buttered popcorn and Goobers anyway."
Toby looked relieved. "Anything else on your mind?" she asked. "You could have called to ask me to go to the movies with you."
"Yeah, Harshman is making us write a Thanksgiving essay," Toby told her.
"Oh, the whole pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving," Sarah said, nodding.
"Not exactly, I mean we can do that I guess," Toby hedged. "He basically said that we can write about anything as long as it is Thanksgiving-related. I wanted to write about food, but it seems that half the class is writing about food in some way. I want mine to be different."
"You and food, go figure," Sarah said dryly. "Ok, so do the pilgrim thing."
"Really? I'll pass. I will have a hard enough time writing this thing without it putting me to sleep," Toby complained. "Besides he wants us to be creative. Writing the same paper I have for years doesn't seem really creative.
"Well, let me think…" Sarah trailed off. "You want to do food but too many others are doing the same thing… you want to be unique but interesting…"
Toby was used to her talking to herself when she worked on figuring out a problem or puzzle. She actually liked working things out in her head ever since she was a kid. She was good at it too. It was one of the reasons he came to her with his problems.
Suddenly, Sarah looked at him, her expression clear. "I think I've got it… turkeys!" she exclaimed.
"Turkeys?" Toby asked, doubtfully looking at his sister as if she had lost her mind.
"Yeah, Toby, turkeys," Sarah repeated. "You love turkey on Thanksgiving; you eat a drumstick and a load of white meat each year, and happily make sandwiches with the leftovers for a week. Instead of just writing about them as food, you can write about them as birds. I bet no one else will do that."
"I don't know, Sarah, maybe," Toby still sounded doubtful. "Keep thinking you might come up with a plan B."
"All right, Tobes, I'll keep thinking, but I still think that turkeys are a great idea," Sarah agreed. "Now call your mom at the antiques store, the number is by the phone and let her know that I will drive you home after dinner."
Toby was just hanging up the phone when he heard the sound of many running feet in the hallway. Sarah just leaned back in her chair where she was waiting while he made the phone call and closed her eyes. Toby however broke into a grin and ran toward the doorway of the kitchen. He was about to go through when he was knocked down by three small quick-moving creatures. Who didn't stop until they had passed over him.
"What did we hit?" one asked, and the three of them stopped and turned around.
"I told you guys not to run in the house," Sarah reminded them but knew that it would do no good.
Toby sat up. "I'm good!" he said though no one had asked about his welfare.
"Toby!" chorused the three goblins, who had run over him.
One of them hurried back to help the boy to his feet.
"I was hoping you guys would be here. I've got some new pogs in my collection, and we can play my Gameboy," he said.
"Toby, does your mom know you took your Gameboy to school?" Sarah asked. "I know the rules may have changed since I went to your school, but I bet you aren't allowed to play it there."
"Relax, Sarah," Toby told her. "For your information, no, Mom doesn't know I took it to school and she isn't going to. I didn't know if you had a meeting or something, so I brought it in case I had to wait for you or something. Anyway, it stayed in my backpack, and no one knew I had it."
"You could have worked on your homework," Sarah reminded him.
Toby ignored her.
"Come on, guys, we can go to the living room," he said and looked at his sister for the ok.
"All right, I will start dinner. You guys wanna eat with us?" she asked the goblins.
Not surprisingly, the goblins unanimously wanted to stay. They, with Toby in the lead, raced out of the kitchen. Sarah called after them not to run in the house, a request that she knew would fall on deaf ears.
Opening the refrigerator door again, Sarah perused the options for dinner. Not having any plans for that evening, she had planned on warming up whatever leftovers she had in the fridge, but none of whatever she had left from previous meals would be enough to feed her, Toby, and the trio of goblins.
She looked through the fridge and then closed the door and went to the pantry and was relieved to see the box of macaroni noodles.
Taking out the cheese, butter, and milk, she began making the sauce for mac and cheese. She hummed while she worked.
Toby was sitting on the living room floor a bunch of small round pieces of cardboard with pictures scattered around him, and the goblins across from him.
"These are some of the new ones I got. I traded my friend Ben for these Simpson's ones," he told his rapt audience.
The goblins leaned in and looked at the milk caps. "Who is the yellow guy?" one asked, pointing at one.
"That's Bart Simpson. He is awesome. My mom won't let me watch the show, but Sarah does sometimes when I'm over here," he confided.
After looking at the other pogs for a while, Toby picked up the small round disks and scooped them into a small bag. He stowed the bag in his backpack and took out a small rectangular object.
"I brought my Game Boy, Remember, you guys played it before," Toby reminded the trio of goblins.
"Mushroom jumping!" called out the one called Blooper, and the other two nodded
It took Toby a minute, but he realized what they were talking about.
"Oh, Mario. Yeah, I brought that one and a couple of others too," he said, fishing out the game cartridge and putting it in the small machine.
The four of them were happily playing when Sarah came in to tell them dinner was ready. She still marveled at how Toby so easily accepted the existence of goblins and their inconsistent presence in her house. Mostly she was shocked that he was able to keep them a secret from their family, his friends, and well everyone.
Both Toby and the goblins were thrilled with the menu and dug into the creamy mac and cheese. The goblins didn't have the best table manners, but they tried, and they honestly weren't much messier than Toby was.
"So, what's new in the castle, guys?" Toby asked around a mouthful of macaroni.
Toby always wanted to know about what was happening in the Goblin Kingdom. He constantly asked Sarah and Jareth to let him visit.
While Jareth was willing, Sarah told him not until he was older. She didn't quantify how much older though. This always bothered him.
"Castle good. Lots of wished-aways. King busy," Gronk snuck a peek at Sarah. "But he not takes runners to the tunnels or ballroom,' he said quickly and loudly.
Sarah smiled. She knew that the goblins meant well. They had all made it clear that they liked the fact that she visited the Underground often, and that she and Jareth were involved. It had taken them a lot and a long time to get back together after she came back from the Labyrinth where they had met.
Gronk and the others always worried about saying something that would get Jareth "in trouble" with her. They also didn't want her to feel that he was giving a runner extra attention since they had met when she had been a runner herself.
"Well, I am glad he is keeping busy," Sarah said. "I planned to talk to him and see if he wants to see a movie and chaperone Toby and his buddies."
The goblins got the picture and knew that there was nothing wrong between their king and Sarah.
"So, Sarah, about this turkey idea of yours," Toby interjected, wanting to change the subject. "I guess it is better than anything else I can come up with."
"Awesome, glad to be of help."
Sarah gave her brother a mock salute.
"So, I can count on your help with the research I have to do, right?" he said.
"Nice try, Tobes," Sarah said with a chuckle. "I am more than happy to take you to the library, but you look up information in the encyclopedias yourself."
"Fine."
Toby sulked, poking at his mac and cheese. He was sure that if he acted like he was having trouble his sister would give him some assistance. If there was something he hated more than homework, it was using his free time to do research for a paper he didn't want to write in the first place.
"I just thought of something," Sarah said suddenly. "There is a turkey farm not too far from here. I remember going there when I was in grade school. I'm sure it is still around. I'll try to find out. I bet the owner would be happy to talk to you about turkeys and raising them for food.
Toby brightened at this. A trip to the farm would be more fun than researching in the library. He started eating with more enthusiasm.
In short order, the meal was done. Toby wheeded some ice cream for himself and his goblin buddies.
They said goodbye to the goblins. Sarah had a standing rule that none of the goblins could be in her house when she wasn't. In the past, Jareth's subjects would walk off with some of her things, never to return them.
Sarah drove Toby home and stayed to visit with her dad and stepmother. Toby went up to his room to finish his homework. Sarah assured Karen that she would go to the movie with the boys that weekend. She assured her that she would call the movie for the times and would let them know when she would meet or pick up the boys.
Karen offered to pay for her ticket, and Jareth's too, when Sarah told her that she planned to invite him along. Her stepmother even offered to buy the popcorn and pop. Sarah smiled Karen must really have wanted to avoid going to see Double Dragon.