Fantasy Traveling Tradesman

[MAROON QUILLNEST]

Deep in the forest where the old man and his mule stood there was no light because the thick bunches of leaves at the tops of the trees that were blocking out all sun and making complete darkness at the bottom of the forest. There was thick undergrowth that had completely covered the forest floor. The undergrowth was full of thorns and roots making the journey this deep into the forest virtually impossible. There was forest life that roamed around freely feeding off the brush and other vegetation all around the forest. The forest around the old man and his mule was a very vibrant green from the almost daily rain that ran off the leaves and fell down to earth. Everywhere he looked there were wonderful flowers or bushes that were starting to bear fruits. There were vibrant colored fungus on the ground or making friends with a tree. It was truly magical. The old man started walking deeper into the forest guiding his boney mule that was pulling the rotting old wagon alongside him. The roots and rocks under the wagon made it bounce up and down in front of the old man. The bouncing made the merchandise inside the wagon rattle and clang against each other but never enough to break it . He walked another mile and stopped and patiently waited for his next group of customers to arrive

 

[Gish_Sky]

Jace liked class. In fact, he loved class. It was a time where he could relax and understand everything. For him, class was a time of certainty and a period of time where everything presented was true. He enjoyed the certainty that it provided, unlike the social hierarchy of the high school. Ah yes, 13 year old Jace Asher was at the bottom of the high school social pyramid. Although the popular girls pitied him and thought of him as ‘cute’, the jocks weren’t so nice. Although doing their homework was something he could probably do in his sleep, getting stuffed into a locker wasn’t exactly ideal.

Trying to scrawl down every word the teacher spoke, Jace’s eye was caught by the clock. It was 2:59, almost the end of school. Jace gave a sigh. Jace didn’t really want for school to end. It meant that he would have to go home and face the wrath of his parents, who expected too much from him. Realizing that he had fallen a bit behind (by ten seconds!) due to his sigh, Jace quickly went back to writing down everything in his notebook, trying to conserve as much space as possible in his notebook. This was a strange habit of his; Jace liked to conserve space in his notebooks, using as much shorthand and abbreviations as possible, simply because he wanted to save page space. Although his parents were able to afford hundreds of notebooks for him, he preferred the concept of maximizing the capacity of his notebook.

Hearing the sound of shuffling feet and the zipping noise of his fellow students’ backpacks, Jace frowned. He didn’t understand why they didn’t want to stay. Why were they in such a rush? Jace didn’t really understand any of that. Writing down the final words of the teacher, along with the assignment, the bell rung, louder than usual. The high-schoolers around him let out a cheer of some sort, much to Jace’s chagrin. Watching them rush out of the classroom, Jace hung back, slowly placing his notebook into his backpack, before slowly zipping it up. He wasn’t in a rush to go anywhere anyways.

Then, Ethan caught his eye. Ethan was one of his better classmates; quiet, respectful and didn’t heckle the teachers. Jace admired him for that. Quickly finishing up his packing, Jace walked towards him. His parents had always complained about his lack of a social life; maybe Jace could change that. After all, it could help him escape from another hour of scolding from his parents.

”Hey! I’m Jace. You’re Ethan, right?” Jace asked cheerfully. He hoped that it would set up a good impression.

 

[MAROON QUILLNEST]

Ethan, stared blankly at the paper in front of him, feeling more and more foolish. He continued to get more lost, trying to figure out what area on the worksheet he was supposed to be filling out.The teacher droned on with the assignment, instructing her students to fill out the blanks on the paper. He looked up at the projection on the board for a sense of direction, but that was no help. Looking up at the projection just got him even more lost and confused. The teacher scribbled down answers that he was supposed to be filling out, but he had no idea where on the assignment he was supposed to be filling out since all the questions looked the same.

Ethan was a very smart kid but school was hard since he could never focus. It always felt like a million things were happening in his brain at once. School became even harder when he could never ask for help, most of the time if he was confused or needed help he would never ask for it since talking to anyone that was not his small group of friends or his family felt painful.He looked over at the small clock and saw the time was 2:29. School was finally almost over. He had given up on the assignment. He was so lost, confused, distracted and bored. At this point there was no way he was ever going to catch up to his classmates. He laid his pencil down on the wooden desk patiently waiting for another agonizing day of school to be over. He was sick of having to be around so many kids everyday it felt like they were always staring at him and watching him. He just wanted to go home to his calm family, stare at his homework for a few hours, give up then paint.

He heard the joyous sound of his classmates' bags being zipped up. He grabbed his backpack and stuffed the impossible assignment he was working on into his backpack along with the generic yellow HB pencil he was using. Just as he was done packing up he heard the bell ring its obnoxious tone but something about it today sounded a little louder. He walked right towards the door. There was no need to dilly dally. None that was going to be waiting for him and he also had no one to wait for.

Just as he was about out the door, he heard shuffling feet coming his direction. He turned around and saw a kid that sat three chairs in front of him. The kid was the textbook definition of a nerd. I guess I could use another friend he thought.

“Hey! I’m Jace. You’re Ethan, right? he asked. The boy was super extra and it kind of bothered him how peppy he was. “Uh yeah, that’s correct,” he nervously said hoping the conversation would end soon.

 

[Gish_Sky]

Jace was relieved when the teenage boy he greeted, was indeed Ethan. Then, he realized that he hadn’t really come up with a plan of some sort. In fact, Jace had just expected for something magical to happen. He had an IQ of 140! How could he have not predicted this?

“Er... Wanna hang out after school?” Jace asked, the words tumbling out of his mouth. He had no clue if that sounded cool or edgy. Probably not. He figured that an additional remark might improve this awkward statement.

”We can hang at the bowling alley... My dad knows someone there. We could bowl for free...” Jace added. Then, he realized the connections implication probably made him seemed like a spoiled prat. Jace bit his lip. Not a good first impression...

Wait a minute. What if Ethan wasn’t a bowling person? Most people didn’t really like bowling these days.

”Or... If you’re more of a snacks person, the snack bar there is super nice too,” Jace added hurriedly. He hoped that his statements were sufficient. If not, he was screwed. He honestly preferred the snack bar option. Bowling balls were really heavy.

 

[MAROON QUILLNEST]

The boy whose name was apparently Jace started to talk to me. He was stuttering and pausing when he talked. He clearly didn't have a plan when he approached me. It almost made him smile to think the smartest kid couldn't even have a proper conversation.

“Er... Wanna hang out after school?” he started again. He was so taken aback by the request that his eyes widened a little. But hopefully not enough to notice. Jace was obviously uncomfortable, and he felt bad for him. “Sur...” he started but before he could even finish Jace started talking again.

”We can hang at the bowling alley... My dad knows someone there. We could bowl for free...” he started again. Oh great so he's a snob with loads of money Ethan thought. “Mayb..” he started wanting to go less now because of his arrogance but before he could even finish he started talking again.

”Or... If you’re more of a snacks person, the snack bar there is super nice too.” It sounded like Jace was finished attempting to invite me so he started talking. “Sure I would love to kick your ass in bowling.” He pulled open his bag and ripped the edge off of a pice of paper and wrote his phone number down on it. “Text me the address, and I will see you there at 7:00.” He gave a side smile to Jace and walked out the door.

 

[Gish_Sky]

Hearing that Ethan liked bowling, Jace gave a sigh of relief. That was good news. But the part about kicking his ass? Jace didn’t like that very much. Although he was bad at sports, he still was competitive. For example, the class Kahoot quizzes were the best; Jace always dominated them, with the exception of a few accidental clicks of the wrong answer. Jace didn’t like the idea of being crushed.

”Alright... I have to warn you... I plan to use the side bumpers though,” Jace replied. That was the best thing he could think of. He always used the side bumpers. By estimating the speed of the ball, he just used them to make the ball zigzag down the lane to knock down a few pins. Well, if Ethan was going to crush him, Jace was going to have to attempt to win, even if it was futile.

Watching the teenage boy open his bag, Jace frowned as Ethan tore the edge off of a piece of paper. Jace didn’t like the concept of tearing paper. It was wasteful. It messed with his organization, perhaps the sliver of OCD that he had. Jace took the piece of paper from him and looked at the number scrawled down on the piece of paper.

”Will do. Its a pretty nice place,” Jace replied, before watching Ethan walk down the hallway.

The bowling alley wasn’t too far from the school, which was pretty nice. Jace texted his parents that he was going to ‘hang out’ with some ‘friends’. It was a lie, but it was worth it to skip dinner. Spotting a tall building up ahead, Jace knew that it was the bowling alley. While the first floor served as a bowling alley and arcade, the upper levels served as apartments. Jace had never been to an apartment before. According to his parents, they were for peasants.

Walking into the bowling alley, Jace eyed the snack bar and grabbed a seat at the counter, before taking out the menu and perusing it. He took out his phone and typed in the number cautiously, before texting the address to Ethan. He hoped that Ethan wouldn’t ditch him. That would be awful.

”Could I get an orange soda?” Jace asked, not looking up from the menu. He figured that one of the people working there would hear him.

 

[spiralingheretic]

It was a weekday, and not the day that the senior’s bowling league met, which meant work had been unbearably slow. It had only been broken up by a couple of kids playing hooky. (Which, first of all, really? You’re going to skip school to go bowling? Laaaame.) But they only had enough cash between them for one game, three sodas and a bag of doritos, so they hadn’t lasted long anyway.

Harlow was the only one on shift, due to most of the other employees being high school students who mostly worked weekends. While being alone at the bowling alley did have some perks (unlimited nachos, etc.), Harlow always started to go a little stir-crazy about an hour before it started to get busy and her co-workers came in to help handle the rush. It got so bad that she would actually do things like put shoes away and wipe down the glass counters, duties which were technically part of her job but with which she rarely bothered. She had so few sources of amusement in this life, and her boss grumbling about greasy fingerprints and unhygienic toddlers would never get old. (Whether he was referring to his employees or customers was perpetually unclear.)

Her eyes shifted between the flyer-plastered front door and the ticking clock. Finally a boy entered. Young, horrendously nice clothing. He sat at the counter and asked for an orange soda, not looking up from the menu. Either he was shy or thought he was too good for her, but she didn’t care, it was something to do. She had the drink in front of him in record time.

“Here ya go kid. That’ll be $1.75.” Harlow looked around. It didn’t seem as if anyone had come in with him. Had he come to go bowling by himself? God that was sad. Maybe he was just here for the arcade. It was kind of crappy but kids seemed to like it, but this one didn’t really seem the type. Well, only one way to find out. “If you’re gonna bowl, I can get you shoes too. What size are you?”

 

[MAROON QUILLNEST]

Ethan searched around in his closet for an outfit that was not completely covered in paint. He wanted to look semi decent and make a good impression even if this was the first and last time he was going to hang out with Jace. He didn't need some wanna be kid spreading rumors about him at school so he would just suck it up, deal with it and go. He finally found a long sleeve black T-shirt with a red rose printed on it, and he slipped it on. He went to his dresser and pulled out some blue jeans and put those on as well. Just as he was done getting his jeans on he heard his phone vibrate. He picked the phone up off the dresser and turned it on. The lock screen showed a message notification with a text from Jace that had the address.

The bowling alley was fairly close to where he lived so it only took him about a 10 minute drive from his house to get to the bowling alley. When he arrived at the address the only thing he saw was a tall building. That was it. He was hoping it really was a bowling alley and not some cruel kind of prank where he gave him a fake address.

He found the entrance to the building and as soon as he entered he knew he wasn't being gypped. Just by the smell alone he could tell it was a bowling alley. The lingering scent of week old pizza, nasty unclean feet, old smoke and just a hint of vomit was enough to make him gag but he pushed it down. Not only was the smell bad, but the lighting was even worse. There were already fluorescent lights above him but the actual bowling lanes were pretty much covered in colorful LED lights making it even brighter where he was stood even though the lanes were a good 20 feet away. The whole situation was disgusting and over stimulating. He looked around to see where Jace was and saw him over at the snack bar and Ethan quickly made his way over there.

Ethan saw Jace hunched over a menu with a can of orange soda in his hand talking to the waitress. He tapped Jace on the shoulder and whispered “why did you choose this place? Then gave the waitress a smile so she did not think he was talking about her.

“I'll take a 7 by the way,” he said looking towards the girl after overhearing her ask what shoe size Jace wanted.

 

[Gish_Sky]

Jace was surprised when he heard the clink of a soda can hit the counter in record time. That was faster than he had expected.
”Thanks,” he said, putting away the menu and stuffing a hand into his pockets. Pulling out a five dollar bill, he passed it to the waitress.
“You can keep the change,” he added. Even though he could’ve technically gotten the drink for free, the speed it had been served was insanely fast.

Hearing her ask about his shoe size, Jace looked at his feet, which were swinging back and forth on the stool.
“I’ll take a six... In kids,” Jace replied, giving the girl a smile. Hearing the sound of the door open, Jace turned and saw Ethan. The boy gave him a smile and a wave.

”Hey Ethan! I’m glad you didn’t ditch!” Jace exclaimed cheerfully. Hearing Ethan ask why he chose the place, Jace frowned.
”Well, my dad knows the owner, so we could bowl here for free,” Jace replied awkwardly, taking another sip of his soda awkwardly. The soda was fresh here. Good. Nice and bubbly.

”Well, how many rounds do you wanna play? If you want, we can start with 1 round, then play more... Er... Whatever you want,” Jace added.

 

[MAROON QUILLNEST]

"Hey Ethan! I'm glad you didn't ditch" he heard Jace say as Ethan was coming over. Ethan immediately felt worse for him. The fact that he said it like it had already happened many times before this made him feel even worse for Jace. When Ethan asked him why he choose this place he saw a frown appear on Jace's face. "Well, my dad knows the owner, so we could bowl for free" Jace responded. He then took a very akward sip of his soda. "Oh cool" Ethan said. The sliver of empathy he had for this spoiled brat just went staight down the drain.

As Ethan was slipping off his checkered vans and pulling on his loose bowling shoes that the waitress gave him he heard jace ask how many rounds he wanted to play. "Um it's really up to you and your schedule but i'm down to play as many as you want to." He replied as he finished velcroing his right foot up. "Well see you over there" Ethan said getting up and walking over to the extremely bright bowling lanes.

The bowling shoes he asked for were way to big and felt like clown shoes. They were also extremely hard to walk in. But he was to afraid to ask for new ones so he would just deal with the clown shoes. The actual bowling lanes were even brighter up close and it was hurting his eyes and making it way harder to see. He grabbed a 7-pound tie dye ball from the racks and put it on the metal ball return machine. Once he was done with that he sat down and typed there names on a very bright keyboard witch showed up on the tv that was mounted to the wall. When he was finished entering there names he sat in the hard plastic blue chair staring at the pins at the end of the lane patiently waiting for jace.

 

[spiralingheretic]

Well at least the two new arrivals would be amusing to watch, thought Harlow with a snort. Plus the smaller one didn’t really seem to know how money worked, which worked out great for her. She slipped the $3.25 cents into her apron pocket (NOT the tip jar--no way she was sharing with people who showed up for like two hours).

The two new customers made an odd pair. They weren’t similar enough in appearance or familiar enough with each other to be brothers… maybe cousins? It seemed unlikely given the age disparity that they would be spending time together otherwise. Was the older one babysitting? But the kid came in by himself, and if Harlow was honest with herself, seemed a bit more capable than the other, or at least he knew his own shoe size, which had to count for something.

The older boy’s shoes were clearly much too large for him (and Harlow had recently become quite the expert on shoe sizes), and the image of him trying to walk across the carpet without tripping would live in her mind rent-free forever.

As for the younger one, his father knew Emerson? Very strange. Her landlord/boss was not the type of person she could imagine interacting with anyone ever, nevermind some rich chump. Ah well, he was enigmatic. Really, that was the one thing she could say about the man for sure. She didn’t even know whether Emerson was his first or last name. Just that he was a grump with an eyepatch and a caffeine addiction (and even then, Harlow couldn’t say for certain half the time whether what he had in his mug was coffee).

Regardless, she waited for the two boys to settle in before calling across the room: “You two have a preference for music? Normally I wouldn’t ask but there’s like nobody else here.” She shrugged. Technically they did have an old jukebox in the corner but Harlow was convinced it hadn’t been used in decades. Instead, the tech girl had managed to install bluetooth speakers, which Harlow could hook up to her phone, which was pretty cool.

 

[Gish_Sky]

Jace took the pair of shoes from the nice waitress lady.
“Thanks,” he said, slipping off his shoes and putting them on. They were a bit big on him, partially because he had lied about his shoe size. Nobody in high school wore kid sized shoes anymore, and Jace was a 5.

Hearing Ethan say that it was his choice to choose how many rounds to play, Jace nodded.
”Um... Is is alright if we play one round?” Jace asked, trying to find the menu for bowling prices. Gah. He wasn’t able to find it. He had no clue how much it cost, so he fished a twenty dollar bill out of his pocket and looked at the waitress.

”Er... Will this be enough for the both of us?” The boy asked, walking towards her and handing her the bill awkwardly. He hoped that it would be enough. His father had always said to pay higher, just in case, so it wouldn’t make a person look ‘broke’. He hoped that the waitress girl didn’t think of him as cheap.

Walking over to the bowling ball racks, Jace looked for the smallest one. Picking a ball up, he was surprised to discover that it wasn’t as heavy as he expected. In fact, it was probably lighter than the weights they had to use in PE. The thought of PE class made him shudder. Weight day was the worst. Taking another bowling ball that was similar in size and color, Jace awkwardly carried it over to the lane where Ethan stood.

Looking up at the leaderboard, Jace grinned.
”You spelled my name right!” He said excitedly, placing his bowling balls into the rack. Usually, most kids intentionally spelled it wrong, much to his ire. But Ethan had spelled it right! Jace had a good feeling about this guy.

Hearing the waitress lady’s voice, Jace turned towards her, thinking for a bit. He honestly preferred classical music, but she would probably judge him for it.
”Ethan, any music suggestions?” Jace asked, figuring that Ethan probably had some edgy music style. He seemed like the kid who had a good modern music taste.

This waitress lady seemed pretty nice to them. Jace liked her. She was nice and friendly, serving soda in record time.
”Hey! Do you wanna join us?” Jace asked the girl curiously. It wouldn’t hurt to invite her, right?

 

[MAROON QUILLNEST]

Jace finally made his way to the lanes after what felt like a long wait. Before Jace had walked over here Jace tossed some unnecessary money to the waitress. The intention of the action could have been good. I mean technically Jace did not have to pay. He could have been just trying to help her out. But it seemed more like he was just trying to show off his wealth. It is an arrogance thing. He was just trying to show off how much money he had. To make sure people knew he had some.

When Jace was almost over to the lanes, he asked if we could just play 1 round. Only one round Ethan thought. He had no idea why he came if they were only going to play one round. If he would have told him that they were only going to play one round he wouldn't have driven all the way here. At this point it wasn't bowling it was "let's see how uncomfortable I can get"

Ethan watched Jace grab a bowling ball that was smaller then the one he'd grabbed. Then out of nowhere Jace just randomly shuddered. He was tempted to ask if he was ok when he saw him spazz out. He watched him awkwardly carry the ball the rest of the way and put his smaller ball right next to my ball.

When Jace came over and looked at the leaderboard he got really excited. ”You spelled my name right!” he exclaimed I had no idea there were multiple ways to spell the most basic name he thought. “Yeah of course, I had no idea there were other ways to spell it, though.” Jace always did that thing where he would say something that would make me feel bad for him then he would say or do something that irritated him a little after .

Just as he was finished talking he heard the waitress ask from across the room if they wanted to listen to music. Jace turned me “Ethan,any music suggestions? Shit! “Um Im ok with pop music or heavy metal music,” he said, kind of directing his answer at the waitress. “I do like the song Wolf in sheep’s clothing,” He says again.

When Ethan was finished talking Jace looked over at the snack bar and called out ”Hey! Do you wanna join us?” Ethank cringed at the thought of having to communicate with another new person. He kind of just wanted to play the game and leave.

 

[spiralingheretic]

Didn’t the kid just say he could play for free? Aw well, Harlow thought as she pocketed the money. Wasn’t like she was going to say no to twenty bucks. She didn’t mind telling Emerson the kid got a free game, and she doubted her boss would care.

Pop and heavy metal? Weird combination, but who was she to judge. Harlow put the music on that the older boy requested. Then, the younger one (Jace?), surprised her by asking if she wanted to join them. Technically, she probably shouldn’t, but what else was she going to do? The older guy looked uneasy at her presence. Well, tough, thought Harlow, I’m bored.

She hopped over the counter. “Yeah sure I’ll play. Gotta warn you I play a lot of bowling though, so I’m totally gonna crush you both.” Not necessarily true, but they didn’t have to know that. Harlow took the initiative and plugged her name into the scoreboard (of course there were only 5 characters available, so it came out as H-A-R-L-O). Close enough. “So, you guys go to school together or something?” It seemed unlikely, considering their respective ages, but it seemed the thing to ask.

 

[Gish_Sky]

Jace grinned at Ethan’s remark about his name.
”Really? You should see how many people spell it wrong. Its funny that we even have english courses at school because most people can’t spell anything right,” Jace replied.

Then, Jace noticed Ethan’s expression of surprise when Jace gave him the chance to choose the music. Pop music was alright, but heavy metal wasn’t very good, in Jace’s opinion.
”Do you mind omitting the heavy metal music? I have sensitive ears,” Jace explained, gesturing to his ears.

Jace was relieved that the nice girl, whose name was Harlo(w), accepted his invitation.
”Alright! I consider myself a good sport. Ethan says that he’s pretty good at bowling too,” Jace replied cheerfully, gesturing towards Ethan.

Hearing her question, he nodded.
”Yeah! We’re both high school seniors. I skipped a few grades. Ethan’s in my history class,” Jace explained.
“Do you go to the high school around the block?” Jace added, remembering his etiquette lessons. It was always important to ask people questions back, as a form of courtesy. Also, Jace didn’t recognize this girl. If she went to the school, then he could have another person to sit with at lunch. Then, the bullies would probably bug him less, right?

 

[MAROON QUILLNEST]

The music started playing over the Bluetooth speaker blasting the edgy and angry music. Even though the music sounded edgy it made him feel safe and calm. He almost forgot that he was standing in a disgusting bowling alley with two strangers he just met. He would play one round and leave. Easy as that.

The girl behind the counter accepted the invitation to play a round with us. She hopped over the counter that she worked behind and started walking in our direction. As she walked over her heard her say “Yeah sure I’ll play. Gotta warn you I play a lot of bowling though, so I’m totally gonna crush you both.” He smiled knowing what she said was complete, BS, because he was going to crush them both.

Before the girl had gotten over to the bowling lanes Jace responded to his previous remark about his name. ”Really? You should see how many people spell it wrong. It's funny that we even have english courses at school because most people can’t spell anything right.”Jace's reply seemed a little harsh but he had a feeling that was just his MO.

He has no replies for the annoying and rude remrk that jace had just made so instead of responding he watched the girl go over to the keyboard and type her name into the 3rd column on the tv. When she was finished typing the third column had the name H-A-R-L-O in it. What an interesting name he thought.

When Harlo was done typing she started talking to Jace. "so, you guys go to school togethere or something?" she asked. Before any thoughts or ideas could be formed Jace was already answering.. "yeah! We're both high school seniors. I skipped a few grades. Ethan's in my history class," he paused then asks a question "do you go to the high school around the block?" He no longer felt needed in the conversation so he grabbed his ball from the metal ball return machine and clumsily walked over and stood behind the throwing line. He put all his strenght into the wind up and then he released the ball. He watched as it went stright sown the middle, not curving once.

"strike " he called out as he watched all the pins topple over.