Not Having Fun

046 - Guy Fawkes Night special

(Time skip 4 months because I wanna do a Guy Fawkes Night special. We'll be back to the regular story next chapter.)

Then not me remembering Americans don't know what Guy Fawkes is. 

In school, we learned about Guy Fawkes night. Every 5th of November, we light fireworks to celebrate um... well, I know there's a song about it. It goes- 

Remember, remember the 5th of November...

Something something something... 

Anyway, we go to the firework shop and get loads of rockets and sparklers. Jemima's family are coming with us too. 

Every year, our community has a big bonfire. It's not official and the police and fire department always come and stop it during the night. But everybody loves it anyway! And this year, Mum and Dad are letting Chris go to help build and stand around with the bonfire with everyone who make and maintains it. It's mostly older teenagers and even some other children from the town!

Jemima and I watch out the window as Chris, Marcus and everyone else form the town goes around all the houses and asks if they have wood for the bonfire. I see two kids walk by carrying a couch between them! Loads of them have stolen people's bins, but Mum says that if you were silly enough to leave your bin out, you have to expect it to get stolen.

"When we can go over to the bonfire?" I whine to Mum.  

"When it's finished being built and is on fire," she says. "Let Chris have some time to himself with his friends outside," 

"Okaaaaay," Eventually, the time comes from the rest of us to go over. Dad lets me bring some wood from out old garden fence to throw in. Me and Jemima carry a plank of wood taller than both of us! There are lots of older kids at the fire, even older than Chris. And they're drinking stuff we aren't allowed to, like those big cans and glass bottles. They're smoking too.

"Wow, you are both so strong," Mrs Johnson tells us. 

"Thank you!" we get close enough to throw the wood into the fire. Chris is at the other side with all his friends

Jemima's parents brought a multi-shot with golden and pink fireworks. It goes really high and is super cool! Then it's time to let off our rockets. One shoots up high, and it's really exciting when it goes up! But ten it doesn't make any noise. here's no bang, and the colours just fizzle out. 

From the kids at the bonfire, we hear. "That was shit..." 

"Shit!" 

I tense up. I know we're allowed to say that but Jemima isn't. Them just as Dad goes to set off another rocket, one of the kids' rockets shoots past us! It blows up at the metal fence. Jemima and me scream and run behind a tree, when ANOTHER firework shoots by! They aren't pointing them at the sky like you're supposed to, they're aiming the fireworks for the trees! 

"Hey!" Mr Johnson screams and runs over. Dad starts cussing out the kids. 

"What do you little arseholes think you're doing?!" he runs up to them. "Who threw that?! We've got six year olds over there!"

A taller boy jogs up to us. "listen mate, we're sorry about the fireworks. I don't even know who did it, someone over-" he looks over in Chris' direction! And he points to him through the fire. "He did, think his name's Chris," 

"What?" 

Dad marches over and grabs Chris by the scruff of the neck, right in front of all his friends. He starts dragging him back to the house. "Were you aiming fireworks at the fence?! What have we always taught you about safety?! Your little brother could have ran out right in front of that!" I hear Dad lecture him as they march past us. He's taking Chris home. 

"Do we have to go home?" I ask Mum. 

"Aw no, you guys can stay out here," she looks at the boys. "I don't think there'll be any more fireworks flying past," 

"Er, no missus," he goes back over to his friends. Mum can be scary when she's protecting us. She says it's like being a lioness protecting your cubs. 

"There Jemima, you take a sparkler," she hands her a sparkler to wave around. I get one too. 

"Watch this, I can write my name!" I swoosh it around really fast and my name shows up.

"Woah!" Jemima does it too. I want to try and climb the big fence, but it looks a bit too high for me. 

Suddenly, we hear a big BANG and see the fire sprout up. Some of the other boys have cans and are throwing the in the fire, making it look like a bomb! 

"Right, I think it's time we get home," 

On the way home, Jemima and I talk about how cool it was to see the fire explode. When we get there, we see Chis and Dad watching telly on the couch. 

"I thought he'd be grounded from TV," says Mum. "And he should be. A firework-!" 

"Sally," Dad stops her. "Can we talk in the kitchen?"

"Oh, alright," 

(Sally's POV)

I stand at the counter and Bill starts making a cup of tea. "I don't know what you expect our son to learn if you don't discipline him. You haven't spanked him, and you've both just sitting on the couch watching TV?" 

"They were aiming it at a bird's nest," 

I'm not sure I heard him correctly. "What?"

"The other boys were aiming the rocket at a bird's nest at the top of the tree so Chris pushed it down. He shouldn't have done that, and it was reckless, and-" 

"It's fine," I smile. "We've raised a good boy, regardless of what it seems like," 

"We have," Bill clinks his teacup against mine. "To our brilliant parenting," 

I snort, but cheers him anyway. "I think we got three for thre brilliant kids,"