Throwback 'Bots Kid Club

The Botmen

“Cheers to us,” Snakebite said. He handed Sunny a lidded paper cup and raised his. “How does it feel to afford small luxuries again?”

“...Different. Exotic. Did you get the strawberry kind?”

“Always.” They tapped their cups together. Sunny sipped thoughtfully.

Snakebite picked up the dropped thread of conversation. “It’s weird, isn’t it? I mean,  this shouldn’t be-- I mean this shouldn’t be important, we can go get lemonade any time we want, but, this time it’s different, like, we really earned this,” he said. “All the stuff we get to do-- the parties and the rides and Iggy’s cooking and whatever-- we never just get to sit back and really enjoy ourselves.”

Sunny looked up at him. “You think?”

“Well-- you know what I mean, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you agree?”

“I don’t know. But geez, Snakebite-- we’re not eight.”
The street stretched out in front of them, bustling with cars and stray cats in the afternoon sun.

Snakebite shook his head. “Well, anyways. So, today we made about seven hundred dollars, between the two of us. It’s not bad. But, uh. The minimum wage is--”

“I know. I’m thinking about it.”

“...Sorry.” Snakebite paused. “But really...?”
“You know it’s harder than I thought it would be,” Sunny admitted after a moment. “But it’s not bad, not right now.” Snakebite bit his lip.

“Hey, I’m really sorry about, uh--”
“It’s okay. Those were kind of dumb looking glasses. And my face is fine anyway.” Their eyes both wandered to a tear in her coat, a Goodwill purchase from the day before, dirtier than it was that morning, and now strongly smelling of diesel. “It pays well.”

For once, Snakebite let it fall silent. “Yeah, I guess it does.”

They kept walking. “You know you don’t have to do it again,” Snakebite said.

“Yeah.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m thinking.”

“Sorry!”

“I’m thinking-- what did you do before we met anyways?”

“Nothing. I didn’t even have a job, couldn’t pay the rent...”

“Yeah, me neither.”

“Well, no, kids don’t get jobs, your concern wasn’t a job, your concern was, like, kid stuff.”

“Well here I am. I’m taking care of myself now and I couldn’t before so something worked.”

“Yeah...”

“And it’s not like every other kid in the league isn’t in the same boat.”

“Yeah.”

Snakebite sipped his lemonade. It was almost at the bottom now and it was difficult not to slurp. “Sometimes I forget that there are other kids who do this.”
“Hey, where did you buy those dumb-looking sunglasses? The ones you gave me this morning that broke?”

“Uhh, the Seven-Eleven at 8th and Rainbow, I think, maybe the one by the motel, why?”

“Because the fight gets more sponsors and stuff if you look the part, right?”

Snakebite smiled. “Sunshine, I will browse every Seven-Eleven on the planet if I have to.”

“You don’t have to,” Sunny said flatly. “The first pair of glasses you find will probably do nicely.”