Chapter 3 - Snack Attack

"Alright, everyone in the car!" Elliot called.

"I call shotgun!" Caleb yelled, jumping into the passenger seat.

Carson let out a laugh as she climbed in the back seat, Bradley following behind her.

"Hey, you two," Elliot said, turning around in his seat to face the two sixteen year olds. "Try not to be all over each other, ok?"

The two teens widened their eyes, Carson flipping the man off before sinking deeper in her seat, trying to cover up her crimson cheeks.

Elliot turned back around, laughing, and turned the ignition.

Carson pulled out her phone and Bradley did the same.

After about five minutes Elliot said "There are some pop-tarts in the glove box if you guys are hungry."

Caleb immediately dove in, chewing on the pop-tart.

"Do you know how much sugar is in those things?" Bradley asked.

"Yep," Elliot answered.

"That's what makes them so damn delicious," Carson finished for him.

Bradley let out a laugh, and Carson noticed how his eyes lit up and how cute he looked when he smiled.

"You're cute when you smile."

"What?" The boy asked, looking at her.

The girl blushed lightly, but tried to cover it up. She hadn't meant to say it out loud. "You heard me," she said, hoping it would cover up for her words.

Bradley smirked at the girl. He knew they would be friends soon enough.

"Did your hand get stuck in the machine, too?" Caleb asked, looking at his father's hand.

Carson looked at Elliot, already knowing what was coming. Elliot could lie to his ex wife all he wanted, but the girl knew he wouldn't be able to lie to his sons. He certainly hadn't been able to lie to her.

"Nope," Elliot said. "It got stuck in my boss's face."

Caleb gave him his best smile, considering the fact that his mouth was stuffed with pop-tarts, and Bradley gave him a look Carson couldn't quite place.

"Don't go telling your mom," Elliot said when no one spoke, "but yeah. He thought he could just get away with firing everybody, and replacing us with these damn robots."

"Right, so destroying the forest faster than ever," Bradley said with a hint of anger in his voice. Carson looked at him, slightly surprised the boy cared about the environment. It was sweet, but she knew Elliot didn't get it. She'd talked to him about this before.

"That's kinda the point," the man said.

Exactly.

"So you're not worried about... killing the environment?" The boy asked.

Carson sent him a look that said just leave it, but Bradley didn't seem to get it. Or, if he did, he chose to ignore it. And he did. From his perspective, the girl seemed pretty clear when it came to giving signals.

"'Killing the environment?'" Elliot repeated."What, are you gonna stop using toilet paper?"

The younger boy let out a laugh, but Carson noticed that his eyes didn't light up like they did last time. "Are you gonna stop breathing?"

"The point is, you gotta stand up for what's right. You can't just let people push you around, you know?" Elliot said, trying to get his words through his son's thick skull. "That– that's the way the world really works."

Bradley looked like he was about to say something else, but his phone started vibrating on his lap. He picked it up and brought it to his ear. "Hey mom... no, yeah, we're just, uh, learning how the world works."

"We're going for pancakes," Elliot said.

Bradley ignored his comment and continued to talk to his mother. "Yeah... don't worry... yeah, we will... ok." He was silent for a moment, listening to his mother. He felt his cheeks heat up at what she'd asked him. "Yeah, she's, uh, she's cool..."

Carson's ears perked up at the word 'she'. Bradley's mom had asked about her?

"Ok... ok, I love you, too. Bye." With that, the boy hung up the phone. He slowly turned his head to the side, where Carson was already looking at him.

"You're mom asked about me?" She asked, smirking and cocking an eyebrow.

Bradley just shook his head, but, for some reason, he couldn't keep the smile off his face.

"Mom asked about Carson?" Caleb asked, turning around in his seat to face the two.

Bradley looked at him, obviously annoyed and slightly embarrassed. "Yeah, she did."

"What did she ask?"

Bradley sent his brother a glare and turned to look at Carson, only to find her already looking, her eyebrows raised and he natural smirk plastered on her face.

"She just asked 'how's Carson?'. Now would you stop interrogating me already?" The older Baker brother asked, frustrated.

Caleb looked like he wanted to say something else, but Elliot interrupted him.

"Alright everybody out. Go grab some snacks, and, uh, whatever you wanna drink."

The group walked into the store and, not to Carson's surprise, Elliot grabbed the beers. "Uh, excuse me, uh, these are for me," the man told the person behind the counter as he handed his son the pack. "And I'm gonna fill up the truck." he started taking out a card and was about to hand it to Bradley, but he spoke up. "Oh no, that's cool. Ted gave us a card for emergencies and stuff."

Elliot looked down for a second, then spoke. "Well, this is not an emergency. Take it."

Bradley was about to take the card, but before he could, Carson swooped in and slipped the card from Elliot's fingers. "I'm gonna take that."

Elliot gave the young girl a look. "Really, Carson?" He asked, not even trying to hide how annoyed he was.

The girl just gave him a look that clearly said 'were you really not expecting that?'

Elliot just walked out from the store without another word, afraid he would punch the girl if he stayed any longer.

Bradley turned towards the girl, a smile playing on his lips.

Carson looked back at him with a questioning look. "What?"

An evil grin spread across the boy's face. "Who can get the most snacks wins."

Carson looked at him, a grin making its way to her lips.

"Three,"

"Two,"

"One,"

"GO!" They both yelled and started running around the store.

After seven counted minutes of grabbing snacks from shelves and tackling each other to get to the last bag of Cheetos, the two finally paid, walking out of the store, laughing like two friends that had known each other their whole lives. The pair walked towards the car, and Carson noticed something in Elliot's eye as he leaned against the door, but it disappeared the second he saw them, so she shrugged it off.

Bradley climbed into the backseat, Carson right behind him, and placed his bag of food in between them.

Caleb got into the passenger seat and turned to face us, his eyes landing on the bags of snacks. "Ooooh, what'd you guys get?" He asked, reaching his hand to grab the bag, only to have it slapped away by Bradley.

"Hey!"

"This is Carson and I's food, keep your hands to yourself," the older boy said to his brother.

Carson looked at Bradley with raised eyebrows, though she wasn't too surprised by her friend's behavior. From what she could tell, he and his brother couldn't stand each other.

Bradley turned to look at her, his expression softening once he looked at her. "Oh, come on, don't give me that look."

The girl's expression didn't change, and Bradley let out a frustrated sigh. "Fine," he mumbled, reaching into the bag and grabbing a pack of Sour Patches and a Hershey's bar and throwing them at his brother.

The younger Baker looked at Carson with wide eyes. "He has never given in so quickly. You should stick around more often, Cars." With that, he turned back around and started popping Sour Patches in his mouth.

Elliot started the car and they left, the man not once opening his mouth to speak.

Carson and Bradley ate the rest of their snacks, occasionally laughing about something the other one said or did and sometimes throwing pieces of food at each other. Once the snacks were finished, Carson took out the credit card she had stolen from Elliot and handed it to him.

"Here."

"How... how much was it?" The man asked once he took the credit card from the girl.

Carson and Bradley exchanged a slightly guilty look, accompanied by a small grin.

"Sixty–something," Bradley answered.

"Sixty? What'd you guys get?" Elliot asked, slightly surprised.

"Oh, you know, snacks and stuff," Carson replied.

Bradley looked down, realizing he couldn't see his phone, and started looking around for it, only to find it wasn't where he'd left it. "Shit, where's my phone?" He asked, a bit of hint in his voice.

Carson furrowed her eyebrows and started looking for hers as well, but it was nowhere to be seen. "Fuck, mines gone too."

"Ok, both of you, watch your language. And don't worry, your precious phones are safe." Elliot said, looking at the two from the rearview mirror.

Bradley let out an annoyed and frustrated sigh. "You can't just take it."

"Yeah, you never take my phone away. You never really care," Carson added.

"I wanna spend some time with you," Elliot defended. "I don't want your phone to get all the attention. You'll get it back when we get home, ok?"

Carson was slightly confused by this. Elliot had never taken her phone away, even while she was working and looking at it he wouldn't care so... why do it now? She glanced at Elliot through the rearview mirror, and saw that the same glint she'd seen in his eyes earlier was back. The girl shivered, but it wasn't from the cold.

After a few moments of silence, Caleb spoke. "We close?"

Carson let out a single laugh, already knowing that there was at least another hour and a half before they got anywhere near the logging site.

"Uh, not quite," Elliot said, speaking her thoughts.

Carson's eyes started to get droopy, and she remembered that she hadn't slept much the night before, being too busy looking after Mr. Barnes's dog, Bruce. She loved the animal, but he had to go out about four times, and all four times she'd gone to the park she had spent about three hours there, looking at the stars and sometimes calling Bruce so he wouldn't disappeare. She had finally crashed on Mr. Barnes's couch at three in the morning, and she woke up at seven to make sure she got home to get her stuff and head at the Baker's house in time. She started shifting, trying to find a comfortable position.

Bradley noticed her discomfort, so he decided to speak up. "You can lean on me, if you want." A blush started making it's way to his face, something that had obviously been happening often whenever the girl was around.

Carson looked at him for a second before giving him a smile and resting her head on his shoulder.

Bradley stiffened for a moment before relaxing, the girl's touch giving him a slight buzz which he immediately shrugged off. He closed his eyes, his mind drifting into a long, deep sleep.