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A simple fact that all the ghosts knew and lived by was that it was harder to tell the difference between the days during the summer. Wally remembers that being true when he was in school, so in a way nothing has changed.
Nothing on that front anyway.
The days during the school year were spent counting down till breaks when he was alive. Now they were spent counting till school would be back in session and they’d have more things to talk about. Incoming freshmen got weirder every year.
But now that he was dead, the summer didn’t have much going for it. Summer school was dull, and the occasional sports camps or student council meetings were no better.
Then Charley came around. And one day, mid July someone, (Wally vaguely remembers it being Janet) mentioned the date, and Charley, as casually as noting the weather goes, “oh, my birthday is next Friday then.”
Well a week passed and that Friday was tomorrow, and Wally was going to throw Charley a birthday party.
Charley had been having a harder time than Wally did accepting his death. Maybe it was because Charley’s death happened so slowly, maybe it was because every day he saw Emilio walking the hallways, maybe it was just because they were different people.
Wally didn’t know.
All he knew was that quickly Charley became his best friend. Better than anyone he had been friends with on the football team. And that his best friend has had a rough few months. So Wally was going to do something about it.
He just needed help is all.
The first person he talked to was Rhonda.
Charley became fast friends with Rhonda, in a way that had eluded Wally for a decade. But he was glad for it, because now that Rhonda and Charley were friends, Wally and Rhonda were getting along better than ever.
The bar was pretty low though.
“Do you know how to bake?”
“Walter. Just cause I’m a woman from-“
“No!” Wally sighed, “it’s not- a sexism thing- I just can’t so if you could.”
Rhonda took out her lollipop, twisting it in her fingers as she spoke, “why would I waste my precious time baking for you.”
Wally shot her a deadpan look, “none of our time is precious. But it’s not for me. Charley’s birthday is tomorrow and he’s been having… a not great time, so I thought it’d be nice-“
“How do you know this wouldn’t make it worse?” She put the lollipop back in her mouth and crossed her arms as though to emphasize her statement, “I mean, what dead person wants to celebrate their birthday. It’s just a reminder that they aren’t alive.”
Wally huffed, he hadn’t thought of it that way. But it was true… he hadn’t celebrated his birthday since he got here, the only one who occasionally would mention it was Janet, but it was mostly in a passing way.
“We could…” he trailed off in thought, he wanted to do something, no matter what, “we could make the cake today, not mention any up coming significant dates and just give him cake- who doesn’t like cake?”
Rhonda nodded slowly, “not a bad idea, Moose. Only one problem left. I can’t bake.”
Wally wanted to scream. What was the point of this conversation anymore?
“We could ask Janet?” Long shot, and a bad idea, Wally knew it the second he said it, he was gonna take it back himself before Rhonda cut in-
“No. She’ll tell Mr. Martin, then he’ll make a big thing of it. Charley doesn’t need that.”
Duh.
“Okay… well, we could just, see what’s in the Home Ec class has and go from there? Who knows if they even have the stuff to make cake?”
“You didn’t check to see if they even have the ingredients? Walter Clark you infuriate me,” but despite that when Rhonda stormed off it was towards the kitchen.
Much to his surprise the kitchen did have the things to make cake this late into summer. There had been people milling about for summer classes and whatnot so he was pretty sure there’d be stuff. Glad to be proven right.
Even better than just having the stuff, they had box cake mix, the directions were on the side, and the brunt of the work was already done.
Even better than having the box cake mix, it had no peanuts and wasn’t made in a factory with them. It was touchdown after touchdown for Wally and Rhonda vs Charley’s sadness.
The cake was in the oven, the box had reset but they were hoping if they stared intently at the pan it wouldn’t also reset. Really this was like science too. Mr. Martin would be proud.
“Wally? Rhonda? What are you…”
Wally shot up at the sound of Charley’s voice, Rhonda stayed still though, staring at the cake in the oven.
“Charley we’re uh- nothing! We’re doing nothing.”
“We’re making a cake Charley. I don’t know why Wally’s got his panties in a twist.”
Rhonda saying that reminded Wally that this was not a surprise birthday party cake like he originally planned but a coincidental ‘we wanted cake’ cake.
“Oh! Yeah! It’s cake.” He said, trying to recover from his less than normal opening.
“Riiiiight,” Charley nodded slowly, “and why are you two making cake, we don’t have to eat.”
“Can a girl not just want a cake-“ Rhonda started at the same time as Wally said:
“It’s for you.”
“Fucking brilliant Wally! Really smooth.” Rhonda said, still sitting crisscrossed in front of the oven, but looking more and more like she was about to get up and try to pummel him.
“Okay… that’s very nice, I don’t want to be presumptuous but, you two know my birthday is tomorrow right?”
Wally kept his mouth shut long enough to know that if Rhonda was going to respond to that she would have already, a quick glance behind him showed she was glaring into the oven like it owed her money.
This was on him now then, fourth quarter, ten seconds on the clock, no time to fumble now.
“Yes. We know that, I heard you mention it to Janet last week- that’s not why though, well- it’s partly why but mostly we just wanted to do something nice for you… to try and cheer you up some.”
Charley stared at him, mouth agape, he looked like he was struggling to form words. Wally didn’t know if it was because he was touched or offended, but he was going to assume touched.
“Rhonda? This- was you too?”
Wally turned in time to see a short, curt nod.
“Guys,” and suddenly Wally had an armful of a crying Charley, he tried not to think about all the times he’s held Charley as he cried in the last few months, because this time, he thought he saw the glimmer of a smile on his face before it was buried in his shoulder.
“Thank you.” Charley muttered into his chest, through hiccupped sobs.
“Of course, dude,” Wally gave him a little squeeze before glancing back towards Rhonda, still staring into the oven, “yo Rhonda, you want in on this action?”
“I gotta watch the cake-“
“If it hasn’t reset yet I don’t think it will Rhonda,” Charley said leaning away from Wally, there were still some tears in his eyes but there was something else there too, something like happiness.
To say Wally was shocked when Rhonda stood up and walked over would be an understatement, when she very tentatively wrapped her arms around them he was flabbergasted.
It was over as quick as it started, as the timer they set began to ring, and there was a burst of energy in the room.
Wally put on oven mitts and went to grab the cake as Rhonda turned the timer off and grabbed the frosting from the fridge.
“You wanna help decorate?” Wally asked as he very carefully flipped the pan upside down and wacked it repeatedly to try to get the cake out.
“…we have one color icing.” Rhonda said, her tone of voice the one she uses when she thought Wally was being an idiot.
“Sure-“ Charley said, wiping his eyes and walking over.
Decorating the cake consisted of putting the frosting on way too early and having it melt slightly into the cake itself. They were left with a very minimal amount of frosting, which Charley said was perfect because the amount they had would have been too sweet.
Rhonda looked appalled at that but said nothing.
The three of them ate their cake in relative silence, all contemplating how subpar the cake was compared to what their mothers or grandmothers used to make but savoring it nonetheless.
Wally cast a glance at Charley. He was smiling, though it was small and a little sad, he was still smiling.
Wally added it to his list of wins.
“Thank you guys.” Charley said, after all three of them had finished their slices of cake, “I- I” he paused, thinking over his words before starting again, “this- this fucked up purgatory is a bad situation. I was going to say that you guys are the best of a bad situation… but you’re better than that. I think- Nevermind. You’re just great. And things suck but you two make it better. So thanks.”
Wally threw an arm around Charley’s shoulder, “of course man.”
Wally felt Charley relax just a bit and decided to stay still, let him rest his head on his shoulder.
“You know the library just got another movie with that guy you like,” Rhonda said after a moment, “I think it’s called The Outsiders?”
“Patrick Swayze?” Charley asked with an incredulous chuckle, Rhonda nodded, “also the library just now getting The Outsiders is criminal. It came out in like the ‘80’s.”
“We’re barely in the ‘90’s.” Wally muttered, only making Charley laugh more.
He’d take it.
“Well the library’s got it now, you wanna see it or not?”
“Sure.”
Charley was smiling. And so was Rhonda, just a bit.
Wally and Rhonda: 1
Charley’s sadness: ~68
They could still win this.