WHO Laurel Reynolds OT Ethan Cole, with brief special guest appearances, potentially. WHAT Checking off some Never-Have-I-Evers WHERE Ethan's place to start, then the marina area. WHEN July 4 2016, before dark WARNINGS We'll just have to see...
There was a chance, totally minuscule but legit all the same, that Laurel was not the dictionary definition of a responsible friend. People often assumed that you were responsible or you were irresponsible, but by conventional standards, she definitely fell somewhere in the gray chasm between those two points. Except, of course, when an unconventional definition was applied; as it so happened, Laurel was a glowing pillar of responsibility when it came to ensuring that she and her dearest friends experienced as much as humanly possible. She took her photos and soaked up experiences that way, and she did her best to nudge Ethan out of comfort zones that he had in place for totally sound reasons, but those photos and those nudges clearly were not enough. She was too responsible. She didn't push them to take enough risks.
That was what Fredericka's game taught her.
In Willow Creek, there was no shortage of partying opportunities on the Fourth of July, but Laurel only had one scheme in mind: she was going to be a responsible friend. Just in the unconventional, checking-off-your-bucket-list kind of way. There were just too many things neither she nor Ethan had done yet, and even if one of them had done something, it could be argued that having a partner in crime made the experience entirely new anyway. That was reason enough, in her books, to maybe revisit something Ethan had done without her, or maybe something checked off in the other direction. It all made sense.
Laurel had a plan.
It started with dessert, as all good plans should, in Laurel's opinion, start. The Red, White and Blue tart was for Mira, and it was only a bribe in the loosest, most innocuous sense of the word. Laurel didn't think she really needed to bribe Mira anyway, but it was a solid excuse to bring her a totally delicious and adorably patriotic treat, and Laurel thought it best to get Mira on her side before she moved on to step two, which was convincing Ethan.
When Ethan's mother opened the door, Laurel grinned and extended the tart to her. "Happy Independence Day!" she exclaimed. Ethan would be alerted to her presence, but that was fine. Also, it was inevitable. "You look great. I hope everything has been going well for you lately. We have to talk soon, definitely. It feels like it's been forever. But right now, I was hoping to kidnap your son for a night of mischief and light rebellion, in the spirit of our Founding Fathers. If that's alright by you, of course."