Chapter Text
“You know, we should probably actually write down our bucket list,” Billy commented the next time Freddy brought it up.
“Yeah, that's probably a good idea,” Freddy agreed, “We can do that later. But first, glass blowing, yay or nay?”
Bully shifted on his feet.
“Isn't that like, dangerous, and hard to find, and expensive, how would we even do it?” Billy questioned rapidly.
Freddy just smirked and pulled at a flier.
“There's an art fair this weekend,” he explained, “and you can sign up to learn to blow glass. And it's like fifteen bucks, not too bad for a bomb experience. Please dude, this is nowhere near as dangerous as going out as a superhero ever other night. I think we'll be fine.”
Billy took the flier and scanned it over, reviewing all the information. It not only looked legit, but actually seemed pretty cool. I mean, they might as well try it, right?
“I’m in,” Billy decided.
“Awesome!” Freddy said with a grin as he snagged the flier back.
Now they just had to wake for the weekend. And actually write down their bucket list. Plus Billy had a history project due next week. Shit. He should probably work on that.
The weekend came sooner than expected, both boys waking up surprisingly early for a Saturday. It was still nine, but for Billy and Freddy that was equivalent to waking up at the crack of dawn.
When they strolled into the kitchen, Pedro, Mary, and Rosa were the only ones up. All of their eyes widened when they saw the two boys.
“What are you two boys doing up?” Rosa asked them.
“We had to be up early so we don’t miss our blowing glass thing,” Freddy replied as he went to grab some bread for toast.
If possible the three observers eyes grew even wider.
“You’re what?” Rosa asked.
“Blowing glass,” Freddy said as he dropped the bread in the toaster.
“Uh, Freddy, how do you even find out how to do that?” Mary questioned. She was sitting at the table, a textbook opened next to her breakfast.
“That's what I said!” Billy exclaimed in agreement.
“It wasn’t that hard,” Freddy replied with a shrug as he grabbed his toast and proceed to stumble towards the fridge.
Billy shrugged in agreement.
“Yeah, we’re just going to an art festival,” Billy said in explanation.
“Ich ih I were uh seh erlay,” Freddy mumbled arpun a mouthful of toast. He now carried a jam jar in his free hand and moved towards the table.
“Freddy, I have no idea what you just said,” Rosa told her foster son with a sigh.
The boy sat, dropping the jar on the table and placing the piece of toast that was previously in is mouth next to it. Billy moved to make his own toast.
“I said ‘which is why were up so early,’” Freddy repeated.
Pedro, Mary, and Rosa just stared at them. Eventually Rosa just shrugged and told them to have a good time. Ten minutes later the two boys were out of the house and headed towards the bus station.
Freddy’s gait, as always, was slow, so they had plenty of time to discuss their activities for the day.
“So are we just gonna blow glass?” Billy asked, “Or is there other things to do there.
Freddy shrugged.
“I don’t really know,” he admitted, “I just know that we’re blowing glass and that it's an art fair. Oh, and Rosa gave us a bit of spending money, which is awesome. I mean, I guess we can hang around I hadn’t really thought of it.”
“Okay,” Billy said with a shrug, “To the random art fair it is.”
“I’m starting to regret this decision lightly,” Billy said as they peered into the glass room.
Inside, numerous people were heating up glass and twisting it into shapes. The melted figures glowed brightly with heat, and even outside the room, Billy could feel the heat coming off in waves.
“Uh, it’ll be fine,” Freddy said with a gulp, “totally.”
Neither opened the door that was just in front of them. They shared a glanced. Freddy just sighed and stepped forward.
“We can do this,” Freddy promised. Billy just nodded shakily. He was totally not afraid of the giant flaming pit. Definitely not.
They showed the papers they filled out at the door and were allowed in. They were quickly directed to an out of the way corner and told to wait. The two boys shrugged but did as told.
A minute later an adult female wearing a heavy apron joined them.
“Hello, are you Billy Batson and Freddy Freeman?” she asked as she read from a paper on the clipboard in her hand.
“Yeah,” Billy and Freddy told her.
She gave a nod and then a “follow me.” The two did as instructed and ended up to the side of the room standing across from a large fire oven and next to table with glass.
“So, we're going to just do a simple project today because I'm going to assume this is your first time blowing glass,” the woman said.
The boys nodded.
“Right,” she replied, “so we’re just going to make bowls. Follow me to the glass,” she instructed, leading them closer to the table with crushed glass.
“Choose two,” she instructed as she gestured to the colors.
Freddy, unsurprisingly chose red and blue, in respect for his obsession with Superman. (It's not an obsession Billy, it's respect- yeah sure whatever). Billy himself chose red and yellow. Come on, they were his own superhero colors, he pretty much had to.
After they had selected their colors, the instructor poured out four clumps, one of each, onto the table before leading them away once again. They were then given giant gloves.
“What are these for?” Billy asked.
The woman shot him a look.
“Idiot,” Freddy hissed, “It’s so we don’t die from the burning hot glass.”
“Is it really that hot?”
Just then the woman gave him the end of one stick and he held it in his hands. He could instantly feel the heat on it, even though the metal was wrapped in thick material and he had on gloves.
“Don’t move it yet,” she instructed, before moving onto Freddy.
Billy looked at the stick and followed it to the end to find a ball of glass stuck on the tip of it.
“Oh shit,” he swore when he saw the glowing material. Freddy laughed to his side.
Then the woman was instructed them how to put the long sticks into the furnace and turn them correctly, warning them not to move closer.
“Don’t worry,” Freddy said with a laugh, “I’m not planning on getting burned today.”
She didn’t seem to find the comment amusing.
Two seconds later and they were pulling the rods out. The rods were then instantly carried to the table, the woman helping Freddy when she realized he needed to have one hand on his crutch. She talked quickly and firmly as she guided them through the process of dumping their glowing orbs on their colors, then setting the poles down, twisting them, and using tweezers to stretch the glass at the same time. Billy didn’t know if he was sweating from the heat, the fear of being burnt, or the speed of the instructions. Less than two minutes later the woman had taken both of their rods, ducked them in a large vat of water, taken them out, and chopped the glass off, leaving two lopsided bowls.
“There you go,” she told them, “Two bowls. But don’t touch them, they’re still very hot.”
Billy and Freddy shared a look. They could feel the heat literally radiating off from their work. Hey we're definitely not planning on moving any closer. Actually, both of the boys took a step back.
They studied the bowls for a moment. The entire activity couldn’t have been more than ten minutes, but their stood their final products.
“Okay, that's actually really cool,” Freddy pointed out.
Billy nodded slowly next to him.
They continued to stare at the shiny glass figures.
Eventually the were snapped out of it by the woman moving the bowls to a cupboard and giving them a receipt to pick them up in a week. They were then ushered out.
Now on the other side of the glass blowing building, they slowly meandered into the fair.
A minute later Billy spoke.
“Well, that went a lot faster than I thought it was going to,” he remarked.
Freddy just nodded in agreement.
“But hey, another thing down on the bucket list,” Billy commented.
“Damn right,” Freddy agreed, and the two high fived.