In dire need of a cute covinsky fic! Pls?
Technically, they are supposed to begetting food.
No one else wanted to get up at LaraJean’s designated ‘fit as much into the day as possible’ time,so Peter decides that if they don’t want to get up, then they don’tget what they want from the super market.
So, technically, they are supposedto be going to the grocery store, and then making breakfast, and thenhoping everyone is awake and ready to go hiking. It’s their lastspring break of college, everyone who had off the same week stuffedinto one of Greg’s parent’s time shares in the mountains, andLara Jean can almost taste summer break.
But, they still haven’t made itthe grocery store. Peter accidentally took a wrong turn, and then theGPS refused to re-calibrate, and then somehow, they ended up at anestate sale, quite literally stumbling upon it as they circled aroundlooking for someone to give them directions this early in themorning.
She jumps out of the car and Petertosses his arm around her shoulder, and they aren’t at the grocerystore, but she feels like this is where they are supposed to be. Itreminds her of the before, when they were still pretending, and LaraJean was still very much confused, and Peter was slowly falling inlove with her, and both of them were a little too dense to somethinglike talk to each other about their feelings.
But they are very much in the afternow, going on 5 years and knowing how to do things like communicateand love each other long distance and apply to jobs.
“We just need directions, and thenwe can get back on schedule,” Peter says, but Lara Jean can see hiseyes rolling over everything, and he’s his mother’s son, so he’scalculating how much he can get and what would look best in thestore, and Lara Jean loves him so much it almost hurts.
“What if we looked around for abit. The others will probably be sleeping all morning anyway.”
“You sure?”
Lara Jean nods, and his face justcompletely lights up and he has his phone out to text his mom in thenext instant.
Lara Jean let’s herself wanderaway from him as he snaps pictures for his mom, stopping to admirethe old silverware and baking pans that she finds hidden in thecorner. She can hear Peter chatting with the owner, and he soundslike such an adult. They are graduating soon, and being thrust intothe real world. She’s not worried about Peter. He’s the type ofperson who can make friends with anyone instantly, like he is withthe owner right now. She’s less adapt at fitting into places likehe is, but according the Chris, she’s come out of her shell and ifanyone could make it in the real world, it’s her. Lara Jean wandersalong, listening to Peter’s voice fade as she’s is swept into thenext section, not paying much mind to where she’s going until hereyes fall on a jewelry box.
She stops, drawn to the box, thedelicate antique pieces glittering in the early morning light. Shecan still hear Peter, talking about his mother’s store and how hewould love to learn more about the silver tea set, and she reachesout to the box without knowing what she’s reaching for.
Some one loved this box. Each pieceis situated in it’s own section, all polished and glimmering, eachholding a lifetime of stories.
Her hand skates over a silverbracelet, and a gold hooped necklace, and then she falters, stoppingat small pearl inlaid in a gold ring.
It reminds her of a ring her motherhad, one that Lara Jean would sneak into her parents room to admirewhen she was little, one that had somehow been lost in the resultingtime. Lara Jean gently removes it from it’s spot in the box andslips it onto her right ring finger.
“Perfect fit.”
She didn’t realize that Peter hadgone quiet, and snuck up behind her, hooking his chin over hershoulder.
“It’s beautiful.” She tilts itin the sunlight, and Peter’s arm snakes out so he can take her handand slide the ring off.
“Yeah, but I think I’d like itmore on this hand.” He slips it over the ring finger on her lefthand, and Lara Jean almost forgets how to breath.
“Peter.”
“Lara Jean.”
“You are not proposing marriagebefore we even graduate college.”
He laughs, warm breath falling overher shoulder and sending goosebumps down her arms. “No, god, mymother would kill me.” He presses a quick kiss to her cheek, hishand still cradling hers. “No, I’m just bringing up the topic.For the future. Like once we get our collective shit together and canlive in the same state and have enough money to survive like adults.”
It’s the first time either of themhad really brought up the idea of after. After college, and afterthey get jobs, and after they hopefully move in together, and aftereverything settles down. She’s always seen her future with Peter,but this is the first she’s ever really thought about it. Aboutmarrying him one day. About having him forever.
“I’d like that.” She twistsher head until she can grab his face and pull his mouth onto hers.He’s smiling, and she can feel the warmth in his cheeks under herfingertips, and her heart is beating so fast she’s pretty sure hecan hear it.
When she pulls back to breath hepresses another kiss into her hair. She goes to slip off the ring,but Peter snaps his hands around hers.
“What do you think you are doing?”
“Putting the ring back before webreak it.”
He shakes his head. “No way.That’s yours. It’s ours. A promise.”
“Peter Kavinsky, I will not allowyou to spend your money on this.”
“Too bad.” He pecks her lips,distracting her long enough to slip the ring off himself and the nextmoment he is marching off through the maze of things, leaving her infront of the jewelry box.
“Peter, wait!” she calls, buthe’s already gone, and then next moment she can hear him talking tothe owner again.
“I’m changing my bargain,ma’am.”
Her heart stutters to a morereasonable rhythm, and she stares at the place in the box where shefound the ring.
It’s peculiar, because everythingin the box was so lovingly placed, and everything had it’s ownspot. But she can’t seem to find where the ring went. The box stilllooks completely full, like nothing was removed.
Lara Jean shakes her head and turnsaround, following Peter’s voice to find her way through all of thethings. The instant he sees her, his face lights up, and the womanringing him up smiles at them.
“So this is the lucky girl, huh?”
Peter shakes his head, and drops hisaround and her shoulders. “Nah. I’m the lucky one.”
The woman holds out the ring andsighs, a smile on her face. “That was my great aunt’s ring. Shealways told me it was meant for someone special, and that it wouldfind the person it was supposed to be with.” She places it inPeter’s hand and pats his palm. “I’m glad it found the two ofyou.”
The woman instantly goes back toringing them up and chatting about Peter’s mom’s store, and LaraJean can’t seem to find the words she needs to say thank you.
Before she knows it, they’vepacked up the Jeep, and Peter is shutting the trunk, jogging over toher before she can open the door.
“Lara Jean Song Covey. With thering,” he says, falling to one knee, and taking her hand in his. “Ipromise that once we graduate and start to figure life out, that Iwill propose to you for real, and if you so choose, you can becomeLara Jean Song Covey-Kavinsky.”
“I’ll need like 3 lines to writemy full name on my driver’s license.”
He bites his cheek trying to hidehis smile, and she dramatically flicks out her hand. If he’s goingto insist on doing this, she might as well play along.
“Engaged to be engaged?” sheasks.
“Exactly.” He breaks into that100 watt smile, and then she’s pulling him up until she can kisshim.
He slides the ring on her fingeragain and it instantly feels like it was always supposed to be there.
And maybe, that’s because it was.
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Goosebumps Season 1 Episode 3: The Cuckooclock of Doom!
WARNING: TODAY’S EPISODE CONTAINS A MONSTER WE ALL FEAR: EXISTENTIAL DREAD AND THE FLEETING SANDS OF TIME!
Source: http://www.indianruminations.com/contents/poems/time-raj-yura-patiala/
Source: https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/70264616
This is Michael. As with Kat Merton in the previous episode, we don’t get to learn any personal details about Michael, except that he has a younger sister named Tara, who absolutely loves to torture him. We see this immediately, as the show begins with eerie music playing over a scene involving Michael investigating a creepy noise from the bushes. As Scream hasn’t been released yet, Michael doesn’t know that you should absolutely never investigate a strange noise when you’re in a horror setting. That’s where the monsters always are!
Source: http://goosebumps.wikia.com/wiki/Tara_Webster
Ladies and gentlemen, our monster for the episode.
Tara is genuinely awful, and not in that kid-sibling-is-annoying-and-won’t-stop-bothering-their-older-brother way. I have a younger brother—hell, I am a middle child, so I was also an annoying younger brother. I also know people with younger siblings. Younger siblings can be pains in the butt, sure. But Tara is genuinely evil. She goes out of her way to make Michael look like a jackass, just for the hell of it. Michael refers to her as Tara the Terrible—which, while it is by no means original, is an incredibly apt nickname.
I mean, alright; realistically all she does is pour ketchup on the dude, call him a krej—which is Jerk backwards, get it?—and she trips him at both of his twelfth birthday parties. But something is off about Tara. Look at those cold, unforgiving eyes. She is looking down at her older brother—and by extension, us all in the audience—with the utmost disgust. The innocent little girl look is merely a façade. Behind those brown eyes is a creature far more fearsome than Slappy; truly more menacing than the Horrors at Horror Land. The only reason the Goosebumps movie wasn’t as big a success as it could have been, is that Tara was never the big bad.
Seriously. The moment Tara appears on screen I felt an immediate dislike—and that’s something I’ve felt toward only one other character in a movie
Source: https://www.pottermore.com/features/how-dolores-umbridge-made-our-skin-crawl
So, we get a flashback to three days earlier—Michael’s twelfth birthday party. All of his friends are there, including his love interest. I don’t recall her name, and I’m not gonna bother looking it up, because she is only there so that Tara can have a way to humiliate Michael.
The girl gifts Michael a CD, which Michael says he likes. But just like the monster she is, Tara calls Michael out on it, saying that he thought it was lame and threw out the CD the first time, but because he likes the girl he is willing to pretend to like this new gift. Michael’s mother calls him in to bring in the cake, which is odd to me. For every birthday my family has ever had for everyone, not once have we ever had to bring in our own birthday cake. I mean, damn, they didn’t even put candles on the thing. It’s just a cake that presumably lacks even Happy Birthday written in icing.
Source: http://goosebumps.tumblr.com/post/132563277792/goosebumps-rewatch-s01e03-the-cuckoo-clock-of
So, Michel comes in from the kitchen, holding his own nameless birthday cake in defeat, when Satan herself pulls a hilarious move and trips him. Michael falls head first into his own cake while his asshole friends all laugh at his misfortune.
We’re brought back to the present, when some moving men bring in a strange object concealed by tarp. Seems like Michael’s dad has purchased an antique cuckoo clock from a man named Anthony—who we later learn owns a store. In a scene that I think is mostly ripped off of A Christmas Story, we see that this is no ordinary cuckoo clock
Source: http://goosebumps.wikia.com/wiki/The_Cuckoo_Clock_of_Doom/TV_episode
Seriously. The mom looks at the thing with a mixture of confusion and dislike. The dad is all proud of the thing. The kid’s are immediately enthralled by it. There’s even a fucking lamp right next to it. Homage, or blatant rip off?—Says the man who has copy-pasted images from other sites and blogs onto Tumblr.
We learn that this is a magical clock—because that’s what Michael’s dad tells us. In what is the laziest and vaguest “legend” ever, we learn that “a strange old man built the clock over a hundred years ago, and he put a magical spell on it. But they say that whoever discovers the magic must beware.”
That is barely even a legend, sir. Just because it was built over a hundred years ago and believed to be magic, doesn’t mean the thing itself is, in fact, magic. I could show a twelve-year-old a pay phone today and say, “About a hundred years ago, people used to make magical calls for just 25 cents per minute,” but that doesn’t make it a legend. Who was this man? Was he evil, like that guy whose coffin was eventually used to make the Slappy Doll? Other than being made by an old man from a hundred years ago, what about the clock is magic? Sounds like he was just an old clockmaker from 1895—which, spoiler alert, was not a super magical time in history. But I guess a hundred years is a long time to a twelve-year-old.
But that’s not all that’s vague about this legendary cuckoo clock. Michael’s dad says that the shop owner, Anthony, told him that “there was something wrong with the clock, but he wouldn’t tell [Michael’s dad] what it is.”
That sounds like an awful way to sell somebody something. I mean, I’m no business man, but telling a customer “hey, the thing I am selling you doesn’t work 100% the way it should,” sounds like you’re just asking for the customer to start haggling over the price. I mean, I’m not crazy, right? Was Michael’s dad so genuinely impressed by the fact that it was supposedly a hundred-year-old, magical clock that he was willing to shrug off the store owner’s own admission that his product is shit?
Anyway, Michael’s father is super strict about the clock, forbidding both kids from going near it. Later, while getting a glass of milk or something, Michael overhears his sister getting scolded for touching the clock, and he gets the idea to frame Tara, to get back at her for the birthday incident.
Well, Michael sneaks out of bed, and snaps the neck of the cuckoo bird inside the clock. The next morning, Michael wakes up to find that he has time travelled back to his twelfth birthday—just three days ago.
Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/GroundhogDay
The second movie this show/book rips off is Groundhog Day.
So, Michael relives his twelfth birthday party, almost verbatim. He is visibly shaken by the fact that he has travelled back through time but tries to prevent his ultimate humiliation. Unfortunately, Tara is basically Hitler and manages to trip Michael again.
Source: http://goosebumps.tumblr.com/post/132563277792/goosebumps-rewatch-s01e03-the-cuckoo-clock-of
This book brings up some pretty heavy topics. Are we all doomed to repeat our most humiliating mistakes, even when we are capable of literal time travel? Will Michael spend the rest of his life trying to break out of this Phil Connors loop, only to be tripped, yet again, and taste a mixture of blue frosting and his own tears? This is truly the most frightening Goosebumps story of all.
Michael tries to explain to his parents of his situation, but they understandably think he’s just ill. The next morning, he wakes up as a six-year-old and rips off a third movie:
Source: http://stine.wikia.com/wiki/The_Cuckoo_Clock_of_Doom_(TV_Episode)
It’s not Christmas yet, Goosebumps! Stop trying to tell me it’s winter time!
So, Michael tries explaining his situation to his parents, but notices that there is no Tara. This is, in my opinion, only a good thing. Michael’s parent just assume that he has an imaginary friend.
Source: http://goosebumps.wikia.com/wiki/My_Best_Friend_Is_Invisible/TV_episode
Silly parents. That’s not for another two seasons.
Michael reasons that the cuckoo clock is behind everything. He goes down to see the clock but remembers that his dad won’t purchase the magical hundred year old clock for another six years. Well, as luck will have it, Michael is celebrating his sixth birthday today. While everyone is celebrating, Michael sneaks away to find Anthony’s antique shop.
There’s this super weird moment where real scary things nearly creep into Goosebumps, when an older gentleman calls Michael over—presumably just for a pleasant chat—but Michael’s dad finds him just in time.
Later that night, Michael tries Phil Connor’s plan of staying up passed midnight to break out of the time loop. Apparently, Michael fell asleep before watching the rest of Groundhog Day, however, because we all know that that doesn’t work. No big deal, because Michael, already suspecting that he won’t be alive the next day, has resigned himself to his fate of simply fading from existence.
The episode ends fading to black, as Michael regressed into sperm, thus ending his hellish existence.
Source: http://goosebumps.wikia.com/wiki/File:Cookooclock_09_one_again.jpg
Just kidding. He wakes up as a baby and has shit himself. No, really.
Anyhow, Michael’s parents take him to Anthony’s antiques, where he finds the cuckoo clock. He walks over to it, the cuckoo pops out, something bumps up against the base of the clock that knocks off the number 88, Michael fixes the cuckoos twisted head so that it’s facing the right way, and he is literally thrust into the future.
Ecstatic to be twelve again, and out of the time loop, Michael discovers that the world is not the way he has left it.
Source: https://katthemovies.wordpress.com/2017/10/07/in-for-a-scare-the-cuckoo-clock-of-doom-and-phantom-of-the-auditorium-goosebumps-review/
The Shyamalan Twist:
So, it turns out that the number 88 that was knocked off was the year Tara was born—1988. This means that, for some reason, Tara was never born. Which is the happiest ending in a Goosebumps episode thus far.
Michael says that he’ll go back and fix it one day. But let’s be honest, Tara will never be born and Michael will have her blood on is hands forever.
Source: http://goosebumps.wikia.com/wiki/Michael_Webster
I’m sure he’s really broken up about it.
Thoughts on the Twist:
I remember when I first saw this episode as a youngster. I was genuinely unsettled by the fact that Tara just gets erased from existence, and it’s left in the air whether Michael will go back and save her. As an adult I’m more sensible and know that the world is a whole lot better off without the little demon.
But here’s something I can’t stop thinking about. In the beginning of the episode—i.e. with Tara—Michael’s parents are really stern. The dad won’t let his kids go near a clock. Like, give it a day or two, they’ll stop being interested. Michael’s mom doesn’t seem to be the happiest person either.
Then we see Michael’s parents when he’s six—i.e. without Tara. They’re happier, they joke around with him. When Michael is a baby, they’re nearly unrecognizable. I wasn’t kidding, they were literally happier when Tara wasn’t around.
My theory: Tara was so freaking scary that the only reason the parents let her get away with tormenting her brother is because they’re afraid she’d turn on them. The constant stress of trying to appease the beast drains them every day. It’s no wonder they’re so cranky all the time.
Ah, you say. But what about when Tara is scolded for touching the clock? If he’s so scared, why’d he do that?
To which I respond with this: Michael is creeping down the stairs to frame Tara, and he steps on Tara’s doll, placed meticulously on the step. I think she left it there to either murder her father. That, or she was trying to kill Michael.
Source: http://goosebumps.wikia.com/wiki/Tara_Webster
Even people on the internet—the most sensible and logical of folk—are ready to write Tara off as a sociopath.
Most Existential Line:
When six-year-old Michael says, “Today I’m six tomorrow I might be nothing.”
Best Time-Related Pun:
When the creepy stranger says, “Hey kid, got the time?” Geddit, because time?
Worst Tara Moment:
When Michael is creeping down the stairs, he steps on Tara’s doll. It’s supposed to be a jump scare, but I think that it’s actually a murder attempt. Why else would she have placed it so strategically?
Final Thoughts:
The episode focuses more on establishing mood than anything. There isn’t any narration, which automatically puts it over the previous two episodes. The first scene we get Michael is unsettled by something, and the music makes sure we know it. There are some not-scary jump scares, and a dream sequence that involves Michael running away from the cuckoo clock with Tara’s face on it, but all of that is silly.
The scariest part of the show—aside from Tara—comes from the dread Michael feels when he starts travelling back in time against his will. I remember it being done better in the book—I recall Michael breaking down in tears early on, when his family is teasing him about his claims of being caught in a time warp—but it’s still genuinely creepy. Have you ever tried to let someone close to you know that something was making you uncomfortable, but they’re ready to write it off as you just being silly? That’s pretty relatable. Michael is also powerless to stop it for most of the episode. Near the end he just sort of gives up, fully expecting to be dead the next morning.
The actor playing Michael is pretty decent, all things considered. The parents are rather good at playing both stern discipline and happy new parents. Tara is awful, but the girl playing her is only like, six. On the flip side, you could say she did a great job by making her character’s awfulness so believable. Michael’s friends are also there and are the weakest performances in the film.
I liked it way more than The Girl Who Cried Monster, and only slightly more than It Came from Beneath the Sink, since the monster in this one was scarier, and the episode has a happy ending.
Source: http://goosebumps.wikia.com/wiki/File:Cookooclock_11_where_is_tara.jpg
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