This Fourth of July will have something special.  Hope better get used to growing as the bangs  tonight have an extra punch.  (This story was the Patreon story of the month.  This story will come to DA on August 23rd and there is a poll for part 2 already on my Patreon.)

Emily set her blanket down and looked up at the darkening sky.  “They say the show will be a real bang this year.”

              “Is that why you dragged me out for fireworks?  You know how I feel about these things.”  Hope stretched her arms and reached for her book.

              “Oh, come now.”  Emily smiled and turned towards her friend.  “It is going to be a fun night with some fun sky artwork.”

              Hope rolled her eyes.  “There is no such thing as sky artwork.”

              Emily lay down on the ground.  “Oh, come now.  Have you really never heard of people writing stuff like I love you or drawing hearts in the sky?  Well, if you haven’t, this will be the most extreme thing you have ever seen in your life.”  She giggled.

              Hope buried her face into her book. “You know I am not into those kinds of things.  I only came out here because I wanted to spend the night with you.”  She put an ear plug in.  “Now, please, I am trying to catch up on this.  My book club is meeting in a few days, and they will kill me if I don’t finish this.”  She turned on a headlamp.

              Emily giggled.  “Oh, don’t worry.  I am sure you will get a lot of reading done.”  There was another reason why she wanted Hope to come out here tonight.  She knew the people who were running the show and had worked something out with them.  There would be a special surprise for Hope when the fireworks went off.  Emily would be able to enjoy it, too, but she would love to see the look on her friend’s face when it started happening.  Besides, it would all be worth it after the trouble she had to go through with spiking their dinner with growth hormones.  Hope was very suspicious, with Emily suddenly becoming interested in the cooking process.