"This place can get kind of cold by the way. They keep the air conditioner on," Craig said as we approached a large orange building.
"Th-that's fine," I said and he smiled and opened the door and let me enter in before him. First thing I noticed was a lot of booths for food or candy.
"So, as you can tell they start off with a lot of 'gourmet food' and stuff, or as I like to call them, 'expensive food when you could probably go to the corner store and get the same thing but cheaper' so I normally don't mess with these," Craig explained and I nodded before spotting a fudge stand with a familiar face.
"I'll be right back," I said before hurrying over to the fudge area and waited quietly for a chance to speak to the guy.
"Hey Tweek," Michael said and I smiled at him.
Michael is a regular at the shop, but he doesn't have many friends other than two other kids his age and one around Karen and Ruby's age.
He, along with his three friends, have been considered 'emo', despite them being goth since he was in fourth Grade.
They've mostly grown out of that faze, but still, dress pretty dark. They are good people though and we are pretty cool.
"You are working here?" I asked and he nodded.
"Well, I'm volunteering. What's with the tie?" He asked and I shrugged.
"Long story," I said and he laughed a bit.
"Oh you should try this," He said before hurrying to the other side of the booth and grabbing a chunk of fudge and handing it to me.
"What is it?" I asked before tossing it into my mouth.
"it's a caramel coffee fudge, what'd'ya think?" he asked and I nodded as the taste of Coffee and Caramel filled my mouth.
"It's amazing. It tastes like a caramel frappe sorta, but better," I said, although it was hard to understand because there was still fudge on the roof of my mouth.
"Awesome, you want some for your friends, It can be on the house," he said and I shook my head.
"Nah, I don't want you to get in trouble or anything," I said and he shook his head.
"Well too bad, you give me discounts and free coffee and stuff at the shop so I'm paying you back with this. Besides you can't find this stuff anywhere else because it's a 'specialty fudge'," he said with air quotes before hurrying back over and coming back with a bag and a fudge block about the size of a small bread pan.
"Here you go, also, if you come back, do not try the dill fudge. Some think, oh that sounds disgusting but it might taste good, it doesn't. It really doesn't," he said and I laughed a bit.
"I'll keep that in mind, I'll see you later. I don't want to leave Craig for too long," I said as he handed me the bag with a smile.
"I ship it. See you later man," he said before going back to working the cash register.
I quickly walk back over to Craig with a smile and he raised an eyebrow.
"What's that?" he asked and I held up the fudge.
"Coffee fudge, aka an amazing ass creation that is like really overpriced," I said and he laughed.
"Why'd you buy it then?" he asked and I shrugged.
"I went over to say hi to Michael and he was like, yo try this, and handed me some fudge then he was like, here is a block on the house whether you like it or not, and shoved a bag of fudge in my face. I'm not complaining, although if he gets fired I'm going to kill him," I said and Craig laughed.
"Well that's cool, Let's go check out the shops now. They literally have a shop for everything!" Craig said excitedly and I laughed and followed him further into the building.
Now when Craig said they had a shop for everything, I didn't think he meant Everything. They had a shop for things from rock collections to trips to mars; from Anime to science nerd things.
I'll admit Craig and I looked at almost everyone and found almost all of them fairly interesting.
"What're those?" I asked Craig as I pointed towards a small tent outside the building that was covered in colors.
"Not sure, probably something stupid," he paused and glared at the tent for a few seconds.
"Let's check it out," He said with a curious tone making me laugh as he started to walk towards it.
"Bonjour," The lady in the tent said and I smiled at her.
"Bonjour," I said before scanning the tent.
"So it's a place filled with a lot of different accessories. Look at those bracelets," Craig said before going over to a shelf and picking up two different Bracelets.
One had a green strap that wrapped around a White gem and the other looked the same but the strap was blue.
"Cool," I said as I grabbed the one with a blue gem.
"How much are they?" Craig asked the lady.
"Un pour neuf, duex pour sieze," the lady said and I nodded while Craig cocked his head.
"One for nine or two for sixteen," I said and he nodded.
"You speak French?" he asked and I shrugged.
"A bit. One of my foster homes had someone who spoke French so I picked up some and then last year they had a class for it," I explained and he nodded.
"Are bracelets like this normally this expensive or no? I never buy bracelets," he said and I shrugged.
"Madam, why are they so expensive?" I asked the lady and she got up from her rocking chair and walked towards us.
She gently took the bracelet from my hand and moved my palm so it was facing upwards. She attached the bracelet around my wrist and put my hand on my heart.
"Se détendre (Relax)," she said softly and I took a breath and cleared my head.
"Look," she said and I looked at the bracelet and realized the gem color turned to a Bold blue.
She took a paper off the shelf and handed it to me.
I quickly read it and nodded.
"They are supposedly magic. It says that if you relax it'll change color depending on wh-whoever you're closest to. I-it also can do different things like glow or crack depending on said persons actions," I explained and he nodded.
"They're cool, but I do not have that kind of money on me," Craig said with slight disappointment hidden in his voice.
"I can get them," I said as I took the blue one from him.
"No, you don't have to. It's fine," he said.
"Well, I want one too. Think of it as a really, really early Christmas present if it bothers you that much," I said as I followed the lady towards the cash register.
"I'm back, Maman," I heard a lady say from behind me and I saw a girl with bright red hair walk inside the tent.
"Salut, Claire, (Hi, Claire)" the woman said with a smile as I handed her a twenty.
"Gardex la monnaie, (Keep the change)" I said as she put the money in the register.
She smiled at me a nodded.
She handed me the blue bracelet back -she let me keep the green one on and just rung up the blue one twice- and chuckled a bit.
She pointed behind me and I saw Craig talking to the red-haired girl who was laughing while he seemed to be frustrated but at the same time, very dedicated.
"What is he doing now? Merci au revoir (Thank you, goodbye)" I said and she nodded at me before I went over towards them.
"Are you okay?" I asked with a chuckle and he quickly shook his head.
"French is so complicated. I can barely say bonjour properly," he said and he was right. He didn't pronounce it properly, but he was close enough where you knew what he was saying.
"You have the word right, just you don't have the a-accent," I said with a laugh and he rolled his eyes.
"I give up!" He exclaimed making me and the girl laugh.
"Hi, I'm Claire," She said holding out a hand to me.
"Tweek," I said with a smile before shaking her hand.
"Interesting name, I like it. You come to this kind of things often?" She asked and I shook my head.
"First time coming to anything like this. Unless you count this art festival a week ago," I said and she nodded.
"Hint of advice, around lunchtime, which is normally between noon and two depending on the day, you should avoid the building and the main food court. Best time to do rides because there aren't any lines," she said and I nodded.
"T-thanks," I said and she smiled.
"Well I've got to help my mom now, I'll see you around I guess. Have a good day," she said with a small wave before walking over towards the woman, who I assume is her mother.
"You good Craig? You are glaring at the ground as if it slapped you in the face," I said as I hesitantly placed a hand on his shoulder, snapping him back to reality.
"Sorry, just thinking about how stupid french is," he said making me laugh.
"Well I'm terribly sorry that one of the most beautiful languages in the world is complicated to learn, so please, accept this bracelet to cheer you up," I said as I held the bracelet out to him and he laughed.
"Thanks, Tweek, you didn't have to actually get it you know," He said and I shrugged.
"I w-wanted to, Now give me your wrist," I said and he chuckled and held out his hand.
I wrapped the bracelet around his wrist and smiled.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath soon the color of his gem turned a green with a swirl of black.
"Cool color," I said and he looked at it and smiled.
"Agreed. So where to next?" He asked and I shrugged and noticed a dark-haired boy jumping up and down behind him.
I had to bite down on my cheek to keep from laughing and when he noticed I was looking at him he gave me a thumbs up and held up two fingers.
"You lead, I'll follow," I said and he nodded with a smile before grabbing my hand and hurrying in a direction.
Step two is done, now time for step three.