Chapter Forty Two
Hope And Fate.
Anna
Sliding out of the booth, I wave at Soph and she salutes me. I start heading to the haunted hayride until I spot the clown face in the distance.
I find Luke standing near it with one hand holding his lighter, flicking it on and off and the other is holding his phone. He can literally be picking up garbage and still look good. He's that level of good looking.
I tilt my head to the side and down, bending a bit to catch his gaze. The memory of Luke and I meeting back in Year four hits me and I find myself smiling as he finally notices me.
"Hi," I grin.
He smiles and chuckles. "Is that how you're going to say hi from now on?" He raises his head, putting his phone and his lighter away in his pocket and I raise my head as well too.
"Yup," I nod, then I spot a smudge on my eyeglasses and I take them off to clean them.
"You're going to faint one time," he tells me.
"I know," I answer, looking up at his blurry face. "Can you like stand a couple of steps back? I can't see you."
Luke steps back a bit and his face appears a bit again. "Hyperopia?" He questions
"I'm sorry?" I raise an eyebrow at him.
"Long-sightedness?" He corrects himself.
"Yes," I reply. "Don't make me feel like an idiot. That's different." I put my glasses back on.
"That you're failing and I'm not? It is," he agrees and I stick my tongue out at him. It's basically the only reply I have.
"Real mature," Luke gives me a dry look.
"Come on, idiot. Let's go inside," I grab his hand to drag him inside and the first thing that falls on us is darkness with only a couple of red lights. The place is cold, colder than the outside weather and I see a guy standing by a desk. We pay–no, Luke pays since he's the one who agreed on coming with me and who 'initiates; pays', so I let him pay for the ride.
The guy leads us to the carts and I take a seat beside Luke. "Put your seatbelts on and please keep your hands inside the cart," the guy monotones. Two guys take a seat in front of us and two girls sit in the cart behind us. I don't see who's sitting in the far front or far back because of the dark.
One of the guys in front of us turn and gives me a smirk, then he turns to his friend and whispers something to him. I raise an eyebrow in question when he stares at me again. "Um, is there something wrong?" I ask him.
"You're single, sweetcheeks?" He smirks, his eyes dropping down a bit, obviously where they're not supposed to drop. That's another reason why hoodies are useful.
"That's none of your damn business," Luke tells him, glaring. "Face forward or I will make you."
"Calm down, dude. He was just asking," his friend butts in.
"I was talking to him and don't tell me calm down, dude," Luke responds back in an annoyed tone and I place my hand on his arm, gesturing for him to calm down.
"Whoa-" Guy number one starts.
"He told you to mind your business and leave her alone. Don't you have any respect?" One of the girls with black hair and pink streaks behind us pipes up, narrowing her eyes at him. She looks maybe Korean or something, but a thick British accent laces through her voice.
"Yeah, so mind your business, twat," the other black haired girl joins. This one looks Pakistani though with the same British accent that the other one has. The two guys roll their eyes before facing forward.
'Thank you,' I mouth to the two girls.
Girl number one leans in. "No problem, girl. You have a great boyfriend right there," she whispers lowly and nods towards to Luke.
"He's not my boyfriend," I tell her.
"If he isn't, he will be," girl number two whispers and winks at me, then they both sit back again.
I look back forward and turn to Luke, sending him a secret grateful smile for what he did and he gives me a smile back. The ride starts and a loud booming voice informs us the instructions before the cart starts moving and I can already feel my heart pounding loudly and a bile rising in my stomach.
I'm going to die.
It's official. I'm going to have a heart attack and die.
Please don't let me die, God. I didn't meet Brendon Urie or Luke Hemmings or Gerard Way or Patrick Stump yet. I didn't have a kid and name her after a star yet. I need to do that.
"Cherries, stop freaking out," Luke tells me.
"I'm not freaking out. Who said that I'm freaking out? I'm totally not freaking out," I ramble and Luke raises an eyebrow at me as if in 'really?'. "Okay, so maybe I am freaking out. Why did I ever agree on this?" I groan.
"You'll be fine. There's nothing real here," he assures me.
"No crap, Carter," I respond sarcastically, then I bring up my legs and hug them to myself, hiding my face in my knees.
"What are you doing?" Luke questions.
"Avoiding heart attack," I reply.
I feel the cold wind rushing by and a blood-curling scream erupts in the air as I hear something snap up and a girl from a cart lets out a shriek, while a couple of guys curse.
Yup, I'm going to die.
I look up from my knees and at this very time, a skeleton drops from above in front of us and I literally scream, hiding my face in Luke's shoulder. I hear Luke's deep chuckle and I poke his side as hard as I can, making him grunt.
The entire time on the ride, I keep shrieking and squealing that I notice one of the guys sitting in the far front, turning to me and looking at me as if I'm crazy, but I ignore him and continue my opera scream fest. The thirty five minutes I spend in the cart are all filled with things popping up and dropping from the ceiling.
And I think that chainsaw guy was staring at me, not just at me; at me. No. Like at me; at me. I'm pretty sure he wasn't a prop even if Luke says that his face was shining so much because he is made out of plastic. I'm convinced that's highlighter or a really good face cream product.
I have to admit, it was a great experience though and I find myself skipping and jumping up and down as Luke and I exit the place. I'm always like that when I try something new. "That was so cool!" I exclaim, smiling widely.
"Did you see when that ghost flew over our heads?!" I ask Luke enthusiastically. "And when that skeleton dropped from the ceiling? Or when that clown popped up and he was like floosh?! It was so amazing!"
"Cherries, you were screaming and covering your eyes ninety-three percent of the time in there," Luke says, walking calmly beside me with his hands in his pockets.
"Maybe, but I still had so much fun! Don't you think it was awesome how that chainsaw guy looked so real?" I give him a big smile, coming to halt stop in front of him and he stops too.
Luke smiles. "Yeah, it was."
My phone buzzes and I turn it on to see a text from Sophie telling me that Jewel texted her. "I have to go," I tell Luke. "I need to change for the performance."
"Right. I'll see you later?" He questions and I nod.
"Have fun, Cherries. Try not to faint or piss on yourself," he says supportingly.
I roll my eyes and smile. "Thank you. I will try not to."
He chuckles. "Bye, Cherries."
"Bye, Luke." With a wave, I turn around and head back to the booth where the girls are already waiting for me, then the four of us go to the parking lot and grab our clothes from Colette's KIA before we head to the woman's bathroom to change.
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"Hey." Abby smiles as soon as she sees us and we smile back.
"Hey, Abby," I greet her and she gives me a small hug.
"Are you guys ready?" Abby asks, gesturing to our performance. We are standing in the back of the huge stage that's set up in the center as we wait for Jewel to call us on stage.
"Yup." Riley nods her head, her black ponytail going up and down as she moves her head.
"Great. Good luck." She smiles encouragingly and I smile back at her, then she goes down the stairs of the stage and disappears as she goes around it.
As I wait for us to be called, I hum the tune of the song that we're going to play and recite the song that took me a whole month to write. I thought about it for awhile and I told the girls that we should perform the song that I wrote and they said it would be great if we had an original song for once, so we decided to play it. I'm kind of nervous about this because the song might not be that great and there's a huge chance that nobody will like it.
"Come on, guys! You're up," Scarlett gestures for us to come and we go outside, taking the stage.
People cheer and holler as soon as we appear and by the sound of it, there's a huge amount of people. The good thing is that the white light is blinding me, so I don't have to worry about how many people are out there. Colette tap her sticks together as a start, then she, Sophie and Riley start playing the music and I have to admit, I feel so proud of my friends for what they're doing. They sound truly amazing.
I sing the words to my song, not focusing on anything but the music and not messing up the words; my brain makes it its goal to stumble on every word and therefore, embarrassing me. I'm really starting to think that embarrassing myself amuses my brain.
The audience cheer as we perform the song and when Sophie ends the song with her mini-solo, everybody goes hysteric, screaming and clapping. I even hear a few whistles here and there. "Thank you." I smile in the mic.
Then we go back to playing popular, known songs and I start singing Hymn for the Weekend by Coldplay, which is one of my favourite bands. I don't know why, but I'm more in love with bands than solo singers and it's not because I'm in one myself. I just think that bands produce better music, even though some of them end up breaking up.
Our performance lasts for half an hour before I bid the crowd goodbye and we get off of the stage. The first person I'm greeted with is Abby and as soon as she sees us, she literally lets out the biggest squeal and Sophie and Riley squeal back as she attacks us in a group hug.
"You guys were amazing!" She gushes. "I'm so proud of you!"
"Thanks, Abbs." I smile and tighten my arms around her.
"Nobody asked about us, right?" Sophie asks, pulling away.
"Well, Zoey did and..." she trails off, fiddling with her fingers.
I raise an eyebrow. "What did you say, Abby?"
"I told her that Sophie's dog got stung by a bee and the dog ate the bee and now its in the hospital, so you went to check on it," Abby answers, smiling nervously.
"That's actually a very good excuse," Sophie muses.
"If you had a dog!" I throw my hands up.
"Does Zoey know that Sophie doesn't have a dog?" Riley asks.
"No," Abby replies.
"Good, then we're safe," Riley assures us.
"Yeah, she totally believed me," Abby says. "But you guys need to hurry up and change back before anyone else gets suspicious."
"Right," Sophie agrees.
"Bye, Abbs," I wave at her as we turn around and walk away.
"Bye, Katara!" She grins, waving at me and I laugh to myself.
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"We're going to the Ferris wheel!" Sophie announces, as we approach the guys.
After we changed back, we went back to the booth and five other children paid for a round. Soon, when parents and their children started leaving, Jewel told us that we're going to close the booths and after we closed up, we gave her the metal box for the money that we collected. Jewel thanked us for our work and for the amazing performance that we did (her words).
And apparently, until then we have collected thirty-thousand dollars. There was only the entrance tickets' and a couple of other booths' money, then she would tell us if we collected the right amount.
After Jewel left, the girls and I went to meet up with the guys because we all wanted to hang out for a bit before I went home; I only had four hours left. Yes, I'm still grounded even after abiding by the rules and Luke left early after he stayed the night, so mum didn't suspect anything.
She warned me that if I don't stick by my curfew, she will personally come and drag me home in her gym outfit. I'm sure she added that last part, just so she could scare me and trust me, I was horrified all right.
"You guys are all done, right?" Riley asks, taking the last piece from of our group cotton candy and eating it, before tossing the paper cone in the trash bin nearby.
"Yup," Zach replies.
"Great, let's go," Sophie clasps her hands together. The seven of us head to the Ferris wheel and stand in the waiting line.
"You're going with Jennie, right?" I ask Luke as we wait.
"Yeah. She told me to wait for her here," he responds and runs his hand through his hair once, making it turn into a swept-back style. Can you stop being so freaking gorgeous for three seconds? Please and thank you.
I nod at him in daze. "Right."
"That was an awesome performance you did back there!" Zach grins widely.
Alex nods in agreement. "From where did you get that song?"
"Anna's mind," Sophie responds.
"You wrote that?" Alex's eyes widen and I nod, smiling.
"I'm so proud of you, Leni," Zach pulls me in a hug, suffocating me. "And I'm so proud of you, Fee," he pulls Sophie in a breath-stopping hug as he lets me go, then he does the same thing to Riley.
He's about to pull Colette in a hug, but she puts up her hand. "Not a fan of hugs."
"Nobody is not a fan of my hugs," Zach tells her and still grabs her in a small hug, them he had to pull away because Lottie wouldn't stop squirming.
"I'm not," Luke disagrees.
"Yeah, because you're not even a 'body', you're more of a Darth Vader," Zach tells him.
I couldn't help, but snicker. "That is so ironic."
"Do I sound like that damn evil character from Toy Story with an asthma attack to you?" Luke asks him.
"Yes," Zach answers and Luke gives him a special finger.
"Okay," Sophie cuts in. "Everybody pick a pod partner."
"I choose Ginger," Zach raises his hand and Lottie just shrugs and nods.
"I'm going with Alex," I say.
"Yay," Alex grins, pulling me in a side hug and I laugh.
"I'm already going with Jennie," Luke informs them.
"Guess we have each other, babe," Riley nudges Sophie.
"I don't mind that," Sophie plays along and they both laugh.
We finally make it to the front of line at the same time that Jennie arrives and we pay for the tickets before everyone heads to one of the cart-thingies with their partners. Alex and I get seated in the cart and the guy responsible for the wheel closes the cart and locks it. I rest back in my seat as the ride starts and we go spinning around in a medium-paced speed.
"You're not afraid of heights or anything, right?" Alex asks.
"No," I assure him, smiling. "I love Ferris wheels."
"Great. Last thing I want, is you having a panic attack a hundred feet in the air and I don't know how to deal with that shit," he says.
I chuckle softly. "No, you don't have to worry."
Silence falls over us as I watch the view of the fun fair from above. People crawl around like ants, filling up the place. The beautiful lit up colors that shine from every single ride and booth, even the Ferris wheel is gleaming in ocean blue, lime green, firetruck red and daffodil yellow. If I was living on this view, I would be refreshed and as alive as ever.
"He likes you, you know?" Alex pipes up.
I turn my head to him and I immediately know who is that he. "Really?"
"Yeah," Alex nods, trying to convince me.
"If he did, he wouldn't be dating another girl," I tell him the truth.
"He does," Alex insists. "He just doesn't realize it yet."
"I don't know, Alex," I fumble with my fingers as I speak. "He and Jennie seem pretty happy with each other."
"Maybe for now," he shrugs. "But there will come a day when he realizes what he's doing is wrong and he will know that he likes you."
"Am I supposed to count on hope in that part?" I question.
"Hope and fate," he adds.
"Fate is not real. It's called coincidences," I differ.
"For an optimistic person, that's the most pessimistic thing I've ever heard from you," Alex says. "Fate does exist, Lyn. If it didn't, nobody would have an end or a start. Nobody would have life. It all depends on fate to keep going on."
"That's called luck. People get lucky because of coincidences. That's how it all truly depends on."
"Luck and fate are the same thing. If you look at life from your negative perspective, it would all be because of luck. If you look at it from your positive perspective, it would all be because of fate. Try looking at it from the positive side. It's different."
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Update. Hope you guys enjoyed this!
Anyways, there will be three more chapters before the trip one. The next chapter might be really short because I want to write it in third pov before switching back to Anna's in the forty fourth chapter. Hint: you are going to love the two coming chapters. At least that's what I think.
Until next time!
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Byye, gorgeous peeps!
-W.A ❀