8th December
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THE LAST day of school seems to take forever.
my lousy public school teachers are the type that keep you working just as hard on the last day of school as you did halfway through the term. no movies. no free time. the work keeps coming until three-twenty on the dot.
lacey spends every free second telling me about how excited she is about the fair. her boyfriend asks me if i'm going. i try to change the subject and fail.
lacey is my ditzy, inappropriate best friend. she has a tattoo of the japanese symbol for sloth on her wrist. she has a celebrity crush on niall horan. she has dropped her iphone so many times that the sleep and volume buttons have actually fallen off.
but, eventually i am saved by the bell and justin and lacey wander off together, passing the jocks, who are making a big deal of tearing out the pages in their textbooks.
•••
"hurry up!" my mother roars from the kitchen.
she continues yelling at my sister. i turn up my music a bit more and readjust my earphones.
eventually, anna manages to relocate her other shoe and drags herself into the car while slathering on glittery lip gloss. i get in the car as well.
my mother rummaged through her purse and fishes out four tickets to the yearly regional fair. being in charge of the fundraising for the fair means she gets these for free. it also means that for the entirety of the fair i have to help her make and sell hot dogs while anna wanders off and meets her friends near rides and gossips about who's dating who. ugh. ten year olds. and i don't even get paid. this is most likely why i hate events like these.
as soon as dad pulls up the car anna gets out and runs to the teacups where her friends in outfits equally pink as hers are waiting for her and tearing off hunks of cotton candy and eating them.
i stare at mum expectantly, awaiting instructions.
"what?" she says, visibly confused.
i ask her if she wants me to help out. she seems less confused now.
she opens her mouth to speak, then thinks the better of it.
"you know what? go off. have a good time. go meet a boy or something. you need to get out more anyway."
now i'm the confused one. "o-okay."
i walk away.
• • •
"and just like that, he told me it was over!"
"wow. what a dick."
"i know right! just like that! 'sorry, but i've found someone else.' that little shit!" lacey had almost finished explaining how her (now ex-)boyfriend justin dumped her the hour earlier. while sitting next to her on a rollercoaster.
i half-heartedly nod while shovelling caramel covered popcorn into my mouth and staring off into space.
"dude," she nudges me. "dude, are you even listening?"
i snap back to reality.
"huh?" i look at her, confused. she rolls her eyes.
"come on," she says, jumping off the fence post we were sitting on and beckoning me to come with her. "we gotta keep moving."
i groan.
"oh my god ally, you are such a downer."
" i just...don't like things like these." i respond, hearing myself sounding a lot like ee-aw from pooh bear.
"mmhmm, and why" she asks, getting up in my face now.
"because they're idiotic." squidward, this time.
she drags me onto the fair grounds. "where are we going?" i ask.
"to have fun."
i groan again.
"oh shut up, you pessimist."
• • •
i knew i should never have agreed to go on 'speed' as soon as i see the line.
the line. my god, the line. we don't usually get new rides, but we lucked out this year, and ended up with the fastest ride in the state.
the aforementioned 'speed' is basically a giant fan with five blades (actually big poles, but we'll go with blades). on the end of each blade there is a compartment that fits two people inside it. once the ride starts, the blades start spinning very, very fast.
unfortunately, it only fits ten people on it, and it appears that the entire district wants a shot. lacey stands next to me in
line. there we listen to strangers conversations and silently mock them to kill time.
• • •
if you have ever waited in a line for nearly an hour, you will know that it absolutely sucks. i ran out of my toffee covered popcorn in less than five minutes.
alas, we eventually make our way to the front of the line. well, second. in front of us is a(n extremely good-looking) guy that i recognise from school. his friend who was with him bailed a few minutes ago when the kids in front of us were being put on the ride.
when it is our turn, i am paired up (much to my discomfort) with the boy. he appears very enthusiastic about the whole thing. the look on his face pretty much contrasts the look on mine.
we get into the compartment, and he automatically introduces himself. "hi! i'm andrew, but i'd like it better if you call me drew. i like food and loud music." i am shocked by his enery.
"hi. i'm ally," i reply. as soon as the ride gets going, and we start spinning, he whoops loudly. really loudly. the ride isn't spinning as fast as i expected, but i'm still majorly out of my comfort zone. he whoops again.
i turn to him. "you like this stuff?"
"absolutely. love it. one-hundred per cent."
"ugh." i reply.
"what don't you like about it?" he asks me.
"the noise, the rides, the...the whole lot." i gesture around me to screaming eight year olds chasing each other across the fairgrounds. the ride stops spinning. "what the feline cats? the ride can't be over this quickly," i say, utterly confused.
he laughs. "of course not, silly. that was just the ride warming up." oh dear god.
the ride starts spinning in the opposite direction to before, and in a few seconds, the speed increases tenfold. my stomach does backflips as i slide across the seat and am shoved against drew. jesus christ.
• • •
as soon as we stumble out of the compartment i lean as far away from anyone as i can and vomit.
"holy shit, you ok?" even though drew obviously tries his hardest to hide it, i can tell he is slightly grossed out. i don't blame him. digested popcorn isn't a pretty sight.
i manage a thumbs up. "oh god, i feel really bad. can i buy you a candy apple or something?" he asks me.
"no thats ok, i'm fine. why do you feel bad." i ask, curious.
"i just do, pleeease let me buy you a candy apple." he's begging now.
"ok."
• • •
"i still can't believe that you don't like fairs. its impossible. thats like not liking puppies."
"i don't like puppies. i'm a cat person."
drew shakes his head in mock disappointment and facepalms. he takes another bite out of his candy apple, making a loud crunch. "do you have any plans for these holidays?" i shake my head no.
"why?" i ask.
"because," he starts "i want to convince you that fairs, do not suck." i raise my eyebrows.
"and how," i say curiously. "do you plan to do that?"
he reaches into his pocket and takes out a folded piece of paper. he unfolds it and passes it to me. "this is a list of all the fairs, fetes and festivals located no further than a half-our away for the entirety of the year." he says, clearly proud of his work. i look at the closely at the writing. lots an lots of dates and adresses. all of them are crossed out apart from the last eight. these are all christmas themed.
"so, basically you're asking me to come to eight fairs, to try and get me to like them?" i ask.
"precisely." he answers.
"deal."
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yay! its the start of something new. i'm trying to improve the length of my chapters, since the anonymous chapters were 200 words on average :/
i loved writing this chapter and i hope you guys liked reading it.
this won't be finished by christmas bc i'm slow at writing and lazy, but i will try to get it done without any hiatus' or anything bc i like to write with a schedule.
merry christmas, oliver out