Chalant Candlelight

Chapter 4

(Dick's pov)

A few days after I met Zara, the annoying new girl that I now had to babysit, I finally made it to the weekend and had a circus show, friday, saturday, and sunday night. I could finally kick back and relax with my circus squad, basically me and all the other young performers. Much less taxing to be around people you don't have to hide from, or tone down your personality around. I was around people just like me.

After the friday night performance, me and the young crew decided to go have some drinks and chill out in town. We all changed into casual clothes and didn't care if our tattoos were showing or our piercings were in, I personally had some bomb gold hoops in and my gold nose hoop ring, along with my lip one, yes, I had a few piercings. I wore a loose tank top that arm holes reached way down my sides, and some fitted ripped jeans. I let my curly raven hair run free and still a little wet from the shower I took after performing.

The crew of about seven including me all got together, some acrobats, some horse riders, divers, aerialists, and illusionists, we all left our dressing rooms and began to step across the street from the circus tent. We were all laughing and talking about the performance, one of the girls was ruffling my hair with her hands, while some jumped around and swung around lamp posts. The warm, dark night mixed with the empty streets hailed for a fun night.

Just as I was laughing with my friends about the time I almost slipped off the ladder that led to the trapeze and had to make it look intentional, when I slammed into someone sending them onto the pavement,

"So sorry, I didn't see you there." I offered a hand helping the older man up off the ground as he straightened his tie and hurried off with a scoff,

"Geez, what was his problem?" One of my friends asked, alluding to the man's bad attitude and the way he judged me,

"No idea." I said through gritted teeth,

"Hey, you circus freaks!" A voice yelled out at us as a group of college age boys all stepped out of a nearby building,

"You're a little far from your home." They gestured to our tent that was a few blocks down as he approached his with his crew, "you're a little too much in our street and we dont like that, we keep it respectable over here so why dont you guys just head back over to your red light district and don't bother us." He was big on the condescending tone. We were all dumbfounded by his comparison of the circus to a red light district, though disrespecting either was not a good idea. One of the divers stepped up to him,

"Were people just the same as you, are we not regardless of background?" She waved her finger at him,

"Get off our street."

"We have just as much a right to walk around this town as you." Another friend of mine stepped forward,

"You're about to not be walking at all, buddy." One of the college boys stepped up banging his fist into his palm,

"Hey, we're not here to fight." The diver said raising her hands to calm the riled up boys,

"We just might if you don't run back to your ringmaster." He teased when I finally had had enough and marched up to the guy with calmness but a deep fire within,

"Last time I checked we're in Gotham, and Gotham can be a very unforgiving place." I made him take a small step back, "so put those hands up, I dare you." He raised his hands, but not to fight, to back off,

"You freaks aren't worth it, I know you won't fight with honor." He scoffed stepping off with his crew while they all just kept murmuring profanities while they walked away. I turned around to my friends who looked at me with big smiles on there faces,