The Secrets of the Circus Drafts

Peer Pressure (an Old Draft)

Elliot was quite nervous going to the circus with his friends. It was a fine autumn afternoon in the obnoxiously loud Gold Hay City, and he was just walking down the lane casually planning on paying the Ringling Circela another visit when his homies and classmates decided to tag along with him.

"Hey Leo!" his best friend Lincoln casually called to him across the street. Elliot looked up and found him, Jason and Matt in their sports wear, sweating so much they completely soaked their shirts, making them appear as if they were drenched in a huge thunderstorm.

"Oh, hey dude. What's up?" Elliot said, watching his friends jog towards him, a light blue basketball clutched in Matt's arm. As the three young adolescents approached Elliot, so did a trio of girls. The leader was talking aloud to her friends when she bumped into Elliot. She scowled, hastily brushing dust off her snow white blouse and red velvet skirt "Watch where you're going you sl- oh. Elliot!" the girl exclaimed, recoiling in surprise. Just a second to where she and Elliot were before, their faces were an inch away, super close to performing an accidental kiss.

Elliot felt his jaw tighten. He licked his lips and tried for a smile. "Good afternoon, Arabella," he said, trying to sound gentle. In reality though, his words came out through a bar of gritted white teeth. As the redhead, now called Arabella, stared at Elliot with a red face, the blonde behind her merely blinked at Elliot, both their emerald green eyes clashing with each other in a silent glare. "Good afternoon, Amanda," Elliot said, studying Amanda's white shoes, its styrofoam laces tied untidily. The girl continued to stare at Elliot, her hand on Arabella's shoulder. A huge arm dropped itself onto Elliot's shoulder, the stench of sweat watering Elliot's eyes slightly. "Hey there beautiful," Jason casually said, finger gunning and winking at a girl with curly dark hair and coffee coloured skin. The girl stared at the Canadian for a bit before colour began to rise onto her cheeks. Elliot casually shoved his friend's arm off his shoulder. "Get your sweaty armpit off my shoulder," he said, scowling and taking off his ginger tinted glasses so that he could rub away the tears formed in his eyes.

"Dude, in front of Samantha?" Jason whispered.

"Don't care." He wore his glasses and pushed them, making sure they were secure on his nose bridge. "Anyways... I assume that you three came from basketball practice and you three..." Elliot faltered as he faced the three girls. "I'm not gonna assume anything about you three."

Matt swallowed, pressing a button on his basketball, causing it to shrink into the size of a ping pong ball. He stuffed it into his pockets and clasped his hands together. "SO, uh, Elliot," he said aloud, clearly trying to clear the tension between his friend and the trio. "Where were you going? It's... quite unusual of you to not be at the library at this time." Everyone's gaze immediately burned into Elliot, their eyes hungry with curiosity.

Elliot mentally facepalmed himself. Of course, the library! Why wouldn't he be there, doing his homework and borrowing more books?
But no, his friends JUST happened to have found him anywhere BUT the library.

It seemed that from this day onwards, he cannot keep lying to his friends that he would always be in the library after school, so Elliot wrung his hands and inhaled. "I uh... recently found this circus-"

"The Psychedelic Circus?" Lincoln cut him off, bouncing on his heels excitedly. "Dude, FINALLY! It's about time man, you've been missing out a lot-" Elliot chuckled nervously, cutting Lincoln off.

"N-no Linc. A different circus."

All his friends including the trio looked at him curiously, Lincoln especially dumbfounded.

"What?"

"T-there's another circus. At the very far end of the city," Elliot stammered, trying to explain.
"It's not very famous or well known, but the shows are pretty nice and the people there too. I even befriended the Ringmistress and all the members there so uh, I'm basically paying her and the others a visit." He specifically didn't mention Lavandula, for he was fully aware of her relationship with the girls standing in front of him.