Soft love

The fair

It was the end of September and I was getting ready for the fair. I had just taught the first few weeks at school and the teachers wanted to go to the fair together to plan the trip for the kids next week. In doubt, I stood before my closet. It was going to be a warm day and usually, I wore bright colors and funny patterns because the kids loved them. But I was thinking of doing something else. I'd be spending the afternoon with adults after all... And while I've been here for a little over a month now, I haven't really made any good friends among the other teachers. I decided on a short white dress with sleeves and a flowery pattern.

"Hi, Lisa! How are you doing? You look radiant today!", Brenda said when I arrived. Brenda teaches the older kids and she's very much the mom of the group. But nonetheless, I'm happy I seemed to have chosen the right outfit. She engulfs me in a big hug, and I quickly say hi to the others. "Alright, now we're just waiting for Brandon and then we can start", someone says. "He's on his way, I texted him earlier", Amanda says. She looked quite displeased though, and not really interested in making conversation. I still don't know what the deal is between her and Brandon, they seem to be in each other's company a lot but they don't seem overly affectionate. She enjoys his company a lot, always giggling and fluttering her eyelashes around him. But he's a bit less expressive and doesn't seem to enjoy socializing that much. She's a lucky girl though, he's a very handsome man and all the kids love him and the trips he plans to the forest. 

"I'm here, sorry I'm late guys. Stuck in traffic...", Brandon said, while breathing heavy. He clearly ran a part of the way to get here. I was confused for a second, he looked so different, not in school. He was wearing jeans and a loose button up and had sunglasses in his blonde hair. On cue, Amanda's face has a big smile on it, and she rushes to his side. "No worries, you look good today!", she flirted. He muttered something I couldn't understand and I turned away like most of the others. I had no desire to be stuck between those two. Quickly, I walked to Brenda and asked what the plan was. "Let's start with studying the map a bit, we need to know where all the bathrooms are, and which age or height limitations are on which rides."

After going over all the important places, we set up to walk the whole fair and agree on meeting points, lunch point, etc. When passing one of the food stalls, we all got a sandwich and sat together on the benches. I started a conversation with the woman next to me. I hadn't seen her before but she was wearing a beautiful dark green dress, which I complimented her on. Apparently, her name was Louise and she was coming back from maternity leave. She was the secretary at school and sometimes helped with these trips. She seemed like a nice woman, she showed me pictures of her kids and dog. She had a boy and a girl with her high school sweetheart. I always love these stories, so I asked her about how they met and apparently, they sat next to each other in English one year and that's were all the magic happened. So cute. I couldn't wait to one day tell my story to people but unfortunately, not much was happening in my love life at the moment. I'd tried dating apps for a while but recoiled in fear after one dramatic date. "All right guys", Brenda said, standing so everyone could see her, "I think it's time to test the rides... you know, for educational purposes." She smirked. Someone whistled, "Yes, let's go!" I grinned, finally the fun can begin!

We started off on the carousel. I chose a nice white horse to ride on and I saw Amanda dragging Brandon to the carriage. I saw him looking for an escape when our eyes crossed. I looked away quickly, not wanting him to think I was staring at him. After the carousel came the pirate ship, then the flying chairs and the bumper cars. I had a lot of fun bumping into everyone. Maybe a little bit too much, Amanda started freaking out at some point because 'everyone was teaming up against her'. In truth, she was just terrible at driving the cars. Next, we went on a roller coaster. I sat next to Louise and Amanda and Brandon joined in after us. Half the time, Amanda was screaming like a banshee, and the other half, she was laughing uncontrollably. Louise and I even burst out laughing at some point from the hilarity of it all.