𝕊𝕥𝕦𝕡𝕚𝕕 ℂ𝕦𝕡𝕚𝕕 ➶

𝔽𝕠𝕣𝕥𝕪-𝔼𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥: ℙ𝕣𝕚𝕫𝕖 𝕎𝕚𝕟𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘

Valentina wanted to pout and drag her feet throughout the whole entire festival... But, she had to admit, she was a little dazzled by all the sights and the sounds. Okay, maybe very dazzled. But that was the sole purpose of festivals, faires, circuses, and carnivals: to dazzle.

It was sensory overload. The whole place was lit up like Christmas. In addition to different music coming from the various rides, there was a rockabilly band performing, loud and proud as a rooster. And the smells-- Oooh, the smells! It smelled a little like a giant vat of various fried foods, all mixed together like some sort of melting pot.

"I want caramel corn and fried pickles and chocolate-covered bacon and, and, and--" Fran babbled with all the excitement of a child, before she eventually ran out of breath and had to pause. "What do you want, Val?"

She didn't even have to think. "I want to win some rigged games!"

Every stuffed animal in the game booths they passed looked at her with big, glassy eyes, practically begging to come home with her.

She'd undoubtedly be adding one or two to her collection, but she would have to pick games she thought she could actually win... Or ones she thought she could keep throwing money at until the person working the booth took pity on her.

"We should probably save games for later in the evening," Fran hummed. "We won't be able to take our prizes on the rides with us, and we don't want to risk them getting stolen!"

"Yeah, we should probably do a rotation around the rides first," Val replied. "I don't know about you, but the really intense ones make me queasy, and I don't want to be blowing chunks anytime soon."

"Okay! So rides, then food, and finally games!" And she was feeling quite swell, until Francoise turned to the rest of the group and asked, "What do you guys think?"

Morticia gave her a cryptic smile. "Sounds like a plan." And Tish's friends agreed with everything she said, so naturally they were all on board as well.

With a downright maniacal laugh, Fran grabbed Val by the hand and dragged her to the ticket booth. Everyone got paper bracelets that allowed them unlimited rides. They weren't cheap, but the kids weren't poor either.

It turned out that the lines for the most kid-friendly rides --the ferris wheel, the carousel, the bumper cars-- were so long that they were out of control. It was bananas. So they ended up agreeing to do those rides right before they left. By that time, all the babies would be at home, if not asleep.

They started with the roller coaster, which had the ominous name, "Pale Rider." And it felt like it very well could have spelled death for them in another life. Valentina wasn't a huge fan of wooden roller coasters. They always had a rickety --almost precarious-- feel to them.

Next was the drop tower, which went by the title, "Lightning Strike." It was painted a metallic blue, with neon lightning bolts aglow all over it. She didn't care for that ride either. Never saw the appeal of the feeling of free fall. But it was Fran's favorite, so naturally they rode it a good four times before the rest of the group decided that they'd had their fill and it was time to move on.

The third was Val's favorite, the UFO ride. She'd ridden many variations over the years. "Starship 4000," "Flying Saucer," "Alien Abduction..." The name didn't matter. They all featured a dizzying g-force that stuck riders flat to the walls. She loved every minute of it. Her only complaint was that it reminded her a little of her recent nightmare of Morticia and Gomez dissecting her like a frog.

The rest of the attractions went by in an absolute blur of lights and sounds. It was up there for one of the best nights of her life, which could be widely attributed to the fact her new best friend Fran was by her side for the entirety of it.