My Cup of Tea

Chapter One

As soon as I stepped out of my car, the scent of food struck me. The intense stench of hot dogs, hamburgers, French fries, fried dough and pretty much every other food you could fry filled the air. I couldn't help feeling slightly dizzy thanks to all those scents hitting me at once. This is the only reason I disliked the annual summer fair. I honestly don't have the stomach to eat the food the fair offered. I loved taking risks, but eating the fair's food is probably lethal.

The rides, however, I could definitely handle. I felt excited just thinking about getting onto the rides. When I am on them, I don't have a worry in the world. Maybe the adrenaline overshadows every negative thought. No other thought crossed my mind besides 'This is so awesome' or something along those lines.

"Ariana, you've been standing there for five minutes," someone's annoyed voice interrupted my thinking. I quickly realized the voice was Scarlett's.  "Are you ready to go into the fair?"

I was both spooked and surprised, as I turned to look apologetically at my friends. Madeleine, Eva and Scarlett were now giving me worried looks; except Madeleine's and Scarlett's looked mixed with annoyance. I couldn't believe I had been standing for five minutes. It felt like a few seconds.

"Yeah," I said cheerfully, in an attempt to leave the awkward situation behind. Eva smiled reassuringly, while Scarlett and Madeleine still looked aggravated.

I finally urged myself to walk to the fair's entrance and forget their looks. We all paid for admission, and got hot pink wristbands that symbolized we paid.

"Oh my goodness," I breathed out, looking around the fair. No matter where I looked, there were people. Kids running around screaming, people standing in line for rides, people waiting for food. I jumped out of the way as two kids ran past, showing no signs of slowing down. 

Besides totally crazy people, lights were everywhere. They brightened up every food stand, game stand, and even the rides. They were all sorts of colors, all flashing in random patterns. All of them were there to obviously grab people's attention. They were certainly capturing my attention.

I could hear 'Ding, Ding, Ding' from the distance as someone won a game. I could hear people screaming their hearts out. There was music flowing throughout the fair. As people walked by, parts of their conversation joined in with the rest of the sounds buzzing in my ears.

Pulling my dirty blond hair back, I quickly put it in a ponytail so it wasn't hanging in my face. My hair is becoming long, I thought angrily. I always hate when my hair gets too long. It becomes an absolute horror the take care of.

I focused my attention on the amusement rides now. The first one I could see was the Ferris wheel. It was slowly spinning, every seat was full. I smiled slightly, I loved Ferris wheels. They were simple, yet spectacular. I always feel like I can see the whole world on the top of a Ferris wheel. I moved my gaze lower, spotting the bumper car arena. I focused on it, watching as three cars bumped into each other. The carousel had many happy kids on it. There were so many rides; I knew we would be here for a while. 

"Wow," Eva squealed beside me. I guess she had noticed everything going on at the fair as well. "Let's go play some games!"

I nodded in agreement, half-dragging her towards the game stands.

In our game frenzy, we had managed to play nearly every game that intrigued us. We also managed to waste a good thirty minutes. 

We hit balloons with darts. We threw baseballs to knock things off bottles. We played games that included lucky guessing. We visited the dunking booth and sent a guy into the water. Instead of being upset, the guy looked rather happy. I could understand his delight; it was warm out here.