someone like you (joel pimentel)

chapter five

the outfits literally have nothing to do in the chapter, but it's what I imagined. plus it's the face claim for vanessa, and joel.
and I thought it was cute.

this chapter kind of jumps around

• vanessa •

"Enjoy the carnival!" A high school student told us. I smiled at her while Joel and I walked through the gate.

"So, what do you do first when you come here?" Joel questioned. "Rides, games, or food?"

"If you don't eat the fries here first, are you even human?" I answered. "Or the funnel cake. But the games are where the fun is. Especially at this one, each game is worth one ticket, and tickets are really cheap." I led Joel towards the food stands, and we stood in line at the french fry stand.

"You know a lot about this carnival," Joel commented.

"It's held by my old high school. Students work for extra credit, and everything is bought by the city, parents and school board, and the school keeps the profits for the art program," I explained. "Ooh, can we get a large fry, please?" Joel had already handed the guy five dollars before I could protest.

"So this is your old high school?" Joel asked. I nodded. The carnival was set up across the street from the school, but it was still school grounds. "That's cool."

"Thank you," I told the guy when I grabbed the small bucket of fries. "Okay, before you eat these. They're going to change your life, they're literally the best fries ever. Perfectly fried and salted. These are all I wanted when I was pre—pretty young." I held the bucket towards Joel, and we both took a couple fries and chewed them.

"So what is it that you do?" I asked Joel after awhile. We were just walking through the entire carnival talking. "Tatiana didn't tell me much, or anything really."

"I, uh, sing," Joel answered.

"You don't sound too sure about that," I responded.

"I do sing," Joel corrected himself. "I— your friend didn't say anything at all?" I shook my head. "I'm actually a member of a band. We actually just finished our world tour last month."

"Wait— seriously? That's really cool," I told him.

"What about you? What do you do?"

Stay at home with my son most days. "I work at Forever 21, and I'm going to college online. Not yet anyway, I only just signed up."

"What are you going for?"

"I'm not sure yet, I'm going to get my generals out of the way, and when I do, I'll be able to be on campus to work towards some degree."

"But what do you want to do?"

"I really haven't thought about it. I was busy during my last years of high school while everyone was getting ready for college and thinking of their futures, I was—" taking care of a baby. "Uh, I've always wanted to be a teacher," I corrected myself. "Oh my god, they have cotton candy!"

And that's how I ended up changing the subject and getting cotton candy.

"No! I'd really like to hear about it," I told Joel. I had asked about his band, but he didn't want to bug me with the details. Personally, I didn't like to talk about myself, but whenever I did talk about myself I always said more than I meant to.