Bucket List

☑️ Climb onto the top of a Ferris wheel cart at the peak

The laughter of children and the buzzing of teens filled the atmosphere. The carnival at the boardwalk was especially busy today, the line to the Ferris wheel being the longest, the line that Ace and Artemisia were in.
Artemisia was here to do what she never thought she would do, while Ace was here just to get away from school. Artemisia stood behind Ace, waiting for her turn to get onto the Ferris wheel.

"Hey, I need a partner to go up on the Ferris wheel with me, interested?" Artemisia asked, her blue cold, soulless gaze meeting the brown lively, joyful ones of school golden boy, Ace William's.

Ace furrowed his eyebrows at Artemisia in confusion, his lips creating a straight line on his chiseled face.

"What?" was all Ace could respond with. Artemisia took a deep breath, ready to throw a long, well thought out paragraph of what she's trying to do. Well, except the thing that she's really trying to do with the list. That, Ace didn't need to know.

"Look, you don't need to know me. It's good that you don't. I'm just trying to get an errand done so that I don't live the rest of my sad and miserable life in regret," she explained, gesturing with her hands. "So, you wanna ride the Ferris wheel with me or what?"

Ace blinked rapidly, trying to process Artemisia's words. Artemisia heaved a deep breath, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. Her foot tapped impatiently on the wooden boardwalk floor as she ran a hand through her hair, waiting for Ace's response.

"Next," the carnival staff member that worked at the Ferris wheel station called. Artemisia grabbed Ace's wrist and led him to the cart, Ace spitting out protests in the process.

Artemisia shut the cart door before leaning back into her seat, arms crossed and eyes focussed on Ace.

Ace fiddled with his thumbs, uncomfortable under Artemisia's cold gaze.

"Thanks for being here," Artemisia said, unfolding her arms and letting her hands rest on the seat beneath her.

"Why did you need me to be here?" Ace asked, mustering enough courage to speak to his captor.

Artemisia's expression didn't change at all. It remained stone cold and straight.

"I didn't want to go alone," she lied, shrugging her shoulders. She leaned towards the window of the cart, looking at the carnival buzzing with people below her. She returned her attention to Ace. "Stay here."

Ace raised an eyebrow when Artemisia stood up and approached the window, slowly placing a foot on the thin border of it. The cart rocked as Artemisia's figure disappeared to where Ace assumed (and hoped) was on top of the cart.

Ace soon decided to mimic her actions, just to see what she was up to on the roof. Being the fearless teenage boy that he was, he didn't feel a hint of fear in his veins as he climbed to the top of the cart, meeting Artemisia's curious gaze.

"Whatcha doing up here?" Ace asked, sitting beside Artemisia, who had her legs neatly crossed as she sat.

Ignoring Ace's curious inquiry, Artemisia pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket, unraveling it. She picked the pencil from her back pocket and scribbled something on the crumpled paper.

Ace, curious as to the girl's actions, peeked over her shoulder to realise that on the paper was a list of things to do. A bucket list. He could briefly make out its contents before Artemisia folded the paper and stuffed it back into her jeans pocket.

☑️ Climb onto the top of a Ferris wheel cart at the peak -(preferably with boyfriend)-
⬜️ Jump into a quarry
⬜️ See a guy naked (preferably Boyfriend)

Artemisia tucked the pencil behind her ear before turning to Ace, who had an eyebrow raised.

"You could've just told me you were doing a bucket list," Ace said smugly, smirking at Artemisia. "The list said 'preferably with boyfriend' so why did you pick me?"

Artemisia looked down at her hands that rested in her lap.

"I don't have a boyfriend and like I said-"  she paused and looked up into Ace's warm brown eyes. "-I didn't want to go alone."

Ace's smirk faded away at the look in Artemisia's blue eyes. They seemed so empty, like there wasn't any soul behind those glassy eyes, no spark of life that other teenagers of Artemisia's age had. The light of love, adventure and joy.

Instead, her eyes were filled with the tenebrosity of having the type of gloom that settled and never left. No matter the number of days, it wouldn't change a bit, etching scars into her heart that were visible through that look in her eyes.

That look. The look that made Ace realise that Artemisia wasn't just as what she seemed like; the tenacious sporty girl that didn't lack in beauty or brains.

Something was troubling her, something bad. And something big.