C Stands for Carnivals, Crushes, and Childishness

Part Two

The late afternoon sun provided more warmth than it should have, it still felt like midsummer. Despite my love for cooler temperatures, today I liked it. The rays of sunlight gave me a burst of confidence. I stood in line with two of my friends waiting to buy tickets for the games. I hadn't seen Riley yet, but I was planning to go searching for him. Already the booths were swarming with children from the nearby elementary, filling the parking lot with their shouts and cheers. Once the DJ got his station set up and started blasting music, I could scarcely hear my friends next to me. After we got our tickets I searched up and down the aisles of the carnival. There was more food being served this year than last, and the scent of the hotdogs, cotton candy, nachos, and funnel cakes did not mix well with the small sweaty bodies running around. I was relieved when my friend Jasmine pointed to Riley and Parker who were walking to the football field.

We slowly trailed behind them, not wanting to seem too obvious. I saw that they were headed underneath the bleachers where a few of our classmates were already gathered. When we got closer, Jasmine called out, "Mind if we join?" She said it with such honey in her voice that I knew no one would object.

Although it was nice to actually be able to hear people talk, it was awkward standing around with people I didn't really know. They were some of the more popular girls and boys, and talked about everyone they knew and all the places they went which were unfamiliar to me. I never fully understood until then how many people one had to know in order to be popular. Even though the whole point of coming here was to talk to Riley, Kristen's words kept bothering me. I pulled Jasmine over to the side by her arm and whispered, "Have you heard any talk recently? Anything about Riley in particular?"

She twisted her black hair around her finger, hesitating before saying, "I heard that horrible things are being said about him. I haven't heard all the things myself. Just one." She quickly glanced over to the group. "I was wondering why you wanted to follow him over here, I thought maybe you knew about the things that had been said."

"What rumor did you hear?" I asked. Kristen hadn't said that there were multiple rumors. I still assumed they were only rumors because of the others that were here with us.

"I heard that he purposefully tripped a couple seventh graders in the hall. You know how Alicia Garcia left school early two days ago because of a broken nose? They're saying she was one of those who was tripped."

My heart felt a lot heavier than it had a minute ago. I wasn't entirely convinced that this had happened. If there were witnesses when Alicia's nose broke, why would they not have reported him to the principal? It also didn't seem like him. If he was that horrible a person, he would have to be lying all the time for no one to ever catch on. I looked at him now, laughing with the others, rays of light catching in his dark brown hair highlighting it with auburn. There seemed to be more warmth in his laugh than in the sun. I needed to act now.

I shook the bundles of tickets in my hand, "Do you want to see if its Coach Miller's turn at the dunk tank? He's going to be working it this year." I told Riley in a low voice so that the others couldn't overhear. Miller was the coach for the track team Riley was on, and it was well known that they all disliked him. I figured if I was to find out if there was any truth behind the rumors, hanging out with him would be the best route to take.

He smiled at me and we walked off. By some chance of luck, nobody bothered to follow us. After we both tried a few turns at the dunk tank, we went off to the next booth, and then the next. There was one where you had to fish out magnetic cylinders from a kiddie pool and inside them were different candies. I was surprised at how well I did at the game, but I ended up only getting  taffy and gum. When Riley saw my face he asked, "What's wrong?"

"I can't eat these." I pointed to my red and yellow braces.

"That's too bad." He looked down the row of booths and then back at me. "How about I win two other games and I'll trade those prizes for your candy?" Before I could answer he said, "You have a unique shade of brown eyes. There's red in them." My face got hot and I was glad that my skin was too dark for others to see blushes appear.