candy apples [rewriting]

one: popcorn, pessimism and rollercoasters

8th December
-
THE LAST day of school seems to take forever.

my lousy public school teachers are the type that keep you working just as hard on the last day of school as you did halfway through the term. no movies. no free time. the work keeps coming until three-twenty on the dot.

lacey spends every free second telling me about how excited she is about the fair. her boyfriend asks me if i'm going. i try to change the subject and fail.

lacey is my ditzy, inappropriate best friend. she has a tattoo of the japanese symbol for sloth on her wrist. she has a celebrity crush on niall horan. she has dropped her iphone so many times that the sleep and volume buttons have actually fallen off.

but, eventually i am saved by the bell and justin and lacey wander off together, passing the jocks, who are making a big deal of tearing out the pages in their textbooks.

•••

"hurry up!" my mother roars from the kitchen.

she continues yelling at my sister. i turn up my music a bit more and readjust my earphones.

eventually, anna manages to relocate her other shoe and drags herself into the car while slathering on glittery lip gloss. i get in the car as well.

my mother rummaged through her purse and fishes out four tickets to the yearly regional fair. being in charge of the fundraising for the fair means she gets these for free. it also means that for the entirety of the fair i have to help her make and sell hot dogs while anna wanders off and meets her friends near rides and gossips about who's dating who. ugh. ten year olds. and i don't even get paid. this is most likely why i hate events like these.

as soon as dad pulls up the car anna gets out and runs to the teacups where her friends in outfits equally pink as hers are waiting for her and tearing off hunks of cotton candy and eating them.

i stare at mum expectantly, awaiting instructions.

"what?" she says, visibly confused.

i ask her if she wants me to help out. she seems less confused now.

she opens her mouth to speak, then thinks the better of it.

"you know what? go off. have a good time. go meet a boy or something. you need to get out more anyway."

now i'm the confused one. "o-okay."

i walk away.

• • •

"and just like that, he told me it was over!"

"wow. what a dick."

"i know right! just like that! 'sorry, but i've found someone else.' that little shit!" lacey had almost finished explaining how her (now ex-)boyfriend justin dumped her the hour earlier. while sitting next to her on a rollercoaster.

i half-heartedly nod while shovelling caramel covered popcorn into my mouth and staring off into space.

"dude," she nudges me. "dude, are you even listening?"

i snap back to reality.

"huh?" i look at her, confused. she rolls her eyes.

"come on," she says, jumping off the fence post we were sitting on and beckoning me to come with her. "we gotta keep moving."

i groan.

"oh my god ally, you are such a downer."

" i just...don't like things like these." i respond, hearing myself sounding a lot like ee-aw from pooh bear.