The Forgotten One

Chapter 2

"Bec, come on, your late for practice again!" Jacob shouted from the front door of my trailer.

"I'll be down in a second!" I yelled back.

I yanked my sparkly pink practice bag out from underneath the bed and hurled myself down the stairs and out the door, almost pushing Jacob off the porch in the process.

"Watch it Beck," he playfully growled, "If I fall, I'm taking you with me."

He pushed back his bangs, which I personally find pointless because it always goes back to the same exact spot as before. I rolled my eyes

"As if you could catch me" I scoffed

"Is that a challenge?"

"No, it means that I'm faster than you. There is a difference. Now let's hurry up and leave before we're even later to practice."

"Race ya. Loser has to do laundry." He challenged

"You're on!"

We raced down the snow-covered streets and turned a corner to get to the circus grounds. When we passed the abandoned apartments buildings (there's some in every town), I felt eyes on my back. I looked around, but there was no one except Jacob and me. Thankfully, I looked back in front of me just in time to avoid crashing into a random cart that was just sitting in the middle of the sidewalk. So I decided to use this opportunity to show off my mad skills and do a triple-flip over it. I made it over easy-peasy, but when Jacob decided to try and one-up me with a quadruple-flip...well it did not go so well.

"Guess you're doing laundry." I laughed, now convinced the feeling was just my imagination, as I leaned down to give him a helping hand.

"Yea yea, just help me up." He muttered.

After Jacob brushed some of the dirt and snow of his back, we just walked the rest of the way, mostly because he was limping from the fall. Otherwise I would have been happy to re-do the race. He's such a pansy sometimes.

A few minutes later we reached the big top tent, were we practice every day 11am-3pm. We took our spots in the arena and waited for our instructor, Mark, to appear. Lucky for us, he's always late as well, so being late isn't usually a problem.

Mark strutted into the tent in his usual outfit, long black jeans, Nikes, and a plain white T-shirt, stylish right? Though I'm happy that he decided the hipster glassed were too much. He had long blond hair pulled back in a ponytail; I never wear ponytails because of the fact that over half the men here wear them, so I prefer a French braid or a tight bun. I'll usually chose bun since by curly black hair is nearly impossible to braid quickly. That is why I am thankful Jacob's hair is too short to put in a ponytail. Well you could, but it would look even weirder than a man in a ponytail (get it? 'Cuz men in ponytails look weird...no...ok..).

First thing I always practiced was my favorite, aerial dancing. I loved how graceful I could be when I'm dangling above the audience; how their jaws drop in awe at the stunts I perform by just my hanging onto two large pieces of fabric tied to the rafters. My newest routine might be my favorite out of them all though, it just seemed to be extra graceful and the song I 'danced' to always brought tears to my eyes. The song is called 'My Immortal' by Evanescence; it's now my favorite song of all time!

Now onto my least favorite part of practice, I have to do an act with Jacob. I do not trust him on a trapeze, neither should anyone else. But I am contractually obligated to do it, so I grudgingly go along with it.

Our act is what I like to call a 'story act'. Jacob has to pretend to be a guy running after my amazingness, and I continually reject him. The act includes Jacob hanging upside down on a bar, that's hanging from the ceiling. Then I have to jump and grab his hands and do tricks by letting go of his hands, flipping, and then grabbing on again. He's already dropped me (on purpose) 2/3 of the times!

I may soon be the youngest person to die of a heart attack.

A clown is also on the ground making the crowd laugh during the performance. He also plays my second suitor. But the end is my favorite part by far, we get down to the ground, he advances, I push him to the ground, and then jump into the waiting clowns arms, kiss his cheek, and we run off leaving a bewildered Jacob behind. I laughed for at least 20 minutes when they told me. The whole act was to 'Bring Me Back to Life', once again a song by Evanescence.

"JACOB I SWEAR IF YOU DROP ME-"I started to yell at him

"Calm down Beck, I probably won't drop you" he retorted with a smirk.

I always smack the back of Jacob's head whenever he's being stupid. This is one of those occasions. As is many other times.

"Oww" he complained

"Get back to work kids!" Mark shouted over his shoulder.

Figures, Mark is playing Angry Birds on his phone instead of watching practice. Yet somehow he can still tell when we aren't practicing...I guess that's why he's the instructor.

Once we finished at practice (Jacob finally got it right), we still had to visit Delia. Delia is the costume maker at our circus, but she also doubles as a fortune-teller. She is the most eccentric person in the world. Her trailer is covered in wind chimes, dream catchers, and gem crystals. She squealed when she saw us and threw a sheet over her latest project.

"Ya'll scared the spirits out of me!" she exclaimed "oh, and ya'lls costumes are in the back for you to try on."

We stood there for a second trying to get our bearings; Delia has that effect on people.

"Well go on! I ain't got all day!" she said, all while shooing us to the changing rooms in the back.

"Oh dear, this is an embarrassing one..." I whispered to myself, absolutely horrified with how...revealing and over the top the coustume ended up being. It left my stomach compleatly exposed and part of the back was cut out. Also, the 'pants' were more like a bikini bottom. Actually, the entire outfit was a more like a bikini with an extra strip of fabric than an actual piece of clothing. I mean, it was kinda cute, but I'm not really the kind of girl who likes getting dressed up. And this felt waaay different than a normal leotard. But at least the storyline of having suitors fits now, I look hot.

"Do you like it dear, I worked extra hard on this one" Delia called over the stall door.

"Wow Delia, you really outdid yourself this time" I forced out through my gritted teeth. The only though keeping me sane is the fact that Jacob was hopefully wearing something equally as embarrassing as this.

"Oh goodie!" Delia squealed "Now both ya'll come out in the open so I can see my beautiful creations come to life!"

I mentally prepared myself and stepped out. Delia looked like she was about to pass out from pleasure and Jacob's eyes were almost outside his head, like a bugs. And I think I saw him drooling...gross. I glanced at Jacob's costume and was immediately pissed off. It was a completely normal, jet-black, non-embarrassing outfit.

"Oh my God Beck, you look-"

"Why isn't Jacob's costume like mine" I whined to Delia, cutting off Jacob.

"Because you're the star, not Jacob!" 

"Humph" I pouted. This was going to be the worst act of my life.

"Buck up Beck," said the little voice of reason in my head "You won't be here much longer remember? Let Delia have her fun, this may be one of your last shows."

Sadly, the voice was probably right, like usual, so might as well stop moping and grow up. I felt as if I'd need to if I wanted to survive whatever was to pass.

I quickly slipped back into the changing stall and yanked on my normal clothes, pink jeans and an orange circus T-shirt. After thanking Delia, I grabbed my stuff and headed toward home.