I caught a glimpse of bright green on my way home from school. My name is Sophie; I'm 15, and a freshman at Fishers High School. Anyways, I saw something bright green down in an alley. Now I know…you're probably thinking, don't go down into an alley!!!! How stupid is this girl?!?! But, hey – I'm a curious person! So anyways, I go down to check it out. It was a flyer, an advertising pamphlet for some sort of traveling circus. There was a picture of a wolf's head at the top. The wolf had it's terrifyingly sharp teeth showing. At the bottom, there were pictures of a spider and a snake, and they looked vicious, as well. Just beneath the wolf, it read:

CIRQUE DU FREAK

FOR ONE WEEK ONLY – SEE CIRQUE DU FREAK!!!!

SEE:

SIVE AND SEERSA – THE TWISTING TWINS!!

THE SNAKE-BOY! THE WOLF-MAN! GERTHA TEETH!

LARTEN CREPSLEY AND HIS PREFORMING SPIDER –

MADAME OCTA!

ALEXANDER RIBS! THE BEARDED LADY!

HANS HANDS!

RHAMUS TWOBELLIES – WORLD'S FATTEST MAN!


Under all of that, it had an address of where you could buy tickets, and find out where and when there were shows going on.

NOT FOR THE FAINTHEARTED!

SOME RESTRICTIONS APPLY!

Cirque Du Freak…well this sounded cool!!!! I knew that in French, Cirque Du Freak translates to Circus of Freaks…a freak show…? WICKED!!!!!!!!! I know that freak shows are usually very cruel and mean and stuff, but you never know…this one might be different!

Anyways, I stuffed the flyer in my pocket, and headed home, eager to find more out about freak shows!

Later, I asked Maria about freak shows. She told me that they were inhuman, cruel, and illegal. She also asked why I was suddenly so interested in freak shows. I lied easily, by saying that I heard some guys talking about freak shows at school.

You see, Maria is my foster mother. Ever since I was eight, I've been bounced around from one foster home to the next, because when I was eight, my mother got killed in a car crash, from getting hit by a drunk driver. This is why I swore to never, ever do drugs, and that includes drinking beer and wine. I never want to be the cause of someone else's death, like that man did seven years ago.

I can never stay in one foster home for very long, because I'm a very difficult child…I'm always wandering off, or getting into fights at school, and I tend to speak my mind a lot…and by that, I mean that talking back is basically my hobby!

You're wondering why I don't live with my father? Well, he walked out on my mother and me when I was young, maybe three or four. I barely remember him…

Anyways, off of depressing topics!

I really like Maria, and she's sooooooo nice, but I just haveto see what this is all about!
So after school the next day, I run (and I literally mean RUN) to buy tickets, so Maria doesn't get too suspicious of why I'm coming home so late.

I went to the address that the flyer said, but didn't see much. I was about to go home, when I turned around, only to see a guy there, in a dark blue robe, holding a few tickets in his hands. I couldn't see his/her face, but I could tell that they were very muscular.

I handed "it" the paper, and asked if I could have one ticket, and paid the dude. He took the money and the flyer, and then handed me one ticket, just as I had asked. After he walked away, I stared at the ticket for a few seconds, and then remembered that I had no time to spare!

I ran towards home, falling once, scraping my knee on the concrete, drawing a LOT of blood, cussing out the concrete, and continuing my run home.

"I'll just get a band-aid when I get home", I thought.

The tickets were for Saturday night, so I could just say that I was spending the night at a friend's house, and then end up coming home because I didn't feel too well. I'm a pretty good liar, because when you're always bounced around from house to house, sometimes sneaking out, or running away during the night…anyways, being a kid like me, you learn to lie.

I stuffed the ticket in my pocket and walked in the door.

Maria took one look at my knee, and rushed me to the kitchen, where we kept our first-aid kit. She got it cleaned up, wrapped in gauze, and asked me probably a thousand times, "Are you sure you're ok, Sophie?"

Of course I kept answering, "Yes…for the thousandths time, I'm fine!" Then we would laugh for a few seconds, and the cycle would start over…pretty boring, huh?