Anna had never been to a carnival. Well, minus that one time that her friends took her to the circus that'd been set up in the Macy's parking lot in a single day. They told her not to count that, though, 'cause they had to evacuate the premises after some drunk carnies let the bumper cars off their tracks and tore through all the tents. No, she never had the real deal, but she also didn't think it was something she was totally missing out on. Her friend Tiana, however, had.
"It's like a coming of age thing."
"I didn't know we still had those as adults."
"Come onnnnn. It'll be fun! The lights, the performances, the decorations! I remember my first real carnival..." Anna wasn't convinced, truly. But Tiana's eyes lit up with a magic spark as she continued to speak in a way that made her forget about that parking lot circus for a minute.
"Okay, alright alright," she interrupted, "but we leave at the first sign of something sketchy happening."
Tiana only giggled in response.
"I mean it. If any piece of a Ferris wheel drops into my lap..."
"There aren't going to be Ferris wheels"
"Then it's even worse if a piece falls on me."
That was three weeks ago when they'd seen the sign for the carnival opening up. Now as they waited in line, Tiana rolling excitedly on the balls of her feet, Anna wondered how she'd ever got talked into doing this. She felt a bead of sweat roll down the curve of her spine. She didn't want to admit (to either herself or that smug Tiana) that she was actually excited about what they would witness this night. Cautiously excited. That first circus she'd gone to hadn't really set the right mood to make her feel like this was any sort of a good idea. There were only two people ahead of them, Anna thought that if she was fast enough she could make a clean getaway. But she wasn't and those two other people had cleared out by the time she was done thinking how she could leave (maybe I'll just start sprinting even though there's nothin' for miles). She reached into her pocket and felt the paper tickets— real ticket stubs and not some screenshot on her phone! It was absurdly authentic and it emphasized that lightning bolt of excitement she felt as she rubbed them between her thumb and forefinger.
"Ticket or stick it," the carnie said abruptly. The smile on his face and the tone in his voice didn't match the noncommittal phrase. Anna scowled and pouted and looked him over. He was short and white. Anna wished she had more words to describe him with, but only saw the whiteness of his hair, his pale freckles, and his white white skin. And also, also, good lord was he pint-sized. He probably needed to carry around a booster seat, which admittedly was an adorable image. She didn't realize how long she'd been staring until Tiana elbowed her and she looked back to the brilliantly white carnie, who held his arm out expectantly. His smile never wavered. With a little 'oh whoops', she held out her tickets for the carnie to take. He scrutinized the tickets with a very pointed, serious look (his tongue even peeked out to help) before ripping them in half and handing Anna the stubs.
"Enjoy the show," he said with a giant wave and greeted the next person, and Tiana tugged her along. They walked into the tent in near darkness, hardly able to see the seats— the outlines of the rows only visible by the sunlight seeping in through the entrance. It was arena-style seating like Anna's pit lectures. The focal point was far enough to be lost in the darkness and the tickets didn't have seat numbers, so Tiana and Anna just sat close to where they entered. Anna couldn't see much but could hear the sheer amount of people jammed into the area. She squinted and looked around, "woah, it's hella dark in here," As if it wasn't daylight outside at all. Just when she thought her eyes were getting used to the darkness, the center stage lit up. It was blinding, like someone flipped the biggest light switch in the world. And then there was a disembodied voice loud enough where Anna felt her bones rattle inside of her.
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, theys and thems, put your hands together for the ones, the onlys, the Arendazzlers!"
Suddenly there was an onslaught of raucous music from the stage, from above, from EVERYWHERE it seemed as colored lights flashed through the venue. She chanced a glance at her friend next to her, not wanting to miss whatever the heck was happening, and saw that little magic spark from before as a yellow light washed over her. A blue light swept over Anna herself and her attention landed back in the center, where a cast of characters were unfolding. They darted in from unlit portions of the stage, really only their shadowy silhouettes visible amongst the fog the rolled in. There were so many different sizes and shapes of them, weaving on and offstage, dancing seamlessly with each other. Anna's eyeballs darted everywhere to try to see everything.
As far as Anna knew circuses were weird and full of skeevy things; caged animals in less than savory conditions, unsafe acts that lead to disaster, and the scariest public restrooms she'd ever set foot in. But as she watched the display before her, she couldn't help being mesmerized. And this was just the opening number, as far as she could tell! She leaned forward in her seat and thought she heard a chuckle from her companion.
The fog dissipated and the booming voice continued. "Now, give it up for our performers! Olaf, the snowman! Oaken, the strong! Rapunzel, the bearded lady!" The performers appeared one by one as the disembodied voice called them. There was that carnie who took their tickets, practically glowing white under the stage lights; then a very tall, very stocky, very muscley man; then a comparatively teeny girl with an absolutely ridiculously oversized beard. It was braided and nearly touched the floor! "Flynn, the acrobat!" A handsome, dark-haired dude in a you can see everything kind of tight spandex suit; "Kristoff, the ventriloquist and his puppet Sven" A blonde built fella, one arm in a cast and the other carrying a wooden reindeer doll; "and Elsa the magician!" A blonde girl so striking, Anna could feel how intense her eyes were from where she sat near the back. She conjured a set of stairs before her and took her time traversing them across the stage, before dissipating them with a meager flourish of her hand. Anna's entire head followed the movement. "And now your host, ringmaster Hans!" A ginger man appeared and bowed before the audience of applause.
"Thank you all for joining us today (blah blah blah...)"
As the act came to a close and the beginning introductories started,, Anna finally leaned back in her seat. Her hands were firmly attached to the sides of her head like they were the only things keeping her brain from exploding. "Did you see that!?"
"It's kind of hard to miss!" Tiana laughed. She wasn't even smug, which Anna was grateful for. "I take it you're enjoying yourself?"
Any chance of an answer was drowned out by a big boom from the centerstage. The set had changed to look just like a comedy club, brick backdrop and stool included in a singular spotlight! A figure loomed in the corner of the stage before slowly walking into the spotlight. It was the hunky blonde guy with an arm in a cast and the puppet in his grasp, and he sheepishly smiled at the audience as he took his seat on the stool. The host— Ringmaster, Anna reminded herself— voiced overhead. "Give it up for our first act: Kristoff and Sven, the mountain men!"
Immediately the puppet retorted in a very deep voice, "I'm a reindeer, not a man. People aren't better than reindeers."
"Well," his human counterpart counteracted, "they certainly smell better than reindeers."
"I'll believe that if we're discounting you, buddy."
Anna giggled at parts of the banter, groaned at others, and cheered nevertheless as the act finished. Okay, that was actually not as bad as she thought it would be.
He took his leave and the stage lighting shifted to a dramatic blue. The next act was Flynn the acrobat, who rolled onto the stage in a giant metal framed wheel. He gave no speech, just sized up the audience with his gaze before launching himself into his act of spine-shattering, death-defying, do human bodies bend that way stunts on provided wooden and metal structures. Anna's eyes darted around to follow him as he flipped and frolicked around the stage. He even flew— wait. Yes! Flew onstage! Anna noted that he was definitely wearing a harness, which led to a secondary thought: of course he's wearing a harness. They wouldn't want anything to go wrong. She did notice that some of the structures on the stage didn't seem set right— some gave under the weight of the performer. It was almost imperceptible and Anna thought that if the one he was standing on was just angled slightly less acutely it'd hold better— and then she thought she'd overthunk it all and told herself to can it. Just 'cause she did this kind of thing for a living doesn't mean she needed to think about it all the time. So there was some shoddy equipment, big whoop. He really seemed to be enjoying himself. Anna almost felt sad as he waved goodbye to the audience to make way for the next performance.
The lights changed substantially, from that dramatic bluish light that barely let up the stage (save for the one acrobat) to a bright happy yellow that lit the stage and it's surrounding area. The strongman, the bearded lady, and that funny little albino guy took to the stage. The Ringmaster's introductory was drowned out by cheers as the strong man lifted the other two seamlessly. He even flexed as he did so! The bearded lady— Rashuzie? Peruzel? It was a weird name— hung from his bicep with her braided beard. Little Whitey, the snowman that is, struggled up. Oaken, the strongman, laughed boisterously and hoisted him up in the air in one fluid motion, making the struggle seem like it was part of the act. Oaken took the other two carnies and started to juggle them in the air. The audience clapped, the bearded lady jumped rope with her beard, and the snowman curled up and held onto his toes. His giggles could be heard amongst the clapping. The three of them genuinely looked like they were having a ball of a time, juggling and being juggled. Their act ended all too quickly and the Ringmaster appeared onstage again to give them a proper sendoff. Oaken picked him up and added him to the duo flying through the air. This was clearly NOT what the Ringmaster wanted as he yelped pathetically and unconfidently into the mic.
He tried to manage some control as Oaken gingerly placed him back on his feet. He brushed off the front and sleeves of his fancy striped coat and cleared his throat. "And that's all for those freaks and geeks!" He hurriedly and discreetly shooed them offstage.
"Now finally, our last performer of the night," Anna tried to lean forward in her seat but found she was already at the edge of it, "Elsa the Ice Queen!"
Anna was confused when a large spotlight roamed from the stage to amongst the audience and the confusion grew as a light panned right to their aisle. Right next to her! And as she followed it, her eyes landed on that blonde bombshell from before, standing in the crowd, right beside their aisle. "Holy hot damn", she thought. Well, she thought she thought. Tiana laughed beside her, not even hiding it behind her hand. Anna definitely absolutely said that out loud. But how was she supposed to be quiet with that girl standing right next to her? She couldn't help herself! The girl stood there for a moment, the spotlight highlighting her soft features, before speaking into her earpiece mic.
"Thanks for the intro, maestro."
HOLY HELL her voice! Anna gaped at her. And she could swear that, yes! the girl definitely looked at her! AND SMILED! Anna could've died on the spot. The raspy-voiced vixen descended the stairs slowly toward the stage below.
"Wow," Anna uttered, finding herself speechless without the performer having to do anything.
Speechless, and more than a little flustered.
The performer went on stage and gave a giant wave to the crowd. The polite introductory claps became wild with oohs and aahs as it began snowing in the big tent directly above the audience. Anna couldn't even see any sort of apparatus that would make it snow above them! She giggled and thought, "well, it is a magic show. Maybe it's magic," and brought her attention back to the stage.
The performance went on to have linking (ice) rings, pulling impossibly large (icy) things out of a teeny tiny bag, and there was even a rabbit in a hat (both made out of, you guessed it, ice. That was Elsa's schtick after all). Things that were known to be in a typical magic act. But Anna found she didn't care, and she couldn't look away.
Hi guys! Decided to start another story instead of finishing the ones i already have. whoops. Enjoy!
Also, I have no beta, so double whoops. So if something's all funky in the grammar/punctuation/etc department, my bad.