Disclaimer: I don't own CDF or any of the characters!

Mr. Dalton waved the three friends to their seats. "Late Ms. Crepsley, Mr.'s Shan and Leonard."

"Sorry sir," Steve apologized. "Stayed up a bit too late last night."

"Well that's understandable." Mr. Dalton said smiling. "Just don't let it happen again, I won't let it go so easily next time."

"Told you he wouldn't get mad if you apologized." Elena whispered to Steve. Steve just shrugged his shoulders at her.

Near the end of English Darren had started to feel quite sick. Mr. Dalton excused him. "Throw up whatever's bugging you Darren, then get your behind back in here." Though he didn't actually throw up, Darren still felt really sick. He knew if he went out too early Dalton would give him the cold shoulder. Which was in a way, worse than being yelled at. So instead Darren sat there looking at his watch wondering when it would be acceptable to leave.

"Darren! Hey, Darren! Have you fallen in or what?" Darren recognized the voice as Steve's.

"Hey, Steve," He called back. "I'm in here." Darren knocked on the door so Steve would know which one he was in. He opened the door and Steve smiled when he saw Darren sitting there with his trousers still on.

"Did you puke?"

"No."

"Are you gonna?"

Darren smirked, "Maybe." He leaned over and made a sick noise, but Steve knew him far too well to be fooled.

"Polish my shoes while you're down there would you?" They both laughed.

"Did I miss anything in class?" Darren asked standing up.

"Nothing," Steve replied. "Just the usual crap."

"Did you finish the history homework?" Darren asked.

"It's not due until tomorrow right?" Steve worried. He always forgot when things had to be done.

"The day after tomorrow." Darren corrected.

"Oh," Steve said relaxing, "I have more time than I…" He frowned. "Today's Thursday, so the day after tomorrow is…"

"Got you!" Darren yelled, punching Steve's shoulder.

"Hey that hurt!"

"Yeah right."

"Are you coming out?"

"No I thought I'd stay here and admire the view."

"Quit messing around. We're down five-one, even with Elena playing. We're probably down six or seven now. We need you." He was talking about football. They played every lunch hour. Normally their team wins, but they had lost most of their best players. Dave broke his leg. Sam got transferred to a different school. And Danny stopped playing to hang around the girl he fancies. Idiot! Darren thought.

Darren is the best full forward. The other is Elena. She's the only girl that plays football, but she could take any of the guys any day of the week! There are better defenders and midfielders, and Tommy Jones is the best goalkeeper in the entire school. But Darren and Elena are the only ones who can stand up front and score four or five time a day without fail.

"Alright," Darren said, "I'll save you. I've scored a hat trick every day this week. It would be a pity to stop now."

They passed older guys smoking, while hurrying to Darren's locker so that he could change into trainers. Their team was down eight-three by the time Steve and Darren arrived on the pitch. Or rather, their make-do pitch. It was really just a yard painted with lines. Whoever had painted it was an idiot in Darren's opinion. They put the crossbar too high at one enc and too low at the other!

"Never fear, Hotshot Shan is here!" Darren shouted as he ran onto the pitch.

"It's about time you got here!" Elena shouted teasingly.

Darren made a great start and scored two goals in one minute! It looked as though they might win but time was up.

As everyone was leaving the pitch, Alan Morris ran into the yard. They're Darren's four best friends, "Steve Leopard, Elena Crepsley, Tommy Jones and Alan Morris. They must have been the oddest five friends in the world, because Steve was the only one to have a nickname.

"Look what I found!" Alan yelled, waving a damp piece of paper underneath everybody's nose.

"What is it?" Tommy asked while attempting to snatch it out of Alan's hands.

"It's…" Alan didn't get a chance to finish because Mr. Dalton shouted at them.

"You five! Inside!" He roared.

"Coming Mr. Dalton!" Steve yelled. Since he was the favorite they knew they wouldn't be in too much trouble. Sometimes Steve was brilliant, and at other times he couldn't even spell his own name. However even Steve could get way with being late for class twice in one day. Whatever Alan had, it would have to wait. The group trudged inside for their next lesson.

Darren spent the next class, History, trying to stay awake. The class was studying World War II. Darren wasn't to keen on it, but Steve loved it. He loved anything to do with blood and battle. He wanted to be a soldier when he was older.

Math was after History, again with Mr. Dalton as their usual teacher was off sick. Steve was in heaven. His favorite teacher, three times in a row! He showed off a bit, telling Mr. Dalton where they were and what not. He didn't see Elena behind him copying him, making Darren laugh at her. Mr. Dalton was a great teacher, but he knew nothing about Math. He buried his head in the textbook trying to understand. It left the class free to softly speak to one another as well as pass notes around. Darren sent a note to Alan, asking to see the green paper. After much insistence, Alan finally gave in and passed it around. Elena got it first. As she read it, her jaw dropped a little and her face lit up. As she passed it to Darren he found out why.

It was a flyer for some kind of circus. There was a picture of a snarling wolf's head at the top of the flyer. And a picture of a spider and a snake at the bottom. All three looked vicious. The flyer read:

CIRQUE DU FREAK

FOR ONE WEEK ONLY – CIRQUE DU FREAK!

SEE:

SIVE AND SERSA – THE TWISTIN TWINS!

THE SNAKE-BOY1 THE WOF MAN! GERTHA TEETH!

LARTEN CREPSLEY AND HIS PERFORMING SPIDER – MADAM OCTA!

ALEXANDER RIBS! THE BEARDED LADY! HANA HANDS!

RHAMUS TWOBELLIES – WORLD'S FATTEST MAN!

NOT FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED!

CERTAIN RESTRICTIONS APPLY!

Beneath all of that, the address where you could buy tickets and see the show was there. "Cirque du freak…" Darren breathed. Was this a freak show? He read the flyer over again. He forgot all about where he was and what he was meant to be doing.

At least until he heard Elena cough and realized that Mr. Dalton had been reading the flyer over his shoulder!

"What is this?" He snapped grabbing the paper off of Darren's desk.

"A flyer." Darren replied carefully. Mr. Dalton looked livid.

"And where did you get it?"

Darren was at a lost, he couldn't sell out Alan, and his brain seemed to stop working. Thankfully Steve answered for him. "It's mine. Some old guy threw it away. I thought it looked interesting so I was going to ask you about it after school."

"Oh," Mr. Dalton stopped. "Well there is no harm in being curious." He pinned the flyer up so everyone could see it. "Long Ago, there used to be real freak shows. Con men crammed malformed people into cages and invited people to laugh and tease them."

"That's cruel." Elena said.

"Yes, Ms. Crepsley it is." Mr. Dalton agreed. "That's why I was angry when I saw this flyer. These shows were banned years ago. But there are rumors that they are still going strong."

He tore down the flyer. "You'd have to be really twisted to want to o to one of those sir," Steve said apparently disgusted. After he said it he turned to Darren and Elena and said, "We're going!"

Steve asked Dalton if he could keep the flyer as a poster. After cutting the address off the bottom, Mr. Dalton agreed. The group of friend gathered in the yard after school, staring at the flyer.

"You think it's real?" Elena asked while brushing a piece of orange hair from her face.

"Defiantly." Alan said.

At the same time Darren said, "Nah."

"Why do you think it's fake?" Elena asked Darren.

"You heard Mr. Dalton, they don't allow freak shows anymore."

She made a 'thinking sound' and turned to Alan, "Why do you think it's real?"

"I stole it from my big brother." Alan said softly.

Tommy gaped. "You stole from Tony?" Alan's big brother had been the meanest bully in school until he had gotten himself kicked out.

"Where did Tony get it?" Steve asked.

"One of the performers was passing them out in an alley. Mr. Crepsley."

Darren glanced at Elena he had been wondering since he looked at the flyer if the Crepsley guy was related to her. Maybe even her father. Maybe they gave their children up because they were part of a freak show.

"So how much are the tickets?" Elena asked.

"Fifteen pounds each."

"How much does every one have together?" Tommy asked.

""Five pounds seventy" Alan said.

"Twelve pounds." Steve put in.

"Six pounds eighty five pence." Tommy said.

"I have eight pounds twenty-five." Darren said.

"Thirteen pounds forty-two." Elena said.

"Well that's almost forty pounds," Darren said, "If we get our pochet money tomorrow, and if we pool our-"

"Tickets are nearly sold out." Alan said. " Yesterday was the first show. We'll have to buy them today to get them."

"So much for that." Steve sighed longingly.

"I don't think so." Elena said. The boys all stared at her. "Ms. Beck keeps a jar of money in her dresser. I could borrow some and pay her back later."

"You're going to steal from her!?" Steve said raising an eyebrow.

"Sure," Elena said, "If she catches me I'll just get another one of these." She pointed to the bruise on her cheek. "Not like I'm not used to it."

None of them looked comfortable with Elena getting hit because of them. "Elena we can't ask you to…" Alan started.

"I want to." She insisted. "I'll sneak out and get the tickets."

"How? Mr. Dalton cut off the address remember." Darren said.

"I memorized it." She said proudly. "So are we going to so it?"

One by one they all nodded. "Well, everyone go get your money now and meet back here." Steve said. With that he ran down the street. The rest of us took off too.