Cirque Degrassi

A/N – You guys really rock with all the awesome reviews, nothing brightens my day more than seeing those little notifications from FF…lifes simple pleasures…anyway…this chapter delves a bit into how the circus got its start. Awesome!

Chapter 04 From the Past, Speak Your Wish Like It's Your Last

"Coffee, please," Holly J said to the English speaking waitress politely.

"Certainly. For you sir?"

"I'm alright, thanks," Declan replied.

"How are you not dehydrated?" she questioned. He only smiled, and looked at her intently again. She narrowed her eyes right back at him. He focused harder.

"Is this a staring contest I don't know about?" she leaned in, raising her eyebrows. Declan blinked back. Was he losing his control? The waitress came back with Holly J's coffee.

"Actually, miss," he began, catching and holding the young waitress's gaze. "I would love it if you went outside and grabbed me a handful of violets that are growing near the window," he declared.

"…Certainly…" she said without hesitation, disappeared outside, and came back with a small bouquet of handpicked violets.

"Thank you," he nodded at her, and she left. He pushed the flowers to Holly J, and looked up, expecting a delighted smile.

Instead, he received a disgusted look, her lips parted in shock.

"What was that about?" She demanded. He raised his eyebrows, puzzled.

"You don't like violets?"

She glared down at the fresh flowers. They smelled wonderful.

"I love violets, but the way you ordered that poor waitress, who do you think you are?" Her voice iced over. Before he could respond, she stood abruptly, gathering her things, and made a B-line for the exit. He grabbed her forearm.

"Holly J, don't go, I'm sorry. I thought you'd think it was…nice, I didn't mean to come off as—"

"A pompous jerk?" She finished.

"Not exactly the words I had in mind, but,"

"Get lost," she shook him off, and rushed for the door. He rose, throwing a few bills down for the coffee and dashed after her. She burst out of the glass doors of the coffee shop, but was stopped in her tracks.

By a sea of photographers.

Fantastic, Declan thought to himself. This is exactly what I need. Frightened, Holly J slowly began to backup, right into Declan. Flashes sporadically went off in her face, and she held her hands up.

"What's happening?" She cried out. Declan clutched onto her hand, and head for an opening in the fleet of photographers.

"Declan. Declan, They're chasing us! Are they trying to photograph you?" She shouted.

"It's a long story, just try and keep up, and I'll explain when we lose them."

Too terrified and confused by the sequence of events, she did her best to run with him. They finally disappeared around several corners. Another dark sketchy alleyway. This was becoming the story of Holly J's life.

Though she was breathing heavily, she shoved a finger into his chest.

"WHO are you?" She demanded. He had not even broken a sweat.

"Holly J, I am slightly infamous," he replied.

"What, you're a movie star or something? What," her face was flushed.

"Not exactly. My parents are extremely wealthy…lots of investments, charities, whatever. Everyone in our family is extremely well-behaved, as its expected from us. My sister and I, not so much. We sort of…unintentionally brought down a whole empire. We're accused of murder, too. But there's no proof of that. Don't be alarmed. Oh, and I'm, uhm. I do tricks. I don't really like my life though, and I tried to kill myself back there in the alley where you found me. But then, you uhm, found me, and saved me. You saved my life Holly J.

This was possibly the strangest individual she had ever come across. She looked furious for a moment, thought it over, and then pinched the bridge of her nose, thinking.

"Alright, back up. Basically, your some rich socialite who wasn't happy with a privileged life, so you run off and become all brooding and rebellious?"

"Well, not exactly."

"And…tricks…I'm going to pretend to believe you for a minute. You have thirty seconds."

"I can be…very persuasive," he said.

"And by that, you mean?"

"I'm a hypnotist," he said flatly

"Yea? Wow. Story of my life," she glared.

"When that young waitress brought those flowers, it wasn't just because I'm undeniably charming and adorable," he smiled. "I hypnotized her, and then the moment I ended the trance, she forget everything that happened in those few moments."

"Okay, hypnotize me," she said flatly. He thought it over for a moment, but decided to save himself a world of explanations.

"I…can't," he responded.

"Oh really, why's that?" she sighed, her hands on her hips.

"I'm not sure. It doesn't work on you. You must be too strong willed," he shrugged.

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"You're unbelievable," she said, disgusted.

"So I've been told. In any case, I owe you my life. What do we do now?"

She felt like laughing in his face. But as she studied his serious expression, her honor student, former class-president-elect mind began to swell with ideas.

Holly J was a bit of a runaway herself.

She was a Senior at Degrassi High School. She had been class president the previous three years. She had it all. Great looks, captain of the spirit squad, tons of friends, and Daddy's credit card with no limit.

At the beginning of her last year however, things began to turn against her favor. An incident against another peer caused her captainship to be suspended, and then kicked off the squad permanently. She lost the senior class president election to Degrassi heartthrob, Sav Bandari, and her father's investments went dry, resulting in her friends dropping like flies, and ultimately dilapidating her dreams for Yale.

With nothing left to lose, she fled her life in search of her soul, and answers to where she belonged. She had originally planned on flying to Paris, however while at the airport, a brochure entrapped itself onto her Gucci sandals with gum as a catalyst.

Annoyed, she bent down to peel the nasty bit of paper from her expensive shoe. She took notice that the brochure advertised Prague, a city in the Czech Republic.

"Hmm," she thought aloud, took it as a sign, and, so became the most impulsive, unreasonable decision of her life; she headed for the terminal for Prague.

"Okay, okay, her, do her," Holly J said in bursts of laughter.

"Are you enjoying this?" he smiled, and she nodded, quickly taking a sip of her water to hide her grin. "Excuse me, Miss," he called to a twenty-something slim girl with long dark hair and a wide mouth. She couldn't speak English.

She sauntered over to him, glowered at Holly J, and smiled sweetly, saying something in the native Czech tongue.

He locked eyes with her, exchanging a very intimate stare. He said something uncomprehensable, and then nodded.

The girl leapt backwards, segued into a double backflip and burst into a resonating opera. About a dozen patrons turned to stare and give confused glances,

He made a subtle hand gesture, and the girl snapped out of her trance, confused, looking around. Her hair was a mess. She looked over at Declan, who ignored her and shared stifled laughter with Holly J. Disoriented, the girl walked off in another direction.

"You're not as bad as the tabloids say you are,"

"Then you hardly know me," he leaned back against the chair.

She laughed under her breath, thumbing through an obscure American press. "Wow, this is clever. 'Bad Boy Declan and Unidentified Female Escort Czech Out Some Dark Backalleys,'" She laughed.

"The tabloids are cheese royalty," he smirked.

"Does this make me the next 'it' girl?" She joked

"Maybe," he replied. She looked up at him, her brows furrowing. "There's that look again. What have you been marinating in your mind, Holly J?"

"Are there more of you?" She said, changing the subject

"Me? Like freaks? Sure, we are like X-men. My sister is just like me, only more terrifying. Actually, you could make a whole travelling freak show."

A smile spread across Holly J's porcelain face.

"I was thinking…more like a circus…"