Chapter II

RING. The bell for lunch break began ringing loudly through the school.

Everyone immediately began to grab all their books and head for the door. Thank god, I thought. It was finally lunch time, so we could discuss this whole "Freak show" thing, and maybe meet this new girl. I wanted to know why she helped us out with getting the address back. Was their any specific reason she did it? I mean, she would have been in big trouble if she got caught.

"Remember everyone, your report on the history of the Egyptian dynasties are due on Thursday." Mr. Dalton reminded us.

I began walking down the hallway when I saw Ariel walking ahead of me, carrying her binder. She had really long, light blonde hair, flowing behind her. I was thinking about walking up next to her when Steve came along, and started walking with me to the cafeteria like usual.

"Man, this is so cool, we are defiantly going to that freak show!" Steve said, obviously excited.

"Yeah," I said, smiling. "I wonder why that new girl helped us out though.. Imagine if she got caught.."

"I know," Steve said. "She's defiantly not what I expected.."

"How so?" I asked.

"Well she's not like other girls. You know? I mean she's not like stuck up or preppy, and I doubt she's a teacher's pet either."

"Yeah.." I agreed, trying to a smirk from Steve. He would normally notice and start to make fun of the fact that I had a crush, but he didn't say anything.

We walked into the cafeteria and sat at the same table near the back where we always do. Tommy and Allan were already there, waiting for us.

"So tell me," Steve said while he sat down, then leaning toward Allan. "How on earth did you get your hands on this?"

"Well," Allan began, giving a proud smirk. "I kinda stole it from my older brother."
We all exchanged surprised glances. "How?" Tommy asked. Allan was a year younger then all of us, and he wasn't exactly the 'tough' type.. Actually, he was a little bit of a wimp. But his brother on the other hand was the biggest, meanest bully around- Until he got kicked out of school.

"Well he started blurting everything out," Alan began. "Cause he just got home, from the bar, and when he's drunk he tends to just talk about everything." His older brother was only sixteen, but he hangs out with older guys who buy drinks for him. "Apparently there was a Larten Crepsley passing out flyers, and he showed the one he got to me."

"He's supposed to be the guy who has the performing spider." Steve pointed out.

"Yeah," I said, nodding. As you already know, I have a lot of interest in spiders, and of all the acts listed on the flyer, "Larten Crepsley and his performing spider, Madame Octa," appealed to me the most.

"Hey," Steve muttered, nodding toward Ariel. "It's that new girl."

We all looked. She was basically sitting by herself, all the new kids do that for the first week or so.

"Should we let her sit with us?" I asked. "I mean, she did really help us out before. I wanna know why she did that.."

"Fine with me." Tommy said.

Allan nodded in agreement.

"Okay," Steve said, getting up. Ariel glanced over her shoulder at Steve, then quickly looked back down at her lunch tray.

"Uh," Steve murmured, walking up behind her. "We were just wondering if you wanted to sit with us.. We kinda wanted to ask you about something."

Ariel turned around, still sitting at the table, and put her feet up on the bench, folding her knees under her chin. "Sure," She said, smiling. Slightly turning back, she lifted her lunch tray, then put her feet back on the ground and followed Steve to their table.

"Hey," Ariel said softly, sitting down at their table next to Steve. She was obviously shy. "Um, so, you needed to ask me something.."

"Yeah," I said. "We were just kinda wondering why you helped us out, considering how much trouble you would've got in if Mr. Dalton caught you."

"Oh," Ariel said, smiling. "Yeah, I guess I'm kind of used to taking risks like that. At my old school I kinda used to get in trouble a lot," She laughed softly. "So yeah, it was nothing."

Me and Steve shared a quickly glance. "Oh, okay," I said. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," She said, smiling.

Alan rolled his eyes. I'm glad he didn't make any comments to embarrass us though. "So anyway, how are we gonna get tickets?" He asked. "They probably don't let kids like us in."

Steve removed the folder flyer from his pocket, and we all started looking at it, even Ariel.

"Some restrictions apply.." Tommy muttered, reading off the paper.

"We could probably work something out." Steve said. "I really wanna see this freak show, and I'm not just gonna let age stand in the way."

"But look," Ariel said, pointing at small letters near the bottom. "Tickets are fifty bucks."

Everyone got quiet.

"Anything on the back?" I asked, out of curiosity.

Steve flipped the paper over. "Show times." He said, then starting reading it.

"Uh oh.." He muttered, after a moment.

"Now what..?" Ariel asked.

"The next show is on Friday night."

Today was Thursday.

"We don't have enough time to get fifty dollars for all of us!" Allan shouted.

"Okay, Darren, how much do you have?"

"Nine dollars and forty cents." I said

"Tommy?" He asked.

"Five dollars."

"Allan?"

"Um.." He shrugged. "Twenty cents.."

Steve sighed.

We all looked at Ariel.

"Well if you're willing to let me come along.." She began. "I have 250 bucks.."

"That's exactly what we need!" I shouted.

"Okay, you can come." Steve said.

Ariel smiled. "Cool.."

Allan frowned, he probably didn't like the idea of a girl coming with us, but nobody really seemed to care. "Okay.. But how are we gonna get tickets?"

"I have the money," Ariel said. "I can go buy tickets, then I'll give them to you tomorrow."

"Okay," Steve agreed, handing her the slip of paper which had the address on it.

Wow.. I thought. Ariel's really nice.. She's practically doing everything.

"Thanks," I said, then smiled.

"No problem."

"When do you want us to pay you back..?" Steve asked.

"Oh." Ariel shrugged. "Don't worry about. But you guys owe me." She smirked. "Big time."

Tommy and Alan sighed with relief.

"Cool." I said, smiling.

On the bus ride home I couldn't stop thinking about the freak show.. I can't wait..

But I couldn't stop thinking about Ariel either.