A/N: Short, short, short. It'll get longer. Once I get more interesting? And, I want to be clear on something. At that is; KATIE WILL NOT REPLACE STEVE. She plays a part later on, but, she is not gonna be the Lord. Promise.

I OWN NOTHING.

***

I just couldn't stop looking at them. Those big white fluffy clouds dominating the sky. They were full of odd shapes and stories. It was such an easy thing to get lost in. When I was a little girl, I use to tell my mom all about how much I wanted to be one. I even drew a few pictures of myself as one. Needless to say, they looked pretty funny. It sounds dumb I know, but I often saw cloud-staring as an addicting activity. It was something I could look deep into, something I couldn't snap out of easily.

Unless that is, an Oreo cookie thrown by your best friend hits you on the head.

I let out a yelp shortly after contact with the cookie. Snapping my head down to see it land flat on the table before me, I began to realize that I had managed to miss my best friends question.

"Kenzie, did you even hear me?!"

I looked to the source of the voice, sitting across from me. And there was Katie Robinson, a scowl on her face. Katie had long brown hair and naturally tanned skin. Her eyes were a dark-brown but appeared as black, which helped her attitude. And Katie has always been without a doubt my best friend. And a damn good one! We meet when we were five, I was the new girl in school and I wasn't so hot. Until, she came to my rescue- and we haven't been separated since! Though Katie favoured me, she was defiantly not the nicest girl around, anyone could agree to that. She was loud, rude, and obnoxious! That was okay though, she was her attitude made things interesting! But she wasn't so bad. And she never started anything with me. She always had her patients with me; maybe that was part of that dangerous luck?

I threw a grin at her. "Nope, not at all." I replied smoothly, not worrying about her temper. It wouldn't be unleashed toward me, I was sure.

She groaned and stuffed a piece of paper in my face. "You are so clueless! Here, see for yourself. We're gonna' go" She gestured to a couple mutual friends seated besides us.

I took a quick look around at my friends; they looked amused at whatever Katie was going on about. Defiantly looked like something I wanted to be a part of! I quickly turned my attention to the paper she stuffed in my hands.

Glancing over it first, I could see some drawings. Some really freaky drawings. Of wolves, spiders, snakes! And something about them, something seemed…bone-chilling. I decided to focus on the words; which were not very comforting either.

Cirque Du Freak

For one week only – Cirque Du Freak!!

See:

Sive and Seersa – The Twisting twins!

The Snake Boy! The Wolf Man! Gertha Teeth!

Larten Crepsley and his performing spider – Madam Octa

Alexander Ribs! The bearded lady!

Hans Hands!

Rhamus Twobellies – World's fattest man!

NOT FOR THE FAINTHEARTED!

SOME RESTRICTIONS APPLY!

"Katie! Where the hell did you get this?!" I exclaimed; I was beyond amazed. This was a Freak Show! A real live Freak Show! I heard so much about these.

She laughed. "My sister's boyfriend had it, I stole it." She grinned. "I figured you like it, I mean; you're really into this stuff, right?"

I didn't answer that question, too busy thinking. Freak shows had always been a huge topic of interest to me and the rest of my family. My great grandfather was in one, or so I was told. It was a bit of mystery. My mother didn't really tolerate that kind of talk. She didn't approve. But as my father told me, he was born with no arms, a definite freak. My grandma always told me the most interesting stories about him. From what I was told, he lived a good life. And an interesting one, too!

"But, I don't know about this, guys." Claire Meyer, a girl to my left, said. Claire was new to the group, she was nice but shy. Shyness never lasted too long with our group. But she seemed to do anything to get with the group. "I mean, first off it's illegal, a-and for good reason, I think. I heard that, um,.. the 'freaks' are, like, beaten and forced to do their acts! T-that's just terrible..and inhuman.." She mumbled the last part.

"Oh, puh-lease!" Katie scoffed, "Don't chicken out!"

Claire bit her lip, and looked down to her fingers, twiddling uncomfortably. I felt kind of bad for her, Katie was never one to be argued with and if you did? You were out, just like that. Katie was the 'unofficial' leader. But, even though she was scared of the laws and/or the freaks, I could see that Claire wouldn't be backing down. I turned to her and smiled, encouragingly.

"Hey, it's okay; it's probably not even a real freak show." I reassured her. "And not all freak shows are like that. I read online that some of the freaks actually like being in freak shows."

It was true. From what I heard, Great Grandpa absolutely loved performing! They were never cruel to him either. In fact, they paid him real well!

"Okay, Kenzie, Scott and I are defiantly going, who else is in?" Katie asked.

A few turned it down immediately, a couple practically screamed yes, and some talked it over. By the end of lunch, 6 of us agreed on going. Claire, Lily, Katie, David, Scott and me. Truth be told, I was nervous. When I first saw the poster I was excited, I had always wanted to see a real live freak show, but now that I had the option I was downright frightened. Though, I assumed that it was all a hoax.

But what if it wasn't?

That question lingered in my head all day. What if it wasn't! I couldn't tell you then. But one thing is for sure, the possibilities kept me busy through the day. I could barley think of anything else! I didn't know to prove that x=2 in pre-algebra, or where the hell Peru was on the map! And the clouds were all sorts of circus freaks for the rest of the day.

***

I was lying with my back on the bed, and my head hanging upside down, when my little sister, Delania, came to tell me I has a visitor. I rolled over on the bed and jumped off, landing on my feet.

"Thanks, muchkin!" I said, ruffling her hair as I passed her at my doorway. She swatted my hand away playfully and smiled up at me. I swear, looking at her sometimes gave me the creeps! She looked very much like me. Light blonde hair, fair skin, and boring brown eyes. She also looked like she was going to grow as tall as I was when I was her age, which was pretty tall. It was look staring into a mirror that turns you younger!

I turned from her and made my way down the stairs, creaking with every step. I always hated that my house did that. Though, later on I would grow to miss it terribly. At the end, I followed my hallway to the end and turned a corner at my living room. Of course sitting on the couch was Katie Robinson, combing through her hair with her fingers. She smiled and stood up seeing me.

"Hola, chica!" She exclaimed, walking toward me.

"English!" I yelled playfully. Katie is originally from Mexico and would randomly speak in Spanish to throw us off. Of course, we knew simply words and phrases such as 'Hey, girl!' but I did not want to encourage it!

"Oh, hush!" She waved her hand playfully, silencing me. "You're the last stop."

"Last stop?" I questioned.

"Yup!" She reached into her jean pockets and brought back a rectangle piece of paper. She held it out for me to take, but quickly snapped it back as I reached to grab it. "Now, listen first, Mackenzie. These were not easy to get! In fact, I almost didn't get them! So, you better enjoy this!" She then held them back out to me and did not retreat when I reached for them.

"Yeah, they had this weird rule of only buying two tickets at a time and…" Katie continued talking but I didn't continue listening. I was examining the small piece of paper she gave me.

I scanned over the ticket. In red and blue ink it read Cirque Du Freak. I grinned reading the print over and over, as if it was going to do something amazing.

"It's the Saturday show." Katie informed me. I snapped my head back up, I had forgotten she was there for a moment. But it would be perfect. And Saturday was just tomorrow! "So tell your mother you'll be sleeping over and then we can go sneak out. We'll meet the others there."

I nodded to her, still smiling my half-excited, half-nervous smile.

"Good. Oh!" She reached into her pocket again and brought out a CD. "Check this out…" She said as we started up to me room for some music and tween gossip.

***

Tomorrow came much later than expected. I found myself doing numerous things to keep myself occupied. From pacing, to cleaning, to playing, then back to pacing. Nothing really worked. Time went by as slowly as possible. And I could hardly contain my excitement. But finally it was time to hop in my mom's car and drive off to Katie's house. I was practically jumping out of my seat with excitement.

"You're awfully excited to just be going to Katie's house." My mother noted, skeptically. She had never been a huge fan of Katie. Katie was 'reckless', too reckless for her 'good little girl' like me. Hah, that's laughable.

"Yeah, well…" I started, pausing to think of an excuse. "She just got a new video game." I lied, quickly. I was all of the sudden glad that my mom didn't care for Katie. If she did, she would have known that Katie has probably never touched a gaming device in her life.

My mother nodded her head and frowned. "Okay, but, Mackenzie be careful and safe. Don't let Katie talk you-"

"Mom!" I groaned, cutting her off. I had this speech memorized from the amount of times I've heard it.

"Okay, okay! I was just reminding you!" She said with a sigh, as we pulled up to Katie's suburban house. I loved where she lived; her neighborhood had a lot of kids in it. Mine had old people who never appreciated me or my behavior.

I was the first one there, I made sure I was. I told my mom it would be just me and Katie- She'd freak if she knew boys were coming!

I leaned over to give my mom a kiss on the cheek and then quickly jumped out of the car before she got a chance to attempt another lecture. My mom wasn't a bad mom; I didn't hate her or anything. It just seemed like she wanted to protect me too much. Kids need a little freedom, don't they? I turned briefly to give her a wave goodbye and ran toward Katie's front porch.

***

"Wow, you're kidding, Claire!" Lily exclaimed. I could stifle my giggle at the ridiculous secret Claire told us. All 6 of us were here and sitting in a circle on Katie's messy bedroom floor. We were doing one of the most popular games nowadays- Truth or Dare. So far, 3 of us have been embarrassed completely and the other 3 have done dangerous, stupid, and humiliating stunts. I did the latter of course, I love a good dare!

Scott, who was sitting to my right picked up my arm and looked at the watch on it. "Oh, guys. What times does this thing start?"

"11:00." Katie answered. "But we wanna get there a bit early and we have to walk. So, imagine 10:15 should be when we should leave."

"Well, it's 10:05." Scott said, releasing my arm and looking up.

I let out a squeal and jumped up. "Yes!"

My friends laughed at my behavior- not that they weren't use to it- and stood up. We gathered up some of the things we were bringing such as purses, book-bags, flashlight, Katie's cell phone (She was the only one who had one), and our money. I got my allowance yesterday, and I had my previous weeks too. A perfect amount for a souvenir for myself and Delania, who made me swear to get something. She swore she wouldn't tell mom and dad when I told her, and I believed her completely. She's a cool little girl, and only a year and a half younger.

"Okay, my parent's won't be home until like 3 in the morning, hopefully, that will be enough time." Katie said. Her parents were pretty cool and never really seemed to care what she did, but I think they would be pretty upset if they found out about the freak show! "If not, I'm sure I can talk my way out of it." And I had no doubt about that. She was a crafty talker.

The 6 of us made our way downstairs and headed toward the porch. Claire stopped us before leaving, though.

"Guys, I'm a little worried." She mumbled, earning a sigh from Katie.

"C'mon. Even if this is real, which it's not, I doubt anything will happen to us. I mean we are kids, no one is gonna do a thing. Now, come on, vamos!" And with that Katie opened her front door and stepped out. "Last one out, shut and lock the door."

Scott and Lily followed right after her, and I followed after them. David let Claire go after, as he shut and locked the door as Katie said. I couldn't help but grin to myself as I thought of the wonders of the Cirque Du Freak. I trusted Katie with what she said to Claire, we were kids, and no one would hurt a child there. But, I wish I had paid more attention to what Claire said.

A/N: Probably the most boring thing in the world, right? Luckily, I'm on break so I could probably get another more exciting one in. But, I need some guidance.

This isn't for a while but I figure I should start thinking about it know.

What do I do about Debbie? Make her a boy? Keep her a girl? Have them be BFFs or maybe Kenzie is gay? ._. Gah, I don't know. Suggestions, please?

And I guess I'll have to replace 'Shancus' with…'Pricecus' later on? xD