Chapter 8: Carnival

A/N: I'm sorry, I know it takes about 100 years for me to update a chapter these day, I have no exuse I just do what I can and hope you'll still read this story and I hope you'll like it.

A/N2: Thank you "Me A Genius" your suggestion really helped me out, I did change it a bit but I think you'll like it.

Emily's Pov-

Ever since Paige kissed me things have been awkward. After she had kissed me she just went to her room and I sat there in her kitchen not sure what just happened. I wasn't sure what to say to Paige and not seeing her only made it harder now she'd lock the front door and she put her spare key somewhere else since I couldn't find it where it used to be.

"Hey! Em." Spencer said as she snapped her fingers.

"What?" I asked.

"Come on Em, you said you'd help me plan for the carnival." Spencer said.

Spencer was referring to the Rosewoods annual carnival that Spencer had volunteered to be in charge of. Apparently her way of controlling her Vampirism was to become a bigger control freak than she already was.

"Ok so we'll have the game booths here, the Ferris wheel here and the kissing booth should be here." Spencer said and pointed to a few places on a map of the school, the Carnival was always outside Rosewood high since a lot of students would volunteer to help set it up since they would get college credits.

"Do you think Toby will be there?" I asked.

Spencer just grabbed her notebook and checked through it.

"Spencer, you can't avoid him forever." I said.

Spencer sigh and put her notepad down. "I know, I just don't know what to say, I still like him… I just don't want to get hurt by him." Spencer said.

"Toby didn't knew about his son until he was six mounts old and the only thing between him and Yvonne is Alex." I said.

Spencer sighted and pretended to check her phone.

"Spence." I said.

"Emily please, I don't want to talk about Toby right now." Spencer said.

I understood how she felt and I knew it'd be safest to not bring up Toby anymore for now, I looked at her notepad and decided to try to help her even though she'd probably end up going with another idea she'd come up with when she was completely sure on what to do.

"Hey Spence, where is the kissing booth?" I jokingly asked.

"There won't be any, unless if you can find about 5 boys and girls willing to kiss anyone no questions asked." Spencer answered.

"Like last year when Aria was in the booth and Jim 'Garlic-breath' Smith had her kissing him twice." I said thinking back to that disaster and Spencer looked up at me as a small smile spread across her face.

"Oh my god, yes! Aria swore she'd never kiss anyone again." Spencer continued.

"And she used up almost an entire bottle of mouthwash before she said she'd gotten the taste out of her mouth." I said and then we were both laughing at the memory.

Spencer then looked back at her notes further planning the carnival and I hear my cellphone beeping.

I pulled it out of my pocket and turned the alarm off.

"Ok, I have to get to class now." I said trying to sound like I was disappointed that I was leaving Spencer but to be honest I thought it was a bit nice to not have to help her since she was almost impossible to keep up with when she was planning these things.

"Yeah, ok. I think I can make this out now." Spencer said and scrolled through her notes for the hundredth time.

"Spencer, you will figure this out. Besides…" I said then I lean in close to her and whispered. "And now your focus is even sharper." I could see Spencer's confident in her eyes that she always got when she was ready for a challenge.

I ran to my history class in time and I picked an empty seat in the third row from the back, some other classmates were already there sitting on a few seats, there was no surprise that the entire back row was spoken for it some popular girls had arrived early just to claim those seats so our teacher Mrs. Jones wouldn't notice when they were gossiping.

The classroom filled up more as some other students arrived and then Mrs. Jones came in and she was about to make the attendance.

"Ok, I know what you're thinking. 'Let's start now so we can leave sooner' but at least try to pretend that you're…" Mrs. Jones said as the door opened and I almost dropped my jaw as I saw Paige enter the classroom.

"Oh, looks like we'll have a full class today." Mrs. Jones said as she looked at Paige.

Paige looked around but unfortunately for the both of us the only free chair left was the one right next to me.

I could see she was very reluctant to sit down next to me.

"Hey, Paige." I whispered to her but she didn't react, either she couldn't hear me or she was ignoring me.

The full hour of the class felt like forever, I wasn't really paying any attention to the class since I'd rather try to talk to Paige but if I whispered too loud Mrs. Jones would notice me and that would just be humiliating to explain to the entire class.

I noticed that Paige was struggling to keep up with the class, I could tell that she was just as distracted as I was when I looked at her hoping she'd make some kind of eye contact.

"Ok, class dismissed." Mrs. Jones said and everyone jumped up in their seats practically running to the door. I would usually sit down for about two minutes since everyone wanted to exit the door at once so I'd rather wait until they had left so I could just walk out, but today I got up quickly and walked up to Paige's seat.

"Paige we need to…" Before I had any time to say anything else Paige was out of her chair and hurried to the exit like everyone else.

I stood there and let out a disappointed sigh, Paige maybe tried to avoid talking about our kiss but I knew we both needed to talk.

Later:

I was in the cafeteria eating lunch with my friends, today the lunch ladies were serving meat casserole, but they should really call it 'Mystery casserole' since it was a real mystery to find out who'd eat it.

Hanna dipped her spoon in it and as she raised it she made a disgusted face.

"Are we supposed to eat this?" She said as she dropped her spoon and pushed the plate away.

Aria was next to lose her appetite "I'm not sure if this is supposed to be eaten or if it already has been eaten." She said.

"Hey Em, if you know a spell that can turn the school lunch into food you actually can eat don't keep it for yourself." Hanna said.

"Trust me if I could turn this into Pizza I would." I said and when I could swear I saw flies fly away from my plate I lost my appetite as well.

"That's it, I'm paper bagging my lunch from now." Spencer said.

I looked around in the courtyard trying to spot Paige but I couldn't see her anywhere.

I kept looking at the door hoping Paige would walk through it any minute, I could hear Spencer, Hanna and Aria mumble about the carnival, but I wasn't paying any attention to them.

I got lost in my own mind still thinking back to the kiss between me and Paige, I could still feel the taste of her lips on my own. I had no idea what was going on, was I falling for Paige?

"Hey! Emily!" I woke up from my daydreaming as Spencer snapped her fingers.

"What is it?" I asked.

"You spaced out." Aria said.

"No I didn't." I lied.

"Ok, then what was the last thing I said?" Hanna asked.

That was smart, I tried to figure out what Hanna could have said but I gave up quickly.

"Ok, I sorry guys wasn't listening. I haven't gotten much sleep lately." I lied.

"More witch stuff?" Hanna asked.

"Yes, I'm really excited about this and it feels like I'm growing stronger and stronger." I said.

"Just don't use your magic to cheat." Aria mumbled under her breath.

We continued to eat and when school finally was over I hurried to my locker to see if I could catch Paige by hers, I was unlucky I guess she had just walked home earlier. I waited a few more minutes before I gave up and figured I'd just go home and see if I could talk to Paige tomorrow.

As I walked to my car Spencer was standing there looking impatient at me.

"Where have you been?" She asked.

"I was by my locker." I answered.

"Did you get stuck in it or something? I've been waiting here for half an hour." Spencer said and then I remember that I had promised Spencer that'd we'd keep planning for the carnival at my place after school.

"Shit! I'm sorry Spencer I just forgot." I said.

Spencer calmed down and said "Come on, we got things to plan." And I agreed and unlocked the car doors.

As we drove to my place Spencer suddenly looked at me and asked "Hey Em, have Toby ever said something about me?"

"He misses you and he feel sorry." I answered.

After I said that it was just an awkward silence I had no idea what to say or what spencer wanted to say.

"Is there a single chance that you'll forgive him?" I asked.

"It's too soon to say anything." Spencer answered.

We remained silent until we got to my home, as I parked my car Spencer nudged me and pointed to Paige's yard, I looked up and saw that Paige was climbing up a tree. She looked like she was trying to get something and she was standing on a very thing branch as she reached for something.

I got out of my car and I wanted to say 'Be careful' but I didn't wanted to spook Paige so she'd lose her balance.

I just stood there and looked at Paige and I felt very concerned about her.

She reached out with her left had one more time, she was clearly trying to get something from the branch right above her.

As I watched her I was terrified that she'd fall down but I couldn't look away as Paige balanced further out from the branch she was standing on (hat was already think enough to get everyone worried) and after a few more steps she reached out for the branch above her one more time and once she grabbed onto it I breathed out relived.

Then suddenly the branch Paige stood on snapped and she fell down, I looked in horror as Paige hit the ground and I quickly ran up to her, she was bleeding from her forehead and she looked like she was about to pass out.

"Paige, Paige look at me, you're going to be fine I'll call for help." I said as I held her head trying to prevent her from going into a chock.

"Spencer, call someone!" I yelled over to Spencer, but she didn't respond. She just looked at Paige.

"Spence, help me!" I yelled as Spencer's eyes turned blood-red and dark veins appeared under her eyes.

"Spencer, no!" I yelled as her canines extended to those razor-sharp fangs I remembered saw on A that night Spencer was turned into a vampire.

Spencer pushed me out of her way and pulled Paige back up to her feet.

Paige yelped in pain as Spencer sank her fangs into Paige's neck.

"Phasmatos Morsinus Pyrox Allum" I chanted and held out the palm of my hand towards Spencer, the spell I used on her inflicted a lot of pain to her and she dropped Paige as she screamed in agony. Paige fell unconscious onto the ground as I focued the spell on Spenccer to protect Paige.

I lowered my hand as Spencer looked up to me. "What did I do?" She said as I looked back at Paige, she wasn't breathing and she looked very pale.

I held my hands over Paige and chanted "Asinta Mulaf Hinto, Sho Bala" (It was a healing spell I had learnt a few weeks ago.

The spell didn't seemed to do anything so I tried again but nothing helped.

"Come on Paige, don't die." I said as tears fell from my face.

"Emmy!" I heard a scream and I looked up to See Grams running towards us.

"What happened?" Grams asked.

"She fell down from the tree and then Spencer's bloodlust kicked in." I said as I could see that Spencer eyes still being blood-red.

"Come, help me get her inside the house." Grams said as we lifted Paige and carried her indoors.

"Quickly put her there." Grams said as she pointed to the table. As I very carefully put Paige on the table Grams gave a blood bag to Spencer.

"I had a feeling something like this would have happened. Drink this, I'll make the bloodlust go away." She said as she handed Spencer the blood bag.

Then Grams walked up to Paige and held her hands over Paige's wounds and chanted the same healing spell as I chanted earlier, I watched as Paige's wound closed by themselves and her skin color started to return to normal.

"Just so you know, vampire blood also heals wounds, in case I'm not around the next time this happens." Grams said.

When Grams left the room I ran after her.

"Grams wait." She turned around and looked at me.

"When I tried the same spell on Paige nothing happened, am I losing my powers?" I asked.

"No child, you are strong but your powers are limited. When you hesitated your powers grew weaker." Grams explained.

"There is nothing wrong with your powers you just need to work on them." She continued.

"Your friend will wake up soon, you better make sure she forgets this." Grams said as she left the room.

I walked into the kitchen just as Paige opened her eyes and sat up.

She looked terrified at Spencer and said "Monster."

Spencer ran up to Paige and looked her into her eyes.

"You won't remember anything off this. You fell down your tree and Emily got you into her house to help you. You're fine and you need to go home and get some rest." Spencer said then she broke the eye contact.

Paige suddenly looked much calmer like she didn't knew she had just been bitten by Spencer, then Paige turned to me and said "Thank you." As she walked past me, looking like she had no idea of what had happened as she left my house.

"What was that?" I asked.

"It's a vampire trick, compulsion. I hypnotized her so she won't remember what happened." Spencer said.

"You made her forget this?" I asked.

"Not really, I just blocked that part from her memory and made her think what I said." Spencer said.

I looked out the window to see Paige walk to her own house, she rubbed her head as she opened the door.

"She's not going to have any brain damage from that?" I asked.

"No, and she won't remember anything of this, I've tried compulsion before." Spencer said and I looked surprised at her.

"Yesterday I told Noel Khan to jump into the pool fully clothed and he did." Spencer said and grinned.

I was a bit surprised since that wasn't like her, but on the other hand Noel is a grade A jerk.

"I'm just worried about her." I said.

"When do you care about her? She is a bully." Spencer asked.

"No, it's… complicated." I said. As I finished that sentence I felt Spencer's hand on my shoulder.

"Care to talk about it?" She asked.

"No, I'm still trying to figure things out." I said.

Before Spencer had anytime to ask another question I quickly said "Look, let's just focus on planning the carnival." In an attempt to change the subject. I looked seriously into Spencer's eyes to let her know I was serious.

"Sure, this needs to be perfect." Spencer said and pulled out a blueprint over the schools parking lot where the carnival booths were supposed to be placed.

Carnival night:

"Come on, we're missing all the fun." Hanna said as she practically dragged me and Aria around the carnival. Spencer was somewhere else to make sure everything was in top shape.

"I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for Spencer, she was too busy she didn't seemed to know she was at a carnival.

Hanna was almost as excited as a kid as she dragged me and Aria around the carnival.

"What do you want to do first?" I asked Aria.

Aria shrugged as Hanna ran up to a photo booth and waved her hands to get our attention.

"I guess we're going into the photo booth." Aria said and we walked inside it with Hanna, as we sat down and prepared our funniest faces, doing funny faces in a photo booth had been our thing since we were kids, it did feel odd that Spencer wasn't with us doing this but we didn't let that stop us.

We paid for 5 photos and we all di quick faces between every photo, with every photo it got harder and harder to keep from laughing but I did my best to not burst out laughing and ruin the photos.

Once we were done we walked out of the booth and Aria reached for the photos.

"Yoink!" Noel Khan said as he held our photos and looked at them.

"Noel, give them back you asshole." Arai said.

"Crap, no lesbian kisses. What's wrong Emily, are your friends not hot enough for you?" He said mockingly.

"Fuck you!" Hanna said.

"OOOOOOH! The blonde is defending her dyke." Noel said, I'm starting to think he was born a jerk.

"Just give us the photos back." Aria said and reached for them, but being the jerk he likes to be Noel just held them high above Aria so she was out of reach.

"Nice try, Short stuff." Noel said mockingly and took a few steps back when suddenly a guy appeared behind him and snatched the photos out of his hand.

"Hey, what gives?" Noel said as he turned around and I noticed whom the guy standing behind Noel was.

"Kalvin, give those photos back or you'll be sorry." Noel said and grabbed the guy's shirt collar.

"My name is Caleb." The guy said and quickly head-butted Noel so he fell onto the ground, Noel sat up and looked like he was about to attack Caleb, but when he looked into Caleb's eyes he suddenly got up and ran away.

"How did you do that?" Hanna asked as she walked up to Caleb.

"All bullies are cowards, just show them you're not afraid of them and they get scared of you instead." Caleb said and handed Hanna our photos.

"Thanks…" Hanna said and looked right into Caleb's eyes looking like she was getting lost in them.

"I was just going to get a bit, care to join me?" Hanna asked.

"Sure." Caleb said smiling at her.

Hanna and Caleb just left us standing there, not that Aria and I minded that, Hanna dragged both of us around like we were her dogs on leaches.

"I don't know about you, but I'll go to the Ferris wheel." Aria said.

"That's ok, I'm going to check out the games and see if I can win something." I said.

"Don't cheat." Aria joked and left.

As I walked to the game booths I saw Spencer, she was leaning against the back of a tent like she was hiding from someone. I looked around as saw that Toby was standing close to her. Toby hadn't noticed her since he was busy tying Alex's shoe.

I decided it was time to give Spencer a push. "I walked up to her and just as I was about to talk Spencer quickly hushed me.

I crouched over to her as quiet as I could.

"Spencer, you can't keep hiding from him." I whispered.

"Well, I thought it was worth a shot." Spencer said.

"Spence, the more you avoid talking to Toby the more awkward things will be between you two." I said and I could see in Spencer's eyes that she knew I was right.

"Spencer, at least do it for yourself." I sad and Spencer sigh and mumbled "You're right." Then she walked up to Toby and he turned to her as he held Alex's hand.

As they talked I walked over to the game areas. As I reached the area where the games were. I was about to walk up to the ring tossing when I heard a familiar voice say.

"Come on, you're mine you bastard. Dammit!"

I followed the sound and saw Paige, she was playing on a claw machine or more accurately losing to a claw machine.

"Paige?" I asked very surprised to see Paige losing at something, but as usual she didn't showed any signs of giving up.

"Over here Fields, this fucking thing is impossible." She said as she once again failed at claiming a price from the claw machine.

"What are you doing?" I asked as I walked closer towards Paige.

"There was a kid here." Paige said as she went for another attempt to win over the claw machine.

"He said he had spent his entire allowance and asked if I could win a price for him. I thought it seemed easy enough." Paige said and this time the claw managed to grab one of the plush toys but the claw dropped it before Paige could claim the price.

"Fuck!" She yelled and kicked the machine.

"Hey watch you… language" I said as I looked around just to notice that there was no kid standing here.

"Where is the kid?" I asked.

"Don't know, don't care." Paige said and reached into one of her jeans pockets pulling out her wallet and searched it for more money.

"Got any coins?" She asked and looked at me.

"Isn't there something better we could do?" I asked trying to get her away from the claw machine before she'd get broke, or worse try to smash the glass.

"What is better than Paige McCullers not getting defeated by a damn kids' game?" Paige said and search her pockets for some change.

"Coins please." She asks once she realized she was completely out of coins.

"Here let me try." I said and Paige took a fee steps back from the machine. I gave it one try and I managed to win one of the toy prizes inside the claw machine, I was about to jump out of joy, but I stopped myself as I noticed that I had just done something Paige had struggle with for apparently a very long time.

"Beginners luck." I said as I picked up my prize, a brown teddy bear.

Paige walked around the machine like she was checking it for any weaknesses.

"It's obviously rigged somehow." Paige said as she was done searching the machine.

"What but I just… never mind." I said not wanting to make Paige think I was rubbing in that I won from the claw machine.

"I'm going to find the shit-for-brains inventor and beat all of his 'inspiration' out of him." Paige said annoyed.

"It was probably some scammer." Paige said.

Then she took one more look at the claw machine and then she looked back at me. "Screw it I'm trying again, coins?" Paige said and reached out her hand.

I sigh and gave Paige one quarter so she'd try again one last time. When she started the machine I very quietly chanted a spell, I made sure to be too silent for Paige to hear me. The spell was a levitation spell and I concentrated on the toy that was closes to the claw when Paige lowered it and I made sure that Paige would win this time.

As the claw grasped around a black teddy bear and I made sure to keep concentrate until Paige had won the bear.

"Yes! Finally!" Paige said and picked up her price.

"So, wanna go somewhere? The Ferris wheel? Get some grub? More claw?" Paige asked.

"Paige, will another victory make you feel better than the one you just had?" I asked.

"I suppose you're right." Paige said.

Then I walked up closer to Paige and said "We need to talk." Paige instantly knew what I meant.

"I can't keep pretend that you didn't kissed me." I said.

"Look Emily, I was lonely and sad for my brother's death and you were the only one who actually cared about me, it felt good that you cared about me and I lost myself when I kissed you." Paige said.

"Did it meant anything?" I asked.

"I really don't know, I'm not sure about anything anymore, am I straight? Lesbian? Bisexual? Ever since I kissed you everything has just been so damn confusing and I feel like a mess and I'm trying to figure myself out but I just get more and more confused them more I think about it." Paige said.

"Then maybe you shouldn't think about it." I said.

"What do you mean?" Paige asked.

"You brother died a while ago but you wounds still haven't completely healed, you should take some time until you have completely moved on from that before you figure yourself out." I said.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Paige said and started to walk away from me but then she stopped and looked back at me.

"Emily, Do you still want to do something fun, just as friends?" Paige asked.

"Are you just asking me because you're broke?" I joked.

"I might be out of coins but I still got plenty of dollar bills." Paige answered.

"So what do you say? Wanna just go and have fun?" Paige asked.

I smiled and said "Sure that sounds fun." Then Paige and I ran to the other parts of the carnival and had fun, I knew there was a small chance that Paige would be gay but I still hoped she and I could still be friends after she had figured herself out.