Pete jollily bounded along like a whimsical young lad all the way down the stone path leading towards the girls' dorm. Girls passing by him flashed him weirded out glances, and while this did put the start of a halt in Pete's step pep, it was a powerful gust of wind that truly stopped him.
"Jesus!" he complained as the gust nearly took him off his feet. He felt his jacket flapping, the entirety of his Bullworth apparel blowing to one side of him. The boy half expected to start walking in a slanted fashion similar to Inception's hotel fight scenes.
Once the gust was gone, Pete's initial giddiness was replaced with a wave of anxiety. All at once, his heart lurched, his feet glued to the ground below, and his hands began to feel clammy. All of this was before he even entered through the archway leading into the girls' dorm's expanse of campus space.
"Goddammit, Pete, don't back out now," he muttered. Sighing, he pushed through his fear and headed right, on his way towards the thin slot of space between the girls' dorm and the wall separating campus from the rest of Bullworth.
Meanwhile, in Shay's room, the pastel goth stood in front of a large, oval mirror on a dresser where she applied dark blue lipstick. She eyed herself for a moment, then murmured, "Mmm... I don't know, does that go with the russet eye shadow? I can make it work."
A knock on her window gave her a jolt, then she stepped towards it and cleared away white curtains to see Pete knocking. She opened up the window for him.
"Oh, Pete," she exhaled, placing one of her dainty hands against her chest.
"Hey, Shay."
"You did me a real spook just then."
Pete fought to hide his blushing, so he didn't face her. He feigned an itch on his neck, so he craned himself to better reach it. "Oh, m-my bad, I just- I wasn't sure if I could come in the front doors."
"Oh, yeah, maybe bring Nashii along sometime and you'll be fine; the girls know he's always here for me. Faculty doesn't seem to mind either."
"Yeah, right, Kanashii... Say, Shay, I'm, uhm, I'm actually here for something that, uh, wouldn't really work if I had him with me."
Interest piqued, she replied, "Oh?"
"Yeah. I... had heard that there was something going on at the carnival."
In a flash, her expression darkened, and the cheeriness in Shay's face vanished. "The carnival, huh?"
"W-what's wrong?"
She sighed. "I saw Benji there, Pete."
"Benji? Seriously?"
"He didn't do anything, a-at first, he just stood in a crowd. It looked like he was watching me... It was super creepy. I'm glad to be away from him."
Pete thought. "U-uh, well, what if we went there? Together. Me and you."
"Oh, you wanted to hang out at the carnival?"
"Hang out" isn't exactly how I'd put it, Pete thought. Fuck. Does Shay seeing Benji there mean the plan is moot?
"I know you saw Benji there, but you'll have me around to protect you."
She chuckled a little bit. "Aw, Pete, that's sweet of you. But what does that have to do with Kanashii not being present?"
Because it's not a date if he's there.
"Well, 'cause, I... wanted to get to know you better, one on one, y-you know? I just wanted it to be an us thing-if that's all good."
"Hey, that's a good idea. Okay, sure, we can do that, but let's just keep a keen eye out for Benji."
"Yeah, let's surely hope that's not a problem..."
"Did you wanna do that tonight?"
"Okay," Pete peeped.
"Cool! Hey, I just got a new makeup set recently. This is the perfect time to go out with it. Did you see my new skirt?"
Shay did a little twirl, showing off her new outfit. Pete was entranced by the sight of her hair flowing along as she moved, not to mention the ooze of happiness that rushed him as he watched her black and blue skirt swirl, her fishnets tight against her pale legs. He felt a rush of feeling coursing through him once more at her smile as she faced him again.
"How do I look?"
Without even thinking first, Pete murmured, "Breathtaking."
Shay blushed, didn't face him and softly replied, "Pete, you're very kind... Okay, I've got some homework to get done before we go, but you wanna head out around... mmm, seven?"
"S-sure, seven it is," he choked, then cleared his throat.
"Great! Great idea by the way, I've been meaning to hang out one on one with you. I don't think I've shown you enough just how much I appreciate our friendship."
The accursed ending word she'd chosen had Pete feeling like a rattlesnake just sunk its teeth in. There's still time to change that word.
"H-h-how would you show me that?"
Shay chuckled. "I don't know, maybe go karts? Skee-ball if they have it? Stuff like that. Although, I guess skee-ball is more of an arcade thing... Anyway, I'll see you later, Pete." She flashed a warm smile. "I really appreciate your invite."
Stuffing his disappointment with both himself and the situation way down deep, Pete forced a smile, nodded and waved to her. "You too," he croaked, clambering back out through Shay's window.
On the way out from the girls' dorm territory, Pete had facepalmed so many times that his forehead began to redden.
I wanna take you out on a date. That's what I should have said. A date. That's why Kanashii couldn't be there. Ugh...
He sighed, and before the negative thoughts could completely coil their way around Pete's psyche, he tried to remember the kind words recently imparted upon him.
You're smart, and you have potential, but you limit yourself with your beliefs about yourself, Connor had said.
On the bright side, I am hanging out one on one with this school's most beautiful girl tonight. That's still pretty cool...
Stars shone in the nocturnal sky above Bullworth. Later that night, surrounded by small buildings in Bullworth's town center, Connor walked along a sidewalk where two greasers passed him by in casual conversation.
"You know, there still hasn't been one person to tell the difference between my semen and regular hair gel, so I may take this further than just a challenge."
With his hands smushed into his hoodie pockets, Connor looked up to see the very same tunnel that led towards the carnival on the other side. Way up above the tunnel in the distance, he could actually see the tip of a roller coaster, the edges of its track brightly lit up with bulbs.
Lo and behold, irritably tapping her foot with her arms crossed and lips pursed was Harper, standing on one side of the street at the mouth of the tunnel with a designer purse slung over one shoulder. Connor raised his arms up in surprise, then scoffed and shook his head.
How am I constantly running into this chick?
She hadn't noticed him at first, not until he crossed the street to approach her.
"Oh, it's you again. What are you, stalking me or something?" she sneered.
"What's your problem now, Harper?"
"It's Oliver. He stood me up again! Ugh! I really ought to get him to read a fairy tale book one of these days, maybe he could learn a little something about how to treat a lady."
Connor shrugged. "Hey, family must not be that important to him."
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. As if cousins are really all that weird. Worse incest than that was rampant in ancient times, yet the human race hasn't turned out all that bad, has it? Barring the people in this town," she grumbled. "I am so pissed. This has to be the last straw, really. He needs to learn that he can't keep doing this to me. I have to strike back somehow..."
"Well, have fun with that. Be seeing you."
Connor turned to head off down the sidewalk towards the Bullworth beach, but Harper called him back.
"Wait! I know just how to do it."
He begrudgingly walked back. "Emphasis on 'you know'. You do it."
Harper held her arm out, waiting for him to stick his through. "Be my date."
At a loss for words, Connor fumbled, then replied, "What?"
"It's perfect. He'll hate it. Come on, be my carnival date."
"Look, Harper, I don't know-"
"Connor, please. I really need this. You've helped me before, why not do it again? Maybe this is a message from the universe. Maybe the reason you keep running into me-"
"And vice versa," Connor interrupted.
"Is because you're supposed to help me."
The flat look on his face didn't suggest agreement. She groaned, then continued.
"Fine. To be honest, I don't hate you. In fact, I kinda like you."
"What?"
"Not that much! I mean, I have a boyfriend. But you're just... you treat me differently than he does. You treat me differently than most people do. They're always either nervous or avoidant, or they're the preps. I only like you a little bit. It doesn't mean I wanna sleep with you or anything."
"Okay," Connor backed up a few paces, "this is escalating a little too much for me."
"What's wrong?"
Surprisingly, there was no snark in this question. Connor detected genuine concern in her voice. He paused.
"I'm just not... History has proven it's better for me not to get involved with girls."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'm not gonna answer that. Besides, I question the ethics of this."
"We're only going as friends. You don't like Oliver, right? Let's just do this to get back at him together. It'll be funny. What do you say?"
Connor thought about it. Initially, there wasn't much to Harper that he found himself drawn to. Her whiny and entitled demeanor bothered him, not to mention their complete, polar opposing backgrounds, though he also thought about why he'd helped her. Maybe there was something about the girl he appreciated. He remembered seeing her in the pool, and couldn't deny that a smidgen of attraction may have lingered somewhere below the surface.
Regardless of his feelings or lack thereof for Harper, he did agree with her on one thing; he did not like Oliver. That in itself made for a worthwhile reason. Perhaps this was the perfect way to craft a message for the preps without sacrificing subtlety.
"All right, fine."
He stuck his arm through Harper's hooped arm, and the unlikely pair entered the tunnel together.
After a walk through the tunnel, lit up at its sides due to the nighttime, Connor and Harper walked among a crowd towards the ticketmaster at the entry gate to the carnival. Just as dismal as she'd been with Shay, the woman muttered, "Two?"
"Here, for our admission," Harper handed over her ticket and Oliver's.
"No going back now," Connor murmured.
As they walked through and into the bustling, busy carnival, with children running amok and Bullworth citizens wandering around under the bright lights and roller coaster above, Connor suddenly remembered something.
"Hey, Pete should be here by now."
"Who's Pete?"
"Pete Kowalski. Buddy of mine. Yea high."
"Not very high," Harper remarked at where Connor floated his hand. "Ick alert."
"He should be here with Shay Fitzwilliams. Maybe we can conjoin groups."
"Uh," Harper stammered as a man dressed in a bear suit brushed past her. She did her best to ignore him. "Yeah, I guess..."
"What?"
"I just- you've gotta wonder what it'll do to my reputation if the other preps see me with a bunch of offbeats. I suppose Shay Fitzwilliams gives it a pass, maybe."
From afar, lurking by a sideshow where a carnie watched children toss baseballs at lined up vases, Bryce and Chandler of the prep clique stalked the pair. They had a near-perfect view of where Connor and Harper walked, only made imperfect by other pedestrians crossing through. Bryce glared with the ferocity of a tiger, lifting his glass-injured hand by his face and tightening the bandage he still wore.
"Thanks," Connor replied sarcastically. "That's if we even see any preps tonight."
Meanwhile, Shay watched with amusement twinkling in her eyes as Pete approached one of the carnies, this one operating the test of strength sideshow. The carnie, a man with an eyepatch and a disturbing smile, handed off a hammer to Pete, and the teen fought to even hold it up properly.
"Are you sure about this?"
"Certainly," he grunted. "Oh, good lord," Pete muttered under his breath as he hoisted and swung the hammer above his head, rearing back to slam it down onto the button below. His muscles ripped and strained, and he wondered just what they filled the mallet with. All the while the carnie was laughing like mad at him. Pete darted his eyes to the man, only to realize the carnie was laughing because he wasn't headed forward-he was headed backward.
Shay winced at the sight of Pete falling over backwards, the hammer high above him. The wind knocked from him, he started to cough, writhing on the ground where chewed up gum and stray pieces of cotton candy lay. Shay swiftly moved to assist her friend. She frowned at the mad laughter of the carnie as she helped Pete to his feet.
"Tiny little man!" the carnie croaked with the voice of a long-time smoker.
"Are you okay? That looked like it hurt."
"Don't worry," he rasped, "the emotional pain was much worse."
"Huh?"
"N-nothing. Say," Pete suggested, clutching his ribs as he forced a smile, "why don't we do anything else?"
Shay giggled. "Okay, I think we can do that."
Connor and Harper continued their walk around the carnival. Time had passed, and the pair still hadn't found Pete and Shay. Connor stared at the sideshows and attractions around them, but nothing struck his fancy. Meanwhile, without Connor or Harper noticing, a roller coaster car rushed down the tracks above them, containing Shay and several other teens and kids screaming. Shay let her hands fly above her, a smile on her face as she screamed with excitement. Pete, on the other hand, clutched his handrail with his eyes big and panicked.
"What do you wanna do, Harper?"
"None of these games look like any fun. I guess I forgot to mention, when Oliver and I first started dating and he actually took me places, we'd come here and he'd buy me things."
"So, I assume you live in Bullworth town?"
"Yep."
"And all you did here was receive presents?"
"Mmhmm."
Connor shook his head.
"What?" Harper retorted.
"Nothing, but if you expect me to buy you something, forget it. You roped me into this, so as long as I'm here, we're gonna do something fun."
"What? Making me happy isn't fun?"
Connor's curious eye suddenly wandered to two bullies loitering at one edge of the carnival, not far from a funhouse with a huge clown-mouth-door. Among them was a defenseless nerd. Alejandro clutched Yirmi's dinosaur jacket by the scruff while Duncan made a "hand over the cash" sort of gesture.
"Maybe there's another way to have fun."
"And to make me happy?"
Connor faced her. "In theory." He placed his hands on her shoulders to point her in the direction of the scene. "See those dicks over there? Those are Duncan and Alejandro. See, after the bullies' drone business crumbled, Evan and I worked out something of a peace treaty. I see Duncan and Alejandro need a refresher on the terms of our arrangement."
"Which are?"
"To stop being dickheads and picking on people. You wanna help me pass a little righteous judgement on these rulebreakers?"
After a pause, Harper's eyes glinted with mischief. "That sounds exciting. I never get to do these kinds of things."
"You do now."
"Hey! If we're gonna mess with them," she raised her purse and began to unzip it, "then I've got just the thing to help us with that."
"L-listen, fellas," Yirmi pleaded "I know how we can settle this."
Alejandro tightened his fists' cuffed hold on Yirmi's dinosaur jacket.
"Don't say it," Duncan cut in. "I know what you're gonna say."
"Well, maybe there's a way to work this out without violence! Have you kind gentlemen ever seen my jacket tri-"
Duncan grappled Yirmi away from Alejandro, planting a fist against his face that shot him to the funhouse ground. Crowdgoers nearby watched with varying degrees of concern. While some recorded the event, most kept their distance.
"We've seen the stupid jacket trick," Duncan complained, cracking his knuckles as Yirmi struggled to his knees. "Now we'd like to see the trick where you give us your money."
"No prefects at the carnival, Yirmi, and no police either," Alejandro added with a menacing grin.
All of the sudden, an egg smacked Alejandro right in his chiseled grin. Smearing the yolk off of himself with a grimace, the bully cursed to himself in Spanish. The pair turned to see Connor and Harper standing nearby, eggs in hand. Harper couldn't help but break down into laughter. Even Connor had the beginnings of a grin forming.
"Hey, assholes. Didn't we have a deal set?"
"Yeah, a deal that didn't involve eggs," Duncan retorted.
"I don't think it involved messing around with nerds either."
The bully sighed. "Gimme a break, man, we-" An egg exploded on his face. As he glared, Harper burst into laughter once more.
"Nice toss," Connor remarked.
"Oh! Look at his face!" Harper exclaimed between laughs.
"Both of you, get out of here. Leave the kid alone, and try to acknowledge mine and Evan's treaty, all right?"
Duncan irritably wiped yolk and shell off his face, and out of his dyed mohawk. "No one even signed a fucking treaty..."
"Go on. Get," Connor ordered.
"Get out of here already!" Harper shouted, tossing off another egg that exploded against Alejandro's leg. The annoyance in the bullies' faces drove Harper up the wall with laughter. As they begrudgingly walked off, Harper momentarily placed her hands on Connor's shoulder as she leaned into him. "Oh, my ribs! Ow, ow, ow, fuck, it actually hurts."
"It wasn't that funny," Connor replied.
Yirmi climbed to his feet, raring to thank his saviors but they were already on their way away. "Hey, thanks, guys! That was pterodactyl levels of cool!"
"Yeah, whatever, Yirmi."
"That was so fun!" Harper burst. "That was so exciting! The preps are always egging people, but I never get to be a part of it. I wanna mess with more poor people!"
"Uh, keep in mind, the aim is to mess with dickheads, not poor people."
"R-right, right, right, right. I understand." A beat later, she was back to laughing. "Did you see Alejandro's face? Dios mio," she grumbled, impersonating the bully.
Connor let out a nose exhale-the first step towards laughter-and Harper wrapped her arm back through one of his.
Meanwhile, back at the end of the carnival where Yirmi had been hassled, the nerd played with a yoyo while Bryce and Chandler approached from a far off crowd. They were tense, fight-ready, yet Yirmi picked up on it as easily as Pete picked up a mallet.
"Evening, fellas," Yirmi greeted them. "There may be some stellar sights here at the carnival tonight, but you haven't seen anything until you see a dinosaur's mouth spread across two jacket sleeves. Fortunately, you've come to the right-"
Bryce gripped Yirmi's scruff in an instant. "Connor Henson. He's friends with nerds like you, yes? Where did he go?"
"I-is your hand all right?"
"No! That's the whole bloody point! He needs to pay for what he did to me!"
"'Bloody'? I'm familiar with blood. Oh, yeah... When you're spending your nights playing prehistoric RPGs, fighting off velociraptors with only a dagger and you're down to your last life, it beco-"
Yirmi kept rambling, but Chandler tugged Bryce aside.
"Jesus Murphy, Bryce, leave this bum to his obsession!"
With Shay's colored hair blowing in a brisk wind, she chewed into a stick of cotton candy with a smile on her face. Pete, with the same treat in his hand, followed along beside her.
"Mmm. You know what I love about cotton candy?" she squeaked. "It matches my hair."
"Yeah-huh," Pete replied awkwardly, then cleared his throat.
"Thanks for buying!"
"Yep. You wanna share mine with me?"
"No, that's okay," she said over the sounds of chatter around them. "I've got my own."
"Okay."
Shay gasped suddenly, nearly choking on her cotton candy.
"What? What?"
"Is that Connor... hanging out with... Harper Harrington?"
Pete and Shay saw the two walking and joking together in a crowd, heading in their direction. Connor imitated something Pete and Shay lacked context to, and Harper chuckled over it, her arm still wrapped around Connor's.
"Yeah, your confusement is, uh, contagious."
"What?" Shay shouted.
"I said your confusement- er, I meant confusion, is-"
"Connor!" she greeted him.
They met eyes, and Connor walked over with his date, mouthing to her "there they are". Once exposed to Pete and Shay, Harper's happy expression changed, and she became more standoffish.
"S'up?"
"Hi, Connor. Wow, you're, uh... you're hanging out with Harper."
"Something wrong with that?" she sneered back.
"Hey, easy, these are my friends," Connor cut in.
"No, of course there's nothing wrong with that," Shay assured. "I just... didn't expect to see you guys together, I-I guess," she chuckled, awkwardly dangling her hair up in a finger.
A few moments under flashing carnival bulbs, Connor and Harper stood across from Pete and Shay, all four unsure how to proceed. Pete trailed his foot along the ground in front of them, Shay went up and down on her toes, while Harper stared off into space beside them.
"Well, this is super awkward, huh?" Pete murmured.
"Bro, you gotta speak up, it's loud out here," Connor replied.
"I said it's-"
An egg smashed against the ground beside them. Where it had come from was a mystery. The four looked around in confusion.
"Where did that-"
"Uh, how about we walk?" Harper suggested. "Let's go see the freaks."
As they headed off, Shay responded, "I doubt those people want to be called that."
"Well, then, maybe the sign above their attraction should say 'See the differently-abled', but it doesn't."
"Fair enough..."
A while later, Shay and Harper emerged from a red and white, tall standing funhouse tent with the very same title Harper mentioned on a plaque above the girls. Random kids came out snickering amidst each other with their parents mortified.
"Yeah, maybe that place should say no kids," Shay squeaked. "The lady with the, uh... two, uh..."
"What's wrong with your voice?" Harper questioned.
The pastel goth winced. "It just squeaks sometimes..."
"Could you imagine being one of those people in there? Ugh, no thank you. I can't imagine just never being pampered. No one would ever wanna take care of a freak. It's pretty unfortunate really."
Shay fought to restrain a glare. "Yeah, uh, so, you and Connor. What's up with that?"
"Well, we're not a thing, if that's what you meant. I'm dating Oliver, he just stood me up fucking again. He's gotten pretty terrible at the whole boyfriend thing. Sometimes I just wanna pay someone to kick his ungrateful ass."
"So, you're in a relationship with the leader of the preps, but you're on a date with Connor? I think I'm missing something," she chuckled.
Harper smiled. "Mmhmm, like status."
"Huh?"
"Nothing. Hey, you know what happened to Connor?"
"Him and Pete are still inside, I think," Shay murmured, trying and failing to hide the defeated frown on her face.
On their way out of the funhouse, Pete whispered to Connor, "Hey, man, so I've actually been trying to sort of woo Shay this whole time."
"How goes that?"
"It could be better. I need more time to work on it, but I'm afraid I won't get another chance if we hang with you and Harper for the rest of the night, so would it be all right with you if-"
"You need us to dip?"
"Please?"
"You could've come right out and asked me, bro," Connor answered. "No need for this bush-beating. Just, don't do anything to pester Shay if you can tell she's not into it."
"I-I don't think I'm in pester-mode..."
Connor patted Pete on the shoulder just as they reached the exit where Harper and Shay's conversation had run dry. "Don't have a crisis over it, man, just let things flow. Hey, Harper, follow me. Just us two."
"Okay."
It didn't take much more than that to convince the preppie girl. While Pete started heading off, he stopped suddenly when he saw Shay was still watching Connor and Harper leave.
"So," Pete cleared his throat, straightened his shirt, and stood as tall as he could. He held a hand out, gesturing her deeper into the carnival, but her focus remained on the other couple. "Come with me," he requested in an attempted deep voice. "Assuming you want to."
"What the hell was that?" Shay murmured. She scoffed. "Has he lost his mind?" She sighed and shook her head. "Whatever. Maybe he sees something in there, buried underneath all the sass and privilege. Must be the tiniest little sliver of something," she grumbled, "like a tiny crack of light coming into a cave."
"Uh, Shay?"
"Sorry, Pete. Yeah, let's do something else."
As they wandered further, another set of preps made their way through the crowd, this time within eyeshot of the pair were they to turn around. Before one of the preps could step forward, from behind them, a hand with a rolex watch strapped to the wrist tugged him back by the shoulder.
"Ah, ah. Fellas, allow me."
A few minutes later, Pete found himself whizzing around in a go kart on a racetrack contained within a small building. Wind whipped him left, right, and center as he shot down the track. He let out babbles and whoas of fear, for he'd mastered the pedal, but not the brake. Meanwhile, Shay blazed around the track with excitement and glee in her violet eyes. With a little go kart helmet strapped over her locks, she soared right by Pete and narrowly missed a stack of tires indicating a turn. Pete evaded too, but he let out a scream as he went by. His terror was drowned out not only by Shay's cheers, but the motor's purr as well.
Once out of the go kart building, Pete walked around on wobbly legs as Shay led with awe.
"God, this place is amazing!" she squeaked. "I can't believe Slug cooped us up for so long. He wouldn't know fun if it undressed on his desk."
"Don't throw up, don't throw up," Pete murmured to himself.
"You okay, Pete?"
"I feel amazing," he rasped.
"Ooh, ooh, wait! Look over there!"
"Where you-"
Shay pointed off in the distance to another attraction. Someone no taller than three feet sat in a chair hoisted above a wide tub of water, with colorful lights all around the attraction's structure. "It's one of those 'dunk me and win a prize' things! Let's go, come on, let's do it!"
Pete placed his hands on his knees and took a breath. Shay didn't wait for him. "Whoo. Okay. Damn, seducing this girl is harder than I thought. Maybe she likes guys who can dunk little people."
As he stepped foot in Shay's direction, Benji appeared from the exit to the go kart building and wrapped his arms around Pete's neck from behind. His former friend squeezed with the tightness and power of a snake. Pete let out a constricted wheeze while Benji sneered, "Too bad we don't have time to find that out just yet," and tugged him into the shadows on the other side of the building. "Would you believe me if I told you they used to call me The Boa?"
"Benji," Pete tried to speak, but all that came out was a frightened croak.
A pressure began to build in his esophagus, and his lungs burned as Benji's grip cut off his breathing. Already too far into a dark corner of the carnival, Pete could only weakly flail about as Benji yanked him back, lifting him at times, damn near strangling the boy to death.
"Got a crush on the little elvish girl, eh, Petey?" Benji jeered. "Sorry, buddy; last I checked, she doesn't like little pussies like you, 'less of course she's been a lesbian all this time," he chuckled, his voice strained from the effort he put forth.
Pete croaked and gasped, his hands weakly gripping at Benji's clothes, but Benji held him firmer than a hinge secures a door.
"In which case, I'm sure you'd make her all kinds of wet. With that wet, flimsy tissue paper personality of yours though, I guess we'll never find out," he grunted.
"I can't bre- Benji, I ca- I can't breathe," Pete rasped, his voice broken and withered.
He tried to call out for Shay, for Connor, for anyone, but the tighter Benji gripped and the longer he kept at it, the whiter Pete's vision became. With time, he felt his muscles weakening, until he almost lost the urge to fight back. Instead, with its absence, the urge to drop off into unconsciousness grew...