We're having a carnival! Even though it's probably freezing!

[Courtney Parker]

Courtney and junk food went together like peanut butter and jelly and Bert and Ernie so it wasn't much of a surprise that she would be craving something as sinful as a donut burger. The thing honestly probably was the cause of a few heart related problems but she didn't want to dwell on such serious issues. Why think about responsible adult things when she could be having fun? She just wanted to fool around and be like a teenager again which was how she was trying to justify the fact that she was trying to flirt with someone who was still in high school. Yep, just reliving her youth! She couldn't possibly have feelings for him.

She had actually convinced herself of that until he put his jacket over her shoulders and suddenly she wasn't so sure anymore.. Again. It seemed like her feelings for him were in an intense game of ping pong. One side (the rational side) would win occasionally and she'd assume these feelings were all in her head and then there were those magical moments when her brain shut the hell up and her heart did all the talking. She found herself just staring at him for a moment or two after he gave her his coat like that. Was he really sacrificing his own warmth for her well-being? "Tha-- Thank you, Jamie." Had she just stuttered? She hadn't stuttered since she was in the first grade!

She'd gone to a speech therapist for years to try and fix it only for it to come back at the worst possible time in front of the worst possible person. She stayed mostly quiet as they got their donut burgers in fear of saying something stupid that would make it seem like they were a couple which.. they weren't. She kept having to remind herself that she barely even knew him on a person basis. What was his family like? What was his favorite color? Food? Was there a casual way to ask those questions? Those were probably things that she should have found out before they put their mouths on each other's private parts.

She couldn't help but feel a little bit like a whore when she put everything into prospective like this. He was a student that she barely knew and she'd allowed him to pleasure her. What if he just wanted her for that? He hadn't allowed actual sex to happen but she knew that it would have the other night when they were sexting if she hadn't had some trouble with her car starting. She let out a heavy sigh as she sat down and it took everything that she had inside of her not to ask him what all that he saw for them. 

What teenage boy wanted to settle down so soon with someone so young? She couldn't resist reaching over to hold his hand though. "Just take a huge bite and just... I bet it's delicious." She used her free hand to lift the donut burger to her mouth and take a very unlady like bite out of it. She seriously almost moaned.. It was everything that she'd wanted and more! "This is amazing.. Almost as amazing as you are." Had she really just said that? Fuck.

[Deleted]

Caroline couldn't exactly admit that she was feeling like walking down memory lane because she was in the process of sabotaging their birth control so she just shrugged and said something casual enough in her opinion. "Oh, I was just looking at her old baby pictures the other day and it made me really miss how tiny that she was. I'm really excited for us to graduate, get married and maybe have another one in a couple of years." She failed to mention that those things would be happening in a slightly different order. She had plans of hopefully announcing the 'surprise' next month. "You know what's odd? We've never been on a Ferris wheel together in our entire relationship. I mean I kind of think that's like the stereotypical dating couple thing to do." There were a lot of things that they hadn't gotten around to doing that most couples their age had though. It was okay - they got to do the Lady and the Tramp meatball thing whenever they had spaghetti at home... She sort of insisted.

She believed that keeping a relationship alive was quite simple as long as both of the people did their best to do what made the other person happy without making themselves feel like they never got anything because they were always so busy sacrificing for others. She  was more than willing to give up her 'Fried Friday' for his health as long as he was okay with her requesting that he do the whole silly pushing the meatball over to her and sharing one spaghetti noodle kiss towards the end of the meal. She bit down on her bottom lip a tad nervously as the pair neared the Ferris wheel. She was feeling a little nervous all of the sudden. What if they got stuck on the top? What if she fell off and died? She could miss out on seeing her baby growing up because of one stupid freak accident! She was so too young to die! She looked over to him a tad helplessly before stepping forward to get onto the little seat thing.

She could literally feel her heart pounding against her chest until she was seated safely next to her fiance. Something about being with him was always comforting. She knew that he wouldn't let anything happen to her like falling off of this awful thing and he'd comfort her if they got stuck at the top and she got incredibly scared. "Aubrey.." She mused affectionately as she rested her head against his shoulder. They had to wait for other people to get on before they'd start so she was just being a cuddle bug. "Have I told you lately that you're the best thing that has ever happened to me?" She worried sometimes that the guilt that he felt for getting her pregnant at thirteen would cloud the fact that she loved him very deeply.

[Deleted]

Isabel had raised a brow when Camila said that the sheep didn't kick her 'this time' but she was choosing not to comment and risk looking like an idiot or like she was being nosy. She actually giggled a little when Scott explained the reasoning behind it. "Awe, she's such a cutie. I see a lot of her mother in her and her father.. Not that I'm really close to her parents but I do know them and she's a lot like them." Why did she say that like it was a surprise? Of course she was like her parents! She was literally their daughter, how could she not be like them? Why was she doing such a bad job at talking to this guy? She barely even knew him and she was already feeling like she was failing harder than she'd ever failed at anything in her life. Did that mean something? Was this fate's way of saying that this boy was going to mean something to her?

"Living on the boardwalk is actually really like. I take a nice little walk down to the beach every night before I got to bed and every morning before school. It's really relaxing, you know?" She just barely realized that it might not be the brightest idea in the world to tell him where she lived basically, where she went to school and where to find her every morning and every night. Was that even a safe thing to say? Eh, he didn't seem like the creepy murdering or raping type and she didn't think that anyone would really care enough about her to stalk her and kill her. She just needed to calm down a little! She wasn't that nervous but she was starting to get a little bit towards that feeling.

He was a senior? She hadn't been so terribly nervous before he said that he was a senior but he was supposed to be a freshman. How smart could this boy be? What if he thought that she was stupid because she hadn't skipped any grades at all? She'd never even gotten the opportunity so it wasn't like she could just say that she was supposed to skip but her parents held her back. "I'm a junior." She admitted meekly before looking away from him. She tried to make it look casual like she just wanted to look at the animals but she really just didn't want to see the look of pure disappointment on his face over the fact that she wasn't as intelligent as he was. "Have you given any thought to like colleges? I know that I want to go to Yale." She figured that might make her look a little bit better. She just needed to make sure that he knew that she had dreams that went beyond this town and working fast food well.. Technically she was working retail but still.

"I want to go to Yale and then do something really big like get into politics maybe." She was really interested in that kind of stuff. She even wanted to become mayor one day! Maybe that was a little too ambitious but she figured that it was better to dream big and not succeed than to never put any effort into anything and spend the rest of her life wondering if she could have done it.

[Jamie St. Claire]

A bite. You just went for it.. This new food reminded him of that one show that he used to watch about cool eat ins that offered new and exciting foods and outlooks n a restaurant. He smiled shyly before following her lead and taking an almost modest bite from his burger sandwich and his pupils dilated as his mouth burst with flavor. It was surprisingly good! So good, he went in for another, this time not just a nibble. Jamie took a napkin and wiped his mouth now that it was empty. "You were right. This was definitely a good idea." He said, smiling.

To her, that probably sounded like he was talking about the food, but on the inside of his head, he was really talking about the idea of them meeting here. He was glad that she was one of those girls who wasn't afraid to eat in front of a guy or get something like.. a salad. But then again, they didn't have those here from what he knew. It wasn't until his fingers twitched that he realized that she was holding his hand and his face turned a bright shade of red. Jamie didn't bother to move it because he liked the feeling and the warmth that she was letting off. 

There was a dying question on his mind but he, despite his normal behavior, was hesitant to ask. He wanted to talk about the other day when they were in her classroom. He'd had a distant crush on the lady since the first time he saw her walking in the hallway, but he would have never in a million years thought that he would have done what they did or would be sitting here now and the idea of it all made him fuzzy. Perhaps they could have met on a different level, but his only original intent was to bring her cupcakes.. 

It just kind of happened and what was the worst part was that he couldn't tell anyone. He knew what that would do, which meant he couldn't even tell his best friend, Warren. Jamie wasn't much of a secret keeper, but this was something he'd have to lock up and keep out of the eyes and ears of the school. But that didn't mean that they couldn't be seen together.. right? Like tonight? 

"So, Courtney.. do you mind if I call you that? I mean.." He stopped himself from rambling by leaning forward and readjusting his hand so that he was holding hers too. "I think the only thing we could go on without freezing would be the ferris wheel.. And I mean, you came here tonight so I have to win you a stuffed animal. It's like.. protocol."

[Courtney Parker]

Courtney wasn't even thinking about trying to look sexy or cute while she was eating her delicious donut burger. She never understood why girls would even bother trying to act like they never ate anything other than salad just to impress a guy. Didn't they realize that they would have to do that for the rest of the relationship if the guy was that type? She wasn't the kind of girl to try and be someone else just to get a boyfriend even if that meant losing out on someone that she liked. If Jamie had an issue with her taking massive bites out of her donut burger than she was just going to have to accept that he wasn't worth her time.

"I know! I expected this to be amazing but I didn't think that it could possibly taste this good. It's like perfection, I think that I want to marry this burger and have its delicious burger babies." Burger babies? Yeah, she really wasn't trying to impress him at all, was she? She didn't intend on being so open and true to herself just yet.. Maybe ease into just how strange that she could be but apparently it was coming out like word vomit. She didn't want him to think that she was some kind of a freak or anything! She only wanted to be a freak in the sheets not in actual day to day live, damn it.

"The Ferris wheel sounds lovely!" She'd heard very romantic stories about things happening on the top of the Ferris wheel. Did she want something like that to happen with them? She kind of felt like he was worth the risk if it did. She'd gone back and forth at least a thousand times in the last five or so seconds. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze and smiled as he told her that he needed to win her something. "Oh really? I guess that you'll have to then. I've always wanted one of those really big stuffed animals but every guy that I've ever gone to these kind of things with has sucked majorly." She didn't realize right away but that kind of made it sound like a challenge or a test of some sort.

"It's fine if you can't though! I mean I'm sure that those things aren't nearly as awesome as they seem and the small ones are cute, too." She wasn't lying completely to him. She just wasn't being totally honest - she did find the smaller easier to win prizes to be good enough but she thought that bigger was better. She never understood the whole appeal to everything being tiny like teacup pets and itty bitty short legged kittens. 

[Elliot Gates]

www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=93854139

The world must have been crazy to hold a fucking carnival in the coldest New York month, but since Raine wanted to go, Elliot agreed and went without a fuss. After they'd got out of the car, he welcomed her clinging to him. It made him feel needed and since they hadn't done too much as of lately, he really did miss her touch. He laughed as they got inside and she was already suggesting getting something to eat, and good thing too because his stomach was growling. "I'd love that!" He replied at her inquiry. "Are you sure you're okay to walk?" Elliot asked, wrapping his arm around her shoulder so she could hold onto his torso. 

That was when he noticed that she didn't have a jacket. Was she insane?! The would catch her death in this cold! "Hey, hold up a minute.." Elliot said, pulling away from her for a moment to pull his top clack coat off and offered it to her. "Looked like you were missing something." He said, smiling before swooping to give her a quick but sweet peck on the lips. When she'd put on his jacket, they continued to the food area and he found the place that sold donut burgers, ordering two.

Elliot looked over to the table that was rather close to theirs and saw his friend Jamie and some girl he'd seen before but he couldn't put his finger on it. She didn't look their age.. maybe she an older sister of his that he didn't know about? No, that wouldn't have been a possibility. Not with the way they were holding hands and making googly eyes at each other. Elliot wanted to go and say hello, but he didn't want to leave Raine or interrupt Jamie's conversation. 

"I don't know why the hell we're out here. We must be psychos because you can hardly walk and I'm just an oof on ice and snow anyways." He laughed before taking a bite out of his burger. He'd never had one but they were like crack; addictive and wonderful. "Holy shit!" He said in surprise. "These are wonderful." 

[Jude Chisholm]

"Yes!" he said. He didn't really have anything better to do then get his fortune told by some weird lady in a tent that was probably just reading scripted stuff anyway, it was really just a good way to pass time until he had something better to do, and make a new friend, since new friends were always good. "I mean I might send you in there by yourself at first, someone has to see if she's a freak," he teased. He didn't mean to use the word freak lightly but it just happened to come out of his mouth, and it was a really stupid thing to say since he hated being called that, and maybe the fact that he just hated the word in general. Who was going to tell you if you fit the bill for being a freak or not?

"Oh well, I'm sure the animals will be fine by themselves," he shrugged. Could they really take care of themselves? "you're not going to get fired are you because I don't want to be the reason you get fired, but if you got fired for some other reason then it's cool," he laughed. "I guess if it's ok with you then let's go," he was kind of not sure what he was doing since he generally didn't do things like this, talking to random people, having an actual conversation. Most of the time it was just ' can I borrow a pencil?' 'yes' 'thank you' or something stupid like that. He didn't really make friends by talking to random people, but maybe it wasn't that random since he had had a reason to start talking to her.

[Heather Marie Barton]

Heather nodded, to their sides a couple other people had entered the tent. Her eyes rested on the toddler and Isabel for a moment before looking back to Jude. Any concern she had before seemed to vanish at their interaction with the baby sheep. They were all doing fine, the animals would be fine. Unless some idiot ran by and let them all out.. Her lips pursed together as if giving it one last thought. "I won't get fired." She said at last, really not caring if she did anyway. What were they paying her anyhow, $4 an hour. Was that even legal? Well technically it was under the table, but still. 

"You didn't come here in the first place because you thought I was a freak did you?" She asked feeling slightly offended, but it was waved off as a joke. Smile on her face, it was hard to tell. Checking over each of the animals once more, she turned to leave and started for the fortune tellers tent. It was large, and decorated with strange trinkets on the outside. "Okay, I'll check it out, to make sure there are no clowns." She teased lifting a flap of the tent. "If I get warts though, I'll be sure to spread them to you!" She said as she hoovered in the door frame. 

Inside the tent she squinted her eyes to make out the shape of an older lady sitting behind a table. She appeared to be in her late thirties, long curly dark hair. She was covered in beads, and jewelry. The place reeked of lavender incense, and it took every ounce of will power not to sneeze. The fortune teller greeted Heather with a toothless grin, gesturing her to sit. She shrugged, and did as she was commanded. She didn't seem like a freak. Just a normal hippy, trying to make a living.

It was dark inside, a few paper lanterns that hung over head seemed to be the only lighting. "Can you wait for my..." She struggled to find the right words for Jude, what was he.. an acquaintance perhaps? But that sounded silly. "Friend." She finished with a smile. "Jude come in here its okay!" If anything she wanted their fortunes to be told together, you never knew what sort of bullshit was going to be told. She didn't particularly believe in fortunes or any sort of paranormal. All they did was put false hope in people stupid enough to believe them, just to make them happy for a day or two. Like horoscopes, or fortune cookies...- They were fun to read, but no one really believed them.Though if the fortune was something she liked why not take advantage of that? 

[Jamie St. Claire]

He'd shaken his head at how awesome this woman was. She wasn't like the girls he went to school with. Y'know, that ones that were filled with drama and were only seeing the now. All they were concerned about that their friends, their emotions and what they were going to wear to prom. As far as he could tell, Courtney was much more mature than all of them.. that could also be because she was older but he pushed that reason aside for now. 

Jamie smiled when she mentioned that she would like one of the big ones and made a mental note that he would try for her. After they'd finished their meal, Jamie dumped their trash in the bin and sucked down the rest of his drink before popping two minty tic-tacs in his mouth. It wasn't until he turned around that he saw Elliot and his girlfriend sitting a a nearby table. That made him nervous, so he acted like he didn't see them. "Let's go win you something." Jamie said, taking Courtney's hand and pulling her away.

Jamie hoped that she couldn't tell how nervous that she made him feel. He finally slowed his walking pace down and slowly ran a little circle over her hand with his thumb. The sound of a buzzer went off which caused him to swiftly turn and see a basketball game with lots of giant stuffed prizes. He smirked and looked to Courtney. "How about we give this one a try?" He asked, well knowing that he was a wizard when it came to basketball. 

It was just basic geometry, and shooting a basket was just elementary for his brain. There was a reason he was an MVP on the Somerset basketball team, wasn't there? Jamie watched as they waited in line. He watched how the other people playing and tried to piece together why they were mostly failing at such a simple task. It occurred to him that Warren said a lot of placed were rigged and so Jamie, being the genius he was, bent down to act like he was tying his shoe, when really he was looking at the rims or the goal. They were ovals... not circles. 

Not wanting to be a party pooper and call the booth owner a cheater, he simply reconstructed his method of going at it. It was just an equation change in his brain and when it was their turn, he missed the first one. The second, third and forth were all goals. On his fifth, he gestured for Courtney to come over. He stood behind her and let her hold the ball. This was an opportunity he took to show how cute he could be. He held his hands on the back of hers and helped her line the ball up for a perfect shot. Without realizing it, his face was right next to hers and he got the biggest urge to kiss her cheek. Instead, and not wanting to make his emotions obvious, he let her shoot the ball.

Point for Courtney! "Nice!" Jamie said, stepping aside. "I think.. now is when you get to pick out which one you want." He said, watching her and then looking at the one she seemed to be staring at since they got there. Jamie turned to the booth man and pointed at the giant stuffed Hello Kitty hanging near the top. God, his heart was bouncing around all over the place inside his chest as he turned to give her her prize. "I hope that I don't suck that bad." He laughed, completely lost as he stared.

[Justin Gardner]

When Chantel moved forward to press her lips upon Justin's cheek, his eyes lingered and followed her. He then stared down, looking shy and dazed. It was the first time she had ever kissed him and although it was just a simple kiss on the cheek; it was enough to set his heart racing. He could feel a slight burning on his cheeks but the cool wind brought the temperature down. He smiled softly, his eyelids heavy and his hands gently squeezed her own. It was a sign that she had caused some effect on him. Hopefully Chantel wouldn't take it like as if it were a bad thing. 

He looked her in the eyes. Those crystal, light blue ones that were several shades lighter than his own. Chantel had the resemblance of a goddess in Justin's eyes. Her black hair, softly tanned skin and gorgeous figure. She was perfect in looks and as far as he knew, her personality was just as ravishing as all her physical attributes. The smile on Justin's face had a hard time relaxing, all his muscles were pulling his lips up and he had a difficult time controlling them. "Did you just arrive or have you been wandering around for a long time?" he asked her, his eyes still on hers. Justin wasn't sure if he should ask her to do things, what if she was tired and was about to leave. That wouldn't make sense.