Idiots to Lovers (bxb)

36 | Everyone Knows Carnival Games Are Rigged

"I feel kind of dizzy." Everett stumbled as he got off the ride and I caught him by the elbow.

"Do you get motion sickness?" I asked, glancing at the Ferris wheel. "It was moving so slowly."

"I don't knowww." Everett groaned, leaning against the railings. "I'm seeing everything double. It's bad."

"You probably ate too much sugar," I caught him again as he slipped off the bars, "too fast."

"Let's not blame the candy floss, Clementine." He gave me a pleading look. "Will you drag me towards the fair games?"

The fair games were all grouped together under a colorful tent. Fairy lights wrapped around the poles holding it up, shining golden light onto the rows and rows of plushies that lined each stall. Everett gazed longingly at the blue monkeys and the purple dinosaurs.

"Look, there's so many plushies to win." He gasped and pointed at a massive red and yellow whale. "That one's about as long as my arm!"

I wrinkled my nose. "Why aren't any of the animals the correct colour?"

Everett glared at me. "Because they're cuter in random colours!"

I nodded towards the back where a few toys and plushie sat upon a shelf. There was a large black blob, shapeless except for two little triangles that stuck out the top. The only features were the round yellow eyes embroidered on the blob, peering out of an otherwise expressionless face. "That one is very realistic. It looks exactly like a cat."

"Aw, that is cute. Demon cat." Everett bounced on his toes, seeming very energized from his sugar high. "There's no game where you win it though, isn't that just the ticket booth over there?"

"Yeah...we should get some tokens to play." I led him to the ticket booth being run by a curly haired girl.

"Hey! Do you need tokens?" She pointed at the sign above her as we neared. "Our best value is fifty tokens for thirty-five pounds, or you can buy them one by one for a pound each."

I studied the list of token packs while Everett questioned the girl about the goodies behind her.

"Can we win that cat blob thing in any game?"

"If you use a token in any game and don't win anything you'll get a special ticket," she waved an arm at the shelf above her, "and you can exchange the tickets for any of these gifts. You can get the cat if you collect fifty tickets, but there are also toys, stickers, and other prizes for less."

"Oh that's too bad, I liked the cat. But we probably won't lose anything," Everett said confidently.

I rolled my eyes, already regretting it as I gestured towards the tokens. "Should we just get the fifty pack?"

"It might be hard to carry home fifty plushies," Everett said thoughtfully. "We could just get the ten pack, that's still ten plushies!"

"I guess we could...we might win one," I said hesitantly. I could only see his optimism ending in crushing disappointment. "Or you might be able to get a sticker or something."

"Have some faith, Clementine." Everett slung an arm freely over my shoulder as we bought the tokens and left. "These games are not too difficult- throwing a ring over a bottle? My aim is impeccable!"

"This ring looks smaller than the neck of the bottle," I muttered under my breath as he dragged me to the stall.

"Noo...see," he pointed to the bottle in the corner which had a stack of rings fitting snugly around its neck, "it fits."

The guy at the booth explained the rules as Everett handed over a token.

"You get five rings," he started, "and if you get all five you get one of these big stuffed animal." He looked bored as he pointed at the chonky pandas. "If you get four you get a medium sized one, and for three you can pick anything from the bottom row."

Everett hurled a ring with all his strength, knocking over one bottle in the front. It started a domino effect, however, that knocked down all the bottles behind it. "Er- do I get anything for that?"

"No." The man glared at as us both as he got to clearing the mess. I gave him an apologetic smile as he started slamming the bottles back onto the table.

"Try throwing it a bit gently maybe," I suggested to Everett. "You could still get one of the other prizes."

"I think I just need to throw it further...and higher."

The next ring slammed into the prize wall, shaking it so violently that the top shelf collapsed. It fell on the middle shelf which consecutively fell on the bottom shelf. Plushies rained upon the ground.

Everett blinked. "Oops."

The man turned puce. A vein in his forehead throbbed purple. "Get. Out."

"It was an accident, I'm sorry!" Everett attempted to climb over the counter. "I'll help you clean up."

"You've done enough," he grated.

"Hey, get off," I hissed in his ear, my arms around his waist trying to pull him down. "You're going to break the counter next."

I managed to drag Everett away, apologizing profusely to the grumbling man. He was still glaring daggers at us so I walked fast to the far side of the stalls. We ended up at a game where a ball is dropped through a bunch of pegs and you have to catch it with a net at the correct exit-way in time.

"This is really complicated," Everett muttered as he missed yet another ball.

"I think you just have a very slow reaction time." I shuddered as I remembered his driving lessons. I had continued teaching him after that day. He was still not quick enough when hitting the brakes, but I liked to think he was slowly improving. Horrific, I know, but I made a promise.

"I'm trying to follow it...I'm just seeing these balls double." Everett waited a long moment after the ball dropped and then moved his net to where it came from. "Oh. I missed it."

"Maybe you're still coming down from a sugar high."

"Excuse you, I can handle any amount of sugar." Everett went on to miss all the rest of his turns too. "Do you wanna try?"

I shrugged, handing over another token and picking up a net. "Sure."

I won the first try and Everett whooped. "Wow! You're so good at this!! Clementine!" He pointed. "Win me that huge bear!"

"Oh uh...okay."

Everett bounced next to me, distracting me as he breathed loudly in my ear. I could imagine his eyes growing wide and pupils transforming into plushies like in a cartoon. I consecutively failed the next four tries.

"At least we got this ticket thing," Everett said, holding it up. "Man, I really thought we were going to win at every game."

"I think your expectations were a little high."

We spent all our tokens and lost everything. We then bought ten more tokens and lost everything again. We eventually bought enough tokens and lost enough games to collect fifty tickets. Which is how many we need for the giant, shapeless demon cat.

"I'm going to name him The Void," Everett said, gleefully hugging the plushie to him.

"We should have bought the fifty pack. This place is a scam."