"𝐎𝐤𝐚𝐲, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐚 𝐤𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐮𝐬, 𝐈'𝐦 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐬."
Cara Pritchard, a fun-loving and free-wheeling girl who has always been the black sheep of her family. Her older brother can whistle with c...
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THE SWEET SMELL OF COTTON CANDY, sour worms, bonbons and toffee travelled quickly through the air, invading the nostrils of every adult, teenager or child who had a sweet tooth. Screams of pure joy echoed around the field as families and friends alike, climbed onto one of the rides and felt the rush of the air blowing back on them.
Most kids were perfectly content with spending the day with their parents, dragging them to attraction after attraction, game after game, but some craved for the unsupervised life, not having to constantly be close to their older relatives and being able to run around freely without being scolded for not having a coat on.
For Cara Pritchard, she was absolutely thrilled to be out of the house without her parents or annoying little brother. Just two hours ago, the brunette little minx had been begging to go out to the carnival with just her friends, getting into a very heated argument when they refused to let her leave the house alone. She was sick of being babied, she was thirteen for goodness sake, not five.
Max, her older brother by five years, had tried to help her by talking to his parents about letting her out, but despite his desperate attempts, they still refused. Being the stubborn girl she was and not taking no for an answer, Cara slipped out of her window with an empty backpack and shimmied down the pipes on the side of the wall, running away from her large house to where she could see the abundance of big tops and bright lights.
Right now she was sat on a bench with five of her other friends, enjoying her pink fluffy treat whilst laughing at a joke that Malia Reed had told the group. She finished off her cotton candy and threw it into the bin next to her, avoiding the eyes of a police officer, fearing that her parents had filed a missing persons report and she didn't want to head home just yet, the carnival was too much fun.
A clown walked past the group of friends and waved its fingers, causing Cara to cringe and look away as she shivered. She hated clowns with a passion, she didn't know if it was their creepy smiles or the shoes that were far too big, she just knew that she hated them. Ordering one for her birthday when she was turning four years old was not a good idea in her parents book.
Being the middle child was a struggle in its own. Harrison, her 6 year old brother had already learned how to ride his bike, compared to her 8 years of learning and Max had learned to whistle Beethoven's 'Symphony number 8' with crackers in his mouth, but Cara didn't have any special talents.
She tried to invent something but that blew up in her face, quite literally, so she never tried to work with mechanics ever again. Then she tried reading every book in her parents library, which is how the family found out that she was dyslexic. Very dyslexic. After that she tried, cooking, cleaning, knitting, sewing, dancing, singing, baking, painting, but nothing was ever her strong suit. Eventually she gave up and became her stubborn, gets-stressed-very-easily, self.
In a way she regretted running out for the day, considering the last thing she said to her parents before she left was 'ugh! You're ruining my life!', they must be worried sick. She told herself not to worry though as in just another hour, when her friend Abigail had to go home, she would also head back.
Well, she would've done if it wasn't for Mr Poe, coughing into his handkerchief and trudging over to the bench where the six teens sat. He weaved his way in and out of the snotty nose children who had melted cotton candy sugar suck around their mouths as they ran about with their parents and he stopped in front of the bench.
"Can we help you?" Jacob asked the man, confused with his presence and his attire as they were at a carnival, now he may be only 13-years-old but he's pretty sure that you're not supposed to wear a suit.
"Yes. Which one of you is Caroline Pritchard?" The man asked politely, a small smile on his face as he asked the question looking from child to child.
"That's me." Cara replied glumly, upset that she would have to go home already, they had probably filed a missing persons report or something, fearing that she had run out on them forever but instead she had just been out having fun.
"Well, I'm Mr Poe and I have some horrible news for you, I'm very sorry to tell you this but your family have-" He abruptly stopped talking and began to cough violently into his handkerchief, holding up a finger to the little girl who was watching him expectantly, exchanging glances with her friends.
Once he stopped coughing, he stood up straight and cleared his throat, before having that small smile on his face again. "I'm very sorry to tell you this but it seems that your family have all perished in a terrible fire that destroyed your entire home."
Just like that, her smile dropped, she stared up at the man in shock, shaking her head at him whilst making her extremely straight hair that was pulled up into a high ponytail swish from side to side.
"No, no. You must have the wrong person, I was just there a couple of hours ago and they were fine." She denied as her friends watched with shock.
"Yes, a lot of things can happen in a couple of hours and as I said, your family have perished in a terrible fire that has destroyed your entire home." He said again, making her shake her head again. "Perished means killed."
"I know what perished means." She snapped as she stared into space, thinking about how the last thing she ever said to her parents was 'ugh! You're ruining my life!' The last thing she ever said to her older brother max was 'Thanks for trying but not even you, Mr-cracker-whistler, can convince them to let me have fun.' And the last thing she said to her little brother Harrison was 'tell anybody about this and I break you.' If she could take it all back, if she could go back and stay home with her family, she would.
"Come on now, no time to waste! We need to look at the remainders of your parents home before we set off to go find another group of newly orphaned children."
So she slowly followed the banker out of the carnival and into his car, playing with her empty backpack that sat on her lap, if only she brought something.
