Chapter 28

When the carnival came around the next weekend, we had a plan down pat. I was changing upstairs in my room, slipping on a pair of jeans as a baggy blue sweater, messily braiding my hair as Becky walked inside, stuffing her the sleeves of her orange turtleneck into a yellow leather jacket. "We are clear on the plan, right?"

"Yeah. We stalk Zelena and her friends while we pretend to have fun. Trust me, I know my own plan."

Becky crossed her arms, giving me a once over. "Are you seriously wearing that?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"You do realize that this is a date between you and Braylen, right?"

"Just because Braylen chose the teams and put the two of us together does not mean that it is a date between us." I said, laughing a bit as Becky started rifling through my closet.

"You mean to tell me that you and him haven’t gone out on an official date yet?" Becky asked teasingly.

"Not technically..."

"Anneliese, I swear to God." Becky said, rolling her eyes. She grabbed a pastel blue dress with flower decorated lace over the top. "Why don’t you just wear this?"

"NO!" I said quickly, walking over and pushing the dress back into the closet, causing Becky to give me a confused look. "Not yet."

"What do you mean by not yet?"

"You can’t tell Braylen."

"Why not?"

"I… I want to surprise him and my father."

"Your father?" Becky asked, tilting her head. "Why your father?"

I took in a deep breath, lowering my voice. "I want to surprise him because A, I just told Braylen that I was wearing blue to Homecoming, and B, I want to surprise my father because this was the dress my mother wore when he took her to Homecoming when they were in high school."

"Oh..." Becky said hesitantly. "Your parents have been together that long?"

"Yeah." I said nervously. "Kinda why I was so surprised that they got divorced. I shouldn’t have been since most relationships don’t make it past high school, but it did."

"Is this your way of saying that you don’t think that you and Braylen aren’t going to make it past high school?" Becky asked, rifling through my closet to look for other clothes.

"Becky, he’s a prince. He’s going to have a kingdom to run. Pretty sure that he’s not going to want a skinny blonde girl from America to help him rule over all of England. He’ll probably want someone who actually knows his people to help him rule."

"You know people."

"Just because I can see the future-"

"That’s not what I mean."

"So what do you mean?" I asked, crossing my arms as Becky pulled out a simple blue and black dress, a jean jacket, and a pair of tights out of my closet.

"I mean that you know how to identify with people’s struggles." Becky explained. "You’re sympathetic. You listen to people’s problems and you do your best to help people work through them. Granted, part of that could be because you can literally see the future, but lots of people seem to trust you, myself included. Callum texted me a couple nights ago and he said that you and your dad let him stay here after his parents kicked him out. He said that you patched him up and just let him talk about it."

"I just did what anyone should do." I said, shrugging.

"That’s the problem though. Not everyone would do that."

"I used to do that with the kids Zelena and I used to bully. Well, it was mainly Zelena who did the bullying."

"You’re a good person, Anna. Seriously."

I rolled my eyes. "Someone’s overcompensating for completely avoiding me last week."

"Okay, so maybe I freaked out and lied about having plans before school."

"I had to ride to school with Callum and his aunt. I could literally feel the sexual tension in the air between her and my father."

"Anna, I think that you were imagining things. Beth and your father? Seriously?"

"I got a premonition of the two of them kissing."

Becky seemed to cringe, patting the clothes she laid out on my bed. "Yeesh. You wanna talk about it while you change?"

"You’re seriously making me change?"

"Anneliese, I am not letting you wear that old looking sweater on a date with royalty."

"Technically, this isn’t a date. It’s a covert mission."

"But you two are working together."

"And?"

"This may as well be a date."

"Fine, if you want me to change, I’ll change." I said, taking off the sweater. Becky looked over at my chest, sighing heavily. "What now Becky?"

"Were you really wearing a sports bra under that?"

"Yes!" I said angrily. "I usually wear a sports bra! You know that!"

"I am not letting you wear a sports bra on your first date with your boyfriend."

"Well, it’s not like we ever made it official."

Becky tilted her head, pausing from her rifle in my dresser as she slowly turned towards me. "But you and Braylen said-"

"Because you guys were forcing us to put a label on it when we weren’t ready for that yet. I’m still trying to figure out if I actually like him or if it’s just the hormones from the time he kissed me going into overdrive."

Becky shook her head, startled. "Woah woah woah, time out! You two have kissed!"

"He did it to get me to shut up, but yes." I said as I grabbed a navy blue bra from the drawer and walked over to the connecting bathroom and changed the rest of the way. "And don’t ask me any questions about it. I’m honestly still trying to wrap my head around the whole thing."

"Well… Who made the first move?"

"Who do you think made the first move? The blonde American girl who’s too scared to voice how she feels about things or the cute British guy who just so happens to be royalty?"

"So it was Braylen?"

"Yeah."

Becky seemed to pause. "You’re scared to voice how you feel about stuff?"

"When you’ve been friends with Zelena for as long as I was, you learn to hold your tongue about a lot of things."

"Was she really that controlling?"

"It wasn’t that she was controlling, it was more like I was desperate." I explained, walking back out and smoothing out the black dress with blue flowers decorating it. "I was… Kind of a loser at my old school. I just wanted someone to be my friend, and I was so desperate that I kinda stopped voicing how I really felt about things."

"Well, now you have eight friends." Becky said casually before trying to talk to me again. "What kind of things have you not been telling us about?"

"Not big things." I said nervously. "How I feel about my powers, about my dad’s divorce, small stuff like that."

"Doesn’t sound small to me."

"It doesn’t matter."

"Oh, I think it does."

"Becky-"

"You don’t have to be afraid."

"I know. Seriously, I know." I said, pulling on the tights and a pair of boots. "Come on, we gotta go meet up with everyone else."

"Anna-"

"Come on. Let’s go." I said, grabbing the jacket and walking out of my room. When I got downstairs, I grabbed Koda’s leash, patting my leg as he walked over. Dad looked over from the couch.

"Hey Annie, what’s going on?"

"Becky and I are going to the carnival downtown." I explained, hooking Koda up.

"Aren’t you a little too nicely dressed for the carnival?"

"We’re meeting the rest of the group there." Becky said, grabbing her car keys and leaving her school bag behind. Somehow, we managed to convince Dad to let her spend the night tonight and she had her extra clothes inside.

"Including Braylen?" Dad asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Dad!"

"I’m just asking." Dad said jokingly, smiling lovingly. "Just don’t stay out too late, okay? I don’t want to be up all night worrying about you two."

"You got it, Mr. Andrews." Becky said, saluting Dad as we all walked out to the car. I led Koda to the backseat, then sat down in the front with Becky. After a couple of minutes of listening to pop songs that all sounded the same, Becky looked over at me cautiously. "You know that if you need to talk, you can talk to me, right?"

"Becky-"

"I’m being serious, okay?" Becky said quickly. "If you need to talk, don’t be scared to come to me."

"I won’t be scared."

"Are you just saying that to get me off of your back?"

"No."

"Okay. I’m just making sure."

As soon as we got to the carnival site, Becky, Koda, and I walked to the main entrance. Keisha and Erika were already there, dressed in warm sweaters and jeans. I felt myself growing angry at Becky since she didn’t allow me to do the same. Keisha gave me and Becky a once over. "Becky, are you making it look like you’re on a date with Callum or something?"

"What? No."

"Just asking."

I narrowed my eyes., handing Koda’s leash over to Erika since he was her partner without Damian here. "You’re not even gonna question me?"

"I just figured that that was you and Ed’s cover since, you know, you two are dating." Erika said, shrugging.

"Same." Keisha agreed.

"Hello ladies!" Trayvon said happily as he and the rest of the guys walked forward. He was wearing a baggy letterman jacket, a plain black T-shirt, and a pair of jeans. "We excited for tonight?"

"Not sure if excited is the right word." Erika said awkwardly.

I glanced over at Callum, who was wearing a pink sweatshirt and blue jeans, reminding me of Timmy Turner from that old TV show, The Fairly Odd Parents, as he held up a bunch of tickets, handing them out to the rest of the group. "Now these work for games and rides. Try to use them so we don’t look conspicuous."

"Have we thought about what we’re gonna do if we manage to catch one of the F.E.R.R.E.T. kids?" Keisha asked cautiously.

"I… May have convinced Aunt Beth to help us out with that. She’s gonna be here as assistance if needed, but she’s gonna let us do what we need to. Just remember to be low key, okay?"

As Callum started walking inside, I sheepishly raised a hand. "What about my tickets?"

"I have them." Braylen’s voice said from behind me. I turned around and saw Braylen standing with two strips of tickets in his hands, his differently colored skin showing very clearly on his face, and he was wearing a nice pair of jeans and a long sleeved collared shirt with a leather jacket that almost looked like it belonged to Trayvon since it was easily three sizes too big on Braylen's slim frame. At least I wasn’t the only one being pressured by this.

"Cool." I said awkwardly.

"Have fun guys!" Becky said, winking playfully as we all headed into the carnival.

Braylen and I held back for a second, slowly walking in as I looked over at him. "Is this your first carnival?"

"Yeah." Braylen said shyly. "Is that bad?"

"I don’t think so. You gotta have your first at some point, right?"

"Yeah." Braylen looked around, then over at what I was wearing. "Becky pressure you into changing?"

"Yeah. Trayvon?"

"How’d you guess?"

"The leather jacket."

"It is kinda big, isn’t it?"

"It’s because he has more muscle than you. Makes him bigger."

"Yeah… To think that my father tried to make me work out with the royal trainer."

"Seriously?"

"I did. Once. They were going way too fast for me."

I laughed. "Yeah, the only thing I really do is marching band, but of course you already know."

"That sport is bloody insane!"

"Most people don’t consider it a sport."

"Are you kidding? Of course it’s a sport! Have those people even seen you guys march! It’s crazy!"

"Try telling other people that."

"Oh, I will, once I take the throne."

Braylen and I laughed again, cautiously looking around. I spotted Zelena talking with some people. I kept an eye on her as I kept talking. "So… The pale skin is out today?"

"If you’re gonna get to know me, you may as well get to know who I really am. That starts with what I really look like." Braylen said, shrugging. "Sorry if this disappoints you."

"No, it doesn’t." I said quickly. "I think that it looks cool."

Braylen smiled, putting an arm around me as he followed Zelena and her crew as they walked to a hidden alley behind the rides. "Keep smiling and laughing like we’re engrossed in conversation."

"I thought we were already doing that." I said, smiling up at him.

As soon as we paused behind a game, standing and talking, Callum and Becky came running towards us. Callum’s eyes widened. "What is going on back there?"

"We don’t know." Braylen said, whispering.

"So, what’s the plan?" Becky asked anxiously.

"Trying to figure that out now." I said, sighing heavily.

"No..." Keisha said, staring blankly at the crowd of people. "It can’t be."

"What’s wrong?" Callum whispered.

Trayvon looked over at a metal trash can and tossed it over to the group of people. "Guys, deal with this."

"Hey!" Zelena yelled as Callum ran over, moving at lightning speed, and grabbed one of the girls to run off to… Somewhere.

One of the girls ran towards me, the other girl besides Zelena and Gretchen that was bullying Erika when I first met her, Jill, I think. As Jill ran towards me, I grabbed her hand and sent an electric shock through her body, making her crumple to the ground. Zelena started running towards us too, but the grass behind her grabbed her legs and held her steady. I turned around and saw Erika, hands outstretched as she manipulated the grass to pull Zelena back. Braylen lifted the guy they were talking to, who looked like he had just snapped out of something, into the air and made him crash into the trash can, knocking him out instantly.

Zelena and her friends scattered, picking up Jill and taking her with her, as Callum came back. "Gretchen is at headquarters."

"Gretchen?" I asked, noticing that Keisha was sobbing into Trayvon’s shoulder. "Keisha, are you-"

"Why would he do this?" Keisha asked.

Callum looked over at the guy. "We should probably take him back for questioning."

I slowly walked over to the guy, realizing who it was in an instant. Why he decided to do this, I have no idea. Either way, we were going to figure out why from Keisha.

Who better to interrogate the man than his own daughter?

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