Avi's impression of the little snake boy hadn't much changed in their brief time apart. He was still cocky. He was still loud. He was still annoying. He was still someone Avi didn't like.

By the time Avi and Kevin had given their farewells to Lucian and exited thorough the handle-less door, the boy had already made it to the top of the steps and was yelling at them to hurry up.

"Gentleguys," he greeted them once they exited the little shack. "As some of you may already know, my name is Mitch Grassi and I will be your tour guide today, taking you on a wondrous and mysterious journey through this humble little circus."

Kevin laughed and Avi sent him a glare. Snake boy didn't need any more encouragement.

"Kevin," his friend held out his hand.

"A pleasure Kevin," Mitch bent down to kiss it. "Kid," he sent a nod Avi's way before spinning around laughing. "Before we set off on our adventure do either of you have any questions? You can get snacks from those two love bugs over there," he pointed to a mini tent where two actual insect-like people with antennas were cooking up food. "Or if you need to relieve yourself, the bathroom is behind that tent over there."

Tents. There were just tents everywhere.

"I've got a question," Kevin started. "Your skin...it doesn't look quite right." There he goes, Avi thought. Straight in with the personal questions, too curious for his own good.

"He has freaking scales Kevin." Avi was still taking time to decide if his improved vision was a good thing or a bad thing. It meant certain people were all the more distracting and the one in front of him was not someone he wanted to be any more distracted by.

"Oh yeah, I can see them now," Kevin inspected the younger boy inquisitively. "I was worried you were ill but I guess that's just the colour right?"

"It is true I am a beautiful viper," Mitch responded, purposefully fixing up his hair as he said it.

"So I'm guessing you're super flexible and agile then?"

"Those are one of my many party tricks," he admitted giving Avi a wink. "Aren't they Avi?"

"Whatever."

No matter how much Kevin pestered him after that there was no way Avi was going to recall that scuffle with his humiliator in front of him. He promised he would tell his friend later, that way he could perhaps...twist the truth slightly.

The tour began with Mitch just pointing out the different areas to them and talking a lot of nonsense about anything and everything. He also kept doing that weird trick where he would snake around behind Avi suddenly to try and annoy him.

It was also revealed to Avi's horror, that he had signed the performers contract, and that meant yes, eventually he would have to take part in the shows. He cursed himself, talk about not reading the small print, he'd forgotten the huge print at the top of the contract!

Mitch didn't make things much better by gleefully telling the two that they wouldn't be a main part of the show for a long time, and would most likely be used to make the main stars - aka himself - look better.

"In other words," the snake boy laughed, "you're my bitches!"

Kevin took that in good nature. Avi didn't even attempt to.

Once they'd seen the living quarters, med bay, dining tent the big tent itself, and a few other little places, Mitch took them to the communal area - a large open field in the centre of the camp - to meet everyone. Talk about overwhelming. Avi had only glimpsed a part of it earlier, but now he was here he could count at least eighty performers or stage hands of all different ages, colours, sizes and shapes.

Everyone was busy in one way or another. Practicing their acts, running around with props or costumes, or ordering others to do so. There were also a lot of thick ropes running from the outer tents to a wooden post in the middle. He had noticed similar ropes running between the various tents too, but had assumed they had some structural benefit. Now though, they just looked like a major safety hazard.

Before he had a chance to ask about them he was being introduced by Mitch to a huge Canadian guy named Harold, who was busy munching his way through pots and pans, and quickly forgot all about the ropes. Despite his somewhat fearsome appearance, the big guy was extremely well spoken and polite and even indulged them in a trick where he ate a load of spoons, crunched them around in his mouth, and produced a huge spoon.

It was certainly one of the most astounding things the two boys had ever seen. And Mitch told them the guy was only a warm up act.

The rest of the day was spent just being introduced to everyone else and Avi grew tired of saying hello and being quizzed about abilities he didn't even understand yet. Still, there was no doubt the people here were interesting to say the least. And they all for some reason seemed to have a soft spot for Mitch, letting him talk them into performing for the two awe-struck boys.

There was the old lady, Tabby, who was missing most of her internal organs and instead just had an open cavity where they would normally be, who could play music on her ribs and the Croc Man who was kept behind bars. Mitch told them the guy was more croc than man - his head certainly was - and that he was only allowed out by a handler for shows.

Kevin expressed pity for the creature but Mitch reminded him it was either being trapped here, but well cared for and alive, or being let out into the wild, where who knows what damage he could inflict, or what might be done to him.

While they had been talking Avi had started poking the croc man with a long stick, until the suddenly the stick was in the guy's mouth and one of his handlers had begun shouting at him to leave it alone. Mitch eventually resolved the situation by volunteering Avi to clean out the croc's enclosure. Avi was very tempted to just leave some poisoned food down when he got around to it.

The next performer Mitch took them to was sat on a log near the centre of the field. She had her back to them as they walked over but the moment Avi saw her, his breath hitched in his throat and he felt butterflies in his stomach.

Holy...she's beautiful.

Even from this obscure view, the girl's golden hair glistened in the sunlight and her dress fitted her tanned body perfectly. As they neared, Avi could see she was working on sewing together a sort of costume, her dainty hands working the needle deftly.

There was only one thought on Avi's mind as they walked round to greet her.

Please don't have an animal for a head, please don't have an animal head.

"Hey Mitchy," the girl smiled up at them and Avi froze. With her golden locks framing her face perfectly, her glistening hazel eyes peered up at him under long eyelashes and he felt his heart beating against his clothes.

What's happening to me? Am I having a heart attack?

"How's things Kirstie?" Mitch ruined the moment by shoving him out of the way so he could sit down next to the girl.

"Just fixing my costume up for tonight," she explained, focusing her gaze on Mitch. "The terrible twins keep on chewing it."

Mitch sighed. "Someone really needs to train those pups."

The pups were four year old conjoined twins with canine teeth, tails and floppy, furry ears. A boy and a girl whose abilities hadn't developed yet, if they had any at all, and had spent most of their time bouncing up at Avi and scampering under their feet.

"Why don't you?" Kirstie gave the boy a shoulder bump. "All the little ones love you."

"True, true. But those two...slobber everywhere."

"A little drool never harmed anyone Mitchy."

"Hey! My skin is extra sensitive! I can't be missing out on a show because of it, the audience would weep."

Kristen rolled her eyes and giggled. Even just by listening to her Avi felt his senses tingling. Her laugh was so melodic, it was music to his new and improved ears, and her eyes...those eyes just twinkled when she laughed.

Snap out of it you fool!

For once Mitch actually helped the situation as he sprung up at lightning speed so he was behind the two boys, making Avi jump once more. He swore the snake did that purely to aggravate him. but at least he didn't feel quite as hypnotised by his latest acquaintance. Kirstie on the other hand didn't even bat an eyelid at the teen's antics and waited the teen to begin his predictable speech.

"Anyway enough about me," Mitch cleared his throat. "Kirstie, may I formally introduce you to Kevin the courageous and Avi the...ass kisser. Which is going to be his role in shows isn't it kid?" He gave Avi a slap on the shoulder. "And this is the lovely lady who saved your own asses. Kirstie, take the stage."

The girl stood up and shook her hands. Silky smooth skin met his rough ones, sending more foreign signals up his nervous system.

Maybe she had electric abilities or something.

"Pleasure to meet you," she said, giving Avi a crooked smirk when all he could do was stare at her face like he didn't understand the english language. "I mean...I met you already but you were in dreamland."

This girl really rescued both of them? Her abilities must include super strength also because he couldn't imagine this little lady getting them both down.

Kevin gave Kirstie his mega-watt smile. "I don't know how we can ever thank you."

The girl thought about this and decidedly told them, "Just help out, don't cause trouble and that'll be good enough for me."

"We will," Kevin promised earnestly.

Avi was still too busy staring at the girl in front of him, and trying to work out why he was staring, to reply instantly, and had to be nudged by Kevin to bring him out of his reverie.

"Yeah, we will," he echoed Kevin.

"Good to hear Arnold."

Trying to keep his cool while he could hear Mitch let out a great guffaw beside him was extremely hard but he managed it, just.

"It's Avi...but yeah," he smiled awkwardly.

"Oh," she gave a shrug, "weird name." The girl smirked crookedly at him. "You'll fit right in at this place."

Avi, after some deliberation, took that as a compliment.

Kevin carried on chatting for the both of them, quizzing the girl about role in the show. "Lucian mentioned you specialised in aerial acrobatics. What exactly does that involve?"

Avi finally realised he'd been staring a bit too much and purposefully tried to look elsewhere, which probably gave off more of an impression that he was watching a fly buzz around him.

"Aerobatics I like to call it. I can...actually no," she stopped herself short. "I'm not going to ruin it for you. You can sit in on the show tonight and see."

"Aw okay," Kevin bounced up and down on the balls of his feet. "Now I'm excited!"

Avi was too, but he imagined it was for a slightly different reason to his friend.

"There's no guessing you're an earth manipulator," Kirstie said, motioning towards Kevin's branch arms. "That's cool, I've only ever met one other when we crossed paths with a Chinese show."

"Yep, yep," Mitch sang. "Lovely people, even with that little misunderstanding when they thought Scott was a demon."

The two cracked up for a few seconds at some inside joke. There it was. There was that joyful laugh again. The one that made Avi feel so much more uplifted, like the weight of the world wasn't on his shoulders.

Maybe that was part of her abilities. The power to hypnotise people with her laughter. There must be a valid reason why she was making him feel this way.

"What about you Avi?"

"Hmm wha'?"

"The young lady is asking what makes you special Arnold?"

He was too tongue-tied to tell Mitch to shut up as he quietly muttered, "Oh uh, I dunno...I broke a table earlier."

"And you should just see how he wields a chair!"

If looks could kill Avi would have changed his profession to staring at Mitch but like earlier Kirstie stood up smiling fondly at the cheeky boy and grabbed him in a choke hold, messing up his perfect hair like you might do with a little brother, although the two looked to be about the same age.

"He's not annoying you too much is he?" she asked while Mitch wriggled in her grip. "This little snake hasn't quite learned the art of tact yet," she teased, giving the boy a shake for good measure.

"I concede! I concede!" he cried out.

Yes, he is. Please rescue us.

"Nah," Kevin laughed. "I think he's hilarious."

"I knew I liked you Kevin," Mitch mused.

"You could come on the tour also," Avi found himself saying out of the blue. "So then we could have two perspectives."

He regretted opening his mouth from the moment he saw the knowing expression on Kevin's face and the wry smirk on Mitch's. "Ooh, Arnold doesn't think my perspective his good enough, does he? I'm good at impressions, I could give you a tour from the perspective of Christopher Walken."

Avi ignored to pest and pled his case to Kirstie. "I only thought you might want the break from–" he gestured to the her clothes, trying to justify himself.

"That's a kind offer and I would, but I really need to get this ready for tonight," she held up her costume so all the colours sparked under the sun's rays. "I'll see you at dinner before the performance though." She gave Mitch a push towards the others. "Behave yourself," she instructed.

The boy gave her a mock bow and skipped off, shouting at Kevin and Avi to follow him. "Ciao bella," he called out to Kirstie, while Kevin smiled and waved. Avi hovered around trying to think of something else to say, but nothing came and Kirstie began giving him a strange look; so he just gave a short nod and walked backwards awkwardly until he tripped up on a stray rope and turned embarrassed to the sound of that beautiful, melodic laughter.

Definitely one of my favourite meetings today.

Even if he'd made a fool of himself, suddenly circus life didn't seem too bad.

Only one more person to meet ;)