Elliot was quite nervous going to the circus with his friends. It was a fine autumn afternoon in the obnoxiously loud Gold Hay City, and he was just walking down the lane casually planning on paying the Ringling Circela another visit when his homies and classmates decided to tag along with him.

"Hey Leo!" his best friend Lincoln casually called to him across the street. Elliot looked up and found him, Jason and Matt in their sports wear, sweating so much they completely soaked their shirts, making them appear as if they were drenched in a huge thunderstorm.

"Oh, hey dude. What's up?" Elliot said, watching his friends jog towards him, a light blue basketball clutched in Matt's arm. As the three young adolescents approached Elliot, so did a trio of girls. The leader was talking aloud to her friends when she bumped into Elliot. She scowled, hastily brushing dust off her snow white blouse and red velvet skirt "Watch where you're going you sl- oh. Elliot!" the girl exclaimed, recoiling in surprise. Just a second to where she and Elliot were before, their faces were an inch away, super close to performing an accidental kiss.

Elliot felt his jaw tighten. He licked his lips and tried for a smile. "Good afternoon, Arabella," he said, trying to sound gentle. In reality though, his words came out through a bar of gritted white teeth. As the redhead, now called Arabella, stared at Elliot with a red face, the blonde behind her merely blinked at Elliot, both their emerald green eyes clashing with each other in a silent glare. "Good afternoon, Amanda," Elliot said, studying Amanda's white shoes, its styrofoam laces tied untidily. The girl continued to stare at Elliot, her hand on Arabella's shoulder. A huge arm dropped itself onto Elliot's shoulder, the stench of sweat watering Elliot's eyes slightly. "Hey there beautiful," Jason casually said, finger gunning and winking at a girl with curly dark hair and coffee coloured skin. The girl stared at the Canadian for a bit before colour began to rise onto her cheeks. Elliot casually shoved his friend's arm off his shoulder. "Get your sweaty armpit off my shoulder," he said, scowling and taking off his ginger tinted glasses so that he could rub away the tears formed in his eyes.

"Dude, in front of Samantha?" Jason whispered.

"Don't care." He wore his glasses and pushed them, making sure they were secure on his nose bridge. "Anyways... I assume that you three came from basketball practice and you three..." Elliot faltered as he faced the three girls. "I'm not gonna assume anything about you three."

Matt swallowed, pressing a button on his basketball, causing it to shrink into the size of a ping pong ball. He stuffed it into his pockets and clasped his hands together. "SO, uh, Elliot," he said aloud, clearly trying to clear the tension between his friend and the trio. "Where were you going? It's... quite unusual of you to not be at the library at this time." Everyone's gaze immediately burned into Elliot, their eyes hungry with curiosity.

Elliot mentally facepalmed himself. Of course, the library! Why wouldn't he be there, doing his homework and borrowing more books?
But no, his friends JUST happened to have found him anywhere BUT the library.

It seemed that from this day onwards, he cannot keep lying to his friends that he would always be in the library after school, so Elliot wrung his hands and inhaled. "I uh... recently found this circus-"

"The Psychedelic Circus?" Lincoln cut him off, bouncing on his heels excitedly. "Dude, FINALLY! It's about time man, you've been missing out a lot-" Elliot chuckled nervously, cutting Lincoln off.

"N-no Linc. A different circus."

All his friends including the trio looked at him curiously, Lincoln especially dumbfounded.

"What?"

"T-there's another circus. At the very far end of the city," Elliot stammered, trying to explain.
"It's not very famous or well known, but the shows are pretty nice and the people there too. I even befriended the Ringmistress and all the members there so uh, I'm basically paying her and the others a visit." He specifically didn't mention Lavandula, for he was fully aware of her relationship with the girls standing in front of him.

Arabella looked at Amanda, then Samantha. She arched her brow. "Ringmistress?"

Elliot nodded, rolling his eyes. "Yes, Arabella. Ringmistress. She's a woman. A very nice woman. Anyways, I'm going to be late if I keep staying with you guys. See y'all at school." As he turned and took a few steps, Lincoln and Arabella shouted at the same time.

"Wait!"

Elliot felt his shoulders slump and his legs coming to a stop. He turned to find all 6 of his classmates catching up to him. "Can we come Leo?" Lincoln asked. "I'm interested in visiting a circus that has a woman for a Ringmaster."

"So are we," Amanda added for Arabella.

Elliot peered at them suspiciously. "Are you guys sure? I don't think the Ringmistress allows herself to get hit on by boys two years younger than her. And I definitely don't think she likes being judged or insulted in front of her audience."

Lincoln slumped whilst the girls pretended that they didn't say anything. Elliot sighed and turned around. "Alright, but don't complain about the... environment, when we get there. All of you."
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Elliot stepped through the entrance of the Ringling Circela, gripping his backpack and looking around for Yesenia. As he searched, the girls inspected the seats, occasionally whispering snide comments to each other about the hygiene or talking about how badly decorated the tent is.

"I bet when the Psychedelic Circus opens again, it will be much more grand and cleaner than this... Ringer Circle," Arabella stated, chuckling. Elliot scrunched his brows, silently cursing him and his kind heart for inviting those three to come with him. Unconsciously, he seated himself on a bench, his friends and the girls following in. He sighed as he stared at the empty spot of the stage, wondering where the Ringmistress was.

Suddenly the curtains tore open, revealing the wanted woman herself strutting through. She appeared to be deep in conversation with her brother, masked with the reason for avoiding judgement or fear because of his eyes.. Elliot got up and jogged towards them, worry and excitement building up. "Yesenia!" The Ringmistress stopped and looked up, surprised to find Elliot. "Eli! Hi!' she faltered as she watched the six new kids follow Elliot from behind. Elliot followed her eyes and turned to find his friends behind him. "Oh, Yesenia. These are my friends. This is Lincoln-"

The boy with blonde hair as golden as Angela's waved, his cocoa eyes glinting with interest.

"This is Jason-"

The boy with acorn hair and ice blue eyes held up his hand. "Sup."

"This is Matt-" The African Ameritain boy smiled, nodding at Yesenia. Elliot then waved his hands at the girls. "And I think you might know Arabella, Amanda and Samantha."

Yesenia blinked and looked at the three girls, kindly keeping a poker face on. She peered at them with her obsidian eyes. "You must be Arabella," Yesenia said, reaching a hand out to the redhead for her to shake. Arabella stared at the fingerless-gloved hand and took a step back, refusing to shake Yesenia's hand. Yesenia then directed her hand towards the strawberry blonde. "You are Amanda."

Amanda crossed her arms and hummed in displeasure, her gold bracelet jangling from her wrist. Yesenia's brows knitted in exasperation.

"And uh... you..." she turned to the Mexican girl. "Samantha, is it? Nice hair." The girl stared at Yesenia with her amber eyes for a while before snapping out of her stance and nodding, her method of thanking new people.

Yesenia forced a smile. "Hi. Yes. Welcome. All of you."

Yesenia inspected all of them again one by one before Elliot quickly cut in to break the ice.

"S-so uh, guys this is Yesenia, the Ringmistress," Elliot said. Arabella and Amanda threw her a few dirty looks. "And he's Yong, the director and brother of Yesenia," the orange boy pointed at the masked man, all dressed in black. Yong waved awkwardly at the group, his mask expressing no more emotion but a blank smile with crosses for eyes. Yesenia shifted her gaze to her brother, then to Elliot and his friends. "You guys are just in time, we're about to start another show. It'll begin in about... 15 minutes, so go to the restroom or get some snacks or explore, I gotta go prep alongside with the others," she said. She then took off with her brother, exiting the tent.

Everyone's eyes quietly followed them until they disappeared outside the curtains of the main tent.

"I'm hungry," Samantha stated.
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As the boys argued over which seat would allow everyone to receive the best view, the girls made their way towards the snacks tent. "This circus is so poor, they don't even have a proper amount for an audience!" Arabella stated, occasionally scoffing and rolling her eyes when she saw a member of the Circela. "They all dress so poorly! Do they not have other uniforms that fit the definition of supremacy?"

"I don't think they can even afford uniforms as great as the Psychedelic Circus, Bella," Amanda said, smirking. The girls burst into a fit of laughter, Samantha joining in without being aware of what was so funny.

Soon, they reached the entrance of the Snacks Tent. Arabella stepped into the tent and was greeted by a waft of aromatic sweetness.

Yet... the sweetness smelled terribly familiar.

Like the echo of an old memory.

"Welcome to the Ringling Circela's Snacks Tent, how may I help-" a monotone female voice rang out. The trio turned their heads towards the source of the voice and almost jumped out of their skin to find their old arch enemy, Lavandula.

"...you..."

Scowls immediately began to form on the girls' faces; Ava's brows slowly knitting themselves together.

"Good afternoon, Arabella, Amanda and Samantha," Lavandula greeted, her pose stiff and frozen. Arabella approached Ava. "I thought you had money," she said, peering into Ava's empty gray eyes. "Oh wait, I know. You only had help from that Saccharine company. That's why peasants like you could only manage to go to a school like Plutus High!" the girls began to laugh tantalizingly. Ava merely stared at them, showing no fear nor any agitation towards Arabella's snide comments.

"Do you want something or did you just come here to bully me?" she asked. The girls immediately went back to scowling. "I can see why you work here," Amanda began. "In the circus of peasants. It's because you literally BELONG here!"

Fortunately for Ava, before the girls could start laughing again, a man came right by Lavandula's side, his gaze as hard as brick.

"What's going on here?" he asked, his British accent thick with fury. The girls blinked and recoiled in surprise. The man placed his hand around Ava's shoulder protectively, fire dancing in his coal black eyes. "I heard your little... conversation here. That was not very nice of you rich people to do that to my little sister."

"Sister?!" Samantha exclaimed, receiving a huge nudge from Amanda.

"They don't even look alike..." Arabella murmured.

"Yes. my sister," the man confirmed. "We may not look alike, but my sister is not adopted.

"Anyways, the name's Caster Latifolia. I'm the manager and the boss of the Snacks Department. And in the Snacks Tent, we only do snacks. Not bullying nor any harassing.

"So, do you girls want anything? Or not?"

The girls looked at each other, slightly intimidated and afraid. "Yeah, w-we do."