Circus Summer (Circus of Curiosities Book 1) (6 page)

            He moves off.             Beside me, Thomas grabs my hand again.

            “You could still back out,” he says.

            Doesn’t he understand? I lean down to kiss the top of his head. “I could, but I won’t. You’re a good friend, Thomas. Mason, you need to take care of Mom while I do this. I know it won’t be easy, but I’ll try to get back when I can, and Thomas will be there to help, right Thomas?”

            Thomas stands, brushing back my hair. For a moment, he’s so close to me. “I’d do anything you needed, Leela. Even taking your place here, if you ask. Let me do this, and you can stay with your family.”

            It’s hard not to be shocked by that offer. Thomas would really do that for me? But no, I can’t accept. This is for me too. I
want
to be part of this. Something bigger than just life in Sea Cliff. I lean forward and kiss Thomas on the lips, quickly, impulsively. At least, that’s what I intend it to be, but when Thomas’ lips meet mine, it feels like more than that. His hands spring up to cup my face while he kisses me back. It’s sudden and unexpected, but he pulls back while I try to catch my breath.

            Dr. Dex is announcing the names of the people he’s selected now, calling them out from the center of the circus ring. I run down to join him, and find myself standing next to Zachary Niles, so close that we’re almost touching. Dr. Dex calls his name, and people applaud.

            “And our final performer, who has joined us because only the Center can provide the medical help her mother needs. I think you’ll all agree that’s a touching story, and she’s that pretty girl you’ve all seen at school, around town. Now she’s in the greatest show on Earth. I give you… Leela Sinclair!”

            There’s more applause. Zachary leans over to me during it, whispering. “You’re here because your mother’s ill? I was wondering why you’d do it. I’m sorry to hear that.”

            I nod. It’s still hard to talk to him, because I can feel the familiar blush starting around him. “Thank you.”

            I try to figure out why he’s here. It can’t be for the money. Yes, the daily rate is enough to feed a family for a week, but his parents run the biggest store in town. They have money. It must be something else. Whatever it is, I guess it doesn’t matter right now though. What matters is that I’m in. I’m a part of the Circus of Curiosities.

Chapter
6

Zachary

I
stand in the center of the Circus of Curiosities’ ring, staring up at the people in the crowd. There are so many of them there. People I know and people I don’t, so that it seems like almost everyone from Sea Cliff is here, looking at the few of us who have been chosen. They stare down and they clap, like we’re already heroes just for having signed up. Or maybe it’s for getting sent down into the ring when almost half of the people on the list don’t make it even that far.  I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t been one of them.

            It’s hard to believe just how mesmerized everyone is by the circus. I guess it’s because there isn’t much entertainment around Sea Cliff. Circuses, fun fairs and things like that pass through occasionally, but most of the time, we have to come up with our own entertainment. That means things like watching the school sports teams, or the town fairs that run every couple of months. Simple things like that. I’ve heard that in other places, there are more complex entertainments. TVs and radios, words half remembered from the past. My parents are some of the wealthiest in Sea Cliff thanks to their store, but even they don’t have anything like that.

            We have stories instead. We’ve always told each other stories. My grandfather used to tell stories about the Circus of Curiosities, and the time it came through the town years ago. He didn’t describe everything he saw there, but he described plenty. Maybe it’s because of Grandpa’s old stories that caused me to see this place in my dreams, and my nightmares. I see the ring. I see the performances…

            I see Dr. Dex. I recognized him the moment I first saw him. I’ve seen that figure in the top hat and long coat so many times. I’ve seen that
face
so many times. This is where I’m meant to be. Right here, in this ring. I knew it the moment I set foot in the place. I think Dr. Dex knew it too, because he barely asked me anything before sending me down to stand here.

            I’m not alone. All the others are here. I know some of them. Banford and Ellis are two hefty guys from the football team. Banford plays defense, while Ellis is on the offensive line. At practice, that means they spend a lot of their time crashing into one another. On Banford, it shows. He’s maybe six two, massively built, but his face already has that kind of squashed look that comes from getting hit too many times. Ellis is still baby faced and handsome, with features that seem almost too young for him, on a body that’s even taller and broader than Banford’s.

            There’s a thin guy I don’t recognize. He’s as tall as Ellis, but he’s stick thin, without much real muscle. He’s dressed in what look like old clothes, or maybe they’re just the best he can afford. I’d write him off as just a wannabe who isn’t going to get very far, except that I can see his expression. There’s a kind of determination and intelligence there that says he isn’t going to give up or stop, no matter what he has to do in the circus.

            There’s a girl who’s easily the same size as any of the guys. I recognize her from my class. I don’t really know her. She sits at the back of the class like she’s trying to make sure that nobody notices her. She isn’t fat, she’s just muscular, though she also looks as feminine as any of the other girls there. She wears her red hair long, spilling in a ponytail over one shoulder, and she’s wearing casual jeans and a t-shirt.

            There’s another girl, whose name I don’t know again. She looks younger than the rest of us. In fact, I think I recognize her as a girl from a couple of grades below me in school. She’s kind of sweet and pretty looking, with pixie cut blonde hair and blue eyes. She doesn’t look old enough or strong enough to be here. Except that she looks every bit as determined as everyone else. I guess I’m not going to be the one to try to tell her that she shouldn’t be here.

            There are two more guys, who look kind of ordinary. One has short brown hair, the other blond hair, and they joke with one another like they know each other. I don’t know them. I don’t even think I’ve seen them before. Maybe they live outside the town, on one of the farms there, or maybe they’ve come over from the next town to take part. The same goes for the athletic looking girl standing near them. She has short dark hair and a very serious expression, but otherwise she looks as ordinary as the other two. Maybe that’s why she’s here. Maybe she wants the chance to be extraordinary.

            Maybe that’s why they’re all here. They must have reasons. For some of them it will be the money. For some it will be the kind of local fame that comes from getting a place in the circus, and maybe the chance at more than that if we get through to the next stages. Or maybe it’s just that this is somewhere they can fit in. I guess a lot of the kids here are ones who don’t really fit in at school, and the circus… well, it’s a chance for people to finally see them as something more.

            Does that include Leela Sinclair? She’s standing right next to me, and she looks amazing in the delicate yellow dress she’s wearing, with those dainty sandals on her feet. Everything about her is beautiful. Her name. Her face. Her hair. Her body. Even her scent, which carries to me this close, smelling of jasmine and gardenias.

            I’ve seen her around. Of course I have. It’s impossible not to notice a girl that beautiful, even if she doesn’t seem to realize just how beautiful she is. I’ve seen her at school, at my parents’ store, walking around town, at that restaurant she works at…

            And I’ve seen her by the beach. I’ve seen her stand at the top of the cliffs in just a bathing suit, and not been able to stop myself from staring. With a body like that, I had to stare. And when she dove off… I thought she was mad, until I rushed over to the cliff and saw her swimming happily below. That was an incredible dive. I’ve seen her swimming out over the beds where there are oysters and clams too, diving for them as easily as if she were just swimming lengths.

            I’m surprised to see her here, but I think I can understand her reasons. She needs what the Center has. Her mother needs it. To her, this probably looks like the only way to get there and get what she needs to help her family. And I have to admit, knowing that actually makes me think even more of her. There aren’t many people who are prepared to do so much for the people they love.

            Plus there’s something else about her…a determination in her large green eyes, the color of sea form. I’ve dated plenty of girls. Ashley Wheaton, who has decided that we’re dating at the moment, is up in the stands. She’s sitting with her parents, wearing a baby blue dress that suits her a lot, but I don’t look at her for long. She’s most of the things Leela is. She’s good looking, she’s smart, she’s athletic and most of the time she’s kind to the people around her. She’s been willing to do a lot with me too. She’s a lot of fun like that. Yet I can’t imagine her down here, ready to take part in the circus, whatever it takes. She doesn’t have that fire to her. That intense, burning desire to get what she needs.

Some days, I think she’s only dating me because her parents have told her that it would be a good idea to end up with the boy who’ll own the local store one day. Although now, she probably likes the idea of dating someone who has been picked to take part in the Circus of Curiosities. I guess her friends are going to be pretty impressed by that one.

            If it weren’t for Ashley, I think I would have asked Leela out on a date yesterday, when I saw her checking out the notice board. I would have asked her, and the best part is that I don’t even know for sure whether she would have said yes. I mean, she has a boyfriend already. At least, I assume he’s her boyfriend. Thomas Tattenbaum certainly acts like he is whenever he’s around her. And he always seems to be around her. Somehow, that idea makes my stomach clinch.

            I look up into the stands, spotting him. He doesn’t look happy about Leela being here. He’s probably the only one who isn’t, but I can’t blame him. If I were going out with Leela, I wouldn’t want her caught up in the circus either. It’s a dangerous place. In fact, just standing here next to her, picking up the scent of her and seeing the way she looks, a possessiveness comes over me. I want to tell her to go back to the stands. To get away. I want to try to keep her safe. I don’t know why. It isn’t like I’m anything to her, or she’s anything to me, but I feel it anyway.

            Dr. Dex comes around, shaking the hand of each kid accepted into the circus. When he gets to me, I feel that intense sense of familiarity again, and I feel something pressing into my palm. I take it, glancing down to see a folded piece of paper in the center of my palm. The ringmaster of the Circus of Curiosities has passed me a note? Why? I won’t know until I look at it, and I know that if he has to slip it to me secretly like this, I can’t look at it while I’m here.

            I look to see if he does the same with Leela, because maybe it’s just some kind of test or instruction for everyone, but there’s no sign of it. He just shakes her hand and moves on. I try to make sense of it. Has he recognized me the way I recognized him? What does this mean for me? For Leela?

            Why am I thinking about Leela? The answers to that are obvious. She’s beautiful, smart, wonderful. She obviously would do a lot for those she care about…that’s why she’s here. All those things and more. I want to get to know her better. I want to keep her from getting hurt. I want to know how those amazing full lips of hers would taste against mine. How those green eyes of hers would look when they’re filled with desire… Yet this is the one place where feelings like that are going to be a liability. This is the Circus of Curiosities, and from now on we’re going to be in competition with one another, the same way that we’ll be in competition with everybody else here. I have to assume that Leela knows what she’s getting into.

            Do any of us, though? Despite all the stories, do we really know what happens at the Circus of Curiosities? Maybe not, but I do know that I can’t afford to keep thinking about Leela, even though my body wants her. Even being this close to her is a distraction. I have a mission to perform, the most important mission of my life, and that has to come first.

Chapter
7

Leela

W
e still have to go to school, which is kind of surprising. I guess I was expecting that the circus people wouldn’t care about that kind of thing. They’d be too busy getting us ready for the performances. Yet one of the first things Dr. Dex said to us last night was that we had to keep going.

            “Your education is important. The circus lasts only a little while. You will need to be ready for the rest of your lives. Anyway,” he added with a smile, “it isn’t like we’re starting straight away. Your performances won’t start for another two weeks.”