Johnny Rami:
"Aahhh," I cry. Opening my mouth wide, I breathe in and out while fighting back tears and fanning my tongue with my hand.
"Aw, man," I say. Despite the tears in my eyes, I am still smiling.
"I don't remember it being this hot. It had been way too long since I last had some city fair's clam chowder."
Taking one last long, cooling breath, I scoop up another spoonful of hot, steaming chowder while exploring around the fair. As I walk, enjoying all the bright and colorful signs, I see dozens of things I want to do.
"I could throw some ping-pong balls and hope they land in the lily pad. My aim has gotten better over the years. Then again, I could shoot water into a clown's mouth."
I look at the prize, a stuffed pizza with a smiling face.
"I prefer the pizza over the ping-pong's bee."
As I keep looking at the stuffed pizza, my stomach grumbles again. I try to get another spoonful, but instead, my spoon hits the bottom of the empty bowl.
"Darn."
Throwing the empty bowl and spoon into a nearby trash can before looking for something else to snack on, I stop when I hear some shouting. Turning, I see a large crowd of people jumping up and down.
"What in the world?"
A little curious, I walk over to the massive crowd and am surprised to see that the entire commotion is being caused by two people.
Dressed oddly in oversized hoodies, the two people are, I think, one boy and one girl. They're playing the Dance-Dance-Dance Off Game. From the looks of it, the two have chosen to work together, not compete. They're dancing and getting high scores.
"Amazing," the game shouts, "Stunning! Unbelievable! 50 times! 100 times! 200 times!"
"Keep going," someone from the crowd yells.
"Go," someone else yells, "Go! Go!"
"Hahaha!"
I can't help but start to get into the mood myself. Especially when I see the boy wearing goggles and earmuffs do a backflip and land on two arrows simultaneously. I start smiling and jumping, shooting my fist into the air and cheering.
"You got this, earmuff, goggle-wearing boy. Seriously, it's like 90 degrees here. How is that guy not hot?"
I keep watching as the boy and girl stomp their feet, slide, and do a bunch more hip-hop moves! When the song finally ends, the two are clearly out of breath. They drop against the railing, gripping the bars for their dear life.
"Wwooo," the girl cheers, shooting her hands into the air. "We did it!"
"What the—," I think. "That girl? Her voice? It sounds so familiar, but why? And now that I think about it, so does the grey jacket. But where have I seen it before?"
While trying to remember where I heard the girl's voice or where I've seen that jacket before, the girl and boy wait for the game to tally their total score. When the game screen shows everyone an impossible score of 9999 times, we all cheer and congratulate.
"Yeesss," the girl shouts. Turning to her partner, she runs up and gives the boy a big hug. As the boy hugs the girl back, his earmuffs slip off. As they fall, the boy's ears pop out. His very long, pointed, pitch-black ears?
The cheer and congratulations stop. We all look at the boy and the girl as they scramble to put his earmuff back on, but it's too late. As the boy bends down to grab the earmuff, a little boy walks onto the stage and grabs one of the boy's ears.
"Hey, Mom. Why do these ears look funny? Are they costumes?"
Despite the distance, I can still hear the boy's voice as the little kid pulls him further down.
"Ouch," he cries. "Ouch! Ouch! Let go. Let go. Please let go!"
"Okay," the girl shouts, running and then pulling the two apart. "That's enough! That's enough."
Letting out the fakest laugh I have ever heard, the girl turns to the surrounding crowd and raises her hands.
"Don't worry," she says, "Nothing to see here. Nothing at all. These are fake. They're toys! Yeah, toys!"
As the girl keeps trying to explain the boy's ears, she pushes the boy behind her. Then, two more people, one wearing a purple hoodie and the second one wearing a long trench coat and a hat, climb onto the stage. They grab the boy while the girl grabs the earmuff and walk away together.
"That girl is protecting her friend," I think. "She's acting like a shield. Wait, a shield? She is protecting her friend."
I slap myself on the face for not seeing it right away.
"Tichi! That was Tichi! That voice belongs to Tichi! And the jacket? It was the same one she wore when she visited my father in the hospital. Why didn't I see it before? Ahh!"
As her three friends disappear behind the Dance-Dance-Dance Off game, Tichi follows them. I don't want to miss my chance to talk to her. I did it once, and I regretted it almost immediately. Despite everything she did to me, I still care about her.
"Excuse me," I yell, "Excuse me! Coming through!"
Pushing through the crowd, I climb onto the stage and try to follow her. I run around the game to the back, but don't see her or her friends anywhere.
"Shoot! Tichi, where did you go?"
Ms. Justice:
"We should go back to the OutPost," I say, handing JumpStart the earmuffs. Watching as JumpStart puts on the earmuffs, his elf ears are covered again.
"Listen, guys. I just want to say thank you for this. I know this is way out of your comfort zone, coming out here with all these people and playing the games. It wasn't easy, and you didn't want to do it, but you guys still did it for me, and I really appreciate it. Thank you again."
Smiling and bowing my head, I turn and look around. Seeing no one from the crowd, I turn back to my friends.
"All clear. We can leave now."
Nudging my head, we walk out from behind some food stands and head for the fair's exit.
"Stay behind me," I whisper. "Please don't draw any more attention."
"Should've thought of that before you and JumpStart started dancing and drawing a crowd," QuickShot says.
Hearing this, I lower my head.
"No, wait. Justice, I didn't mean it like that. I just--"
"Hold thy tongue," SpeedBlade says, bumping QuickShot in the arm. QuickShot also lowers her head.
"Yeah, I'll, uhhh, hold my tongue."
I place my hand on SpeedBlade's shoulder.
"It's fine. Come on, guys. It's getting late. We should leave. Besides, I did everything I wanted to do."
Nodding and smiling, I start leading everyone toward the exit. As we walk, I see a few other things: the Hall of Mirrors, the massive Funhouse, and even the Wavy Slide.
I sigh and pick up the pace. Seeing the large sign in the distance, I stop when I hear a familiar voice.
"Tichi! Tichi!"
Turning around, SpeedBlade almost bumps into me. He stops, his feet scraping against the wooden dock. QuickShot and JumpStart bump into him, but he manages to push them back.
"Ouch," JumpStart says, rubbing his goggles. "What? What's going on? Justice, why did you stop?"
"I'm sorry. I thought I heard something."
"Tichi?"
"Wait, did any of you hear that?"
"Hear what exactly?" QuickShot asks.
"I can't hear much with these itching earmuffs on. Ahh, I cannot wait to take them off at the OutPost."
I listen again before seeing someone familiar in the crowd running toward me.
"Johnny?"
"Who?" QuickShot asks, turning around to look at the crowd.
"Uhh. I'm sorry, everyone, but please, give me a moment."
I leave before QuickShot, or anyone else, can say anything. I run through the crowd, disappearing into it. Ducking and hiding behind a game booth, Johnny follows me. We stand a few feet away. I raise my head and look at him.
"Hey, Johnny. No, I mean John."
"Ha," John says, letting out a small chuckle. "You know I don't like John. I always prefer Johnny. John is way too formal for me."
"I thought I wasn't allowed to call you Johnny anymore."
"Yeah, I had a change of heart."
Letting out another small chuckle, Johnny scratches the back of his head before looking at me.
"Where—where have you been?" Johnny asks. "I mean, I tried your old address, but someone told me you left. Well, they used a different word."
"My old address? Wait, you visited my house. My home? I haven't been there in years."
"No kidding. The only things occupying your home now are dust bunnies. Tichi, what happened?"
I open my mouth to say something, but don't hear a sound.
"What happened?" I repeat these words. My answer, whatever I was about to say, gets stuck in my throat. I can't breathe. I feel water filling my eyes. A cold shiver runs down my back.
"Hey," someone says, grabbing my shoulder.
"Ahhh!"
Screaming and turning, I see QuickShot standing in front of me. Looking at her, I quickly wipe my eyes and clear my throat.
"Quick--QuickShot. Wha-what are you doing here?"
"I came to find you," QuickShot slowly replies. "Justice. Why are you crying? Is everything okay?"
I don't answer, or I can't. Instead, I turn away and keep my head down.
"Justice?" QuickShot asks.
"Tichi?" Johnny asks.
Both QuickShot and Johnny reach out their hands. Before either of them can say or do anything, they stop. We hear screaming and shouting. Only, this isn't the happy, fun-time screaming. This is people shouting because of danger.
I raise my head and see an entire section of the dock collapsing. The people who were standing on it fall into the ocean below.
"The dock," I shout, pointing at the dock as more of it falls into the water. Johnny and QuickShot turn and see people running away.
Running toward the collapsing dock, I drop to my knees and grab a man clinging to a broken plank of wood.
"Sir," I say, "Hold on."
As I grab and pull him up, I notice something. A large wave hits the dock, shaking it and causing more parts to fall into the water. As the top of the wave reaches the sky, something shoots out of it. It lands on the dock. It looks like a monster, with green and orange skin and fish scales.
"What is that?" Johnny yells.
I didn't get the chance to answer. As if one monster isn't enough, a second appears. Hearing a shrieking sound, I look up and see something flying in circles in the night sky. Whatever this monster is, it lands on the crowded dock, breaking the weakened wood as its massive claws slam onto it.
This monster has hairy, brown skin and two giant wings beneath its arms. It looks like a giant bat with two long, sharp teeth sticking out of its mouth.