A Festival Disaster

“Stop asking if you can come with!” William shouted, “You’re only eight years old, and it’s your bedtime!”

“But I wanna go to the festival with you this year” the boy uttered.

“You can go when you’re 12, Noah.” William said back, as Noah sighed loudly. “I’ve got to go now, take care of gramps”

“are you meeting with Lilith this time?” Noah asked, “Because if you are, you ought to tell her that you have a humongous, ginormous crush on her”

“I will not- I do not have a crush on Lilith! And where did you get that vocabulary?

“with all the time you leave me home alone, I have time to go through bunches of works. I have recently delved into gramps’ poetry collection”

William stared at Noah blankly and said “you little nerd”

William pulled open the door to reveal a stunning girl in an even more stunning outfit. She wore a mustard yellow t-shirt and olive-green overalls that just went down to her knees. She wore matching green shoes with the laces designed like stars. Her beaded bracelets resting on her wrist, they were a tad bit too big for her slender arms. Her milk-chocolate colored hair in a braid that rested over her shoulder. William felt his face flush,

“you look great, Lilith,” he said, stumbling over his words, “perfect for a festival.”

“let’s go meet with the others, they are over by the river tree.” Lilith spoke.

The two started on their way down to the river to meet with their friends. As they walked through the rolling plains, William heard Lilith humming a sweet tune. She was the sweetest, most kind girl in the area, and she was friends with almost everyone.

When they got to the river, they noticed their friend group on an island in the middle of the stream. The island had a big apple tree that had been there for ages, even before William and the others were born. They walked across the drawbridge to the island and stood at the end of the bridge. He saw that his friend, Jamie, was almost at the top of the apple tree. She had always been a daredevil like that. A little ways below, also on the tree, was Roland, trying to keep up with Jamie, but in his sweater vest, he had some trouble climbing.

On the ground were Aimee and Cassian, sword fighting with fallen branches from the apple tree. Neither of them really know how to fight with swords, so it was really them just whacking each other with the sticks. It seemed like Aimee was winning because she could block the hits from Cassian. But Cassian was way more accurate and was getting more hits.

In the shade of a tree, William could see Rebecca reading a book. She was always away from the group, so he wondered if she was even their friend, or just hung out with them because she was lonely. Either way, she was a good person. She was a smart girl; she was just very reserved.

Cassian was the first to notice William and Lilith’s arrival.

“Hey! William’s here!” he shouted

That caught everyone’s attention and immediately stopped their activities. Aimee and Cassian picked up their bags and walked over to William and Lilith. Jamie started climbing down the tree, quicker than Roland could. She made it to the ground first and sprinted over after grabbing her bag that was at the bottom of the tree. Roland made it down after Jamie already got to William and Lilith, and he grabbed his bag and walked on over. Rebecca closed her book, put it in her bag, and walked over, but stood to the side.

“are we all ready to go?” asked Cassian.

“I suppose so,” Answered Lilith, “I hope we get there on time, also, Rebecca, can you lend me your lighter for the firework lighting? I want to try lighting one this year.”

The seven of them started walking across the plains. As they reached the festival, they could hear the dancing music, and they could see the red, blue, yellow, and purple flags and ribbons. The cobblestone was freshly swept, and they could smell the sweet scent of strawberries. William hated to admit that Noah was right, but tonight would be a perfect time to confess his feelings to Lilith.

It was still one hour after noon, so he had a while to think about how he would go about doing that. Under the fireworks would be the best moment, but he had to time it right. He knew that after he confessed, there would be no going back, no pretending he did not mean it. Lilith was a cunning girl; she would know he was lying if he tried to deny it or say that he was just joking.

After a few hours of sticking together, the split up and went back to their favorite booths, or the easiest ones to win. William knew that Jamie would want to win every prize she could. All of the girls went together, Lilith, Jamie, Aimee, and Rebecca, and all of the boys went together, William, Cassian, and Roland.  The boys knew that this was their chance to win tons of prizes and impress the girls.

About an hour and a half later, the boys sat down to eat at a vendor that sold many baked goods. They each ordered something, either a peanut butter jelly sandwich, or turkey and cheese, and then they sat down to eat.

“I hope the girls are having fun.” said Roland

“Thewy Probly arw” Replied Cassian, speaking with his mouth full.

“I hope we all make it to the town square in time for the fireworks” William remarked

“well if we meet up with the girls now, we will have an hour until sunset, and that’s when the fireworks start. So, in all technicalities, we have an hour until then. I’d say we are good.” said Roland, looking at his watch.

“we should head over back to the prize booths and see if we can find them.” said William

The boys got up and started walking towards the prize booths. On the way there, they saw Rebecca run crying from that direction. A little further down, the witnessed something they didn’t think they would see ever. Aimee was screaming at Jamie, and Jamie was being held back from lunging on Aimee by Lilith. At this point the boys were running to see what happened. Cassian got there first.

“What are you guys fighting about?!” Cassian shouted over Aimee’s screams.

Lilith was the one who answered; “Aimee started trying to help Rebecca with her looks and outfit, and called her a ‘fixer-upper’ and then Aimee said Jamie could use her help too.”

Aimee interrupted Lillith and screamed: “It’s not like I was wrong! Just look at her!”

William notices Lilith was starting to struggle with Jamie, so he stepped in, putting his arms around her and squeezing her in place, so she couldn’t move.

“LET ME GO WILLIAM” Jamie screamed.

“I cant, Jamie, listen, calm down, its going to be fine. Aimee didn’t mean anything by it”

“You know she did, she thinks she so much better than all of us”

“No, Jaime, she doesn’t. She may have some ego problems, but that’s all. Lilith, do you know where Rebecca went?”

“I’m not sure but I think she went back to the bench on the east side, that’s where we were hanging out before, so she knows that area and she liked the bench” answered Lilith

William said: “Roland, you and Jaime go find Rebecca, search in the East like Lilith said, Cassian, you go with Aimee and calm down somewhere, then search for Rebecca in the West. Lilith and I will search the North end, because its unlikely for her to go to the South because that’s near the swamp. If we don’t find her, we come back to the mid-point and ask the security for help”

“but why do we care about Rebecca, she never even talks to us much.” said Roland.

“Because shes our friend, and we need to care about her no matter what, no everyone go search.”

William went off with Lilith to go searching for where Rebecca went. They looked all around the North side of the fair. The two looked in every place that they though Rebecca might be. After around 15 minutes of no luck, Lilith said:

“How about we split up, maybe we will find her quicker”

“I mean, alright if that’s alright with you, don’t get lost” William responded.

They both set off in different directions in hopes of a quicker find. But just after Lilith had left, William heard screams coming from the direction she went. He started sprinting to Lilith’s aid, and what he found horrified him. Then entire booth row was set ablaze. People were running and screaming and trying to get away from the heat. William knew Lilith was around there somewhere, he only hoped that she was safe.

“Lilith! Where are you, Lilith!” he shouted, in hopes of hearing a response. When none came, he rushed into the chaos to find her. As he was looking, he saw a familiar person’s backside running away from everything. Rebecca.

‘shes probably running from the fire’ he thought

He finally saw the green overalls amidst the chaos. William ran toward the color and grabbed Liliths hand. Together, they ran towards safety: a nearby field by the river. When they got there, he let go of her hand and sat down, panting.

“im.. so glad.. your ok” he said, breathing heavily in-between words. “do you… know what started… the fire?

“you’re not going to like it if I tell you, William.” She responded

“why not?”

“William, I think it was… Rebecca”

“…”

“I think I saw her with a lighter in her bag while we were at the apple tree.”

“n-no…”

“William, we can’t trust her. We have to tell the others”

“wait, are you sure you saw the lighter in her bag? Are you saying this is a premeditated attempt?”

“I think I am saying it’s a premeditated attempt”

He sat there and pondered for a while about what she was telling him. After a few long moments, he looked at her and said one word.

“No.”

“what do you mean ‘no’” she responded.

“I mean no, she may have had her lighter with her today, but just before we left the tree, I know for a fact that she gave it to you. You said you wanted to try lighting a firework this year. She gave you her lighter”

For a moment she looked at him in surprise, perhaps in the fact that he had caught that interaction, the next moment, her fist collided with his face, and he was on the ground, cheek throbbing.

“you’re thinking crazy, William. It couldn’t be me”

“why would you light the festival on fire?”

“None of you are any different anyways, I did what I had to do”

“You, How dare you!” he shouted “You lied to us all, betrayed us, how could you?”

“easily,” she uttered, looking at the boy with disgust, “there was nothing I couldn’t do with you by my side, William.”

“wh-why..”

“mother always said hanging around idiots would make me one too, that’s why I had to get rid of them, one by one. You’re lucky though, you caught me on the first victim.”

“Lilith, why did you do that, you could have just stopped talking to us”

“because I wanted to stay with one of you, I wanted to stay with you-“

“William!” they heard Cassian’s voice ring out from behind them.

Cassian ran up to William and helped him up while saying “What’s going on, did you get hit?”

“Cassian, Lilith is trying to pick us out one by one, she started the fire, she’s going to try something, go stop her”

Lilith didn’t make it too far before Cassian caught up with her. He held her arms behind her back and waited for the others to show up.

“I told the others to meet me here and I sprinted”

“how did you know we were here?” William asked Cassian

“I saw you leading a certain arsonist away from the fire with a lighter in her other hand” Cassian responded

“ohhh ok yeah I’m a little dumb for not noticing that” William sighed

Jamie, Aimee, Roland, and Rebecca showed up a minute later. Apparently, Roland had found Rebecca hiding after she ran from the fire. Together, they took Lilith to the security office and told them they had found the fire starter. After sharing each of their stories, none of them could believe Lilith would do that. They all thought she was a sweet girl. Turns out she had let her mother inside her head and that guilted her into trying to ruin the friendships between them all.

“I still cant believe you were gonna confess to that monster, William” Cassian said

“what- What, how did you know??”

“dude, we’re best bros, of course I’d know who you like. And it was pretty obvious”

The kids night ended in laughter, and the each went home. When William got home, he called:

“Noah! Have I got a story for you.”

The End <3