Forever (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale, #5)(13)

“Yeah, I see it, buddy,” she answered. “So what are we going to do, Mina?” She leaned forward to ask around Ever.

Brody turned to Mina and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “I’m sorry, but I really ought to go in and work the rest of the day, or the guys will kill me. You can jump into Nan’s car, and I’ll swing by tonight when I’m done.”

Mina looked over to Nan’s car and saw Charlie jumping up and down in excitement, pleading with those big, brown eyes. It might be just what they needed.

She sighed. “I’d hate for you to get kicked off the team for shirking your duties. But I think we should all go in. It should be fine. We’re surrounded by hundreds of people.”

He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “You’re the best.”

She smiled slightly as Brody pointed out an empty spot for Nan to park in up ahead. He did a U-turn and pulled into a spot that had just been vacated.

Thankfully, he was so worried about his missed volunteer spot that he didn’t ask her again about his class ring. But he did grab her hand as soon as they were out of the car and met up with the others.

With a squeeze of her fingers, he said goodbye and then ran to the volunteer line to check in before disappearing into the fair.

The group walked out by the football field and fell in line behind others waiting to pay to get into the fair. When it was their turn to pay, Mina was pleasantly surprised to see Melissa, Makaylee, and Julianne selling tickets.

“How many?” Melissa asked, opening the cash box.

Mina eyed the list of ages and ticket prices. “One student and one child,” She pulled out enough money to cover hers and Charlie’s entry tickets.

“How many ride tickets do you want?” Julianne piped up and pulled out a roll of pink tickets. “Everything is two tickets, and each ticket is a dollar.”

“Okay then, twenty,” Mina handed over the bill and paid for the tickets.

“Be sure to check out the dunk booth,” Makaylee whispered to Mina. “You won’t want to miss it.”

“We won’t miss it,” she answered, unsure of the hidden message.

Ever and Nan met up with them on the other side of the ticket tables.

“Highway robbery,” Ever scoffed.

“It’s a fundraiser,” Nan corrected. “We do this to raise funds.”

“Well, the rides better be good after what I paid to get in.” She held up her wad of pink tickets and made a joke of emptying out her pocket.

They started with the food vendors. Ever stopped grumbling when she got a cotton candy as big as her head. Charlie munched away happily on an elephant ear while Nan skipped joyfully and waved to each of the students working the booths.

They came upon the infamous dunk tank that Makaylee had suggested they stop by, and Mina was surprised to see how long a line it had. The cheer squad was running the dunk tank. Mina couldn’t help but slow down and stare as the one and only Savannah crawled up to the seat above the tank of water and perched on the edge with her pom poms.

Mina watched in fascination as one of the basketball players, Avery Picket gave his money to take a shot at the target.

“Oh Avery, you don’t really want to hit that target and get me wet, do you?” She smiled sweetly at him. “How about you give another donation, and I’ll let you take me out on a date.”

He paused in his throw and tossed the ball up and caught it in his hand. “How about Friday?” he asked.

She turned in her seat, and Pri held up a date book and shook her head. “How about three Fridays from now?” Savannah smiled and twirled her hair.

Avery thought about it and said, “Deal.” He tossed the ball into a large bucket next to the dunk tank. Someone had plastered a big old white sign with red letters over the word “Dunk,” changing it to “Date.”

So instead of Dunk a Cheerleader, the squad had turned it into Date a Cheerleader. Mina watched, amazed, as almost every guy lined up booked a date with either Savannah or one of the other girls.

When a girl did make it to the line and chose to toss a ball at the target, they either didn’t have enough power to make it to the target or they had terrible aim.

“You gotta admit that’s pretty genius,” Nan chuckled. “Wish I would’ve thought of it first.”

“Yeah, well you didn’t,” Ever grumbled, following Charlie as something caught his eye.

He stopped in front of a milk-can toss and stared in awe at the large wooden popgun prize.

“Three throws for five dollars,” the wiry carnival vendor coaxed. He was in his thirties and was one of the traveling fair’s employees.

“There’s no way we can win that, it’s rigged.” Mina tried to dissuade him from the game.

“Nonsense,” the vendor replied. “It’s easy as pie.” He came over to their side of the booth and, with one easy lob, tossed the softball into the milk can.

Charlie lit up. He wasn’t going to leave the booth until he had at least tried the game. So they wasted five dollars on the game to watch the ball spin around the top and roll right across the opening. Instead of falling into the hole, it rolled up and over the side. Charlie was devastated.

“Too bad. Maybe next time.” The vendor smiled, showing tobacco-stained teeth.

Ever slapped five more bucks down and gave Charlie a wink. “My turn.”