Chapter 21: Is this a festival!?

I slowly open my eyes and stare at the ceiling. What a horrible sleep. I was too worked up about trying to repay Claire for what she did for me. I really hope she got a good sleep.

I would have loved to help her with the paperwork, but the Old Man told me that it was to help Claire learn how to properly fill out complex paperwork without making mistakes.

I’m glad my criminal record is not something important to the rich. But just think. A person that is only 19 years old having a criminal record that would make most jail wardens wary of me.

Oh well… I guess I am just focusing too much on these things. If I worry about it too much, stress will build up again. That isn’t good for myself or the people around me.

I need to calm down. My life has been too hectic, and I’m used to it, but I wish I could relax a little at this school now. The first month was okay because it was just like that, just a slow build up until shit hit the fan. Not a regular fan either. The kind that spins so fast that it would take flight if it weren’t attached to the ground.

I really wish my parents….

No. I am digressing again.

Focus Logan. It’s not that hard, just get ready for the festival and stop thinking.

……

“Let’s do this!” I stretch my body after finally getting ready in some casual blue jeans and a thick sweater. The temperature was fairly cold, I guess winter is approaching.

I look at the watch I had recently gotten and check the time… 4 am…

I guess I have a bit of time… and it explains why I still feel tired. If it’s 4 am, and I went to sleep after all that…… 2 hours of sleep.

Oh well. Should be fine for a single day. I’ll just sleep earlier tonight. Hopefully…

In the meantime, let’s make a call… The line connects quickly.

“Oh, I think this is the first time you’ve called me, and so early in the morning at that. What is it that you need?”

“Hey, Old Man, I need some help with something.” I had called the Old Man, not expecting that he was awake or that he actually gave me his personal number.

“It involves Claire, am I right?” I hear the Old Man yawn on the other end.

“Ah, yes… and sorry if I woke you up.”

“Nope, I haven’t slept yet. Anyways, Claire… she is still sleeping, so it is safe for us to talk.”

“Okay… not sure that really matters… but I need to know what I can do for Claire. She has helped me so much and all I have done is be utterly useless. I mean, she is such a wonderful person that has given me so many things and so many chance despite how often I mess up, I-”

“Gonna stop you there.” The Old Man interrupts me with a sigh, “First things first, stop being a depressing bitch. No woman will like that. Stand proud. You are the future owner of a massive worldwide company. I can assure you that it will not be easy to run, but you will learn to enjoy it and the time you currently have. Live without regrets, but know that you have to live with the choices you make. Now, that being said, the next step to making Claire happy is just to stay with her and make her happy.”

“Okay… I understand the first part… but you lost me at making Claire happy is a simple as making her happy.”

“Simple. Ask her. Ask her what she wants. You are overthinking things! Simple… so very simple… now. I have to sleep so that Claire doesn’t suspect me of finishing the work for her after she fell face first on to the desk and started drooling.”

“Oh… drooling? I didn’t know she did that.”

“Only happens when she sleeps at a desk. Also, I had the maids mover her to her bed not long after she fell asleep so she should be in peak condition for going around with you today… probably. Offer to carry her princess style. She said she enjoyed that at the wedding, and even though it was only a couple stairs, she would probably like if you stayed on the ground this time.”

“Yeah, I don’t really know what came over me then…”

“Oh well. See ya round Logan. Oh, you may want to work on your conversation skills a little bit. Try to be more supporting of what you say, and if you need a bluff, make it at least sound believable. You did decent last night, but not good enough. Anyways, I’m tired”

The call disconnects as the old man hangs up before I could retort anything he said. I guess he is right about a lot of things… no, everything.

Hold my head high and be a man who can run a business.

I need to be able to support Claire. Admit my faults without lowering myself and overthinking it.

Onwards!

To a brighter future for myself and for those close to me!

……

“Hiya, Logan!” Claire gives me a bright smile.

“You ready for the festival, Claire?” I smile back at her, not a trace of any other emotion but pure happiness made it into my smile.

“Yeah!” Claire walks over to me to grab my hand, but I instead take the lead and go at my own pace, kissing her quickly.

“Today I will do my best to treat you like I should have. I have messed up plenty of times, but that doesn’t bother me anymore. I love you, Claire. And I always will, no matter what.” Her mouth hangs open not knowing what to say, her face shows lots of surprise. “Ah, I also have taken the liberty of memorizing where every stall is from a-z, including numerical stalls. If you would like to go anywhere first, just let me know. Also, I hope we can have a great time today.”

“Uh… who are you and what have you done with my real husband?” Claire looks at me with a joking look.

“Killed him and threw him in a ditch, never to return.” I smile at Claire, playing along with the joke.

“Good, never liked him anyways.” She sticks her tongue out at me as we walked towards the stalls hand in hand.

“So where would you like to go first?” I look to Claire as we start walking forwards.

“Hm… maybe something for breakfast. I am kind of hungry.”

“Of course, there are plenty of places that are going to have something for breakfast, would you like a traditional breakfast like pancakes and the like, or would you like to try something else?” I carefully go through my memory in order to remember where everything is.

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“Logan?” Claire looks at me with a weird expression.

“Yeah?” I tilt my head in confusion, “What’s wrong?”

“Aren’t you… going a little overboard?” Claire smiles at me, but I realise that I may have just suddenly changed too much and was maybe forcing it a little. I need to calm down and make sure this is a great day for Claire. That is the goal… calm down and be more relaxed.

“Ah, sorry, I guess I was just too excited. Instead of a barrage of questions, would you like to walk around to see what there is?”

“Sure!” Claire smiles as we continue to walk.

……

“Ah, like I thought, these are the best pancakes!” Claire and I had found a large tented area with tables and chairs set up.

What made this place better was the fact that the stall had prepared the batter and let the customers cook the pancakes themselves at their table. The reason my pancakes were so delicious was because they were prepared by Claire.

“Thanks. Now I want to see you make one Logan!” Claire enthusiastically watches me prepare a pancake for her while eating the one she gave me. I have to say, these are quite filling. The pancakes puff up nicely when they are cooked… I wonder if I could get the recipe from them if I asked nicely.

“So tasty!” I take another bite while serving Claire the pancake I had just made her.

“So good!” Claire said that while stuffing her face with the pancake…

I think I should have made her pancake first… but she did steal the batter we were given before I even had a chance to think about it.

……

“Next we should play some games!” Claire literally drags me around the festival despite me being the one that memorized the entire layout.

“What game would you like to try first? There is a whole section… left, turn left here.” I tell Claire to turn so that we go the correct way… but she turns right…

“Okay, then… this way…” Claire sulks as she drags me the opposite direction of the games section, “I told you to stop acting like that. We are going to have fun. ‘Kay?”

“Yes!” I quickly agree with Claire… I really suck at this calming down thing…

……

After spending roughly two hours at the entrance to the clothing section, we walk together towards the games.

“So, Claire… which games would you like to play…” I carefully ask her trying not to sound like a tour guide again.

“Hm… I would like to try games where thinking is involved… I ask that you guide us this time.” She gives me a playful wink as I laugh.

“On it. We should try the only game I can remember where there should be a lot of thinking, giant chess.”

“Sure!” Claire happily drags me along to the giant chess boards.

……

“But… how? Only 4 moves!”

“It was luck! I just got lucky!” I try to comfort Claire who was on her hands and knees.

She slowly stands up and runs over to another game.

“I demand a rematch in something else luck based!”

……

“No way! I refuse to believe you did that well!”

“I’m sorry!” I bow slightly to Claire.

We went to a stall that had a machine that would randomly choose a set of numbers, after getting the numbers, you would move the position of a slide in a wooden box, using various coloured wooden slides.

Needless to say… I got a larger prize than Claire… of course, I gave it to Claire, but that was not enough to pacify the rage that had been created from the loss of a [probably] luck based game.

……

“I guess a sandwich really is a good lunch, good choice Logan.” Claire smiles to me as she finishes her sandwich.

Claire let me choose what we ate for lunch… I literally had to stop trying in order to let Claire win the games in the games section… she is horrible at them…

I guess she didn’t really play with them all that much if I could have offered a guess, but that level of skill is just atrocious. I mean, is it possible to not get a single ring on a peg at a ring toss game, when given twenty tries? Is she trying to make me cheer up?

I yawn quite loudly and it gets the attention of a large amount of people

“Logan… You look tired… are you okay?”

I shake my head and smile.

“Nope. I am fine as long as you are Claire. Where would you like to go next? We still haven’t looked at the entire clothing section yet. They might have some really nice clothes there.”

“Uh, sure.” Claire looks around nervously.

“What’s wrong Claire?” I ask as I see that she really isn’t paying attention to what I was saying.

“Where are all those people heading?” I look to outside the tent to where Claire was pointing, there was a group of people standing in a large circle around a man on a podium.

Claire and I walk over to see what was going on. I don’t remember that this was going to be an event.

“Hello attendees of the festival! We now have enough people to start this thing off!” The man standing on top of the podium wearing a jester’s outfit. “Time to start this year’s scavenger hunt! Last year, we did the same thing, only allowing a select few to enter the scavenger hunt! Come test your knowledge and sign up for the hunt!”

Claire smiles widely as she sees this, I wonder if she really wants to do this.

“Let’s go sign up before we can’t! This may be the first year I get to participate!” Claire drags me into the crowd to go sign up.

The man keeps repeating his speech while more and more people flock to the sign up area.

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Hello everyone! 

Like promised, another day, another chapter.

What can I say here? Um... Hi? So... how are you guys? We hit 333 followers and almost have 20 ratings. I think that is some form of accomplishment. I think.

Anyways, I keep having this feeling I'm forgetting something, but don't remember it at all... 

As usual, have a great day/night!