Girls’ Day Out

By Nightheart

"Oh relax Mari-chan!" the older and supposedly wiser and more mature

girl said as she batted her hand disarmingly with a wide smile on her

face. Mariemaia Kushrenada, the elegant and precocious seven year old who

always insisted at maintaining an air of dignity and refinement at all

times, glared at her older cousin.

They had just gotten off a breathtaking ill-making stint of three times

around some cagey seat device in which they were locked into a little

cockpit-looking cage and strapped down and the whole cockpit was whirled

around and around like a ball at the end of a string. Before that it

had been four times on a wheel that tilted on its side and spun. And

before that it had been some kind of hellish torture device in which a

central unit went around and there were branches of the central unit that

went around and seats on the ends of those branches that spun so close

to other seats as they passed that Mariemaia was certain she was going

to collide with them at any moment, but like well choreographed dancers

they just managed to miss one another.

"Don't call me -chan," she grumbled, trying to straighten her clothing

and her hair but gave it up as a lost cause. "I don't want to be here

at this plebian festival. It's in the open air and parts of it smell

strongly of animal. It's far from elegant."

"Of course you want to be here kiddo!" Midii said. "All kids love the

circus. Besides, you need to get out more. Socialize. This is the

funnest way in the world to get out of the house."

"Out of the house my foot... you kidnapped me!" Mariemaia accused.

Midii grinned it off.

"Well you needed it," Midii insisted without a single hint of remorse.

"You act too much like an adult. It's peacetime, kids are supposed to

be acting like kids."

"And you think that this... this," Mariemaia made a grimace of distaste

as she passed the rear end of a large grey elephant. "This exercise in

absurdity-"

"Nice alliteration."

"(Thank you.) You think this exercise in absurdity is going to somehow

magically make me like any other normal seven year old?"

"Oh I don't think you have to worry about being normal Mari, but it's

nice to get out from under everything and just have fun for a while

y'know."

"No. I don't," Mariemaia said dourly.

"Well, don't you worry, I'm gonna help you fix that," Midii said

cheerfully, completely unfazed by her reluctant charge's lack of enthusiasm

for the project.

"I can hardly contain myself."

"Let's see, what next? Games or shows?"

"They have games here?" Mariemaia said, paling a trifle at the thought

of her dear cousin buying a ticket for the game in which one person

wins a free pie of they can hit their partner in the face with one slung

from a tricky catapult.

"This circus got attached to the county faire so yeah, there's games,"

Midii said absently scoping the place out and trying to figure out the

best way to get ahead in line at the ticket counter.

"What sort of games?" asked dubiously for the reason stated above.

"The best kind. The kind where you win lots of prizes of you know how

to get around their tricks and honey you're looking at a pro. There

isn't a trick made that I can't get around."

"How about we eat first cousin Midii?" Mariemaia suggested brightly as a

way of forestalling the inevitable.

She'd been hauled out of bed by an overexcited Midii Une earlier that

morning who had announced that there was both a fair and a circus in town

and wouldn't it be fun if the two of them went together? "No,"

Mariemaia had tried to reply, but she hadn't listened then, just as she wasn't

really listening now when Mariemaia was trying to indicate she wanted

to go home. She'd been wanting to go home since she'd arrived. This

place was dirty and somewhat smelly and full of people that vied with the

characters of the freak show for weirdest looking humans around. There

was grass and dust on the gound, some kind of plebian mystery food that

didn't truly look fit for human consumption to eat, and a whole lot of

stuff that looked stupid to a person with anything resembling any

sense! It was, in a word... inelegant. Mariemaia even stood a chance of

getting her clothes mussed and her shoes scuffed up. She'd gone from

"Future Ruler of the Earth Sphere" to "Poor Relatives Saturday Entertainment"

and Mariemaia was not pleased with the change. In the abstract sense it

was nice that Midii Une was trying to bond with her, but couldn't she

do it in a way that was more refined?

"Oh, are you hungry?" Midii said in startlement, then smiled widely

again. Mariemaia began to get that suspicious feeling along the back of

her neck. Her cousin had some pretty strange ideas concerning amusement.

She loved anything that would get a reaction out of people; the bigger

the reaction, the more Midii loved it.

"On second thought, maybe I'll wait a while," Mariemaia said.

Midii scooped her overly-serious little cousin up into her arms and

perched her on her shoulder. Midii had never in her life met a child so

determined to be boring. Midii had three younger brothers, but she'd

always wanted a younger sister; someone she could take to go see children’s

animated movies so she wouldn't be embarrassed at being a nearly grown

woman and buying a ticket for one, someone she could dress up and play

with her hair and help her pick out her clothes. And here she'd been

given this little bundle of snobbish haughtery that thought everything fun

was immediately beneath her. Her favorite line being "Dekim say's

that's only for plebeians." She didn't play, she didn't shop and her idea of

entertainment was a rousing game of chess. Midii was going to teach the

child to loosen up, laugh and have a good time if it killed them both.

"Okay then! Let's go play some games. I'll win you the biggest stuffie

I can find. Say, what's your favorite game?" she asked as she dragged

Mariemaia in a bee line for the game section.

"Games are for children," Mariemaia replied tossing her head and

sticking her nose into the air.

"I don't want to alarm you but... you are a child," Midii said. "I

thought we talked about that."

"Humph," was her disdainful reply. Midii smiled widely again. She saw

up ahead, her favorite game in the whole fair. Ever since she was a

child she'd loved this game.

"If this doesn't make the child laugh, nothing will," Midii muttered.

Up ahead, shining almost beacon like in the afternoon sun was an

enormous tank of water. Hovering above the tank of water was red and white

bulls eye attached to a small bench with a crack downt he middle. Perched

atop the bench was a serious eyed young man with half a clown mask.

"No monkey suit?" Midii said in a little disappointment. "Oh well, at

least they found one of the serious clowns... its always much funnier

when you see them go down!"

She walked up to the crier who was shouting his advertisement to attract

customers. The clown was bone-dry and there was no one about so Midii

guessed that they hadn't been very successful that afternoon.

"Three balls three tries... hit the target win a prize!" the man cried.

"What can I do for you two young ladies? Would you care to give it a

try?"

"Midii, this is stupid," Mariemaia complained. "It's obvious that this

is a scam!"

"Which makes it all the funnier when you see the look of surprise on

their faces as they plunge into cold water," Midii replied then she

quickly checked the water for suitable temperature. Good, nice and chill.

Midii handed her money over to the crier in the purple and pink

pin-striped suit and her handed her three plastic balls. Three extremely light

plastic balls.

"Hey!" Midii said in indignation, hefting the balls. "These balls are

from the ball pit; they're so light that even if we do hit the target

the trigger won't release! What a gyp!"

"What were you expecting?" Mariemaia said flatly. Midii handed the girl

on her shoulders a ball and Mariemaia tossed it at the target. It went

a little too far to the left and ricochet off the side of the target.

"Do you want to try again?" Midii asked sweetly, offering her another

ball.

"Why bother? It's obvious the game is rigged. Why should I waste my

efforts on something that's doomed from the start?"

"Oh Mariemaia, you should know that nothing is impossible," Midii said.

She took the girl off her shoulders, gave the second ball an

experimental toss then whipped it at the target. It hit within the red, but

bounced off the target harmlessly, leaving the clown with the overly sober

expression frustratingly dry.

"See?"Mariemaia said smugly. "Told ya!"

"I still have one try left," Midii muttered, examining the target and

her options.

"Do I have to use these balls?" she asked the crier plaintively.

"Sorry miss, those are the rules," the striped one said, not sounding a

bit sorry.

Midii weighed the ball in her right hand, her face forming into lines

of intense concentration as the wheels in her head turned trying to come

up with a solution. Then her face lit up and she smiled. She dunked the

hollow plastic ball into the water; tiny bubbles, accompanied by a

plip-plip-plip-plip-plip-plip-plip sound that rose in pitch emitted from

the water. A few seconds later Midii hauled her hand out of the water,

smiling at her own ingenuity, and whipped the ball as hard as she could

at the tauntingly red target. It hit dead on the mark. The ball, now

weighted with water, had enough weight and mass behind it to push the

target inwards.

The serious clown fell immediately with a very satisfying splash when

he hit the water. Midii caught the flicker of surprise in his face as he

found himself suddenly weightless and laughed. It had been every bit as

rewarding as she had hoped it would be. After a second the clown's head

appeared above water and Midii cheered then turned to her younger

cousin scooping her up to spin her around then hopped over to the counter

displaying the prizes for winning.

"I did it! Now, which little stuffie do you want; the pink teddy bear

or the green frog with purple spots?"

"How can I decide? They're both equally ugly."

"Well, I guess I'll just have to try for a better one then," Midii said

with undaunted cheer.

"Hey Mariemaia," the clown said suddenly, hauling himself out of the

water.

"Trowa!" Mariemaia cried in a mixture of surprise, dismay and chagrin.

"I didn't realize that it was your circus that was visiting town! I

didn't even recognize you out of uniform, you look so..."

"Wet," Midii supplied cheerfully with a giggle. Mariemaia had the

feeling that this had just made her dear cousin's day. Sometimes, Mariemaia

though the elder girl operated purely on schadenfraude.

"Different," Mariemaia corrected.

"You two know each other?!" Midii said in astonishment.

"He works for my mother," Mariemaia clarified proudly.

Midii looked at her a little strangely.

"Your mother employs circus clowns?" Midii said dubiously. Then

muttered to herself

"Well, I guess that makes sense; it is a government run agency after

all. A circus clown would be about the only person capable of crawling

around inside the goofy minds of the state bureaucrats, but still..."

"I thought you said you didn't care for the circus," Trowa said,

ignoring the remarks about the Preventers and his off-time occupation to

address Mariemaia directly.

"I don't," Mariemaia said, crossing her arms over her chest and tossing

her head in hauteur. "My stupid cousin kidnapped me and dragged me

here against my will."

"Hi," Midii said with a cheerful wave as she offered her dry

handkerchief to the dampened fool. "I'm the stupid cousin."

The clown gave her a look that was markedly cool, even frigid. Midii

glanced around for ice forming around her. The clown turned away to

resume his post, notably less dry than when he had started.

<Brrrrr,> she thought. <There's something awfully familiar about that

look. Maybe he's mad at me because I got him all wet.>

It made the most sense so she plucked up the little pink teddy bear,

mentally promising she'd win Mari something else, and followed the clown

with the half-mask, weird hair, a stupid frilly collar around the back

of the booth.

"Hey clown! Wait!" she called, jogging to catch up with him. He paused.

When she reached his side, Midii took his hand in hers palm up and

deposited the little pink teddy bear in it.

"No hard feelings about the dunking thing!" she said. Then she smiled

one of her billion watt smiles, winked and tiptoes to kiss him on the

cheek.

"You've been an absolute prince!" Then she spun on her heels and

trotted off shouting. "Come Mariemaia! The teacups await!"

He touched his cheek where she had kissed him as he watched he walk

back to Mariemaia and the two wandered off together; the child protesting

loudly and vehemently (No no I don't wanna!) as Midii swung her up onto

her shoulder a-la fireman’s hold as she faked a booming evil laugh.

"Ohhhh-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho! Now you know the true power of the dark side!

Join me and together all of the world cotton candy will be ours!"

"Lemme down Midii! This is most undignified!"

"Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! It's all part of my plot for global domination!"

And the two girls faded into the crowd, probably in search of mischief

or cotton candy. But likely both.