Welcome to Gaia! ::

The door was answered by Sam himself. He was wearing his usual summer outfit, and looked like he was ready for a fair. The dark-haired boy was wearing plain jeans and converse sneakers with a plaid short sleeve button up shirt. A blotch of white sunscreen was on his nose; Sam was trying to rub it in with his free hand. “Moooom, Lily is here! Can I go now?”

Sam’s mother, Delia, came down the stairs simultaneously trying to put in a pair of dangly earrings. “Hi sweetie, excited for school to start?” Once the earrings were in place, Delia went for her purse and pulled out a couple twenty dollar bills, handing them to Lily instead of Sam. “We really appreciate you taking him today Lily. Robert and I, we wanted to, but you know how it is, things come up. I’m sure you two will have more fun then we would have though.” Delia smiled, “and just make sure Sam doesn’t spend all that in one place. There’s enough there for rides and food, and a bit extra for the gas money. Have fun you two!”

Sam took Lily’s arm and ushered her out the door, waving good bye to his mom. “I thought she’d never shut up.” Sam laughed a bit.

“You could say that.” Sam scratched his head a little when he replied.

It wasn’t so much that Sam had cabin fever, it was more like he was bored out of his mind with the last few days of summer. His mom wasn’t much help either. There was always a bit of a nagging notion that he should go out and play like a normal kid. But when he did go out, it wasn’t often to play, and his mother worried about the times he came home. Being a senshi was draining work. Stressing about what lies to tell his parents about where he was going didn’t help.

Being a normal kid for one day, and doing something completely normal was exactly what he needed. He gave Lily a grin. “I just wanna eat hot dogs and cotton candy and ride the roller coaster till I puke. And then ride it some more.”

Sam followed Lily to her car and hopped into the front passenger seat. He all set for a day of normal kid adventures.

Like a typical kid, Sam was much more excited about the idea of sugary treats and crazy wild rides then games. The thrill of whooshing down a slope at crazy speeds and ramming into other people with bumper cars. Sam was a boy, what could anyone except but for him to like speed and cheap thrills.

The idea of games and winning prizes never even entered his mind until Lily mentioned it. Like a competitive male, Sam puffed up his chest. “I’ll win you something!” She’d like that right? And if he was especially lucky, maybe he could win something else for another, smaller, friend of his.

Sam turned the radio to the general top 40s station. It was just what he was used to, all the other kids at school usually listened to it. The ride was over before too long.

When they arrived at the fair the duo had to line up to enter and get their ride passes, but soon enough they were through the gate and greeted with the bright whirling lights and sounds of the fair.

Sam glanced at Lily, reading her face as she looked at all the rides with wide eyes. While the idea of sugar appealed to him, he was drawn to the rides and he knew Lily would probably enjoy something fun and musical. Maybe not the scary roller coaster just yet.

“What about that one?” Sam pointed to a ride that was called ‘Round the World’. It had loud thumping music and a background painted behind it of different iconic places from around the globe. Watching it go around once, he saw the ride spun backwards and forwards at various speeds; it started nice and slow until it picked up the pace. But it was relatively small and only a slightly incline. It couldn’t possibly be too bad for their first round of rides.

Running after Lily, Sam wasn’t far behind her, and he caught up with her in the line.

He looked to where she had pointed, taking in the sight of the mirror fun house. Not exactly what he would normally think of as a fun ride, wandering through a place that just made you look at distorted images of himself. But he could hear the laughter that was coming from the place, giggling girls stumbling out. Lily would enjoy it, and he got to pick first. “Sure!”

Before their turn on the ride came up, Sam watched the carts go around, trying to figure out with one he wanted to ride in. He was really specific about colors or numbers. Spying a flashy red one, like Lily’s hair, Sam decided he wanted to be in that one. “Hey Lil! Let’s go for that one when we get up there.”

Soon, they were let through the gate and Sam raced off to get the 'good seat'.

Right there with Lily, Sam was laughing the whole way through the ride.

It was over much faster then he would have hoped. When it stopped it took him a few seconds to really gain his barrings when he got out of the cart. But when he did, he lead Lily off to the mirror fun house. He had never been in one before, so when they were allowed to enter, he let the redhead take the led.

Mirror after mirror, Sam laughed at his distorted image. He made faces at himself, enjoying how when he bit his upper lip and pulled a face, one mirror distorted his head to look huge. Sam ended up looking very much like an ogre. In each mirror he did something different, until he got to the strange room were all he could see was reflections of himself and Lily. She had gotten ahead of him.

In most of the mirrors, it looked like Lily was standing next to him, but in reality she was nowhere near. “Where are you?”

Sam thought he saw the real Lily, and ran around a corner to catch her, but it was again just a tricky mirror. The darn things were messing with his head. “I can’t find you!” Sam huffed.