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[sub][b][color=silver]Pines Holler Fairgrounds · July 4th
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[justify][indent][indent][indent][indent][color=#808080][i]Huskers has been running at a particular kind of controlled chaos since Anna Lou arrived this morning. She moves through the lunch crowd now with the ease of someone who has done this long enough that her body knows the floor plan better than her conscious mind does: around the end of the bar, between the two-top by the window, a half-step pivot to avoid the swinging door to the kitchen, and back again. It is loud and warm despite the generators doing their best, and she has already refilled the same table's sweet tea three times without being asked, which is either good service on her part or a personality trait. She has never been entirely sure which.

She sees the coaches' table before she has to think about it. Hard to miss, really. Principal Jenkins has a way of occupying a room that goes well beyond his physical footprint. She's served him before, too, so she knows the type. Still, she picks up her notepad and goes over it anyway because that is her job, and Anna Lou has always been good at her job.

[color=#4DBDB5]"Hey, y'all. Sorry for the wait. It's been a morning."[/color] She says it with a smile that has been disarming people since she was sixteen, her pen poised in her hand. [color=#4DBDB5]"What can I get for everyone?"[/color]

Elias had noticed Anna Lou as soon as he entered the bar and grill. Huskers was already close to full, the lunch rush spilling across tables and barstools, but she stood out in the chaos, the calm within the storm. By the time he’d slid into the coaches’ table, he became more aware of the noises around them, but it was the voices at the table that caught his attention. The older coaches had noticed Anna Lou as she moved towards the table. The O-line coach nodded to the D-line coach and Elias heard them laugh between themselves, [color=#ffffff]“Hell, Hawkins, remember her in high school? Wish I’d paid more attention to her back then.”[/color] The other laughed something softer that Elias couldn’t make out but he knew it wouldn’t be any better.

No longer surprised, he bit his tongue. The endless banter between the coaches about the high school girls and the women of the town was no better than the junior and senior boys on the football team, but Elias always tried to stay out of it. He hated to think they had talked about his sister this way.

When Anna Lou asked, [i]“What can I get for everyone?”[/i] Elias answered first, trying to avoid the conversation at the table, trying to steer the focus back to the food and away from the server.

[color=#00aeef] “Hey Anna Lou,”[/color] he said, voice steady. [color=#00aeef]“Can I just get the Cajun Chicken Burger sandwich and fries? Maybe a water.”[/color]

Anna Lou's pen scratches against the notepad, and she nods without looking up. [color=#4DBDB5]"You got it."[/color]

Across the table, one of the other coaches leaned back in his chair, smirking as he glanced between Anna Lou and the men at the table. [color=#ffffff]“Well now,”[/color] he muttered loud enough for everyone to hear, [color=#ffffff]“Huskers is definitely hiring better these days.”[/color]

Jenkins had been watching Anna Lou since he first came into the restaurant, his attention settling on her as she moved through the room. Even as the coaches complained about the heat, he seemed to always know exactly where she was.

When Anna Lou finally approached the table, he leaned forward with an easy grin. Even though the other coach had gotten a laugh, all eyes turned back to the principal and he knew he had the attention of the men at the table and smirked up at her.

[color=#0c823d]“I wouldn’t say that,”[/color] Jenkins said smoothly, picking up on the other coach’s comment. His eyes followed Anna Lou with a quiet, practiced confidence. [color=#0c823d]“I think this place just got a lot prettier. We might have to come in here more often for our coach’s meetings.”[/color]

Something prickles at the back of her neck, but Anna Lou's smile does not change. If anything, it brightens out of that deep, reflexive instinct to make everyone at the table feel comfortable and cared for. [color=#4DBDB5]"Well, I appreciate that,"[/color] she says lightly, her pen still ready. 

After hearing Elias’s call for water, Jenkins added, [color=#0c823d]“And Anna Lou, we need a few pitchers of beer. I’ll get the Club sandwich, sweetheart, fries with gravy.”[/color]

[color=#4DBDB5]"Club, fries with gravy,"[/color] she repeats, her voice a pleasant hum. [color=#4DBDB5]"Pitchers of beer. Anything else for the rest of you folks?"[/color] She lets herself glance at Elias again as she says this, trying to place the face without making it obvious that she’s trying to do so. There is something about him beyond the way he had ordered water when everyone else would probably want beer, and the fact that he had said her name as if he knew her. The moment lasts only a second before her gaze returns to the rest of the table who had yet to order something to eat. 

While Anna-Lou repeated the order, Elias kept his eyes on her. Embarrassed by the older coaches, he tried to will the men to be polite, tried to remind them that they were married or partnered, pillars in the community. Beside him, Johnson, the O-line coach chuckled under his breath. [color=#ffffff]“Hell,”[/color] he muttered, leaning back in his chair, [color=#ffffff]“girl like that oughta come with dessert.”[/color]

A few of the other coaches laughed but Elias felt his chest tighten. Before the comment could turn into something worse, the younger coach shoved his chair forward hard enough that the legs scraped sharply across the floor and bumped against the edge of the table.

[color=#ffffff]“Damn it, Petterson,”[/color] Johnson barked, catching the water glass before it tipped. [color=#ffffff]“You trying to spill this on me?”[/color]

The noise cut through the conversation for a moment. A couple of the coaches looked over, then Jenkins laughed.

[color=#0c823d]“Easy there, Elias,”[/color] Jenkins said smoothly. [color=#0c823d]“Man’s just appreciating the scenery.”[/color]

A few quiet laughs chuckled around the table, then Jenkins glanced toward Anna Lou again before looking back at Elias, the smirk never leaving his face.

[color=#0c823d]“Truth is,”[/color] he added a little too loudly, [color=#0c823d]“I think Petterson here’s forgotten how to have fun since he came back to Pines Holler.”[/color]

Elias? Elias Petterson!  
So [i]that[/i] is who her apparent defender is.

He was never someone Anna Lou knew well enough for sharp detail, but what she could remember was that he had been the kind of boy teachers trusted. The kind who held doors and turned in homework on time and never got written up for anything truly serious. Football, she also thinks, though she couldn't have told you what position he played or what his stats were; she was never particularly invested in the game itself. 

Anna Lou wonders, briefly, when he came back. And why. Because surely someone like that was capable of making a name for himself elsewhere as well. But here he is. Sitting at the coaches' table, which means he must be coaching now himself, or interviewing, or something, ordering water of all things and looking at her like he was trying to remember her, too. Or perhaps…he already does. 

She tucks the thought away before it goes any further and looks back at the table with the same easy smile. [color=#4DBDB5]"I wouldn't worry too much about Elias. Pines Holler has a way of reminding people how to have a good time,"[/color] she says, her voice light. [color=#4DBDB5]" I'll be back with those drinks in a few."[/color] Then she turns before Jenkins can open his mouth again or before ‘sweetheart’ can make another appearance and heads back behind the bar.

As soon as Anna Lou stepped away, Coach Johnson grinned after her. [color=#ffffff]“I’d like to let her remind me how to have a good time.”[/color] 

A few of the older coaches chuckled and Jenkins shook his head, though the smile on the principal’s face made it clear it was more laughter than admonishment.

When another coach joked, [color=#ffffff]“Keep it in your pants, Johnson.”[/color] The men laughed louder and Elias stared at the tabletop for a moment before pushing his chair back.

[color=#0c823d]“Where you headed?”[/color] Jenkins asked.

[color=00aeef]“Bathroom.”[/color]

Nobody paid much attention after that and the banter and bullshit at the table resumed before Elias pushed his chair back in and under the table.

The coaches were still laughing when Elias manoeuvred his way between the crowded tables. The farther he got from them, the easier it was to breathe and think. He headed toward the back of Huskers where the hallway darkened beside the kitchen entrance. The swinging door burst open before he reached it and Elias stepped aside instinctively. When Anna Lou came through carrying a tray loaded with glasses and nearly walked straight into him, Elias stepped back immediately to give her room.

For a second she just looked at him, recognition flickering across her face.

[color=00aeef]"Sorry,"[/color] Elias said with a small smile.

He glanced back toward the dining room where another burst of laughter rose from the coaches' table.
[color=00aeef]"And sorry about them."[/color]

The tray tilts just enough that she has to drop her weight back on her heel and recalibrate, one quick automatic adjustment that keeps everything on the glasses where it belongs. Anna Lou looks at him for a second. Up close, the recognition is cleaner than it was from across the table. Elias Petterson, confirmed, in the dim light of the hallway beside the kitchen door.

[color=#4DBDB5]"It's fine,"[/color] she says, about the almost-collision. Then his eyes cut back toward the dining room, and the second apology comes. [color=#4DBDB5]"Also fine. Occupational hazard."[/color]

She adjusts the tray against her hip and looks at him properly for the first time. [color=#4DBDB5]"Petterson, right?"[/color] she says, as if she hadn't already placed him a few minutes ago. [color=#4DBDB5]"Anna Lou Caudill. We graduated together, I think."[/color] 

[color=#00aeef] “Yeah, Elias.”[/color] the teacher replied, a grin on his face.. [color=#00aeef]“We graduated together.”[/color]

[color=#4DBDB5]"Small world,"[/color] she says, which is the most honest thing Anna Lou has said since she’s been here today, most likely. Because it [i]is[/i] a small world, isn't it? Small enough that a boy she barely remembers from high school ends up sitting at a table full of men who talk about her like she's not standing right there. Small enough that she finds herself standing here, tray digging into her hip, wanting to say something else but not knowing what.

No matter, someone calls her name from the kitchen—[color=#ffffff]"Anna Lou! Sweet tea's up again!"[/color]—and the moment folds itself back into the noise of Huskers. She delivers the coaches' drinks without incident, except for Jenkins making one more comment, which she does not acknowledge. Instead, she nods, smiles, and moves on to the next table. 

The afternoon stretches long and loud around her. The lunch rush bleeds into the early afternoon crowd, which bleeds into the pre-dinner lull that is never really a lull, just a brief moment to breathe before the next wave. She refills drinks she didn't pour and clears plates she didn't serve, and by the time the crowd finally begins to thin, her feet ache as they usually do after a shift that runs longer than it was supposed to.

Anna Lou unties her apron and folds it over her arm, and says goodnight to whoever's still behind the bar. Marco, one of the evening bartenders, waves without looking up from his side work. The dishwasher, a kid named Trevor who is failing English but shows up on time every day, also nods at her from the kitchen doorway as she makes her way to the front entrance. She steps out into the evening air, warm and smelling like pine and someone's grill a few trailers over. The sun is low, gold-orange, catching the dust motes that float up from the gravel parking lot. Then, she breathes in deep, the first real breath she has taken since she walked through the doors this morning, and starts the short drive home.

Gerald is sitting on the porch when she drives up, which means someone left the screen door open again. Anna Lou sits beside him on the step the way she'd sat beside Dennis earlier that day, and for a while she just lets the night settle around her. She thinks about the Fourth, which is in a few days, and about what she’d ended up agreeing to. [i]Catch up properly[/i]. She had said it lightly, too, but Elias had nodded like he actually meant it. Like he would actually show up and keep his eyes peeled for her. 

She's not sure why she's still thinking about it now.  Or she is, a little. She's just not ready to say so yet.[/i]

[hr]
By sunset the place was packed. Kids ran through the crowd carrying sparklers while parents hurried behind them, reminding them to behave. Pines Holler was in full celebration mode, and the smell of barbecue and mini donuts filled the hot, humid evening air while music drifted from the temporary stage at the centre of the fairgrounds.

A half-finished beer in one hand, Elias stood near the stage watching half the town wander past.

[color=#ffffff]"Coach Petterson!"[/color]

He turned to find three of the high school players making their way through the crowd.
For the next ten minutes, Elias found himself trapped in a series of conversations with students, parents, former teachers, and people who remembered him from years ago. Everyone wanted to talk football, ask how things were going, or welcome him home. Not one of them mentioned the dreams he'd once had of leaving Pines Holler for good, leaving Pines Holler and never coming back.

Just as the last of the players walked away, Elias finally let out a slow breath.
He took a sip of his beer and let his eyes wander over the crowd.
And that was when he spotted her.

Anna Lou has been at the fairgrounds for about an hour and has already run into more people than she can keep track of. That is the way of these things in Pines Holler, however. You couldn’t exactly expect to walk twenty feet without someone calling your name and asking after your family or your work. She has managed to smile through all of it at least, and then drifted back into the crowd before anyone could ask her anything she would have to think too hard about answering.

[i]How are you really doing, Anna Lou?[/i] 

[i]Are you seeing anyone?[/i] 

[i]Do you ever think about leaving?[/i]

That last one in particular would have been horrible for sure. 

Now, she is moving along the edge of the fairgrounds with a lemonade sweating in her hand, the cold glass slippery against her palm. Her hair is loose for once; she seldom wears it down during a shift, but tonight is not a shift, and the elastic band is somewhere at the bottom of her purse. The music from the stage drifts over the crowd in waves, a local band playing something twangy and upbeat, though the singer's voice is just a little too loud for the speakers. Somewhere nearby, a kid shrieks with delight, and Anna Lou sidesteps a pair of children chasing each other through the crowd without breaking stride. It is loud and bright and very Pines Holler, and she is content, as always, to exist at the edges of it all. 

And yet, despite saying all that, when she inevitably spots Elias before he spots her, standing near the stage with a beer in his hand, she raises her lemonade in a small wave and lets herself smile.

[color=#4DBDB5][i]He actually showed up[/i][/color], she thinks. Which is, all things considered, a good sign. Not that she had doubted him, exactly. But men said things like ‘let's catch up’ all the time, and then the week got busy, and the weather turned, and somehow it was six months later, and they were nodding at each other across the produce section at the grocery store. That was the way of things in a small town, though: promises made of thin air, dissolving before they ever hit the ground.

But Elias [i]is[/i] here with no coaches' table in sight and no Jenkins leaning over his shoulder. He looks different in the fairground light too, softer somehow. Or maybe that is just the way the strings of bulbs above the food stalls catch the angles of his face.

Anna Lou takes another sip of her lemonade. It is too sweet and not cold enough, and she does not care at all. Then, she starts walking towards him. 

As soon as he spotted her, Elias let out a breath. Her small wave and easy smile earned a grin in return and Elias started to move in her direction. Their conversation at Huskers hadn’t been long, mostly an apology, a few words, and a promise to catch up. He had almost been joking when he said he’d meet her at the July 4th celebrations at nine o’clock so they could walk, talk, maybe watch the fireworks at ten. But here they were, both on time. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about her over the last day or two as well. Anna Lou had always been sweet. Pretty, too. Their conversation had been brief, but Elias knew he had remembered her more than she had remembered him.

Back in high school, Anna Lou had been one of those people everyone seemed to know. Not because she was loud or demanding attention, but because she never seemed to have a bad word to say about anyone. She smiled at people in the hallway. Remembered names. She made it look effortless. Most people changed after ten years but somehow, she didn't seem to have. Maybe that was what he had noticed at Huskers. Not just that she looked good, though she did. It was that she still carried herself the same way she always had. Like she belonged wherever she happened to be, whether it was behind a crowded bar or weaving through a fairground packed with half the town.

The crowd shifted between them, people moving this way and that. A family carrying carnival prizes crossed in front of him and a group of teenagers drifted past laughing at something on a phone. When the path finally opened again, there was nothing in the way.

Elias lifted his beer slightly in greeting as he travelled the last few steps between them.
[color=#00aeef] “Anna-Lou, right?”[/color] he teased, remembering her words from the other night. 

[color=#00aeef]“I think we graduated together.”[/color]

The laugh comes before Anna Lou can think about it. It bubbles up from somewhere she usually keeps locked behind the counter at Huskers, and by the time she realizes it is happening, it is already too late to call it back.

[color=#4DBDB5]"Funny,"[/color] she says, rolling her eyes though there’s no real annoyance in it. [color=#4DBDB5]"You've been holding onto that one, haven't you?"[/color] 

Elias laughed and shook his head. [color=00aeef]"Only a few days,"[/color] he admitted with a grin. [color=00aeef]"Might not get many more chances to use it."[/color]

[color=#4DBDB5]"Guess that’s true. So…."[/color] she says, falling into step beside him and glancing out at the fairground spread before them. The lights strung between the booths cast everything in a soft, golden glow. The smell of fried dough and kettle corn hangs thick in the air. Somewhere to their left, a man is trying to win a giant banana for who is probably his girlfriend by throwing darts at balloons, and missing every single time. Poor sucker. [color=#4DBDB5]"What do you want to try first?"[/color]

As they started walking, Elias found himself smiling. An easy feeling settled somewhere inside his chest, and after ten years, the conversation slipped into place far more naturally than he would have expected.

At her question, he glanced around the busy fairgrounds. 

[color=00aeef]"Well, we could try to show that guy how to throw darts, but I don’t think we want to make him look bad in front of his girlfriend."[/color] He nodded toward the dart booth where the man had just missed another balloon and his dart fell down to the ground. [color=00aeef]"Especially after seeing that."[/color]

A quiet huff escaped his lips before he took a sip of his beer.

[color=00aeef]"But if we're being honest, I haven't been to one of these in years. You probably know the important stuff better than I do. I feel like a bit of an outsider.”[/color] His eyes moved across the nearby booths and food stands. The rides were farther off in the distance but nothing too far. [color=00aeef]"So, what's the one thing I can't leave here tonight without doing?"[/color]

A group of kids carrying glow sticks darted between them and nearly collided with Elias. He stepped aside easily, shaking his head with a grin as they disappeared into the crowd. 

[color=00aeef]"I'm serious,"[/color] he said, looking back at her. [color=00aeef]"Games, food, rides. Where do you think we should start?”[/color]

Anna Lou considers this with the gravity it deserves, even stopping in her movement for a moment to tilt her head in thought. 
[color=#4DBDB5]"Okay, first of all,"[/color] she says, holding up one finger, [color=#4DBDB5]"the funnel cake. That's non-negotiable. There's a stall by the east entrance that does them with powdered sugar and strawberries, and it sounds wrong, but it isn't, I [i]promise[/i] you."[/color] She says this as if she is someone who has done extensive field research on the subject. Because she has, in a way, during the summer she turned nineteen while working the funnel cake stall for three weeks when the regular girl came down with mono. Anna Lou had eaten approximately [i]seventeen[/i] funnel cakes in that time—for quality control, she had told her mother—and she had emerged with strong opinions about them, plus a lingering sugar addiction.

[color=#4DBDB5]"And then the Ferris wheel for sure later tonight,"[/color] she continues, walking again while pulling Elias along in her wake. [color=#4DBDB5]"Because you can see the whole town from the top, and it's a pretty nice view."[/color] She pauses here, glancing up at him. The fairground lights catch the side of his face, the curve of his jaw, and the way his hair falls across his forehead. She wonders if he knows how different he looks when he is not sitting at that table. She wonders if he knows how much she notices.

[color=#4DBDB5]"The dart games are rigged, by the way. Always have been."[/color]

[color=00aeef]“Funnel cake?”[/color] Elias replied with a smile. [color=00aeef]“That’s your non-negotiable?”[/color]

He chuckled as she talked about the powdered sugar and strawberries, and when he caught her smiling back, his own grin widened. It was easy talking to her. Easier than he remembered.
[color=00aeef]“Alright,”[/color] he said. [color=00aeef]“You’ve clearly thought about this for a long time and arguing that mini-donuts are better isn’t  going to win me any points, so funnel cake it is.”[/color]

Only a half step behind her, Elias matched her pace. When she mentioned the Ferris wheel, he noticed the way her expression changed. For a moment, she looked less like the woman navigating rude and demanding customers at Huskers and more like someone genuinely excited to be here.
She glanced up toward the evening sky, and he followed her gaze to the tall wheel turning above the fairgrounds.

[color=00aeef]“Ferris wheel too?”[/color] he said. [color=00aeef]“I think you’ve done this before. Sounds a little too perfect.”[/color]

The Ferris wheel turned slowly against the darkening sky, visible from almost anywhere on the grounds, and Elias let out a soft laugh. His eyes lingered on Anna Lou a moment longer than he intended. [color=00aeef]“I’ll admit, seeing the whole town from up there sounds like the best place to catch the fireworks.”[/color]

[color=#4DBDB5]"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about,"[/color] Anna Lou says, and starts walking toward the east entrance. The path takes them past the games: the dart booth where the man has now given up entirely, slumped on his stool with his phone in his hand, indifferent to the few remaining balloons. A ring toss with prizes that nobody actually wants like stuffed animals with missing eyes, plastic trophies, and a lava lamp that has probably been there since 1999. And a water gun race with faded wooden horses that also look like they'd been here since before either of them was born, with their chipped paint and barely visible targets. Anna Lou navigates through it all without breaking conversational stride.

[color=#4DBDB5]"So,"[/color] she says, glancing sideways at him. The fairground lights catch her face in fragments, gold and shadow, and she tucks a strand of loose hair behind her ear without thinking. [color=#4DBDB5]"What have you actually been up to? Since leaving, I mean. I heard you came back, but I don't think anyone told me much beyond that."[/color] She keeps her voice easy and curious without being nosy. [color=#4DBDB5]"Teaching, right? At the high school?"[/color]

Elias smiled at Anna Lou's reply and followed as she led the way toward the food stands and the east entrance. Surrounded by a cacophony, the two of them made their way past the many games, listening as barkers called out, "Come one, come all! Get the ball in the hoop and win a prize!" Others invited, "Step right up! Win a prize for the little lady!"

While carnival workers called out to passing couples and families, children scooted between the legs of unsuspecting adults, Elias chuckled at the energy and atmosphere of the Fourth of July celebrations. Oblivious to the workers' pleas, Elias listened as Anna Lou leaned further into the conversation. At her questions, he let out a quiet breath and glanced ahead for a moment before answering.

[color=00aeef]"Yeah. Teaching and coaching."[/color]A faint grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.
[color=00aeef]"Though if you'd asked me years ago, I probably would've sworn that coming back here wasn't going to be the answer."[/color]He laughed softly and shook his head. [color=00aeef]"After college, I bounced around a little. Getting a teaching job was harder than I expected. I worked at a restaurant for a while and ended up subbing for a bit. When Jenkins' wife retired, one of the vice principals reached out to my mom and asked if I wanted a job."[/color]

His eyes drifted back to her as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. The gesture was small and unrushed, but for some reason he found himself watching it.
[color=00aeef]"I never thought I'd end up back here, but a steady paycheque helps pay the bills, and my mom's needed more help since my dad passed away."[/color]

For a moment, he watched a little girl proudly dragging a stuffed giraffe nearly twice her size through the crowd.

[color=00aeef]"So I came back."[/color]
Turning back to Ann Lou, Elias offered a soft smile before asking, [color=00aeef]"What about you? I always thought you'd end up somewhere else."[/color]

The funnel cake stall comes into view before Anna Lou has to answer, which buys her approximately thirty seconds. The universe, she thinks, has a sense of humour about these things, throwing her a lifeline just as the questions start to get real. There is a hand-painted sign—Millie's Famous Funnel Cakes, Est. 1987—and a short line of maybe four people, all of them craning their necks to watch the woman at the front receive her towering plate of powdered sugar and fried dough.

[color=#4DBDB5]"See,"[/color] Anna Lou says, joining the line and tilting her head toward the sign. She can feel the warmth radiating from the fryer, the sweet smell settling into her hair and her clothes. [color=#4DBDB5]"Told you."[/color] But the question Elias asked is still there, and Anna Lou has never been very good at pretending things aren't. She can smile through a lot. She can laugh at bad jokes and let sweetheart roll off her back. But pretending, truly pretending, has never been her strong suit. Not when it matters.

She looks back at him. The line shuffles forward one step. The woman with the funnel cake walks away, grinning, powdered sugar dusting her shirt.

[color=#4DBDB5]"I almost did leave,"[/color] Anna Lou finally says, and the words come out quieter than she intends. [color=#4DBDB5]"After graduating. Got into a school about two hours out. Was going to study education, though, to be honest with you, I hadn't quite decided what I wanted to do."[/color]

She looks down at her lemonade for a moment. The ice has mostly melted, the condensation pooling in the cupholder of her palm. She watches a droplet slide down the side of the cup and doesn't look up.

[color=#4DBDB5]"My dad hurt his back the year I was supposed to go anyway,"[/color] she continues. [color=#4DBDB5]"Bad enough that he couldn't work for almost a year. Mom was already pulling double duty, and someone had to stay and help with the bills, with the house, with… everything. So…I ended up deferring. And then I deferred again. And somewhere in there, the motivation to go just sorta…died."[/color]

She gives a shrug and a smile that is genuine enough. It [i]is[/i] genuine, actually, as she is not lying. She has made peace with this story, mostly. But there is something about saying it out loud with Elias Petterson standing beside her that makes it feel different. Heavier. Or maybe lighter. She cannot tell which.

The soft smile and easy shrug were enough of an answer, but the change in Anna Lou's voice left Elias regretting the question. There were times he had thought Pines Holler had a way of punishing the people who called it home. The ones who left always seemed to find something pulling them back; the ones who stayed wondered what might have happened if they'd finally left.

For a moment, Elias didn't answer. The line shuffled forward again, bringing them closer to the counter. Somewhere behind the stall, hot oil crackled and someone laughed as powdered sugar drifted onto the front of their shirt.

[color=00aeef]”You did what you had to do,"[/color] he began. [color=00aeef]"I get it. Family is the reason I came back. This place always has a way of keeping us close."[/color] 

As if the universe was smiling on them, the last person in front of them walked away with their funnel cake reward and Elias smiled and added,  [color=00aeef]"If the funnel cake's half as good as you've been promising, maybe Pines Holler's got a few things going for it."[/color] 

Taking a step in front of Anna Lou, he looked at the teen waiting to take their order and pulled out his wallet.[color=00aeef]"Two funnel cakes with strawberries”[/color]. After handing the girl his money, he turned back to Anna Lou and smirked, [color=00aeef]"Let’s see if this is as good as you say.[/color].

Anna Lou watches him hand over the money before she can offer to split it. [color=#4DBDB5]"You didn't have to do that, but…thank you."[/color]

They step aside to wait, moving out of the flow of foot traffic, finding a small pocket of space near the side of the stall. Behind the counter, the oil crackles, giving off a hypnotic sound of something good being made, and someone is shaking powdered sugar over a finished order, the white cloud drifting up and settling like snow on the metal counter. The smell is exactly as good as she had promised: warm dough and something sweet underneath it, the strawberries warming in whatever they do to them back there. A little sugar water, probably. Maybe a splash of syrup. Anna Lou has never asked. Some mysteries are better left unsolved.

She glances back at Elias once they’ve both been given their order. [color=#4DBDB5]"It's going to be as good as I say, I promise."[/color] 

[color=00aeef]“And if it’s not,”[/color] Elias grins, [color=00aeef]“then I’ll let you buy the mini-donuts.”[/color]

Breaking off a piece of the funnel cake, he watches as a tiny cloud of steam breaks away and dissolves into the air. Powdered sugar immediately dusts his fingers, and the strawberries add enough sweetness to keep the fried dough from feeling too heavy. He looks at Anna Lou before he takes his first bite, and when he does, it tastes exactly like every summer fair he’s ever attended, only now, somehow better than he remembers.

After one more bite, his smile widens. [color=00aeef]“Well, there goes my argument that mini-donuts are the ultimate summer food.”[/color] He nods at her and chuckles as he breaks off another piece. [color=00aeef]“This is really good.”[/color]

Nearby, a burst of cheers rises from one of the game booths. Someone has apparently won something big. The sound pulls Elias’s attention for a moment before he looks back at Anna Lou.
[color=00aeef]“So what else am I missing?”[/color] he asks casually, [color=00aeef]“Maybe I’ve been doing the Fourth of July wrong all my life.”[/color]

Anna Lou breaks off a piece of her own and takes a moment to consider his question with the same gravity she'd given it the first time, which earns her absolutely nothing except the powdered sugar that drifts onto the front of her top. She looks down at it then looks back up.

[color=#4DBDB5]"You were definitely doing it wrong,"[/color] she confirms, her voice perfectly deadpan. [color=#4DBDB5]"But that's fixable."[/color] She brushes at the front of her top with the back of her hand, succeeding only in smearing the sugar into a larger, more abstract pattern. Oh well. [color=#4DBDB5]"We can do whatever next, but gotta be on the Ferris wheel by ten. Your pick this time."[/color]

Elias looked at the streak of powdered sugar Anna Lou had managed to spread across the front of her shirt and shook his head. Without saying a word, he brushed the sugar from his own hands and glanced around the fairgrounds. The crowd seemed thicker now than it had an hour ago. More lights. More people. More voices blend beneath the music drifting from the stage.

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
[color=00aeef]"Alright,"[/color] he said. [color=00aeef]"We've got less than an hour before the Ferris wheel. Let's see what kind of trouble we can get into first."[/color][/color][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/justify]