The Faire, Part Seven
Part Seven
Audrey wasn’t surprised in the slightest when her older sister caved and begrudgingly agreed to go along with the little role play.
She had already made it past the difficult part of the plan. Of course, ‘plan’ was a strong word. The only thing Audrey had really done ahead of time was the costume order switch after she and Cassidy had ordered them together. Getting her petite sister into the fairy outfit, however, was nothing but improvisation. And now that they had their tickets and were past the main gate, it would only get easier to string the girl along.
In the solitude of a porta potty, Audrey fully grinned at the situation now that Cassidy wasn’t around to catch the expression. Not only was little Cassie going to be stuck dressed as a girly fairy for the rest of the day, but she seemed to believe the story about the padding. In truth, Audrey had stitched a thick pull-up into the leotard. It was supposed to embarrass her sister right away, until Audrey found the opportunity to lie about the design and delay that particular detail from being discovered.
Since she didn’t really need to go, Audrey took a minute or two pilfering through her older sister’s wallet instead. “Oh, these won’t do,” she giggled to herself. Audrey pulled out Cassidy’s driver’s license and student ID, both of which could actually identify tween Cassie’s real age. Smirking to herself, Audrey tossed both plastic cards into the disgusting porta potty toilet. Then she made short work of transferring every gift card and all the paper bills to her own wallet, leaving only a few credit cards behind for some future fun she had in mind. The idea of dropping Cassie’s phone into the toilet crossed her mind, but something told her that would be taking things too far. Replacing IDs would be an inconvenience. Losing a smart phone would be a bit much.
Just when Cassidy was considering switching lines due to the general impatience she had when it came to waiting on her sister, Audrey opened the door. “Oh, Cassie. You do not want to go in there.” Audrey immediately took her hand and yanked her away from the line. “It’s so gross! I’m worried about you messing up your costume.”
“Hey!” Cassidy exclaimed. She stumbled after Audrey, who was walking with a purpose. Because of how tightly her younger sister held her hand, Cassidy had no choice but to follow the jerky movements until they were back on the main road. “Aud-rey!” Cassidy finally gave a sharp pull to free her hand. She addressed her sister in a stern tone, enunciating each syllable. “We just talked about this! You can’t drag me around like that.”
“Relax, Cassie,” Audrey rolled her eyes, “Don’t be so sensitive. If I hadn’t done that, you would have ignored me and gone into that disgusting porta potty!”
“That’s the only way to go to the bathroom here!”
“Not true! There’s the handicap bathroom, remember?”
Audrey was right. But there was a reason most people used the porta potties. The handicap bathroom, the one that actually had a toilet that flushed, always had a very long line. Anyone with a complicated costume, as well as those that were too hygienic to trust a porta potty, would take the more sanitary and more spacious bathroom. But complicated costumes took time to deal with, making that already long line take what felt like centuries. Cassidy lost almost an hour there a few years ago when dealing with a difficult costume of her own, and swore she would never stand in that line again.
“Audrey, no,” Cassidy sighed, “That will take forever, and-”
“Cass-ie. Your costume is pink.” Audrey mirrored her older sister’s serious tone, acting as if Cassidy was being the unreasonable one. “Do you want a dirty costume?”
“Well, no. But-”
“But nothing, Cassie. Do you need the bathroom right now? We can go get in line if you want.”
As usual, Cassidy hesitated. Despite the age difference, her younger sister had a way of making things seem annoyingly logical, despite the underlying bullshit that always seemed to be there. “I’ll wait for later,” Cassidy sighed. It’s not that she had to go, but it was normally a ritual of theirs to always use the bathroom before a long day. It helped to avoid the need to go during something important, like a number of the festival’s events.
“Good choice,” Audrey held out her hand, “Let’s go, Cassie.”
“It’s Cassidy.” The older sister had let the nickname go a few times amidst the bathroom argument, but it wasn’t lost on her that Audrey had called her the childish name ever since they arrived. She stood still, not taking Audrey’s offered hand. As if she would anyway. They rarely held hands as sisters, but Audrey was apparently in some kind of mood today.
“I’ll call you ‘Cassidy’ when you stop freaking out over every little thing,” Audrey rolled her eyes again, “Now are you going to take my hand, or are you going to freak out again?”
Cassidy was tempted to storm off. Audrey could be so infuriating sometimes. She wasn’t ‘freaking out’ just because she didn’t want to do something. Even her outburst at Audrey yanking her away from the bathroom was warranted. But there was her sister, turning everything around on her.
“Fine,” Cassidy muttered. Part of her wanted to ditch her sister and roam the faire on her own. The problem was, Audrey had her phone and wallet. And something told her that demanding those things back right now would just cause an even bigger scene and be another example of her ‘freaking out over nothing.’ So she reluctantly took her sister’s hand, against her better judgment.
“See, Cassidy? Was that so hard?” Audrey asked. Cassidy couldn’t tell if the condescending tone or smile was worse. The use of her full name was the saving grace, but even that sounded gross in the way Audrey said it. But before she could come up with a decent response, Audrey tugged on her hand, “Let’s go, little sis.”