She'd made it out in time, through some insane miracle, and thankfully YV was still willing to come with her. Pulling up to the front of the school in a shiny platinum white Mercedes, just shy of 7 pm.
The rumbling of the luxury car was a strange but welcome sensation in her mind. It wasn't like the usual turbulence you'd expect out of regular vehicles at all. Somehow, the car that YV's chauffeur drove around was as smooth on the roads as it was gorgeous to look at. Her eyes wandered out the crystal clear windows onto Willowfield's illuminated night lit streets, festive decor like seasonal crops, extravagant arrangements, fairy lights, balloons, and even an early halloween decoration or two lined the city streets like a scene out of a movie.
She heard YV giggle from next to her, making her turn back to meet his sparkly gaze and wide grin as if she couldn't tell he'd been watching her awe for as long as she'd been looking out the windows for. That was a look she'd picked up on, the face YV made when he was trying with all his might not to let his overbearing excitement slip through the cracks.
"It's crazy, right? People here are so pumped for Lunaris every single year- honestly, it's only gotten worse by the years since you left!"
She scoffed. Uh huh, you don't say. Rubie could tell as much, the streets were packed with what should've been every person in town: on the roads, on bikes, walking in crowds all headed for the same place. It was clear that Lunaris had stepped up in the years she was gone- all the festivals she'd gone to in the past were cramped, sure. But they weren't nearly as jam packed as this year's was making itself out to be…
It'd gotten to the point where she was starting to wonder if just walking there would've been the better option. At least, that's what Mitzi ended up doing. After checking and double checking that Rubie's outfit and her own were as neat and proper looking as possible, Mitzi beelined it for her own group of friends who were making the trek to the carnival on their own… they must have gotten there by now…
But, even so- Rubie swept her eyes over the mounds of people all trying to get to the same place. In all honesty it kind of made everyone look like a flock of migrating birds, only this time a lot more squished and a lot more exhausting. Even in the early october chill, she swore she saw multiple people sweating literal buckets out there.
"Well… it's busy alright– I'm just glad we have ac and space to breathe in here…"
YV laughed from beside her, the golden beads, coils and clips in his hair bouncing along with his movements, he was like a life sized maraca.
"Yeah? No shit- glad I saved you from that torture out there, huh?" The car came to a halt, stopping on the road in another bout of bad traffic. "It's just uh… gonna take us a while to get there"
She scoffed, her eyes going to the clock on the dashboard– 7:21 pm, they'd been here for a while already… if only she'd realised how late it'd gotten sooner– "Sorry– I totally lost track of time… I honestly forgot Lunaris was today."
YV raised a brow at her, finding hilarity in her circumstances. "pfft– hold on.You? Forgetting about Lunaris?? Gosh– did getting out of town make you a foreigner or what?" he let out bright laughter, obviously poking fun at her– but for as much as she wanted to retort his statement she found that she couldn't. Truly, how strange was that? A local forgetting about her home's greatest holiday. When she caught another glimpse of his teasing smile she sent a playful nudge to his side–
"Right– okay, for your information Lunaris doesn't exist anywhere else in the country, not every town's as in love with their founders as our's is." she rolled her eyes, defending her honour and privilege as a local as YV scoffed.
"Eh.. fair enough. We're pretty obsessed with them, aren't we?" he laughed, "Got a whole month long festival for them just establishing a city here. Sounds like overkill!"
"Fun overkill," Rubie corrected him. He eyed her for a second before a smile broke out onto his face, and she couldn't help but join in.
If there was one thing to know about Willowfield, it was that growing up Lunaris had been the one thing to unite all kids across all families for a month straight. Not only did their ragtag group of 5 get to stay up late going on fun rides, eating junk food, and having an overall blast– but they got to do it all while essentially clinging onto each other without so much as a complaint from their parents.
"Lunaris spirit!" they'd argue back when their parents thought it was time for them to go home, "We're all one happy family in Willowfield, right?" thinking about it now it just felt so childish, but somehow that'd get them the greenlight to do the craziest shit any 10 year old could dream of. Stuffing your face full with corn dogs, riding the roller coaster four times in a row– anything was possible as long as you prefaced it with enjoying Lunaris' atmosphere.
The rest of their painfully slow ride had been spent in a mild stroll through memory lane, almost everything around her had sparked up old memories, after all. It was only natural that she'd be reintroduced to every aspect of the city like it was an old friend of hers.
And they must have spent that entire ride preoccupied studying every nook and cranny of the new Willowfield and talking about anything that came into mind, because she barely even noticed that they had arrived, already pulled up to the very front of the carnival grounds. Greeted by a giant inflatable clown looming over the large steel arches who heralded their welcome with a rubber hose grin and outstretched, airy hands. YV clicked the car door open, thanking his chauffeur before playing gentleman and helping Rubie out her seat like a princess in a carriage– and she could see it all the better now.
Somewhere along the line their one month celebrations to honour the ancestors of their town coincided with halloween and goofy commercial holidays and all of a sudden Lunaris- the half historical, half spooky, month long festival they all knew and loved was born.
It was extremely apparent when you took just one look at any sort of decor people put up for Lunaris. Gourds, corn and all sorts of seasonal foods were a staple, kids still carved into pumpkins, cheesy spooky decor was all around town for the ambience, and the culture of dressing up for Halloween carried out onto Lunaris too, as her and YV made their way through the warm bright lights of the extravagant arched "Welcome to the Lunaris Carnival!" sign, she spotted a few costume-goers already.
The blue night fizzed out into a joyful warm embrace with all the stunning lights hung around the area, everything from paper lanterns and flickering candles to the neon technicolour of all the LEDs on the carnival rides painted the once bland and unassuming plaza into a magical wonderland you'd only ever get to see for a little bit out of the year. Enchanting fairground music played from speakers, dowsing their little world in a whimsical sense of childlike joy as organs, drums, trumpets and the likes blasted around the festival
She looked to her left, peeking over at YV to try and discern what he was feeling himself. It didn't prove to be much of a challenge though, just a single look at his bright eyes and contagious smile proved to her that he was just as excited as she was, a smile broke out on her lips. This was just like when they were kids again, and it wasn't long before YV snapped out of his temporary lull in action, quickly swallowing the awe that left him starstruck.
What was first? The carnival rides? The food stalls? The street acts? or the endless rows of carnival games with mounds of prizes waiting to be won? The answer seemed obvious to her. Rubie knew she had a bit of a competitive streak, years of fighting against her little brother across a myriad of games over the years had taught her that. But it always felt like YV was just on another level of competitive spirit, if anything about the decade they'd spent growing up together taught her anything about him, it was that the best part of Lunaris was always sticking right next to him and mooching off his big time success, coming home with piles and piles of plushies and random prizes.
He looked at her, with that childish burning gleam deep in the grey-green of his eyes, a wordless plea clear as day on his face, it might as well have been scrawled over his forehead in big bold letters. He didn't even need to ask for her to pick up what he was putting down
"What?" Rubie laughed, tweaking her tone light and playful as raised a brow teasingly "You wanna have a go at the carnival games?"
"Oh! Hey–" A laugh escaped his lips, his eyes bright and his face quirked into a sarcastic smile. "How'd you know? It's like you read my mind!"
The two of them kept silent for a second, kicking off a little staring contest before YV caved and burst out laughing. And that was all she needed to know before they'd made haste for the stalls as soon as they could.
Seriously, with the way they'd been playing Rubie was glad none of these stalls were giving out life sized teddy bears or something, most of the stuff they'd had the pleasure of winning had all compressed down into the giant heavy duty duffle bag YV had brought along just for the occasion. It was crazy- horrifying even, to see so many prizes and carnival tickets shoved into a singular bag. What puzzled her more than the fact that YV even thought to bring something that serious to a carnival was the fact that the bag wasn't ripping at the seams yet.
But… Oh well! The night was still young, and while the two of them probably had their fun with all the game stalls, there was still more to go. Where was it to now? They had yet to get on any of the fair rides, or was it about time for them to stop and take a break for a second? As the smell of fried foods wafted about the air, Rubie's mind wandered to the endless food stalls that peppered the carnival streets…
It was extraordinary. She'd forgotten what it was like to feel this way again– so full of excitement you could barely get yourself to move… maybe, just maybe, that was exactly what Lunaris could do to you.