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Eli ran a hand through her hair and put her head down on the desk she was sat at. She had spent the last three days organizing her arrival. It had not taken too long to unload the few things she had taken. Clothes, some personal items, some utility items. Most of her things reminded her of a time she was trying to forget so she had traveled light. But there were other things to do. She had had to change the address on her ID, stock up the empty house with groceries, sweep and dust the entire building, gas up her car, buy some new clothes so she wouldn't have to just wear things that now had [i]Helena[/i] written all over them. She had had multiple calls with her parents, some just about herself (they had insisted on checking in on her every day for the past week) and some to be in the clear about her living in this rental house now. Luckily their land lord was alright with it and at least for the time being Eli did not have to worry about paying rent, water or electricity. Her parents would continue to be billed for that. 

A tinge of guilt ran across her chest right where her heart sat. She had caused them so much trouble. In her youth and now. And she had never been given a reason to cause them such heartache. They had been as perfect as parents could be. [i]It's in the past. It won't happen again.[/i] She scolded herself for thinking about it, being hung up over it and for ever having disappeared from her family's life like that. She missed her parents dearly but she'd be damned if she let them know just how desperate she was for some parental love right now. With a heavy sigh she lifted her head from the desk and trained her eyes on the laptop in front of her once again.

A few websites were open alongside a word document. She had researched about the annual summer festival of her own small town but come up mostly empty. Apparently there wasn't all too much info on the history of the town to be found online. Of course they had a website; that is to say the mayor's office and the city hall had a website offering up appointments and some information about the town. Events were listed in a specific section of the website, including the festival. Other entries about the festival that could be dug up online were mostly social media posts of residents or people who had visited the town during the annual festival as well as some meager blog posts.

[i]What am I supposed to write that hasn't been written 14 times already....[/i] She knew that was the wrong way to look at it. While once her journalism was meant to bring new, revealing and important information to people, this was not that. It was more of a spotlight entry; just write about how the festival was, mention a few of the attractions, bring across the good mood, stop hoping a murder would take place just so your article would have something of more interest to grapple. Eli closed her eyes and ran her hand through her hair once more. [i]You're fucked up.[/i]

She slammed the laptop close and looked at the clock. [color=f7941d]"Oh shit!"[/color] With haste Elliot jumped up from her chair and grabbed her jacket. She threw it on, stuffed her phone and keys into her pocket and hurried down the stairs to get to her car.

It was nowhere near 2pm. The festival was not about to open for another two hours. But Elliot had wanted to spend some time watching people build up the festivities. It might not have been important, it might give her one-two throwaway sentences in her article. But she felt more like a real journalist if she went early.

It was a fifteen minute ride in her car until she was met with the first road block and had to continue on foot. Of course the festival grounds were not open to visitors just yet, not officially anyway. Elliot clipped her little "press" sign to her jacket and wandered onto the grounds, watching as people set up their booths.
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By the time two o'clock was ticking closer, Elliot was thoroughly bored. The highlight of the day so far had been the chief of police injuring his big toe while seemingly being flustered by the woman who organized this whole thing. To her knowledge this was Jewel Navarro, the mayor's assistant. A personality she was sure she'd run into often. The brunette seemed to exist at every corner of the festival at once but seemed to pop out of reality whenever Eli played with the thought to get a comment from her about the organizational aspect of it all. She wondered if Jewel had been in town for long as Elliot had no recollection of her name or appearance, so she was fairly certain she had not grown up around here.

As Eli stood leaning against a wall of a booth, resting her feet as much as possible, her eyes wandered across the many displays ready and waiting for happy costumers and festival-goers. A soft smile played around her lips and her heart grew fonder. She had been to many events in many places, mainly New York, and could safely say: All of them could easily take the cake over this little get-up. With the exception that this was [i]home[/i]. Memories of her childhood visits to the festival played like a dia-show in her head. She had always appreciated this event. The petting zoo, the many sweet, the laughter and happiness of a town coming together. Oh and of course the Ferris wheel! She made a quick note with her pen that this year's Ferris wheel had arrived spectacularly late. She wasn't sure if it was worth mentioning, but it likely was the only thing [i]different[/i] from all the other years.

Fifteen years ago she had been nineteen. The annual summer festival had started right when she was college-bound. And yet, she somehow managed to attend almost every single year. Not due to her own care though. Her parents had insisted her and Silas would show up around this time of year, preferably for a whole week or longer, and they had dragged the two adult children to the festival every year they could. Of course, the last five years Elliot had not been home. It pained her to think the first time she'd come home after such a long time, their ritual was no longer happening. Her parents were somewhere in Greece at the moment, touring the world, and her brother... she had not yet talked to him but she was sure her parents had informed him about having been in contact lately. Silas would wait for her to call, she was sure. And she had not yet managed to face the music.

As the place begin to gradually fill, Elliot sunk into the shadows a little more. She saw many faces she didn't know but all too many she clearly recognized. Her elementary math's teacher Mrs Gooding, the old couple from three streets down with the tall tree in their backyard, the lady with the nasal pronunciation, Janet or Jeanie, who worked at the supermarket. She saw her next-door neighbors and made a wide birth to avoid them. She really didn't need someone bringing up her past fence-hopping right now.

By two-fifteen Elliot noticed she needed a coffee to get through this day. Painful as it was, she longed to reintegrate into the home town she had known all her childhood. She just hoped people wouldn't remember her missteps too much. 
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[b]Location[/b] Wandering about the festival grounds 
[b]Time[/b] Beginning of festival 
[b]Interactions [/b]None

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