Reya hummed to herself as she walked from the tavern straight to the festival grounds, enjoying the fresh air and the warmth of sun on her skin. Luckily for her the tavern wasn't too far away from the heart of town, only a fifteen minute walk at most, and walking seemed like a better option than fighting over parking spots. Having planned ahead, Reya had brought her own change of clothing with her to the tavern so she could shower and get ready right there! Since the tavern was typically never at full capacity, Reya kept one room reserved for her own personal use just in case she needed to store anything or for special occasions such as today. This had come in handy more than a few times! For the festival she had decided to go with a
simple outfit; high waisted short-shorts and an off the shoulder white shirt coupled with her favorite silver hoop earrings.
She had only one plan in mind for the festival - Martha's funnel cake! It was a necessity. Mandatory, in fact. If anything else grabbed her attention along the way then so be it, but she wasn't planning on anything else in particular. In truth, she was not sure how long she planned to stay at the festival. It felt wrong to go without her father, even though the past few years it felt pretty lonely even with him there. This was different, though, knowing he truly wasn't around any longer. The funnel cake would be as much for her as it was for her fathers memory.
Upon arriving at the festival, Reya passed by the dunk tank just as the local sheriff was sent into the water. She laughed along with the crowd, her eyes eventually finding the familiar face of the culprit responsible for the dunking - Levi Brooks.
'Of course.' She thought, unsurprised that he was the one to hit the mark. Levi had been one of the top players on the local baseball team and in turn that made him well known to the rest of the high school girls, much to his delight. She smiled and shook her head at the memory of how he flirted with her more than a few times at various high school parties they had come across each other at - usually at his parents house while they were out traveling the world somewhere. Levi took joy in making her blush, which he accomplished often. It had been some time since she had heard from him, but she made a mental note to stop in on the Cozy Bear to say hello when she was able.
Moving further down the street, Reya made a beeline for the exact spot where Martha's Bakery had a food truck set up every single year for their famous funnel cakes. Except....
Reya's walk slowed and her light brown eyes widened in horror as she arrived at the spot which was missing the key food truck. A whole line of food trucks around the street, and right in the middle was a gaping hole. A place where obviously a food truck was supposed to be, but it was nowhere to be found. Reya quickly surveyed the other food trucks lined up along the street.
'There's no way...' She thought, the jovial nature of her attitude for the day dissipating. She frowned when she was unable to find the food truck and began to wonder, outloud, what was going on.
"Where the heck is the funnel cake?!""I know, right? I didn't hear about them going out of business or anything..." Another patron chimed in who had overheard her as he sat on a nearby picnic table, clearly waiting to see if the funnel cake would make an appearance. Reya scrunched up her face in a pout and folded her arms. This day was ruined!
"Well that's just great..." She muttered to herself, standing there for a moment looking longingly at the empty space. What was she supposed to do now?
Sighing heavily, she shook off the disappointment and decided she would see if anything else caught her eye while she was here. Fortunately something did rather quickly at a nearby booth only a few stalls away from where Martha's food truck should have been. Glinting in the sunlight was one of the most beautiful amethyst crystal geodes she had ever seen! Reya approached the stall to browse the rest of the selection laid out on the table, making note that it was part of the local USGS team. She had seen their stalls every year as well and would sometimes purchase crystals or other pretty rocks they had for sale, but this amethyst was the most stunning one she had come across. The man at the booth she didn't recognize, but he smiled and waved at her while holding a cell phone to his ear.
"Is this for sale?" She pointed at the crystal. The man looked down and then looked back up at her with a nervous expression on his face.
"Uhm, well..." His eyes darted past Reya and looked across the street, then back to the crystal, then to Reya.
"I don't really... uhm... I don't really know." Reya furrowed her brows, wondering what he meant by that. The man quickly looked at his phone and redialed something, putting the phone back to his ear and looking past Reya once more. Turning, she followed his line of sight. Directly across from them was the dunk tank and a gathering group of people. She looked back to the stranger,
"Is everything all right?"The man sighed in an exasperated fashion and set his phone down hard on the table.
"I'm sorry, I'm not supposed to be running this thing. It's..." He looked past her once more and pointed towards the gathering group of people.
"It's my partner. She's over there, but she isn't picking up her phone! And I can't leave this stall." Reya followed his pointed finger again, looking at everyone in the group to see if she could identify another USGS employee.
"She's the brown haired girl there, in the blue floral dress. You see her? If you could.. just... let her know, maybe? We'll sell the crystal to you at a discount!" Reya smiled at the mention of a discount. Sold!
Making her way back to the dunk tank, Reya was nearly run over by two red-headed maniacs chasing each other through the crowd of people. She barely made it out of the way as they sprinted in front of her, causing Reya to stumble backwards a few steps in order to make it out of their path alive.
"What the hell?" Reya paused, watching the man chase the girl out in front until she realized who she was looking at. The Snypes siblings. Of course. Another notorious pair in town. Although Reya did not know the younger sister Emily very well, she did know all about Zachary. They had never been very close, but they often had the same classes together in high school. She'd never actually admitted it out loud, but Reya once had a massive crush on Zack in high school. She recalled the time that her father had discovered that Reya had written Zack's name with hearts all over her journal along with her own name paired his last name; Reya Snypes. Her father was not happy, especially because he had heard that Zack was the type to skip school and slack off at times. It was wildly embarrassing when her father sat her down and told her that was not the type of man she should be looking for and explained to her the type of man she needed instead. Not to mention her twin sister teasing her for the crush years later.
Moving on and throwing that memory back into the recesses of her brain, Reya ignored the two siblings and got back on track with her mission - get the discounted crystal!
"Excuse me, miss?" Reya called out to the brunette whom she had never met before, dressed in the blue floral dress that the man had pointed out to her.
"Do you work for the Geological Survey team? I think your partner is trying to get ahold of you?" She questioned, pointing across the street to the man at the booth who waved back in desperation.
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