Chapter IV: I Hate This Job

“Another three,” I tell the man behind the counter, slapping two dollars down. The employee seems a little annoyed, but he takes the money and gives me three balls. I’ve already tried this a few times, but I am sure I can win a prize this time. I’ve had plenty of experience throwing stuff on the farm. This should be easy, but the targets are pretty small. I close one eye to focus on the target, aiming the ball.

“Pretty difficult, huh?” I jump slightly as soon as I let go of the ball. Turning my gaze, I see Twilight standing beside me, looking at the targets.

“Jesus, Twi. Ya don’t have to sneak up on me like that. I’m trying to win a prize right now.” Holding the second ball, I try my best to focus on the target again.

“It’s a loud amusement park. I wasn’t exactly trying to sneak around,” Twilight tells me with a laugh. “Anyway, I figured I would come see how it is going since the lovebirds are busy distracting themselves at the maze.” Throwing the second ball, it hits the rim of the target, but the buzzer doesn’t activate. Not good enough for a prize after all…

“It’s going alright so far. I almost made Adagio aware of your plans when she said y’all were going to the amusement park first. You could have told me,” I tell her with a shrug. Twilight nods at my statement.

“You’re right. It wasn’t my change of plans. It was Sunset’s. Considering that we’re preparing for Adagio’s birthday, Sunset seems like she wants to play with her a bit. I’ll try to warn you if anything else changes.” Twilight leans on the counter, watching me aim the ball. I ain’t the kind of person who hates being watched or such, but her eyes in my peripheral vision kinda make it hard to focus. “I was a little afraid that Adagio was going to follow me instead.”

“Don’t doubt her love for Sunset,” I say with a quiet tone, one eye closed. Finally, the ball flies from my hand, hitting the stupid target. The alarm rings, making the guy behind the counter shrug. He hands me a pink bear plush. It’s honestly cute and seems familiar in a way. “Adagio doesn’t know that being here is a red herring. But since the aquarium isn’t, it will be more difficult to distract her. What do you suggest I do?” Twilight looks like she’s thinking of something to say. All the while, I just hug the plush. It’s soft and seems pretty durable. It makes me think about what I will do with it once I get home…

“We still have to get the seashells from the aquarium… Try to get her distracted on some of the exhibits. When we get close to the shop, we will try to lose you two. Then it is really up to you to keep her from seeing our transaction.” Twilight tries to give me a reassuring smile. Clearly, she doesn’t know the kind of stress playing a double agent can put on me. I mean, I ain’t a stranger to lying, but it’s still difficult to make a convincing lie when I have to constantly distract an intelligent siren. She’s not dumb in the slightest, so every lie I tell her needs to have some reason behind it.

“You know how hard it is to lose Adagio, right? She’s like a dang detective. Probably stuff I taught her,” I say with a prideful smile. “But in all seriousness, that isn’t an easy task. Especially since Sunset is right beside you for the whole day.” Twilight motions for me to follow her away from the prize counter. As soon as we are away from a lot of the people around the entrance of the park, she hands me a small packet of some red liquid. How is sauce supposed to help? Am I going somewhere to eat?

“If you absolutely need to, you can bite down on this packet to make it look like you’re bleeding from the mouth. It’s fake blood, so don’t ingest too much of it. I’m sure that if you look injured, Adagio’s attention will be focused on you.” The way she suggests that so casually is insane. Given, I’d probably come up with something equally as crazy, so it isn’t too weird. The thought of making myself appear injured still sucks though. I guess I could pretend to fall on my face and lure her to the bathroom for a bit. I should still find another way to distract her if it is possible.

“This is crazy, but I’ve done worse,” I shrug, putting the pack of fake blood in my pocket. “Do you two have anywhere else you need to go before tomorrow? I’d like to know where to go after the Aquarium since Adagio seems pretty focused on that before we go on any more rides.” Twilight takes a deep breath, looking into her purse. Pulling out a piece of paper, her eyes scan it for a few seconds.

“It looks like the last place we need to go to is a photography studio to get that picture print out. There isn’t much to do there, so you two will likely just be standing around. Unless you want to look at the picture frames. They have a surprising history behind them.” Surprising history behind picture frames? Sure. It’s probably just something boring like what kind of wood they are made out of. Twilight looks at me with a nervous smile, shrugging to herself. “Eh, nevermind. I’m sure you will enjoy the shop anyway since you can find a lot of cool frames. After that, Sunset will be heading home.” So, I only have to distract Adagio for a few more hours. It sounds a lot easier than it will be, that is for certain… I wish I was a better spy.

“I hate you,” Adagio whispers as she walks in front of me. I can tell she’s joking, but I do hate working as some sort of double agent. Both sides want me to do certain things and I can barely keep up as it is. Oh god, am I getting old? Is this what it feels like to be tired of everything? I’m only eighteen. Nah, I can still keep up… Yeah. The first step to being old is admitting you’re old. That’s what Granny always s…

“Hey, Adagio,” I state, walking up beside her. “Do you wanna look at the clownfish while we’re here? It should only take a few minutes.”

“Sunset and Twilight are about to pass the corner. I don’t want to lose them already,” Adagio tells me with a shake of her head, urging me to keep following them. That… is exactly why I wanted us to look at the fish. The gift shop is up ahead and I’d rather lose them now so they can have some time to buy those shells.

“Yeah, but I haven’t seen them here. The last time I saw some was when I was like five.” That’s not the whole truth… I have seen clownfish since then, but what else am I supposed to do? I don’t have a lot of ideas on how to slow her down.

“Then you can look at them. I’ll text you when we need to go,” she states in a matter of fact voice, not realizing that I want her to stay with me. Keeping her away from Sunset was not on my bucket list today. Heck, it wasn’t on my job description when Adagio asked me to help out. But I guess when you’re caught by the enemy, you have to do a lot of stuff you didn’t sign up for. Sighing to myself, I grab the fake blood. This is so stupid, but it seems like this will be the only way to get Adagio off Sunset’s trail. I…

“What’s wrong?” I ask her with a raised eyebrow. Adagio stopped suddenly, making the distance between us and our desired target greater by the second. However, she seems distracted… “Hey, Adagio. You okay? Is there a reason why you stopped or are you just admiring the view?” Despite my joke, Adagio doesn’t find it funny. Instead, her eyes stare into space as her body wobbles slightly.

“Let’s… Let’s look at those clownfish… I need a place to sit anyway,” Adagio tells me in a normal tone, but the way her hand grabs my shoulder isn’t usual at all. It’s like she’s lost her balance.

“Are you okay? I can get ya some water-”

“I’m fine. Just dizzy,” Adagio interrupts me in a slightly annoyed voice. Sitting down near the clownfish display, Adagio’s eyes instead look at the floor. The weirdest part about all of this was that I was about to fake an injury… I guess she wanted to beat me to the punch. “Sorry. Not enough iron in my body,” Adagio says with a slight chuckle. “In all seriousness, I think it’s just a lot of stress getting to me. Don’t worry about me.”

“Stress about the lack of time spent with Sunset?” I ask carefully, bumping her with my shoulder. A nod agrees with my question.

“Not to mention the big deals I have been trying to secure for the music studio. I signed on some big artists to record there, but I haven’t been able to tell Sunset yet. Some luck, huh?” Adagio rolls her eyes a little. “All this stress lately has been causing me to have frequent headaches and dizziness. Possibly the nausea too.”

“Then you should take it easy,” I tell her with a big smile, patting her shoulder. “Is it really so bad that Sunset wants to plan something for your birthday? Maybe you should go home-”

“No,” she interrupts me again with a shake of her head. “Even though she doesn’t know it is me… It’s nice to spend time with Sunset like this. Kind of like a stalker, but still. It’s been a while since I have spent time with her, so…” Adagio shakes her head slightly, lightly slapping her face to make herself more aware. “But still. Thank you for helping me with such a weird day.” Helping isn’t exactly what I would call being a double agent, but we can go with that. Adagio stands up from her seat, looking towards the direction of Sunset who has now disappeared.

“Don’t mention it,” I respond with a laugh. “I’ve asked you to help me with weird stuff too. This is just you cashing in my debt.” Let’s just hope this gave Sunset enough time to buy those stupid seashells… “Actually, how about you wait here?” Adagio raises an eyebrow at my question, clearly concerned. “Take a few more minutes to breathe and regain your composure. I'll scout ahead and keep an eye on those two. I can text you if we need to go before you catch up with us.” Adagio tilts her head, interested in the idea. After a few seconds, she finally shrugs.

“Fine. But I won’t be too far behind. Tell me whatever you see,” she reminds me, even though I can’t tell her a thing or else Sunset will be mad at me. Giving her a thumbs up, I quickly run ahead, making sure that Adagio actually takes a few moments to stay behind. Feeling the air against my face, I know what I have to do. If they aren’t done at the gift shop yet, I will rush them through it, I swear to god…

A bell rings as we open the door to the small shop. The place is filled with the smell of wood, but an air freshener tries to mask that with the scent of flowers. Honestly, it really just highlights the wood smell since it makes the place feel like a floral shop from smell alone. It kind of reminds me of those yoga places that try to emulate nature, but they go way too hard. Living on a farm helps you know what is an artificial smell or the real deal.

However, this place ain’t trying to do that at all. They just have a lot of wood frames for sale. They also have camera equipment to the right. This feels like a one stop shop for anything photography, which is weird for a studio. I thought the place would mostly be a place where people get their pictures taken. Not a place where you can buy a camera, a frame, and other stuff… I don’t know the names of the other products. Things that hold up a camera and… a ring light?

“Maybe this is what you should do,” I tell Adagio with a smug raised eyebrow, nudging her. “Just imagine it. People go to your studio to record music and they are also enticed to buy new speakers or instruments on the way out.” Adagio hits me in the arm, not bothering to look at me.

“Don’t even suggest something like that. That would probably just alienate my client base.” Adagio has a thoughtful look come across her face, nodding a little to herself. “But that does give me a couple ideas for some alternative services I could provide…” Before I can ask her what she means, Adagio leads me into the picture frame section of the store. Her hand sorts through the frames, but her eyes linger around the store. “I thought you said they were coming here. Are they here yet?” she asks me with a skeptical tone. The problem is that we’re here a few minutes early.

“Relax. They’ll be here s-” the ringing bell interrupts me, making our gaze turn towards the door. Sunset holds the door open for Twilight, both of them entering with a laugh. I have no idea how we got here before them since they left the aquarium before us… Adagio quickly averts her eyes, her back aimed at Sunset. It really doesn’t matter if she is obvious or not. They know we’re stalking them. It’s quite literally my job to try and distract Adagio while we follow them. “What did I tell you? They’re here.”

“That doesn’t tell me why they’re here in the first place,” Adagio mentions in a whisper. Oh, I don’t know. Going to a photography studio means they clearly want to get a sandwich instead of buying something like a picture. “What are they buying? A picture? If so, which one are they printing out?” Adagio asks, almost like she sensed my sarcastic thoughts. Sunset and Twilight walk towards the counter without looking through any of the products for sale.

“I guess that answers your question. They’re either getting a picture printed out or they are here to take some new pics.” I nod towards the two of them, making Adagio look over for a few seconds. An elderly man walks over to the counter, greeting them. I can barely hear him talk to Sunset about her order being ready.

“Thank you again for completing this on such short notice,” Sunset gratefully says. I can tell Adagio’s interest is piqued since she stops pretending to look through the picture frames.

“It's a lovely piece, might I say. It was easy to print and it is always nice to see a picture of two friends,” the elderly man comments with the kind of smile that you’d get from a grandparent that still hasn't lost their hope in life.

“She is my best friend, but it's a picture with my wife,” Sunset corrects the man, making his eyes widen slightly. Adagio leans in a little more upon hearing that.

“Oh, I'm terribly sorry for assuming. You're a cute couple and I am sure you are lucky to have her,” the man replies with the same hopeful smile. Adagio’s head hangs a little lower as if she is trying to hide behind the shelf.

“Luckier than you can imagine,” Sunset comments with the biggest smile. Twilight nudges her as if to bring her back to reality. Funnily enough, Adagio is also blushing wildly. I can't imagine being that much in love with someone… They're practically daydreaming about each other from the simple mention of each other's names.

The man turns around, picking up a yellow envelope. He gives it to Sunset after she hands over a few dollars.

“If it isn't up to expectations, remember that we offer a full refund up to thirty days,” the man gently tells the two of them. Twilight nudges Sunset, seemingly telling her to do something.

“I'm sure it is perfect, thank you,” Sunset whispers before opening the envelope. Her hand gently pulls out a small framed picture, tilted just enough that I can't see what the picture is depicting. The brightest smile comes across Sunset’s face, one that would make anyone stop and wonder what could make her react like that. I wonder what picture she chose…

Author's Note

Fun fact, I finished this chapter while in the car :) I wasn't driving of course. Don't fic and drive!