things have been lookin' up ;; caleb

The sun was bright and high in the sky, not a cloud in sight. It was a beautiful fall day, and Carter couldn't be happier. Everything in her life started to finally feel normal again. Granted, she missed Jeanine, she'll always miss Jeanine for the rest of her life, but she wasn't so sad anymore. Even better was that Skye and Mar were finally getting along again, and Mar even had a boyfriend! There would always be a empty spot at the lunch table, on the picnic blanket, on the couch, but the three girls have learned to cope, and things couldn't be better.

Carter even had a little boyfriend sort of thing of her own. She met Caleb at school, through track, and she wondered why she never noticed him before. Well, she knew him, but didn't know him, and she was actually a little surprised when he started to talk to her. Either way, she didn't regret saying yes when he asked her out.

Today they were suppose to meet up at the Taffy Carnival, so she waited in front of the carousel, like he told her to do. She was anxious to see him, but excited.

Today was gonna be a good day. For the past few weeks Caleb had been on cloud nine. His horrible father was in jail, and in the lawsuit Caleb and his brother Luka had both gotten a nice chunk of change. It was nice, because Caleb was in school, and thus couldn't work a lot. His job at TICS didn't pay much, so he had been struggling after he cut off contact with his parents. Now they were paying anyway. Hah!

Besides coming back into the money he was raised with, Caleb had also been talking to this hot girl named Carter. He'd met her on the track team, and ever since he'd been hanging out with her at parties and stuff. She was pretty cool. Today he was going to ask her to be his girlfriend, because he figured why not? Also, Dierk, one of his guy friends, had expressed interest in Carter, so Caleb figured he needed to do something to get her off the market officially.

"Hey pretty lady," Caleb said, coming up behind Carter, who was looking over the fence at the carousel. She was exactly where he had asked her to meet him--that put a smile on his face. He leaned around and gave her a kiss on her ear, his arms wrapped around her, but holding a bag of pink cotton candy. "Got ya somethin'," he said, pressing the bag into her hands.

Carter giggled and leaned into Caleb when she felt his arms wrap around her body. "Aaaww, Caleb!" she said when she saw the cotton candy. "You're too sweet!" She turned around to face him, and gave him a kiss. She opened up her bag of cotton candy, and playfully stuck a piece of it into Caleb's mouth before popping some into her own.

"So," she said excitedly. "What are we going to do first?"

"I thought I would let you pick," Caleb said with a grin, putting his arm around Carter and steering away from the carousel. "We can do anything you wanna do, as long as you let me win you one of those giant stuffed animals sometime tonight." He pointed over towards this game where you had to throw darts to pop balloons. There were all these cute stuffed things hanging around the game. He thought one of them would look nice in her dorm room.

And then if anyone asked where she had gotten such a cute thing she could tell them it was from him.

He squeezed her lightly to show affection. "I wanna get you anything you want."

"Sounds like a plan!" Carter replied. Why was Caleb just so perfect? Carter had dated other guys before, but none of them ever treated her like Caleb did. He always bought her things, kissed her, touched her, pulled her close. She felt so lucky that out of all the girls at Redfern, he had picked her.

She decided that she was hungry, but carnival food was always so greasy and bad for you. Then again it wasn't like she indulged all the time. Being on the track team, Carter always tried to eat healthy and exercise, maybe tonight wouldn't hurt. "I could definitely go for some carnival food," she said. "French fries covered in salt, vinegar, and ketchup!"

Caleb's eyebrows raised. He'd never seen Carter eat such unhealthy things. Usually she was a freak about healthy stuff. She'd even chastised Caleb once for eating nachos before a race at one of their track meets.

"Hey, if that's what you want," he said with a grin. He reached down and planted a kiss on her cheek as they walked, Carter still under his arm. "We can get a medium and split'em." The not-just-yet couple ordered the fries, just as Carter wanted them, and then Caleb paid for them. They walked over to a little pavilion and sat down at a picnic table. Caleb left for just a second to buy them a lemonade and then they went to town on their food. When Caleb returned, he didn't sit across from Carter, but right up next to her.

"This was a good idea," he told her, slurping a fry. It was soaked in lots of stuff, which Caleb wasn't exactly thrilled about but he sucked it up. "Fries are such a perfect fair food."

Caleb wrote:"Fries are such a perfect fair food."

"That's why I wanted them!" Carter replied before sticking a soggy fry into her mouth. It tasted so good, but she knew she'd probably have a tummy ache later. Oh well, it was worth it. After they finished their fries, the two of them began walking toward all the carnival games. The first thing she spotted was a giant white tiger stuffed animal. "Aaww," she cooed. "Look at how cute that stuffed tiger is!" She looked up at Caleb, all pouty-like. "Will you win it for meeee?"

"Anything for the lady," Caleb said, squeezing the hand of Carter's he was holding. They walked over to the booth, and the game owner told Caleb he needed to throw a baseball and knock down some milk bottles. Seemed easy enough.

He let go of Carter's hand just to play the game, happy that she was standing next to him and watching eagerly. He threw a ball and missed. The second ball hit the top milk bottle off and Carter squealed with excitement. "Don't throw off my groove!" Caleb laughed, bumping into her hip with his. He threw the last ball and it collided with the bottom row, sending all the bottles toppling.

"We have a winner!" the game owner cried. He asked Caleb what he wanted, and Caleb pointed to the tiger Carter had mentioned earlier. After it was given to him he held it out to Carter. "A giant floofy tiger for my Carter Cat," he told her, wiggling it in her direction.

"It's so cuuute!" Carter squealed. "Thank you, thank you!" She took the giant stuffed animal and hugged it to her. She'd always keep it in her bed, she decided. Caleb was a little taller than her, so she stood on her tip toes to kiss his cheek. He wasn't too much taller though, but his height was perfect for her.

They began to walk some more, the tiger hugged safely to her chest. They started walking toward a tent that held merchants, selling home made candles, jewelry, pet clothes, purses, and basically anything else you could think of. "I always love looking at this stuff," she said, while glancing at some homemade bracelets. "It's interesting."

The two broke apart as they walked through the tent that held all the cool stuff. Carter was looking at the homemade section as Caleb walked over to a different table. While there he made a small purchase before returning to Carter's side. "Find anything you like?" he asked, his purchase hidden in his pants pocket.

Caleb wrote:"Find anything you like?"

Carter had been looking at all the homemade friendship bracelets. She decided to buy four, even though Jeanine would never be able to wear it, she decided she'd bring it to her grave. "I found these!" She told him, while showing him the one she slipped onto her wrist. "I bought one for Skye, Mar, and Jeanine too!" Maybe Skye, Marisol and she could go to the cemetery together this week.

"Did you find anything good?" She asked.