Feeling like she had been caught trespassing, Lacey slowly emerged from behind her bush to see who had spoken. It was another boy. No, not boy; man. He was maybe in his late twenties, average height, a little chubby, with a deep tan and mop of curly brown hair. All in all not entirely unattractive, Lacey thought. He was sitting on a stone with his knees pulled up and his arms around them.
“Um, hi?”
“Hi, I’m Alastair.”
“Lacey.”
“So, you’re gonna want to have a seat for the today’s grand final of the race,” Alastair said wearily. “I think the score is like a thousand points to Francine and a thousand points to George.”
“So they’re tied?” Lacey sat down on the stone next to Alastair.
“I have no idea, I’ve lost count. But they should have time to finish before the rain starts.”
“What do you mean?”
“See that cloud over there?” Alastair pointed towards the mountains in the distance. “The one that sort of looks like a fish.”
“Yeah?”
“When it’s on the other side of that mountaintop, it’ll start to rain.”
“How do you know that?” Lacey looked at Alastair.
He sighed. “That’s how it is every day. It’ll start to rain and we go inside to play. It’ll stop halfway through dinner.”
“What do you mean ‘every day’?”
“Every day is the same here. I’ve tried to figure out the routine, but this place get inside your head. Makes you forget numbers and letters and-”
“Who’re you?” A voice interrupted from behind them. Lacey turned around to see one of the two girls that had run off earlier.
“Uh…” Lacey was a little thrown by the childish appearance of the young woman. While she might be around twenty, she was wearing a pink dress so short her diaper peeked out below the hem. She had mussed-up, blonde hair and a couple of dirty smudges on her cheeks and forehead.
“Charlotte, this is Lacey,” Alastair said. “Lacey, Charlotte.”
“Like the thpider,” she lisped
“She’s been here a while,” Alastair whispered. “Like I said, this place gets inside your head.”
“Will you be my friend?” Charlotte looked up at Lacey with a wide-eyed, innocent expression.
“Um, sure,” Lacey answered.
“Yay!” Charlotte shouted and threw her arms around Lacey to give her a hug. The unrestrained enthusiasm surprised Lacey, but she returned the hug, rubbing Charlotte’s back.
“Does this mean you’ll stop bugging me now?” a voice asked snidely. When Lacey looked to see who had spoken she saw a girl with olive skin and long black hair. She was wearing overalls and a red t-shirt and was carrying a wooden boat.
“I guess you must be Francine,” Lacey said. “I’m Lacey.”
“Ooooo, look at you talkin’ all fancy,” Francine replied and rolled her eyes.
“Don’t listen to her Lacey. She’s just being a meanie,” Charlotte said, frowning at Francine. She grabbed Lacey’s hand and pulled her towards the garden. “Come on, I wanna show you something.”