-Act III
Daisy Isabella Bell Crosses over the Rubicon 

The seconds quickly melted into minutes and those minutes seemed to drag on and on. It seemed most of the town folks of Benton did not want to part with their hard earned money or make a cash donation for the honor of pushing a pie into a pretty cheerleader's face anymore. And that suited me just fine, the fair itself seemed like a real bummer too. I could also tell by the number of people passing by the booth, that Jamie,  our fearless leader seemed at fist a little annoyed and now she seemed fuming mad.

“I blame the lack of rides! I mean who is going to pay ten dollars to get into a fair that has only ten rides. And most of those are just little kiddie rides! Oh sure you could say 'Well Jamie it's always the food trucks' but like how many food trucks do you see out there?! I tell you what I've counted them and I'd only need to use my left hand! Heck we don't even have the damn girl scouts out here peddling their knock off, high as hell cookies! Much less the freaking boy scouts with their overpriced tins of popcorn! It's a bloody bust!”

Winter and I exchanged looks.

“Oh my God! This was supposed to be a big money making event! I remember when my sister ran it, it used to rake in buckets of dollars! Of course back then the fair was totally different, for one it was cold, really cold! And you had some really kick-ass rides, like dozens of them. Rides that would make you wet your panties , you also had dozens of food stands, you had a plethora of sideshows! And I don't remember  the tickets ever being ten dollars a piece! Never!” Jamie hooted as she stomped her foot on the hard ground that was the floor of the booth.

Winter and I once more exchanged looks.

“Nothing going the way it should! First nobody wanted to volunteer to help me and Winter staff the booth. Nobody wanted to help the squad out by taking a custard pie to the face! Finally I got Cerridwen to volunteer because she is the youngest member of the 'A' squad. But then like always when it gets cold, and the season starts to change, her body decides to hate on her and she comes down with the sniffles or something. And that takes her out of action. So then I'm forced to cash in a favor. Turns in by cashing in that favor, I've flipped a bunch of flipping mental switches in my volunteers head. Turns out they're in the 'Egg' and picked of all the time to 'Hatch'  the time they're getting dressed for the pie toss. Now, halfway through the damn fair we've only managed to raise around like fifty dollars! Have you seen the price of gas per gallon?! Fifty dollars is like a tank of gas at best? That might get us halfway to Oxford?! I stress the 'might' part.” Jamie then tossed her hands up into the air and shouted something that neither I or Winter could understand.

“Ms. Potter.” I said, taking a deep breath. Winter at this point in time the best thing she could do with her time was practice her nails. Right now she was busy removing the old color with some nail polish remover.

“WHAT?!” Jamie snapped as she turned around.

“I gotta go pee.” I said blushing a little.

“Okay.. I guess.. I guess winter can take over you?” Jamie said, closing her eyes.

“Sorry that's a big no..” Winter said as she started to run her now wet nails dry with some brown paper towel. “I told you Jamie girl, the 'Pie a Benton Academy' is old and tired. I mean each year they have a 'Silent Cheerleader' stunt around Homecoming. You know, we cheerleaders gotta go the whole day without muttering a signal word, and if we mutter a word, the student who catches us gets to take our oversize name badge and gets the privilege of shoving a pie that made from cool-whip and pudding into the unlucky girls face.  And that's free.” 

Jamie nodded her head, I think the sad truth was starting to dawn on her.

“I also told you that we should try selling hotdogs this year. You could get away with selling them for like three dollars a piece. That two dollars cheaper than what the local Masonic Lodge is selling for. Three dollars for a hotdog, a dollar for an off brand coke, a dollar for a fresh baked cookie, like we could have been making buckets of money. I remember Sunflower was running a special, they were selling Bar S's hotdogs, at each hotdog per pack, and if my math is correct eight times three is twenty four. Each pack of hotdogs would have brought in twenty four dollars. My dad also works for IGA Breads, I know he would cute us good deal on slightly out of hot dog buns.” Winter said as she walked over to me and gently she tried to lift the covering without getting any cream or pudding on her fingers.

Jamie was blushing like mad at this point. Clearly Winter calling out her shortcoming as a leader was getting on her nerves.

“Okay kiddo, go pee, be sure to use the women's bathroom, and be sure to sit when you pee too.” Winter said sweetly, it seemed to clear as a bell to me that tonight she was the counterpoint to the demanding and maybe unhinged Jamie.

“But I normally stand to take a leak.” I said blushing deeply.

“Fuck it, were screwed. The pooch is so screwed!” Jamie hotted as she turned to face one of the wooden walls. Slowly she started to knock her head against the wooden wall. The sound of her head knocking into the wall echoed across the fairground and drew a modest amount of attention from those walking by the booth. Though not the kind attention I'm sure Jamie was looking to gain from the crowds.

“I know that sweetie.” Winter said, smiling sweetly, “But tonight you are a lady. And us ladies sit when they need to pee. And plus the bathroom here is old, having been built in the late eighties. It's also been abused and is the favorite haunt for wasps in the warmer months. Also the stalls don't have locks. So somebody could very well barge in at any moment. And if they decided that they need to pee and so they bust open your stall and find you standing to pee. Let's just say there's going to be hell to pay for all of us. Now, on the flip side if they were to barge in and find you seated, with your legs together, and everything nicely tucked in. They are more likely to mutter a very quick 'Sorry' under their breath and go into the next empty stall or wait outside.” Winter said, smiling a little.

 “Winter.. you should go ahead and go with her. Please, pretty please go with her. I'll just tell everybody our sweet, lovely volunteer has stepped out to take care of personal business and she'll be right back. Plus, the first lesson she needs to learn if she is going to be a girl, is that girls travel in pairs.” Jamie muttered. “Plus this fundraiser is a lost cause anyway.”

“Oh sure. I forgot that Daisy is not potty trained yet.” Winter said smiling. 

“I kind of wish I never tried to escape from the clutches of Nurse Spooky right now. The idea of being her dark acolyte and helping her plunge the hospital into total darkness. I mean she was going to make the girl I wanted to be, but in the process I had given her my soul. But I'm fine with that.” Us Bell's are known for a dark, dark, twisted sense of humor. And right now, with everybody taking jabs at me. And having been covered from head to toe in custard, cream and pie crust. I was in a pretty dark humor frame of mind.

Winter and Jamie both looked at me, Jamie looked like I'd spouted a second hand and that second hand was now talking in Latin. Winter though, smiled a little and leaned over and gently, in a soft, almost motherly tone of voice whispered into my ear.

“Oh, who says you escaped her for good. I heard from my mom who's also a nurse that the fabled 'Nurse Spooky' can on certain nights of the year leave the confines of the hospital to stalk prey that have escaped her. If she has some strands of that beautiful hair of yours, then she has your scent and she can follow you and stalk you. Watching from the shadows, waiting for the perfect chance to pounce on you and drag you into the shadows. Waiting to spirit you away into the darkness and void of the shadow world.”

I felt my blood to icy water. I turned and peered into Winter's eyes and they seemed a little more menacing than normal. I was just about to respond when Winter beat me to the punch.

“But don't worry little sis. I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you. You're my new baby sister and it's the job of the big sisters to keep the little sisters safe. Right Jamie?” Winter said, turning toward Jamie with a smile that curved from one ear to the other. It was kind of a half-moon smile.

Jamie was clearly not amused at the banter.

“Ladies! Bathroom now! Unless Miss. Daisy Isabella Bell feels like she can keep holding it for the last fifteen or twenty minutes of her shift. I don't know which? Because I've lost track of time! Also, we are sunk! This whole fundraiser has been a circus without any animals or clowns or anything!” Jamie shouted all this at the top of her lungs. Her voice echoed.

It was at this moment I knew Jamie was really unhinged tonight and the presser of running a successful fundraiser had caused her to snap. I mean she was standing in the shadow of her older, more popular big sister, Lily Elizabeth Potter, who had helmed the cheerleading program for four wonderful years. So it was safe to say she had some pretty big shoes to fill.

It took a few moments for me to completely get the cape off. And it took another moment for me to gain my footing as the ground was slick with oily cream and pudding. And another moment of holding onto Winter for support as I crossed the minefield the last thing I wanted to do was slip on some pudding and fall down flat on my and twist my knee or sprang my ankle for my troubles.

Once that was done, I was ushered backstage and guided through the fairground. Jamie was right, when compared to some of the other regional fairs I'd been too growing up in Vicksburg, this one was small peanuts. I counted four or five rides and like Jamie said most of the rides were indeed 'Kiddie' rides and maybe one or two side shows. 

One of the most popular side-shows was where one paid three dollars to bend down and pick up a plastic duck. At the bottom of the duck was a number, you matched the number to a box and there you went, you got a prize. Most of the prizes it seemed came straight from the shelves of the local Super-Value Dollar Store. And maybe one food truck. All in all the picking was slim here.

“The fair used to be a lot bigger, but since the whole pandemic thing, things have really slowed down. People are still afraid to be around other people it seems and to get out and about. That and it's peak deer season.” Winter smirked. “I guess a lot of guys are out in the woods, aiming to bring home that prized buck deer or aiming to fill the freezer for the winter. And I guess a lot of gals decided on following their boyfriends and husbands into the woods to keep an eye on them. Plus, like I told Jamie before she settled on running that even, the Pie Toss is old, we need something new.”

I nodded my head.

“Anyway I guess you're on the squad now, if anybody asks you, you tell them you're on the 'C' squad. We have three squads, 'A' squad is the main line up of cheerleaders that do all the high flying cheers, pretty much these girls are the cream crop if you will. In short their seasoned veterans. Second, you have the 'B' squad of girls, these girls have a season or two under their belts, have attended some training camps, and they show some promise and in time with a bit of work and a dash of luck, they might get promoted to the 'A' squad. That is if they keep on growing and learning. And last but not least you have a 'C' squad. Normally these are promising eighth graders, Freshman and Sophomores who did make the 'B' squad when the yearly rounds of promotions were passed outs. They cheer in group cheers, they get their photos taken with the rest of the squads. They're just as important than any of the other squads. In time if they keep at it, they will be promoted hopefully from 'C' to 'B' and with a lot of hard work and a small bit of luck they will make 'A' their senior year.”

Winter took a deep breath.

So, if anybody asks you why they've not seen you at any of the games this past season, say your on the 'C' squad Okay? Cause, not to be rude or anything, nobody really pays them much attention anyway. We don't want them to ask too many questions. Benton Academy is a small school, and everybody pretty much knows everybody, either directly or indirectly. So there is a good chance that come Monday Morning somebody from our school would have seen you. And then the cat will be out of the bag. I guess we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“It's safe to say at this point in time you have crossed over the Rubicon.” Winter said, sighing.

“Alea lacta est!” I muttered softly under my breath.

“Y'all Episcopal folks and your love for everything England and Latin.” Winter said, shaking her head from one side to the other. “I only know bits and pieces of it, because I took it my Freshman year cause the professor was young, like right out of college, and the ink was still wet on his diploma. And he was fine as summer wine and hot to trot. And then I thought I could lure him into the broom closet for a little kissing, a little cuddling and a little something extra. Get a nice and spicy story to tell the girls at camp. Worst mistake I ever made, the man was married, his wife was a bitch and I nearly flunked the course. In the end I managed to pass with a 'B' only because I forced myself to study.” Winter muttered under her breath.

At that moment I knew there was no chance of ever turning back. The wheels had been set in motion.