Chapter 3

JC sighed as the men he had been talking to left him in the dark. When he turned back to the tables everyone seemed to be getting along. They were talking to each other, and his three new friends were blending in perfectly. JC walked over and sat down beside Lance.

"How you doin'?" Lance turned away from Chris and over to JC. His eyes glittered and he smiled at JC.

"I’m doing fine, just fine." JC smiled back at him, and turned toward Joey and Justin as Lance turned back to his conversation with Chris. JC felt a warmth flow through him as he saw their happiness reflected in their eyes. They all looked so happy that it almost made JC forget the screams he had heard echoed through the campsite on various nights. It almost let him forget the fear he had seen in Lance's eyes the night before. It almost let him forget that they had lives he could never imagine in his wildest nightmares, and it only left a sense of familiarity.

He was soon caught off guard by a yawn from Justin.

"I'm tired. We should probably go now." He spoke to Joey and Lance, but kept his eyes glued on JC the entire time.

"You’'re probably right, Justin. It is getting kind of late." Joey stood up and shook JC’s hand, before turning to leave. Justin looked up to him, and then lowered himself onto the ground.

"Thank you so much for inviting us over tonight. Maybe tomorrow you can have lunch with us and our friends?"

"That would be nice. I’ll see you then." Justin began to follow Joey, and Lance stood up, whispering to JC before he left.

"I thank you from the bottom of my heart, JC." JC looked at Lance's eyes and saw the beginning of tears in the green orbs. "For the first time since the accident, I feel normal. I feel like I belong." JC wrapped his arms around Lance for a second before releasing him and watching the three men leave the area, going back to their respective trailers.

~

The next day around noon, JC walked up to the trailer he knew to be Lance's, and knocked on the door. There was no answer, and he was about to leave when a voice caught his ear.

"JC! It’s me, Justin. We're all going out into the park. You almost missed us." JC turned around and smiled at Justin, following him to an open field. He saw Joey opening a basket, and Lance sitting Indian style beside a midget and two pinheads.

"Are these all of the people who are going to be here?" Justin looked at the small gathering, and nodded.

"All except for Maria. She should be here soon, though."

"Maria?" JC felt himself blushing, because he didn't recognize the name.

"The bearded lady."

"Oh."

"I know it's not really that many people, JC, but we don’t really have a lot of friends. Sissy and Katy aren't really conversationalists." He saw JC’s confused expression. " The pinheads. Maria and Tom, the midget, are kind of... well. I don't think that they really like the rest of us. They've only been here for about a year, and came here of their own free will. I think they make fun of us behind our backs. They used to call Lance and me orphans. They would say it right to Joey's face, even. They don’t talk like that any more, but they don’t really talk to us either."

"Oh." JC felt like crying at that moment. Not only were they shunned by the rest of the circus, but they were even thought odd, by other members of the sideshow. He was taken out of the slump though, when he saw Lance smiling at him. He walked over to him and smiled back.

"Hi, JC."

"Hello, Lance, and who are these ladies?" He referred to the pinheads, and Lance got their attention.

"Sissy, Katy, I’d like you to meet JC." They both smiled at him and Sissy held out her arms. He embraced her, and then hugged her sister, Katy. The midget than moved to JC.

"Hello, Mr. Chasez." Tom held out a hand to JC, and JC shook it vigorously.

"You can call me JC, Tom." Joey then laid out a sandwich at JC's feet as he began to sit down.

"Hello, Joey."

"Hi, JC! Thank you for coming. I thought you might not."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Oh, he just gets paranoid sometimes. You know how it is." JC didn’t know how it was, but he just nodded to Lance anyway.

"Sissy!" JC looked to Joey and saw that he and Lance were running after Sissy through the field together. Soon Justin and Katy were out there as well, and JC turned behind him at a noise. Maria came up behind him and sat down beside Tom and JC.

"I suppose Justin told you about us, JC?" JC swallowed and nodded uncomfortably.

"We don’t want to hurt them, but being mean to them is the only way that we can keep ourselves from getting hurt." JC had a look of disbelief on his face.

"How so?" Tom and Maria looked back and forth between each other, before Maria finally spoke up.

"You see, JC, Larry doesn't hurt us. I'm sure you know what he does to Lance, Joey, and Justin." JC nodded his head as the memory from two days ago hit him full force.

"Well, he does that because he knows that they won't leave. He knows that no matter what he does to those three, they will not leave him. They can't. That's why we call Justin and Lance orphans. They have no place else to go. They're stuck here forever, whether they like it or not."

"That's not true! They could get other jobs." Tom scoffed at him.

"Not likely. They have no formal education, so they would only be able to get laborious jobs, but then tell me one thing. How much cotton or fruit could you pick with no arms, or with no leg?... Not much."

"As for Joey. He made a big mistake. He got attached to Justin and Lance. He became their lifelong friends, so now he can't leave, because he would never dare to leave them alone here. Lance and Justin are stuck in this hell-hole, which means that Joey is stuck here by association. I don't want to be here forever and neither does Tom, so we can’t afford getting attached to the three of them." JC looked out into the field before him, watching the five people play in the grass, laughing and sharing a moment of peace.

"I understand."

Chapter 4