Panther Carnival

It was a cold and windy day at TA (Thetford Academy). The wind was blowing so hard that it made this weird whistling sound like a tea kettle making some tea. The wind never stopped. It let up sometimes and you didn't hear that whistling all the time, but the wind was always heavy like a bag of bricks on you. It got to be 2:55-time for school to get out-and the bell never rang but sometimes it’s a little late. So we waited and waited for the sound of freedom, but it never came. My last class of the day is in the library with Mr. Black and Kate, Kate said ” Go ahead and go. The bell should have rung by now.” I opened the door with excitement to go home, but all of a sudden the door slammed back. We all backed up slowly, unsure of what had just happened and then Kate said “You can go.”

I replied back to her with “Um, I  Kn…..Know but the do…..door just slammed without anyone slamming it.”  Kate and Mr. Black decided that we should probably stay clear of the slamming door, so we all went to the lab and waited until we knew the weird door slamming and tea kettle - sounding wind was. Then he pulled harder and harder on the door. He even tried picking the lock on the door, but it was an impossible lock. Mr. Black pulled one more time and the door just opened like it hadn’t ever been locked but then the door slammed again and almost shattered the glass. It closed so hard that the lights flickered twice and the room went dark.

 There was a bright pop of color in the room and it came from the projector screen, which started to play a clip about the Panther carnival. Everyone was interested once it said there were 100 foot roller coasters and rides that spin for 30 minutes. No one knew what the panther carnival was until the showing came on. They also were wondering why they couldn’t have advertised the carnival in a more friendly way, instead of scaring people. The clip played for about five minutes and then it shut off and the lights came back on. Kate went to the door and it opened like nothing had happened.

 We all ran from the room, hoping to find our cars, buses, or friends that we walked with. Some of us were petrified, but others were super excited to go to the Panther carnival, even though it was a weird way to tell us about it. We had school the next day and everything was normal. We got out at 2:55 and the doors didn’t come back at us this time. The next day, kids had alerts on their phones reminding them that the carnival was only two days away.We got to the end of that day and it was as normal as could be, no weird wind or slamming doors It got to be one day away and everyone that was trapped in that room was talking about how they were going to the Panther Carnival. The carnival looked awesome but some kids weren’t going because they didn’t want to get stuck on a 100 foot high roller coaster. A group of girls and I had decided that we were going to go to the Panther Carnival, even if we didn’t stay long.

Carnival day, and I was afraid. This Panther Carnival thing had just locked me in a room and now I was being asked to trust the workers and rides with my life. That was way too scary for me. I decided to go anyway because I wouldn’t have a good conscience knowing if my friends went and got hurt and I had just let them. So the group of us girls all went to the fair. There were Six of us: Anna, Caroline, Madeleine, Elizabeth, Piper and me.

 We got to the carnival and got right in. I didn’t love it at first, but it wasn’t bad. We went on over 100 rides, got some fair food and didn't experience any weird wind or crazy slamming doors. It was a nice day until after Elizabeth spoke,”Well this is better than that weird wind and those crazy slamming doors,you know those kind of scared me a little.”

 Then came exactly what Elizabeth had just talked about - the whipping winds that had the sound of a tea kettle and the slamming doors.- Except this time it wasn’t slamming doors. It was slamming rides. All the rides came out of their places and started bumping into each other as if they were playing bumper rides. The workers had no control over the rides at all and they all ran into the PANIC BUILDING!!!! (Which of course was only for the employees.) All the kids and adults on the rides just went for an even bumpier one. I was just glad that Anna had suggested that we should get cotton candy before the cart closes. Otherwise we would have been on one of those rides right now, too. We watched in amazement for a couple of minutes and then we decided that we should do something about this mess because we might have caused it we weren't one hundred percent sure. Madeline came up with this plan that we have to mention the winds and slamming doors again because if Elizabeth saying something about them made them come back, maybe saying something about them again would make them leave too. We all figured that that plan of Madeline’s would be our plan to help everyone. So we tried it, but this time we had Piper start talking about the crazy winds and ironic doors slamming. At first, nothing happened. The rides were still attacking each other and the winds were still a dark color with that tea kettle noise.

 Then it happened. Everything stopped and Madeline's plan had worked. Mentioning the weird things that day again had helped make them go away and everything was back to normal. The rides stopped smacking each other and the sky was a beautiful baby blue. There was no noise, except for the workers coming back out of the panic room. So the fair was open again, even though it didn't really shut down. It just had some weird problems. Madeline, Anna, Piper, Caroline, Elizabeth and Me decided that we had had enough fun for the day. So we called our parents and asked them to come pick us up and take us home. That was where the day ended, with us all leaving the Panther Carnival in fear.