In Hapeville, a really small town in West Virginia, there was a festival being planned. It would be the sixth annual firefly watching festival. Since the town is small, things like this help the people have fun.

There’s a young girl by the name of Sweet Davenport, who this year, will finally ask that one boy who she has loved since fifth grade, out to the Firefly Watching Festival. The boy’s name is Trey Kramm.

Sweet was a nice girl around the age sixteen. Her hair was long and a dark blue color with some green highlights. She always wore some kind of bright colored gown or a light jacket. She has shorts and colorful flipflops.

She was told to meet up with her two close friends at the pond to swim around for a bit. Her two friends were May Hanna and Jonathan Hearthome. Jonathan and May had a bit of a rivalry and have a hard time getting along with each other, but they only hang out with each other because of Sweet.

Jonathan has short black hair and was a pretty shy guy. He was the same age as Sweet and They were friends ever since the second grade. At first the two didn’t like each other at all, but when they were forced to do a science project with each other, they quickly became friends.

May had long blond hair, and would dye the tips of her hair pink, or sometimes all of the way pink. She was a girly girl like Sweet, but she had a bit of a more edgier side. She always took an interest in the punk kind of boys. She met Sweet in the sixth grade and they immediately became friends.

While she knew Jonathan longer then she had known May, but Her and May had just about everything in common. The only thing they didn’t have in common was their crushes on two boys. Oddly enough, The boys they liked were brothers. Sweet like Trey, and May like Dale, Trey’s brother.

It was late night when the friends got together. The pond had a little beach where they could lay towels out and lie down on the ground. Sweet had a new swimsuit that she wanted to try out. Jonathan and May had swimsuits as well, but Sweet’s was the only one that was actually new.

Sweet left for a small changing room off to the side of the pond. There were five of the small changing rooms, so there was more then enough for the three kids. They walked out of the changing rooms with their swimwear on. Jonathan had the normal kind of guy swim trunks, May wore a pink one piece, and Sweet had a purple two piece.

“What do you think?” Sweet asked her friends.

“It looks awesome!” May said.

“Thanks! So what do you think John?”

“Um… You look Cute.” Jonathan answered.

“Aww, thanks.” She said blushing.

“So are we going to go swimming or what?” May asked.

Sweet and May jumped into the pond while Jonathan just walked in. Doing this was something that Sweet and May had been planning on doing for a long time. Jonathan was against sneaking out after curfew, but he was dragged in nonetheless.

“So Sweet?” May said. “Are you gonna ask Trey to the festival this year?”

“I’m gonna try.” Sweet Answered.

Jonathan never liked to listen when they talked about boys like that. He found it embarrassing. He stuck his blushing face into the water to keep the girls from seeing his red face. The fact that The only light they had was coming from the moon and stars and one singular torch meant that it didn’t entirely matter, not to mention they were sort of off in their own little world.

“So are you going to ask Dale?” Sweet asked.

“I already did.” May replied.

“Really!? What did he say!?”

“He said yes!”

The two girls made a squealing noise of happyness. Sweet looked over at Jonathan who still had his face in the water. As she called his name, his head shoot up.

“John. Are you going to ask someone to the firefly watching festival?”

“Um… No…” Jonathan replied.

“Why not?”

“It’s because he’s chicken.” May said.

“I’m not a chicken… I just… The person I wanted to ask I already going with someone.”

“Who is it?” Sweet asked.

“It’s… I’d rather not say.”

“Why not?”

“I… I just don’t.”

“Okay, I understand. I guess you must be embarrassed by it.”

“I suppose you could say that.”

A voice sounded behind them. It was loud and sounded angry. A Man who was wearing pajamas was standing behind them.

“SWEET!” The man shouted.

“Dad!?” Sweet exclaimed.

“You’re in big trouble missy!”

2: The graciousness of a father

Sweet quietly sat in the back of her father’s car as he drove her home. Her father’s face showed just how upset he was. He had to get up in the middle of the night, find out where they were, and drive to some pond just to find his daughter.

“Sweet…” Her father said.

“Yeah?” She said quietly.

“You… You’re not allowed to go to the festival.” He hated to say this. He knew how much Sweet loved the festival, but she couldn’t go unpunished.

“What!?” She said with her eyes filling with tears.

“You heard me.”

“NO! You can’t do that!”

“SWEET! I am your father, I will do whatever I want!”

“B-But.”

“No buts…”

Sweet was devastated. He dream of getting with Trey was shattered with only one sentence. She couldn’t help herself but to cry. Her father understood her tears and said nothing, as he had nothing else to say.

……

When they got home, Sweet ran up to her room and jump onto her bed and buried her head into her pillow, to muffle her cries. She could hear her father talking on a phone down stairs. He was likely calling May and Jonathan’s parents about what had just happened. Odds were the three friends would all end up grounded for the summer, which is something no kid wants to go through.

Sweet couldn’t think of anything but the Festival. She wanted the whole thing to be spectacular. It was suppose to be the night that she got her first boyfriend, and her first kiss.

Her father finished talking and began heading upstairs. He slowly opened the door to Sweet’s room and looked inside not knowing that she was still awake.

“I’m sorry my little girl.” He said quietly.

He walked out of her room and closed the door slowly. Sweet eventually cried herself to sleep.

Sweet didn’t wake up until about noon. Even thought she had woken up, she didn’t want to do anything but just lie there. She could hear her parents talking downstairs.

“Don’t you think you were a little to hard on Sweet?” A feminine voice said.

“No, she needed to be punished for what she did.” A masculine voice said.

“But she never does anything like this ever, can’t you let her off with a warning.”

“No Emm. We need to teach her discipline.”

“But didn’t Greg let Jonathan off with a warning?”

“I’m not Greg.”

“I know you aren’t.”

“Then why compare me to him.”

“I’m not comparing you to him, I’m just-”

“Just what?”

There was a small moment of silence.

“Sean… Don’t you remember that time when we were young, and we snuck out after curfew just to see each other?”

“Yeah… Yeah I do.”

“Okay… Please… consider letting Sweet go again.”

“I’ll…… I’ll think about it.” He sighed.

“Good, now I’m going to go grocery shopping. I’ll see you when I get back.”

There was a sound of a door opening and closing. Sweet knew why her mother was grocery shopping, she did it every year. She always made a special treat for the festival.

Sweet knew she had to get up to take her morning shower in the afternoon. She got out of her bed and walked to the bathroom.

When her shower was over, she dressed herself in her usual kind of clothing.

After that, she tried to sneak out of the house through the front door. her father is usually in the basement when her mother is away. As she was about to walk through the door she heard her dad’s voice behind her.

“Where do you think you’re going?” He said.

“Um…”

“You think you can just sneak out again?”

“I… I just.”

“Listen, I’m gonna give you one more chance, but if you screw up again, you can kiss the festival goodbye.”

“Really?” Sweet asked.”

“Yes, you can thank your mom for that. But there’s still six days until the whole festival, so you better watch yourself.”

“Thank you!”

“It… wasn’t my idea.”

“Still… Thank you.” She said as she ran out the door.

She was headed for May’s home, even though she usually isn’t there. Sweet foolishly assumed that May would be in trouble, even though her parents never care about anything that she did.

As she was on her way to May’s house, she passed by Jonathan’s house. Jonathan was setting outside on the lawn with a magnifying glass. Sweet stopped a bit to see what he was doing.

“What’s that?” She asked.

Jonathan jumped not expecting to be seeing anybody.

“Sweet, you startled me.” He replied.

“Okay, what are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m trying to get a closer look at the grass, to see if I can see it’s cells and molecules.”

“I think you would need better tools then just a magnifying glass.”

“I guess your right.”

“Okay, see you!”

Jonathan waved goodbye to her as she continued walking to May’s home.

When she finally got there, she went to the front door and knocked hard on it. A large man who wasn’t wearing a shirt walked out to greet Sweet.

“What are you doing here?” The man asked.

“Is May here?” Sweet asked.

“Sweet? Oh right my daughter. No she’s not here.”

“Then where is she?”

“I’d assume she’s at her brother’s house. She goes there a lot.”

May’s brother was Marcus Harold. He had changed his last name because he didn’t like sharing a name with his parents. He was eighteen and moved out the first chance he got. He and May liked to spend time with each other from time to time.

Sweet continued her journey to find May. As she came closer to Marcus’ house, she noticed something in a small area of grass and trees made to be like a small park. She didn’t like what she saw at all.

3: The Bad Infulience

Standing under that tree was Dale Kramm and a girl, but not May. Dale was in his usual get up. A black jacket, and his black hair which is actually ginger but he dyes it black, along with a red streak that goes through it. He’s one of those kind of kids that vandalizes things and smokes with out his parents knowledge. A certifiable bad boy, which was what May liked.

The girl Dale was with was a small blond that wasn’t recognizable from school. It’s possible that she’s a new student that’s starting next year, but that didn’t explain why she was with him. Dale and the girl kissed and she walked off. Sweet became infuriated and walked up to confront the bad boy.

“Who’s that!?” She asked him furiously.

“That’s Karma.” He answered nonchalantly.

“What were you doing with her!?”

“Well, she’s my girlfriend.”

“What!? But May told me you were going to the festival with her!”

“I am.”

“Then what’s going on!?”

“Oh, so I can’t date two girls at once?”

“NO! NO YOU CAN’T!”

“It was a rhetorical question. I’m gonna do whatever I want.”

“How could you do that to May!?”

“Because she’s hot, I don’t care what she actually thinks.”

“Well, we’ll just have to see what she thinks when I tell her this.”

“I’m not gonna let you do that, at least not until we’ve-”

“JUST SHUT UP!”

Sweet turned away to start towards Marcus’ house. As she was about to get out of there, Dale grabbed her by the arm.

She looked back at him to see a fist flying toward her face.

It was fast and she blacked out. That jerk had punched Sweet right in the face.

When she awoke, the sun was going down and she saw a dark figure standing above her.

“Sweet?” The figure said in a familiar voice.

“wh-Who is it?” Sweet asked.

“It’s me, Jonathan.” He said as he extended his hand to help her to her feet.

She took his hand and he lifted her up.

“Thank you John.”

“No problem, now, what were you doing down there?”

“That Dale punched m-”

“WHAT!? How could somebody punch a girl like that!?”

“Jonathan, calm down, it doesn’t even hurt. I’m just going to go and tell May about what had happened.”

“Okay then, don’t get hurt.”

“I won’t.”

Sweet ran off looking for Marcus’ house as fast as she could. She was panicking, she didn’t want her best friend to get hurt by a jerk like Dale. Adrenaline was rushing through her body. Getting to that house was top priority.

She quickly found her way to Marcus’ house. She was almost out of breath, but she knocked on the door frantically. Marcus came up to answer, and at the sight of Sweet, he gave a scornful look.

“You have a lot of nerve showing up here after what you tried to pull.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You know very well what you did!”
“No I don’t!”

“What do you want!?”

“Where’s May?”

“She’s with Dale! Now get outta here!”

Marcus slammed the door in Sweet’s face. Sweet didn’t have time to think about what happened, She just wanted to find May and save her from Dale.

Sweet had been running so much, she was beginning to pant. She could barely breath but she needed to find May as quick as she could. She thought of the possibility that they might be near the pond that they were at the night before. It was the best she had, if they weren’t there, she could always try someplace else.

She had to stop halfway to catch her breath. She then immediately began running again. She had finally made it to the pond, where she saw May with Dale. They were both in the pond, swimming. Sweet walked up to the two kids. When May saw Sweet the look on her face shifted from pleasant to disgust.

“What are you doing here?” She asked in a sour tone.

“I’m trying to save you!” Sweet replied.

“Save me from what?”

“Dale!”

“Dale didn’t do anything wrong! He told me you tried to hit on him!”

“What!? I didn’t do anything like that! Dale was with another girl! AND THEY WERE KISSING!”

“He told me you might try something like that.”

“MAY! Are you gonna believe some boy, or are you gonna believe your best friend!?”

“As far as I’m concerned, I have no best friend.”

Sweet’s eyes began to water, and in no time she was flat out crying her eyes out. Jonathan and Sweet’s father ran up from behind her.

Jonathan had told him that someone attacked Sweet. They had been looking for them for a while, and by the time they got there it was already night.

“Sweet! Are you alright!?” Sean asked. (Sean is her father if you haven’t already figured that out.)

Sweet said nothing as Jonathan and Sean carried her into the back of the car. She lied on the back seat staring into complete darkness. Jonathan assumed the front seat. It was the second time this week that Sweet was being driven home from that very pond at night. The big difference was she wasn’t in trouble this time, at least not with her father.