Fontaine Academy

Chapter 33

Jules

Ethan picks me up bright and early on a Sunday morning. He refuses to tell me where we are going saying it’s a surprise.

I am a little surprised when we pull up to a diner, a sign reads Blue’s.

“This is the surprise?” I ask.

“No but I thought we could grab breakfast first. This is the best breakfast spot in town.” Ethan laughs.

We settle on a blueberry muffins, tomato and feta omelets and mango smoothies. 

Everything looks amazing. We dig in.

“Do you eat here a lot?” I ask.

“Not as much as I used to. I used to come here with mom and dad every Sunday when I was younger. But they both got busier with their work so that stopped. I still come here with Ken sometimes though.”

“When do you see your parents? I mean you are always on campus…” I trail off.

“Mom and I see each other every day, sometimes we have lunch together. Dad works long hours but we still talk on the phone almost every day and we all gather at the house for dinner at least twice a week.” He says.

“What about you, how often do you talk to your parents?” Ethan asks.

“I don’t think I have ever met my father and mom died when I was three so…”

“Oh I’m sorry. You never got adopted?”

“Never got adopted. I moved around a lot but they were all just foster homes. This last one was the one I stayed the longest at, five years.” I say.

“They must have been so happy for you when they heard you were going to Fontaine.” Ethan says.

“The other kids were happy for me. Beth, that’s the foster mother, accused me of thinking I was better than them and slapped me.”

“She hit you?” Ethan exclaims.

“Lower your voice.” I say seeing the glances from nearby tables.

“She’s a mean drunk so we are used to it.”

Ethan asks me about my other homes, school and how life was like with mom. He tells me about his childhood too.

By the time we leave the diner I feel like I know him a little bit better. I learned more about him in the hour and a half of breakfast than I did over the two weeks of our fake relationship.

“This is the real surprise.” Ethan says.

We are stood next to a sign that proclaims: “Welcome to Sunland Amusement Park”.

“An amusement park?”

“Yeah, you said you have never been before.” He says.

It is true. I don’t remember ever going with mom and we didn’t have one in our town so I never went. Actually there was a field trip in middle school that would have been my first trip but my foster parents at the time thought it would be a waste of money.

“What do you want to do first?” Ethan asks.

“Everything.”

“Okay, we’ll start with some booths first and work up to the rides.” He says.

As promised we start with some games first. We make our way through everything on offer, we play darts, whack-a-mole and dunk tank to win prices. Afterwards we tackle the rides, neither of us are afraid of heights so we try every ride.