Songul’s head spun under the glare of the different colored lights. She had only been to a county fair one other time in her life, and that was when she was a kid.

Still, after being laid off from a job she had worked at for a while, it was refreshing to feel like a kid again. She zipped up her sweater and started walking down the pathway, the locks of her purple hair contrasting against her brown skin.

She watched the puppets dance and sing from one of the booths, and from another one, she watched a ballerina, a real one rather than a puppet, dance for the audience. That booth was a little farther in. Still, she stopped and watched, envying the ballerina’s grace. She herself had wanted to be a dancer when she was little, but after breaking her ankle while attempting an amateur pirouette, she had thrown away that aspiration.

Parts of that aspiration came flooding back to her as she kept her look on the ballerina. The ballet shoes were purple, matching Songul’s hair. The ballerina gave one final leap and then posed. The audience broke into a roar. Songul felt herself smile, thinking to herself how nice the ballerina had to be feeling.

“How come you aren’t sitting down there with the audience?”

Songul turned around to come face to face with one of the employees that was talking to people and walking around, cleaning up messes. The employee was a tall girl, her hair pulled back in the standard employee way.

“I’m just taking a look at all there is to do and watch,” Songul said with a polite smile. “I just got here a few minutes ago.”

"You were really focused on that ballerina, huh?” The employee said, cocking an eyebrow. Songul noticed the nametag that read Kate.

“I wanted to be one when I was a kid,” Songul said bashfully.

“You still want to?”

Songul shrugged. “I couldn’t even if I wanted to now.”

Kate still seemed to be staring at her and Songul felt herself blush.

“You know,” Kate said. “We’re looking for new people to join the fair. You could give it a try.”

Songul stared at her in confusion. “That’s nice of you to offer, but I’m really-really not that talented or anything.”

Kate shrugged. “I mean, you don’t have to be talented. Just have enough drive.”

She took out a piece of paper from her pocket. “We’ve been handing these out over the past few days to people who could be interested. If you want to give it a try, I encourage you to.

Songul took the paper into her hand and looked at it.

“And,” Kate added, while Songul was still skimming the details. “You get room and board here too.”

Songul’s head shot up fast. “No way! Where?”

“Over there,” Kate pointed to the back of the fair.

Songul squinted and could spot a couple of small buildings in the corner there.

“The ballerina you just watched lives there. So do I. So do all the people who are running the arcade games and singing and dancing.” Kate smiled. “So, if you want a fun job, that doesn’t pay too bad, and have a place to live…”

‘I’ll think about it,” Songul said, although the minute Kate had mentioned room and board, she was almost in. The rent was getting more and more pricey for her to pay, and Songul hated leasing part of her apartment to strangers.

“Cool,” Kate said, flashing another smile. With a minute, she had hurried off to stop another person that was standing near a game booth.

Songul stared at the paper Kate had given her. She could come in any day.

She didn’t have an income, she’d just been fired that day. And Kate had said the pay wasn’t that bad. She could go for this.