Surprise Me.

Chapter 3- Bright and Early

Sam decided that playing Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up on his speaker at full volume was an appropriate way to wake me up. After the mini-heart attack and the trip to the amusement park, I met Elton in person.

"So what's the plan here?" I asked.

"We're gonna find a place to hide and we're gonna spend the night here." Jake replied, undoubtedly nursing a headache from last night.

"Yeah, it's definitely gonna be that easy." Sam chuckled.

It wasn't. The boys got stuck trying to find hiding spots, absolutely flipped out when everyone but the manager left, and Jake even got caught and pretty much put in time-out. That's when Elton decided to drop a bomb on us.

"So I actually rented this place out for the night." He said, holding back a laugh as we got into the arcade.

"You did what now?" Sam asked.

"Yeah we're allowed to be here. I rented the place out."

"Son of a bitch." Colby mumbled. I gently elbowed him in the ribs and he lightly punched me in the arm.

"Does Jake know?" I asked.

"Nope." Elton laughed.

The manager went and got Jake who was incredibly happy to see us and Elton and Corey decided that they wanted to go on a ride first. Their screaming as it was slingshotting them around caused Sam to erupt into laughter.

"Is there a way to close this and keep them up there?" Colby asked the manager.

"For two or three minutes." He answered, grinning mischievously. Corey and Elton only screamed louder when they got "stuck." I could have sworn I heard Elton gagging for a solid minute as Corey yelled at him to aim the other way if he was gonna puke. The ride slowly came down and Elton hobbled off, sprinting to the grass to throw up just as Sam left, wandering towards the bathroom.

"Did the ride break or something?" Corey wheezed, hands on his knees.

"We locked it for a minute or two just for shits and giggles." Colby replied, smiling.

"Fuck you guys."

"Now you go up there." Elton said, spitting something onto the sidewalk.

"Okay." Colby immediately replied, hopping into the ride. "Maddie? You want to come?" He held out his empty hand to me, camera in the other. I sighed and grabbed it, buckling up next to him.

"I wanna go on record and say I absolutely hate you. I don't know what you've dragged me into, but it's-" I got cut off when the ride started moving upwards.

"This isn't bad." Colby reassured me.

"You fucking jinxed us." I heard the ride clink again.

Suddenly,we were spinning around and around so fast I felt as though I could pass out any second. Colby was screaming a litany of curses and had turned off the camera, tucking it into the seat. I shrieked as the ride lurched again, spinning faster and faster. It threw my hair in every direction and Colby's chain continuously flew up and down. Colby grabbed my hand and held it tightly, his cold rings clinking against the metal ride.

"I hate this! Fuck, I'm scared!" I screamed. The ride slowed and I opened my eyes, expecting to be settled on the ground. Instead, Colby and I were stranded in the air.

"Oh, fuck." I cried, tears rushing down my face. "We're stuck."

"No, don't say that. It's gonna drop any minute and we're gonna be on the ground." Colby panted, still clutching my hand.

"I'm so fucking scared, Colby. This isn't fun anymore."

"Hey, Mads, look at me." I turned my head and did as he said. He had a few tears streaming down his face as well, and his hair was windblown. "We're not stuck. We're gonna drop any minute now. I'm scared too, and this isn't fun at all. But we're gonna be okay, alright?"

"Okay." I breathed shakily. The boys called something up to us that sounded suspiciously like "bye."

"Did they just..."

"Are they leaving?"

"No, there's no way, they're standing right there by the control box." Colby leaned over the side, causing the cart to lurch. I gripped his hand tighter as he leaned back, sighing. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked you to come on this with me."

"It's fine, you didn't know."

"I'm just praying we move and go to the ground, I'm ready to get the fuck off of this."

Almost half an hour later, Colby's prayers were answered. My heartrate had finally returned to a normal rhythm when the cart lurched and we were swinging around in the air again.

"Colby, I'm scared!" I shrieked as he grabbed my hand again.

"We're done, guys!" He yelled as we kept going in circles. "It's okay. It's gonna be okay."

"Sam, make it stop!"

When the ride slowed and we reached the ground, Elton was laughing his ass off, Sam was wandering back to the group, and Corey started the camera.

"What the hell?" Colby asked. "Did it break or something? We were stuck up there for so long."

"No, we left and went go-karting."

"Seriously?" I asked, my voice shaking.

"Yeah, Sam stopped and talked to us for a solid ten minutes on his hunt for the bathrooms." Jake replied.

"Oh, did you guys go again?" Sam asked, taking the camera from Corey.

"No, we were stuck up there for almost a half an hour." Colby replied, an unreadable expression crossing his face.

"We're freezing." I added.

"Yeah, we just turned off the ride and straight up left to go go-karting." Elton said.

Colby turned and his eyes met mine. We were thinking the same thing: Elton heard us screaming and stranded us up there. Colby unbuckled the seatbelts and helped me off.

"Dude my legs feel like Jell-o." I said, plopping down on one of the steps up to the ride.

"Sam, turn off the camera." Colby said, his voice serious and deep. Sam did as he was told, and I could tell they were both pissed. "You left us up there on purpose?"

"You locked Corey and me up there." Elton replied.

"Yeah, for three minutes! We were up there for half an hour!"

"Relax, dude, it's just a joke."

Colby moved towards Elton, but I grabbed his forearm to stop him. He was fuming, steam practically billowing out of his ears.

"If it had been Colby and I, I would agree with you, dude." Sam stated. "Maddie's never done a video with you before. I don't give a crap about you putting us in danger, but you endangered my sister."

"We're done with you, Elton. We can finish this video, but I swear to fucking God, this is the last one. You've hurt us for the last time."

"Let's go, Colbs." I said, standing up. He and Sam joined me on our way back to the arcade, the boys glaring at them the entire way.