Chapter 9 - Take Me To Wonderland
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Calla's POV
I'm just a little girl lost in the moment,
I'm so scared but I don't show it.
I can't figure it out, it's bringing me down,
I know I've got to let it go and just enjoy the show.
As soon as I saw the bright, flashing lights in the distance, I couldn't stop the warm sense of anticipation that took over my body. I can't believe Carter had brought me here.
We found an empty parking space in the back of a huge but packed parking lot. We had driven about an hour from London and it was six o'clock now, but that didn't stop floods of people from continuing to jam their way in. It was a stroke of luck that we had even gotten within a mile.
Before I even thought about what I was doing, I was out of the car and bouncing around. I yelled at the girls to hurry up and got some pretty strange looks from those around us, but I didn't care whatsoever. As soon as the girls joined me, I dragged them up to the gates to grab tickets while we still could.
We were at one of my favourite places in the world; Wonderland. It was a fairly large amusement park that we didn't come to often, but I always loved it when we did. Rollercoasters, water rides, everything about this place was like a dream to me. My friends called me a ride demon, and I couldn't disagree. The thrill of the rides and the experience as a whole was enough to keep me content for days after. My friends weren't all that big into rides, so they each took turns going with me. I even ended up going alone sometimes, but that never stopped me.
I was even more pumped than usual because since it was a Saturday evening, they were open later than usual and all the rides were lit up in bright colours. They would glow and sparkle, more and more as the sun would begin to dim away. Also, they'd come out with a brand new rollercoaster, their biggest yet, and I'd been wanting to go on it so badly.
Faint music could be heard from some of the rides, the smell of all the different foods, and I wasn't waiting any longer. Once past the gates, I grabbed the hand of one of my friends, not sure which one, and sprinted to the nearest attraction. The drop tower. Thankfully the line wasn't too long, so we didn't have much of a wait.
It ended up being Alyx on that ride with me, and she was squeezing my hand in a death grip all the way to the top of the tower. As they counted down from ten until the drop, my friend looked dizzy and just about ready to pass out as she glanced down to ground far, far below us.
"We aren't that high!" I yelled over the windy atmosphere.
"Says you," she mumbled, clearly not impressed.
"Three, two, on-" My breath was taken away as we fell and fell, gravity pulling us back to Earth. At the bottom I was laughing giddily and trying to straighten my tangles of hair. "See, that wasn't so bad."
Alyx probably didn't agree, but she said nothing. She just shot murderous looks my way, not pleased with my particular ride choice and that she had to be the one to go on with me.
Many rides, screams, and curses later it was getting late into the night. I had plenty of energy left and the park was so extensive we'd barely covered half of it. But the other girls were going to collapse any minute now. I still had yet to ride that rollercoaster I'd been waiting for, but I was saving the best for last.
I noticed something weird though, some sort of absence. I wasn't sure what it might be, but something was off. I could feel it. I reached to fiddle with my necklace absentmindedly, but only grabbed air. It was gone. My lucky necklace, the one I'd gotten when I was younger at a concert for my one of my favourite bands, Marianas Trench. The one I wore most days and always wore for luck when we played a show. Gone.
"Guys, its gone!" I looked to the ground, panic setting in. I couldn't lose it, I needed it.
I didn't give my friends any warning before I ran back the direction we came. I retraced my steps to everywhere we'd been, searching frantically and even asking random strangers if they might have seen it. I came up empty handed.
No one caught up to me until I'd reached the gates. Caroline was the first to get there with me, a little out of breath from trying to keep up with my mad hunt. "What are you looking for?" she panted. Alyx and Carter got there together and they were exhausted, bent over and breathing heavily.
"My necklace! I can't find it! Its gone," I leaned my back against the wall behind me.
"I'm sure we'll find it by the end of the night," Caroline linked her arm through mine and tugged me towards a food stand. "Why don't we go get a funnel cake? Ice cream on top and everything, I'll buy." Funnel cakes were second favourite part of Wonderland, they made the best, and I let her get me one.
We sat at a picnic table, and even though it was already ten and the sun was nowhere to be seen, the neon bulbs illuminated the park in an array of colour. I finished off the whole funnel cake myself while the others shared one, and even it didn't make me feel a whole lot better.
"Why don't we ride that rollercoaster next? You know, the one you've been going on about," said Carter, gesturing to all of us.
"You're all going to ride it with me?" I had a little enthusiasm in my voice this time.
"Sure," they all nodded in consent and I was out of my seat immediately.
"Let's go!" They laughed at my sudden excitement and followed me to the giant beast of a ride. I'd been looking forward to this moment all day, eyeing the loops, twists and turns everytime I saw it, which was quite often. It was so enormous you could see it from almost anywhere in the park, and it was tempting me with all the screaming voices erupting from it and thundering of the cars on the tracks.
I wasn't the only one wanting to ride it apparently. We waited in line for about a half hour until we reached the front, and when the car came to start boarding, we'd planned for Alyx and Caroline to sit together in one of the seats of two, and Carter and I in another. But that didn't exactly work out. By the time our turn to get on came around, there was one pair of seats left and two individual seats next to some strangers.
We tried asking if we could wait until the next time, but they ushered us in anyway. Caroline and Alyx were put into the paired seats near the back, Carter into an empty seat in the very back next to an older blonde woman, and I was placed into last available spot in the very front.
I was disappointed I couldn't sit next to Carter, but at the same time I loved being in the front. "Aren't you excited?" I asked the boy sat next to me. I couldn't distinguish anything about him since he was wearing a slightly baggy coat, aviators, and a beanie pulled over his hair. It looked a bit weird to be wearing sunglasses at night, but I wasn't going to ask about that because it wasn't really my business.
"Hmm," he mumbled, keeping his head ducked down, yet I took that as a yes. Who wouldn't be excited?
The car started rolling then, and as we ascended towards the sky I closed my eyes and waited for the drop that was to come. When it did, the boy beside me screamed rather femininely and I could identify my friends', too. Twisting, turning, I enjoyed it thoroughly.
The car came to a stop and I wished I could go again. I turned back to the boy, seeing if he had as much fun as I did. I couldn't be certain in the dark, but he looked a little green and I thought he might throw up right then and there. Not much of a rollercoaster enthusiast, I guess.
"You okay?" He nodded in answer. He regained himself fairly quickly, and when he raised his head I noticed he'd lost his glasses. Brown curls were escaping the sides of his beanie and his green eyes peered up at me.
"Harry?" I whispered almost soundlessly, a bit incredulous.
I'd finally gotten my mind off of him, and there he was again.
"Surprise!" he said in a low, raspy whisper that gave me little shivers. I hope he didn't see that. "The other boys are here, too, but we're trying to keep a low profile." He hooked his thumb behind us, and I turned as far as the safety rail would let me. Right behind us sat four poorly disguised boys, and I wondered how they hadn't been spotted yet. "I know what you're thinking, but believe me when I say people just overlook us in a place like this. They're here for the rides and fun, not looking for One Direction." He had a point.
The safety bar rose and we unbuckled our seatbelts. My legs felt a bit like jelly after the long ride, and I struggled to get back on my feet. Everyone else was stumbling a bit as well, and I spotted my friends clinging to each other for dear life.
They had no clue the boys were here, so they were in for the same surprise I'd already had. Except they'll probably be a bit more excited than me.
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A/N: This chapter was really fun to write, because I really do love rollercoasters and all that. And as you can see, I've done up a new cover! Have fun reading as it gets further into the story, and let me know what you think :)
~Keely xx