Someone was shaking me gently. I pushed them off lightly. They started poking me. I punched them squarely.
'Fucking Hell.' I heard someone groan. I pushed my baseball cap up to see who I hit. Viddal was bent over, catching his breath with his hand on his stomach.
'You... Your jab... has definitely improved.' He said between breaths.
'Shit, sorry Viddal, I didn't mean to hit you so hard.' I exclaimed. 'I just like my sleep.' I shrugged, giving him a pat on the back and leaving the car and walking to the others. We walked over to the entrance and bought our tickets. Josh had already bought VIP FastTrack tickets in advance for everyone, so we were allowed into the park pretty speedily.
'Well... where do we go first?' Josh asked, looking around the park.
'I suggest we take a photo together which we can then all post on our Instagram. I'm pretty sure that none of us have been too active on social media.' I shrugged.
'Who will take it? It's not like we can ask a stranger to take it, they will probably run away with it.' Viddal asked.
'Hey!' I stopped a mother who was with two boys, most likely her sons. 'Could you please take a photo of me and my friends?' I asked. She smiled and took my phone. I ran towards everyone and quickly posed.
We took a photo where we were all smiling, some doing peace or heart signs with their hands, one where we all had our arms around each other, and one where we did something with someone. For the last picture, I was going to pose with the girls, but JJ scooped me up, bridal style. I didn't protest, I just stuck my arms out and grinned.
'Thanks.' I thanked the mother, taking my phone back. 'Enjoy the rest of your day.' I smiled and addressed the boys too. I ran back to the group.
'Okay, I'll post this on the WhatsApp group chat. Everyone post them on your Insta, Twitter, Snapchat or whatever.' I said quickly, opening my WhatsApp and sending it to everyone. On Instagram I posted all of the pictures and tagged everyone. I only posted the first picture on Twitter. On snapchat I posted the last picture and captioned it Streaks.
I put my phone into my pocket and looked up. I waited for everyone to finish.
'Which rollercoaster first?' Ethan asked.
'I'd recommend The Beast.' I smirked.
I walked to the rollercoaster, the others trailing behind. We arrived at the 7,359-foot-long terrain-hugging ride. It was the longest ride in the world, lasting over four long, scary minutes. Because of the FastTrack tickets, we were taken to a much shorter queue.
'Who's sitting with who? It's two people per carriage.' I explained. All of the couples buddied up. Ethan offered to sit by me. I grinned and accepted.
We were strapped in, and the ride started...
'You ready?' Ethan asked.
'Hell yeah.' I said. 'You?'
'I'm fucking gassed.' He replied laughing. I couldn't help but laugh with him. His laugh was just so contagious.
We were strapped in and ready to go. The roller coaster started moving. We started going slowly on the wooden rails. Painfully slow.
'This might not be to bad.' I heard Vikk sigh behind me.
'Just wait.' I smirked.
After about a minute of slowly going around on flat land, we started ascending up a ramp. The speed was excruciating. Through the intercom, a robotic voice told you to keep your arms and legs in, repeating it once more. I listened to the metallic scraping sound of the cart going over the rails.
We were at the top of the arc. I looked around and at the scenery around me. There were lush green trees everywhere. I took a deep breath, preparing myself for the drop. It felt like I was sitting at the top of the arc for an eternity.
Suddenly we plummeted down. It wasn't a vertical drop- but enough to get our hearts racing. I let out a shriek of terror and excitement as we dropped down and under the tunnel, adrenaline pumping through my body. Still maintaining the speed, the rails tilted, as we exited the tunnel, making us all lean to the side before sitting back up and going down another drop.
I listened to everyone's screams, but instead of screaming with them, I laughed.
We went down the drop, before ascending back up another one, and then maintaining the same level. We kept on a level stretch, tilting to one side, before going into a little roofed section.
We left the roofed area and went around a curve before hitting a gradual descend. We were plunged into darkness as we went under another tunnel, this one longer than the last. As we left the tunnel, I was blinded by the bright light. We went around another curve and went over a few bumps and tunnel, before we arrived at the back at the start.
I looked over at Ethan who didn't look shaken up at all. As a matter of fact, he looked hyped as ever. We stepped out of the carts and looked at everyone. Everyone looked pretty shaken up.
'I saw my life flash before my eyes...' Mier said in a mocking poetic voice. The funny thing was that it looked like she really was.
'I'm actually quite let down by that.' I shrugged. Everyone gave me incredulous looks. 'Oh, come on! Sure, it was fast, just the drops weren't that high, the build ups weren't very suspenseful, there weren't any twists or crazy things...'
'I get what she means.' Ethan backed me up.
'How can you even say that?!' Chip asked, raking his hands through his hair. 'You guys were on the front row too!'
'Well, want to go on the next ride?' I asked. I knew exactly which ride I was taking them on next...
...
'No.'
Everyone took one look at the ride and shook their heads.
'Oh come on!' I exclaimed, throwing my hands up. 'This is the best ride in the ENTIRE park!'
'I don't want to go on it, but part of me actually really wants to go on...' Gee distressed.
'Well, is anyone not going to go on?' I asked. Nobody answered. 'Great.' I exclaimed and walked into the fast track queue. The carts we would be going on were two seaters.
'Want to sit by each other?' I asked Gee, who had her sleeves rolled over her hands, which were placed on her cheeks.
'Okay.' She replied nervously.
'Don't be scared Gee, all of the rides become much more fun once you've done this. This just loosens you up a little.' I said, patting her on the back. She nodded and sat in the cart next to me.
We were strapped into our seats and ready to go. We started moving up a ramp. Slowly. The 148-foot high lift was taking forever, and as we were going up, I felt like I was slipping out of my seat and was going to fall. Gee and I were sitting on the front row seats, and as we reached the top, I gasped at the beautiful green trees and the view of the whole park. It was gorgeous.
I suddenly heard a voice, probably Simon's, screaming. 'I'M GOING TO DIE A VIRGIN!'
I started laughing before suddenly being plunged into a 55 degree angle drop of 138 feet. I screamed and raised my hands in the air, feeling the air raising my hair behind me.
Just after we had gotten to the end to the drop, we were spun around two vertical loops and a corkscrew. We went around the boomerang turn before finishing at a 360 degree helix.
I got out of the cart and beamed at everyone.
About half the group still looked shaken up, the other half were also beaming and jumping around.
'That was sick!' Will laughed.
'And who shouted that they were going to die a virgin?' Vikk asked.
'Simon did.' Talia grinned, pointing at Simon.
'Well...' Simon stuttered thinking of something to say.
'It's okay Simon, you don't need to explain yourself. We can already tell that you are a virgin.' JJ stated, trying not to laugh. Simon just looked at the ground and walked away. We laughed at him before walking out.
'Lets do all of the roller coasters first, then we can eat, then play the games.' Josh suggested, reading the map of the park which he had taken whilst entering.
'Sure.' I shrugged, leading them to the next ride
...
We ended up going on several rides, and I'm quite surprised nobody threw up! In the end, everyone got over their fear for the roller coasters, and started enjoying them. We other rides we went on, were Son of beast, Diamondback, Banshee, Firehawk, Invertigo, and The bat. My favourite was either Diamondback or Banshee.
We were currently just getting food.
'Could I please have a chicken burger, medium fries and some 7 Up?' I asked the man behind the counter.
'Any sauce with that?' He asked.
'No thanks.' I replied.
'Which table are you sitting at again?'
'Table 36.'
'Okay, you will be served in a moment.'
'Thanks.' I grinned before walking back to the table we were sitting at.
'Which place did you order at?' Randolph asked.
'I don't know really, it's just a place that has burgers and fries which is what I'm looking for.' I shrugged. 'You?'
'I ordered at a random place that does fast food.' He replied.
'Where are you from?' I asked. He had a really strange accent.
'Mansfield.' He replied.
'You don't sound like it.' I replied. 'No offence.' I added quickly.
'None taken.' He laughed.
I was about to say something more when Talia, Gee, Freya, Simon, Chip, JJ, Will, Ethan and Josh came and sat down. Talia sat on my left, and Josh on my left.
'We ordered sushi and sticks.' Simon rolled his eyes. 'AGAIN.' He added, throwing a dirty look at Talia.
'Look, Sushi and Sticks is fricking amazing.' Talia sassed.
'We just ordered one of the instant take away things.' Chip shrugged, pointing down to his grilled kebabs in a polystyrene food tray.
The man that had served me walked over with a tray in his hands. He placed it in front of me and I realised that it was my food.
'Thanks.' I exclaimed, picking up the burger and taking a big bite out of it. I took a sip of my drink, the bubbles fizzing in my mouth. Everyone else's meals arrived, and we ate in a comfortable silence. I finished my fries, burger, and picked up my drink. I could sip on that whilst walking.
'Wait, now we get to go do the minigames!' Ethan said excitedly. I threw my rubbish into a bin with everyone else, and followed the crowd to the games area.
'I bet that out of all of us, I would have the highest punch score.' JJ bragged.
'I mean, yeah, you're a boxer. I'd be mildly concerned if you didn't" Ethan replied sassily.
'Hello- I'm still here.' Viddal waved. 'Look, there's the punching machine, lets see who gets the highest.'
We all took a turn at punching the thing, our scores showing on the screen. Here's how it went:
-Simon 560
-Talia- 354
-Gee 290
-Chip 432
-Viddal 920
-Harry 830
-Katie 382
-Callux 637
-Sarah 389
-Will 783
-Mier 537
-Vikk 399
-Tobi 629
-Saoirse 529
-Josh 608
-Freya 358
-Randolph 620
-Laura 407
-Ethan 827
-Lewis 428
-Freezy 379
-JJ 912
I was going up to punch. I took a small run up, and hit the ball with all my strength. I looked up at the numbers on the little screen going up. It had passed 300...400...500...600...700...800... It was slowing down... 908.
'Yes!' I jumped up in victory.
'How the hell did you get such a high score!?' Lewis asked.
'I used to box, I though I said...' I said unsurely. Everyone just shrugged.
'Guys, let's all split up and do what we want. Meet back here in two hours, okay?' Josh said. I nodded and trailed off with Simon, JJ and Talia.
We started walking and stopped at a basketball minigame.
'I reckon I could get that teddy bear.' Simon said to Talia, pointing at a miniature prize bear. Simon payed the man a few dollars, and received 5 over inflated balls. To get the bear, Simon would need to get two balls in.
He shot his first ball.
Miss.
Second, he got in.
Miss again.
I silently prayed he would get the next one in.
Miss.
Much to my surprise, the last ball went in. Simon grabbed the bear and gave it to Talia, Talia wrapping her arms around his chest and hugging him.
'I think I could get you that massive whale.' JJ smirked, pointing at a whale teddy bear that looked as big as me!
'Nah.' I replied, pushing 5 dollars into his hand. He gave me back the money and payed for the balls with his own. To get the whale he was going to need to get 4 balls in. I crossed my fingers and watched him shoot.
In
Miss
In
In...!
Miss...
'Nah, I got this.' JJ said, slapping another few bucks into the man's hand and receiving 5 more balls. I faced the other way. JJ was just going to waste his money over a losing game, and I couldn't bare to see it.
I felt a tap on my back.
I turned around to see JJ grinning, his dimples showing. He pulled the whale out from behind his back as I squealed.
'OH MY GOD THANK YOU!' I squealed, hugging JJ- the whale between us. I pulled apart and felt the blue whale. 'Holy crap he's so soft.' I exclaimed, stroking the whale.
'You're welcome.' He chuckled, patting the whale on its head.
'CUTE!!' Talia yelled, running towards me to stroke the whale's head. We started walking to the next game, when something caught my eye. It was a little shop which was weaving pink and blue clouds of candyfloss.
I quickly jogged towards it and grabbed four sticks of candyfloss, paying and running back to Talia, Simon and JJ. I handed one to everyone, keeping the bubblegum blue one for myself.
'Thanks.' Simon said happily, taking a bite out of his candyfloss. I just nodded my head and took a bite of my bubblegum flavoured candyfloss, feeling the sugar melting in my mouth. I looked to the side to see some balloon darts with dragon ball z prizes.
'Yo JJ?' I asked. He stopped and looked at me. 'Want one of those dragon ball z's?' I asked. JJ looked at the prizes, his eyes widening. He nodded vigorously, not speaking because he had candyfloss in his mouth.
'Hey Talia, Simon!' I called out. They stopped and turned around.
'We're going to do this.' I pointed at the balloon darts.
'Ooh, I'll do it too.' Talia said. 'We can have a competition.' She suggested.
'I'm up.' I shrugged, approaching the lady who was in charge of the stall. I payed her 2 dollars and she explained what to do.
'Okay, as you can see, you will have ten darts. If you get five balloons, you get a prize. If you get more, you might get bigger prizes.' She explained, handing Talia and I 10 blunt darts.
One of the reasons I hated fayre games, was that they always handicapped the challenge. With the basketball games they would always over-inflate the balls, and with this challenge they had made the darts more blunt than a kid's plastic knife.
I looked at the 15 balloons, sizing up a large red one. I aimed one dart at it, throwing it in a straight line. It hit the balloon, popping it and making the skin fall to the floor. I looked at a teal blue one next, obliterating it with the dart. Then the aubergine purple, sunshine orange, sunflower yellow, baby pink, grass green, royal blue, and midnight black. I looked at the last balloon. It was much smaller, and angelic white. This was the last one. I had hit all the others. I aimed at the white balloon, closing one eye and focussing my eye on the dart. I drew my hand back and threw it in a direct line. It hit the balloon, rupturing the skin and making a popping sound. I jumped up in victory.
The lady who was operating the stall looked slightly shocked, but grinned at me and pointed to three large teddies. 'Would you like the bear, the Simpson, or Beerus from Dragon Ball Z?' She asked. JJ obviously wanted Beerus.
'Beerus please.' I grinned, taking the teddy off the shelf and thanking her before walking up to JJ. I tapped him on the back, making him exit his conversation with Simon and look at the Beerus teddy, his eyes widening with shock when he saw it.
'HOLY SHIT THANK YOU SO MUCH.' He yelled, hugging me so tightly that he picked me up. I yelped as he dropped me down, picking up beerus.
'Why are we so bad at these.' Simon laughed with Talia, holding a small teddy bear he had won for Talia, and a turtle beanie boo that Talia had won for Simon.
We laughed before walking and bantering with each other, looking for the next fun activity.
'Photobooth?' I suggested, pointing at a little photobooth on the side of the walkway.
We all tried to squeeze into the little photobooth, but even three people was too many.
'We'll go first.' Simon and Talia suggested. JJ and I waited outside, looking at their pictures as they came out of the dispenser. There was one which he was holding her bridal style, one where they were wearing massive pink, plastic glasses and a feather boa, and one where they were jumping and doing signs with their hands.
'Cute.' I smiled at the pictures as Simon and Talia went out to collect them. I saw Talia blush when she picked hers up.
'Want to go?' JJ said, gesturing to the empty booth. I nodded and followed him inside. I picked up the Instagram template which we held up and posed inside, making it look like we were in a Instagram photo. I then got a piggyback from him for the second.
I wondered what to do for the third and last. We were currently taking a normal picture. I remembered what Logan asked me to do. Would now be a good time to make a move?
Fuck it.
As the shutter went, I pressed a kiss onto his cheek. He looked shocked for a moment, but then started grinning madly. We exited the booth to see that Talia and Simon had left. I picked up the two rolls of photos, handing one to JJ. I grinned, looking at the pictures.
'Want to go try and find the others?' JJ asked.
'Sure, let's go.' I replied, walking around with him.
We had been walking round for a long time until I realised something.
'Shit.' I exclaimed.
'Wait, what's up?' He asked, looking slightly concerned.
'The others told us to meet back at the tables in two hours from then...' I said, before looking down at my watch. 'We were meant to meet up there about half an hour ago...'
JJ grabbed my wrist and we started running in a random direction. Neither of us remembered where the tables were.
Lost in thought, I tripped over and hissed, grabbing my ankle. JJ stopped and turned around, seeing my on the floor. He ran back towards me and picked me up bridal style, running with me. I put my arms around his neck to reduce the amount of weight he carried in his arms.
'What happened?' I heard someone ask.
'She tripped over and did something to her ankle.' JJ replied.
'No.' I instantly jumped up and out of JJ's arms, before I stood up and grabbed the wooden table for support. 'I'm fine, it was probably just momentarily.' I took a few small steps. It was painful, but I sucked it in. 'See? Fine.'
'Where did you get those from?' Saoirse laughed, pointing at my whale and JJ's Beerus teddy.
'Prize.' I grinned, petting the whale's soft head.
'Come on, let's go home now.' Josh grinned.
I walked to the car silently. My ankle was throbbing.
I collapsed into a seat in the bus, not even caring who I was sitting by, or who was going to sit by me. I put the whale behind me as a comfortable cushion, and lay my head on it.
I was asleep.