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{32}

My eyes fluttered open and felt a weight on my stomach. I blinked and saw that Jessica’s elbow was jabbing into my ribs. God why are we so close?! I looked over and noticed that she had moved into the center of the bed. I gently pushed away her arm and leaned over to grab my iPod, checking the time. It was half an hour till 8 and I bolted up. We need to get those passes. “Sica,” I groaned and nudged her with my fist. She groaned in response. “It’s 7:30, go shower,” I muttered, looking around our empty room. “Hurry, before the seniors come back.”

“Alright, I’m going,” she scoffed and slid out of bed; grabbing clothes from her suitcase and walked into the bathroom. I took this time to change into dark gray cargo shorts along with a white t-shirt. While brushing my teeth Jessica’s phone buzzed and I unlocked it to see a text from Seohyun, asking if we wanted to go to their room after getting the passes since Disneyland opened at 9. I texted back the approval on Jessica’s behalf and went back to the sink.

“Sica!” I called after washing my face.

“What?!” she yelled back, through the door.

“We’re gonna go to Seohyun’s room after getting the passes, alright?” It was more of a statement than a question, but I heard a hum of approval and opened up a couple of my breakfast bars to eat since I wasn’t extremely hungry. Technically, I had already eaten that morning.

After getting our passes that allowed us access into both Disneyland and California Adventure we spent about 45 minutes with Seohyun and Yoona before we went outside to start walking to the amusement park. It wasn’t sunny at the moment, which was a bit disappointing, but I hoped the clouds would move out sometime. I was just glad it was nice temperature wise. “Taeyeon!” I looked behind me and dodged a hug from Wooyoung. He skidded to a stop on the sidewalk and frowned while I smiled a bit.

“I don’t do hugs, Wooyoung,” I shook my head and he shrugged.

“Taeyeon, aren’t you gonna come with us to California Adventure?” Jonghyun stopped the four of us and my percussionist friends looked at me expectantly.

“Um…” Jessica, Seohyun, and Yoona wanted to go to Disneyland first. I couldn’t choose between my fellow percussionists and Jessica! “How about we go on a couple rides in Disney and then after lunch head to California? All of us?” I said, slightly afraid of the reaction, but was glad my band-mates smiled.

“Sure thing! As long as Choir and Orchestra don’t cramp our style,” Seunghyun coughed and I felt the two girls glare at him.

“Keep talking like that and Choir’s gonna cramp more than just your style,” Jessica stated and I smirked at the other’s face.

“Hurry up and walk or else she’ll start right now,” Yoona pushed Jonghyun forward and the 9 of us began moving.

“So, Taeyeon, how was your sleep?” Baekhyun asked me as he fell into step next to Jessica.

“Okay, except I woke up and this one—,” I pointed my thumb at the singer next to me, “had her elbow in my ribs.”

“You two slept in the same bed together?!” Jiyong’s jaw dropped and I kicked the back of his knee to force him to keep going. Jonghyun glanced back and smirked at me, probably thinking about how I said I would sleep on the floor, and I kicked him too. Just for good measure.

“Whatever, your knee was in my back at like 3 in the morning! How does that even happen?!” Jessica rolled her eyes.

“I can think of a few ways,” Jonghyun fake coughed and my foot landed on his tailbone. “!”

“I heard you, ing Kim.”

“That’s your last name too!”

“Yeah, but I’m not related to you!”

Once we arrived to the park and gained access, Yoona and Jonghyun led the rest of us to Space Mountain to get the Fast Passes. I never used one the last time I went to the park, and when I was 10, I didn’t enjoy rollercoasters like I did now. Since we still had some time until our passes were valid Wooyoung insisted we try Astro Blasters, based off of Toy Story’s little squeaking aliens, just for fun and the line was only 5 minutes long. Since there was an uneven number of us we played Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who would be the loner. According to our match, I was paired up with Yoona for a pod and Baekhyun was alone in his own. “You guys are mean,” he said.

“That’s what you get for eating pizza by yourself!” Wooyoung pushed him and the latter groaned. We were never gonna let him hear the end of the pizza incident. We stepped onto the conveyor belt and slid into our seats.

“So you just pull the trigger and shoot at the Z’s,” Yoona pointed to my gun, handled in a plastic holder and I took it out. “Honestly I at this stuff,” she laughed.

“Same,” I smirked and we were soon encased in darkness with neon lights blinking at us to shoot at them. There were so many boxes and targets, a lot of them based off of Evil Emperor Zurg. In the midst of our ride I noticed the joystick on our panel that said: SPIN. Oh my God we can spin! I jerked the joystick and Yoona screamed as we turned and faced Jiyong and Seunghyun.

“Holy you can spin!” Seunghyun noticed and we playfully fired at each other with grins on our faces.

“Yah! I killed you already stop shooting!” I yelled.

“You’re such a bad shot! You missed!” Jiyong teased and I scoffed, grabbing the handle and spinning ourselves so that we faced forward. Though, until we were told to exit the vehicle, my hand never left that joystick. I had a little too much fun with it.

After that I wanted to try out the Matterhorn where I heard from a lot of people that it was good. The wait was only about 20 minutes since it was early and most of it was because of large groups of other high schools and middle schools. Since I was seated next to Yoona in Astro Blasters I went with my percussionist friends in one cart while the other three girls were in the next. “You don’t scream, right Taeyeon?” Wooyoung smirked at me and I scoffed, tightening my seatbelt.

“Oh please, I can’t scream, I just swear really loudly,” I told him and he laughed.

“That’s gonna be fun!” he gave me a fist bump and we launched into darkness with my head thrown back.

“I can’t see!”

“That’s the point, Jonghyun! Shut up and enjoy the ing ride!”

“That’s what she said!”

“Can you guys not?!”

“Oh stop offending Taeyeon! That’s like the hundredth time today!”

“I see the light!” And we were thrown back outside, twisting and turning, leaving my head spinning and yet feeling weightless. Our shouts of joy could probably be heard throughout the whole park. I loved that adrenaline rush. Behind us I heard the shrill screams of the trio and I smiled even more, nearly splitting my face in two. By the time we were off of the minute long ride my veins were buzzing inside of my body and the boys were tripping over each other. I could only laugh at them. We waited outside for the other three to come out; surprisingly, they held their balance much better than the guys.

“Hey, we can go on Space Mountain now, let’s start walking,” Jessica said but Jiyong held up his hand. He looked pretty bad.

“Hold on, Jessica, give us a minute to come back,” he groaned and slumped over Jonghyun’s back as the latter had his head tucked between his knees. I smirked.

“Yah, Taeyeon’s up and on her feet you two should be too!” Seunghyun pulled up the dizzy pair and we began walking again. Even in the amusement park we attracted a lot of attention, being loud and kind of crazy. That rollercoaster loosened all of my bolts, I couldn’t stop smiling. I was smiling so much that after we had encased ourselves in the dark, uncontrollable jerks our picture came up. The guys’ faces were wide and frightened since we had gone through a drop, the other girls also had obvious screams on their faces, and Seohyun’s hair was even all over her face! But when we saw my face, which was completely normal and just grinning so much, we all dropped to the floor in laughter. Everyone managed to save it on their phones and I was glad I knew I wouldn’t forget it. After the ride we went to eat lunch, needing to use up two tables in order to fit our large party. Then, Wooyoung suggested the Haunted Mansion.

“Um, I get violent when I’m scared and I get scared easily,” Jessica told everyone and suddenly I was shoved forward.

“Then ride with Taeyeon, she can take a punch better than any of us,” Jonghyun said. At first there was nothing to it, I was fine going with anyone, and then we went into the building. The man over the intercom gave his spooky speech, when the lights went out and a blood curdling scream resounded throughout the walls. And then I heard Jessica scream, and I never knew anyone’s voice could be louder than Tiffany’s! To calm her down I ended up having to give her my arm and when we stepped into the Doom-buggies she never let go, squeezing the feelings out of my arm at everything that popped out at her. My pulse was beating heavily in my forearm, trying to keep the circulation going, but also because I wasn’t used to being so close to anyone besides Tiffany. Dear lord I am dead if she ever finds out about this. In the second half of our day Jessica suddenly got a lot touchier and more energetic. After the mansion she personally led us over to Splash Mountain.

“How do you have so much energy? Like seriously?” I groaned and she turned back.

“I get it from your smile,” she shrugged with a straight face and I collapsed, hiding my face on Jiyong’s shoulder as the other percussionists laughed out loud. Oh dear. I was blushing so hard, I don’t even know why. There was something, it wasn’t a bad feeling; it was kind of nice to hear that. With Tiffany and I we were kind of flirting all of the time, to hear something like that from a different person was new. I kind of appreciated it…but I kept quiet after that.

The sun set as the nine of us settled down for dinner. It was late, around 8 o’ clock, after Baekhyun, Seohyun and I bought dinner for everyone since the three of us had the most money. When we visited the gift shop earlier I got Tiffany’s gifts. I had purchased one metal token in the shape of an envelope with one side reading “thinking of you” and I immediately pictured the eye smiling girl by my side. I also bought myself a red crewneck with a little Mickey Mouse logo at the bottom left corner and Tiffany a matching one with a Minnie Mouse logo. I noticed that she liked wearing my things at times, so a couple’s outfit wouldn’t hurt. My friends made fun of me for taking the guy’s shirt, but honestly, we all knew I was more like a guy that Tiffany. “Taeng, don’t get your shirt dirty you just bought it,” Jessica warned and I looked down at my sweater to check for stains from my clam chowder bread bowl.

“I’m fine, I got this,” I insisted and slurped up the last of my soup.

“Yah, Taeyeon, how do you eat the bread?” Baekhyun frowned and I noticed that he and Yoona were both struggling in eating their bowl. I rolled my eyes and grabbed the two breads, tearing it up for them, and handing it back.

“Woah, thanks Mama Tae,” Yoona joked and I rolled my eyes as everyone laughed.

“Oh my God, can we please call you that now?!” Jonghyun asked me and I sighed. Throw them a bone; they want to be on a nickname basis. And it was about time we had nicknames for each other.

“Go ahead,” I said and the five drummers cheered, drawing attention all around. I shook my head, but honestly I didn’t mind. “Just eat the food.”

“Someone check the time, it’s like a 10 minute walk to Frontier Land,” Seunghyun said with a mouthful of bread and Seohyun poked her phone.

“We have to be there in half an hour,” she responded and I hummed.

“People are gonna be in the line, we should go there now,” I suggested and leaned my head back in my chair, enjoying the feeling of warm food settling in my stomach. “Give me your pates,” I stood and piled high the used plates to throw in the trash.

“Thanks Mama Tae!” Seunghyun smirked and I rolled my eyes, throwing away the scraps and we all brushed ourselves off before heading to the section where the awards ceremony would be. The sun had set a long time ago, in California it set rather early, but the night was nice and it wasn’t cold since there were so many people. We made our way to the other students, shuffling around with all smiles. We slid in and immediately the energy feeding off of all of our musicians was overwhelming. Jonghyun had bought one of those moving light sticks but we kept teasing him by hitting it with our elbows whenever he turned it on.

“Yah! Stop screwing around with my light stick!” he whined and we began to hit him instead. “Yah! YAH! Get away from me!”

“Hurry up and turn that thing off before it gets us all high!” Wooyoung told him. I made sure to keep Jessica and Seohyun with Yoona and I since they were still hanging out with us. I didn’t want to make them feel left out but they seemed to have fun with us. I was glad. And then I wasn’t sure what happened, but someone from our school (probably a senior) began chanting “Seahawks” since many of the schools competing were from Washington State.

“Sea!”

“HAWKS!” I grinned at the rest of the student body’s response.

“Sea!”

“HAWKS!” I joined in on the shouting, cupping my hands over my mouth to amplify my voice.

“Sea!”

“HAWKS!” And we continued chanting, letting the vibrations of our voices ring in our ears as we picked up speed until our shouts became a rambling battle cry. My adrenaline was on a new kind of high, I liked it when my school came together.

“That’s gonna piss so many of them off!” Yoona shook her head and I smirked, nodding.

“That’s the point, and besides, we all know we’ll be the only school with a chant so it’ll be even better,” Jessica smiled. I loved feeding off of the energy; it made me feel good even if my feet were killing me from all of the walking we did.

Before the award’s ceremony we watched the Disneyland fireworks’ show. The Choir, Orchestra, and Band had to sit in different places so I was in between Wooyoung and Seunghyun while Jiyong, Jonghyun, and Baekhyun sat behind us. In front of me was an upperclassman by the nickname of Cookies who was a drummer in the jazz band. I didn’t know his real name, but he was really good and I admired him nonetheless. “At our graduation, I want to put on a fireworks’ show,” Jonghyun said from behind me as a certain display sent my heart hammering to the explosion. I glanced back at him.

“Really?” I asked and he nodded.

“Won’t it be so cool? We’d feel this way as seniors, even if I have to by the fireworks and permit myself,” the bright blonde sighed and I noticed how happy he looked thinking about it. Graduation was still a while’s away, but if there was a fireworks’ show I didn’t want to miss it. Not for the world. At the end we all applauded and cheered, especially for the awards to be presented. My world was spinning, I don’t remember much from the award’s ceremony besides what places we got. The Orchestra received 2^nd place as well as the Choir in their categories respectively, and the Band got 1^st surprisingly. We screamed so loud for each other, we were kind of competing with the school beside us…even now I think we were louder. But what I didn’t expect was that they also had a Maestro’s Award, where they awarded individuals. I wasn’t paying attention when they called my name.

“KIM TAEYEON!” I jumped when my name was shouted and Jonghyun pushed me onto my feet as everyone else stood and screamed. Oh my God I’m a recipient?! I felt my heart shaking inside of my chest as I ran forward, grinning like no tomorrow. I leapt onto the stage, quickly making my way to receive the golden award with my name imprinted.

“Thank you,” I bowed, trying to speak over the yelling.

“You’re a great percussionist, please continue,” he told me and I nodded. I turned to the crowd where my classmates were easily recognizable from a mile away and I sprinted off the stage, back to them. Immediately my eyes landed on Jessica who was smiling almost as much as I was. Suddenly my feet turned in her direction and I jumped towards her, too happy to think about the consequences.

“Oh my ing God! You got an award!” she exclaimed and I widened my eyes.

“Holy ! You just swore!” I pointed out and she threw her arms around me as I gripped my award behind her back.

“I don’t care!” she confessed. On my way back to my seat I didn’t even give a damn, I high-fived everyone in my path. I sat back down, receiving pats on my back and shaking shoulders, but I just stared at the golden figure holding a baton. All of those years paid off, Taeyeon. Percussion was your best choice. I smiled to myself and held the trophy in my lap.

After the awards’ ceremony it was 11 o’ clock at night and even if my percussionists were still amazingly hyped to go on a few more roller coasters I was tired and so were the other girls. We bid them a good night before catching the bus to take us back to our hotel since we were too exhausted to walk 20 minutes in the dark. I carried both the Band’s plaque as well as my own trophy and I leaned my head on Jessica’s shoulder, too exhausted to think. “Taeng, we’re here, get up,” Jessica muttered, her voice hoarse from screaming too much. I lazily stood, holding both awards in my arms, and the four of us got off of the bus and trudged to our rooms.

“Later Yoona, Seohyun,” I smiled a bit to them and they grinned back.

“Night, we have to be at the airport by 1 and we leave at 12,” Seohyun reminded and I nodded.

“Don’t worry, I’ll wake this one up,” I mumbled and Jessica elbowed me as I smiled. The elevator then pulled up to the 9^th floor and I used our room key to enter, seeing it was empty.

“The seniors are probably gonna stay out until the park closes,” Jessica sighed and I nodded, setting the plaque against the wall. I went into the bathroom to change into my pajamas first while Jess brushed her teeth and washed her face. Once I stepped out the tired singer slipped into the bathroom and I brushed my teeth. I really want to talk with Tiffany. But I frowned when I remembered she said she couldn’t talk today. I wonder what she’s doing now…I sat down on the futon, playing around on my iPod until Jessica came out with her pajamas on, not saying a word. She slipped into bed on the opposite side, pulling the blanket over herself. “Night Taeng…”

“Tired Sica?” I guessed and she hummed weakly. I found myself absorbed in the Clash of Titans I recently downloaded. When I looked up the girl beside me had passed out on two pillows. A part of me panicked a little when I found I couldn’t remove the extra pillow I needed to hold. Oh boy…