Sorry it took FOREVER for me to post this -.- got a little hooked on Come Back Again but at least this chapter exists at all!

 

 

I wandered around the school picking up various pieces of trash for the rest of the day. What Taemin had said was still on my mind. So he was taking me somewhere weird, probably. I finished up the work around the school quickly, barely running a mop over the floors before returning to my closet and putting the supplies back.

 

“There you are!” Taemin rounded the corner as I locked the closet, smiling. “I was looking everywhere for you! What took so long?

 

“This is my job, believe it or not. I have to work.”

 

“Well, you’re done now, right?”

 

“Yeah, I--”

 

“Great! Then let’s go~” He beckoned for me to follow as he slid down the hall.

 

“Where are we going?” I called as I followed.

 

“It’s a surprise,” he smiled and slowed down so I could catch up. I sighed. This kid was a mystery.

 

“How’re we gonna get there?” I asked instead.

 

“We’ll walk; it’s not far away.” He walked out the door and started down a sunlit sidewalk.

 

I thought about all the places in walking distance from the school. “Is it a restaurant?” I guessed.

 

“Nope!”

 

“Is it a store?”

 

“Nope!”

 

"A park?”

 

“You could say that.”

 

“What does that mean?”

 

“Some people could call it a park.”

 

“Like, the kind with trees and stuff?”

 

“Nope!”

 

The rest of the walk consisted of me guessing and him giving answers that were hard to work with. He had just proved my theory of we’rejust walking and this is the whole thing wrong when we rounded a corner and I was facing a huge, half-filled parking lot.

 

“Okay, you have to close your eyes. If you open them, it’ll give it away!” he smiled.

 

I slowly obeyed, putting a hand over my eyes and saying, “How’m I gonna see where we’re going?”

 

“Trust me.” I felt a hand grab my own and lead me across the flat asphalt. “Come on, cover your eyes all the way! No peeking!” I obeyed, curious as to where we were going.

 

I started to smell food and hear happy voices from a distance as we stepped up onto a curb. I was led through some gates and found myself stumbling over cobblestone in the middle of a crowd of happy people.

 

“Where are we?” I called to Taemin, who was still holding my hand though we had stopped moving.

 

“Okay, go ahead and look!” he called back, straining to be heard over the chatting voices. I brought my hand down from my face and opened my eyes.

 

The first thing I saw was Taemin’s face. He was about a foot from me, being continuously bumped by the hustling crowd. The second thing I saw was the roller coasters arching into the sky behind him. As I whipped around, looking for confirmation on my location, a voice rang out from the many speakers, drowning out the others. Welcome to Six Flags! More flags, more fun! Six Flags!”

 

Not Six Flags. Anywhere but Six Flags. People died at Six Flags. Who would take someone to Six Flags for a first date? And since when was there a Six Flags near the school?

 

“I know what you’re probably thinking: why would he take me to Six Flags for a first date? But I got a pair of tickets for me and Niel to go, but then he said he didn’t want to. I mean, it’s not that I asked you out in the first place because I wanted to use the tickets before they expired, which is tomorrow. I wanted to ask you anyway and these were just sitting around and getting old and--”

 

“It’s okay, Taemin,” I reassured, though my stomach was still in a knot. “Don’t worry about it.”

 

He was visibly relieved. “Oh, okay. That’s good. Well, let’s go have a good time!”

 

And so we did. Well, at least he did. I was busy being scared for my life as the roller coasters whipped around corners and turned upside down, threatening to send me plummeting into an early doom. We had a break for food, but I only ordered a drink, knowing that any food I had wouldn’t stay in my stomach so long as we were at the park.

 

Just as I thought we had tried out every coaster in the park, Taemin raised a finger and pointed at the tallest arc in sight. “That one looks fun! Let’s go!” he held my hand and, with a motion between skipping and running, got me to the loading area. The wait was a little long, but eventually we strapped ourselves in and waited for it to start.

 

“Please keep all limbs inside the coaster car at all times, and have fun!” a voice rang out as the coaster cars began to roll forward. I was already regretting my entire life by the time we started going up.

 

I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die. I had to clamp my teeth together to keep from chanting it out loud. I tried to keep breathing steadily, but found myself hyperventilating uncontrollably.

 

“Hey, are you all right?” Taemin’s worried voice seemed a thousand miles away, though he was right next to me. “Angelika, say something. Smile. Are you having a ?”

 

Staring straight ahead and grinding my teeth, I let out a stiff shake of the head to say no.

 

“Are you sure you-- AHH!” Tae was interrupted as the coaster reached its peak and began plummeting straight down. I screamed right along with him, the ground getting closer every second. The car suddenly evened out, parallel to the earth again before momentum brought it up the next hill. The track ahead zig-zagged and I tapped my heels together, chanting in my head, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home--

 

I nearly died of a heart attack as the car lurched to the side. I had expected it to zig-zag horizontally like the tracks showed, but the right side of the car made a metallic clanking sound and it began tilting to the left, as if the right side was lifted up off its corresponding track. The car turned to the left and subsequently slammed flat on the tracks again. Another right turn and it nearly flipped off the side of the tracks. At this point, all the passengers were screaming for fright rather than thrill. I felt Taemin’s arms wrap protectively around me, but I was too busy screaming my head off to have a proper reaction.

 

The coaster was obviously malfunctioning. It was like something popped the wheels off of the right track and it was hinged only on the left. One kid began sobbing when he saw a loop up ahead. I probably would have cried too, if my brain didn’t decide that it was a good time to black out.