I raced home to post this. My prompts were red and cake.
Walt Disney had no idea what he was doing. He was just a boy with a mouse drawing that walked in the snow. A boy with a dream who got the occasional beating from his father . The better version of Henry Hill
And that's where it all started, that's how Sarah Jacobs found herself at Disney World. To say she was exited was an understatement. You started to get a certain feeling when you saw the rotary signs announcing the amusement park. It started in your belly. A rising high that made your stomach feel like it was full of bubbles. It kept rising like a coke that had just been shaken. It was so strong you felt your ears where going to pop off from all the excitement. And that was just in the car.
Disney World was supposed to be an experience that no words could explain so Sarah stopped trying when she officially stepped into the park. You had to be there to feel the magic of the park.
Sarah had it all planned out. Everything had been sketched out to precision. She knew when the parade started. When the water show was. And what rides were the best. Everything had its purpose. Everything was accounted for. Except for one thing.
Her brother's friends.
When David came in prancing to their apartment, waving around a pair of tickets. Sarah had no choice but to rejoice in absolute ignorance.
Disney World tickets were obviously expensive. Their Father and Mother both broke their backs every day at a factory. They weren't supposed to have pocket money but Sarah was too submerged in the ecstasy that was Disney World to care about how her brother got the tickets.
The nineteen hour drive to Orlando, Florida had been enough of a lesson on the amount of curiosity a person should have. Her sore neck was enough proof of that. Hotels were a luxury her brother's friend's thought they didn't need. They all had licenses, except for Les but he was twelve, they could just simply drive halfway across the country in between the seven of them. Their lodging space wasn't much better either. Racetrack had a third cousin that lived in Florida. He had given them sleeping bags and directed them to his living room floor. But it was all worth it. All the hardship would pay off.
And it did, on every single ride. It felt like a Fairytale, the parade with beloved Disney characters, the magical stroll through the princess castle, the bucket-list –worthy ride on Aladdin's Magic Carpet. Watching all the children's shows and using her little brother as a scapegoat. It was perfect even the terrifying ride on Mission: Space, It was a good thing she wasn't afraid of heights. Everything was going perfect, even with her brother's obnoxious friends. It was the flawless experience, unspoiled, immaculate, and utopian.
And then the experience decided to commit suicide and jump of a cliff. She was standing in line for a churro. David, Spot, Racetrack, Boots, Jack, Skittey and Les were all taking a bathroom break. Or at least that's what she thought.
Her brother came back, when she met his eyes she got a gut feeling.
"Where's Les?" He asked, looking around the park. His hands on his hips.
She felt like she took a drop off the Hollywood Tower of Terror.
"I-I thought he was with you"
"I thought he was with you!" David accused. His voice taking a high pitched turn.
Sarah started snapping her head back and forth, looking for the red Mickey Mouse baseball cap she had bought him not thirty minutes ago.
"David! You were supposed to take him to the bathroom!" Sarah said, throwing her hands in the air. The churro long forgotten.
"Who was supposed to do what now?" Jack asked, coming closer to the bickering siblings.
"Jack, have you seen Les?" David asked.
"I thought he was with Sarah" Jack answered, looking at said girl. She was paler then the last time he had seen her.
David groaned and started scanning the courtyard once again.
"What's wrong guys?" Skittery appeared from the crowd munching on a turkey leg.
"Les is missing" Jack answered.
Skittery stopped mid-bite "What?"
"Who is missing?" Spot and Racetrack pushed past the crowd and joined the worried group of friends.
"Les" The group answered.
"Les? Where is Les? I haven't seen him since the bathroom" Boots said, his fingers powdery white from the funnel cake.
While the Teenagers ran around the park looking for a twelve year old boy in a red baseball cap. Les walked through Disney World munching on a Churro. He looked at the map he had taken at the entrance. Sarah had dragged him through Magic Kingdom along with everyone else. He wanted to check out the rest of the park, this was a once in a lifetime experience. He doubted Racetrack would ever win eight Disney World tickets while gambling ever again. So les was determined to make the experience last.
The shows at Magic Kingdom where fun and all but they came here to be thrilled. So Les headed over to Splash Mountain. Thankfully he was tall enough to get on without an adult. The drops and turns made him scream in joy and throw his hands in the air. Les left the place with his shoes all sloshy and his shirt sticking to his chest. He needed a blast of air to dry him, so what better place than another rollercoaster? Leaving a trail of water behind him, Les headed over Big Thunder Railroad. Nothing like special effects to make him forget about his drenched socks.
Les needed a breather, so he headed over to its A Small World. Despite what people said, Les didn't find the song all that annoying. Reaching into his pockets, Les took out the phone David had given him earlier. No calls. His siblings were probably off at Space Mountain again.
Sarah wanted to cry and David was a chewing his fingernails to the bed. Les was nowhere to be found.
"All right the tickets were only for three of the parks so we'll divide and conquer" Jack said, laying out a crumpled map.
"Racetrack and Boots, you take Epcot. Spot and Skittery tear the Animal Kingdom apart. David, you and I will cover Magic Kingdom. Sarah go to human resources and alert the parks security. We are not leaving until we find him"
The group nodded with determination and set off. Ready to tackle around 10,000 acres of land.
Out of his twelve years of life, Les would have to say this was the best day of his life. Disney World was such a nice place. Nothing like stuffy New York
On the topic of New York, we should consider that our rag-tag team of explores came from a very aggressive city. Hostility was met on every corner, so it was no surprise when the heroes of the story got into some trouble.
The crowds were awful at Epcot. Everybody wanted to race on the car track. Boots and his companion couldn't take three steps without bumping into someone. .
"Get out of my way!" Racetrack shouted, shoving and pushing people out of the way.
Boots just shook his head and apologized to the poor tourists that met his friend's wrath.
"Would you mind moving a bit quicker?!Hey- Hey Sir!"
The old man glared and continued to obstruct the traffic.
"I'm looking for a lost kid! Can't you pick it up?!"
While Racetrack berated the veteran, Boots looked for a way out of the traffic wave they got stuck in. It flowed both ways, even for the seasoned player this was one hard traffic wave to surf. It was going to take all of his concentration to get past it.
A life was at stake here but of course Racetrack was too busy arguing with an old geezer.
"I'm walking here!" Racetrack shouted at the old man.
The insults and shouts must have gotten to the old man. He took his cane and swung straight at racetracks head.
"Hey! Stop that!"
Boots was more than embarrassed. He expected this from Spot but never Racetrack. He just wanted to walk away and pretend he didn't know him. With a loud sigh, the ashamed boy walked over to his friend and prepared himself for battle.
Now something similar was happening in the Animal Kingdom, the crowds were just as bad there as Epcot so Spot and Skittery decided to wait out the tide instead of battling it, they were waiting right outside the open air baboon cages. In retrospect this was a recipe for disaster.
Baboons aren't nice creatures. Spot Conlon isn't a nice creature, neither was Skittery, Skittery was always in a bad mood. They say animals are always a good judge of character and the Baboons were no exception. They smelled the two hot-heads miles away. No one really knows why they did it. The guys in charge of the animals had no idea what brought on such behavior from the Baboon's, it was just something that really didn't happen, and it wasn't supposed to happen.
Spot and Skittery scanned the crowds for a boy in a red baseball cap, completely focused in what they were doing, so when a warm substance plopped itself onto Spot's neck they were more than confused. They looked around and their only clue as to what it was, was the funky smell on Spots fingers after he wiped it off. While searching for a culprit they were attacked once again, the brown wad of who-knows-what hit Skittery straight in the back. The monkey-like cackles gave them away.
They didn't know what to do. How often do monkeys pelt people with their poop? The two boys were going to move away when they got attacked again. It hit Spot on the cheek and Skittery right on his ear.
It was one thing for the monkey to throw feces, they were monkeys for crying out loud! But it was a completely different thing when Spot and Skittery threw it right back.
The two offended boys held onto the bars and lunged the rock shaped dung.
"You stupid monkeys! I'll cut your stupid red butt's off!"
Of course this attracted attention. Unwanted attention, a girl working a stand called park security. Skittery spotted them first, he slapped Spots arm and they took off. This wasn't the first time they had been chased by security and with the entire crowd they lost the security or at least that was what they thought.
The only park that hadn't been affected was Magic Kingdom. But not for long, it was already dark when it happened. The Desperation of not finding Les had gotten to them, David and Jack were a wreck, they hadn't eaten anything since noon and all the crowds had made them irritated and stressed. They wandered the park, exasperated, Les was nowhere to be found, David had lost his phone, Jack had no service, and they had no idea where the rest of the group was.
As they wandered around the shops in downtown Magic Kingdom Jack looked inside every window hoping to see a red baseball cap. He felt someone grip his arm and turned around, it was David he was pointing across the square, there, only a couple of meters away was a boy in a red baseball cap he was being pulled by a man into one of the shops. David and Jack took off pushing past the few people not going to watch the firework show. They were too fixated on the aspect of it being Les that they didn't notice the change of the shirt or the wisps of blond hair that peeked out of the cap.
Jack and David rushed into the bakery, they saw the man stop at the cashier while the small boy wandered off the isles. Jack was determined to find him first. He was sifting through the cake pops when Jack saw him.
Let's take a step back to earlier that day in the bakery, some sort of bigshot was having his birthday party that night at one of the resorts and Disney decided to send him a five tier vanilla cake. Just as Jack dashed to get to Les before he moved again, the chef pushed the four-wheeled caret out of through the grey metal doors that led to the kitchen.
It was a head-on collision. There was no survivors.
Not ten minutes later a vanilla covered Jack was being escorted by two security guards to Human Resources, which was where Jack and David found the rest of their friends.
It was evident by the slumped shoulders and frowns that the enchantment of Disney had faded long ago.
They were all squished on a wooden bench. Race held an ice packet to his head, Boots had his arm in sling. Spot and Skittery smelled awful, and Sarah was a hysterical mess of tears.
"It's all my fault! I'm a terrible sister!" Sarah was wailing, fat tears fell down her cheeks.
It wasn't long before David joined in too but a little bit more discreet. And as soon as David started crying Racetrack followed and then Jack and then Boots. Skittery and Spot were holding the tears back but the dam was about to overflow.
The human resources lady didn't know what to do. She was in a room full of crying teenagers. Just as she was about to walk up to them, Race's pocket started to buzz, He sniffed and wiped his left eye before answering.
"Hello"
"Race? Where are you guys? I've been waiting for ages by the car"
The phone fell from his hand. Race scrambled to get it.
"Les? Is that you? Where are you?"
Sarah's head shot up, she took the phone from Race.
"Les? Are you ok? Tell me where you are?"
His voice came in muffled.
"I already told Racetrack! I'm waiting by the car!"
Carelessly Sarah threw the phone at Race and shot out of Human Resources. Racetrack juggled his phone for a while before grasping it in his hands and then running out the swinging doors his friends had left in their wake.
Disney World is a big park, they have a huge platoon of golf-like carts that are stuck together that take you to the car park building where you had left your vehicle. The protagonists had not time to wait for these things. Too many people and not enough golf-carts.
Jimmy worked driving the armada of golf carts, it was an easy job, all you had to do was drive a bunch of excited tourist around. Rarely where any complications met, it was supposed to be a smooth ride until seven deranged teenagers ran across his path making him hit the brakes, sending several park-goers off of their seats.
That wasn't the only casualty. Elevators were too slow, so people were trampled on the escalator. Cars screeched to a stop as they pulled out of their slots when a posse of dangerous New Yorkers ran past them. And then a small boy of twelve was almost squeezed to death.
"Oh Les! Where were you?! I'm so sorry! I'm never leaving you alone again!" Sarah held her brother to her chest "I'm so sorry! Did anything happen to you? Are you ok?!"
Les pushed his sister away. "Where were you guys? I had front row to the firework show"
Sarah grabbed his shoulders and knelt to her brothers size. "Did anything happen to you?"
"No" He simply answered and rubbed his eyes. "I'm tired. I want to go the drugs dealers house"
"He is not a drug dealer..." Racetrack muttered.
"Why is Jack covered in cake? and why do you guys smell so bad?" Les scrunched his nose at Spot and Skittery.
"I'll tell you tomorrow" Spot said, pressing the button to unlock the rusting van.
48-hours later
"I'm beat" Race muttered lugging his suitcase up the stairs.
"Tell me about it" Jack agreed.
"Worst trip ever" Skittery said.
"There is no magic to Disney" Jack solemnly said.
The other two boys nodded their heads. Welcoming the silence. But like their trip it was also ruined.
"Hai-ya guys! How was your trip?!"
