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LissyLock & NeonBurning
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Tunnel of Love
Chapter Two
I sat down in the worn swivel chair that was in the small control box.
There was four buttons on the panel in front of me. It can't be that difficult can it?
Carlisle lent over my shoulder and pointed to the first green button,
"This is the start button, see?" he pointed to the raggy piece of masking tape under the button. Written on it in thick black marker was the written START.
I nodded in response.
"Not as scary as you thought now is it?" Carlisle asked looking down at me.
"It's not loaded with people's kids yet!" I mumbled under my breath.
"Why so negative, Bella? If anything doesn't go to plan or one of the lovely little darlings vomits, just hit this button right here" he pointed to the, again, clearly marked emergency stop button.
I gagged involuntarily, "Vomit?" My stomach turned even at the word. Angela must have forgotten this little gem!
"Yep" Carlisle popped the p. "your machine, you clean it!" he started laughing at me.
"Bella, your green!" his face was getting redder the harder he laughed.
"It's not funny, it's like a disease. I can't help it!" I said to him trying to keep my face straight. My lips twitched upward. Traitors!
"See even you think it's funny" he said, slightly more composed now.
I looked back down at the panel in front of me and my smile disappeared, I still have so much to learn and in half an hour the general public will be handing over their children to me!
"Ok, Boss Man. What's next?" wanting to know what the other two buttons did.
"This one is for the timer. If it's busy press it twice. If it's quiet, three times"
"And this one?" I asked.
"Press it" he said cryptically.
I looked at him wearily; it's not going to blow up, Bella. Just press the button I said to myself.
As if he'd read my mind Carlisle piped up "it's not going to blow up, Bella. Just press the damn button!"
I took a deep breath and pressed it.
The lights started flashing, all that for this?
"You're kidding, right? You had me all excited for this? "I huffed
"If that's all it takes…
"Eww, please Carlisle! You're awful, old man!" I started to fake gag, to add to the effect.
"You know, I could just put you on cleaning duties and be done, right?" he said trying again to keep from laughing.
"Ok, ok, I'm sorry! Please don't make me clean" I pleaded.
"Well get button pressing girl, get used to the controls. And here this is what you keep the ticket stubs in for end of day counting" he handed me a small denim apron with a large pocket on the front. "Two tickets each" he continued
I put it on and tied it behind me. I took a moment to think about the buttons in front of me and set the ride going, I pressed the timer button twice and waited.
Carlisle patted me on the shoulder as a well done as the ride come to a slow stop. I practiced a few more times as Carlisle worked on fixing the window behind my head.
"Ok Bella, it's all yours" he grinned at me "park opens in fifteen, go grab yourself a coffee before the gates open"
Carlisle finished up and left the box- leaving me to my new responsibility of collecting tickets and pressing buttons.
I checked my watch and saw that I had at least another fifteen minutes until the park opened- a bit of time to check out my surroundings.
I stood up from the chair and propped open the door of the control box, only to be greeted with a, "Bellaaaaa!"
I looked up to see Angela skipping her way towards me, her arms held out for a hug.
"Hey, Ang," I spoke giving her a brief hug.
"Looking forward to your first day?" she asked.
I turned to look at my control box, then back around the park, "um, yeah, sure."
"Come on, it's not too bad," she smiled at me.
Her smile was pretty infectious, so I smiled back.
"That's the spirit, right-"
Angela was cut off by that high pitched voice that seemed to be following me around.
"We're totally on the juveniles together- how cool!"
Angela rolled her eyes before turning around to see her, keeping the cool-smile on her face.
"Hey Jess, this is Bella."
"We met in the main office- she came in with Carlisle!"
The way Jess exaggerated Carlisle's name made a slight shiver roll down my back.
It's not that he was unattractive… It's just… he must be twice her age!
"You like Carlisle?" I found myself saying.
"Ohh only ever since the first day her eyes happened to wonder upon his arse," Angela laughed.
I chuckled along with Angela as Jess' face turned a shade of puce.
"Look, he's hot, ok?" she responded.
"Sure, sure," Angela replied, "but not as hot as his son! God damn that sexy piece of a human being."
"Does he's son work here?" I asked, curious.
I hadn't seen him earlier.
"Yes! Edward, have you not seen him? Two words; Chick. Magnet."
"Yeah, he is," chimed in Jess- not as whole-heartedly as she spoke of Carlisle, I must add.
"Major Player," Angela added.
"Really? Why? What has he done?"
"Oh please, what hasn't he done," injected Jess.
"That bad?" I asked.
"That bad," Ang assured me.
"Do you remember that time when the park was closed and he was in the office with that new girl?" Jess was reminiscing.
"That was terrible! Oh, the shame that girl must have gone through!"
"What happened?" I really needed to hear this.
"Well, we assume he told the girl that the office windows were blacked out or something- well… they weren't."
I groaned- I could see where this was headed.
Angela continued, "The lights were on, and all the staff were in the car park- so we could all see in and he had her up against the window and everything."
I could feel my mouth slightly hanging open in shock.
"No way," I said.
"Way," spoke Angela, "and when he hid that girl in the uniform cupboard!"
"He what?" ok, I was really shocked now.
"Yeah, that's not so important," Jess notified us, a little too quickly.
"Pft. She should know what he's like. Don't you want to know what he's like, Bella?" Angela insisted.
"No! She doesn't!" Jess snapped.
"Oh, come on Jess, it was a long time ago. Get over it, now."
I felt my mouth open even more.
Jessica and Edward?
I turned my face slightly to Angela so she could see my wide-eyed expression.
Just then, we heard little footsteps running close by.
"Park's open!" Ang exclaimed.
"Woo-hoo," was all Jessica said, before stomping back over to her ride.
I laughed, "You have to tell me about that later, Ang."
She winked at me and walked on over to the ride to my right.
Right on cue the ancient speaker system come to life, the dulcet tones of Aretha Franklin's Think filled the park- this was going to be a long day!
We all watched the coach trip attendees head towards the ticket booth.
I started humming the tune to myself, I didn't realise how loud I was until Angela shouted over to me.
"You like this song, Bells?" She asked sarcastically.
I shot her my best dirty look, which came out looking more like I had wind.
She started laughing at me, so I stared harder.
"Kill me now!" I mouthed to her as the first group of kids came flying up the steps towards us.
My very first attempt at setting the ride off by myself and it was full.
All twelve chairs were filled with the parent's precious cargo. Fantastic!
I walked round the ride strapping each one in and collecting the tickets from their little hands.
I looked over to Jessica; she also had a full ride. She gave me a quick thumbs up before disappearing into her control box.
I finished my lap of the ride and stepped into my own control box.
Trying to remember everything Carlisle had taught me this morning, I took a deep breath and pushed the start button.
Deep breaths, Bella. Deep breaths.
The ride started moving, all the parents started 'ooo-ing' and 'ahhhh-ing' and pulling out their cameras. It reminded me of the times Charlie used to bring me here as a kid.
There was a knock on the window behind me, it shook and creaked. I spun round on my chair to see Angela waving madly outside.
"Let me in," she said pointing to the door of my little metal box.
I reached over and popped the latch down on the door.
I pressed the time button again as there was no one waiting to go on after the ride had stopped.
"Hey, what's up Ang?" I asked puzzled to why she wasn't at her ride.
"Nobody wanted the sad Rocket Ships this morning, just as well since they won't start" she explained.
She leant across and shook the window; again it creaked and wobbled in its frame.
"I thought Carlisle had fixed this. This place is a death trap, I swear!' she ranted.
"I'm never going to see the carnival in the same light again, am I?" I asked her.
If I knew all the ins and outs, of the way carnivals worked, all the magic was gone.
"Nope, not after working here anyway. Come on," she said opening the door, "your kids have stopped!"
Together we undid all the safety belts and sent them on their merry way down into the main part of the park.
We walked over to Jess's now empty carousel and sat on the small wooden steps that made up the edge of the ride.
"So, that was our morning rush been and gone," Jess said rolling her eyes rather over dramatically.
Is it so wrong to want to punch her after only knowing her less than two hours?
I remember her from high school; she was the grade above me.
She was one of those girls.
I wonder why she's had to resort to a summer job here of all places.
"Hey, Jess. Want to do something useful that involves Carlisle?" asked Ang, wagging her eyebrows at Jess.
Jess tried to hide her smile. My eyes rolled involuntarily. My god, she was a Slutbag!
"Yeah, of course," she smiled widely at Angela.
"Find Carlisle and tell him I need Mike to come and fix my ride, it's not playing nice with me today," she pouted ridiculously.
"Ok, I'm going" Jess said pushing herself up off the step she was sitting on.
"No talking about me while I'm gone," she whined.
We sat in silence until she was out of earshot.
"Come on spill! I need to know the cupboard story!" I said to Angela in one breath.
"Ah, you see there's not really much to tell but I just love to bring it up in front of Jess every so often. I just can help it, it's like I have 'Mock -Jess Tourette's!'" she laughed.
"Just tell me!" I think it was only for my own sick pleasure that I wanted to know what happened to Queen Slutbag.
"She was going down on Edward in Carlisle's office, when there was a knock on the door." She starts snort laughing as she tried to compose herself.
"It was Carlisle demanding to know who was in his office and why it was locked.
Edward panicked and hid her in the closet" Angela was now doubled over laughing at herself. She took a half calming deep breath and paused.
"She was in there for two hours!" she screeched.
The story itself wasn't as juicy as I was hoping for but Angela's way of telling it also had me more amused than I really should be at someone else's misfortune.
Edward sounded like such a player; I needed to stay away from him at all costs. This summer was about work… and me behaving myself.
"So, is Edward really as bad as you've made out?" I asked trying to be subtle.
"Worse, Bella. A whole world of worse! Please for your own sake and Charlie's sanity, don't get involved with him. Please," Angela pleaded.
"Ok, ok I get the picture, Edward = bad! I've got it."
I did appreciate the concern but it really wasn't needed. Even if he was sex in pants, I had no intention of getting involved. I probably wasn't even his type if Jess was anything to go by!
"Oh and speak of the devil. Edward has just pulled up!" Angela squealed, giving herself away.
She definitely had a little Edward crush herself!
"Get in your booth and pretend you're doing something!" she said helping me up from the step.
I glanced over my shoulder to see the trunk of the car open, I didn't see his face.
I hurried to my little metal box and sat down on my swivel chair. I couldn't see him at all from where I was so I stood and tried to open the window.
The stupid thing was fighting back but I eventually got it open enough so I could poke my head through.
I stood on my tiptoes and looked towards Angela's ticket box. She had her head down counting out her tick stubs. I turned my head towards the parking lot, I stumbled forward crashing into the wall of the box. The death trap window slammed down onto the top of my head, tangling my hair in the latch.
"Fuck, shit, wanky tits!" I grumbled to myself as I tried to free my hair.
"Wow, that's an impressive collection of cuss words there," I heard a smooth voice chuckle.
Shit, shit shit…
I looked up towards the beautiful voice.
"Hi, I'm Edward Cullen. I believe you wanted a better look?"
