Last chapter!
All too soon, the foot jigglers shut themselves off. Some of us sighed with contentment, others, including myself, groaned with disappointment. "All right, what's next?" I asked.
"Hmm," pondered Jake. "Ax? You haven't decided anything for us yet today. Where do you want to go next? We have about an hour left until we have to leave at five." I started to speak, but Jake quickly cut me off: "And yes- I know the park doesn't close until nine, Marco. We have to get home early."
"That's not what I was going to say," I flatly drolled. (A/N: I know this isn't a word, nor is it used correctly, but it sounds right and you know the context.) "I was going to ask Ax if he wanted to see the map," I said as I handed him my map from the bag I was carrying.
"Thank you Marco," smiled Ax. He opened up the map and studied it for a few seconds. Suddenly his eyes widened and he pointed to a spot towards the top. "The Shark Experience! We should go there! Goodness, this park has everything!"
For a moment, I wondered why Ax was speaking so oddly (for himself) but I dismissed it as an effect of his excitement. Ax handed me the map back and I put it into my bag again. As we walked northwest towards the Shark Experience, I briefly wondered why he had such an apparently-sudden interest in sharks, and then I thought Of course! His underwater battle morph is a Hammerhead shark! Speaking of which, we were just passing by a large thrill ride called the "Hammerhead Shark". It was a Zamperla ride that consisted of two giant arms, designed on the outside to look like Hammerhead shark bodies, which spun around in opposite directions before swapping and completing seven revolutions.
It was a short walk to the Shark Experience building. When we got there, we crossed a mini-train crossing (the train was not present), and made a short left into the building. There were long, black plastic flaps we had to walk through, and I'm pretty sure they were intended to keep the light out. With good reason: Immediately after entering, our clothes were bombarded with black light (and my socks looked purple!).
Ax led the way, followed by Cassie, myself, Rachel and Tobias, and Jake. When Ax entered the next section of the building, I could swear his jaw dropped. We were in a long tunnel with a curved glass ceiling, and we were being moved along by a moving sidewalk that included handrails. Above us, sharks and colorful fish of all kinds swam back and forth; it was stunningly beautiful. The next room was an extension of the aquarium from before: there was a large window to our left where we could see more of the open water. To the right was a solid wall, but it was unique in that it had life-size silhouettes of different kinds of sharks on it. I can't really say there was a "next room" because the whole "guest" area of the inside was all one room with no doors. Nonetheless, the next area showed progressively larger shark jaws (bones), ending with the jaws of a Great White Shark. The smallest jaws were no larger than my hand. The last open area had an interactive map that showed different places all over the Earth where different types of sharks lived. There was also a cylindrical aquarium with small fish in the center of the room.
Suddenly I noticed that Tobias was no longer with us. "Hey Jake, where's Tobias?" I asked him. He looked unsure for a moment, but then as if in an answer to my question, Rachel ran back inside at the exit, which was a large open doorway. "Guys! Did you know they have a photo shoot here? It's only 10 dollars!"
"I dunno Tobias, we're kinda strapped for cash…" said Jake. "Maybe if everyone pitches in, we could."
We walked outside to where there was a sort of raised pool with various crabs and lethargic fish lying about. As luck would have it, we had barely enough money among us. "This has to be the last thing we do today," said Cassie.
"…That costs money," I added.
"Well, yeah," was her reply.
On our way to the photo shack, I slipped out of the group (I was behind everyone) and snuck into a little room on the outside of the building called "The Blue Cove". It was separated from the outdoor light by long black flaps similar to the kind we passed through at the main entrance. Inside was a small (about 10 square feet) area with a circular glass wall. Beyond the thick wall, I could see many different types of colorful fish, including Regal Blue Tangs and Yellow Tangs, and a lot of other fish I couldn't name. Then I noticed in the distance there were people moving along slowly. I suddenly realized that I was seeing the underwater tunnel from before, and it occurred to me that this little area was for the smaller fish to get away from the sharks. Before I could think about that more, Jake called out "MARCO!"
I ran outside and answered "POLO!" Jake didn't look happy.
"Where were you?"
"That little aquarium over there," I said pointing.
"Well you're off the hook because Rachel wandered into the gift shop. Cassie just fished her out." He paused, then added, "No pun intended."
"I wouldn't be surprised if she gets stuck in the main gift shop near the park exit when we leave."
"Hmm."
Tobias was already over at the photo shack, and he had apparently purchased our spot. "Come on guys! I still want to ride another ride before five and we only have half an hour left." He gestured for us to join him. Ax had been peering into the outdoor pool at some starfish, but he came when Tobias called. "We're next," Tobias informed us. "Actually, we're on now,
he said as the previous group, a family of four, left. Suddenly Rachel tapped me on the shoulder.
"Marco! Look at this cute little keychain I bought. It has my name on it!" Indeed it did. The keychain was designed with a picture of a three-dimensionalized shark swimming in the ocean. Beneath it were printed the letters R A C H E L in red.
"Yes Rachel, cute indeed," I said while mentally rolling my eyes.
The photo shoot was actually rather elaborate. The scene was set up to look like a boat with a sea lion and a great white shark jumping out of the water over the boat. You could climb up on top of the sea lion, inside the shark's mouth, or in the boat, and the boat even included a red and white-striped rope if you wanted to use it on someone inside the shark. Cassie took that job. She and Rachel walked around back, and Rachel climbed up the stairs to get on top of the sea lion. Jake sat in the closest to the shark, took hold of the rope, and gave it to Cassie. Ax clambered into the back of the boat, which was slightly raised, and Tobias stood up and made it look like he was steadying himself. I stood at the front of the boat with one leg on the edge, to appear as if I was commandeering us to safety. I tried my best to look like a ship captain boldly leading his crew in the face of disaster. The photo guys took our picture, and after about two minutes, they were ready.
The ten dollars included six wallet size copies of our picture. Rachel was smiling on top of the sea lion to make it seem as if she was having fun flying through the air on it. Cassie had a terrified look on her face as Jake pulled her out of the shark mouth with the rope. Ax huddled in the back of the boat, looking distraught. I wasn't sure if he was acting or if he really felt like that, but I hoped it was the former. As expected, I looked awesome standing up at the front of the little boat, looking heroic. (Wait, I just said that I looked two different things, didn't I? Oh well. Who cares if they're both true?)
Jake got out his pocketknife and used the scissors attachment to cut the sheet into six separate parts. As he did this, he started another impromptu group meeting.
"All right," he began, "We've been a lot of different places today; Let's recap. Tobias got to go on Dinosphere, Rachel got her Medusa, Cassie got to do all sorts of Animal stuff, and Ax got to Shark Experience like he wanted." He handed us our photos. "That leaves just you and I, Marco. What was it you said you wanted to do?"
"Well, earlier I asked Ax if he wanted to go on Monsoon Falls with me, but it's too cold to get wet now," I said. "You know, there's a wooden roller coaster nearby. We could wait in line for that, ride it, and be done in time for us to leave."
"I don't see why not," Jake said. "And since I like that idea, I'll adopt it as my own and forfeit my choice for today. You can lead the way Marco."
"Thanks."
As we walked, I got out our map again. Looking at it, I was reminded of the name of the wooden roller coaster, which was Clank River, an odd name since there was no water at all on the ride. The wait in line was considerably longer than our wait for Medusa, because it wasn't lunchtime, and people ate their park dinner at varyingly different times. By the time we climbed into the little cars (which only had lap belts and restraints that came over our waists) it was already 4:45. It was your typical wooden roller coaster, and there wouldn't have been anything to report – if it weren't for the water misters at the very end of the ride. Such a weird name, I thought, and there's hardly any water at all!
We walked off the ride, but there weren't any photos to look at. I took a look around the group and noticed that everyone, including myself, was looking exhausted. Jake noticed this too. "Guys, I think it's time we left," he said. "Let's all head back to the exit."
He turned to Rachel and said, "That just goes to show you we don't have to be in danger kicking Yeerk butt to have fun, right Rachel?"
"Yeah," she replied, "I guess I did have fun today. We only did a few rides and some animal stuff, but it was a refreshing break."
"Well I'm glad you liked it."
To my surprise, Rachel didn't even go into the gift shop at the exit, though she did glance at it. "It's just T-Shirts and candy anyway," she said. "I don't need any of that. Besides, they purposefully put it at the exit to the park to lure in visitors as they're leaving."
I smiled. Perhaps Rachel was maturing a bit – but only time would tell.
We took the tram to the parking lot, and it was more crowded than it was when I had ridden it that morning. The walk from the tram drop-off to my Civic was even harder, it seemed, than any other walking we had done that day. Cassie piped up with an important question. "How are we going to get home? Marco's car only has room for five!"
"I have an idea," said Tobias. "Just let me hide behind Marco's car and I'll fly home."
"Thanks for volunteering, Tobias," said Jake. We stood around the small space between my car and the black Chevy Tahoe to its right, blocking the entrances while Tobias demorphed.
((Thanks guys!)) He said. ((I'll catch you tomorrow. Say, we should do this again sometime!))
"Bye Tobias!" We all called. Then we piled into my car. I drove, of course, and Jake sat in the passenger seat. Cassie sat behind him and Ax sat to her left. Rachel was behind me. As I pulled out of the parking spot, I thought it was a good time to pull a joke.
"Hey guys," I said "What did the half-blind ride operator say to Peter Dinklage when he tried to get on the Monkey Business teacups ride? 'Where's your dad, kid?"
Rachel kicked the back of my seat. I looked through the rear-view mirror at her, and she looked at me with a "Why did you bother?" look. I suddenly realized that that joke had really bad taste and I shouldn't have even told it. Ax took notice of Rachel's mood and put his arms around her and Cassie, smiling at each of them. As I merged onto the freeway, Cassie started rubbing Jake's shoulders. We headed back to our neighborhood and admired the sunset out my window. It was a great day. (Now how often can I say that?)
I don't know what else to say. This is essentially the end. Please comment, and drive safely.
(But what about Chapter 12?)
