Having fled from the chaos at the pirate ship, Stan and Shelly took shelter behind another store to escape the heat. They were dirty and breathless because of both the running and the squabble they got themselves into. They waited until they were calm enough to think more clearly to start a dialogue.
"Damnit, turd, I can't leave you alone for one minute!" Shelly chided.
"Huh? You're saying this is my fault?!" Stan protested, enraged at the accusation. Being pushed around by a bully, whether a boy they never saw or their own sister, caused that effect on a person.
"No, I'm not! But you should know better than to pick fights with people twice your size. Those guys could've killed you! And then I'd be the one who'd have to take your body back to Mom!"
He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, because I'm such a weakling who needs his sister to save him. Sorry I'm such a burden to you."
Stan was now depressed, and Shelly, feeling guilty enough, decided to blow it off.
"Shut up. Enough with the self-pity crap."
"Well, guess we're not going to the pirate ship."
"Whatever. We can go somewhere else. Come on."
She again grabbed Stan's hand and dragged him off. But this time, Stan resisted and broke free of her grip.
"No, Shelly, you know what? This was a bad idea from the start. You should just… go back to your friends, and I'll go back to mine."
He sighed in defeat, since their attempt to have a good time together had been ruined by a pair of gorillas. He was resigned to the fact that it was just not happening.
"No, I'm not giving up." Shelly grabbed Stan's hand once again. "I said we were gonna have fun and we're GONNA have fun."
"But… why?" He asked, perplexed at her insistence.
"Because I want to. I'm not letting this turn into a bad memory. Now come on."
With determination all over her face, she walked rapidly through the site, with her brother, whose hand she was firmly holding, barely keeping up with her pace and almost tripping sometimes. She turned her head to every direction that she could, scanning the park for some other attraction they could get into.
Impressed by Shelly's resolve, Stan decided to play along and started searching as well. He was the first to spot something and called her while pointing at it.
"There… how about the twister?
She stopped on her tracks and stared at the ride. She examined it, then gave her opinion.
"Yeah. Will do."
Settling on the twister, they went to the end of the line, which fortunately wasn't so long. Now they just hoped that they wouldn't run into trouble with someone else again. It looked like they could make a good memory of this after all.
After waiting in the line for the twister and enjoying their ride, Stan and Shelly exited the attraction and stood a few yards away from it. They looked dizzy and exhausted, but satisfied.
"Wow, that was amazing!" Stan exclaimed.
"You see? Told you we could have some fun!" Shelly stated, a bit proud of herself.
"Yeah, you did. So, what do we do now?"
Shelly crossed her arms. "Well, my boyfriend must be done with his brother by now, so I should go back to him already. You should go back to your turd friends too."
Stan was a bit dismayed, but still in a good mood. He still got to go on a ride with his sister, and that wasn't going to go away anytime soon. As a bonus, Shelly was in a good mood too, and that was pleasant for him to see.
"Oh, right. Then… see ya." He waved her goodbye.
"Sure. Don't forget that we should get going in an hour."
"Yeah, I didn't forget." Shelly started to walk away, when Stan spoke up. "Shelly?"
She stopped. "Huh."
"Thank you. I… needed this."
She smiled a little. "…You're welcome."
And with that she resumed her walk. In time, she was out of Stan's field of view. She had walked a few yards, heading to her friends' rendezvous point at the restaurant, still content with her experience. Suddenly, her phone rang. She checked it. It was her boyfriend.
"Hi, honey." She answered.
She heard him giving her some news, and frowned.
"You gotta go now?"
The boyfriend explained that due to his little brother's antics, his parents called and now he would have to take him back home earlier. Then he added that the rest of their group had left already too. He apologized for not being able to say goodbye to her properly.
"No, it's fine. Me and my brother are gonna leave soon too."
Shelly's mood was sour again. Either she stayed too long with Stan, or she just got unlucky.
"Oh sure, I'll meet you at the school. Sure, bye bye."
She hung up and sighed. Now I'm stuck here for the next hour. What the hell am I gonna do?
She entered the restaurant and sat at a table, while she thought on her next course of action. Then she noticed a box of bonbons in a display, and approached them. They looked delicious, and the price was inviting.
Hmm, I might try these, she decided.