Awakening: Third Stage

Chapter Six

"Carnival Pleasures"

Saturday

"Say what you will, guys, but the Tesla Park A/C pass is one of the coolest things you can buy for twenty dollars." Tino called excitedly as he fastened the paper bracelet onto his wrist and allowed his left hand to be stamped by the woman in the admission booth.

"Who's arguing?" Lor laughed. "We can ride the Whip-A-Canoe indefinitely with these things!" She rubbed her hands together in anticipation.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Carver felt the need for an immediate response. "What's with all this 'we' stuff? Going on that ride until I puke my guts out is not my idea of a good time, uh-uh."

"What's with you today?" Lor asked stubbornly. "Are you in some kind of wimp mode? I mean, you're making Tino look brave."

"Yeah." Tino laughed, and then took a moment to realize what his friend had just said. "Hey, wait a minute!"

Tish decided to step up to the plate, "Carver's right, Lor. These things are supposed to be taken in moderation." Tish did her best to educate her friend. While I admit that the Whip-A-Canoe is a thrilling ride and a fair estimate of one's bravado, riding it over and over again gets in the way of achieving maximum fun."

Lor blinked twice and wore an expression that showed she was completely confused, mouth agape and momentarily frozen in place. "Man, I haven't been this lost since Geometry class yesterday."

"Allow me to translate." Carver grinned. "Tish means that our plans for today don't involve us getting sick and throwing up our hot dogs. Or the non-meat equivalent" Carver quickly amended after Tish gave him a look.

"But I can't break my Whip-A-Canoe record all by myself!" Lor whined.

"Tell you what? I challenge you to the shooting gallery game on the midway. You and me, whoever can shoot out the entire star wins? We play as many rounds as it takes or one of us backs down. Or we run out of game money." Carver gave Lor his best game face.

"All right, you're on. On one condition."

"What's that?"

"We have to do the strength tester. Whoever scores higher has to buy the other lunch for a week." Lor countered.

"Deal."

"Okay." Tish grinned. "Then when you guys break for your little competition, Tino can take me on that cruise he promised me."

"Say what?" Tino shot back.

"You know, the cruise! Last month they started the ferry service where you get to go on a tour of the bay. You promised you would take me on a cruise someday." Tish pouted. "Don't tell me you forgot. . ."

"Of course not! I just didn't get you for a sec there. Sure, I'm all for it. One cruise, comin' up!"

"Aww, thanks, Pumpkin Pie." Tish's use of his pet name drew much laughter from Lor and Carver.

"Not in front of the guys!" Tino said out of the side of his mouth, resigned to the fact that he just wasn't going to be seeing much dignity today.

"Hey Lor, did you come up with a good pet name for Thompson yet?" Carver asked.

"Nah, I figure I'll let him squirm over what I might come up with. It's gotta be something equally fitting and embarrassing. Otherwise, it's just no fun at all. Although I guess I could always fall back on Pickletoes." Lor smiled.

"Okay, that is so not funny, it's just wrong." Carver crossed his arms in defiance.

"Aww, but I think it's such a sweet little love name." Lor batted her eyes to twist the knife further.

"Oh man, didn't we promise never to talk about that incident again?" Carver moaned.

"I don't remember agreeing to that." Lor countered.

"She's got you there man." Tino chuckled.

"I cannot recall any such agreement." Tish replied in a stilted British accent.

"You're all against me, aren't you?" Carver sighed in defeat.

"Only when you make it easy." Tino smiled, patting his friend on the back.

"Okay, okay, I give! Just don't tease me endlessly about it!"

"Of course not!" Lor smiled. "That's what Tino and Tish are for."

"Now you're talking." Carver chuckled.

"Hey, you can't do that to us!" Tish complained.

Carver put on a smug look. "Turnabout is fair play!"

"You know," Lor's face lit up, "We could tell 'the story."

"You wouldn't!" Tish said in a horrified voice.

"Wouldn't we?" Carver countered, raising an eyebrow.

Tino looked withered. "Carver, c'mon man, you can't. It's way beyond embarrassing. We'd be bigger laughing stocks than Chloe Montez ever was!"

Tino stepped aside while the others debated. "Okay, what Carver, Tish, and Lor are talking about is something we've all come to know as 'the story.' It's about the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to Tish and I. We're talking maximum humiliation and horror. I'd rather go to school naked for an entire week than have them tell this story in public! So just remember that I'm only showing you this so you can understand. Don't say I didn't warn you, as the contents of this flashback are shocking!"

…………………………………………….

"Okay, you know what? It's to mortifying to show you what actually happened. But I can show you what happened when I told my mom about it!"

********************************************************

"Mom, you have no idea how completely embarrassing this was for me! I was humiliated! I can't ever show my face in front of Carver and Lor again!" Tino cried.

"Okay, Tino, slow down and turn off the melodramatics." Mrs. Tonitini tried to soothe her son with her usual calm demeanor. "Now, why don't you tell me exactly what happened?"

I was over at Tish's house, in her room. We were in there, having fun, and Carver and Lor just walked in on us! I felt so totally naked!"

"I don't think it's that big a deal. They saw you two kissing and just got weirded out, it was just probably hard for them to imagine, that's all."

"No, you don't understand! It was much worse than that!"

"Worse? What could be worse than being walked in on when you're kissing.......TINO TONITINI! Just what have you and that girl been doing?!! Do I have to start chaperoning your time together?"

"No, it's not like that at all Mom!"

"Then what is it like? What were you two doing?"

"Mom, please, it's just too embarrassing!"

"Tell me, Tino." Tino laid his arms on the table in front of him and buried his face. "What were you and Tish doing?"

Tino looked up into his mother's face and sighed, realizing there was no escape. ".............Yodeling............."

********************************************************

Tino covered his face with his hands. "You see? I told you it was the most embarrassing thing in the world. If word ever got out about what Tish and I were doing, we're finished.  So it's really important that Carver and Lor never carry out that threat.

Tino sighed as he returned to the group. "You guys weren't being serious, were you?"

Carver smiled. "Of course not! We'd never really do something like that to you. We all know a lot of secrets about each other. Don't worry. We've got you covered."

"Unless you do something like that in front of us again!" Lor added. "I can still see you guys like that when I shut my eyes!" She shook her head to try and clear the mental image.

"What were you guys thinking that day?" Carver asked.

"We were practicing." Tino admitted sheepishly.

"For what?" Lor pressed.

"It was for a small ceremony from the Old Country." Tish sighed. "Tino and I had been going out for over a year, and my parents wanted to make him an honorary part of our family. We weren't expecting an audience."

"I still don't know what was worse." Tino wondered. "Having you guys catch us, or trying to explain it to my mom. She thought that Tish and I were, you know. . .coupling."

"Thank you soooo much!" Carver glared at Tino, throwing his hands up into the air. "Now I'm going to have that mental image burned into my mind's eye for the rest of my life!" Lor visibly shuddered at Carver's realization.

"Okay, that was so way more than I ever wanted to know about you guys." Lor grimaced.

Tish fixed Tino with one of her patented looks. "You'll have to excuse Tino here. He doesn't seem to know when to clam up."

"Oooh!" Lor suddenly sounded excited. "That's what I want! That clam chowder they serve here in those bread bowls!" Tino just looked relieved that the subject had finally changed.

Carver shook his head. "Rides first, then food. You know what happens after you eat. You can't go on anything but that Shakespeare ride without throwing up for a good hour and a half."

"Okay then, after we eat, it's you and me in a little one-on-one on the midway." Lor smirked.

"I'll be ready." Carver stepped up to the challenge. "So what do we do until then?"

Tish smiled. "Isn't it traditional that we start with the Screaming Thrasher Nightmare of Doom?"

 "I'll still say that sounds like a great name for a horror movie." Tino added. "You know, the kind with lots of zombies and some kind of evil machine that reduces hapless teenagers to their organic components."

Carver laughed, slapping Tino on the back. "Man, you have been seeing Tish for way too long!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tish asked, hands on her hips and clearly looking annoyed.

"It means he's starting to sound just like you!"

"Now you're just being silly." Tish insisted. "And even if he was, I think that's cute. Um, as long as it doesn't start to get creepy or anything. What do you think?" Tish asked as the four walked off towards their favorite roller coaster, wondering about how much of an influence she really had over her best friend and significant other.

As their cart slowly made its way up the track, Tish wondered, as she did every time she got on this particular ride, why she was doing this. It had been a long time since she had ridden in the front car, which made the experience all the scarier. She gripped the handholds on her shoulder harness tightly, a small trickle of sweat disappearing down the back of her head into her hair. She was not an overly courageous kind of girl, and it surprised her that she kept coming back to this particular ride over and over again. Perhaps it was due to some sort of baser human pleasure, the thrill of moving down steep inclines, sharp curves, and corkscrew loops at unsafe velocities, all within a controlled environment designed to produce sensations of both fear and enjoyment. Despite what rational thoughts might preach, it seemed to Tish that human beings always loved a good scare, to live on the edge and feel some kind of danger. Above all else, it proved that you were alive.

Tino sat beside her, with Carver and Lor in the back half of their car. No doubt they were less fearful than she, or at least better at hiding it. As their car came to the peak and moved towards a curve that leads to that first terrifying and exhilarating drop, she saw Tino smile at her, taking his left hand and placing it on her right handhold. She quickly glanced to her right, looking into Tino's eyes and seeing his smile in them. She returned it, smiling herself, and found herself gripping even harder now, no longer out of fear, but determination. As Tino returned his hand to his own harness and the cart began making its swift and nausea-inducing thrust downwards, Tish gave into the moment and gaped her mouth in a scream born not from fear, but excitement.

As the ride came to a complete stop and the four friends stepped out and staggered their way to the exit ramp, they caught sight of themselves in a mirror. Lor's hair had been pulled straight back, and she ran her hands through it to get it back down to her shoulders. Tino's had been spiked up in places by the wind, and it took some manipulation to get it to fall flat again. Tish found her hair to be in complete disarray, and she longed for a brush to settle the errant strands that had been kicked up. Carver was the only one whose hairdo seemed unfazed, and he made sure to let his friends know about it in a typical Carver fashion, meaning he rubbed it in considerably.

"That was exhilarating!" Tish called happily after they had all finished playing with their hair.

"It always is." Tino smiled.

Lor felt similarly. "I heard that Tesla Park might be expanding, but I still don't see how they can ever have a better roller coaster.

"They ought to pass some kind of law that turns that ride into some sort of historical attraction. You know, so they can't ever remove it. I want my kids to go on that thing."

"Carver," Lor laughed, "Don't you have to trick some girl into having kids with you first?"

"So, I'm not worried about that. I've got my whole marriage and fatherhood thing planned out. Finding the girl is like the last part of the puzzle."

"Now there's a winning attitude." Tish muttered under her breath, crossing her arms over her breasts to indicate her dissatisfaction.

"Carv, you can be one weird guy sometimes." Tino lightly slapped his best friend on the back.

"Yeah, maybe, but at least I'm not a Captain Dreadnought fan." Carver chided.

"Ugh, don't get me started." Tish slowly massaged her forehead to help stave off what she already feared would become a headache if the conversation went that route.

"Are you guys ever gonna stop ragging on me about the Captain Dreadnought thing? It's old news!" Tino complained in a frustrated voice.

"Sure," Lor grinned, "If you ever stop reading those comic books."

"It's not worth it, guys." Tish sighed. "Believe me. I tried to wean Tino off of them. I wanted to broaden his horizons, so I gave him some graphic novel versions of great literary classics."

"And it didn't work?" Carver looked disappointed.

"Well, it did get him to read a lot of classic books. Which worked out well, because we have to read a lot of them in our English classes throughout high school, so now he has an advantage. Unfortunately, he's still reading Captain Dreadnought comics."

Tino rolled his eyes. "This from a girl who still has a Lil' Muffins book under her bed."

Everyone started laughing then but Tish, who looked thoroughly annoyed. "It's not funny!"

"Oh man," Carver said between laughs, "If you guys are going to be this dorky, I'm gonna have to stop hanging out with you!"

"Really?" Lor grinned mischievously. "You wouldn't want me to circulate that photo I have of you in a woman's one-piece bathing suit, would you?"

Carver's laughter immediately died. "You wouldn't."

"I would."

"You WOULDN'T!"

"You never know. . ."

"Ah, the calm." Tish laughed. "The peace and tranquility. Oh yeah, I know what I'll remember most about my childhood."

Tino smirked at her as the four of them made their way to the next ride, Lor and Carver continuing their animated discussion and sounding more like siblings than friends.

And here we are, another chapter done. It really feels good to get this finished more or less on time and ready for distribution. I hope you all have as much fun reading this as I have coming up with things in my head. As I move through this brief Tesla Park arc and on to Lor's date with Thompson on Sunday, I hope that everyone is able to find something they enjoy about my little. . .maybe I'd better make that not-so-little story. That's what gives me the greatest joy, knowing someone out there feels something after reading what I've written. So you know the drill folks. You all keep reading and reviewing, and I keep the new installments coming. Let the good times roll!

Send all questions, comments, compliments, complaints, love letters, death threats, marriage proposals, and ransom demands to:

Lord Malachite

03/25/04

3:35PM, EST

E-mail: ranger_writer@yahoo.com

AIM: Asukaphile26

Later days!