Chapter Five: Amusement Park
Very, very early in the morning on the second day of June, Firestar dialed Onestar's number on his cellphone. Onestar picked up on the third ring, and the Thunderclan leader could hear loud music in the background.
"Yes?" Onestar answered loudly.
"Hey, pal! I got another Special Activity Idea! Take your clan over by the horseplace; I'm getting all the clans to meet us there"
"Uh...OK, um...NO BREEZEPAW DON'T PUKE ON THE FRESHKILL...Aw, dang."
"Onestar?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'll meet you there. I'll call Leopardstar for you."
"OK. Thanks, Onesy!" Firestar said, and he then called Blackstar.
Awhile later, all four clans were at the horseplace.
"So, Firestar," Leopardstar asked, yawning. "Where are we going this early?"
"A special amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio!" While saying that, Firestar pulled out a map and brochure out of nowhere. In big letters on it were the words "CEDAR POINT".
The clans gasped.
"Cedar Point?!"
"Sandusky?!"
"Ohio?!"
"Mommy, what's an 'ohio?"
"But..but Firestar, that's miles and miles away!" Sandstorm exclaimed.
"There ain't no way we're walking THAT far!" Mousepaw put in.
Firestar smiled slyly and held up a bunch of plane tickets. "Who says we have to walk?"
"Uh..." was all Mousepaw said after that.
Luckily the plane just so happened to be the fastest one around, so all the cats got to Cedar Point just as the gates opened. Everyone was talking and arguing excitedly:
"Let's ride the Maverick! It's brand new!"
"No! Let's ride Top Thrill Dragster!"
"Let's ride Millinium Force!"
"The Magnum XL 200!"
"Mean Streak!"
"Raptor!"
"I know! Let's ride the Jr. Gemini!"
"No way! That's for kits!"
"BATMAN THE RIDE!"
"That's in Six Flags, moron!"
"Oh."
And so it went on, until finally.
"SHUTUP!!" Blackstar screamed.
Everyone got quiet immediantly and stared.
"We don't have to stick together, you know! Just, everyone...go wherever you want!"
A bunch of "Oh"'s, "Duh"'s, and "Right"'s filled the air as the clans figured out how stupid they were and went their separate ways.
Brambleclaw, Squirrelflight, Leafpool, Graystripe, Millie, and a bunch of other cats were in line for Mean Streak (a wooden coaster). They were the next ones to get on. Millie hadn't planned to ride it, but Graystripe had persuaded her to get in line with him. Now, she was scared all over again.
"There is NO way in the world you're going to get me on that thing, Graystripe!"
"Millie, it's gonna be OK! They got seatbelts and everything, it's not a looping coaster...there's no way you're going to fall out!" "I know, but...but it's so...so high!" Millie whimpered, shivering.
Graystripe sighed. "Believe me, girl, as soon as we get past the first hill, I'm sure you'll LOVE it! And you know what? You WILL love it!"
Millie snorted. "When hedgehogs fly!" "WHEE!!" a hedgehog screamed as it flew by and ran into a pole.
"Um... When cereal falls from the sky!"
As if on cue, all kinds of cereal rained down upon them. Leafpool caught some in her mouth. "MMMMM...munchy...crunchy...chocolately!! I'm cuckoo for Coco Puffs! CUCKOO FOR COCO PUFFS!!" She started bouncing around like the cuckoo bird in the commercials while everyone else stared at her with the famous Oo look on their faces.
Millie tried again: "When I see Erin Hunter get off the next coaster train!"
That happened too.
"Whoooo!" Erin screamed as she unbuckled her seat belt and hopped off the train. "That ROCKED! Now I...oh, no! AAAAAHH!" She screamed as a whole bunch of fans chased after her.
Brambleclaw gawked at all that had happened. "Now I've seen everything!" he breathed, and he passed out.
Millie sighed. "Alright, I'll TRY to love it!"
Before they knew it, their train was climbing up the first hill. Brambleclaw sat with Squirrelflight in the front, Graystripe and Millie sat behind them, and Leafpool sat behind THEM with, to her surprise, (and discomfort, I'm sure) Crowfeather. All the other cats who chose to ride Mean Streak filled up the rest of the cars.
Squirrelflight, excited, began to sing to Brambleclaw:
"Roller Coaster! Of love!
Roller coaster!
Hoo hoo hoo hoo!"
As they went down the first drop, with Millie screaming in fear behind him, Brambleclaw continued the song for her:
"Your love is like,
A roller coaster,
Baby! Baby!
I wanna ride-"
Their love song was interupted when Graystripe began to scream/sing:
"SHE THINKS MY TRACTOR'S SEXY...!"
Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight winced at both his horrible singing and his rather randomly odd choice for a song, especially while riding a roller coaster.
Fortunetly, though, Graystripe forgot how the rest of the song went, so he decided to scream instead of sing throughout the exciting ride.
When they got off, Graystripe purred to his girlfriend, "Well, did you like it?"
"Like it?!" Millie cried, "I LOVE it!"
Almost immediantly, Graystripe, who apparently became obsessed with country lately, sang:
"I LIKE IT! I LOVE IT!
I WANT SOME MORE OF IT!
I TRY SO HARD!
I-"
"Graystripe! Shutup!"
"Sorry."
After riding the Wicked Twister, the Raptor, and a few random thrill rides, Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight met Jaypaw, Hollypaw, and Lionpaw as they bounded from Top Thrill Dragster.
"Mom! Dad! Guess what!" Lionpaw panted as they ran toward them.
"We were on a rollback!" Hollypaw exclaimed.
"A what now?" Brambleclaw asked.
"A rollback, Dad," Jaypaw said. "You know how the Dragster is power-launched up and over one huge hill and that's it?"
Brambleclaw and his mate nodded, but they still wondered where in the world their children learned those big words. (Well, big for a cat, anyway)
"Well," their son continued, "When our car was launched, there was not enough power, so once we came upon the upper section of the hill, there wasn't enough momentum. Therefore, our car rolled back down the same way it came. Luckily, they got emergency brakes on that ride, so there was no need to be afraid!" Jaypaw smiled at his confused parents. He was proud of his speech.
"And the best part was that we got to get launched AGAIN!" Lionpaw screeched over excitedly, punching the air with his paw. "It was AWESOME! It kicked BUTT"!
"Um...That's nice!" Squirrelflight said, still clueless.
"Anyway, how'd you know all that stuff?" Brambleclaw asked.
"Discovery Channel!" Hollypaw answered.
"Roller Coaster Tycoon 1, 2, and 3!" Lionpaw added.
"Uh...and other educational roller coaster stuff!" Jaypaw said.
There was a moment of silence as husband and wife looked from each other to their kids.
"Alrighty then!" Squirrelflight finally said. "Who's up for the new roller coaster?"
"Me!" the apprentices shouted.
"Oooh! Oooh! Me too, me too!" Brambleclaw screamed, jumping up and down while his family stared at him.
The line for Maverick, the new steel roller coaster, was extremely long. Almost everybody from every clan was there by now, and Bramblclaw could see Firestar, Sandstorm, Leafpool, Thornclaw, Brightheart, Longtail, and Mousefur in one of the cars that were cruising along on the bright red track. Brambleclaw could've sworn that was Mousefur screaming, "YEEHAW! RIDE 'EM COWBOY! WAHOO!" But he could've been wrong...maybe.
Suddenly, he saw a group of Shadowclan cats exiting, and his sister was one of them.
"Tawnypelt!" he called, "How was it?"
"It was awesome!" she exclaimed. "I'm gonna ride it again!"
Brambleclaw agreed with Tawnypelt. It WAS awesome. He loved how smooth the track was as the car he and his family were in journeyed through twists and turns among the rocks. It was almost like a dream...until the car crashed into the car in front of them and they died.
Brambleclaw woke with a start in the den, screaming so loudly it awoke every single cat in the camp. Firestar rushed in. "Brambleclaw! Are you all right?!" he screeched, scared that the savage fluffy bunnies in the forest had maimed his deputy.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was just a dream," Brambleclaw panted. Leafpool and Jaypaw then rushed in wearing emergency sirens on their heads, which made everyone back away from the entrance.
"Don't worry, Dad! I'll save you!" Jaypaw screeched, pounding on Bramblclaw's chest. "C'mon, Dad! BREATHE for me!"
"How can he? Your crushing his rib cage!" Leafpool said, pushing her apprentice aside. "Here, Brambleclaw, eat some poppy seeds."
"Thanks...Leaf...pool..!" he answered as he struggled to breathe now that his son had probably smashed his lungs.
Later, Firestar met Brambleclaw by the freshkill pile. He told him about his dream, from beginning to end. When he finished, his leader asked with a rather confused look on his face: "What's an 'ohio'?"
For those of you who have never been to Cedar Point, you should go there. It's roller coaster heaven!