Amazing Part 19

Annie laughed when she heard Kendall and reached over to pull their curtain back.

"Guilty as charged," she smiled.

"Are you really going to sleep? Come out and party with us," Danielle encouraged, clearly the girls had made up along the way today.

"We're pretty comfy," Annie tried for an excuse.

"Actually we are stuck in here, you guys are going to have to pull us out by our feet tomorrow," Auggie joked.

Brett considered his size relative to Auggie's lean frame and got a little nervous about actually being stuck in there.

"Come out and have a drink, we only have a few more nights," Kendall tugged playfully on Annie's foot.

Annie crawled out first, her body sliding along Auggie's as she shimmied out. Auggie tried not to react to her and then rolled over onto his stomach and started shimmying out himself. Annie guided his head out so he didn't whack it on the short opening.

"OK, we had just gotten comfortable in there, this better be worth it," Auggie teased.

"We have a fully stocked bar, it'll be fun," Danielle assured.

As the other teams arrived more drinks were poured and soon everyone was laughing.

"Ed dropped the poor girl," Molly had tears streaming down as she laughed about how Ed dropped the cart in the last challenge.

"I am pretty sure I said something horribly offensive when I tried out my Japanese," Brian confessed.

"Is there more vodka?" Cathy asked and so went the evening.

***555***

"Rise and shine Party Animals," Gwen hollered down the hallway at 7:00 am.

"Kill me now," Auggie groaned as he tried to produce any kind of moisture in his dry mouth.

"It's going to be a long day," Annie sighed as she held her hands against her pounding head.

The showers proved to be as tiny as the capsules and the teams were all sluggish out of the gate. Annie read the clue three times and it took her much longer than normal to sort out the map and directions, but eventually they were on the road towards Mt. Fuji.

The signs as they approached their destination were all in Japanese, but the pictures gave Annie a bad feeling.

"I think we're heading to an amusement park," she told Auggie who was awake despite his closed eyes and even breathing.

"That won't be good," he shook his head and then thought better of it.

"You're telling me," Annie groaned.

Sure enough she was right and Fujikya Highland was in fact an amusement park and their challenge involved riding 3 thrill rides looking for a hidden message on the ground from the heights of the rides.

"I am truly sorry you have to do this one," Auggie held her shoulders as much to steady himself as her.

"It's OK, if I puke I puke, I'm certainly not the first person to do so. Maybe I will be lucky and find the clue on the first one," she assured him.

The first ride was called the Pizza and it was a big flat disc that you strapped yourself to and it inverted and spun you upside down over the ground. Annie desperately wanted to close her eyes to try and get some equilibrium, but if she missed the clue she'd have to repeat the rides. No clue on the ground that Annie could see and her stomach managed to stay put through the whole thing.

"You OK?" Auggie asked as she leaned against him.

"Yeah, just need to get my feet under me again, hold me up for a minute," she smiled and watched as Molly stumbled off the ride and right into the ladies room.

The next 2 rides were both roller coasters, Annie chose the Dragon Coaster next as it did not appear to go upside down and she need a break from the vertigo. No clue on that one either.

"Only one left," Auggie encouraged as Annie bent over and tried to breathe through the hangover-and-thrill-ride induced nausea.

"OK, let's get his over with," she squeezed his hand and he took her elbow as she led him to a bench near the last ride, the Fujiyama Coaster.

When she got in line Auggie found Brett and asked him to point him towards a concession stand that sold water and something plain and easy to eat, luckily he found the equivalent of a soft pretzel and bottled water nearby and returned to his bench to wait for her.

Annie boarded the coaster with Molly who looked better since her trip to the ladies room.

"Normally, I love these rides," Molly grinned.

"Me too, but I am really regretting the last few gallons of vodka I drank last night," Annie smiled back.

The ride took off and the coaster whipped them up and down and over and finally Annie saw it, a man holding a sign that said Lake Yamanaka, she poked Molly to make sure she saw it too and then closed her eyes for the rest of the ride.

As the ride slowed to a halt Annie breathed deeply through her nose and tried to quell the shaking in all 4 of her limbs.

"You OK?" Molly asked quietly.

"I think so," Annie replied and gingerly exited the coaster car, but as she started to walk away her stomach seemed to stay behind and she found herself running for a nearby trash can.

"It's OK," Molly soothed as she rubbed Annie's back.

"Sorry about that," Annie grinned sheepishly as she stood up again and made sure she was really done.

"Let's get you some water," Molly suggested and wrapped a supportive arm around Annie.

"Thanks, we just need to grab Auggie," Annie pointed to the back of his head nearby.

As they came around in front of him Molly smiled, "Looks like he is one step ahead of us," she laughed.

"He usually is, thank you Molly," Annie said sincerely.

"You alright?" Auggie asked concerned.

"I will be when you hand over that water," she smiled and took the bottle from him.

She took a big sip and spit it out discretely behind the bench.

"You got sick?" he was concerned.

"Yeah, but I actually feel a lot better now," she smiled and sat next to him.

His arm went around her and she snuggled into his shoulder.

"Is that half a pretzel thing for me?" she asked hopefully.

"Yeah, it actually made me feel a lot better, some carbs to soak up the acid," he handed her the rest.

"You are awesome," she kissed his cheek.

"Did you get the clue?" he shrugged off the compliment.

"I did, we are heading to Lake Yamanaka. I really hope we don't have to swim, or cliff dive or bungee jump as I am already kind of done for the day," Annie laughed and finished the pretzel and water.

TBC…