At the suggestion of kitkatJMC, I have decided that I will, in fact, have a bonus chapter where all the characters get together. However, that also means that one of these routes has to be the 'true' ending for this series of oneshots. I've already got one in mind, but suggestion won't be ignored.
Happy new years, I guess.
"...Your number's much lower than mine." A voice jolts me out of my blank thoughts (honestly, I was just staring at the phone, it's no wonder somebody managed to sneak up on me). I look up, and notice that
1. It's a boy.
2. He's way too close HOLY SHIT-
I take a few steps back, letting out a small squeak of surprise in the process. He holds his hands up in the universal gesture of 'I'm not going to harm you'. I take that small interval of time to take in his features; kind of tall, seems to have a case of the poker face, dark blue eyes hidden behind his (rather... odd) glasses (even though they look weird... I kind of like them?), he's quite friendly with the sun, and he has a striped shirt. He looks pretty good, I admit, but there's no way I'm going to just let him off the hook for sneaking up on me and invading my personal space without saying anything!
"Chill out..."
"That's easy for you to say! Who are you?!"
He adjusted his glasses, "I'm Thane."
"Oh... well, I'm Jade." I cross my arms, "Are you stuck here too?"
"Yeah, I've been here for a few hours." My eyebrows raise in surprise. This guy has been here for hours? Are there even other people here?
"...I just got here. Are there others, or is it just us two?"
"I ran into some guy earlier, but when I tried to approach him, he started shouting at me and ran off." Thane looked at the dome, "I've walked all the way around the park, and the whole thing is encased in this glass. He has to be around here somewhere."
I hope that he didn't use the same 'approach' he just used on me, because that shit's going to be awkward if he did. "Maybe he was... freaked out? He'll come find us eventually."
"Yeah, he doesn't have much of a choice... Anyway, he had a number on his phone too. It was 22, and yours is 12... both are lower than mine. I wonder what decides the value of these numbers... do they change?" I tuned out his rant, I couldn't even really understand what he was talking about. Also, I was tired as fuck. Kat made us go on the spinning-based rides repeatedly until Jay (who I'm positive didn't really care) pointed out that Mel might puke soon... and he did. It was about then that we decided to leave.
I sigh; thinking of those idiots actually made me a little homesick.
"...Are you tired?" I remembered that Thane was there, and looked up at him.
"Uh... yeah."
"Alright, then why don't you go rest up at the café, and I'll meet up with you in a little while. I have to go do something." That kind of sounded suspicious, but I guess he could be planning on going to find that guy he mentioned earlier.
I nod, "Okay, see you later then... I guess."
He waves a little unenthusiastically as he jogs away.
...Sheesh, even the way he walks away rubs me the wrong way.
The little bell on the café door chimes as I walk in. Only one of the two people inside turn to me as I enter. It's rather comforting to know that there's a few more people here, I suppose. They even look like they're around my age.
The guy standing closer to the door was extremely tall(!), had brown hair (like me), green eyes, and a nerdy sweater vest with an argyle pattern in the middle of the shirt. He looked pretty friendly.
On the other hand, the girl sitting in the booth by the window unnerved me slightly. Honestly, she could pass for Kat if she wasn't wearing that magenta hat, or wearing that dress (or is it a skirt that's the same shade of pink as her shirt?). They have the same short blonde hair (though Kat's is a few shades darker), and the same blue eyes with that weird vacant look in them.
Friendly guy smiles widely and waves at me as he walks towards me, "Hi! My name's Bryce, what's yours?"
His friendliness is contagious, I can't help but smile back at him. "I'm Jade."
"Nice to meet you, Jade! So, I guess you're stuck here too?... Well, I guess that's obvious, right? This situation may seem weird, but it's nice to have another one of us! You know the saying, the more the merrier!" Not just friendly, but chatty to boot? This guy is rather neat. Not my type of guy, but nonetheless, he seems pretty cool.
My eyes slowly slide over back to the girl, who has remained silent, just watching us.
"...Who's that?" Bryce looks over his shoulder, then turns back to me and shrugs.
"Beats me, she's been here since before I arrived, but she won't talk to me at all. I hope I didn't do something to offend her..."
"...Maybe I could give it a shot. A fellow girl would have a better chance, right?" I walk up to her booth slowly, but I lose my nerve the instant I get there. Her eyes are staring at me coldly, it's like she can see right through me. Luckily, I know that's impossible.
"Hi." No response. Can she sense my fear somehow?
"Uh... I'm Jade. What's your name?" Again, she doesn't show the slightest sign that she even heard me. Just for a moment, I wonder if she only speaks to certain people. Alexis would be handy in this situation, she's friendly enough.
"...Lena." I blink, and refocus back on the girl. She's tugged her hat down, hiding her eyes.
"Lena?" She gives a small jerk of the head in what is most likely a nod, and then turns around in a complete 180, staring out the window of the café. Not getting anything else, I walk back over to Bryce, who looks both pleased and sad.
"Wow, she actually talked to you!"
"But it was only her name..."
"That's way better than nothing! If it weren't for you, she'd just be 'girl'." Bryce grinned, and let out a contented sigh, "Man, today's been super exciting! I'm going to sleep so good tonight!"
"You're awfully casual about all of this... how?"
He rubbed the back of his neck, "Well~ I was freaking out earlier, but now I have you two, so I can afford to relax. After all, it's way more relieving to have people who are in the same situation as you, than carrying the burden on your shoulders all by yourself, right? We can get through this together." He gave me another friendly smile. I will now nickname him Mr. Smiles.
"Yeah, you're right." I grin back at him. Bryce and I might become good friends.
Just then, an angry shout interrupted everything. "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE ALREADY?!" It was likely that this was the guy that Thane had mentioned earlier.
Speaking of which... "I'll leave you alone when you stop running and listen to me!"
"I don't need your help!"
The two of them come crashing through the door, almost taking it off the hinges (which would have been impressive). The boy that Thane had been chasing had brown hair (like me, but his was lighter, more caramel), angry eyes that were a shocking gray. They looked... rather breathtaking, to be honest. He was also wearing a rad green jacket! It was a lovely shade of green, too!
Anyway, the two of them were practically at each others' throats. They didn't even seem to notice us until Bryce separated them by force, holding the nicely-dressed boy by the back of his jacket, and using his leg to keep Thane at bay.
It was then that Thane noticed me, and stopped what he was doing, straightening up his posture. "Oh, Jade. You feeling better?"
"...Uh, yeah... What are you doing?" I stand back at a distance of five feet, not wanting to stand near a fight zone.
"I was trying to help this jerk." He pointed at Spencer. His manner was rather childish, for somebody with an unwavering poker face.
"Who's the jerk?!" The unknown guy snapped, trying to make another lunge for Thane, but Bryce overpowers him by far. Being extremely tall seems to make you have super strength as well.
Thane ignores him, and gestures towards Bryce, who is now just keeping the guy away from him. Bryce is smiling, for some reason.
"So, who's this guy?"
I watch the guy struggle to get out of Bryce's grip (and fail). "Oh, that's Bryce."
Bryce waved his free hand, "Hello!"
"...So, who's the angry guy that wants to murder you?"
Thane shrugs, "Hell if I know."
Bryce grins (again!), "Well, why don't we all introduce ourselves?" He looks at his captive (who flinches slightly), "What do you think?"
Mr. Anger Issues frowns, "...Fine."
Bryce laughs as he lets go of Mr. Anger Issues, who crosses his arms and angrily pouts (oh my god that is so adorable).
Thane starts us off, "Thane."
Bryce stares at me, and I can't help but grin. "Jade!"
"...Lena..." Everyone gives a little startled jump at Lena, who has somehow managed to sneak up behind me, and take a small handful of my shirt into her hands. Are these people ninjas? They're awfully skilled at sneaking.
Bryce looks at Mr. Anger Issues, "...Well?"
"Spencer." He spat out, side-stepping away from Bryce.
Even though I had just finished introducing him, Bryce still shouted out, "Bob!"
After a few minutes passed by, I smacked him in the arm, "That's not your name!"
He laughed, seeming to somehow find enjoyment in this rather... tense situation.
"So, we all got the same message?" The entire group nodded, "And all of our phones now display a number instead of the time, with Thane's number as 29, Jade's as 12, Spencer's as 22, Lena's as 20, and mine as 17. Relatively speaking, our numbers are rather low." Bryce had taken hold of the leader position for the moment, having been the one who had stopped a fight, and being the tallest helped too.
"I wonder why my number is the highest...?" Thane stared at his phone, as if he were trying to decipher it with some kind of psychic ability.
"Why is my number way lower than everyone else's?" I sigh.
Spencer yawns (and seems to be angered by it), "Geez, why am I so tired? It's still light out...!"
"Um... I'm kind of tired too." I mumble, kind of sleepy.
"You guys must be sick or something, I worked all day, and I still have tons of energy left over." Thane frowns.
"Maybe it's you that's sick. I wouldn't be surprised..." I heard Spencer grumble under his breath. Luckily, I don't think the others heard him, otherwise we might have had another (almost) smack down. He took out his phone, and swore. "Shit, hold on. My phone is dying." I think I heard him say something about his stupid friends using his phone for taking pictures of girls, but that's just weird. Spencer ran up towards the café's power outlet, and plugs his phone in, tapping his foot impatiently.
"Well, I feel fine too... but then again, I didn't ride any rides. Maybe that's why you two are so tired?" Bryce hummed.
"...Well, I did ride a bunch of those spinny rides..." I sigh. Lena silently stood beside me, not contributing anything.
Spencer stopped tapping his foot, and spun around. "I just noticed that all of our numbers add up to 100."
That was out of nowhere... but okay, I guess?
Thane looked surprised, "...You're right, but does that mean anything?"
"It has to!" Spencer looked confident, and seemed to be rather proud of his discovery.
"You can't just assume things like that." Thane just threw a verbal bomb at Spencer's self esteem, and it looked like Spencer was going to blow up at him, so I intervened.
"Well, 100 is a special number, right? It's also kind of specific, since it adds up perfectly, right?"
Spencer visibly calmed down, and smirked, "See? Even Jade agrees."
Bryce grinned, giving me a thumbs up. "Why don't we all just calm down. You two are probably just over-stressed from the events that have taken place today. How about we find somewhere to sleep, and pick back up on this tomorrow?"
Spencer snorts, "Why would I go to sleep when there's still daylight outside?"
Now everyone else (except maybe Lena,it didn't look like she cared) was confused.
"...But didn't you just say that you were tired?" Bryce pointed out.
Spencer knitted his eyebrows, seeming to remember that he did, in fact, say that. He turned to his phone, which was now alerting everyone that it was fully charged. Damn, that was quick. He stared at it for a few moments, and then his eyes widened.
"OH!" Thane raised his eyebrows in surprise, seeming to be able to analyze vague one word statements.
"Really?"
"This is way too freaky to just be a coincidence!"
Fed up with the two of them NOT TELLING US WHAT IS GOING ON, I speak up. "What are you two talking about?!"
Spencer held out his hand, "Jade, let me see your phone for a second."
I have not had very good experiences with things that start with 'let me see (insert expensive object here)', but I decided to just go with it; I'm stuck in an amusement park, what's the worst that can happen (besides a fucking fight to the death- which I hope doesn't happen. These guys seem like good people)?
"Sure, I guess." I toss it to him, and he (luckily for me) catches it easily. He switches my phone for his (we have the same model of phone chargers?), and turns back to me. He looks at me expectantly.
"Well? Do you feel different...?" A weird tickling sensation creeps over my body, and I shiver slightly.
"Uh, I feel kind of weird." He looks pleased, and presses on.
"Do you feel less tired?" I stare at him vacantly, wondering what he means, when the meaning hits me right in the face.
"...Oh my god! That's so creepy!"
Thane sighed (was he disappointed that Spencer was actually right?), "Okay, so our energy correlates with the battery life of our phones... We should probably be more careful with them. Who knows what breaking our phones will do."
"No shit." Spencer snorts, and I can't help but give a small giggle at that. I mean, really! Did he really need to state that we should be more careful? It's pretty obvious!
"Well, it's a good thing I keep my phone charger in my bag." I pat my trusty laptop bag.
Bryce sighs, looking down in the dumps. "Well, I'm out of luck. I wasn't prepared to get trapped in an amusement park today, so I didn't grab my charger. It's rather lucky that I even brought my phone, really..."
"Your in luck then, Bryce. They sell phone chargers in the cinema." Thane offered. Wow, that's ironic. They sell cell phone chargers, but don't allow cell phones in the theater at all! I hadn't even noticed that... but then again, we couldn't watch a movie because of Mel getting sick. Damn, the others would have gotten a good laugh out of this.
I wonder what they're doing...
I shake my head, this is no time to be moping around. I bring my attention back to the conversation.
Bryce is back to grinning again, "R-Really? I hope they have my model..."
"Yeah, but you might want to make sure you have the money for it. Earlier, I tried to steal some popcorn from the cinema, and it locked me inside until I put the change on the counter." That's good to know, but why did Thane even try to steal popcorn?! That stuff isn't remotely filling!
Spencer seemed to share my feelings, "Why the hell did you even try that? Christ, this place is fucked up! Let's just focus on finding a way out of here, and keep our numbers from reaching zero."
Everyone agreed, and split up, leaving me behind.
Over the next few days, I spent a bunch of my time hanging out with Lena or Bryce (never at the same time, Lena seemed to be avoiding Bryce like the plague). I hadn't seen Spencer or Thane since we all split ways, except for when they'd start a huge fight, which was often.
Today, as I was taking a small break outside the café sipping some tea, Spencer came strolling along, and stopped right beside where I was sitting.
As I took another sip, I tilted my head up to look him in the eyes. "Yes?"
Spencer appeared to take this as an invitation to sit down, because he dragged a chair over from another table and sat across from me. He didn't say anything, so neither did I. We sat there in perfect silence for god only knows how long, but then Spencer finally broke the ice.
He sighed, and slammed his head onto the table, almost making my tea cup (which the café has, for some reason) fall over, but I stabilized it. "This is the most realistic and longest dream I've ever had... why can't I wake up now, no matter how hard I try?"
I stare at him, and rest my cheek against the arm that I have on the table (my elbow making it stick straight up). "I don't think this is a dream."
He sighs again, "I was just thinking out loud, really... but if this really happening, it's a shame we don't have a video camera. We could making a great indie movie off of this."
I chuckle, "I don't think the others would be too enthusiastic about making a movie on how we're all trapped in this amusement park."
"...Well, I guess we do have more important priorities. I don't know if it helps us or hurts us that we don't actually have to sleep anymore, since we can just 'charge up'. We're like robots."
I grimace, "But can't we still die of hunger?"
He seemed to be thinking about that for a moment, before he nodded. "We do still feel hunger, don't we? Therefore, we probably still can. It's not like I'm going to try and find out though."
"Yeah, that's probably the right notion."
"...I actually kind of missing going to sleep every night. I would usually lay on my bed until I wind down from the day's events."
"Oh yeah? What kind of things would you think about?" I was honestly interested, did Spencer think about normal things, or his anger-induced actions?
He sighed, and rubbed his forehead, "I don't know... everything? I guess I'd mostly think about a lot of stupid things that don't really matter, like last night's dinner, and things that irritate me. The irritable things usually pile up really quickly."
Wow, that wasn't the answer I was expecting. "I see your point."
He smirks, "At least someone does."
We slip back into the peaceful silence, and I offer Spencer some tea. He declines, and looks distant.
"What's wrong, Spencer?" He sighs again.
"Nothing... it's just... I wonder if anybody is even concerned about us. Have they even noticed that we're gone? If they did, it's like we just disappeared."
"It's okay, Spencer, we're bound to get out of here eventually." He gets quieter.
"...Yeah."
"So, why were you unfortunate enough to be here on opening day?" I grin, trying to lighten the mood. It seemed to have the opposite affect, because he scowled.
"My stupid friends dragged me here against my will." This type of wording reminded me of Kat, who constantly complains whenever we take her anywhere.
"...At least hanging out is fun? I mean, we're kind of hanging out right now, aren't we?" I offer him a smile to encourage him.
"I guess..." He got this awkward look on his face, and shifted around a little, finally just deciding to get up. "I'm going to go take a walk. See you."
"Alright, bye Spencer!" I wave at his back as he jogs off, even though I know he can't see me.
Why did he even come over here in the first place?
The next day, I was hanging around the arcade, playing the shooter game. I wasn't really planning on getting any prizes, I was just playing for the sake of having something to do. After a few hours, I saw Spencer walk past the window, and quit in the middle of the game, trying to catch him before he went off to wherever he goes half the time.
"Hey, wait! Spencer!" He stops in front of the cinema, and turns his head to see me. By now, it was evening, and the park's lights were all lit. Seeing his body framed by the pretty evening lights, I was distracted for a split second, and tripped over one of my own shoes (I always thought that Kat was over exaggerating). I shut my eyes, waiting for my face to make contact with the pavement... but I don't. I look up, and see that Spencer wasn't an asshole, and had grabbed one of my flailing arms. He let go after I straightened up, but he still stuck around.
"Geez, you're clumsy." My face heats up in embarrassment.
"W-Well I wouldn't have fallen if I wasn't trying to catch up to you!" Spencer looked incredibly surprised at that, and turned his head away.
"...Well, be more careful."
"...Heh!" I erupted into giggles, it was just too funny!
"What are you laughing at?!" Spencer raised an eyebrow, watching me warily, as if he was trying to figure out if he should leave or not.
"It's just... you're acting like an older brother!"
"Well... I am older brother, I guess. I have little twin sisters, and they drive me nuts constantly. At least being stuck here gives me a nice break away from them."
"Younger twins, huh? They sound adorable!"
He snorted, "Yeah, people usually say that when I tell them about my sisters. They may look cute, but they're actually insane."
"That's not very convincing. It seems to be a universal rule that older siblings find their younger siblings annoying, but when push comes to shove, they'll beat up the enemies that threaten them." He stared at me with an odd expression, seemingly amazed at my coolness... maybe. I hope so, anyway.
He shifted from one foot to the other, "...I think I'm going to go on a walk around the park again. I need a break."
"A break from what?"
He gestured towards our surroundings, "All of this... but then again, trying to stop thinking about it will actually make me think about it even more, huh?"
"I guess... do you still want to take that walk? Maybe having some company will help take your mind off of it."
"...Maybe. You don't mind?"
"Of course not~ We're pals, right?" I give him a smile. He turns his head away.
"...Let's go."
. . .
We chat a little bit about our school shit when we stop at the carousel.
"I'm glad that I didn't start that new book I got before this all started. I hate not being able to maintain a steady process of reading while I'm reading anything. When that happens, I have to think really hard to remember what happened the last time I read it."
I sigh, "Yeah, I know that feeling. It's even worse when it was an assignment, because then you HAVE to remember what happened."
"Seriously... if I had brought my laptop like you, maybe I could be doing something productive."
I raise an eyebrow in amusement, "Productive, huh? Like what?"
He shrugs, and gives the carousel a little kick. "Well, I could finish up my summer homework, I guess?"
"...There's only a week left until school. You still haven't finished it yet?"
Spencer frowns, "It's not like the teachers will read it anyway. I mean, geez! I wrote an essay once that was complete nonsense, I even insulted the teacher! I still got full credit for it, and she didn't say anything about it to me like she would if she had actually read it."
"Well, you just have to try anyway, I guess. You'll never know when the teacher will suddenly get serious. You know... it seems like you care about proper schooling." I grin. His shoulders stiffen, and he speaks quickly, tripping over his words.
"I-it's not like I care or anything... It's just annoying, okay? I mean, in most of my classes we don't really do anything, just listen to boring lectures and discuss topics that nobody cares about. And in the other classes, we don't do anything. My classmates just chatter like the fucking wind, and the teacher disappears somewhere for the whole period."
"Well, your school experience changes based on your view of school. Do you like it, or are you one of those guys that think it's super lame?"
"...Hmm... Do I like it, you ask? Well, it's okay... most of the time."
I laugh at his bashful answer, and we continue on our walk well into the night, but we eventually split up and agree to do this again soon.
The next morning, I walk around, but I can't find anyone. Are we unofficially playing a game of hide and go seek?
I sneak around the park, trying to locate anyone, but I don't find jack. As I get near the Alix the Cat gift shop, though, I hear the irate voice of Spencer fighting Thane, and I jog over towards the restrooms.
For some reason, Bryce, Spencer, and Thane are all just hanging around, with a broken.. robot/machine thingy lying on the ground in front of them. Whatever it is, it's emitting some kind of strange aura. Creepy.
They all turn to me as I walk up to them, but only Spencer speaks up.
"Oh, it's just Jade."
"Uh, hi. What's that?" I point at the machine.
Thane shrugs, "Dunno. It's some kind of machine though."
Spencer once again speaks my inner thoughts, "Thanks for that, Captain Obvious."
Thane glared at him, and there might have been another fight, but Bryce clamped his hand down on Spencer's shoulder. Spencer stiffened, but forced himself to calm down.
"Well, we shouldn't waste our time on this thing, we don't even know what's wrong with it." Spencer snapped his head up, and smirked at me.
"Finally, somebody smart!"
Thane sighs, "But what if this thing has something to do with our numbers?"
"That could be used as an excuse for everything. For all we know, the toilets could have something to do with our numbers. You want to fix a toilet?" Thane looked aggravated now.
"Robots have data. What if it's data that corresponds with these numbers? Maybe we'll end up wasting our time, but we could also move one step closer to leaving. We won't know until we try."
Bryce gives a small smile, "I also think that we fix it, since we don't really have any solid plan on getting out of here quite yet."
"...I guess." Bryce is kind of intimidating... that height, along with his strength and cheeriness, he has to be able to do some kind of heinous shit.
Thane looked down at the machine, "Well, it looks like it's an easy fix, but I think some parts are missing."
"Then why should we bother trying? There's no way that the missing parts are just lying around." Spencer grumbled, getting him yet another glare from Thane.
"Well, we won't know until we actually look!" His tone sounded angry, and I took a few side-steps away from him.
"Sheesh, why are you so serious about this? It's just a broken piece of shit."
"It could be important!" Mr. Smiles then decides to step in to play the mediator.
"Has anyone seen Lena?"
"Wasn't she with you?" I vaguely recall seeing the two of them walking around together yesterday before I went to the arcade. Bryce seemed to be doing most of the talking, but he looked happy enough. Good for him.
Bryce sighs, "No matter how hard I try, she either avoids me completely or just ignores me..."
"Maybe she just doesn't like you, Bryce." Spencer dropped the blunt bomb right over Bryce's head.
I tried taking the topic off of the table, "Well, I can look for her while I search for parts, okay? No problem."
Spencer groans, "There's no way we're going to find all the missing parts."
Bryce laughs, "Then we'll worry about that later. For now, let's at least try."
Spencer sighs, and they all split up, taking off in different directions. I don't think Spencer is actually going to look, I think he just went towards the roller coaster. As I strolled away, my phone let out that weird satanic laugh, signaling another message.
"Geez... what the?"
When falling damp tree unveils ghost
"...Wow, this doesn't even make sense. Is the texter suffering from brain damage?" I wonder if I was the only one to get a text like this, and I decide to discuss it with the others later. Right now, I have robot parts to find.
I decide to start at the entrance. I sift through the coins in the fountain, but I don't find shit. I don't even know what I'm looking for...
I walk over to the poor house, and find a weird... candy-like metallic object sticking out of the ground between the pool and the pool house. I grab it, just in case. It wasn't there before, so it's safe to assume that it's the part, right?
After that, I trudge over to the actual pool to see if a part fell into the pool or something, but there's nothing there, so I walk up further north to the café.
When I get there, I see something sparkling from behind the chair I was sitting in yesterday. I get closer, and it's actually an object that's identical to the one I found at the pool house. That has to be more than a coincidence. I pocket it, and jog over to the arcade. When I was at the fountain, I think something was directing the sunlight right in my eyes, I was almost rendered blind!
Of course, I find the culprit... another part that is STUCK IN THE FUCKING WALL. HOW THE HELL DID IT GET THERE?
SERIOUSLY, THE OTHER TWO WERE JUST LYING ON THE GROUND; WHY IS THIS ONE STICKING OUT OF THE FUCKING WALL?!
I jump up, and try to reach it all on my own, but it doesn't work, so I had to grab a stool from inside the arcade. Even after that, I had to struggle to rescue the part from the evil clutches of the arcade wall, and when it came out I almost fell off the stool. Luckily, I prevented my death by clinging to the wall.
After that stressful encounter, I make my way towards the cinema, and crawl around on the ground to find it, because there is a shit ton of objects obstructing my view. After a half hour, I finally find it hidden behind the feet of the Mr. Antitouch statue.
I take a small break and buy a water bottle from the cinema's concession stand, and drink it as I walk to the carousel to look. It doesn't even take me half a second to see the piece of metal sitting on the carousel reflecting the sunlight into my eyes. Geez, these things are too bright. I pick it up, and count my parts. I only have five. I don't know how many there are, but it'd probably just be best if I finish looking around, just to be sure.
I jog up to the ferris wheel, but there's nothing there. Just a bunch of colorful balloons tied to a cart, what a bummer. I kick the cart, and walk towards the roller coaster, hoping to get better results on my last area of searching.
Happily for me, I emerge victorious! There was a part just lying on the back of the last seat of the roller coaster. I was about to turn and regroup with the others... but then I saw the back of Spencer's caramel head. He's over at the edge of the dome, underneath the roller coaster. What's he doing?
Curious, I sneak up on him.
"Hey Spencer, what are you doing?" He jumps a little, and I had to smother a laugh as he turned around.
"What?" It was then that I noticed the large panel of the dome that he had been writing on with a marker. It looked fairly elaborate, and some things were crossed out.
"...Did you write all of this?" Upon taking a closer look, I noticed that in the middle of it all was the message in the weird text I got earlier; I guess I wasn't the only one to get that text after all. "Oh, you got this weird text too?"
"What? Did you get it too?... This wall was pissing me off, so I decided to take my anger out on it, and use it for... stuff. Then I got this stupid message, so I've been spending my time here trying to decipher it, rather than look for the stupid robot parts for stupid Thane. I haven't really figured out what it means yet."
He turned back to the wall, and I move to stand beside him.
"About half of this shit is just junk. I... just needed to get all my ideas out." Not only is there that message, but there are numbers written all over the wall.
"Oh, you're trying to figure out the meaning of our numbers?" I smile at him, and he kicks the dome.
"Yeah. I have a few theories, but they have tons of holes in them. I'm pretty sure our numbers rise whenever we charge our phones... but other things also seem to raise our numbers. However, I can't figure out what makes them drop, since the numbers are practically inconsistent." Spencer sighs.
I... was rather impressed by how much thought he's put into this. Maybe this is where he's been hiding out the past week (well, when he wasn't busy fighting Thane)?
"...Is there anything I can do to help?" His eyes widened, he looked insanely surprised.
"Like what...?"
"I don't know, that's why I asked."
He shrugged, and crossed his arms. "I don't know either... do you have any ideas?"
NOPE. "...Maybe our numbers have something to do with how we interact?"
"Well, that's highly probable, but the final question is what exactly do we do to affect our numbers?"
Brain dead, I can only trip over my own words, "...Uh..."
Spencer sighs, and waves a hand at me. "Don't worry about it, if I need anything later, I guess I can just ask you for help."
I grin, and then remember that I probably got all of the robot parts, and pull them out of the pocket of my hoodie.
"Oh, well, I have quite a few parts, so we should probably go regroup with the others."
"Really? I'll laugh if Thane didn't find shit. This is his fault."
As we were walking back to the broken robot, we ran into Lena by the roller coaster. I jog up to her, and place my hand on her shoulder. Apparently, I caught her by surprise, because she jumped two feet into the air before she turned around, immediately calming down when she saw it was me.
"Oh, it's you, Jade." She saw Spencer standing in the background, "...and him."
"Lena, we're all meeting up by the restrooms. You want to come with us?" She took a fistful of my shirt, and nodded.
"...Yeah. I don't mind being around you."
"Is there something wrong with the others?" She slumps down, and tugs her hat over her eyes.
"No... it's just... I can't look at tall people. I get nervous and lose my voice whenever I see somebody looking down at me... That's why I wear this hat, it's to block the view of the world above."
"...Is that why you can't talk to Bryce?" She twitched at the mention of him. Does she not even like the mere mention of Bryce? Poor guy.
"..Um... Bryce... is just a bit too tall for comfort... but then again... I'm really short, even for a girl... so most people tower over me..." What. She's practically my height! Well, that's a blow to my self esteem...
"Well, maybe with some training, you can look into Bryce's eyes. We'll use Spencer as a test dummy." I heard him complain quietly, and I turn to him with a small smile, "What? Is that a problem, Spencer?"
He stopped, and slowly made his way over to the two of us. "...No, I guess I don't mind. We can talk about this later, okay? Let's go."
"Are you serious? Jade was the only one who found anything?" Spencer sneered at Thane, who stood slightly in front of us. I had to stand beside him, because Lena was still hiding behind me.
Anyway, Thane didn't look too pleased about it either, but he ignored Spencer's remarks.
"Well, we're still missing a couple of screws, but it shouldn't be a problem." Before Thane was even able to get started working, Bryce pulled out his phone.
"Was I the only one to get another weird text earlier?"
"You too, Sweater Vest? Jade and I were just talking about it a little while ago."
Thane fished his phone out of his pocket, "Yeah, I got it too. Maybe it was a bad case of auto correct?"
Even though I can kind of tell that he was kidding, I still want to know if Thane is as stupid as I'm starting to think he is.
Spencer snorted, "Yeah, sure, whatever nerd. Meanwhile, I wouldn't be surprised if this was actually from whoever sent us the first text, or even if it was whatever trapped us here in the first place."
Bryce smiles, "It has to mean something... maybe we have to read it a certain way?"
I take the first shot, "...'Ghost unveils damp tree falling when'?" Nope.
Bryce tries next, "'Falling tree ghost when damp unveils'...?" Nope.
I like this, it's like I'm a detective. "'Unveils damp when ghost tree falling'?" Nah... this is hard.
Next, Thane and Spencer started speaking gibberish. I have no idea what Spencer was doing, but it just seemed like Thane was speaking backwards. Either way, I think both of them just lost five IQ points. Of course, Lena didn't say anything. I think she wasn't even paying attention to what was happening. Maybe she was thinking over what I suggested to her earlier?
Anyway, "You guys aren't making any sense at all."
Spencer sighed, and stuffed his phone back in his pocket. "Well, let's just table this for now."
Hehe. I bet he's just planning on solving it himself. Oh well, he said he'd ask me if he ever needed help. Thane looked annoyed, but he said nothing, and instead held his hand out to me.
"Give me the parts, Jade. I'm going to fix this robot." I was kind of doubtful that he could even do that, but I passed them to him anyway.
An hour passed by since Thane began working on the stupid looking robot. Spencer, Lena, and I spent it working on Lena's confidence on talking to people taller than her. I kind of felt bad for Bryce, who just stood off to the side in the background, he looked kind of sad and lonely. He tried to join us and see what we were doing, but we couldn't have that, so he's just standing there. I thought we were making good progress, but then Thane ruined everything by finishing.
"And... that should do it. It should work properly now, even without those last few screws." Thane took a step back from the robot, and wiped the grease off on his pants. He had fixed it up pretty good, not gonna lie. He put the weird piece that had plug-ins back in it's slot, then fixed the tires, putting them back in place, and setting it back up straight.
We stood there for about five minutes, until Spencer started laughing at Thane. "See? It's not working. We told you this was a waste of our time. You made Jade run around for nothing."
"Well, uh, maybe we should kick it?" I suggested, and was about to do just that, when the robot started making this weird noise, and it's eyes lit up.
Bryce grinned, "Wow, Thane! You did it! It's really working!"
The robot started speaking in a weird, creepy voice that sent chills down my back, even though it hasn't done anything to me...yet. "My name's Cashy, it's nice to meet y'all."
Lena gave a tiny smile, peering at it from behind me. "...Cute..."
Spencer ignored her (which is the logical thing to do right now), "So... Cashy. What exactly do you do?"
Cashy seemed to be delighted that Spencer asked, because he then started spinning around in place, almost like a dance. "I eat, sleep, drink, and party all night long with the most beautiful women known to mankind!"
"...W-what?" Cashy abruptly stopped, and grinned, but still had a serious look to him.
"Nah, I'm kidding. I wish that were true. I'm actually just a robot that stores and deposits money."
"Oh, so you're like an ATM?" Cashy stopped what he was doing, and zoomed up to Lena and I. Spencer looked at it warily.
"Why hello there, Girly. You are indeed right, you've just got to plug in your charger into me, and I exchange money for battery life! Though, I might give the two of you discounts... maybe..." Cashy slowly inched forward, until Spencer kicked it over.
"Knock it off, you little creep. Just tell us about this damn place. What the hell's with these numbers?" Cashy frowned for a moment, but then the creepy smile crawled back onto his/its face.
"Hell if I know. I'm just here to supply cash. With cash, you can get anything! Even these two lovely ladies... by the way, you know what to do if you change your minds, girlies! Tally ho!" With that, Cashy wheeled away, whistling a tune of some kind as he purposely ran over Bryce's foot.
"Ow!" Bryce looked like a kicked puppy as he rubbed his foot. Poor guy!
"Are you okay, Bryce?" I stared at him. He looked like he might cry, but at the same time he didn't.
"Y-yeah, it just smarts." I nodded, and turned to Spencer. For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to look him in the eyes, so I just kicked his shoes instead.
"Uh, thanks for saving us from that creep, Spencer. Much appreciated and all that..."
He sounded kind of grumpy, "No problem. I knew we should have just left that thing for scrap metal."
I think I heard Lena give a soft laugh, "...Cute."
I don't even want to know what she was commenting on. I hope it was Cashy.
Spencer sighed, ignoring Lena (did he hear her too?), "Well, we wasted all that time looking and fixing it, but we still don't know a single thing."
Bryce pouted, "I hope we can get out of here soon, I'm starving."
The rest of us mumble in agreement, and Thane mentions that there's food in the café (why didn't I remember that? I HAD TEA THERE!), but that we need the correct amount of money. This reminded me of his popcorn blunder, and I almost started laughing. I think Spencer might have noticed my almost futile attempts, because he smirked, and started not-so-quietly snickering. I think Thane took no notice... or just pretended to, whichever.
Bryce silenced everyone with his childish nature, "What would happened if we didn't have money, but ate something anyway? Would we be locked in forever?"
"We don't have time for your weird questions, Sweater Vest." Spencer snapped at him. I think the hunger is really getting on Spencer's nerves. Trying to be the helpful team mate and good friend, I volunteer.
"I'll go, just tell me what you guys want and I'll get it."
"Seriously?" Spencer raised an eyebrow at me.
"Are you sure you don't mind, Jade?" Bryce frowned.
"Yeah, it's no problem. I can borrow cash from my friend's wallet if I absolutely need it. I'll just pay him back when we leave." I pull out Mel's wallet, and play with it in front of my face, making it look like it's dancing.
"...Well, if you're sure your friend won't mind..." Thane didn't sound too sure, so I gave them a wide smile and ran away before anyone could tell me not to.
It's not like I'm being unfair. If Mel hadn't lost hid god damned wallet in the first place, I wouldn't be here! ...Though, the same could be said for the others. Why the hell didn't Alexis go? She's nice. It's probably a good thing that Kat or Jay didn't go for it, they would not spare Mel at all when this would be over... if it's ever over.
Curse my good nature!
The others went into the Alix the Cat gift shop, which is kind of cozy. It also has a table (so does the café for that matter, but I guess they just got tired of it?). I shake my head of all these unneeded thoughts, and purchase the large quantity of food. There's five of us, and the others seem like they'd eat a lot (except maybe Lena... but then again, size can be deceiving), so buying the most I can is probably the right idea.
I struggle to get out the door of the café, and stop abruptly when I hear the alert of my phone; is it another text message? These always come at the worst times, I swear...
Muttering a few curses, I carefully set down all the food, and take out my phone. Thankfully, it's not another cryptic text. Thank god, I hate puzzles.
Unfortunately, it was actually my phone alerting me that my number had somehow dropped to 4. How did it get that low? I distinctly remember having a 20 just earlier today, when I was talking to Spencer!
Fuck, there's no way I'm letting the others see this, they will flip their shit, if Bryce doesn't die of a heart attack first (poor Bryce, he's too much of a good guy than is probably healthy).
I stick my phone back into my pocket, but before I can pick all the food back up, I catch a fleeting glance of flaming red hair, and stop cold.
Nobody in the group has red hair.
I refocus, and notice that the hair is actually standing still, and that the boy (looks around my age) below it is staring at me with his mouth hanging open slightly.
"...A person...!" His whole body suddenly seemed to radiate happiness, and he started skipping towards me, a goofy smile on his face. Without meaning to, I take a few troubled steps back (and almost stepped on the food, god damnit). No problem though, because he just took the extra initiative to skip even closer.
"Hello!" Whoever this is, they're awfully enthusiastic about meeting total strangers. However, I don't blame him, what with being stuck in an amusement park and all.
"Oh, uh... hi."
"What's your name?"
"Me?" I wanted to smack myself. OF COURSE HE MEANS ME! THERE'S NOBODY ELSE IN THIS VICINITY (at the moment)! "... I'm Jade."
He grinned even wider, "What a lovely name! I like it! I'm Arlo!"
"It's... nice to meet you, Arlo." It's hard for me to speak to nice people sometimes. Maybe that's why I'm friends with the people I associate with. "So, uh, when did you get here?"
He suddenly got fidgety, "...I don't think it was too long ago, but this place is so big, I got lost the moment I got here!"
"So you're trapped here like the rest of us..." I was almost beginning to wonder what kind of 'qualification' we have to meet in order to get here, since there's no way we were just randomly chosen to disappear in an amusement park jam-packed with people, when Arlo suddenly took on a weird elated/shocked tone.
"W-what?! Th-there are other people here?!" My eyes widened, and I would have taken another step back, if it weren't for the food. Speaking of which, the others are probably getting hungry.
"Y-yeah, you should come join us for lunch. They're all nice." Except for Thane, who I still have a slight grudge against for that first stunt. What can I say? I can really hold a grudge. He's really lucky none of the others are here, actually... Jeez! I need to stop thinking about what will never happen!
Arlo let out a nervous laugh, "Oh, phew! I was freaking out because I couldn't find anyone! I thought I was stranded here all alone!"
Poor guy! At least I found somebody else within the first ten minutes of my arrival, even if it was a rather... unwanted encounter. I can't imagine being lost for hours, not knowing if you were the only one here... that sounds horrible!
Arlo brought me back out of my thoughts, "Hey, Jade!"
"Y-yes?" I blinked.
"Will you be my friend?" It was a harmless little question, right? I didn't see any possible down sides, or catches. He looks kind of pitiful, actually.
"Sure, of course I will, Arlo." His eyes sparkled, and he looked like a puppy that was just praised and given a treat.
"Really?"
I give him a lopsided smile, "Yeah, why wouldn't I?"
He smiled, and calmed down... and then enveloped me in a tight hug. "I like you, Jade! You're nice."
"...You look like a good guy too, Arlo." I pry myself out of his arms, "C'mon, let's go. The others might be getting testy with me taking so long."
"Okay! Yay, new people!"
I didn't ask him to (although I admit I was hoping for it), but he took all of the food bags away from me, following me like a baby duckling follows its mother.
"It's about time, Jade! I thought I was going to die of hunger!" Spencer groaned when I walked through the door, although he looked surprised that I didn't have any food with me. He was about to open his mouth and ask, when I shuffled aside to let Arlo walk in. I directed him to the table (even without my help, it seemed like he already knew where he was going?), and he spread the food down across the table.
"Who's this?" Bryce grinned at Arlo.
"Oh, this is Arlo. He just got here-" I was interrupted by Arlo's enthusiastic "Hello!"
"-he's pretty friendly."
Bryce initiated another name listing, with Thane going first (again).
"Thane!"
"Spencer." Spencer was giving Arlo some kind of look. I wasn't really able to tell what it was.
Lena tried to look up at the rest of us, but she turned her head down at the last second. I guess we have to just keep trying. "...Lena."
I was slightly distracted by Lena, I didn't even realize what I was doing at first when I raised my hand. "Jade!... Oh, wait... you already know my name... n-never mind..."
I covered my face with my hands as Bryce finished it up, "Bob!"
Immediately, I retorted, "Your name is Bryce!"
He laughed loudly, but managed to calm down enough to ask a simple question, "So, Arlo, where are you from?"
I don't know why this question was only brought up now. Shouldn't we have asked each other this in the beginning?
Arlo gave a tiny smile, "I live here, in East Cigam."
Thane raised an eyebrow, "Really? I do too. Maybe we've seen each other before."
"I don't think so." Arlo shook his head, as if he was positive about it. How was he absolutely sure?
"Whatever... South Cigam for me." Spencer disregarded the two's conversation, and I don't blame him, really. He glanced over at Bryce, "Let me guess, Sweater Vest is from West Cigam?"
"...How did you know?" Bryce had surprise written all over his face. It was funny.
"...Lucky guess."
I caught on to what Spencer meant by that, and had to muffle my giggles. Bryce looked at me curiously, and it looked like it suddenly dawned on him what was going on.
"Y-you think I'm weird?" Bryce got that kicked puppy look again, and I almost felt bad for him. Almost.
Spencer snorted as he quoted the rumor, "'Weird things happen in West Cigam'. Your weirdness probably infected the rest of us somehow."
I tried to stop it before Spencer would eventually manage to make Bryce either cry, or get angry. "So, uh, what about you, Lena? Where are you from?"
It took her a while, but Lena finally looked up into my eyes, "North Cigam."
Progress! Then, I realized something.
"Oh wow, we're all from different parts of Cigam!" Hm. Maybe this factors into the 'qualifications' I was thinking about earlier? One from each section of Cigam?
"...Wait, where are you from, Jade?" Thane's monotone voice brought me back out of my thoughts. Darn, why is everyone not letting me think?... Then again, it was rather rude of me to not answer like everyone else.
"Central Cigam." I caught Spencer looking at me, curiosity painted on his face. It was a rather nice change from his... other faces. Kind of adorable?
"Seriously?" Well... that was not the word I was expecting.
"Is there something wrong with that?" I think I sounded harsher than I meant to, because he started reeling backwards (verbally, of course).
"N-no, of course not! I just meant... uh, what's it like living there?" I got brief flashbacks of the various stereotypical people in my school, and how often the police cruise by it.
I shake my head free of those thoughts, "Pretty normal, I guess?"
"Oh, really?" I wonder if he somehow managed to read my mind. That does not sound too pleasant.
"Wh-what did you think I was going to say?" Not that cops frequent my school, I hope.
Spencer sighed, "I don't know, really... I've never actually been over there."
Bryce grinned, "Maybe after we leave, we can take a large tour around each others' neighborhood."
"Sure, I don't mind." I shrug. Doesn't sound too bad, as long as I don't bring them to my school.
Thane suddenly took on a serious attitude, and looked at Arlo. "Hey, Arlo. What's your number?"
"...My phone number?" Arlo looked confused.
"...No. The number on your phone, what is it?" Seeing that the explanation did nothing to alleviate Arlo's confusion, Bryce held his phone out for Arlo to see, and spoke in a tone you use to explain things to children.
"All of our phones display a number instead of the time." I glanced at Arlo out of the corner of my eye, and he looked... nervous? Maybe it was just because of Thane's suddenly serious tone, after our friendly banter.
"Really? I didn't notice..." He rummaged through his pockets nervously, and then started looking around, finally just giving up and turned back to us with a shrug. "Um, where is it..."
Spencer almost choked on the drink I got him, "What?"
Arlo gave us an awkward smile, "I think I dropped it somewhere when I was running around earlier... It's not the first time I've lost it, I'm pretty skilled at losing things."
Spencer moved closer to Arlo (which actually put him next to me, our shoulders were almost touching... suspicious?), "This is bad..."
"What is?"
"You won't be able to charge your phone if you don't have it!" Again, this stuff just seemed to fly right over Arlo's head, because he gave Spencer and amused smile.
"Well, yeah. And?" Spencer sighed, and shook his head.
"...Right. You're new to this." He pulled out his phone out, and so did the rest of us (synchronization?), "It appears that our energy corresponds directly to the battery life of our phones. If we don't keep charging them, we'll get exhausted."
That actually seemed to get to Arlo, because he suddenly looked alarmed, "R-really?! That's weird... Oh man... this is bad, isn't it?"
Thane spoke back up (is he getting lonely from being left out or something? Lena never seems to get lonely), "Well, we could call your number as we walk around the park... unless you left it on silent."
Arlo sighed sadly, "I-I did... b-but my phone has a pretty long battery life, so we'll probably find it before it runs out?"
Now Spencer sighs, and he glanced over at me as he was putting his phone away, but he did a double take. What's his problem?
His eyes widened, and he looked frightened (another adorable face!), "J-Jade, what happened to your number?"
SHIT, I forgot all about it because of Arlo! And fucking hell, why did SPENCER have to be the one to find out?! I didn't want any of the others to know, but I didn't want him to know most of all! What if he thinks I didn't want to trust him, even though we're like, best friends!
I fidgeted under his intense gaze, "...I-I don't know. It just dropped suddenly..."
Thane narrowed his eyes, "Jade's number went from her initial 12 to 4... Mine went from 29 to 35, Bryce's: 17 to 15, Lena's: 20 to 24... and Spencer's number stayed the same at 22."
Bryce's kicked puppy face activated again, but this time it was for somebody else (me). "But Jade, your number is getting dangerously low..."
Thane looked annoyed by something, "...I thought I was onto something, but after seeing your guys' numbers... I just don't know..."
Spencer snorted, but his heart didn't really seem to be in it, "Yeah, everyone remember that one time when this whole thing made sense? No? Me neither."
"Um, can you think of anything that you've done that might have caused this to happen?" Bryce looked like he didn't know what to do, he was shifting back and forth a lot.
"I-I don't know..."
"I think you were right, Jade. Maybe our social interactions do affect our numbers." Thane looked oddly irritated at the hint of Spencer and I discussing things in private.
"...Maybe, but how?"
"My head hurts!" Arlo whined.
This was starting to get out of hand. I knew they would react like this! I'm really not worth all this trouble...
"Uh... guys?" I quickly got their attention. "It's... It's okay if my number drops to zero."
There was a deadly silence, but then Arlo broke it.
"...Wh-what?" I don't know if he knew what would happen, but I guess he picked up on everyone's worry.
"I mean, well- once it drops to zero, I'll be able to leave, right? At least then I won't have to worry about this mess anymore..."
Spencer spoke quickly (and angrily), "No way."
I admit, I was surprised at how quickly he reacted. "Huh?"
"You don't- You can't get to leave just like that. Things don't get to be that easy for you. That's... too unfair for the rest of us." The entire time he was talking, Spencer was staring straight into my eyes. It almost made me think that he wasn't even talking for the sake of the group, but that's nonsense, right?
"...But..." Thane cleared his throat, getting our (by that I mean mine and Spencer's) attention.
"...I agree with Spencer. We really only have each other right now, so we shouldn't try to focus on losing each other." Lena didn't say anything, but she stumbled over and gave me a hug, like a hug a little girl would give her mother (that's kind of awkward, since we're the same height, but whatever). It was too adorable, I almost died.
Bryce tried to look cheerful, but I could tell that he was still in the puppy pit. "Um, please try to be stronger for us."
Arlo started to pet my hair, and I instinctively tried to shrink down, letting out a small 'eep' with every petting. "It's okay, everything's gonna be all right, Jade."
"B-but what about your phone, and getting out of here, and-" Arlo shifted his hand to cover my mouth now, which was an indirect way of telling me to shut up, I guess. After I stopped trying to talk through his hand, he casually slung his arms over my shoulders in a loose hug. Spencer looked relatively pissed.
"Let's just try to focus on one problem at a time." Thane sighed, and then took a large chomp out of some funnel cake.
"Yeah, don't worry about me, Jade. I'll find my phone eventually, I always do."
"O-okay." It was then that Spencer seemed to reach the end of his fuse, because he smacked Arlo's hands off of me, tugging me (and Lena, who was still clinging to me) behind him.
"Knock it off with the skin-ship already. Let's just eat." Bryce grinned deviously.
"Alright! After this, why don't we go on a 'tour', and experience all the things the park has to offer, just to get our minds off things. What do you think, Jade?" He turned to me, which actually put me in the spotlight again. I can't stand having all the attention on me!
"Uh, um... That sounds like fun, I guess?" Somehow, that decided it.
We decided to set out the next day, so that 'the fun will be maximized' -Bryce. Whatever, not going to complain... anyway, we all agreed to meet up at the ferris wheel.
When I got there, though, Spencer was the only one there. I waved at him as I approached, but he didn't return it. He looked sulky, for some reason.
"What's wrong, Spencer?" I tilted my head, confused, but curious.
"Today's just one of those days where I don't feel like talking to anybody..." That's obviously not the real issue, but it's still kind of amusing.
It had a fatal flaw, though, and I made sure to point it out, "You're talking to me, though."
His face turned a light pink, "...Y-yeah, so? Would you rather I just ignore you?"
"No, definitely not. However, if you really don't mind talking to me, what's actually bothering you?"
"It's nothing... just..." He sighed, the pink fading from his face, "I can't tell if I regret coming here or not (another sigh)... Not that it really matters anyway."
"Why would you not regret coming here?" That's odd, he's been the one complaining about this whole ordeal the most.
"That's one of the few things I don't know. It's like... like this was all supposed to happen."
"You mean like fate and destiny?"
"...I guess?" Our discussion was then interrupted by the others arriving, led by cheery-man Arlo.
"Yay! Riding the ferris wheel with Jade~!" He started skipping in place, looking super pumped.
"Arlo, I've already told you that we have to split into groups, since one cabin can't hold all six of us." Thane sighed, exasperated. I felt kind of sorry for him.
Bryce handed me a small sheet of paper designating where each of the four guys would be sitting. When had they made this? "Thane's going with Arlo, I'm going with Spencer, and Lena wants to ride alone."
"...Um, I'll ride with Jade, if she wants to..." Lena didn't even tug her hat over her eyes this time. Again, progress!
Bryce still looked like that kicked puppy that he is. "O-oh... okay."
Arlo, not seeming to care about the small amount of drama that just took place, started to try and (jokingly) drag me over to him and Thane. "Jade, come with us!"
Spencer kicked (and I mean kicked) Arlo's arms away. "Geez, she can make her own decisions, Arlo. Let her choose where she wants to go."
I didn't have a very good feeling about riding with Arlo'n'Thane, so... "I'll go with Spencer and Bryce."
The second the ride started moving, the three of us fell into a deep silence. It was getting increasingly more awkward, and I was starting to regret not going with Lena. Not the other two, because I had a clear view of their cabin above us, and it looked like Arlo was jumping around in the cabin, causing Thane to flip his shit.
I was amusing myself just watching the two, but then Bryce interrupted my fun by talking to me. It's not that big of a deal, I'd rather talk to the two of them, really.
"Hey, Jade?"
"..W-what?"
"What's your favorite color?" Bryce smiled. That's... an odd question.
I answered it nonetheless, "It's green."
Jade green to be specific. Haha, irony, huh? So funny.
"Oh, Really?"
"Yeah. Why?"
His smile widened, "A lot of people that like green are honest and humble, yet fairly sociable."
Oh, geez. That has to be a lie. Just look at Jay and Kat!
Spencer scooted away from Bryce (and towards me), "...Was the silence getting to your head or what? That's a random thing to ask."
Bryce looked surprised for just a moment, but then he laughed, "What? Oh! No, I ask almost everyone I meet that question."
"...So you determine their personalities based on their favorite color?" Spencer snorted. "Charming."
Bryce started waving his arms around, "No, I don't judge people just because they like a certain color! I just observe their behaviors and speech to see how similar or different they are to the other people that like the same color."
"Is that a hobby, or something?"
"Not really, it's more of an interest... I'm a psychology student."
Spencer looked bored, "That explains a whole lot..."
Bryce raised an eyebrow, and then smiled innocently, "So, Spencer. What's your favorite color?"
"Huh? Me? I don't have one." Bryce snickered.
"Oh, I see. You're one of those guys."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Spencer snapped, annoyed.
Bryce looked at me, who was just sitting there watching the two of them interact. "Jade, what do you think?"
"Doesn't it just mean he doesn't care?"
"Well, that's more or less true about most people who don't have a preferred color."
Spencer sighed, "You know that colors are just colors, right?"
"Well then, you wouldn't mind wearing a pink shirt then, right?" I teased him.
He looked slightly flustered, "N-no! I won't!"
"Oh, so you do care?" I laughed at him, making him pout a little (adorable!), his face that same (adorable!) shade of pink from earlier.
"S-shut up."
Bryce laughed along with me, but he seemed to be laughing at something else. I wonder what.
Next was the roller coaster, and it looked like Thane was having some serious problems with that. His tan skin actually lost some of its color, if that was humanly possible. Is it? I don't know.
Anyway, he looked super nervous. "Are you guys sure you want us to go on this thing? What if it's not running properly, and we all die?"
Spencer smirked at him, "What? Are you scared?"
"O-of course not." Thane gave the obvious response, but it was still clear as day that he was lying.
"Isn't it just perfect that there's enough seats for all of us then, Thane?" I was beginning to wonder if Bryce was actual the devil reincarnate, or he was actually just that cheerful.
Arlo squealed like an excited little girl, "Eee! This is going to be so much fun!"
This is how we ended up:
Last row: Spencer and I (of course)
Middle row: Arlo and Thane
Front row: Lena and Bryce (Spencer and I may or may not have forced this to happen)
On the way up, Spencer and I just had some normal banter.
For instance, Spencer asked: "So, are you a roller coaster person?"
"I'm okay with them." Spencer seemed to just disregard what I said.
"I bet you're scared."
"I am not!" At the very least, I'm not nearly as scared as Thane is, that's for sure. If he throws up, I'm going to be so pissed.
Spencer crossed his arms, "You should scream as loud as you can."
"...Wh-what? Why? For the experience?"
"No... I don't know, maybe I'd just like to see the scared and clingy side of you for once." I almost didn't hear him over Thane's screaming (why the hell is he screaming? We're not even at the top), but I did, and it shocked me rather severely.
"...What did you say...?" I spoke slowly.
Spencer seemed to finally realize what he said, because he started backtracking really fast, "H-huh? W-wait! N-no, I mean.. I didn't mean to say that! I meant to say-"
Of course, we were interrupted at the critical point by the roller coaster finally reaching the top, and it began rocketing down the course.
When we got to the end of the track, Bryce got out carrying Thane, who apparently passed out.
Arlo was concerned, "Oh no, what happened to Thane?" Had Arlo never seen somebody unconscious before?
Bryce, of course, smiled (devil?). "He just fainted, Arlo. He'll be fine."
"Geez, how lame is that?" Spencer scoffed, and then turned his attention to me (lucky me! I'm almost as important as Thane!...Wow, that came out wrong). "So..."
"Yeah?" The moment my eyes connected with his, he gave up.
"Oh, nothing." I certainly was not going to just let him get away like that.
"You were definitely just about to say something!"
He shuffled his feet a little, "...If... If you're ever scared, or worried... I'm here, you know. I definitely wouldn't mind listening to your worries..."
My entire body heated up, I was so embarrassed. I really hope the others were too preoccupied with Thane to notice the two of us.
"Th-thanks...!" I tuned in to the others just in time to see that they were walking away now, only Bryce remained (Thane had woken up), a smug look on his face. It was really unsettling.
"You two coming? We're going to go take a nice swim, and then go watch an evening movie."
"U-um, of course! C'mon Spencer, the others are waiting for us..!" I grabbed his arm, and dragged him way ahead of the others, abandoning him outside of the pool house.
I must say, I am not just pissed, I am fucking enraged! Apparently, one of my friends switched out my green one piece for a bikini! . . .Was probably Jay, that fucking bastard. I'm going to hang her from a tree with that stupid scarf of hers, and then pour all her faygo into the grass while she watches. If that doesn't teach her a lesson, nothing will.
Anyway, I turned my attention to Spencer and Thane, who seemed to be talking near the edge of the pool.
Thane seemed to be commenting on Spencer's attire, "What's with you? Why didn't you bring your swim trunks?"
Spencer turned away from him with a huff, "I wasn't planning on going to the pool when I came."
"Hey, if you can't swim, just say so. It's fine." You could practically feel Thane's sarcastic tone.
That made Spencer whip around to face Thane, "I can too swim!"
Thane smirked, and looked at me. "Really? It seems like you're just trying to keep your cool in front of Jade."
"I-I'm being serious! I can swim!" Now Thane grinned evilly, and moved closer to Spencer. Before he was even able to understand what was happening, Thane had already snagged his phone and shoved Spencer right into the pool.
Spencer was only under the water for a short second, but then he popped out, as angry as ever.
"THANE, I SWEAR I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!" He raged, "WHY ARE YOU JUST STANDING THERE?! COME DOWN HERE AND FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN! I'M GOING TO HOLD YOUR HEAD UNDER THE WATER UNTIL YOU FUCKING DROWN!"
"That's the spirit!" Thane tossed the phone off to the side, but I managed to dive for it and catch it at the last second. I scraped up my skin something awful, but at least Spencer's phone was safe. I don't even want to think about what would happen if it broke.
"Play nice, you two. Don't get any blood in the pool." Bryce chuckled, not making any attempts to stop them. Then again, I wouldn't either.
When I looked back over to the duo, they were engaged in a very heated fist fight. I wasn't really able to move without every part of my body screeching in pain, so I just lied there, watching the two of them go at it.
After forty minutes of continuous fighting, they finally stop. Good thing, too. I think the sun is starting to mess with my brain. I hope somebody notices me here soon. The pool tiles are all starting to mesh together into one gigantic pool tile.
Thane hopped up onto a part of the gigantic pool tile, and took off his glasses (how did they not get broken? They punched each other in the face several times!).
Spencer sighed, holding his jacket out in front of him. It was soaking wet, just like the rest of his clothes. His gray undershirt was sticking to his skin because of the water. I would probably enjoy the view I have right now if I wasn't immobilized.
"My shoes are ruined now, you asshole."
"Then just leave them in the sun, they'll dry."
"My shoes are RUINED, you fucking asshole!"
"Fine then, Princess, you can borrow my clothes." Holy shit- THAT WOULD BE FANTASTIC. SPENCER IN A STRIPED SHIRT? YES.
...I WISH I WASN'T POTENTIALLY DYING FROM A HEAT STROKE. SOMEBODY LOOKING OVER HERE SOMETIME IN THE NEAR FUTURE WOULD BE APPRECIATED.
"What?! No! I'd rather just sit in the sun." Aw, my dreams are now dashed forever.
"What if you get sick?" Thane sounded strangely concerned.
"How the hell would I get sick? It's summer!" At that second, a weird look crawled all over Spencer's face, and he started searching his person nervously. "...H-hey, where's my phone?"
I managed to find my voice and hold up the phone slightly, "I-I got it..."
"Oh, thanks Jade, at least somebody is thinking- HOLY SHIT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!" The whole group turns to me, and Bryce jumped out of his lounge chair to go get bandages.
"I, uh, tried to stop Spencer's phone from colliding with the ground... and I didn't really think things through..." I tried to laugh, but it probably sounded like a dying horse instead.
"Yeah, no kidding! How long have you been just lying there? Why didn't you say anything?" Spencer looked more upset about this than his clothes being soaking wet.
"I was watching the merging of the pool tiles... it's oddly calming, y'know? Now I'm really thirsty, and my scrapes are kind of itchy..."
"Why the hell did you even do that? I tossed it gently enough that it wouldn't get damaged." Thane looked almost as grumpy as Spencer.
"...I didn't know that. I guess I just didn't want his phone to break." The conversation was interrupted by Bryce, who returned with the bandages. He fixed me up pretty good, and then forced all of us to get back into our clothes and meet up for the movie.
I had Lena help me get over there without encountering anyone else, but on the way there we saw Bryce just standing around the carousel. It dawned on me that this was the perfect opportunity for them to be able to speak to each other, so I gently shoved Lena into Bryce, and hid behind a nearby lamp post.
Bryce helped Lena steady herself, "What is it, Lena?"
Lena wasn't able to lift her eyes off of the ground. A rather short period of silence fell down upon them, but Bryce broke it up with a sigh.
"Why don't you ever look anyone in the eyes? Except Jade, of course."
After several minutes of no response, Bryce crouched down on his knees to be able to look her in the eyes directly. "Look at me, please?"
Lena's fear was (for the moment) broken, "...I can't look up."
"...What?" That didn't seem to be the answer Bryce was expecting.
"I get nervous and lose my voice whenever I see somebody taller than me looking down at me." She took off her hat, "That's why I wear this big hat... it's to block the view from above. I was scared of you... because you're really tall... so your face is really high up..."
Bryce hadn't said a single thing until she finished what she was saying completely. What a gentleman! He actually started chuckling when she was done though, startling both her and me.
"That's it? What a relief! I thought you just didn't like me."
"Um..." Lena glanced over to where I was (rather poorly) hidden, "I know... that's why I wanted to let you know that I don't dislike you at all... I just... wasn't brave enough by myself. Jade and Spencer gave me the courage to finally go through with it... Jade actually pushed me over here... I don't mind though, it's thanks to her that I'm a stronger person now... but, I still... can't look up at faces yet. I hope I can overcome my fear one day... so that the two of us can be friends... maybe... if you don't mind..."
Bryce grinned, "You're already my friend, Lena. You're my friend because you're honest, and I trust you. However, I'd like to become a better friend by adjusting to your needs. So, when you want to talk to me, I'll just crouch down like this, okay? You don't have a problem with looking at me right now, right?"
Lena shook her head, "No..."
"Then it's settled! We're friends. Make sure you thank Jade over there, and we can all go to the cinema together, what do you say?" He pointed at me, making me have to come out of my obviously failed hiding spot.
"Uh... hi."
Bryce looked amused, "Hello, Jade."
The three of us went to the cinema in a semi-comfortable silence.
. . .
The other three had gotten to the cinema before us, and Arlo was just dance-skipping in place between Spencer and Thane, who were glaring daggers at each other. Spencer stopped when I went to stand beside him, though. He emitted a mixture of smugness, and being slightly upset. What a clusterfuck.
"Yay! Yay! We're going to watch a movie!"
Spencer sighed, "Do you get excited over every little thing that happens?"
Ignoring him, Arlo cheered, "I want to sit in the front!"
Bryce smiled, "Anywhere's fine for me. Where do you want to sit, Jade?"
"Oh, I'll sit in the back, I guess?"
We arranged ourselves in this fashion:
Front Row: Thane, Lena, Arlo
Back Row: Bryce, Spencer, me (Conspiracy? I swear I saw Bryce smirking to himself)
Before the movie started, Spencer and I went to go get some popcorn and soda.
Of course, Spencer complained about it. "It's so unfair that we still have to pay for everything around here. In the zombie apocalypse, nobody will pay for anything. It's every man for himself."
I find myself laughing at his way of thinking, "Well, at least we still have resources. They usually have a shortage of something in that genre, which is why nobody bothers to pay."
"Yeh, you're right. We would definitely be in trouble if we didn't. I can totally see Thane going cannibal." He snorted at that last part, as did I. I could see it, his poker-face unwavering as he tore Arlo's body apart for food. Poor hypothetical-Arlo.
We settled into our seats, and the movie began rolling. It wasn't exactly... interesting. I had more interest in playing that game that Kat swears is so good than Xolga and Toko investigating a warehouse. Trust me, that's saying something.
Arlo was fascinated at how dark the cinema got, "It's so dark...!"
Had Arlo never been in a cinema before?
"Shut up! Be quiet!" Spencer shout-whispered at him.
Arlo turned around in his seat. "Jade, are you scared? I'll sit by you!"
What? "No, don't, I'm perfectly fine."
Now Arlo jumped up, smiling while he blocked my view of the movie (not like I'm complaining though). "C'mon~ I want to sit by you!"
He skipped around the seating, and stopped right in front of Spencer. This pissed Spencer off.
"Hey! Get down! You're blocking the screen!"
Bryce was chatting with Thane, ignoring the three of us, "Do they sell popcorn here?"
"What? Of course they do! This is a movie theater! Movie theaters are known for selling popcorn. Do you want some?"
Arlo began to pester Spencer, "Move, please!"
Spencer settled deeply into his seat, "I'm sitting here, you butt."
"But I want to sit next to Jade!" Arlo whined.
"Well, you're too late! And you said you wanted to sit in the front!"
Arlo didn't even seem to be angry, really, "I changed my mind! Move!"
Bryce sighed contentedly, "I'm actually in the mood for nachos."
"I don't think they have nachos... You should ask your two row-mates over there, they went to the concession stand, not me."
"Spencerrrrr! C'mon, pleaaaaase?" Arlo put on a puppy dog face (it seems he's been carefully observing Bryce) to see if that'd help.
Spencer groaned, "ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP! I JUST WANT TO WATCH THE MOVIE!"
Lena sat in the front, ignoring everyone. I envy her.
. . .
When we got out, I managed to grab Spencer and hide behind a row of seats from Arlo, who was wandering around, calling out for me. He just wanted to hang out, but seriously, even I need a break from his obsessiveness.
When he finally left, the two of us got up, and I dusted off my clothes. By now, it was night time.
"What'd you do that for?"
"I just wanted to hang out, you know? Preferably without Arlo tagging along." Spencer sighed.
"Love is weird, isn't it? I mean, almost everyone makes a big deal about it. Why do people worry so much about finding a person who will love them?" I have no idea where that came from, but okay.
"I think it's more important to find people to love rather than be loved. If you love somebody, eventually they might return the feeling."
He raised an eyebrow at me, and I think he was amused. "...You know, you say odd things sometimes."
"Maybe, but does that matter? Let's go~!" I drag him out of the cinema, and we eventually wander over towards the pool house. I guess I just chose to go there because then we can see if Arlo's coming or not.
Spencer looked around, looking anywhere but at me.
"What's wrong?"
He sighed, "It's nothing, just... This is where I was when everyone disappeared."
"Oh, really? I was at the entrance."
His eyes widened, seeming to have thought I meant something else, "The entrance?"
Realizing what he might be thinking, I corrected myself. "Yeah, everyone disappeared when my friends and I were leaving."
"...Your friends disappeared too?" I raised an eyebrow at him, what is he thinking?
"Well, yeah, but they weren't really there when I disappeared. I came back to the front entrance to get Mel's wallet... and then everyone disappeared." He was almost sulkily quiet for a moment, but then he finally spoke up.
"Your friends... what are they like?"
"Uh, well, there's Jay, Kat, Alexis, Mel, and Kendra, who is Mel's girlfriend. Kat and Jay are twins... probably. They might look the same, but there's some pretty big differences between the two of them. Alexis is more of Kat's friend, really. She's a pretty good person, she's even good at handling Kat. Mel's kind of.. depressed? He's always claiming that Alexis and Kat are his older sisters. Kendra and Jay have been friends for about... 7 years?" I look at him, and, seeing his blank stare, I decided to just wrap it up, "Uh... they're like family to me, even if they're kind of odd."
"...Like family?" spencer sounded rather confused.
"Well, we have our disagreements sometimes..." All the time, "...but we still accept our different views and each other. So... what are your friends like?" I admit, I'm extremely curious as to what kind of friends Spencer would have.
"Mine? They're idiots."
"Wh-what?" I POUR MY SOUL OUT ABOUT MY TROUBLESOME FRIENDS, AND HE USES A SINGLE SENTENCE?
"I'm serious, all they ever do is talk about 'hot girls' or how much shit they can eat in one sitting." Oh christ, that sounds awful. At least Kat keeps her thoughts to herself!
"...And you like hanging out with them?" It didn't really look like it.
He huffed, "Of course not."
"Then they're not your friends!" I surprised him with my sudden burst of sincere anger.
Spencer looked down into my eyes for several moments, "...I envy you."
All my anger dissipated instantly, "..Huh?"
"You have friends who accept you for who you are." He paused, "...It's been a long time since I've acted like myself around other people. Guys like me just don't fit in. Any kind of rational, intelligent discussion drives the other guys away. That's just how our society is." He sighed angrily, "...I hate speaking my mind. Whenever I try to explain things... ideas, concepts, my mind... all I ever get are weird looks."
"...But you're just find around us." I point out, trying (in vain, I might add) to calm him down. He appeared to be getting more upset the more he spoke.
"That's what makes me wonder! When I got here, why did I just suddenly start acting like myself? Especially when we were discussing all of that number stuff, and the weird text messages?... Maybe I just didn't care what you guys thought of me, since this is either a dream, or we'll all never meet again after we leave this place..."
He finally shut up! Now I can talk again, "Just be yourself, Spencer. If people can't accept you for who you are, then why should you worry about them? Fuck them! You act like yourself here, and none of us have ever had a problem with you." Except Thane, but I'm going to ignore that right now. "Even though it can be hard to not worry about what other people think of you... you just have to remember that you have friends that like you for you, and then it's not so hard. Even though I'm (extremely) awkward and weird, I know I can be myself because I have friends that honestly like me..." And most are rather odd themselves.
Spencer was oddly quiet for short period of time, but then he suddenly slammed his arm on the wall behind me (I had been leaning against the wall of the pool house), leaning dangerously close to me.
"I like that about you."
I must admit, seeing his gray eyes so close to my face was a big surprise, but that was a bigger shock. "H-huh?"
"I like how you act like yourself no matter what. You're what every person should be. Don't ever change who you are for any reason."
"Wh-what?" I was almost unable to think properly at this point.
He closed his eyes with a sigh, and then opened them. "I hate... I hate how I just can't stop thinking about you."
Stunned, I just spew stupidity out of my mouth, "...Why?"
Spencer frowned, "...It's because I know you don't feel the same way."
"You're not always right, you know..." He looked confused.
"What?"
"D-don't just assume how other people feel...! You can't choose their feelings for them..."
"B-but... I... I-I'm... You're... too good for a guy like me."
"Will you stop putting yourself down?! I like you! I like how you act like yourself, even if it's only while you're stuck here with us!... I like you... for the same reasons why you like me..." He wasted no time in crashing our faces together, though it only lasted for a second or two. Either way, it didn't stop my entire face from turning scarlet.
"Wh-wha... Th-that was sudden..."
"I couldn't pass up the opportunity." Spencer spoke like it was a simple thing like breathing, "...I might wake up and find out that this whole thing was just a dream after all."
"You're not making any sense. You still think this is a dream?"
"...Yeah, you're right. This can't be a dream... you're too real for any of this to be fake, even if there is that creepy talking machine." He stopped his tirade, and looked at my face for the first time since he forced a kiss on me (not like I'm complaining though...). "...Are you blushing?"
"I-I don't know... P-probably?"
"Seriously? That's too cute..." He leaned down to kiss me again, but this time I wasn't surprised.
I spent the next two weeks spending time with Spencer (not in the way you're thinking! I swear!), either just hanging out, or working with him under the roller coaster on the message and the numbers. After all that time, we finally reached a breakthrough! I gathered the others at Spencer's request (I wasn't able to find Arlo, weirdly enough), and sat next to where he was standing in front of everyone. Running around is incredibly tiring.
We had figured out that When falling damp tree unveils ghost actually meant Giving up all self worth means the end. It was seriously hard work!
"I can't believe it was as simple as this, but we still couldn't figure it out. " Spencer sighed.
"So it was an anagram." Bryce sighed as well.
"But what does this mean, exactly?" Always the joy ruiner, Thane had gotten slightly less irritating recently. Not completely, but he's... tolerable.
"If Jade and I are right, these numbers are actually about our values and dignity. The more selfless we become, the more value we give away, and vice versa."
Bryce, ever the (seemingly) happy-go-lucky idiot, didn't seem to get it. "Huh?"
"Don't 'Huh?' me! You're a psychology student! You should know what I mean!" Spencer snapped at him. Not going to bother arguing with that; Bryce should try to be more... attentive.
"O-oh! You're talking about giving value vs. taking value, right? Giving value makes other people feel better about themselves; giving compliments, gifts, and being friends are an example of such." Suddenly, Bryce took on a more serious tone, "On the other hand, a person with low self-esteem may try to take value from others to make themselves feel better instead. In short: bullying... but in this situation, we don't have much of a choice but to take value sometimes. As you are surely implying, I think that when we take value, we drain it directly from the one who gives it to us?"
Spencer looked shocked that Bryce was able to actually keep up with him (honestly, I am too. I was starting to think he was a flunking student), "...Yeah."
Bryce frowned, "That explains why Jade's number got so low that one time. She bought everyone lunch."
"Are you absolutely sure about this? What if this was just a coincidence?" Thane really needs to learn when to shut up.
Spencer didn't say anything at first (I think he was counting to ten), "I thought of the basic concept not long after we all met up. I was certain that how we interacted our numbers affected our numbers somehow. It took me this long to figure it all out, because I wasn't even sure if I was right, but Jade convinced me that it was correct. I even tested it out on the rest of you. Every time I did something in the interest of somebody else, my number would drop... and it would increase whenever somebody made me feel better about myself."
"Spencer's absolutely right. The pattern has been happening to me too."
"But if your theory is right, then how can we add value to our numbers without taking any from others?"
"That's not possible. The values are like energy and matter. They can't be destroyed or created, they just keep on being exchanged amongst us. I did the math, and our numbers always add up to 100 without fail... If I'm right... one of us might be stuck here forever."
Thane seemed to not be paying any attention, because he stupidly uttered "Wh-what?"
Lena looked at the ground, not saying anything as per usual. She's been slightly more expressive recently, but she still can't speak in front of the entire group very well.
"I think I get what you're saying, Spencer. If all but one of us lets our values drop to zero and leave this place, there would still be the last person, who would be left behind with all 100 points... but there wouldn't be anybody left for them to exchange values with."
"The real, final question is what will even happen when our numbers drop to zero..."
"Well, we'll either 'leave' and go back home, or..." I trailed off, noticing how uncomfortable Lena was beginning to look.
"You don't need to say it... we know... what you mean..." Bryce looked depressed too.
"It's like death in the real world, after all. Everybody wonders what happens after death, but nobody will willingly volunteer to see it for themselves, because they won't make it back..."
Spencer sighed, and patted my head absent mindedly. I was still not used to the physical contact, so I still slumped down and emitted 'Eep's all over the place.
Trying to regain my dignity, I mustered up the cracks of my voice, "U-um, what about Arlo, though? I haven't lost or gained value when I've talked to him. Not just that, but his phone's been missing for two weeks... how is he still so energetic?"
Nobody said anything, so I continued, "...Should I just say it...?"
Suddenly, the entire dome flashed white for a mili-second. Everything turned radically different colors, and everything was see-through.
I shrieked in astonishment, but the others only looked like varying degrees of surprised.
Bryce looked freaked out, "What's going on?"
"Arlo...!" Thane sounded testy, "We can't let him do whatever he pleases! This has to stop."
"Okay, there are five of us, and only one of him. We should be able to locate him quickly if we all split up and search different areas of the park."
Bryce looked even more scared now, "W-wait. Are you sure we should split up?"
"Well, Arlo hasn't done anything to harm us, so I think it's probably safe to go in alone. Let's go!"
I HAVE LOOKED EVERYWHERE.
FUCKING EVERYWHERE.
WHERE IS HE?!
There were little numbers dropping down from the sky like cotton candy, and I realized that they were our initial numbers. There weren't any near the front entrance, though... that's strange. They were a few minutes ago... unless...!
I run over to the fountain, and there, standing a few feet in front of me with his back facing me, was Arlo.
"...Arlo...!" He turns around, startled by my sudden appearance. I jog up to him, "...It's... really you, right...?"
He was silent, just staring at me.
"...Um, Arlo?" He gave me a small, sad smile.
"Sorry, Jade. I'm... really sorry about all of this..."
"What happened? What's going on?"
"Uh, yeah... this place is a little bit unstable right now, but I just need some time to make my heart feel better again. You're safe here, though, Jade. So don't worry. I would not... I will not ever let anything happen to you guys..." He stopped, looking at me, but continued, "...I was really hoping that you guys would never find out... but..."
Arlo sighed, and looked at me hopelessly. "I don't know what to do anymore. What should I do, Jade...?"
"Telling us the truth would probably be a good start."
"...Yeah, you're probably right. No, you are right. That is the best course of action at the moment..."
Neither of us even had to retrieve anybody, because they eventually made their way over to the entrance once they noticed that there were no numbers raining down. However, getting things started was another thing. Nobody said a single thing for quite some time. I wouldn't be surprised if half a day had passed by the time Spencer spoke up.
"So, Arlo, mind telling us what these numbers are about?"
He gave us a sad smile, "...They're happy points. You give them to someone when you make them happy, and you get points when you are made happy by someone else. Some people give more than they take..." He gestures towards me, "...others take more than they give..." He looked in Thane's direction. I'm not sure how to interpret that. "However, I think that the best relationships are when people both give and take. I wanted to be sure that you guys would all get along... so that's why I assigned you guys those numbers."
Thane took a step forward, "...What are you?"
"I'm a hamadryad." I had no idea what that was, so I kept quiet.
Lena sounded amazed, "A real one?"
Bryce did too (I'm starting to feel stupid. What the hell is a hamadryad?), "So you aren't like us after all."
"S-sorry guys... it's all my fault..." Arlo sniffed, "...that you guys are all stuck here... This is my 'home'. I based it off the real amusement park... but I was lonely. I made Cashy for companionship, but I wanted to have a real friend..." He sniffed again, "Th-thank you guys... this has been the most fun I've ever had. I-I...I..."
Arlo burst into tears, "I-I love you guys! B-but now, you all h-hate me, because I lied. I'm a liar! All the f-fun we had together made me really happy... but it was all built on th-the lies I told. I-I'm terrible! Horrible, even!" By now, he was just blubbering all over the place.
It was quite impossible for me to be angry at Arlo when he's just crying his eyes out. "Arlo... it's okay. We...don't hate you... Right?" I turn, and look at the others for support. There is none. Not even Bryce is saying anything.
"...Guys..." I looked at Spencer for help, and he did speak, but it wasn't what I was hoping for.
"I'm fucking pissed." He hissed.
"Spencer! C'mon..."
"No, Jade, really! I'm pissed! Do you know how long we've been here? We've been stuck here for almost a month!"
"...But-"
"...I would have stayed." Spencer grumbled, "Arlo, if you had just told us up-front that you just wanted to get to know us and be friends, I would've stayed. Even if this whole ordeal is pretty odd... You didn't have to use a giant glass dome and crazy numbers. Real friends trust each other."
Arlo took in a deep, shaky breath, "I-I'm sorry... you're right, Spencer. I should have just told you guys from the beginning..."
"It's okay now though, Arlo!" Bryce's cheery voice got Arlo to stop sniffling immediately.
"W-what?"
"Real friends trust each other, but they can also forgive each other! You used courage to admit something difficult, so why should we hold it against you anymore? I don't know about anybody else (except Jade), but I'm certainly not mad."
Spencer sighed, and leaned against me. "Well, what's done is done, and there's nothing we can do about it. We just need to know what to do next."
Arlo looked stunned, and smiled through his last few remaining tears, "Th-thank you, guys..."
There was a flash of bright white light, and then everything returned to normal (or, at least, the park turned back to it's correct colors).
"It's alright now. When your happy points drop to zero, all of you will go home... So... you can leave if you want."
"Wait, but won't somebody be left behind with all 100?"It's really nice. Ever since I, uh, 'talked' with Spencer two weeks ago, he's been a lot more chattery.
Arlo smiled, "Don't worry, I'll make sure that the remaining person will return home, safe and sound."
Bryce giggled (BE A MAN, BRYCE), "Wow, all 100 happy points, huh? That person would certainly feel special."
"Yes, but the best thing about the happy points system is that even when you give them away, you can still feel happy." Arlo sighed, "Again, sorry. If you guy will ever come visit me ever again, I promise I won't use the happy points system anymore. It's just that I was afraid that nobody would try and get along if I didn't use it, but I realize that's wrong now. Incentives weren't needed after all."
He skipped over to me, making Spencer tighten his grip, and planted a kiss on my forehead, right in front of everyone. I glanced up at Spencer, and his face was way past angry. His face had actually turned purple with rage.
"What do you think you're doing?!" He spat out between his gritted teeth.
Arlo stuck his tongue out at Spencer, "Jade gets a special thank you kiss! She's the one who found me when everything was getting pretty out of control, and she helped me decide what to do!... But, you guys cheered me up too, so maybe I should give everyone a thank you kiss?!" Arlo made one tiny step towards him, and Spencer ran away, dragging me along with him.
"DON'T EVEN COME NEAR ME! OR JADE!"
By the time Spencer stopped running around, we were at the roller coaster, and it was evening. He let go, and turned around, facing away from me.
Before I could even say anything to him, he spun back around. "Hey."
His face looked... depressed? "...What's wrong?"
He looked at the ground, and fished out his phone, shoving it in my face. "Actually, it seems that I'm about to take off."
His number had gone down to 1.
My eyes widened, "W-what? Your number..." When had that happened? Why didn't he tell me beforehand!?
I stared at it, shocked into silence. Spencer looked back at me, "You'll be leaving soon too, right?"
"...Well, y-yeah... of course..." I couldn't take my eyes away from the phone, I was hoping that if I stared at it long enough, it would change back up to a higher number.
Spencer's next words brought me back, "...Will you... stay with me?"
I snapped my head up to look him in the eyes, "What?"
"I don't want us to just part ways like this... I want to be with you, Jade. I wanted to become a part of your daily life in the real world... I can't go back." I think he was starting to panic from my lack of a response, "I-I can't go back to living my everyday life without you in it, after being together with you for so long..."
Finally, I found my voice, "...I... want to be with you too."
I have no idea what happened, but next thing I know Spencer was crushing me in a bone-breaking hug. It was tighter than Arlo's hugs, but it wasn't... uncomfortable. I'm pretty sure Spencer's shoulders were shaking.
"...I'll be waiting for you." He whispered, "I'm so happy right now... I'm shaking a lot, aren't I? I don't care. Soon, I'll get to be a permanent part of your life in the real world. This really can't be a dream, can it? You're the most real person I've ever met..."
He stopped shaking as he took in a deep breath, "...I have to give away my last happy point before I can leave, right? I'll promise you something, then..." He squeezed harder, "Never forget that I'll always be there for you. Even when I'm gone, you'll always be on my mind..."
"...Spencer..." My eyes were starting to tear up. This is terrible, what if I permanently leave a stain in his jacket?!
"I'll be waiting right here, Jade." He slowly disappeared in a flash of white light.
I was suddenly all by myself. I knew there were still the others, but... I had never felt this lonely before.
Before I sent the others off, we all exchanged phone numbers to get in contact. Lena made me promise that we would all meet up in about a week, and then everyone else was gone, leaving me behind, with only Arlo remaining.
I slowly walked around the park, and I found Arlo watching the lights of the carousel as it went around in circles, even though nobody was on it. It was still evening, so all the lights looked pretty nifty, shining like that.
My thoughts were interrupted by Arlo, who swung around to me, with his arms opened wide, grinning a wide grin. "Congratulations, Jade!"
"...On what?"
"All 100 happy points are in your possession! You deserve them, too. You deserve all the happiness in the world!... But, it's time for you to finally go home now. It's kind of hard to say goodbye, but if there weren't any 'goodbye's, there would never be any 'welcome back's or 'hello's, right?"
"Correct."
"I'm glad that I got to say hello to all of you guys... I hope that someday I can get to say 'welcome back'. You guys can come back anytime you want... don't be a stranger, okay?"
"Don't worry, we'll try and meet back up here next week, okay? Maybe I'll even bring my friends... maybe." If they believe me, of course.
"Really? That'd be great! I'm looking forward to it!" He smiled one last time, "...It's time for you to go. Goodbye, Jade."
Goodbye, Arlo.
When I came to, I was standing back at the fountain, where I had been when this whole thing happened in the first place. It was night time, so there was nobody in sight. However, I knew a certain somebody that had to still be here. As I made my way over to the roller coaster, I spotted Kat clinging to Jay as Alexis held a flashlight. They were probably looking for me, but I really didn't want to reunite with them just yet. I made a silent promise to make it up to them later, and took the back path to the roller coaster.
When Spencer came into view, with his back turned from me, I couldn't help myself from breaking into a run, throwing myself at his back to hug him.
"HOLY SHIT-" He freaked out, but when he turned around he realized it was me, and he returned the gesture.
"This... this is..." A miracle? A dream come true? Coincidence?
"...Reality." Spencer muttered.
I snuggle my face into his jacket, "...I can't believe you're actually here..."
I could hear the smugness in his voice, "Well, duh. I promised that'd always be there, didn't I?"
"...It... it just really does feel like I've woken up from a long dream."
"I felt that way at first too... but then I heard your friends running around trying to find you, and knew that this had to be real, so I waited here like I promised. They're still here, you know?" He laughed.
"Yeah, I know, I saw them on my way here and avoided them." I laughed with him.
Wrong move.
"J-JADE?! I-IS THAT YOU? COME OUT HERE YOU FUCKER, I WANNA GO HOOOOME!" We could hear Kat screaming, her abnormally loud voice reverberating off of every surface. I spotted the light of Alexis's flashlight coming towards us, and cursed my luck.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah! I'm over here, you little coward!"
That began a very long night of explaining...
It's been a few days now, and right now, we were on a date, standing in the corner under the roller coaster. There's no writing board there anymore, but it's still cozy.
Spencer looked at me, "So, what do you want to do now?"
I hummed, "Hmm~ I don't know. We went on everything already..."
Not to mention the fact that we've been harrassed by my trio of pests all week to 'prepare' for this date. Those fuckers.
Spencer looked sad, and turned away, "...Sorry..."
"Huh? What for?"
"I don't know... Why did I decide for our first date to be here?... We've already spent so much time in this place..." He sighed, "And now I'm boring you. This is going horribly."
I shook my head, even though I knew he could see me, and placed my hand on his shoulder, turning him around. "This place is fine, Spencer. I'm enjoying myself. I've... had a lot of fun today."
"Really?"
"Yeah!"
"...M-me too..." Spencer looked embarrassed, but then he suddenly got all serious. "...Hey. Stay with me, Jade."
"...What?"
"I don't want to do anything, or go anywhere without you... things are always better when you're around... And... that's probably because I'm in love with you..."
My face turned dark scarlet, stammering, "U-um... you're... actually pretty bold, aren't you..."
He smirked, "Oh, shush." He finally seemed to notice the state I was in, because his smirk got bigger.
"...W-what?" I was nervous and embarrassed now.
"I love you." Flustered beyond imagination, I turned around, covering up my face with my hands. This didn't seem to deterr him, thouh, because he just got closer. "I love you, Jade."
I whirled back towards him, "Q-quit saying that!"
His smirk softened into a smile, "Sorry, I just can't help it. You're really cute when you blush, so I have the urge to say it all the time."
I sighed, and, getting a fantastic idea, took a deep breath, draining the blush from my face. I looked up at Spencer, and with a completely complacent face, managed to say the words back at him. "...I love you too."
Spencer jumped a little, and now it was his turn to blush the color of a crab! "H-huh?"
I started laughing, "Haha! You get all flushed and cute too!"
"Sh-shut up...!"