Chapter Forty-One
Caliegh's POV
Ah, Spring Break. My favorite school holiday. We all got to go home for a week and do absolutely nothing for only the reason that the weather was getting warmer. It really was pointless, but I wasn't complaining.
Around a week before the holiday, Antonio and I were having a conversation in Spanish during homeroom. Ms. Héderváry stood up from her chair, clearing her throat, peering around at us with a smile across her face. She clasped her hands together. "As you know, Spring Break is drawing near. But what we hesitated to tell you is that this year, we'll be taking a pre-paid school trip on the first day. So before you make plans to leave on the day, it may be wise to clear your schedule for the first day of Spring Break and instead start making groups." He grinned, coming around and handing out pieces of paper to each of us with information for the trip on it. And to be honest, I was expecting maybe a museum or historical garden or something, but no. We were going to an amusement park. Which was damn expensive when you took sixty dollars, multiplied it by like, a thousand students, plus the teachers. Just shows you how prestigious this school really is.
The week went by quickly. That morning of the trip we were all woken at six thirty in the morning by our annoying alarm clocks yelling at us to get up and get ready. Once we got there, we were told to get our groups together. Our group kinda shifted together automatically. Me, my sister, Francis, Gilbert, Alfred, Arthur, Vasilica, Matthew, and the ever-despised Cuban guy Matthew was always with when he wasn't with us. I think his name was Carlos or something, but I didn't like him. At all. And neither did Alfred, I could tell when Matthew had dragged him over to our group. Antonio had gone off with a different group consisting of Lovino, Feliciano, Ludwig, the Belgian girl he danced with at the dance last month, plus the girl's older brother (who looked like he was stoned or something, to be honest). He looked happier with this group than he would be with ours, so I didn't complain or even think twice about it.
…But I was curious about Feliciano and Ludwig. Feliciano was constantly hanging off Ludwig's arm, snuggling into him. He was very clingy, and the German didn't seem to mind. "Gilbert," I whispered, nudging him in the arm. After all, Ludwig was his little brother. "What's going on between Feli and your brother? Are they a couple or something?" Gilbert shrugged, smirking slightly and sliding his hands into the pockets of his shorts (I don't know how he was wearing shorts, spring here is like Texas in the fall; I was wearing pants and my school blazer).
"Even I don't know the answer to that one, and I'm his bruder. I feel offe-" He was cut off by the elderly principal clearing his throat and speaking loudly to us.
"Alright, now that everyone is split up, your chaperones will be coming around." Honestly, I was expecting to have our homeroom teachers or something be our chaperones, but most of the chaperones weren't homeroom teachers anyway. Most of them were teachers of either extracurricular activities or selected classes. Luckily, we had gotten the honor of having Mr. Edelstein as our chaperone. He gave us all his phone number and we gave him ours so that he could contact us whenever while we were split up around the park.
"Lookit that, Kay. You have his number! Now you're ready to advance to the next step in your relationship!" Gabby said with mock enthusiasm under her breath. I rolled my eyes, jabbing my elbow into her stomach, though a hint of pink crossed my cheeks. She knew I didn't like him like that; he was my teacher, and six years older…
"Ew, now I have to type that old man's name in my phone…nah." Gilbert was grinning to himself. I leaned over to see what he was actually typing, only to see he put Mr. Edelstein in his contacts as "Mr. Aristocrat". I sighed, smacking his arm lightly.
"You are a moron, my gosh." He shook his head, unfolding the map and clearing his throat loudly and overdramatically.
"This has got to be the most organized park in history, mein gott." I stood on my tip-toes and looked over his arm to view the map as well. "Everything is clustered together. We got the kiddie rides here, the cool normal rides here, the roller coasters here, the food courts here, the arcade and games here, the water arena and a couple water rides here, with the big old Ferris Wheel in the back...So the question is, where should we hit first?" He looked up from the map, glancing around at all of us for our opinion.
"Well definitely not the food courts, if we wanna avoid blowing chunks on all the rides," I gagged as Vasilica said this, muttering, "Thanks," under my breath. Arthur leaned away from him and uttered something I didn't catch. Alfred said we should all eat last and go on all the rides first. Obviously. He insisted on going on normal rides first so we could be hyped up for the roller coasters later. I didn't exactly know what he meant by "normal rides", but I guess it meant things like little spinny rides or something.
As we were walking, we passed a man in front of a crowd of young children all gathered around a magician with a cheesy fake moustache and cape. Which only made me chuckle; he was not doing real magic. I glanced over at Arthur and Vasilica, who gave each other looks as if to say, "Seriously?"
"Secret compartment," Arthur had stopped and called out to the man. He paused while pulling a poor rabbit out of the tall hat, a flustered and angry blush crossing his face. Vasilica snickered to himself. I walked over beside them; maybe I'd join in on this fun.
"The coin was between his fingers," I said when he pulled a coin out of a child's ear, not quite as loudly as Arthur had. Vasilica and Gabby both looked close to just bursting out into laughter any moment. Arthur and I both gave each other small smirks; last Magic Club we had discussed all these fake magic tricks (even though they're fun, I still do them to this day). The disapproving looks from all the parents were hilarious, and only made us want to call out more, but decided we'd be better off when the magician's manager had come over and threatened to kick us out of the park.
I figured out what Alfred had meant by "normal rides". They were all simple things such as the classic Scrambler (which hurts really bad when you're riding with a rambunctious albino who wants to purposefully slam you around as much as physically possible), the swings, Teacups (Alfred teased Arthur about it forever), and of course, the merry-go-round. Gilbert, Alfred, and Gabby all went on that; the others laughed hysterically as Alfred and Gabby yelled, "Let's ride the cock!" Which, to their disappointment, was taken. Arthur and I had walked away to hide our embarrassment of knowing them. They were all silly little carnival rides, but still fun nonetheless. I was actually the one to drag Matthew and Gilbert onto the Round-Up. Alfred came along, but Gabby and Arthur absolutely refused, so they stayed off to the side with the others.
After we went on all of those, we all decided to hit the ever-so-waited roller coasters. I was a total coaster junkie, so any roller coaster made me hyped up and eager to get going. But no one really expected such enthusiasm from me, so maybe that was why I got some odd looks when I practically led the group to every single coaster. On every one that Carlos wasn't going on, Alfred and I both made it our personal goal to drag Matthew on with us. Now there was something we both shared in common; our hatred for Carlos. So we both watched over the two to make sure nothing funny was happening. During the rides that seated four, me and Alfred insisted Mattie sat on the end.
"We have to keep those two separated." I muttered under my breath to him while we were in line. He nodded slowly, eyes widening at the shock of me talking to him. And using "we" in a sentence referring to me and him.
"They can be as close as the same row, nothing more." He nodded once again as he said this, shooting a slight glare at Carlos. We both gave each other a look, then he gave me a high-five down low so no one would see our plan.
"Hey, Matthew, why don't you come with us in this row?" I grabbed him by the wrist, dragging him over to our row. Carlos attempted to follow, but Alfred got between us and held his hand out in front like a police officer.
"Ahem, this row requires authorization that you are in fact allowed to be seated with my brother. And," he looked him up and down, "you don't have that." He forced a grin. Carlos scowled at him, pushing past him and taking Matthew back from me.
"I don't need his ex-girlfriend dragging him around like a his mother," He spat at me, which only pissed me off. I opened my mouth to say more, but Arthur noticed that Alfred and I were both causing a ruckus, he clamped his hand over my mouth and dragged me back, pulling Alfred with us.
"Now calm down, you two. Do you want to get thrown out? I expected better behavior from you, Caliegh." He scolded us both like we were five. And honestly, we were kinda acting that way. So that was the end of that mission. From that point on we had to watch as Matthew's precious, innocent mind was tainted by Carlos's demonic, persuasive words. We could see it happening, right in front of our very eyes. He was going to the dark side, poor Mattie.
After a few roller coasters that made us all dizzy and hyped up, I expected us to go to the arcade or something to chill out. Maybe even lunch.
Yeah, no.
"Dude, we gotta go on Coaster Royale!" I froze in place, glancing off in the direction that he was pointing. My eyes widened gradually, taking in the sight of the tall, horrifying roller coaster looming off in the distance. I shuddered, shaking my head.
"Gilbert, how high is that?" He grinned proudly.
"One hundred, twenty eight meters high with speeds up to two hundred kilometers per hour." He tweaked my ear. "And since it seats three a row, we get ours all to ourselves." I shook my head.
"I'm not going on that."
"Ja, you are." He smiled, then picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. I shrieked, kicking at him.
"What the hell, let me go!"
"Nein!" He practically sang, wrapping his arms around my waist tighter. I pounded my hands weakly on his back, kicking my legs.
"Don't make me, damn you!" He smacked my thighs, which only made a squeak leave my mouth.
"Shut up, you're going on." I groaned, crossing my arms when he set me down.
"Bastard," I muttered under my breath as we stood in the line. He only grinned, shoving me ahead when the line moved. Unfortunately, the line was really short, and moving fast. Apparently the ride took less than a minute to get through. Which only made the fear growing in my chest ten times worse. When we were all strapped in, I'm pretty sure my heart was racing five million miles an hour, but that's probably just an exaggeration. Knowing my sister, she was probably going to pass out or something…Especially after seeing the sign at the front that claimed that the train may not travel fully up the hill.
"Want me to hold your hand?" Gilbert reached his hand out to me, but I smacked it away, rolling my eyes. The ride jerked to a start, which only made my eyes widen in a panic. I glanced over at Gilbert, who was grinning like an idiot and shouting back and forth to Alfred over how fun this was going to be. Francis was comforting Gabby, but she probably wasn't listening. I kicked my feet, forgetting that they were secured tightly against the seat kind of like they do on the Superman at Six Flags. The ride suddenly jerked us backwards against our seats, and it shot us up the vertical hill. Okay, no thank you. This was haunting. I could literally look straight up into the sky and find shapes in the clouds (which, by the way, was exactly what Gilbert was doing, the moron). Before we knew it, the slope had stopped and we were suddenly at the top of the ride. I glanced over at the sight we could have for approximately a second, and my heart stopped. Did I mention I was mildly afraid of heights?
And then there was the drop. It sent my soul right out of my body, I'm sure, and I was so horrified that I didn't make a sound the entire way down. It was over within just a few seconds. Alfred and Gilbert were shouting enthusiastically over how fun the ride was, while I could hear Francis apologizing over and over to Gabby; I, however, started laughing as soon as the ride stopped. My heart was racing, but it wasn't actually as scary as I expected. It was a rushing thrill, is what it was. Gilbert offered his hand to me so I could stand, and I gave him a grin as he pulled me out.
"That was horrifying and if you ever take me on this again, I'm shooting you." I said through my laughter.
"Aw, there's my lovely Kay!" I glanced over to Gabby, who was stumbling down the exit ramp with the help of Francis and Alfred. My laughter sort of died. My poor sister…We walked after them; I couldn't help my worry and concern. Unfortunately, she had thrown up outside the exit.
"She's just overreacting." Alfred muttered. Okay, too far. I kicked him in the ankle right as Francis had smacked his arm, causing a loud, "OW!" from him. Francis had to rub her back and whisper comforting nothingness in her ear for her to calm down. She was really quiet the whole way back to the others. I couldn't necessarily blame her, though. When we got to the arcade, she immediately disappeared off to the side. I was delighted to see that Yao was there as well. I slinked over to his side, peering into the claw machine he was playing with.
"What're you trying to win?" He jumped, unaware of my presence.
"Caliegh…! Oh…" He pouted, frustrated. "I want the Hello Kitty plushy that's right there, aru. But I can't get it!" I put my hands on the glass, eyes widening.
"It's so cute…! You need to get it!" I handed him a few quarters. "Here, have some more money. You will get that if it's the last thing you do." I nodded curtly. After a few tries from the both of us, we finally gave up.
"We'll never get it, aru!" He exclaimed, letting an exasperated sigh out.
"Excuse, me, but…Are you having problems?" I looked up to see who was speaking; he had a really heavy accent. "I could help you win that." Ah, it was Kiku. Yao's eyes lit up and he grabbed him by the shoulders. Kiku flinched at the touch.
"Could you, Kiku?! I'll love you forever, aru!"
"Uh, h-hai…I'll help." And so there he was at the claw machine, skillfully maneuvering the claw and grabbing the Hello Kitty, pulling it to the drop-box, where it fell through the hole. Yao was grinning to himself, already reaching in and grabbing it, hugging the doll to his chest.
"Xie xie very much, Kiku!" Kiku bowed his head, shuffling back to some other people. I grinned as Yao childishly cuddled the plushy. "I guess I have to go, aru. I'll see you." Yao waved to me, rushing after Kiku, and I waved my fingers at him. I knew I could find at least some of my group members by heading in whichever way the One Direction music was coming from.
Of course, I never made it there. On my way there, I felt a strong pair of arms wrap around my waist and another pair of hands cover my mouth. I rolled my eyes. Gilbert and Vasilica had both captured me, pulling me off behind a row of games. "Shh, I just sent Francis off to your sister to ask her out." Gilbert whispered.
"Wouldn't want to interrupt that!" Vasilica said as-a-matter-of-factly. My eyes widened as I pulled Vasilica's hands off my mouth, peering around the games. But I knew it was going to go wrong, because when Francis had swaggered over to where she and Arthur were playing Dance Dance Revolution, Alfred had jumped in first, holding out a purple stuffed animal for Gabby to take.
"Guys, I don't thi-" Gilbert yanked me back. It wasn't going to go well, and it didn't. From our eavesdropping place, we could hear an argument break out between Alfred and Francis. I gave the two guys a look of panic. Gilbert looked irritated, while Vasilica had a look on his face that could only be explained as, "Oh shit." All three of us looked around the corner to see Gabby was separating the two, telling them off.
"Looks like that didn't go well." Vasilica said.
"Thanks, obvious." I uttered, chuckling slightly.
O~O~O~O~O~O
After the arcade, we all went to the food court. Unfortunately, the majority of it was disgusting amusement park food that was making me sick to even smell. My sister forced me to get a bottle of water and fries, though; she was afraid I would die if I didn't eat. I ate them slowly, not really hungry in the first place. Because of this, the guys thought it would be okay to share the basket amongst each other. First it was Gilbert who had stolen one (but really it was like we were already sharing them), then Vasilica stole a few just to toss at Arthur, then Alfred so that he could put them on his hamburger (gag). I kept a good eye on Matthew and Carlos, who were both sitting at a separate table eating ice cream together and exchanging jokes.
As it was getting close to four (that really was a late lunch), we all got a mass message from Mr. Edelstein saying we all had time for one more ride. "Let's go to the Haunted Mansion!" Vasilica was practically bouncing on his heels. Arthur crossed his arms.
"That seems so stupid." Even so, he agreed. Alfred eagerly went with, being sure to drag Matthew and Carlos along.
"Let's go on the Ferris wheel!" Gabby exclaimed, pointing to it. I shook my head quickly, pulling my blazer closer to my body.
"I am not going on that thing." I quickly responded. Gilbert raised an eyebrow.
"You went on the Coaster Royale, but you won't go on a silly little Ferris wheel?" He asked in disbelief. I furrowed my eyebrows together, slipping my hands into my pockets.
"I don't like that it rocks when it stops…" I reasoned. "You could fall or something, I don't wanna, a-and…yeah." I muttered.
"I'll go with you on the Ferris wheel, cher." Cher? When had they gotten close enough for Francis to ca- Oh, yeah. He was trying to make a move. Gilbert smirked, slightly nudging me in the shoulder.
"You guys go ahead, Kay andI will find something else." Oh, no. What was he planning to do with me? Francis and Gabby shrugged, heading off towards the Ferris wheel. Well, now we were alone. I reached over to Gilbert and pulled the neatly-folded map out of his pocket, looking around for something interesting. "Oh, nein. No need." He pulled the map out of my hands and folded it up again, slipping into my back pocket (that little shit).
"I hope you know where you're going," I mumbled. Gilbert flapped his hand.
"Psh, I totally know." He smiled down at me. As long as it wasn't anything like Coaster Royale, I was fine with any place he took me.
Take that back.
Because I was gazing up at a huge sign that said, "Tunnel of Love". With huge cheesy hearts all around the place.
"What the actual fu-" He grabbed my wrist tightly and dragged me through the entrance.
"I've always wanted to go on one of these things. We can just make fun of all the couples who are making out and having quickies in the boats!" For some reason I didn't believe this was why he brought me here. The line wasn't long at all; there were a few couples from school, which instantly made me regret coming with Gilbert. Being seen on this meant that people would assume that we were a couple. My happy mood was slowly decreasing; seriously, what was going on?
However, as soon as our funny little boat started floating down the river, a soft melodic song started playing through the speakers that were placed in the boat. I tilted my head slightly, a soft smile twitching at the corner of my mouth. This was definitely familiar.
"I've heard Mr. Edelstein play this before, when I was hanging after class." I sighed happily, perching my elbow up on the side of the boat. Gilbert groaned slightly.
"Can you please not."
"Hm?" Well that was certainly a change of attitude.
"Can we please just have a good time and, not talk about Mr. Edelstein?"
"Well what's wrong with him?"
"Everything, just…" We both went quiet; the only sound in the place the soft piano music ringing through the tunnel. My phone started ringing, interrupting the silence. It was Mr. Edelstein. I slowly picked up, telling him that we were going to be there after the ride we were on. When he asked what ride and how long it would be, I hesitated for a moment, a heated blush crossing my face. I didn't want to tell him the truth, that was embarrassing, so I simply told him we had gone on the Ferris wheel.
When we got off, it was way too quiet than it should've been for the two of us. Arguing would've made me feel better. Luckily, when we caught up to Gabby and Francis (who were walking very close, with Gabby snuggling against Francis's arm), he was already himself again. Looks like Francis's plan worked, and he had romantically asked her out on the Ferris wheel. The group had all gathered once again. I noticed Francis's arm made its way around Gabby's waist, earning a wolf-whistle from Gilbert.
"Well aren't you two getting comfortable."
"Oui, well we are dating now." He gave a smile, kissing the top of Gabby's head. Gilbert grinned.
"She said yes? Awesome. It took you long enough." Honestly, I can't say I wasn't expecting this. Yet at the same time, I knew it wasn't going to go well. I slid my hands into my blazer's pockets, gazing over at the two. I couldn't help but feel a little jealous of her. Why did she get the most gorgeous man in the entire school as her boyfriend? I knew they were close, but not that close. Maybe I could ask like, Vasilica out or something. He was pretty adorable, yeah…
On the way back to the school, I almost fell asleep on the bus. Luckily, we had practically tour buses which were nice, because the seats could lay back. I was sore from gripping the restraints of roller coasters, walking around, and dehydrated and hungry from my lack of food while we were there. Nonetheless, it was still a nice day…despite the little bad things here and there.
"Hola, Kay, did you have fun?" Antonio was seated behind me with Lovino. I nodded, smiling back at him.
"Did you have a romantic fling with Lovino?" I smirked over at the Italian, who only gave me a hesitant smile (I knew it was because he had some moral that he had to be kind to all of the ladies). Antonio pouted.
"No, he wouldn't let me. But we had fun! Right, Anly?" He called across the aisle.
"Yes we did!" The Belgian girl responded happily. Ah, so that was her name.
The whole ride back was loud, but I tuned it out by slipping my headphones in. I'm pretty sure I did fall asleep after that…