(The following is a nonprofit work of fanfiction and is outside of the original canon. All names, characters, businesses, places, events, and/or incidents of any kind depicted within this story are being used for entertainment purposes only.)
(The Loud House and all related characters were created by Chris Savino and all rights belong to Nickelodeon.)
- Chapter Thirteen -
A Day at Dairyland: Part One
Saturday, July 11th...
One of the most fun things that any little kid loves to do—aside from going to the arcade with their best friend and playing a brand-new Nintendo they got for their twelfth birthday—is to spend an entire day making the best memories at one of the most beloved childhood theme parks in the world. And it just so happened that such a desired activity was right there on my list of plans to do for that summer vacation.
So, there we all were, on that early afternoon, the front entrance to one of our most favorite places to visit standing abreast before us; the one and only Dairyland...
For those of you who are strongly curious to know, Dairyland was... well, a dairy and farm-themed amusement park, as the name very obviously suggested. I know that it sounded like something straight out of a cartoon, but it's true. Once every summer vacation, our family would always drive over here after we had saved up enough money to help pay for each of our tickets due to how expensive they kind of were back then.
All of us were dressed in our own respective summer attire, each of them ranging from your typical acid-washed jean shorts and pants to neon-soaked windbreaker jackets and loose-fitting tops—or in Luna's case, a black AC/DC T-shirt with the sleeves cut off. The clothes I wore were comprised of a normal pair of jean shorts and a buttoned-up orange shirt with short sleeves. Lynn, as she usually did, wore a red athletic top as well as her favorite red and white varsity jacket over it.
Dad was dressed in a short-sleeved white T-shirt that had a picture of Mickey Mouse on the front, along with denim jean shorts, a green-and-white baseball cap, and a pair of mirrored sunglasses. Mom, on the other hand, was dressed from neck-to-toe in a full-blown windbreaker tracksuit that was colored all-pink with mild bright blue accents. The pink sweatband that circled around her head helped in completing the look.
The feeling of near uncontainable excitement swelled up inside me as all thirteen of us stood together in line, nearing closer and closer towards one of the four pink-colored ticket booths at the gated entrance. Lana appeared to be the most excited out of all of us. It was plainly obvious because she was sucking in her bottom lip really hard and her little legs squirmed and danced together, making it appear like she was anxiously waiting to use the nearest bathroom.
"Oh man, I can't wait!" she squealed. "I'm gonna go on as many rides as I can! Especially that new one; the Milk Shaker! In fact, I think I'll ride on that one first!" All the color instantly disappeared from my face when I heard my little sister say that, making me appear almost as pale as Lucy.
"You can count me in on that one, sis!" Luna agreed, rubbing her hands together. "It looks absolutely rad!"
"Same here," Lynn added, while adjusting her wristbands. "I've been amped up to go on that ride almost all year!"
In case you're wondering, the Milk Shaker was a brand-new roller-coaster they recently installed here in the park. I know this for a fact because I remember watching the commercial for it two months prior. It looked way too fast and intense for my liking. Don't get me wrong, I loved a good roller-coaster. It was the pretty extreme ones I tried to steer clear away from. You know, the ones where they go faster than humanly possible and do huge loop-the-loops that could make you throw up?
"Would you go on it with me, Lincoln?" Lana asked me. I paused for a second before turning to face her and I blurted out the very words which I fearfully believed had sealed my fate.
"Of course, Lana! I'd be more than happy too!" I spoke, putting on a forced smile. I cannot believe I actually just said that! Finally, we reached one of the four pink-colored ticket booths, and Mom and Dad paid for each of our tickets, including their own; fifteen dollars for two adults and ten dollars for eleven children. I quickly rounded the numbers up in my head and concluded that we had just spent one hundred and thirty dollars. I let out a barely audible whistle.
Wow, that sure is a lot of money, I mentally commented, just as another thought came to me. But then again, imagine if we had decided to go to that other park far over in California instead. After Mom and Dad had paid for our tickets, the guy in the booth gave each of us a black-inked stamp on the back of our hands. Stamps that proudly displayed the image of an animated cow wearing a blue skirt, whom we knew as Tippy, one of Dairyland's most beloved mascots.
And with that, we walked right through the gated entrance in a single filed line, from oldest to youngest, and we all found ourselves finally inside the park itself. From where we were, I could easily make out the Dairyland Hotel straight ahead at a short distance, almost towering up to the sky. Many crowds of people, families of varying ages and sizes, walked around us in different directions, either towards the gift shops, food stands, or for the nearest ride and carnival game available.
Classic carnival sounds could plainly be heard, the strong and very hypnotic smell of fresh popcorn, cotton candy, and ice cream were just about everywhere, the kind of smells that would bring back childhood memories for anybody. Those things and I could also clearly hear Steve Winwood's Higher Love playing at a moderate volume in the overall background of the park. A little kid like me couldn't ask for a much better place to hang out with his family and make fond memories at.
"Alright, gang!" Dad spoke aloud suddenly, clapping his hands together to grab ahold of our attention. "You all remember the plan we talked about in the car ride over here, right?"
"Yes, Dad," Lori answered first. "Firstly, we stick together in small groups."
"Secondly; don't go wondering off where we, like, can't find each other," Leni recited, much to my surprise.
"Thirdly, in about two hours, we meet back here and find a place to chill and grab a bite." Luna recanted.
"And finally, if not just as importantly, we have lots of fun!" Lana finished excitedly, pumping her little fists into the air. Sensing that everything was good, our old man smiled and nodded his head before glancing to his right to face Mom.
"Everyone got their wristwatches ready?" our mother asked us, holding Lily in her arms.
Wordlessly, we all held up our watches for our parents to see, each of them strapped very securely to our wrists.
"Good," Mom said. "Right now, it's almost one minute past two o'clock. So, when the little hand points at four, we meet up back here. Got it?" We each nodded our heads, understanding our parents' instructions plain and clear.
"Lori and Leni," Dad started. "You stick with Lucy, Lola, and Lisa. Make sure you stick together and don't lose sight of each other."
"Not a problem," Lori confirmed while adjusting her shoulder-padded jean jacket.
"Oh, totally," Leni beamed, nodding her pale blond-haired head.
"Luna," Dad continued, "both you and Luan will look after Lynn, Lincoln, and Lana. Is that understood?"
"Roger that, Popstar!" Luna replied, giving a soldier's salute with her right hand.
"You got it!" Luan included, raising a thump's up, and flashing a brace-laden smile. I glanced straight up at our old man with a displeasing frown.
Did you just forget that I'm twelve now, Dad? I asked mentally. If there's anybody who deserves adult supervision, it's Leni. I loved my older sister very much, but when it boiled down to asking for directions or getting lost—and pretty much everything else outside of fashion designing, for that matter—Leni was not exactly the sharpest knife in the kitchen drawer. Before I could even have the chance to protest, Dad clapped his hands again now that everything had been wrapped up.
"Okay now," he proclaimed. "Go on and have fun, kids!"
"Alright!" Lynn jeered before darting straight away ahead of us.
"Whoa, Lynn, wait for us!" Luna shouted as we all chased after our sports fanatic for a sister.
"Milk Shaker, here we come!" Lana beamed, pulling me along with her by the left sleeve of my shirt. Hearing that caused my heart to fiercely pound in my chest.
Somebody help me... I thought, swallowing a fear-induced lump.
"Be safe, kids!" Mom hollered at us, still holding Lily in her arms. "And don't talk to strangers!"
And so, our two groups went in opposite directions, disappearing into the ever-moving throng of people...
By the time the five of us had arrived at the front entrance of the Milk Shaker itself, we saw before our very eyes that there was a ridiculously long line of people who appeared to be just as excited to go on the ride as my sisters were. That and we also noticed the time indicator closely next to the left side of the entrance. It clearly displayed the number fifty. That was when we realized it was showing a fifty-minute waiting period. Lynn, Lana, and Luna were not very happy when they saw this.
"Oh, come on!" Lana complained, her little arms drooping down from her shoulders. "Are you kidding me right now?"
"Man, this is so bogus!" Lynn grumbled, crossing her arms.
"I don't wanna wait fifty minutes!" Luna cried out before kicking some loose dirt off her Doc Martens. "Doing nothing but standing in line for that long period of time? I swear, our legs will fall right off just before we even get on!"
"I'm not a fan of any of this either, sis," Luan agreed, before grinning from ear to ear. "But then again, when it comes to waiting in line, we're not the only people around who cannot handle a long-standing commitment. Hahaha, get it?" Luna whipped her brown shaggy-haired, purple headband-wearing head at our sister's direction, shooting her a very clearly annoyed expression.
"Now is not the time and place, Luan," she grumbled. Our aspiring comedian for a sister frowned unhappily when she was told that, and she placed her hands on the hips of her brown checkerboard skirt.
"Well, excuse me for only trying to lighten up the mood a little bit," she murmured, rolling her eyes. I admittedly thought that joke was kind of funny.
"Aw gee, that's too bad, girls," I stated, pretending to be just as unhappy as they were.
I glanced upward just in time to spot a loaded line of milk bottle-shaped carts full of riders speeding down from the very top of the steep-looking hill of tracks above. I could hear the riders screaming all together to form a mixed choir of excitement and terror, their hairs flowing almost dramatically in the wind. Right after seeing this terror-inducing display, I felt my face pale again, and my heartrate sped up to the point of nearly matching the sound of a jackhammer.
Nope! Forget it! There's no way I'm going on that moving deathtrap! I thought. Not even if I was paid a hundred dollars!
I stood there trying to think of a plan for a moment until at last, an imaginary lightbulb suddenly appeared above my head.
"Hey, I just got an idea," I said, catching the girls' full attention. "Why don't the five of us go and check out some of the other things here in the park while we're waiting? And then after that, we can come back here, and the long line will have gone down. Does that sound good to you all?"
Okay, that may have sounded like a very swell idea on the surface. But what my sisters did not even realize was that I actually had something else planned in mind; the plan was that if I wanted to keep myself from going on the Milk Shaker, all I had to do was simply try and keep them occupied with whatever else was in the park and drag it out for as long as I could. Well, at least until our two hours of playtime were almost up. So, in reality, they were only told half of the truth.
Did this whole idea sound incredibly selfish? Yes, I admit that it did. But hey, anyone in the world would have done the exact same thing as me if they were in my shoes. I mean, were there any scary-looking rides that you yourselves were too afraid to go on at some point in your own respective childhoods? It was at this very point that I was just about willing to do anything to not go on that ding dang roller coaster. And I meant anything.
I watched with bated breath as three of my sisters thought about it for a moment before finally drawing up their answer.
Lana was the first to speak.
"I guess so," she said in a dissatisfied tone.
"Eh, why the heck not?" Luna caved, half shrugging her almost bear shoulders. "Ain't like the place is going anywhere at any time soon, right?" We all glanced over to Lynn, who stayed completely silent, looking back at each of us with her arms firmly crossed over her chest and her lips shaped into a frown that looked like only half of a circle. Ultimately, she let out a low yet irritated snarl through her nostrils and then she shook her brown-haired, ponytailed head.
"Ugh, fine!" she said, clenching her throbbing fists tightly. When they weren't noticing, I sighed in overwhelming relief, wiping away some of the growing sweat from off my brow.
"Alrighty then!" I concluded without hesitation. "Now that we're all in agreement, let's go!"
Time for the Man with the Plan to work his stuff. I thought.
With no more time to waste, the five of us walked away from the roller coaster over to another part of Dairyland, all the while trying to match each other's speed as a means to keep up. As we continued to make our laps toward the eastern side of the park, I heard them playing one song in the background right after the next, a lot of them ranging from beloved 80's classics such as Huey Lewis & The News' I Want a New Drug and also Eddie Murphy's Party All the Time.
Who would have guessed that Mr. Beverly Hills Cop himself had a bodacious set of pipes, I thought with an impressed smile. After a while of walking, my sisters and I came upon a short-looking line for one attraction that I happened to like very much: Bumper Cows.
Basically, it was bumper cars, except that the two-seated, electrically powered vehicles themselves were specifically designed to resemble large dairy cows, which I kind of found to be very humorous. When it was finally our turn, we went for the nearest car that were close to us. Lana and I sat together in one, buckling up nice and tight, while Luna and Luan chose another to our right, leaving Lynn to find and sit in one car by herself.
"Enjoy the ride," the ride operator in the farm-decorated booth declared unexcitedly. And so, we were off, the tall poles of our cars rubbing against the steep grated ceiling above. As I was making sharp turns on the steering wheel, Lana kept laughing and pointing which direction to take and look out for oncoming bumper cars. One after another, some of the other cars went past us, missing ours by a few inches.
Not gonna lie, it started to feel like we were in the middle of a car chase scene from The Dukes of Hazzard.
"I'm gonna get you, Stinkoln!" Lynn cried out excitedly, a determined expression on her face.
"Not if I'm the one who gets you first, sis!" Luna shouted with a laugh, just before bumping into the right side of Lynn's car.
"Whoa! Easy, Luna! Don't wanna get us into a cow accident!" Luan joked.
After about four whole minutes of shouting, laughing, and chasing each other around and a seemingly endless loop of left turns after the other, everybody's bumper cars came to a stop, and we climbed out and left through the left-side exit. We then went over and rose on the Cup of Whoa!, which was a ride where we got to go on spinning teacups. For almost two minutes, I tried to keep the girls from spinning our chosen teacup really fast, out of fear of throwing up my breakfast.
"You spin me right round, baby, right round!" Luan sang to Dead or Alive, her ponytail almost flying in the air.
Once after we were finished with that—all the while trying really hard not to throw up—the next attraction we went over to was Cattle Battle. It was where one guest got to ride on a large mechanical bull and try not to fall off in the process. One by one, we each took our turns riding on that bull, with me being the last one. It took every bit of strength I had to hold onto the saddle for dear life as it bucked back and forth, making robotic bull noises.
When we were finished with Cattle Battle, Lana stopped and asked us if we could go back to the Milk Shaker. Quickly, I asked her if she would be more interested in checking out the petting zoo instead. Hearing that grabbed her full and undivided attention. She looked up at me with big googly eyes, a giant grin, and she eagerly nodded her head.
If there was one thing Lana loved so much in the world, besides digging through our trash and making giant mud pies, it was animals. And this was just one of the perfect things to keep her good and distracted with. After less than a mile, we soon found ourselves at the Friends 4 Udder petting zoo. Whenever we came to Dairyland, Lana would always beg us to take her over here to this one spot and she would play with the animals for as long as Mom and Dad had allowed.
Without even waiting for us, Lana darted straight ahead like she was the Road Runner, heading for the nearest pen.
"Whoa there, Lana! Wait for us!" I cried out, trying to catch up to our little sister.
By the time we had made it, she was already starting to feed one of the animals—an old-looking goat—in one of the many wooden fenced pens, which housed some of the other animals within the gated confines of the petting zoo. In each surrounding pen, there was one dairy cow, a young adult pig or two, a small bull, and the previously mentioned goat. The strong smell of hay and grass filled my nose, and I tried to fan it away with my hand, with little success.
As the four of us closely watched Lana play with the goat—with some assistance from one of the park employees, we heard a terrible sound coming from our far right. We turned and then quickly spotted the source; a small boy, who looked to be no older than Lana, was virtually screaming at the top of his lungs, his face red as it could be. He held a waffle cone filled with bright, green-colored ice cream in one hand and grasped his dad's in the other.
Seriously, this kid was screaming so loud, he could easily make all of our ears bleed.
"But I don't like pistachio!" the boy shrieked, tears streaming down his face, ice cream melting in the sun.
"Then why did you even ask for it?" his dad questioned who, judging from his twitching left eye, appeared like he was just a mere moment away from completely losing his sanity as well as his patience with his tantrum-throwing son. At last, the two of them walked out of the petting zoo and vanished into the ever-moving crowd of people in the park. My sisters and I flared our noses in annoyance, sour looks plastered on each of our faces.
"Sheesh, looks like somebody's having a not-so-righteous day." Luna commented.
"I'll say." I added. "Even Conner is nowhere near as bratty as that kid." After that was over, we turned our heads back to watch Lana in the animal pen, having almost forgotten about what we all had just seen. But then, just when I thought about joining my little sister inside the pen, a pair of hands came out of nowhere, covering my eyes so firmly that all I could see was nothing but black. I let out a quick gasp in surprise.
"What the—? Who turned out the lights?" I cried out.
"Guess who..." a teenage girl's voice whispered from behind. Instantly, my heart started to pound very hard and fast against my scrawny chest.
That voice...! I mentally realized, my legs instantly transforming into Jell-O. Once after I was able to see again, I quickly spun around as if my life was depending on it. And what I was met with, standing in front of me, was a familiar head of blond hair that had a teal-colored streak going down the bangs. It was then I quickly realized that I was staring right back at the smiling and angelic face of...
"S-S-Sam?" I said in a surprised stutter.
Boy, am I glad to get this chapter off the ground. Sorry it had to end with a cliffhanger though(Feels like I'm always apologizing for something). Believe me, this one was originaly going to be a single chapter as well, just like the previous two. But I realized that it would end up being a lot longer than I had intended it to be.
So again, just like before, I decided on the spot that I was going to split it into two parts instead, hence the "Part One" in the title. And since it was now pretty much finished, I figured that I would wait until the day after Christmas to post it when everybody's good and finished with the Holidays.
Before I close, here's a little fun fact; the kid crying about his pistachio-flavored ice cream is a reference to a small scene from a season four episode of Spongebob Squarepants. You know the one I'm talking about. If you don't, then I suggest you look it up. It's kind of funny, but also very strongly relatable—either for any kid or parents who went through situations like that.
Now that everything has been said and done, I hope you guys have a good day and also a Merry Christmas.
