Happyland

Part 2

Chapter 1: Part 2

The next morning, after my shift I headed to my interview at Releif Partners. I began to talk to the interviews woman, Denise. "And I'm also a straight A student." I continued. "Well, almost. I have a B in Calculus, which I mostly took to prove that girls could be good at math. But, as it turns out I happen to be a girl who's terrible at math." I rambled on. "Bad at math, got it." She said, looking very unimpressed. "But, people in developing countries don't need derivatives, right?" I laughed nervously. Denise looked appalled. "No, just clean drinking water." She said seriously. "Did I mention I'm also terrible at jokes..?" She didn't look pleased. "Ok, well thank you for coming in." I stared down at the desk. Nice job Lucy, I thought.

Afterwards, I waited outside of the building until Denise appeared, and ran things to say through my mind and try to fix things. "Denise! Hi. It's Lucy Velez. Um, i just wanted to say that I think, all people around the world should receive health, prosperity, and.. and care." I smiled hopefully as we reached her car in the parking lot. She stopped at the driver's side door. "Thats our mission statement, It's on our website." Crap. Of course it was. I slowly nodded. "Great website.." I trailed off. "Not really turning this around, am I. She shook her head. "You have stellar grades and essays, but what I was hoping to see from you today was why you wanted to sign up." I contemplated the question. "I've lived in Happyland my whole life, and all around, all that you hear is "dreams come true", but I don't necessarily believe that. You work at the park so long, that you think life is gonna turn into a fairytale. I've seen it happen to my mo... To other people. But, Relief Partners are about reality. And I want to be a part of something real." She looked surprised by my new wave of courage. After a moment, she spoke. "How about, you come back for another interview with the director, and we'll see what's what." I smiled and nodded.

After, I headed back to Happyland, and made it back in time for the Summer Happy Ball after party. "I knew you would crush it!" My mom squealed, squeezing me way too tightly for comfort. "My girl is curing Malaria!" Music blared through loud speakers, and people spoke and laughed all around us. "Again, Malaria, already curable." I looked around and my gaze locked with the new Ricky for a split second. Then he looked away, and briskly walked from afar towards the stage. My Mom seamed to notice too. "Hey, who's that?" She asked. "New guy in the character department, and a Huge dick." I replied. My Mom gaped at me. "Wha..." She obviously only saw him for his extremely hot body... "This type of thinking is how you became a teen Mom." She shot me a look. "You need to live a little, Mija! Did you see the way he looked at you? I felt it. Dave felt it!" Mom motioned to dave, who nodded at me with his awkward look, a track suit and a bagel in hand. "I felt it." He agreed. "How did you even get in here?" He looked down at his bagel, then quickly walked away into a crowd of people. "Hors d'oeuvres! We're going classy tonight!" My mom walked towards a waiter carrying a plate of food as people on stage began clinking glasses to get everyone's attention. "Hello, and welcome! My name is James Chandler. And my grandpa Hank founded Happyland. 20 odd years ago, I played Ricky Raccoon here, then sadly I left Happyland for WallStreet. Now, you all know our Happy-Magic has a strong pull, and I couldn't leave this place for good. I'm proud to announce that I will be taking over as Happyland's new president. A wave off "Woos" and clapping escalated from the crowd. "My son Theodore" he motioned to a middle aged man standing beside him. "Will be taking over as the new creative director of the park. Working as Ricky, really taught me the ropes. So I thought that my youngest son should start in the same place, and he's already off to a great start. Ian, get up here!" He motioned towards the crowd, and I couldn't believe my eyes. The f***ing new Ricky came on stage. The same ass-hat from earlier. HE, was the son of the OWNER of HAPPYLAND? Just then Dirty Dave walked back up to me with another bagel. "Oh, I partied with that guy." He randomly stated. Great.

Later that night, I found my Mom again. "I told you, I'm not up for this! I think we should go." She said, flustered. "Oh, come on It's the President of Happyland. And you've been here forever, put in some face time!" I pushed her towards him. "Elena, right?" He looked at her as if he'd met her before. "You were Princess Audriana when I was an executive here. What like, 20 years ago." Not quite 20." She said. "Don't you go aging me!" "Dad." The President's older son interrupted. "This is Richard Norton, head of our branding department, he has a few questions for you." Mr. Chandler looked back at my Mom, and winked at her as he was wisked away by his son. His son then came back to my Mom. "So, I'm sorry, how long have you been playing Princess Audriana?" I cut off my mom before she could answer. "Long enough to be the best! You should hear her laugh of whimsy, it's... Very whimsical." His son looked disapointed. "Ah, I'm sure. Well it's always a pleasure meeting long-time employees." He said, and then walked off. "We should go." My mom breathed. We started to walk home until a voice behind me started. "Hey, hey, hold up." The voice tapped me on the shoulder and my Mom and I instinctively spun around to face him. It was Ian, the new Ricky/Prince Valor. I was still kind of confused about that whole matter. "Luc, come on." My Mom pleaded for me to go with her eyes. "Go ahead, I'll see you soon." I said, and with that my mom nodded and left. "So." I addressed Ian now. "You never mentioned your full name." He acted fake surprised. "Oh, I didn't? Ian Chandler." He confirmed, even though I already knew. "What? I didn't want you to have to play nice. It's more fun when ur pissed at me." He winked. "Well then you're lucky I'm still pissed at you." He looked intrigued. "At least let me get back on your good side." "Back implies there was a time when you were." He laughed. "Look, you showed me the ropes. Let me repay the favor and show you something cool." I stared at him, not quite trusting him yet. "What? I think you're sweet; Well, sweet might be a stretch." I looked down trying to hide my smile.