Intertwined Fates

Awakening, Part 1

Pringle looked at the amusement park. It was the same as last year. Past the reception office and the big sign that spelled "Westland Amusement Park", he could see the zipline seats he always liked riding on, the classic Ferris wheel, and his favorite: the rollercoaster that went up, and splashed onto the water, also splashing everyone in and around it. He could also see the rollercoasters that looped around in the air, up and down and all around. These rides always annoyed him, since he was too short to ride them. Overall, the park was the same as the last year. However, something felt different about this time. He felt an ominous feeling coming from the park.

The teacher had stated the plan, and the rules for when they're done with the performance and have free time. Their orchestra teacher had signed them up to perform first, so that after their performance, they could hang out the rest of the day. Pringle, thinking of the band kids as inferior, was a bit disappointed they wouldn't be here to see how cool the orchestra was. After walking through reception, they went straight to the stage. They got set up, and played two pieces.

After their performance, they went back out to the busses and put their instruments away. Then, they went back into the amusement park. Pringle went to find Alex and Cynthia. Eventually, he caught up to them. Their planned group had consisted of Cynthia, Alex, Mya, Nina, and Ariano. They didn't plan for Pringle to tag along, but they were expecting it. "YOOOOOOO!" Pringle exclaimed. Most of them greeted him with a smile, but Ariano, disliking Pringle, groaned "Why do you choose to come with us?"

Pringle responded in an aggressive tone, "Well greetings to you too, jerk." The others knew what was going to go down, and Alex, along with Cynthia, noticed Pringle's mood change. "Ariano, I know he annoys you, but could you not?" Cynthia asked nicely.

"He's going to ruin our fun as he always does, you know this." Ariano replied.

"Shut the hell up!" Pringle grouched. "Maybe if you weren't such a condescending prick towards me all the time, I wouldn't 'ruin your fun' so much!"

"It's not my fault you blew up so much over a little bit of teasing over a crush." Ariano stated, knowing he added fuel to a kindling fire. "Stop being such a crybaby over everything, dude. There's a reason nobody likes you."

It was at this point that Ariano had set off a fuse. Pringle sat for a second and thought, with a death stare on his face that was usually seen before he does something reckless.

Pringle wasn't exactly liked by everyone. He had a hyperactive personality and was either extremely energetic and exuberant, in which he tended to annoy others, or explosively angry and salty at everything. Very rarely was there an in-between. He could unpredictably switch between both at the smallest signal, which lead to most faking kindness, in order to try and not accidentally anger him. However, Pringle had figured this out, and was annoyed by it, as he thought it was patronizing and it made him feel like a child. This prompted him to be grouchy towards these attitudes as well, which lead to him starting to be disliked that everyone. Only those he trusted and cared about had seen his "good" side, while everyone else only saw what they didn't like about him. They never understood.

Thinking about his experiences, Pringle started to build up pressure and tear up, as he always had when angry. He then promptly charged at Ariano and punched him in the face. Or so he tried, but Cynthia and Alex had stopped the punch, with Nina and Mya trying to calm him down. "Let me go! You guys always prevent this asshole from getting what he deserves!" Pringle complained, struggling to push his arm through. He wasn't very strong, especially compared to his peers.

"Calm down, Pringle. We don't want you to get yourself in trouble. It would suck to be suspended and have your games taken away on the last days of the school year, wouldn't it?" Nina forewarned.