Core Four Fun | Location : Earth | TMC |

|16| new yOOoork, concrete jungle-

New York was...interesting, to say the least. Alex wasn't sure what words could describe it, after all, her parents had never dragged her to visit the real city sinc archaeological discoveries there were a little more than rare.

There was a ride after a show host, there was a ride stuffed with mummies, and there were shows and parades marching through.What she, and admittedly most of them, were most excited for was the food. There was a full grill at Finnegan's Bar, a quick serving restaurant named Louie's, a Starbucks and a Ben and Jerry's to tide them over in the hot weather.

Speaking of the sky, Alex wasn't sure if it would stay horrendously sunny the whole time. The weather lady was certainly dubious when it came to announcing the following weather days, but all Alex could do was hope for the best.

The very first thing they did re-entering the park that day was sprint straight for the Ben & Jerry's shop, but with a little bit of a twist. Some Freyan had the same idea (albeit with her kids and not teenage war heroes), where a treasure hunt of sorts was pre planned with clues hidden all over New York. Alex and Bear had teamed up, along with Dix and Kaiden, and Dec and Jordan.

"Er, Alex, who's Jimmy Fallon?" Bear frowned at the Pinterest print out. "Is he another actor?"

"Maybe? He's done a lot of stuff, but he's mainly a late night show host. Why?"

"I think the first clue is leading us there," Bear pointed to one of the larger buildings on the map and then to the riddle. "J to the F to the R to the N to the Y."

It only took Alex a few seconds to figure it out (sure would have been embarrassing if it had taken longer, the lady had designed it for her kids and Bear never would have stopped teasing her). "Jimmy to the Fallon to the Race to the New to the York."

"Let's get there before Dix and Kaiden do."

Alex raised an eyebrow and he rolled his eyes. "Jordan and Dec will probably just head straight for Ben & Jerry's. If Hunter was here, he'd just scare them into actually doing it."

"Can you imagine Hunter in Medora?"

"I'd bet he's somehow found a way here without a Door," Alex joked, "Hunter in Medora would throw everything in chaos. Security guard would probably think he's an assassin or something."

Bear barked out a laugh, his eyes twinkling with mirth. "Okay, I'm pretty sure we can just skip ahead because Dec just sent me a selfie of him and Jordan ordering."

"Those cheaters," Alex muttered, shaking her head in mock disappointment. The two sprinted straight for the ice cream shop, passing Auntie Anne's Pretzels on the way. Sure enough, Jordan and Declan were there licking at ice cream-laden cones. Kaiden and Dix seemed to have figured out the ruse and were running their way as well.

"We ordered ahead of you, so don't get mad, okay? If anything, you should be thanking us," Jordan protested immediately at their judgy expressions. "Fine. I'll pay."

Alex took her ice cream grinning, pleasantly surprised by the mix of sweet and savoury. The caramel sea-salt popcorn was something she'd never tried before and it actually wasn't a sugar overload like Jordan and Bear's. The sun was threatened by clouds crawling over in the sky, but altogether it was a very nice, relaxing start to their day. Once they'd finished their ice creams, they meandered over to San Francisco (even Alex couldn't explain why American places were in a theme park).

She was convinced to go on the Fast & Furious ride with everyone else even though she was pretty sure she was going to throw up after having just eaten, but it didn't turn out to be that bad. By the time they'd escaped the depths of another merch store, the sounds of loud music had begun playing nearby.

A prop set with four construction men on scaffolding was blasting the base to a percussion music piece. The gang bought themselves pretzels and joined the crowd to watch the show. The dancers used buckets and wrenches to pump out an exciting beat to the music, amping up the crowd with their stunts on the scaffolding. Alex swore everyone nearly screamed when the tallest construction worker backflipped off the scaffolding. He landed perfectly and the crowd was sent into uproar

"Can anyone match that?" yelled one of the dancers, banging his wrench on the bucket. Alex kicked Jordan in the knee and jerked her head over.

"Payback for ditching the hunt."

"But I paid for all of the ice cream!"

"Do it for Dix."

"Don't manipulate my love against me!" Jordan gasped dramatically, but gallantly took up Alex's revenge plot and stepped into the clear semicircle of road.

"Okay folks, we have a volunteer. Show us watcha got, man!"

Jordan blew Dix a kiss - which she pretended to ignore but reciprocated a moment after - and then backed up a few steps for space. Alex was pretty sure Finn had taught everyone gymnastics at Akarnae, so it was no surprise to her that Jordan was able to run into a round-off backwalker over. The crowd went absolutely ballistic and it only got better when Dix handed Alex her pretzel napkin and the bucket music got faster.

Dix must have had extra flexibility training at home because her round-off back handspring back layout combination looks absolutely perfect to Alex. There was no way the crowd could have gotten louder when Dix finished - even the performers looked flabbergasted at the two's gymnastic prowess.

"Yo, wanna join our squad?" one of them joked. "Can the rest of your friends do that too?"

"If they wanted to, probably. Nice show man," Jordan exchanged a fistbump with one of them. "You guys want pretzels?"

o o o

They ended up getting lunch at the Seafood Grill over the water. Declan nearly fell in twice fighting over wings with Jordan, Alex discovered that shrimp was not her thing, and Dix decided that maybe coffee at lunch too was a step over the line. They took the long way around the lake to walk off lunch, and as much as Jordan joked about them going into the kid's zone, they all decided against it.

Alex hadn't watched every episode of the Simpsons, but enough to get the gist of what was going on. Declan and Kaiden however, were very confused when they were approached by large yellow humanoids. There was no point visiting the Duff Brewery aside from pictures, and they picked up more snacks at Moe's Tavern. The Simpsons Ride portrayed the riders as tourists, and with Sideshow Bob having escaped, they were being chased all the way through Krusty's many attractions. Krustyland was creepy - no doubt about it - even the music after Sideshow Bob appeared and started to attack them was creepy.

Alex's eyes hurt with how many different things were thrown at them, and it was even better that the Simpson family was 'sitting' in the front car interacting with Sideshow Bob. They skipped the Twirl 'n' Hurl in favour of World Expo, where the Men in Black ride awaited them. Alex had only seen the first movie, but Bear and Jordan had seen all of them, so it was a four versus two in confusion for all the details.

The sun was beginning to set by the time they had second rounds on their favourite rides, beautifully set against the wild city of buildings. The bridge that stretched across the lake had several wooden benches positioned perfectly to watch the sunset. Dix and Jordan sat on one, Bear and Declan on another, and Alex and Kaiden on the last. With her head leaning on his shoulder, and her hand entwined with his, Alex was pretty sure it was one of the best ways to end a day in Freya.

A/N: okay yes this is short but now we can get straight to hp land and ive been there and i want to do it justice. Prepare yourselves. To receive a chapter. In like two weeks or some shit if i get my crap together /j

-dommie out