Playing It By Heart: A J.C. Fanfiction Saga

Chapter Four: This Close

A few days later

Seapoint Park had good saltwater taffy. It isn't good, however, when one is trying to get it off one's teeth.

J.C. doubled over in laughter as he watched Emma pry the strips from her mouth without success. "Where's my camcorder when I need one?" he wailed.

"Are shu funna hulp me vor mot?" Emma grumbled through her candy.

"That's disgusting," J.C. said. "I'm sorry, but I can't help you here. Not unless I want to get saliva all over myself. But you know, it's okay this way; now you don't have to talk."

Emma hit him.

"Owww," J.C. said, rubbing his arm. He motioned her over to a bench where she tugged at her adversary.

"Why the heck did you bite off so much?" J.C. said. "Haven't you ever had taffy before?"

"Vry are shu askin' me frections?" Emma retorted.

"Sorry," J.C. responded. Emma succeeded in pulling off the largest chunk and chewed furiously to get rid of the rest.

He handed her a napkin and tried not to laugh.

"Aaaaaaaaaaack," Emma growled when her mouth was finally liberated. "You really enjoyed watching that, didn't you?"

"You have no idea," he laughed as they stood up.

"How humiliating," Emma muttered. "It looked like it'd be chewy, but I didn't know it'd stay in there forever. I swear it sewed my mouth shut."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Two hours later, Emma (and her stomach) were exhausted from roller coasters and throwing baseballs. She clutched the little beanie dinosaur she'd won on a fluke on the ring toss, and the much larger teddy bear J.C. had won for her throwing baseballs at bottle pyramids.

"You sure you don't want another stuffed animal to sleep with?" she joked to J.C.

"Haha, funny," he guffawed. "No, this will be your souvenir."

"All right," she said, tucking it under her arm. "Mr. Bear is mine."

"What now?" he asked. "I think we've done nearly everything."

"Let's go on something tame," she said. "I'm still walking like I'm on uneven ground."

"Ferris wheel?" J.C. asked, gesturing to the line.

"Wow, I haven't been on those things since I was little," Emma exclaimed. "All right, I'm down."

Emma asked the attendant if she could leave Mr. Bear with him, since she wasn't allowed to bring him on. The attendant grunted and laid the animal on the ground.

They climbed on in silence.

"Does this sort of thing relax you, or are you constantly on mindset of mob paranoia?" Emma asked suddenly.

J.C. looked at her in surprise. "What do you mean?"

Emma gestured at the park around them as they began to elevate. "Just hanging out like regular folk. Do you get into J.C. the Regular Guy mode, or look around in panic to see if girls are following you all the time?"

J.C. laughed at the question. "Hummmm. I don't know. I guess I think of times like this as an escape, where I can pretend no one knows who I am. And adults don't know who I am, so it's even easier. Teenage girls, if they're around, can make that difficult. Don't get me wrong -- I'm thankful for the attention. But I'm just glad I'm not Michael Jackson, unable to go anywhere, can't hang out with a friend."