Wish I Were Quackity - Skephalo

Busch Gardens

Today is the day that I go to the friend gathering, which is going to be at Busch Gardens. I made sure to get up early to get there on time as the car ride there will be about 1 to 2 hours. I'm currently driving there while snacking on some chips that Melody packed for me, along with a bottle of water for the car ride. When she first found out about this gathering, she expressed excitement and high hopes for me, and this morning, she wished me good luck to drive safely and hoped that I would have fun. I, too, hope that I end up having a good time. I really wouldn't like for all this drama to be a part of why theme parks will be ruined for me. Which would be a shame as I love theme parks.

I'm still quite nervous and worried as to how my friends will treat me due to what happened with Quackity. I already know that Bad will be as attentive as he can with me, (as usual when they hang out) but he only mentioned to me once after I agreed to go to Busch Gardens that the others knew that I was going, but Bad never mentioned what they're reaction was. If I'm being honest, I didn't ask because I didn't feel like knowing at the time, because if I knew that the others reacted badly, then I would've reconsidered if I should go.

But I'm on my way there already, the ticket has been bought. There is no turning back now. Either way, I can't help but slowly get more nervous the closer I get to the destination. At the moment, it's just a long, nervewrecking waiting game as I drive my car. I don't know if whether I want to car ride to somehow last longer or go by super fast. But I try to calm myself down by reminding myself that sooner or later, it'll be over. For now, I just have to wait patiently.

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I just arrived at Busch Gardens. After a car ride, parking my car, and being permitted into the park after my ticket being scanned and walking through a metal detector to check if I have any weapons on me, I'm finally here. Now all I have to do is find my friends. It was agreed that we would meet up somewhere near the entrance of the park after the whole procedures to be permitted in. About a minute ago, Bad sent me a text saying that everyone else had arrived. I just need to find the group.

I stand in place for a few moments, carefully scanning the area around me to see if I can catch the glance of any of my friends in the area around me. After a moment, I catch sight of someone familiar walking towards me in the distance. I immediately smile upon realizing that Bad is coming up to me, with a smile also on his face. I start to quickly walk up to him as well to be right next to each other quicker. Once we're close enough, in unison, we open our arms and wrap them around each other in an embrace. Bad exclaims excitedly over my shoulder, "Skeppyyy!"

I giggle and say, "Hey Bad! I'm so happy to see you!"

"Me too~!"

He says it in a bit of a sing-song voice. After a nice moment, we pull away from the hug, still smiling at each other. Bad asks, "Ready to get on some rides?"

I grin at him and say, "You bet I am!"

He giggles at that. I take a moment to admire his face as he giggles in delight. Once his giggles stop, he says, "Well, come on! Let me take you to the others. They're waiting for us!"

That almost wipes my whole smile from my face. Sh*t- I forgot about that for a moment. In the pure moment of happiness that I shared with Bad, I kind of believed that I'm only going to be spending the day with him. I really feel nervous to be around the others. But I try my best to muster a smile as I say, "Of course. Let's go!"

And with that, Bad leads me over to our friends. As we walk, I realize that they are actually off in the distance, staring straight at us as we walk up to them. They must have been watching Bad and I's whole interaction from afar. That makes me wonder, did they fully intend to stay behind so that they didn't have to greet me sooner, or did Bad just immediately jump at the chance to greet me, leaving the others behind? Who knows.

As I inspect the group, I take notice of who's present, since Bad did say that not everyone in the usual group was able to come. I see that Red, Ant, and Karl are here. Oh, goodie. By convenience, everyone who was there to witness the whole incident with Quackity is here. Once we got close enough to the others, we stopped. I give the best smile I could muster and say, "Hi guys..."

There was a moment of silence as they all exchanged each other looks, but soon enough, they greeted me out of politeness. Even so, the greeting felt a bit forced, almost as if they didn't even want to speak to me. Red and Ant both had a serious aura to them when looking at me, even though they tried to avoid looking at me as much as they could, while Karl seemed a bit more hesitant rather than serious, but he still kept quiet, as if he were scared of me. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch Bad sending me an awkwardly nervous yet sympathetic smile as if trying to say that everything will be fine. Hopefully, it is because so far, it doesn't really feel like I'm welcomed, even though I was invited.

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I must say that overall, I had a pretty good time at Busch Gardens, even though it was all thanks to Bad. All of our other friends, if I can still questionably call them my friends, pretty much ignored me the whole time. Not once did they voluntarily choose to interact with me. If they did, it was because they felt forced to it. Red and Ant easily disregarded me and were kinda passive-aggressive towards me while Karl tried his best to be polite, but regardless, he tried his best to avoid interacting with me. I noticed this behavior rather quickly, so I decided pretty early that I wouldn't pay them much mind or let them affect my mood, despite their actions still slightly hurting my feelings. I kinda had a feeling something like this would happen either way.

So, obviously, I was pretty much spending the whole time with Bad. I had a pretty great time with him. We would just hang out as we normally would, with our jokes, casual conversations, hilarious fights, and my attempts to troll him. It almost felt like it was only him and I were hanging out at Busch Gardens, even though the other three were always walking near us, as they didn't bother to talk with us much as they didn't want to talk with me in specific. Even so, I was able to enjoy all the rides with Bad's company.

At the end of the day, Bad even requested to walk with me to my car. I agreed as this would mean that we would part ways earlier from the others, and I would be able to hang out with just Bad for a little bit. So we bid the others farewell, and happily walked to where I parked my car as we chatted. Once we got there, I told Bad that I could take him to where his car was parked if he wanted to. He said that I didn't need to do that since his car wasn't actually too far away from mine. But what gave a great conclusion to that day was that when we bid our farewells, Bad gave me a warm smile and said, "Thank you, Skeppy, for this great day. Your presence alone was able to make things much more lively for me, as always. This is a contrast to how I would've enjoyed my day if you weren't here."

The words kept repeating in my head on the car ride back home. A smile was able to maintain on my face, as I now know just how much I am able to make Bad happy.