A White Lie

Chapter 6: Ups and Downs

 CHAPTER SIX: Ups and Downs

“Are you serious?” I asked Xavier in horror.

“Yeah, it was a new pair of shoes too,” whined Xavier. He was telling us the story of one of his dates that puked on his shoes after a roller coaster ride.

“That’s disgusting,” Cassandra commented while shaking her head.

“I haven’t been to a theme park in ages! Let’s go to Luna Park this weekend,” Jennifer suggested after sipping her cup of tea.

“Same here. It’d be fun.”

“Let’s do it!”

***

“I’m going to ride all the rides!” I claimed.

“Let’s do this!” The four of us were walking side by side as we entered the brightly lit up entrance, which was actually a clown’s mouth. We lined up at the ticket booth and waited for our turns. Looking around, I felt my stomach lurch with anticipation as I saw the wild rides and heard the screams. I impatiently tapped my foot as I waited for the middle school students buy their tickets.

“Four adult tickets please,” I told the girl behind the counter who looked not more than 17. She nodded and robotically printed out four tickets and passed them to us after we paid. After wrapping the ticket around our wrists, the four of us showed the security guard who let us in.

On my left was the Flying Saucer, which spun so quickly you could barely see the decorated saucer and on my right was the Tango Train, which just kept going up and in rounds of circle.

“What do we ride first?” Xavier asked.

“Let’s ride the Wild Mouse,” Cassandra suggested, looking up from the brochure.

“The Flying Saucer looks so interesting though. Besides, shouldn’t we work our way in?” Cassandra rolled her eyes at me.

“We’ll be able to ride all the rides, don’t worry. It only takes 61 seconds and it runs on a 400m track,” Cassandra said, reading off the brochure.

“Let’s do it!” Knowing that arguing with them would only waste time, I followed them as we made our way to the ride. I scoffed when I saw the ride.

“This looks like it’s made for kids,” I told them, eyeing the small cars on the tracks that moved so slowly.

“C’mon, there isn’t a line. Let’s just ride it,” Cassandra convinced us. Sighing, I scanned the wristband and got into a kart with Cassandra behind me. Since this each kart could only fit two, Xavier and Jennifer got into another one behind us. Once we told the worker we were ready, he pushed us and we went down the slope.

“This is stupid,” I muttered as the ride slowly went back up the slope. Before Cassandra could say anything, the kart came to a cornering, but instead of slowing down and turning right to follow the track, it sped up. My heart started beating quickly. Is it going to go off track? Oh my god. I let out a loud scream and shut my eyes, waiting for our kart to go off track and fall.

However, before the kart could go off track, it made a very sharp turn and continued following the ups and downs of the slope. I noticed that the kart would speed up at every cornering, giving the impression that it would go off track. Even though it was predictable, it was still scary. Just as the kart went down a slope, it stopped in front of a sign that wrote, ‘BEWARE’ in big, bold red letters. Just as I read it, the kart did another sharp turn and immediately went down one of the steepest slopes ever. I clutched onto the handlebar of the kart as tightly as I could, fearing for my life.