Amnesia

Chapter 12

The sun streams in from behind the curtains, an alarm for me and Evan. We both drag ourselves out of bed and get changed, then go to the cafe for breakfast.
"After my lectures, challenge three shall commence" I grin as I take a drink out of my coffee.
   He smirks, getting his spoon and eating his cereal.
  "These challenges are pretty expensive, so you owe me."

I laugh, then get up for my lectures. The lectures are an hour each, and my notebook is nearly done from a of the notes I had to take. I met Evan at the entrance of college, and with no hesitation handed me the list, covering the ones I haven't done yet with his hand.
   "Biggest zip line in the world?!" I cried out in despair and shock. "Are you serious Evan?" He nods mischievously.
  "Indeed I am, and it was pretty pricey too."
I groan loudly as we walked out into the rain. Evan offered to give me an umbrella, but I shook my head.
  "Rain is my favourite weather!" I yell over the sound of raindrops hitting pipes and thunder.
I spin around, jumping in puddles like a child. I'm disappointed at the the sight of his car in the carpark.

We hop in, getting the seats of his car all wet. He catches me glancing at my timetable from my bag.
"Don't worry, we'll only be an hour, you'll have time to study." He reassures.
   During the silence of the car trip, Evan and I begin to talk at the same time.
"You go first"
"No, no. You go first"
  "Evan, go first."
"Nooope"
"OK fine, I'll go first! How's your education and knowledge going?" I ask. He shrugs.
   "It's alright, I guess. How much longer till I'm fully better?"
At the last sentence his voice got scared and sounded like a little boy. I almost reach out and hold his hand, but that would be too far.
 
"Around six months" I say softly.
  He quickly changes the subject.
   "One of my questions for you is:
When's the competition? Because I've thought about it, and once you've completed the list, you can still record our sessions." He says the last sentence quietly.
   He doesn't pause to let me answer, and I don't press it.
"Second, how's your... Anorexia?" He asks softly, knowing it's a delicate subject.

"First, thank you very much Evan, you'll definitely be going to the competition. Second, yeah, I think I'm getting better. I'm not as afraid. Thank you for helping me."
 
I'm rewarded with a smile from him, then he signals ahead.
"We're here!" He exclaims. I exhale deeply, telling myself this zip wire will be fine.
I step out of the car and gaze at the view. There's a blanket of grass covering the area, flowers, trees, and benches scattered among the grass.
   I squint, my eyes searching the land for a zip line.

"Look up" Evan says from behind me. My eyes follow his finger. I gasp. This zip line is about the height of a very tall tree, and as long as two blue whales. That's what the sign says, anyway.
   He laughs at my expression, clearly enjoying my fear. He gestures for me to follow him towards the zip line. I force my feet to take the steps, though I really just want to run home, curl up in bed, and eat chips. 

We reach the zip line shop, get our bands and stamps,  and pay.
We wall up the hill, on our right side a huge transparent ball rolls down the hill, with people strapped to the side.
   Evan catches me staring. "Did I mention we're going on that after the zip line? Oopsies"
I glare at him, causing a light chuckle to rise from his throat.

Once at the top of the hill, we go into a shed and two young men give us helmets and help us with our harnesses. We queued up behind a good few people, giving me time to calm myself down, my anxiety getting worse then ever.
   I take deep breaths, Evan noticing I'm struggling. He tells me to sit down, hold my head in my hands, and relax.
"It's not that easy" I say between gasps. I still do the method, the anxiety slowly going back to normal.

Once it's our turn, I've completely calmed down, though still nervous, naturally. I make Evan go first, which he doesn't argue to. He clips his harness on, and with one big push he's flying over the fields of sheep. He laughing and yelling, his arms outstretched.
    After five minutes, he finally reaches the end, falling into the ramp covered in bits of bark. He gives me the thumbs up, and I inhale deeply, holding in my breath for a few seconds before letting the air out.

With trembling fingers I clip my harness onto the wire, steadying myself, ordering myself not to look down.
"Ready?" The man asks. I hesitantly nod. He gives me a hard push and I whizz through the sky. I scream, stupidly looking down. After two minutes, I compose myself.

I look out at the wispy clouds, the blue sky, the green fields, the fluffy white specks below me. I spread out my arms, lie on my tummy, and fly. The wind ruffles my hair, ripples through my clothes. I'm disappointed as my harness jults and I crash into the ramp, wanting it to last longer. I would go again if it wasn't so expensive.

I take off my helmet and harness, then search for Evan. I find him already queueing for the rolling ball. I join him, adrenalin pumping through me. The adrenaline makes me want to get into the ball.
   There's not too much of a queue, so we wait about five minutes, and put our helmets on. We climb into the ball, the assistant strapping us in and checking that we're secure and won't fall out. He zips the ball up, and gives us a push down the hill.

The whole world spins, my eyes seeing ground and sky repeatedly. My head reels, my tummy churns, but I laugh. I scream and laugh along with Evan, even when we launch into the air after going into a rock. Once we land, my tummy literally does a flip.

I don't want to go into details, but it ended up Evan having to change and glaring at me for the rest of the day. It was not pleasant.