An Attack Helicopter Brought us Together

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Ember POV

I lie on my bed, too seething to bother reading, staring at the ceiling. Why is Tae such a prick about Blossom? Blossom chirrups next to me, batting my nose with a pink toe-beaned white-furred paw.

"You're right," I sigh, watching her green eyes blink gently in the dim light, then add grudgingly, "He did have his dog first. Although it's a silly little yappy thing." I stroke her pale grey and white fuzz affectionately, "Anyway, we'll be off in the attack helicopter in two days, then we don't have to deal with these guys any more. I guess you'll just have to stay in here-"

"HEY!!!" Penelope bounds into the room, "Before we leave we're gonna go to A CARNIVAL with BTS to say BUH-BYE!!! It's going to be SO MUCH FUN!!!"

"Wait, are we going now?" I sit up, blinking in the burst of light.

"HECK YAS GAL C'MON!!!" Penelope scurries out, then comes back and adds as an afterthought, "And wear something fun. I don't wanna see any of those suits."

"Penelope, I don't wear suits-" but she's already galloping away, squealing with excitement.

I sigh, give little Blossom a scratch under the chin, and change into ripped shorts and an orange-and-white striped t-shirt with flowers embroidered in the corner. I sling my bag over my shoulder and leave some kibble out for Blossom, who's snoozing on my pillow. I close the door after me so she doesn't get out and annoy Tae's dog. Or rather, so that Tae's dog doesn't come in and maul her.

We all head down to the limo and zoom off to this carnival thing. All I can think about is Blossom. And the fact that Tae's sitting across from me and obviously avoiding looking even remotely in my direction. I shake my head. Sorta immature.

We pull up at the carnival and pile out. People are milling everywhere, so BTS put on really dark sunglasses to go incognito. Of course, they look like secret agents or like they're a group of blind people who use dark glasses to hide the fact that they're missing eyes or have grotesque wounds or cataracts.

Instantly, Emily sees the shooting arcade and we're all dragged over there. While Emily takes her turn shooting, I survey the prizes. Mostly they're plushies of giant cartoon characters or candy, neither of which I really want. My thoughts drift back to Blossom. How is she doing? Did I leave her enough food? Is-

"LISTEN, BOOMER," Emily screams, "HAND IT OVER."

The old man behind the counter is quivering as Emily points her gun at him. I see she missed a single shot by about a millimeter.

"Emily, just cool down," I whisper to her. She doesn't seem to hear.

"But- I- I can't, miss," the man stammers, "it's against paragraph 6 clause 237 of the global shooting gallery act to-"

"YOUR SHOOTING GALLERY ACT CAN GO TO HELL!"

"Don't worry," Junk comes out of the crowd, his chest puffed up, "I'll get it."

"Sure," Emily hisses. I can't help but wonder which prize she's so upset about not getting... and how is Junk- Jungkook going to get it for her?

Junk takes her gun and puts it back in his holder, then pulls down his glasses and waggles his eyebrows at the man. The man gasps and Junk puts a finger to his lips, signalling silence.

"Could you do a favour for BTS and their girlfriends?"

Girlfriends!? Holy hell. Ew. No. Everyone cringes slightly.

The man nods eagerly and hands over a large stuffed Fortnite llama - that's what she wanted? Huh. Okay. He also gives her a candy bag. Emily hugs her llama and gives Junk a single piece of candy as a reward. He looks so happy.

"So, where'd you wanna go next?" Emily asks nonchalantly, as though she hadn't just threatened an elderly man at a children's carnival with a hunting rifle.

I sort of want to go to the animal farm and pat the lambs and observe the antics of the speckled bantam hens, but I know they'd all laugh at me.

I let Serena exclaim, "THE DODGEMS!!!" and don't argue. Dodgems are sort of fun. We all head over and get in. I hop in a silver and green one that sort of reminded me of Blossom. They suddenly all jerk to life and I cling to the steering wheel with all my strength, trying not to get flung off.

I finally get it under control and steer it through the maze of crazy bumper cars. I almost get run down by Suga, who's trailing Penelope, who's utterly oblivious to him and ramming into people. Ha, interesting. The car jerks and my stomach drops as Serena slams into me.

"OUTTA MY WAY JIMIN JUST BLEW ME A KISS!" she screams as she re-rams me.

"I thought you didn't like him?"

"I. SORTA. DO." Serena cries as she slams my car over and over, "BUT. I. ALSO. SORTA. WANT. TO. SLAM. HIM. FOR. THAT!"

I let her pass and she races off, roaring at Jimin. I back into Emily, who's dancing in her car and making people crash because they're watching her and not where they're going.

"Sorry!"

Emily doesn't notice. I zip forwards and hit Penelope who's laughing her head off, then Suga slams into us because he wasn't expecting Penelope to have stopped so abruptly. Penelope frowns at Suga, then hurries off and rams Serena, who's still chasing Jimin. Serena and Penelope start fighting with their bumper cars. I backed away from Suga and hit Tae. Damn, I need to work on my reversing... I was always bad at it in my driving lessons...

"Hey," Tae says. I can't tell whether that's 'hey, don't hit my car' or 'hey, how's it going?'

"Hi," I reply through gritted teeth and zoom forward into Jimin, who's still trying to escape Serena. Then Serena catches up with him and we all get rammed back into Tae.

"Hahaha oof," Emily laughs and joins the traffic jam.

"HUG TIME!!!" Penelope veers over and slams into us as well.

I sigh, stuck right in the thick of it with Tae and Jimin breathing down my neck on either side. I can see Beverly and RM chasing each other, although Beverly has still got half an eye of Jimin. Speaking of Beverly, are pregnant women even supposed to go on this thing? Probably not, but she's not pregnant enough for anyone to notice.

Just before they come and join the crowd, the cars power down and we all hop off.

"Where next?" J-Hope pants, "I sorta wanna get food."

"ME TOO," Serena declares.

"Okay then," I shrug. I'm not hungry, but I might get something anyway.

We head over to the food trucks. The scent of hotdogs and icecreams and lollipops and chips and fairy floss and roast nuts and chocolate bombard me. I select a bag of caramel-chocolate coated nuts just for something novel. I stand around, nibbling a salty caramel almond, waiting for everyone to choose. When everyone's done, we all start walking.

"Uh... where're we going?" Beverly calls over her triple-scoop icecream.

"Dunno!" Penelope informs her flamboyantly, "Let's go to the mirror house, maybe?"

"Nah," Serena shakes her head, "That place is just plain annoying." Penelope looks downcast.

"Hey, look, a ferris wheel!" Jin shouts, pointing and almost dropping his hotdog.

No one objects as we make our way over to it.