For School

A loud SWAT team-like knock nearly gave me a heart attack that early Saturday morning. I tore my eyes from the living room TV to stare at the front door, where the knock was coming from. I wasn’t feeling up for moving, so I continued to stare, vaguely wondering who was on the other side.

Another loud set of knocks later before I turned my attention to the stairs, now hearing footsteps - my mother being the owner. She scoffed in a totally non-demeaning manner when I came to her view.

“Way to answer the door, butt-munch,” she sneered, sticking her tongue out at me. I threw a shrug her way as she unlocked and peeled open the door. In the entrance stood my dad.

Oh, right. We’re going to King’s Island today.

A thought hit me like a freight train. I looked to my left as if my best friend would suddenly be sitting there. Oh, right. We’re going to King’s Island today - and Darian’s not here yet. I felt an odd sense of fear. Who am I going to scream Bloody Murder with on all the rides? I’ve never been on a rollercoaster before.

I didn’t want to go anymore.

Nonetheless, when they both urged me to get dressed and prepared, all I did was reluctantly throw on some seemingly clean clothes and drop a water bottle into my Nike bag. I slyly mentioned to my father that my friend who was supposed to be going with us was all the way in Graham, staying with a friend, and if he wanted me to go, he’d pick her up.

Heh. Bribes.

After a tiresome sigh, he said, “Alright, I guess.” He turned to my mom as I gave her a hug goodbye. “I’ll try to have her back by eleven,” he added with no sense of promise. My mom bent down to plant a big ol’ mom kiss on my cheek; we said our farewells and departed for his blue truck. I opened the door to find my dad’s now girlfriend of however many years, her son Devon, and his friend Alyssa. They kindly scooted over for me and we all piled in.

After explaining the little detour we’d now be taking, we backed out of the parking space and drove the two rural cities over to where my love was residing. It took us quite some time, and - get this - she was still sleeping. Five calls and ten texts later, she came barreling out of some random house, her backpack in her grip. Apologies fell from her mouth repeatedly as she took a seat next to me. Words of acceptance were thrown back at her.

Without much further ado, we were finally back on the road, all passengers in the car. Within the next hour, we pulled into the large and nearly completely filled parking lot of King’s Island. After shoving a bag of chips into my drawstring bag, Darian and I followed suit with everyone else as they filed out of the truck.

I gave an attempt at listening to my dad go on about safety and all that jazz. Upon reaching the toll booth, we all got into our little groups - my dad and his girlfriend, her son and his friend, me and Darian - and went our separate ways.

The first ride we went on was Delirium, but, according to Darian, not a roller-coaster. Nonetheless, after kicking off our shoes and setting them aside, I plopped myself down into a seat to the right of Darian. Mid conversation, the floor suddenly broke apart and collapsed down.

“Dude, that’s supposed to happen,” she laughed at my appalled face. I didn’t get anything out as a response - other than a grunt of horror - before we slowly started to rotate, and rise several feet off the ground. We locked hands as if to say ‘If I fall, I’m taking you down with me.’

The higher and higher we got from the ground, the faster we knocked side from side. I’ll admit it was quite relaxing, and seeing all the people below shrink down to the size of ants was mildly captivating, but my heartbeat wouldn’t stop pounding in my ears.

Soon that ride ended and we were onto my very first ‘thrill-ride’: Invertigo.

Waiting in line, Darian told me, “We have to find the most frightened people ever and sit with them– it’s hilarious to watch their faces. Trust me; you’ll die laughing.”

She is so evil.

I love her.

I couldn’t pass that up and agreed a bit too eagerly. The further up we got in line to the actual ride, the antsier I became. What if I’m the one who’s freaking out? And then people we’re sitting with laugh at me? Despite all that, when we made the line cut-off, Darian grabbed my hand and started gazing at each individual seat and the people already sitting in them. But we took too long, and had to pick a seat that was completely empty; no one in front us to gawk at.

When it seemed like all was lost, this shady guy in a park uniform was suddenly right beside me. On either side of him, though, was two girls and you just knew by looking at them that this was their first rollercoaster. I heard Darian laugh out in victory as he told the girls they were to sit in front of us.

Before walking off, he said to them, “Pull the safety bar down until you hear it click or else you’ll fall out.” The smirk on his face was gut-wrenching to them and they let out the same grunt of horror like I did before going on Delirium. I felt bad for laughing, praying this wasn’t a form of bullying.

Darian asked the two, “Is this your first rollercoaster?” They both nodded with wide eyes. I saw them grip their hands together. The guilt of laughing at their pain was getting to me, so I chuckled understandably.

“Same here; I am freaking out.”

Just then, the ride jerked to life, making the girls in front of us scream in shock. And when the rollercoaster started to inch its way backwards – for them – they shrieked again. Darian began to laugh as we shift vertically. I felt the force of gravity push me into my seat and watched it pull them out of theirs. Their hectic screams were starting to make me laugh along with Darian, but I still felt bad so I tried to hold it back.

My eyes suddenly fixed on the girl in the seat across from me. Her necklace. It was almost falling off her head. I thought as a way to make it up to them for laughing, I would at least try to catch her necklace if it fell off.

Reaching the top of the rollercoaster – after a grueling eternity – the ride stopped. Darian urged to me to look down, which I unfortunately did. We were amazingly high up; everything below looked like little toys. My heart caught in my throat. I didn’t get to enjoy the view for too long before we were abruptly flinging down the tracks.

This time, Darian and I screamed right along with them. The ride suddenly swung to the right and now we were the ones facing the wrong way. The tracks veered slightly to the left and then the right before sailing down. We slowed down again as we tilted to the ground.
Darian and I were now being in the girls’ shoes as we got pulled from our seats -yet they were still screaming like crazy while we laughed as if we were insane. My heartbeat was there to remind me I was zillions of feet off the ground. I glanced around me to be oddly relaxed by the sight of the shrinking amusement park.

The feeling of euphoria didn’t last long before we reached the end of the tracks and came to a stop.

“Oh, God!” I wailed knowing what this meant. Darian shared the feeling as she went for my hand. Before the ride even moved, our squeals filled the air. They were piercingly loud when we flew down the tracks once more. We veered to the left and then swung around the right, and finally to the left one last time. The tracks swooped down and then we were going flat against the ground.

That was it. The ride was over.

My legs were wobbling from shaking so bad. The adrenaline, I blame. Darian and I bursted out laughing at the sight.

“Now, that wasn’t too bad, was it?” she wanted to know.

“That,” I started, trying to catch my breath, “was awesome!” We high fived and walked to a vending machine to get a bottle of water.

See, I knew I could do it; my first roller-coaster and I survived. I guess you could say I am one tough cookie.