You Were Always on My Mind

I wake up in the morning to an empty bed and get a little worried. I sit up and look around the room and see Samantha packing her books from her bookshelf. I watch her for a while, trying to fully wake up.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to wake you,” Sammy says when she notices I’m awake.

“You didn’t wake me up. I just decided to watch you pack,” I assure her.

“Since everything has been so hectic in La Push, I just decided to let you get a good amount of sleep here.”

“So far, I’ve gotten the best sleep ever here.”

“Good,” Sammy responds and finishes packing her last books and joins me in bed. I caress her cheek and lean in to kiss her.

“This definitely makes San Diego a whole lot better,” I comment.

“So what do you want to do today?” Sammy asks, very eager.

“This is kind of a stretch, but I’ve never been to Disneyland,” I state a little hesitantly. Sammy thinks about it for a few seconds.

“You’ve never been to the happiest place on Earth,” she says calmly then smiles at me, “I think we can change that, let me just go talk to my mom cause its a two to three hour drive.”

“Only if it’s not a problem for you guys,” I tell her.

“Of course not, I’ll be right back,” she says then kisses me quickly on the lips and hops off her bed. I get off the bed and check to see if the book box is fully packed then tape it shut and label it. Sammy is going to permanently move to Washington in just two days. I check the clock and it’s 8 in the morning, good timing to leave. I change while Sammy’s gone into a pair of shorts that she got me while I was here and a vneck t-shirt.

“So my mom said it’s fine,” Sammy says nonchalantly as she walks into the room, but I know she’ll explode with joy any second now.

“Do we bring anything to Disneyland?” I ask unsure. Sammy laughs a little but hugs me and smiles.

“Just money and my phone as a camera,” she informs me. This is one of the biggest smiles I’ve seen on her face.

“Well get ready then,” I tell her laughing and she runs into her closet and closes the door. I head to the bathroom and shave my face, brush my teeth, and somewhat comb my hair. Sammy joins me and brushes her teeth and washes her face then applies some makeup.
“How do I look?” She asks swirling around. Sammy’s wearing a white lace skirt and a pink tank top.

“Perfect as always,” I answer kissing her lips softly.

“Okay, so let me grab my purse and I will drive my mom’s car since she has Luke’s,” she lists off and hurries to her room. I grab my shoes and notice that she put on a pair of Minnie Mouse converse. We head downstairs and she hugs her mom goodbye.

“Don’t be out too late, and drive safely!” Ms. Charles warns, “And Jacob please keep my baby safe.”

“Will do,” I assure her as she hugs me goodbye as well.

I close the door behind the two of us and we get into her mom’s Ford Fusion. Sammy plays her phone through the car and it starts off with country music. Sammy is so excited she’s slightly shaking with joy.

“I really hate that I live so far from Disneyland cause the tension is going to kill me,” Sammy says speeding a little too much.

“Well lets try and get their in one piece so ease your foot off the gas pedal a bit,” I state laughing. She blushes a little but complies and now is only going five miles over the speed limit. “Thank you.”

“So any rides in particular that you want to go on?” She asks, smiling at me.

“I will let you be my tour guide and choose the rides,” I answer, smiling back.

Sammy tells me about all the best rides in Disneyland and all of the places to eat and how we have to get Mickey and Minnie mouse ears or else the trip isn’t complete. I let her talk out her enthusiasm and ask her about some of the rides there. We talk about Disneyland for about an hour into the ride and have half an hour to an hour to go if traffic is fine.

“So how have you been enjoying San Diego?” Sammy asks me.

“It’s very warm and sunny down here. I didn’t know my skin could get this dark,” I say laughing, “plus there’s a lot to do around your part of town unlike La Push where you have to drive an hour or two to get to any good towns.”

“Yeah, but I kind of like that about La Push,” Sammy comments, “it’s quiet and you always have family or friends to go and see instead of walking around malls for hours.”

“Well you haven’t been there for more than three months at a time, so you get a nice break from everyone,” I tell her and she laughs a little.

“This is true, but it’s a nice little town to start a family in too. Plus everyone looks out for one another.”

“Yeah, your dad definitely looked out for me when he moved up to Washington.”

“It’s just how he is. He always tries to take care of those around them,” Sammy says smiling. She holds my hand for the rest of the drive and sings along to her favorite radio stations.

Samantha pulls into the parking lot and is almost jumping out of her seat with joy. When we park she almost sprints out of the lot to go buy the tickets and I have to walk a lot faster to keep up with her. I grab her hand trying to slow her down.

“I hope you know that the park won’t close just because you walk to the entrance,” I tell her laughing.

“The lines are long though so the sooner we get there, the better,” Sammy informs me still trying to drag me along. I jog along next to her until we reach the booth to buy our tickets.

“Two adults tickets for both parks,” Sammy tells the lady at the booth.

“That will be $280,” the lady at the booth informs Sammy and Sammy slides her card over, but my jaw drops.

“I promise I will pay you back,” I whisper into Samantha’s ear.

“It’s fine, my mom has a savings account that has been open since her first paycheck. Also, she really likes you,” Sammy tells me. I decide that I will secretly slip them the money when I get it. We head into the park entrance and scan our passes then get a blacklight stamp on our hand.

“First thing we need to do is get someone to take our photo in front of the Mickey Mouse head.”

“There’s staff that will do it for free in the red vests,” the lady scanning our ticket us and Sammy skips off to go find one.

“Could you please take a photo of us in front of the disney sign with my phone?” Sammy asks the first staff member she finds.

“Of course,” the guy responds. Sammy jumps onto my back and we pose in front of the large Mickey Mouse head. He takes three photos to be safe then hands us back the phone.

“Thank you so much,” Sammy says to the worker then walks off with me. We take photos with any characters we see as Sammy leads us around the park. The first place we stop at is the Mad Hatter Store. Sammy looks around and finds some sparkly Minnie Mouse ears.

“I feel like you already own a pair of those,” I state looking at all the different designs.

“I do,” she replies laughing and puts them back. “You should get these and get your name on the back.”

Sammy hands me a pair of plain black ears on a cap. I inspect them a little and decide that this will be good enough for a souvenir.

“How about you get these and get your name on the back,” I suggest handing her the same hat with Minnie ears.

“I do not own these yet so that sounds perfect,” Sammy says smiling at me. We go to pay for our hats which are too pricey for my liking then get them etched with our names. We put on our hats and Sammy takes a goofy picture with us and our hats.

“I’m sending this to my dad to show to yours,” she says smiling, “we’re showing you how to have a good time in Southern California.”

“He’ll love that photo,” I reply laughing and she takes my hand and leads us out of the store. “Where to next?”

“We should get fast passes for all the rides in Tomorrowland then go on the rides,” she tells me.

“Don’t fast passes cost extra money?” I ask unsure.

“Nope, you just have to go at the right timing,” she answers and takes us to get our fast rides passes. We ride on Star Tours, Astro Orbitor (although I didn’t quite fit into the seat, it was still fun), and Space Mountain which was crazy fun.

“Next we’re off to get our fast passes to Frontierland and Adventureland,” she informs me easily walking around the park. We stop in front of the castle and get a stranger to take a photo of us with and without our new hats.

“So the only good ride in Frontierland is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but it’s a lot of fun,” she assures me. This roller coaster twists and turns more than it drops and Sammy has her arms up the whole time screaming with the rest of the people on the roller coaster.

“So how’s Disneyland so far?” She asks me super excited on our way to Indiana Jones, yet another series of movies she made me watch with her one summer.

“It is definitely one of the happiest places on Earth, especially for you,” I say laughing, “but I’m definitely having a lot of fun here with you.”

“Good, and hopefully I’m being a good guide and taking you on rides you enjoy and letting you take in all the beauty around you,” she states twirling around.

“You’re all the beauty I need,” I whisper into her ear and kiss her cheek. Since we’re in public, I just wrap an arm around her waist as we walk trying not to be too touchy. In Adventureland, we go on the Indiana Jones ride, Tarzan’s Treehouse (I got easily scared by the leopard in the corner of one room and Sammy ran off giggling), and Pirates of the Caribbean which may I say is very detailed. Sammy found a few characters as we walked to Fantasy World, the one that sounds least enticing, and she found them all when there was a small line if any.

“How do you get the characters when there’s no line?” I ask in awe of her sorcery.

“I just get lucky, maybe the man upstairs wants you to enjoy Disneyland to it’s fullest,” she states laughing. “By the way, would you like to walk through the castle and see Sleeping Beauty’s story? If not, I’ve been through it twice already and have taken lots of photos.”

“I’ll pass on this one,” I say laughing a little and very relieved.

“So after this one ride, we can go get a late lunch then enjoy California Adventure if you want,” she tells me. I love the fact that she’s considerate enough to give me a choice although I’ve been letting her lead me around everywhere.

“Sounds perfect,” I reply.

“Plus some of the cool shops happen to be by where I want to eat,” she states nonchalantly.

“You have bought enough for me,” I insist already feeling bad about my debt to her mom.

“My mom said that you need some Disney gear and that it wouldn’t hurt to bring everyone a little present up North,” Sammy says, “honestly Jake, it’s not a problem don’t stress about it too much please.”

I don’t respond, but I’m not upset and I think she can tell that much. We walk to our last ride in Disneyland, which turns out to be the Mad Tea Party. Sammy and I spin the cup as fast as we can, thanks to our new muscles and energy and almost get sick enough to puke. We sit on a bench for a few minutes before getting up to settle our stomachs afterwards.

“That was the most fun I’ve had all day, but I totally regret it at the same time,” Sammy says laughing and trying not to move too fast.

“I think I’m good, at least everything stopped spinning but that could change when I start walking,” I tell her, laughing too.

“Okay, lets try and get some food in us because I am staaarving,” Sammy states slowly getting up. We easily make our way out of the park and to Downtown Disney. “Let’s go to Naples, it’s this Italian place and I am in the mood for some filling pasta!”

“Is it expensive?” I can’t help but ask.

“Could you just please accept my mother’s generous offers. She’s not going to have kids in the house for maybe a year, depending on whether Luke gets custody or not and she loves to spoil people plus she rarely sees you and hasn’t really been able to give you presents so just accept this for all of the years she couldn’t get you birthday and Christmas presents,” Sammy pleads with me.

“Fine,” I reply and attempt to think of it that way so I’m not drowned in my own guilt. We get to the restaurant and all the servers are very nice and quickly find us a table. We order quite a bit just realizing our hunger especially since we didn’t eat breakfast. We each order a pasta and salad, and Sammy orders us an appetizer. We easily eat everything and are still hungry so we order a little too many things from the dessert menu because our waiter is in awe that we can eat this much.

“You’re both well fed at home, right?” The waiter jokes taking our menus.

“I don’t know how we’d be able to afford this if we weren’t,” I joke and the waiter laughs.

“That is very true,” he says still laughing and heads off to get our dessert.

“Aren’t you happy we came here? The food is delicious and filling yet we’re still hungry,” Sammy says laughing.

“We need to control our appetites a bit more in public,” I tell her laughing.

“Yeah, but I can’t help it, I was soooo hungry when we came in here,” Sammy states, rubbing her tummy in content. The waiter quickly comes back with our dessert and Sammy squeals with delight. The waiter laughs and leaves us to pastries. We each eat half of everything to taste it all and slowly fall in love with the Italian culture.

“This was so delicious,” Sammy declares rubbing her stomach some more. “Now lets go walk it off by shopping!”

“Whatever your heart desires,” I tell her laughing. We get up and go to the front counter to pay and Sammy makes sure I don’t read the bill. I can guess how much the overall cost was after looking at my prices. We first walk into a clothes store with Disney everything on it.

“I’m going to get your sister a jacket. Do you think this is cute?” Sammy asks posing with a Minnie Mouse hoodie that has the bow on top. “And then I can get Paul the Mickey one…”

“It’s cute, but you don’t want something like that for us?” I ask not wanting to influence my sister’s relationship.

“Yeah, but Rachel’s really the only one who needs a hoodie in our group,” Sammy says smiling. I didn’t even think about that.

“Okay then, that makes sense.”

I have over $100 in my bank account, I could always use my card and get Samantha something nice while she’s shopping for the others. I look at my watch and it’s only 4 o’clock so we’ll probably spend an hour in here then go to California Adventures so I have plenty of time to find something. I look around and notice a section with blankets and immediately go there. I find a blanket big enough for her with a large picture of the castle and the Disneyland logo going across the bottom. It’s only $30, and I quickly go to purchase it before she notices and ask the cashier to hold it until I come back to the cash register. I join Sammy again and see that she is struggling to carry everything all by herself.

“Sorry, I should’ve been helping you out but I wanted to look around first,” I apologize grabbing most of the stuff from her and holding it in a much more organized manner.

“No, you should be able to see everything. Well I got the matching jacket for Paul and I found matching phone cases for Nicole and Adam. Also, I found a cute necklace for Claire, hopefully she likes it but I don’t know her too well. I got Becka some sparkly Minnie ears and Embry regular Mickey ears and he’s goofy plus Becka has the Minnie ones so I hope he’ll like them,” Sammy states happy yet worried no one will enjoy her presents.

“I’m sure everyone will like the presents, breathe a little. Embry’s my best friend and he will love the ears,” I tell her holding onto her shoulders the best I can with all the stuff we’re holding. I find us a little carrier bag and put everything but the jackets into it. I notice a couples shirt near us. They’re both tank tops and the girls says beauty with a bow and the guys says beast with a barbell and weights.

“Sammy, what about these for us?” I ask pointing out the shirts.

“See, we don’t need jackets,” she says with a huge smile on her face and finds our sizes. “Plus this will be nice when I just want to feel the wind blow up in Washington.”

I put them across my arm with the jackets and follow her along as we get gifts for the others. She ends up getting Amy a plush Pascal and Nick a Mickey Mouse mug with his name in Disney font on it. She gets our dads mugs with their favorite characters and names on it as well. Alex gets R2-D2 ears since that’s his favorite character. Jared gets a pair of Avengers pajama pants and a Captain America hoodie. She gets Johnny a Darth Vader jacket with a cape and a lightsaber. We take the stuff to the register and the lady rings us up. She gives us some discounts since we bought so much and she felt bad for us since we were spending so much. After Sammy pays and starts to walk out with her bags, the lady at the cash register hands me my bag and I hide it with the others I’m carrying then follow Sammy to California Adventures. She rents out a locker to keep our stuff at and as I guessed, we were in the store for an hour giving us five hours left at the park.

“So I was thinking our first ride could be Grizzly River Run since it’s closest to the entrance,” Sammy tells me.

“Wherever you would like to go, I will follow. I trust your opinion,” I reply grabbing her hand. She leads us toward the ride and I see that it’s similar to river rafting. We take some goofy photos while we wait in line since we have enough time to not need fastlane passes.

“I can’t believe you’re transferring to be with me,” I state, “I am so lucky.”

“Be happy that my dad decided to move next door to your dad or else we never would’ve met,” Sammy responds laughing. “Imagine your childhood without making mudpies with a little crazy girl!”

“Or that crazy girl growing up and making me stay up all night to watch movies with her!”

“I was helping you learn the art culture of movies.”

“We will continue this later, because we have a ride to get on.”

“How many?” one of the staff asks us.

“Just two,” Sammy answers with a smile.

“Go to the second one on the left.”

“Thank you,” Sammy says then we join some other people on the raft. The ride is a lot more fun than I thought and we all got pretty wet from all of the drops. Next, we head over to California Screamin’. It is one of the fastest rides and it is also one of the shortest. Right next to California Screamin, is Toy Story Midway Mania where you get to compete with your partner to blast the most targets. Sammy won, but I could tell she has went on this ride a few too many times although she tried to deny it when I brought it up.

“We don’t go to Disneyland that often,” Sammy defends herself, but she knows the park well enough to know that she goes more than the average person in Southern California.

Next we go to the Tower of Terror which Sammy informs me is probably our last ride.

“You do realize we still have two hours right?” I tell her.

“I’d suggest Radiator Springs, but it’s not as fun as it looks,” Sammy tells me. We wait in line for Tower of Terror which has one of the longest wait times.

“I wonder how everything is going in La Push,” Sammy randomly says.

“Don’t worry about them, remember this is supposed to be a relaxing trip,” I tell her.

“I know, but right now something’s just not sitting right in my stomach,” Sammy says. I felt it too, but I thought maybe we ate too much food.

“Sammy, they have everything taken care of there. Sam is really good at what he does and if he has any troubles, he can just ask the elders for advice. Plus, we’re over twenty hours away and can’t do much anyways.”

“That’s true,” she replies and takes in a deep breathe and tries to smile at me, but I can tell her mind isn’t fully off it.

We finally reach the front of the line and Sammy is squeezing my hand more than normal. There are a lot of kids on this ride with us who look terrified. I start to get a little worried then watch the story on the TV. We head to the elevator next and there’s a few rows of seats similar to a small theatre. We take our seats and Sammy only let’s go of my hand to put on her seatbelt.

“I’ve only been on this once and it terrified me,” Sammy confesses smiling weakly at me.

“Then why’d you choose it?” I ask laughing a little.

“It filled me with adrenaline and I thought you should experience it.”

Another screen appears and tells us that there’s a problem with the elevator and to hold on tight and enjoy the ride. The elevator shoots back then up and we’re soaring through the tower. We go up and down multiple times and get to see the whole park before one drop. When the ride’s over Sammy unbuckles her seat belt but let’s everyone else out first. She walks a little unstable and I wrap an arm around her waist, but she seems fine.

“I really hate heights,” she states. I just laugh and let her guide us to our locker. After we grab our stuff, Sammy leads us back to the area in front of California Screamin where a bunch of people are gathered next to the water. We take a spot next to the railing and asks a lady near us to take our photo. She complies while we save her spot by the railing and takes a few good photos of us. We thank her then sit down next to the railing, facing the water. As the time passes more and more people gather around the area as Sammy leans against me.

Around 9, what we’ve been waiting for finally appears. It’s called the World of Color and it’s a water show. They play Disney music and play out the scenes with the water and projectors. It is probably the most exciting thing I’ve watched and I wish I had come to Disneyland sooner.

After the show ends, Sammy and I wait a while for the area to clear before getting up. We grab our stuff, counting our bags to make sure we have everything then head back to the parking lots. A little trolley takes us to the parking lot so we don’t have to walk too much. Sammy drives us back and we let the stereo play a little too loud to keep us awake. She goes through a Starbucks and gets us some coffee before we leave for our two hour trip. We wake up a little and Sammy kind of sings along to the songs, but she’s too tired to go full out and sing the full song. Once we get back to the house, we carry our stuff inside and her mom greets us, but lets us head to bed seeing that we’re tired.

“Glad you had fun,” she calls out, “sleep well!”

Sammy and I take off our shoes and hats then collapse into bed and immediately fall asleep.