"You know, I could drop you two off at a hotel somewhere if you want," Mr.Mayfield, Theresa's father, added, glancing at them in the rearview mirror as we drove along to Darien Lake.
Beth Youngman giggled. Jared Creek sighed and popped a Tums in his mouth. I, being the immature person I am, scrunched up my nose and faced forward, trying to concentrate on the 101 Dalmations Sing-Along, which was blasting in stereo for Theresa's little brother, Jacob.
"I thought you said you were going to save yourself for Taylor," Beth commented, turning her attention back to the scenery flying by outside of her window.
"Taylor who?" Kim moaned.
"I think she was talking to Cory," Theresa said, a smirk turning the corners of her lips upward.
Beth burst out laughing and Cory paused long enough to glare at Theresa for a quick moment before re-jamming his tongue into Kim's mouth.
"Oh admit it, Cory," Theresa went on, "you thought Taylor was a girl when you first saw him."
"Yeah," Beth joined in. "In fact, didn't you once call him a 'hot chick?'"
"Hey!" I said defensively, knowing that at least one of them had once said that I looked exactly like Taylor before.
"Yes, I do believe those were your exact words," Jared chimed in. "More than once, no less!"
"Yeah? So? Didn't everybody think that Taylor looked like a girl the first time they saw him?" Cory said.
"Yeah, probably," Theresa conceded with a shrug.
"I didn't," Beth said.
"Neither did I," I added.
Everyone turned to look at me(even Mr. Mayfield and Jacob) and then proceeded to burst out laughing. It took a moment for me to join in.
As you can probably guess, we were all in a pretty silly mood that morning. For the girls, it was probably the excitement of seeing the Teen Idols Themselves live and in concert. They were probably rubbing off on us guys because, as far as I could see, we didn't have any other reason to be excited.
I looked at my watch and noted that it was nearly eleven o'clock. We had been driving swiftly down the highway between where we lived and Darien Lake for a little over an hour.
It wasn't long, however, before our swift pace slowed down to a literal crawl-on-wheels as we neared the park. I guess we weren't the only ones who wanted to hang around and ride some of the rides for a little while before the concert because once the park came into view, traffic became wall-to-wall, bumper-to-bumper. It took us forty-five minutes to get only a half a mile down the road. It seemed much longer though, because of the way it had become a life or death situation for those of us in the vehicle with small bladders(myself not included).
But by the time we got to the park, the wait was not over. It took us a half hour to find a parking space, twenty minutes to walk to the gate(that's how far away we had to park), and then another fifteen minutes to find where the bathrooms were(pretty pathetic considering they're right next to the gate) where a certain three of us disappeared quickly.
"Females," Jared said after about ten minutes of waiting, rolling his eyes.
"Oh give them a break," Mr. Mayfield said. "There's probably four thousand women here today in all, and you know women and their small bladders. I'm not doubting that there's a long line in there."
"Yeah, it being one of only three bathrooms in the entire park," I added.
Jared shrugged, eyeing all the people that passed by us on their way somewhere else, the majority of which, as you can probably gather, were female ages nine to twentysomething and whoever they happened to bring with them to the concert. As I watched them, I eventually noticed them looking back at me in weird ways. I suddenly felt conspicuous.
"We're back," Beth announced as the girls walked back up to us. "Did you get our postcard?"
We laughed lightly at the joke, but no one dared reply.
"Where to?" Mr. Mayfield said, pulling a map of the park out of his back pocket and holding it so everyone could see.
"Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd like to hit the roller coasters first before the lines get too long," Theresa suggested.
I nodded. "That sounds like a good idea."
Beth and Jared nodded. Cory looked at Kim, obviously waiting for her to reply before he did. I won't make any comments but I will tell you that, looking at Cory, the only thing that came to mind was a dog on a leash and a whip.
"Ew, roller coasters," she said, scrunching up her nose. "The only roller coaster I've ever been on, I threw up three times afterwards, so I don't think that I want to go."
"Yeah," Cory agreed, stepping closer to his girlfriend.
Jared looked at him skeptically.
"Uh, Cory, the last time we were here, I believe there was a certain one of us who insisted on hitting every roller coaster at least three times throughout the day, on the hour if possible," he commented.
Cory gave him a death glare while the rest of us tried to suppress our laughter.
"Well," Mr. Mayfield interrupted, sensing the brewing fight, "you two could come with me and Jake. We're jut gonig to walk around and go on some kiddie rides and stuff like that." It was pretty obvious that he didn't actually want them to come. I guess he appreciated them constantly wrapping themselves around each other in front of his two year old son about as much as we liked them doing it in front of us.
But, Kim and Cory surprised all of us by agreeing to go with him for a little while. After a little bit of discussion, we all decided to meet around three by the Skycoaster(you know, one of those things where they pull you up a hundred and fifty feet or so and then drop you to what could very possibly be your death?) which was the most hard to miss ride in the park besides the ferris wheel, which was right next to it anyway. Mr. Mayfield handed Theresa some money and then we went our separate ways.
"Where to first?" Theresa asked as we began walking in the general direction of most of the roller coasters. "Judging by the direction we're going in now, we could go on the Viper, The Phantom, or the Mind Eraser."
I looked up at the large, steep, pastel green and red roller coaster longingly and said, "I haven't been on the Mind Eraser yet."
"Neither have I," Theresa said. "Did you want to go?"
"Sure," I said, nodding and shrugging.
"Well," Beth said, "Jared and I have both been on it before and based on the facts that Jared doesn't have much of a mind left to erase and I'm planning on keeping him around until after the concert at least, we agreed in advance to go on the Viper first."
"I think I understood that," Theresa said.
"I don't recall that being the reason we decided to go on the Viper first," he said. "I believe the reason was because you got a really bad headache after we went on the Mind Eraser and didn't feel good the rest of the day so you don't want to go on it today because you don't want to get sick in front of Taylor."
She narrowed her eyes and hit him as they wandered away in the direction of the Viper.
"Meet us back here!" Theresa called after them. Beth waved as a signal that she had heard.
"Shall we?" I said, gesturing toward the Mind Eraser.
"We shall," she said, smiling. "I heard this thing really throws you around," she said as we got in line.
"I heard that, too," I said, not sure of what else to say.
She looed up at the coasters as they were pulled up the hill and then sped at the fastest speed I had ever seen a roller coaster go(which probably isn't that fast for a roller coaster, but hey, I live in the middle of nowhere. Give me a break). It was evident in her eyes that she was becoming intimidated by the speed, sharp corners, and high hills.
"Nervous?"
"A little," she admitted. "I mean, I always get nervous before getting on any roller coaster. It's just a thing. I'll be fine by the time we get on."
"Okay," I said.
One thing I discovered that dai as we stood in line for the Mind Eraser for a good forty minutes without moving was that watching roller coasters can get very, very boring. It was just the same thing over and over again(no duh, right?). Theresa and I got so bored that we made a bet on which color coaster we were going to get. She voted for the red one, I voted for the pastel green. The loser had to buy the winner an object of their choice.
Every once in a while, one of the people on the ride at the time would make it kind of interesting for all the spectators down below by shouting something as they went down the very first hill. One guy shouted out to the crowd: "The truth is out there!" I guessed that he was a big Mulder and Scully fan.
Speaking of the X-Files, when the wait to get on was half over, I began to notice the people standing in front of us. From the way they were dressed, it was kind of hard to miss them, which I guessed was the complete opposite of what they wanted. But they were just dressed so...strangely, with hats that seemed to float above their heads as if there was something under them besides their heads, and sunglasses. Okay, I know that that shouldn't be so unusual. The thing that made it unusual was the fact that the hats weren't your usual hats. They were almost like spy hats. And the sunglasses looked unusually expensive. I don't know, maybe it's not that strange, but they caught my attention anyway.
I didn't get to stare for too much longer for before I knew it, the ride had arrived back at the platform and Theresa and I were piling into two of the seats, the strangely dressed people sitting in front of us.
You could tell that the guy running thr ride did it too often for his taste by his dull tone of voice.
"So hold onto your hats and enjoy the thrill of Darien Lake's newest roller coaster, the Mind Eraser," sounded more like, "Eat your peas and mind your manners."
But that was soon forgotten as were the two strangers sitting in front of us as the coaster(a red one) began pulling up the steep hill as slow as molasses in January. I began to wonder to myself, as I got full view of the huge parking lot below, if the ride was actually going to go that fast. I should've known better than to think that.
The ride seemed to pause momentarily at the top of the first hill and then, before you could recite the first three letters of your ABC's, we were whipping down the hill, being thrown around corners, and turning upside down at a dizzying speed. I could hear, as my head smacked up against the pads to my sides, Theresa laughing and screaming at the same time.
A short time later, the ride came to a sudden, gut-wrenching halt and we wer pulled gently back to the platform. An hour and fifteen minute wait for a minute and a half ride.
Theresa and I practically raced each other to the little place where they show the pictures they take of you while you're on the roller coaster on television screens. She was the first one to find it and immediately began to laugh.
In the picture, she was leaning very far forward, a smile on her face the size of the Grand Canyon, her mouth open in scream-form. I was in a much more comical position wiht my cheek pressed against one of the pads at my left, my hair practically covering my whole face. All you could see of the people in front of us was a few streaks of blonde which I assumed to be their hair.
Theresa immediately bought the picture(not to sound cheap or anything but, four bucks! Tell me that isn't a rip-off...). We walked out of the room and found Beth and Jared, who had been waiting for us for a good forty-five minutes. Together, we went to hunt for another ride to go on.
Though the strangely dressed people were soon forgotten after getting off of the Mind Eraser, I didn't get to forget them for long. All day, in various places of the park, I saw them. Later in the afternoon, another person, dressed in much the same way, joined them. It was almost as if they were following me. Or maybe almost as if I was just supposed to take notice of them for some reason...