Maybe they went back to the pavilion. But Mom had said she would meet us here.
Maybe they hadn't put their hats on quick enough and were being chased by a crowd of fans demanding autographs and souvenirs like an eye or a wisdom tooth.
Thinking of the hats made me realize that I didn't have mine. I felt oddly naked and exposed to be suddenly without them. Luckily for me, no one seemed to take any notice of me except for giving me a couple funny looks every time I called for my father.
"Jeez, it took you long enough," I heard an unfamiliar voice say from beside me.
I jumped. Turning around, I saw an unfamiliar face to match the unfamiliar voice. Was he talking to me? Of course he was; he was looking straight at me.
Why was he talking to me? I didn't even know this guy.
"The rest of them headed over to the stage so they could find their seats. I told them I'd wait for you," he informed me.
My first thought was that this guy(who couldn't have been much older than myself) was some kind of stalker that had been following us the whole day and had been waiting for me to exit the bathroom so that he could kidnap me and drive me away to some remote town somewhere(as if this town weren't remote enough) and ask for ransom. My second thought was that that was ridiculous and I ordered myself to calm down and handle this maturely. Don't show him that you're afraid...
"Are you okay?" he asked, his forehead creasing with concern.
Well didn't it work, did it?
I didn't answer him. I just swallowed hard, wondering if there was any reason why I should have been okay at that point in time in that situation.
"Yeah, public bathrooms do that to me too. Come on," he said, taking me by the forearm and leading me through the crowd. We were heading toward the back of the park, and, remembering he had said something about finding seats, I assumed we were headed toward the stage. The stage where I was supposed to perform in less than three quarters of an hour.
"Beth wants to stay for the Laserlight Reality Show if the concert ends early enough." He rolled his eyes at me.
"Oh," I managed.
"It's bad enough they're making us go to this stupid concert, but then they expect us to go to this stupid laser show? Man, I've been to plenty of them before and quite frankly, they don't impress me," he confided.
I wanted to retort to the comment about the concert being stupid, but, to my dismay, the only sound that came out of me was a soft, scared squeak.
It wasn't long before the area of the theme park where concerts were held came into view.
I looked over at him. He was biting his lip and his eyes were narrowed in concentration as he showed the security people the tickets he pulled from his pocket and then tugged me along toward the seats that the tickets were for. I looked helplessly over my shoulder at the security guard, but she was already deep in conversation with another security guard.
He led me through the crowded aisles, most of the groups milling in them were restless fans, waiting impatiently for the show to start. Some faces turned from boredom to shock when they saw me, but nobody did anything. They just seemed to kind of dismiss it. Jeez, everyone else seemed to know what the hell was going on. Why wasn't anyone informing me?!
"Cory! Over here!" another unfamiliar voice called to us.
I looked up from my feet to see a girl with bright green hair and clothes that were practically audible, they were so loud, waving to us. I wondered if she would glow in the dark...
"Man, you guys couldn't buy tickets to seats that were in an obvious spot, now could you?" the guy who was pulling me along said to the girl.
"Cory, our seat numbers are written on the tickets," the girl said back.
He ignored the comment and, with a wide, stupid grin on his face, leaned over and gave another girl with blonde hair, a sloppy, completely saturated kiss. I cringed slightly at the sight.
"Are you going to sit or what?" said an almost familiar voice.
I looked down to see the girl my look-alike had been with sitting comfortably in the aisle seat. She patted the seat next to her as a signal for me to sit down. I sat reluctantly.
When I looked straight ahead, I noticed for the first time how close to the stage we were. Only five rows back. Would someone from backstage be able to see me?
I looked at the girl who was sitting next to me. I couldn't help but stare a little. She wasn't the prettiest thing I had ever seen, but she definitely was not bad looking. Her hair was a shade of soft red that I could tell didn't come from a bottle. It cascaded down the front of her white t-shirt in a wavy, red waterfall like one I had read about in a fantasy novel once. Her eyes were a nondescript green but sparkled beautifully. Soon, both our cheeks turned the same color as her hair. We turned our gaze away at the same time.
"Remember you have to by me something later," she said menacingly, rubbing her hands together as if she had a devious plan in mind.
I did? When was this discussed? Where was I?
With my family. I was aware once again that I was in the company of strangers. Just where had my family gone? Would the show go on without me? How would they explain my abscence to the audience?
"Is there going to be an opening band?" the green-haired girl asked no one in particular.
"No," I answered without thinking.
"He's right. I heard on the radio that Admiral Twin was going to do it but something happened...," the blonde-haired girl added, a thoughtful look on her face as she tried to remember what it was that happened.
"Good. I want to get right to the meat of it. I can't wait to see Taylor's eyes. I wonder if they really look like that in person or if it's just something with the lighting and the cameras," the green-haired girl said.
Now I was confused. They must've known who I was. Or did they?
"We're sitting too far back and on the wrong side of the stage," said the girl sitting next to me. "You won't be able to tell."
"And besides, Beth, I thought that you said you weren't interested in Hanson that way," added the blonde girl.
Beth shrugged and said nothing.
My eyebrows knitted in concentration. Why was she talking about me like I wasn't sitting right there in front of her? What was going on here?
Then two and two started to come together. I don't know what triggered it, but it came all the same.
The girl with the strange green hair. How could I have forgotten her?
The boy(who had yet to speak) with the Yankees baseball cap and Marilyn Manson t-shirt(that simply said "Sweet Dreams Are Made of This," so it could have been a Eurythmics t-shirt, it's hard to tell with no picture).
The couple who were most often seen attached at the lips.
The girl I had seen my look-alike with.
My look-alike.
They thought I was him!