“What’s going on?” Julia had her hands over her eyes.
I grinned. “We’re doing it again, but backward.”
“We’re doing it again?”
“It’s called the Rebound,” I said innocently. “What did you expect?”
“Holly, I swear to—”
But the car dropped again, and whatever Julia was going to say got lost in all the screaming. We plummeted down, then straight, then around all the loops and corkscrews again, only it was even scarier because we couldn’t see what was coming next. By the time we pulled back up to the platform, my heart was pounding wildly and my stomach felt like it was in my throat.
“That was awesome!” I exclaimed, following Gabby out of the car.
“Definitely,” she agreed. “And I need another churro.”
“Ew, you didn’t throw up the first one, did you?”
She looked confused. “No, I just want another one.”
We waited until Julia and Natasha joined us at the end of the platform. Natasha’s eyes were huge.
“Well?” I asked, waiting for her to yell at me for dragging her on a roller coaster.
She blinked a few times. Then a huge smile spread across her face. “I loved it!”
Julia and I gaped at her. “Seriously?”
“Yes!” Natasha hopped up and down a few times, beaming. “Let’s go on it again. Oh wait, let’s go to that one we passed earlier—the Brain Bender!”
“Yes!” Gabby exclaimed. “That’s the one by the churro stand!” They hurried off the platform. Julia elbowed me as we followed.
“You created a monster,” she said, still staring at Natasha in disbelief.
I grinned. “Good.”
Four churros and three coasters later, we bought a round of slushy lemonades and crammed onto a bench by a fountain.
“Which one next?” Natasha asked, consulting a map. “Ooh, we haven’t done Momentum yet, or the Splash—it’s a water ride, but it still has a few drops. Or—”
“What’s happened to you?” Julia cried, and I laughed.
“Or Silver Cyclone,” Natasha finished. “So which one?”
“Actually, I’m supposed to meet Owen in fifteen minutes,” I told her. “Why don’t you come?”
“I’m not doing that funhouse.”
“Come on,” I said with a grin. “You thought you were scared of roller coasters, and now you love them! Just give it a shot.”
“Don’t have to.” Natasha pointed to the funhouse on the map. “Professor Loony’s Funhouse.”
“Yeah, so?”
She thrust the map in my face. “Professor Loony is a clown, Holly. A scary one. And I went to that horrible haunted house with you for Halloween. Those clowns were, like, the creepiest things ever.”
Julia nodded vehemently in agreement. Slurping her lemonade, Gabby squinted at the picture.
“I don’t get it. Clowns aren’t scary at all,” she said. “Hang on—what’s wrong with his teeth? They’re kind of . . . pointy.”
“They kind of look like a vampire’s,” I agreed. “Which is totally different than the zombie clowns at that haunted house. They didn’t even have teeth.”
Natasha smacked my head with the map. “For the millionth time, that’s why they were so creepy!”
After a few minutes of protesting, Julia and Natasha finally agreed to walk to the funhouse with us. A long line stretched from the entrance, which happened to look like the gaping mouth of a giant clown head. His teeth were pretty wicked-looking.
“Wait for me, okay?” Gabby asked. “I gotta find the restroom first.”
“Okay.” I scanned the line and spotted Aaron and Liam near the front. Trevor and Gabe weren’t too far behind them, and Leah, Victoria, and Max were standing near the exit. “Are you sure you guys don’t want to come? It’s not a haunted house, it’s just—”
“Holly,” Julia said firmly. “Nothing you can say could possibly make me walk in that place. You couldn’t pay me to go in there. I wouldn’t go even if . . .” She trailed off, glancing behind me. “Hi, Owen!”
“Hi.” Owen appeared at my side, hands in his pockets. He was doing his confused blinking thing, probably because Julia and Natasha were smiling at him in a really goofy way. Oh, for the love, I thought, fighting the urge to tell them to knock it off.
“Gabby’s coming with us,” I told Owen instead. “But these two are chicken.”
“It’s true,” Julia agreed. “I’m not ashamed. Clowns are terrifying.”
“More roller coasters it is, then!” Natasha opened her map again. “But I still have to pick the next one.”
“Have you done Momentum yet?” asked Owen.
“No! Is it good?”
He nodded. “Really good. Gabe threw up.”
Natasha and I laughed, and she grabbed Julia’s hand. “Momentum it is!”
“My stomach needs a break!” Julia protested weakly, but she allowed Natasha to pull her away from the funhouse. “Bye, Holly! Bye, Owen,” she added, that goofy smile back on her face. Rolling my eyes, I turned to Owen.
“Should we get in line?” I asked. “Gabby’ll be out any second.”
“Sure!”
We stood behind a man and what looked like his two daughters. The youngest couldn’t have been more than eight.
“Remind me to tell Julia and Natasha that third-graders are braver than they are,” I said, and Owen laughed.
Gabby turned up with Leah, Victoria, and Max, who’d already been through the funhouse but wanted to go again. “This is my third time,” Victoria said. “I’m not stopping until I make it through the barrel room without falling.”
The line moved pretty quickly, and soon we were stepping inside. After the first minute, which involved climbing a narrow staircase, then sliding down a twisty slide that led to a dark room where a clown popped out from behind a trick wall, I was glad Julia and Natasha had chickened out. They’d probably be trying to climb back up the slide.
Next came a crooked maze, where some of the corridors got so narrow you couldn’t walk through them anymore and had to turn back to find another way. When we finally got through it, Victoria turned and held her arms out to keep us all back. Behind her stretched a long, spinning tunnel.
“Barrel room,” she announced. “I’ll go first. The trick is to take it at a run.”
“How would you know?” Max asked, grinning. “You’ve done it twice, and you fell both times.”
“Because . . . ,” Victoria said, hands on her hips. “Because be quiet, that’s how.”
We snickered as she turned and got into a runner’s stance.
“Ready?” Gabby yelled. “Three, two . . . one!”
With a warrior cry, Victoria bolted into the tunnel. For a few seconds, it looked like she was going to make it straight through. Then she veered up the right side and tripped on her way down. She didn’t fall, though—arms flailing wildly, she stumbled the last few steps out of the tunnel, crashed into the wall, and raised her arms in victory from the floor.
“Made it!” Victoria hollered, although everyone was laughing so hard we barely heard her.
Max went next, then Leah, both stumbling, falling, and getting up again until they reached the end. When Gabby’s turn came, she took me and Owen by either arm without warning and pulled us in, too. We bumped into one another and the sides, but none of us fell. Then Gabby let go of our arms a few steps early and sprinted out of the tunnel. I grabbed Owen’s hand before either of us could fall, and we barely made it out. This time, I let go right away.
“Close one,” I said, trying to catch my breath.
He smiled. “Yeah.”
We crossed a bridge made of stones that kept shifting, and ended up in a giant maze of distorted mirrors. After a minute of walking and making fun of our warped mirror images, G
abby turned around in a circle.
“We lost them.” Cupping her hands over her mouth, she called: “Victoria!”
“Over here!” We followed the sound of Victoria’s voice, but couldn’t find her, Max, or Leah. Although just for a second, I did catch a glimpse of a clown reflection in one of the mirrors. There were probably a few creeping around the maze. Yeah, it was definitely a good thing that Julia and Natasha hadn’t come in.
“Oh, hey!” Gabby poked me in the back. “I forgot about Nick—whatever happened with him? Did he call you?”
It took me a second to realize she was looking at all the names on the back of my all-region T-shirt.
“Um, yeah.” I tried to sound nonchalant. “Once. But my stupid brother got on the phone after a few minutes, so we hung up.”
Gabby was grinning. “But he called you! Did you get his number? You should—oh!” She clapped, and the sound echoed. “You should ask him to the dance!”
Oh, great. I shook my head quickly. “No, I don’t—”
“Come on, Holly!” Gabby fell into step beside me. “He’d totally say yes—he liked you. And see if that friend of his is single. What was his name, Isaac? No, Ian. We could—”
“Gabby, I’ve already got a date.”
She stopped in her tracks, grabbing my arm. “Wait, really? Who?”
Owen and I glanced at each other at the same time, our faces equally red. After a moment, Gabby’s eyes widened in realization.
“Oh.” She turned and walked backward, facing us. A slow smile spread across her face. “Gotcha. Hmm.”
Yup, this was stellar. Trapped in a hall of mirrors surrounded by infinite embarrassed Hollys and Owens and infinite teasing Gabbys.
Clearing her throat, Gabby looked at Owen. “So when did you ask her?”
Despite all of the awkwardness, I couldn’t help but giggle. “What are you, a reporter?”
“No, ma’am, just a concerned citizen,” Gabby replied with a grin. “Come on, Owen—spill. Did you just ask her today? Or was it before the trip?”
“Um . . .” Owen shot me a look that was part pleading, part apologetic.
“I asked him,” I told Gabby. “Before winter break, actually.”
“Before . . . seriously?” Gabby sputtered. “Wait, so you guys have been dating for, like, three months and you didn’t even—”
“We’re not dating.”
She eyed me, then Owen. “You’re not?”
We both shook our heads. Gabby turned back to me. “But—”
“Gabby,” I interrupted, pointing. “You might want to turn around.”
“Nice try. I just want to know if—”
“No, there’s a seriously freaky-looking clown behind you.”
“Carrying a giant pair of scissors,” Owen added.
“Very funny,” Gabby said. But her eyes flickered to the mirrors. When she saw the clown, she spun around with a horror movie–worthy scream, which quickly faded to a giggle. The clown’s scissors and pointy teeth were obviously plastic. He lunged at Gabby, and Owen and I stepped to the side as she fled past us, yelling, “Please don’t cut my hair, Mr. Scary Clown!” A few seconds after they both flew around the corner, I heard Victoria and Max laughing.
Owen and I grinned at each other. Then we both looked away. Which really wasn’t very effective, since we were surrounded by mirrors. We couldn’t not see ourselves.
“Sorry about that,” I said at last. “Gabby’s kind of nosy.”
“It’s okay.” He shrugged and gave me a small smile. “I don’t mind.”
We wandered through the mirrors, following the sound of Gabby’s yells. “So how much longer will you have baseball after school?” I asked, desperate for anything other than awkward silence. “I miss Prophets.”
“Me too,” Owen said. “Just three more weeks of baseball. But there’s no practice Monday, if you want to come over. Trevor’s coming, too,” he added quickly.
“Definitely!” I grinned. “It’s been a while since I’ve beaten Trevor at anything other than Warlock.”
He laughed. We spent the rest of the funhouse talking about stuff like our alien project and which movies we should watch on the bus ride home. And when we finally found the exit and Gabby greeted us with “Hiya, lovebirds!” neither of us even blushed.
Okay, maybe we did a little bit. But the teasing really didn’t seem to bother Owen, which was a relief. It didn’t matter what anyone else thought, as long as we knew we were just friends.
Unless the teasing didn’t bother him for a different reason.
I squinted in the sunlight as we left the funhouse. Owen was next to me, talking to Max about which ride we should go on next. Was it possible he actually did like me? He didn’t seem to mind holding hands.
Overthinking things again, I told myself firmly. Not minding when someone grabbed your hand was a lot different than wanting to actually hold hands with them. And besides, it had been humiliating enough last semester when I thought Aaron liked me. Owen was one of my best friends—no way I’d make that mistake with him. If he really did like me, I’d probably know.
Our last night in New Orleans was interesting. By nine thirty, Natasha had run up and down the hall with Sophie riding piggyback, Julia’s hair was sticking up like a mad scientist (thanks to almost an entire can of hairspray) and Leah had eaten an impressive nineteen Twizzlers in one minute. We’d been playing truth or dare for half an hour, and no one had picked truth yet.
“How much longer?” Brooke asked from the corner. She was in a headstand, her feet propped against the wall for balance.
“Until the next person’s turn is up,” Gabby replied. Brooke made a noise that sounded like half-groan, half-giggle.
“Well, hurry up! All the blood’s rushing to my head.”
“I warned you guys,” Victoria said. She was still teasing and combing Julia’s hair. “Gabby’s dares can be brutal.”
“Hey, the last one I gave you worked out pretty well,” Gabby pointed out, waggling her eyebrows.
Victoria grinned. “Well, that’s true.”
“Gabby!” Brooke yelled. Her face was turning red. “Who’s next?”
“Let’s see . . .” Gabby tapped her chin, but her eyes flickered in my direction. “Holly . . . truth or dare?”
I didn’t hesitate. “Truth.”
Victoria glanced at me. “Are you sure? Her truths are usually worse than her dares.”
But I saw the devious smile on Gabby’s face, and I knew exactly what her dare would be. And I was so not about to go kiss Owen on a dare. “Definitely. Truth.”
Gabby sighed. “Okay, fine. But you have to be honest.”
Shrugging, I handed Victoria another package of barrettes. “I promise.” I already knew what Gabby would ask. And sure enough:
“Do you like Owen?”
Everyone giggled. “Do you?” Brooke beamed at me, which looked funny considering she was upside down. “Aw, you two would be such a cute couple!”
“Thanks,” I said, smiling. “But nope, we’re just friends.”
“Holly,” Gabby said seriously. “Truth or dare is not to be taken lightly. If you’re lying, you’ll have seven years of bad luck, and a herd of angry goats will eat all your socks. Something like that, anyway—I don’t really know the rules.”
I laughed. “I’m telling the truth, I swear!”
Gabby turned to Julia. “Is she lying?”
Julia glanced up at me and grinned. “She doesn’t think she’s lying.”
“She’s in denial,” Natasha agreed, patting my head. I stuck my tongue out in response.
“Okay. Let’s look at the facts.” Gabby stuck out her hand and began counting off points on her fingers. “One: you asked him to the spring dance, like, a decade early. Two: you hang out with him all the time. And three . . .” She
paused, brow furrowed. “Three: you obviously like each other. So there.”
I just smiled and shook my head. The teasing only went on for another minute before Brooke yelled, “She’s telling the truth, okay?” and fell over, accidentally kicking a chair and causing Sophie to spill an entire box of crackers all over the floor.
“Next dare!” Gabby cried. “Human vacuum. Whose turn is it?”
Julia’s hair was still sticking up all over the place the next morning. “I didn’t have time to wash it,” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes. “Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?”
“I tried,” I told her. “Next time I’ll get the air horn.”
Rolling her eyes, Julia slid into a seat a few rows back from the front. When I tried to sit next to her, Natasha grabbed the back of my shirt.
“That’s my spot,” she said with a grin. “You should sit with Owen.”
Sighing, I glanced out the window and caught a glimpse of blond hair. “Fine, but seriously, you guys . . .” I turned, tossing my backpack into the seats opposite them. “Quit acting all weird around him, okay? You’re going to freak him out.”
“Okay, okay.” Julia grinned at me. “We’ll behave ourselves.”
They did, too. Mostly. A few times while we watched Project Centaurus, I caught them giggling. Probably because Owen and I were debating the plot again, since this was the third time we’d seen it. (I thought the idea of a robot feeling emotions was ridiculous, because then it wouldn’t be a robot anymore. Owen argued that a really advanced robot maybe could feel emotions but that wouldn’t make it human. Whatever.)
After lunch, I split my Warlock cards with Julia and taught her how to play. She seemed kind of wary until, to everyone’s surprise, she scored Max’s silent-scepter card. Then she really got into it.
“You’re good at card games, Natasha loves roller coasters . . .” Shuffling my deck, I shook my head. “Horror movies are next, I swear. You’ll both end up coming with me to see the sequel to House of the Wicked in May.”
“Not in a million years,” Julia said. Her lips twitched as she studied her cards. “I bet Owen’ll go with you, though.”
Sleepovers, Solos, and Sheet Music Page 12
