The Summer of Cotton Candy (2 page)

All this was not what stopped her in her tracks, though. What took her breath away and caused her to stare like an idiot were his eyes. He had amazing eyes that were bright blue and crackled like lightning. He stared right through her, and her heart began to hammer.

“I — I —”

He smiled at her, and she felt dizzy. “Are you lost, my lady?”

She nodded, still unable to look away from those piercing eyes.

“Here, let me help you,” he said, bending down.

For one dizzying moment his face came close to hers, and she thought he was going to kiss her just like in some movie. Instead of kissing her, though, he knelt down and began picking up her papers.

Idiot
, she said to herself, feeling her cheeks burning. Her knees began to buckle, and she covered it by quickly dropping down to her knees and scooping up some of the papers that had managed to spread themselves across the width of the hall.

“I’m such a klutz,” she said.

“Not at all. How could you expect to run into something when you’re not looking where you’re going?”

She glanced up quickly, stunned at the rebuke. Then she noticed that he was grinning from ear to ear. They both burst out laughing.

“That should do it,” he said finally, handing her the last sheet of paper. His fingers brushed hers, and she felt her stomach do a flip-flop.

“Thanks.”

“So, where are you headed?”

“Um, um,” she stammered for a moment, her mind going completely blank.

“I take it you’re filling these out?” he said, tapping the stack of papers.

She nodded, relieved as she remembered, “Something was said about a courtyard that had a table.”

“I’ll show you where it is.”

She fell into step with him, and he led her down the corridor. They made three quick turns in a row and arrived at a door leading out to what truly was a small courtyard.

“There you go,” he said, holding the door open for her. She walked outside into the sun and plunked her papers down onto a table.

“Thanks.”

“I live to serve.”

She couldn’t think of something witty to say, so she just stared at him.

He winked at her. “I’ll see you around.”

Then he turned and left. She sank down into the chair, her knees feeling weak. “Who was that masked man?”

Four hours and three phone calls to her father later, Candace finished filling out the application. She stacked up the tax forms, identity forms, nondisclosure forms, noncompetition agreements, and receipt-of-employee-handbook forms. And with a snort, she put the background check and financial disclosure form on top of the whole stack. She was seventeen, and she had no finances to disclose. She’d had a momentary panic about the background check until she realized they were looking for things like a criminal background or drug use and wouldn’t be interested in the fact that she’d had detention twice in seventh grade.

She flipped back through the employee handbook. It was over a hundred pages long. After reading through it, she realized that The Zone had a policy and procedure for absolutely everything. They even had three different emergency-evacuation plans, depending on whether it was fire, weapons problems, or natural disasters. Clearly the people who worked on the handbook were paranoid, and now, after reading it, so was she.

She dragged herself to her feet, her stomach angrily reminding her that lunch had been hours before and she had missed it. She miraculously made her way back through the maze of corridors to Mr. Peterson’s office. He was speaking on the phone, so she stood in the doorway until he looked up and saw her.

He hung up the phone. “Come in, Candy. I take it you’re done?”

She nodded, handing him the stack.

“Excellent. Well, I’ll take a look at all these. I’m sure they’re in order. Let me just get copies of your driver’s license and social security card.”

She fished them out of her purse and handed them to him. He left the office for a minute and then returned with photocopies. He handed her cards back to her.

“Okay, you’ll start orientation tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” she asked.

“Yes, is there a problem with that?” he asked sharply.

“I just thought I’d have a couple of days before —”

“Tomorrow’s our last orientation class for the summer. It’s either tomorrow or never.”

Never
wasn’t
an option, no matter how much she wanted it to be. A vision of a certain masked man flitted briefly through her mind. Then again, maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

“Tomorrow. Tomorrow is fine for me,” she said.

“Report to the lobby at seven forty a.m.”

There went any hope she had of sleeping in, probably forever. She sighed and nodded.

“What do you mean you have to be home early tonight?” Candace’s best friend, Tamara Wilcox, huffed over the phone. “I thought we were hanging out?”

“We can still hang. I just need to get some sleep. I have to start work early in the morning,” Candace explained. She flipped onto her back and braced her legs against the wall next to her bed.

There was only silence on the other end of the phone. “Tam, you still there?”

“Uh-huh. Meet me at Starbucks.”

“Can’t. I’m getting a job to earn summer spending money, and Dad won’t give me an advance.”

“I’m buying. Just get your butt over here.”

Ten minutes later Candace was sitting down at a corner table where Tamara was already waiting for her. Without a word, Tamara slid a grande hot chocolate with a shot of raspberry across the table to her.

Candace blew through the tiny opening in the lid like she always did. Tonight, though, the whistling sound it produced didn’t make her smile. She was too busy trying to avoid looking at the daggers in Tamara’s eyes.

“So, you’re ditching me for the summer?”

“No, just five days a week. I should be free evenings and weekends.”

“Did they guarantee that?”

“Well, no, but they said it would likely be that. They couldn’t expect me to work during church, you know?”

Tamara crossed her arms over her chest, a sure sign she wasn’t buying it. “And what about youth group? Even if they don’t make you work Sunday morning they’re going to make you work Friday nights.”

“I should be free evenings,” Candace said, slinking down into her seat and hating that she was repeating herself. Somehow, it sounded less plausible than it had earlier in the recruiter’s office.

“And if you’re not? It’s bad enough you’re going to be blowing off church and youth group, but what about me? I’m your best friend. What kind of summer am I going to have without you?”

“Come on, no matter what hours I get, it will only be thirty-five a week. We can still do all kinds of stuff. And I’ll have the money to pay for it,” Candace said with a sigh. It was amazing sometimes how Tamara could turn anyone’s pain into her own.

Tamara uncrossed her arms and leaned forward, tapping one perfectly manicured nail on the table. “You know, if money is the issue, I can take care of that.”

Candace stared at her. Tamara was rich. Her whole family was. Her monthly allowance was more than some people made in a year. Candace knew she was serious, and it was a tempting offer.

“I can’t,” she said at last, tears of frustration filling her eyes. “My dad would kill me.”

Tamara sat back, a disappointed look on her face. “Oh, is he pulling that rite-of-passage, learn-the-value-of-work crap on you?”

Candace nodded and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Yeah, he’d freak if I backed out. And I don’t think you’re prepared to pay for my college tuition.”

Tamara laughed. “Would it get you to bail on this whole Zone thing?”

Candace scowled. “He’s my dad. What can I do?”

“Nothing,” Tamara said, shaking her head. “Parents are so much work.”

The next morning at 7:42 a.m. Candace was wishing she had taken Tamara up on her offer. She stood with two dozen others as the early morning sun shone in their eyes. A short, wide man with a name tag that read
Jay
paced before them, extolling the virtues of working for The Zone. She could swear she saw flecks of foam at the corners of his mouth.

In her hands Candace held another bundle of information that she was expected to familiarize herself with. She also had her name tag. She twisted it back and forth, refusing to put it on. At last Jay noticed.

“Miss, is there a problem? You should be wearing your name tag.”

“Well, I would, but it says
Candy
, and that’s not my name,” she explained.

“What is your name?”

“Candace.”

“Close enough. Put it on.”

“But —”

“Before you go home you can fill out a form to get a new name tag, but for now, wear it.” He accompanied the order with a glare.

Grimacing, Candace pinned it on her blouse over her heart. The blonde girl standing next to her leaned closer and whispered, “It could be worse. At least they got part of your name right.”

Candace glanced at her name tag. “Mary?”

“Not even,” the blonde answered. “Try Sue.”

“Bummer.”

“Tell me about it. Where are you working?”

“Cotton candy operator,” Candace whispered.

“Nice. I got janitorial — women’s restrooms.”

Candace struggled to keep her expression neutral. “It could be worse.”

“No, it really couldn’t. I came in yesterday afternoon, and it was the last job open.”

Candace was suddenly very grateful that she had gone in to see the recruiter
before
eating lunch.

After a minute, she realized that the group was moving. She hastened to follow, surprised that Jay could move so quickly. He led them at a breakneck pace around the vast areas behind the scenes where only employees were allowed to go, also known as “off field.”

Just when she was good and lost, Jay led the group to a halt in front of an unassuming door. “All right, bunch up everyone. Smile, and remember you represent The Zone. Keep together and keep up.”

He opened the door and they all walked through it… and into the park. Candace looked around in amazement. They had just walked through a door she had never noticed before in the back of the park in the Extreme Zone. Directly in front of her a bungee jumper dropped screaming from the sky.