The Summer of Cotton Candy (8 page)

“Okay, this better be good.”

“You probably don’t even know him,” she said.

“I know everyone who works here,” he assured her.

“It’s Kurt, over in the History Zone.”

“The mascot? Dresses up like Robin Hood and others?”

“The same,” she admitted, blushing furiously.

“Well, then, it’s your lucky day. I happen to know that he’s available, and that he’s got his eye on a certain cotton candy vendor.”

She felt her heart sink. “Lisa,” she said.

“No, dorko, you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, don’t act all surprised. You’re one of the new kids, so to speak, and you’re pretty easy on the eyes.”

She started blushing even harder. “You’re just saying that,” she accused.

“Why would I?” he asked. “I have nothing to gain. Seriously, I think he’s into you. He’s a nice guy too.”

“Really?”

“I wouldn’t steer you wrong. Only…”

“What?”

“Well, he doesn’t have a lot of ambition.”

She shrugged. “Hey, I don’t know what I want to do with my life yet, either.”

“Yeah, but you will,” he said with an easy smile. “Seriously, if you like him, you should go for it. Ask him out.”

“I couldn’t do that!”

“Well then, at least put yourself in the path of him asking you out.”

She got butterflies in her stomach just thinking about that. He laughed at her, but it was a good-natured laugh. “That should give you something to think about, Cotton Candy.”

She shook herself mentally. “So, fair’s fair. Who are you crushing on?” she asked.

“No one.”

“Liar.”

“Nope, Scout’s honor. If that changes, I’ll tell you.”

“Seriously, no girls you have your eye on?”

“Nope.”

“You’re not… I mean, any guys you have your eye on?”

“No. If you must know, I broke up with my girlfriend a couple of months ago, and I’m just not interested in starting something new right now.”

“I’m sorry. What happened?”

“Her family moved, and she didn’t want to do the whole long-distance thing.”

“That sucks.”

“Tell me about it.”

“But if you’re not crushing on anyone, that’s not fair. You know one of my secrets, and I have nothing on you.”

“Ah, I see. With you, trust is built upon mutual blackmail.” “No, nothing like that,” she said, feeling suddenly foolish. He smiled. “No worries. I get it. You want to know one of my secrets?”

She found herself nodding.

He stepped up next to her, put his mouth close to her ear and whispered it. Startled, she looked at him.

“It’s true,” he said solemnly.

“Wow.”

“There has now been a mutual trade of secrets so the friendship can be formally sealed. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” she said. “You are a strange one, Josh.”

“Don’t I know it. And look, such timing. My shift is up. Here comes my replacement,” he said, pointing to another surfer-looking guy walking toward them. Candace was relieved to see that next to him was Martha. Just in time too. Behind them she could see a group of kids making a beeline for her cart.

“Get out of here while you can,” Martha said.

“Are you going to need help with that group?” Candace asked uncertainly.

“They don’t scare me,” Martha answered.

A minute later Candace and Josh were heading out of the Splash Zone. Candace started to turn right toward the Exploration Zone, but Josh put a hand on her arm.

“Let’s go through the Thrill Zone.”

“But it’s longer that way.”

“Yeah, but I want a closer look at the new coaster.”

They turned left, and a minute later they were standing in front of a shiny new sign that read Glider.

Glider, the newest attraction in The Zone, was set to open the July Fourth weekend. The massive tracks swooped all around the Thrill Zone. Every so often, for the last couple of days, an empty car had gone swooshing by on a test run, causing everyone nearby to stop and stare. Candace could hardly wait to try it.

“It’s going to be awesome, isn’t it?” Josh asked.

“Yeah.”

“Come on, let’s take a closer look.” Together they walked up the exit ramp.

“Hey, Greg, how’s it going, Dude?” Josh asked the guy who was behind the controls of the ride.

“Josh, you’re just in time. The Game Masters just left. We could use a couple of bodies on a test run.”

“Really?” Candace asked. “Referee previews aren’t for a couple of days.”

“Yeah, well, we’ve already ridden it, and we could use a couple more guinea pigs,” Greg said.

“We’re just the guinea pigs you’re looking for,” Josh said.

“Then let’s go.”

They stepped onto the loading platform and backed into position, as though they were going on a stand-up roller coaster. Candace pulled a padded X-shaped safety bar from the left side of her body across toward her right where it locked in place. Josh did the same, and then Greg strapped two large safety belts across both of them. Now Candace was standing with her arms straight up in the air, and her heart pounding faster with each passing second.

“Who are Game Masters?” she asked Josh.

“That’s what they call the engineers and designers who come up with the rides and the attractions,” he said with a grin.

“Nice.”

Greg stepped back and shouted, “Clear.”

For a moment nothing happened. Then the platform they were standing on lifted about a foot into the air and then slowly began to tilt forward. Candace let out a little scream involuntarily. Finally, the mechanism stopped moving and she found herself parallel to the tracks, staring down at them.

“Look ahead, not down, it’s cooler that way!” Greg shouted.

And then suddenly they were moving forward. Josh gave a shout, and Candace looked up as they pulled out of the station and suddenly rocketed forward.

“We’re flying!” she yelled, the wind snatching the words from her lips. As they shot along with the track above and the ground below and empty sky in front of them she thought that this must be what it would feel like to be Superman. The ride banked sharply to the left and then dropped down. They both screamed as they swooped close to the ground and then pulled up and climbed high into the sky.

“This is awesome!” she heard Josh shout.

They continued on, making tight turns and dives. When they pulled back into the station and were slowly brought back to a standing position, she felt herself grinning from ear to ear. Josh was clapping and she joined him.

“That is the best ride ever,” Candace panted.

“Come back during the referee preview and I’ll let you go again,” Greg said with a wink.

“It’s good to be a ref,” Josh said as they exited.

“Yeah, I think I’m starting to get the hang of it,” Candace laughed. “That was so cool. I can’t wait to tell Tamara about it.”

As it turned out, Tamara seemed less interested in the ride than in the fact that Candace had told Josh about liking Kurt.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! You talked to somebody at work about crushing on Kurt? You never tell anyone about your crushes except me.”

“Josh made me tell. He had me laughing so hard I started snorting, and then he threatened to tickle me if I didn’t spill. What’s awesome, though, is he said he knew Kurt liked me too. Isn’t that great?”

“Yeah. So, what are you going to do about it?”

“Josh suggested I ask Kurt out, but when I told him I couldn’t do that, he said I should put myself in the way of being asked out.”

“So now you’re going to do what Josh says?

“Well, he is a guy and he knows Kurt, so I guess so.”

Tamara had a weird look on her face that Candace hadn’t seen before. She debated about asking what was up, but opted to change the topic. “So, what did you do today?”

“I hung out at the mall with Amanda and Kristen. We had our nails done,” Tamara said, presenting her nails to Candace.

A pang of jealousy hit Candace. It should be her getting her nails done with Tamara. Amanda and Kristen were two of the stuck-up girls in the rich clique at school. Tamara never hung out with them.

“I thought you didn’t like them,” she said.

Tamara tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Well, they’re not that bad once you get to know them.”

Candace wouldn’t know. Her family wasn’t a member of the country club set, and so there was no way Amanda and Kristen would ever give her even the time of day.

“We’re going to see the new Ben Stiller flick. Wanna come?”

Now Candace was really upset. “You know I can’t, I’m working tomorrow.”

“Are you?” Tamara asked, eyes wide with innocence.

“Yes, and you know that. What is wrong with you?”

Tamara looked down at her nails, seemingly studying their perfect, red-painted shapes. “I’m tired of your job,” she said at last.

“What does that mean?”

“Your job is getting in the way of all our summer plans. I don’t want you to be miserable, but I don’t want you to actually
like
it. And I don’t like the fact that Josh gets to hear stuff before I do.”

Candace had no idea how to respond to that. It made her feel sad, and a little bit guilty, but mostly just angry. “Then maybe next summer,” she said, trying to keep her voice even and emotionless, “we can get jobs together.”

“Please,” Tamara said, rolling her eyes. “Why would I want to work?”

Why would I want to work?
Tamara’s words still echoed around in Candace’s head. She didn’t have a good answer for Tamara, and she was still trying to come up with one. Of course, part of the problem was Candace still didn’t have a good answer to that question for herself. Realistically, she had to work. Her dad was forcing her. Still, that didn’t necessarily mean that work was evil. Lots of people did it. If work was completely evil, couldn’t the whole world rebel or something?

It was because of work that she had met Josh and Kurt. That was certainly worth a measure of inconvenience and frustration. And today was the first payday, and money meant she could do stuff in her free time. So making friends and making money was certainly better than sitting in her room all day wishing she had money.

She glanced at her watch. She was fifteen minutes overdue for her morning break, and she still hadn’t seen her replacement. Another five minutes passed before she saw Martha trudging toward her across the length of the Thrill Zone.

“What’s up?” Candace asked when Martha came to a stop beside her.

“Megan’s mom called in, and it seems she won’t be working today. I’m trying to make sure everyone gets at least one break and their lunch. I’m sorry, but you’ll probably have to skip your afternoon break.”

“That’s okay. What happened to Megan? Is she sick?”

“Love sick is more like it. She was dating a guy who worked in rides who was all wrong for her. They broke it off last night.”

“Oh, that’s sad.”

“What’s sad is that anyone with a lick of sense could have seen it coming,” Martha said with a sigh. “Never date a guy you ain’t willing to marry. No good can come out of that, just a lot of pain for everybody.”

Wow, that’s harsh
, Candace thought, but she didn’t say anything.

“Now go on, take your fifteen. Time’s a-wasting, and it’s going to be a long day,” Martha said.

She sounded so tired, Candace wished there was something she could say or do to help. Since she couldn’t think of anything, she scurried off to take her break. She reached the cantina at the same time as Sue.

“Aren’t they supposed to post teams for Scavenger Hunt today?” Sue asked.

“I think they already have,” Candace said, pointing to a crowd of people milling near one wall.

The two girls elbowed their way into the throng until they were close enough to see the list. It took a minute but they finally found their names. Sue read aloud. “Candace. Sue. Roger. Who’s Pete?” she asked.