#roller coasters
Idea for this one came from this prompt. Definitely an AU, wherein Susan and Diane met earlier than in canon.
Diane’s date shrank away a little. “Oh, come on. It sounds like a better idea than puking our guts out all day, doesn’t it?”
“First off - if all it takes to get you to throw up for eight hours straight is riding one thrill ride… ew. Second, I’m not going to neckon Pirates of Lake Michigan.”
“Why not? It’s dark, there’s plenty of room between the boats…” He tried to sidle up to her again. Diane stepped back.
“There are security cameras over every square inch of the ride.”
“They won’t see-”
“Infrared cameras. Second, do you really get turned on around the smell of water that probably hasn’t been changed since this park opened?!”
“I-”
“Look, you want to ride that, feel free. I’m going on something else.”
“O-okay? Uh - where should we meet up?”
“School. Maybe. Later.” She stormed off, pulling her phone out of her bag. The Midwestern Kingdom was a weird park - it had started out as a blatant ripoff of Disneyland, a la Nara Dreamland, and had grown into its own thingin the seventies. The odd ‘WE CAN’T SAY DISNEY BUT THINK DISNEY’ elements were interspersed through thrill rides that were too odd to be picked up by King’s Island or Cedar Point. And while it was normally just open in the summer, it did open its doors for a ‘spring preview’ one week a year.
Naturally, two thirds of her school was there, despite the lingering chill in the air.
NoBottleBlonde: Did you make it out here?
If Lucy was there, she could get a ride home with her. Odds were slim, given what she’d said, but-
XenaWasRight: Nope.
XenaWasRight: Car’s still broken down.
XenaWasRight: And I never knew fixing it would be this fun.
NoBottleBlonde: Fun? Seriously?
XenaWasRight: Hey, what can I say, the company makes the activity.
XenaWasRight: Gotta go. We’re lifting the engine out.
NoBottleBlonde: What? What company?
NoBottleBlonde: Lucy?
NoBottleBlonde: I WANT DEETS LATER.
Well. Crap. Good that Lucy was having a date she was enjoyingfor once, even if ‘fixing her car’ wasn’t technically a date, but… that left her alone in the park. Unlesssss…
NoBottleBlonde: Hey, are you and your dork friends here?
TrillHitchhiker: I choose to take that term as a compliment. And yes.
NoBottleBlonde: YES. Okay, my date turned out to be a real creep. Mind if I hang with you guys?
TrillHitchhiker: Oh no. I am terribly offended. How dare you suggest such a thing. Gasp. I think I have a case of the vapors.
NoBottleBlonde: :P
TrillHitchhiker: We’re split up at the moment. Most of us are in one line or another, but we’re meeting in 30 minutes at the entrance to El Torqueno.
NoBottleBlonde: I’m heading there now. Can’t believe that guy was too wimpy to even try riding it…
TrillHitchhiker: …the vast majority of our party is too.
NoBottleBlonde: PFFT. I’m trying it. See you there soon.
She closed down the phone and headed for the new ride. It was an intimidatingcoaster. A bright orange steel thing that wound in and out of ambiguously-industrial theming. Each pair of seats were also able to rotate around end over end. It was fast. It was intense. And - yes, if you had a weak stomach… but she was made of sterner stuff. She could manage it.
Right? Right.
The line wasn’t especially interesting. She did enjoy the fact that they were at least trying to build suspense, letting the line cut past several stretches of track, so you could hear the screams and roar of the ride and really soak in what was going to happen. She didn’t notice the sign until she was in sight of the boarding platform.
Single riders will be paired.
Oh. Great.
She looked around rapidly, trying to make sure the creep wasn’t there. No. No, he hadn’t been clever enough to try to pull that. Good. So she had to ride with a stranger, but that wouldn’t matter much. It was just one ride, and then she’d be with her… estranged niece Cousin by blood friend and her friend’s friends. God. So much easier to ignore the blood relation. The last few minutes of wait were short, and then she was there, waiting on the platform alone as the operator herded her to a seat right at the back, and - then waved over another girl about her age. Shorter. More pear shaped, though she definitely made it work. Also blonde. She said something, though it was drowned out by the sound of the ride and the music over the PA. Diane just shrugged in return. The other girl grinned, rolled her eyes, and gestured to the seat. In they went, and the harnesses clicked into place… and that was it. A minute passed. Two. And then they were heading for the lift hill. The girl next to Diane let out a whoop.
“AWESOME! I’ve been waiting for this for a YEAR!”
“Seriously? Are you that much of a coaster junkie?”
“Maybe? I dunno. I mean, I only ever go here…”Diane craned her head around. The other girl gave a hapless shrug, barely visible in the harness, still grinning. Diane just laughed once. Eh, what the hell. She could drop the thin veneer of self control and just enjoythis for once. Her enthusiasm was infectious. They crested the lift hill, and for a moment they were all screaming, and then - DOWN. The speed was everything, plunging them through a canyon of rust and gray, before it twistedto the side, and then they were flippingbackwards, making it impossible to see where they were going - and the disorientation, the shock, the sheer adrenaline was so good,so pure, so cleansing, that Diane found herself screamingalong with everyone else, venting her nerves and her delight and the sheer sensory overload of it.
Somewhere around the cobra roll, she found herself grabbing the other girl’s hand. She had been sort of flailing, and - wow, she had a HELL of a grip, and - she barely registered that for the rest of the ride. Not until they lurched to a stop in front of the station, and everyone started cheering. They were not quite upright, and the cars took a moment to spin them slowly into place before they advanced to the platform to unload with a loud hiss.
The bars were lifted. They stumbled out, dizzy and laughing and flushed, and staggered towards the exit.
“Oh. My. Fuzzy. GOD. That was amazing!” The shorter girl blurted. “That… that was better than I hoped for!”
“I KNOW, RIGHT?” Diane was tryingnot to gush. “I swear, I - I nearly blacked out for a second. I - holy - frickI can’t even think straight right now.” She stumbled, and nearly fell, only to slump over on the shorter girl, who burst into giggles again - as someone cleared their throat nearby.
“Well. I was going to tell you that we were waiting for Diane, but you found her. Ah - Diane, Sarah. Sarah, Diane.” Susan was standing at the bottom of the ramp, next to Justin, Elliot, and… well… the whole rest of Susan’s little crew. A curvy black girl (Grace, that - that washer name, right?) gave her a MASSIVE smile, grabbing the arm of another girl with a mop of purple hair. She was squeeingin an almost inaudible pitch.
“Yeah, yeah, we rode together. You… you don’t know what you’re missing. I swear, I’m still high off the vertigo.” Sarah nudged Diane upright, and - that was when both of them realized they were stillholding hands. And that they had been clutching each other so hard that they probably had bruisesfrom each other’s fingertips.
Oh.
Oh.
That… probably shouldn’t have gotten a blush out of Diane, but-
“So which ride’s next? We gotta pick something a littletamer for these guys, but - we all up for the Steel Noodle?” Sarah didn’t let go. If anything, she gave her hand another squeeze before pulling her towards the next ride.
She really had to send that creep a thank you letter. A severely passive aggressive thank you letter, but a thank you all the same.
(A/N: The roller coaster type in question is probably nonexistent, but is based on the same concept as a ‘4th Dimension’ roller coaster, albeit with more traditional coaster elements.)
Fic by Mod Zee.
