It was a beautiful autumn day in a beautiful Newtown Middle School Classroom at a regular student council meeting. As everyone took their seats, the officers called the meeting to order. They started with the last dance, our profits from it, what we should do with it, and improvements on the next one. The girl next to me would get called on, the boy in front of me. When I’d be the only one with my hand up the president still wouldn’t call on me. Here we go… It all started about three months ago at Lake Compounce.



“Hey do you want to go on Boulder Dash next?” Tess asked Jordan, Sarah and I as we passed the endless rides at Lake Compounce.
“Sure,” said Sarah.
“I…uh…don’t…know,” Jordan stuttered. “I went on it with mommy last time and I cried.”
“But that was in the dark,” I kindly reminded her.
“Yeah,” said Tess as we walked up towards the bridge where the line began.
“Are you sure you want to go on it?” asked Sarah.
“Yeah… I think I want to… I think…”
“Jordan, you’ll be fine. Don’t worry. You were fine on it when you and your mom went on it, you didn’t die did you?” I asked her tickling her stomach.
“I guess I’ll go. And if I don’t like it I blame it on…” she said closing her eyes and walked in a circle with her pointer finger and arm straight out. She landed on Sarah, who would take the blame if Jordan didn’t like the ride.
“Let’s go!” I said leading the group up the pathway over the bridge.
The line looked very long. It looked longer than it ever had. That might have been from the burning heat; or from our imaginations. But that line no matter what other people say was long. We waited in the line, taking turns fanning each other and playing hand games.
“Aren’t we a little old for this?” Sarah asked me when I asked her to play a game of Bo-Bo-Skimmi-Ratin-Tatin. “I mean we’re almost in middle school. In not even three months we’re going back to school, in a totally different school.”
“I guess,” I shrugged giving up on the idea that Sarah would ever act as a little kid again.
And then we waited. And waited. And waited…
Until, it got dark. The lights on the rides glowed even lighter than they did in the daytime and it was just a beautiful sight to see.
“I really don’t want to go on because it’s dark.”
“It’s only just getting dark, Jordan,” Tess said matter-of-factly.
“But it’ll be dark before we get there,” Jordan whined. “And I’m not going on in the dark.”
“Noooo. Jordan if you leave on of us will have to take you back, and we really want to go on.”
“I’m sorry I can’t go on the ride,” she said getting teary. “I can’t do it.”
“Jordan. You HAVE to go on,” said Tess figuring out that if she didn’t convince Jordan to go on the ride, she’d be the one to take Jordan back and miss the ride.
“I’m leaving,” said a teary-eyed, seven-year-old Jordan.
“No!” whined Tess.
“Let her go,” Sarah said. “Tess go after Jordan, please.”
“Okay,” moped Tess pushing her way through one hour worth of people waiting behind us.
“I’m guessing we should follow them…” I said not sure of what to do. I mean, those were Sarah’s sisters’ not mine, and I didn’t want to tell them what to do.
“Nope. We can go on the ride and if they don’t wait at the bottom of the ride like dad drilled them to do if we ever got separated, then they’ll be in trouble.”
“Okay.”

Before we knew it we were in the front choosing if we wanted to wait for the front, or take a middle car.
“You decide,” I said.
“No, I’ve never ridden in the front and the dark at the same time; you tell me is it worth waiting for?”
“Yeah!”
“Okay, then we’ll wait.”
“Excuse me, do you know what time it is?” asked a golden blonde hair boy with bold blue eyes.
“Yeah hold on let me take out my phone,” I said reaching into my bag and taking out my dark gray AT&T razr. “It's… seven forty-two.”
“Thanks,” he said smiling at me, making me blush.
“Next in line!” called the ride control person talking to the boys in front of us.
“We’ll wait for the front, thanks,” said the blonde haired boy’s friend.
“What about you girls?”
“Sarah what do you want to do?” I asked her
“We’ll wait for the front, too,” she said making me move up closer to the guys.
“Stalkers?” Asked another one of blonde haired boy’s friend, he was a little taller and had long brown hair.
“Noooo.”
“Thank god.”
All of a sudden Jordan and Tess came running up the exit, where you get off the ride.
I waved to them my heart leaping. I was so worried that we would’ve gotten separated and we’d spend the rest of our time trying to find them.
The blonde haired boy imitated my wave and almost near death experience and laughed it off with his friends as they got on the ride.
“No,” I said softly, half laughing half shaking my head.
“Yeah,” he said back.
“Nooo.
“Yeaaahhhh.”
The ride started to move and he mouthed something back to me that a couldn’t make out. Sarah and I laughed it off and talked to Tess and Jordan from across the tracks. When the ride where the blonde haired boy was on came to a hault, I saw him reach over to his friends who didn’t go on yet, give them a piece of paper with a name and number on it. The tall one with the awesome brown hair handed it to me and told me to call his friend when I got off the ride.
The last thing that blonde haired boy said to my that night was mouthed as “I love you”.