My Curse (Part 2)

“Eric,” said Mr. Tam.1

“Here,” I replied. I got out my book and started reading. A note in the shape of an airplane hit my face. I unfolded it and read, Louzer! I then thought, only a real loser would spell that word wrong. I snickered and went back to reading.2

“Ok, class, as you all know that this being the last full week of school we go on an annual trip, this year we will be going to the new amusement park,” said Mr. Tam.3

The class burst out into applause and cheers.4

“However, more than a handful of you have received too many points this year, therefore those children will not be going,” he said.5

There was a point system; each time you got punished for something you would get several points. The more severe the punishment, the more points and if you got too many points you wouldn’t be able to attend trips like this.6

“All of you kids in here will be attending bus twelve, those who are unable to go will go to room two hundred fifty-six,” he said. “Have a good day and have fun,” he said.7

A few short minutes later and we were on the busses and were almost off to the park.8

“Hey do you know what the parks name is?” asked a kid behind me.9

“No I can’t remember,” said the kid next to him.10

”The parks name is Wild Ride,” I said to them.11

“Is there anything you don’t know?” asked one of them rudely.12

“It depends, I have no idea where your missing brain matter is, so that would be something that I don’t know,” I replied smartly.13

“Whatever,” said one of the two boys. They both got up and sat somewhere else.14

The empty seat filled up fast and soon the entire bus was packed, except for the half-empty seat next to me.15

Alice stepped on and looked around, not finding a free seat with anyone bearable to sit with. She hesitantly sat next to me. Everyone around started laughing at her, she looked so embarrassed.16

I laid out the options, number one would have been find a new seat, number two could have been stand up for her, and number three was stay put with mouth shut.17

I went with two, “You buffoons think she had much of a choice? At least she isn’t crammed in with three kids just so her reputation wouldn’t falter,” I said.18

Then one of the “in” crowd kids asked, “What?”19

I hit my head with my hand and said, “If your grades didn’t falter then you would know the definition of the last word in my previous sentence.”20

They all stared at me like they didn’t understand what I had just said.21

“What was that too complicated for you?” I asked.22

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Alice grin.23

I turned to her and said, “I know you weren’t born yesterday but for these guys I need a Birth Certificate to make sure.”24

She forced back laughter but couldn’t fight off that beautiful smile.25

A few of them looked really mad, like the only reason why they wouldn’t beat me up is because Alice was sitting in between us.26

I sat back in my seat, feeling good. I had just insulted the school jocks and their cheerleader dates. The trip to the park was pretty quiet after that, apart from the extremely loud noise from everybody except from the two of us. Alice apparently had no one to talk to. I doubt she even recalled me being there, she didn’t talk the whole ride, not to anyone. If I had just one wish, it would be to get a chance to talk to her. And today, I was lucky.27

“Alright now class, just because you are all here doesn’t mean you get to do whatever you want. It means that you can do whatever you want between the person, or people, you are sitting with,” said Mr. Tam.28

The kids next to us snickered, and Alice groaned.29

“At lunch you will receive a worksheet, this worksheet will not only be your ticket out of the lunch area, but it will also be worth twenty percent of your grade. Have fun,” he said.30

The bus doors opened, kids stood up, and ran out of the door extremely fast.31

When Alice and I were out I said to her,” We can go with your friends if you want to.”32

She nodded and quietly said, “Thanks.” She then quickly walked over to the very same group of kids that made fun of her on the bus.33

I followed and wondered why would she want to hang out with them if they were being turds? Oh well, I didn’t get the whole zap concept and I probably wouldn’t get this either. But hey, that’s life.34

I heard the kids ask why they were taking me. I said to them, “Just say that you had no choice in the matter, the teacher had a huge discussion with all of you and you had to take me.”35

“Uhh, ok,” said one of the girls.36

“I’m sorry, I forgot who I was talking to, I’ll talk slower and use shorter words next time.” I replied.37

“I can see why you would forget who you were talking to, seeing as you have no friends,” said one of the guys.38

Their friends did the whole high five and the “ohh burn!” thing.39

I just stood there thinking, it was about time they came up with a halfway decent come-back.40

“Let’s go to the Trembler,” one of the kids said.41

“Yeah I heard that was really good,” replied another.42

I noticed something wrong, Alice was a little pale, and she wasn’t pale before they mentioned the Trembler.43

I smiled and thought of all of the other things that she kept from her friends; she clearly hadn’t told them that she was afraid of something.44

“Ok let’s go!” shouted one of them.45

We started through the crowds of people and when we finally got to the ride Alice was having second thoughts. “We should go to a different ride,” she said.46

“Ohhh what’s the matter, scared?” asked someone in our group.47

Someone else started making chicken noises.48

“No,” she started.49

“She was just making sure you wouldn’t piss your pants,” I said.50

Everyone was silent until we were next in line.51

“Ok so there are only two seats left so you go with him,” said someone as they pushed Alice toward the ride.52

I got in the car and waited for Alice to come up next to me.53

She hesitated, and then strapped herself into the seat.54

“Have fun you two,” said a girl who was smiling.55

Alice was extremely quiet, and then the car started to slowly move forward.56

She was taking extremely deep breaths as we started to move forward and up the track, she also was gripping the handle bars so hard that her knuckles were white.57

I turned to her and asked, “Are you ok?”58

She replied without looking away from her hands, “Yup, I’m fine.”59

“Do you need to?” I asked as I held out my hand, “It helps the first time around.”60

”No thanks,” she said with her voice shaking.61

“Are you scared of heights?” I asked.62

She didn’t reply.63

I nodded and looked forward.64

We were almost at the top of the hill made from railing, still moving slowly. And then all of a sudden we started to move fast downward, the wind was rushing by so fast that my knuckles were freezing. I felt a slight pain in my right hand, and my right ear. It was Alice; she was clutching my hand extremely hard and was screaming. The rush of air blew my hair around like mad. We went up, down, left, right, and twisted around on the rail. I laughed because this wasn’t that bad, but nobody could possibly hear because of the creaking of the metal and the rider's screams.65

The ride started to slow down and my hand felt like it was going to fall off.66

“Um, is it possible for my hand to be released? I need feeling in it,” I said.67

Alice looked down at both of our hands and realized that she grabbed on after all, and quickly released. “Thanks,” she started to say.68

“Don’t mention it, and not just because of what your friends would say,” I added.69

“Oh yeah,” she said slowly.70

When the car came to a stop we got off, and her so-called friends got on.71

She looked at them in disgust, “Let’s ditch them.”72

“Don’t need to be told twice,” I said.73

We walked away from the ride and started talking.74

“What is your favorite movie?” I asked.75

She thought for a moment and then said, “Space Balls.”76

“Oh my gosh, I love that movie!” I replied. “My favorite part is when Dark helmet gets hit by the camera because it got to close,” I said.77

“’There is only one man who would dare give me the raspberry,’” she quoted.78

We both started laughing.79

“So what is your favorite book?” she asked me.80

“My favorite book is Superior Saturday in the Keys to the Kingdom series,” I replied.81

“I’ve never heard of that, what is it about?” she asked with interest.82

“It’s about an asthmatic named Ar-““All water park rides are closed today. That is all” interrupted the loudspeaker.83

“Never mind,” I said.84

“So what do you want to do?” I asked her.85

“I don’t know,” she said.86

“Well how about we go to lunch first and then decide where we will lose all of our food?” I asked with a kidding tone.87

She stopped and looked at me with a horrified face.88

“I’m kidding, don’t worry,” I said smiling.89

“Oh ok,” she said.90

“We could play games instead of go on rides, like bumper cars,” I said with a grin.91

“You are so going down!” she said smiling.92

We walked toward the ride or game or whatever you want to call it. The line was pretty long so we waited a long time and watched the sparks fly from the ceiling and the cars bash into each other. There were constant thudding noises as the bumpers on the cars collided.93

Then, all at once, my ears rang so loudly that I couldn’t hear anything, my stomach lurched, and I couldn’t breathe. I collapsed on my knees and revisited my last meal.94

People around gasped and rushed around or quietly walked away.95

I was not an asthmatic and I didn’t have the flu, so what was happening to me?96

I rolled over in pain, as everything hurt. Everything was unclear from then on, and I don’t remember anything.