The sun shone brightly, high in the hot, June sky. Samantha shaded her eyes with the back of her right hand.
“Too bright,” She said out loud to no one in particular, “I can’t even tell where the sun is to tell the time. "Ehhh……I’d say around noon.” She guessed, pulling her left hand up, she read her watch. “1:23. Well that could’ve gone better.” she sighed and stood there staring at her watch.
Watching the second hand of her bright green watch tick away, she felt the need to move again. The heat made her restless. The faded red door to the gift shop swung open with a ding of the service bell, forcing cold air to swiftly leave the air conditioned building and outside.
The cold air clashed with the muggy, still air outside. The difference in temperatures formed a small gust of wind. This caused Samantha’s sun dress to billow out around her knees. She dropped her arms down to her sides and took a deep breath of the hot, stillness around her.
“I still have all day here by myself,” She groaned. “Fun.”
Samantha didn’t feel the need to hurry anywhere since she has all day at the theme park. She looked around and saw a brightly painted sign which held the park maps.
“Might as well.” She said aloud again as she walked slowly over to the map stand. “I can’t have fun if I get lost here.” She sarcastically smiled at the thought of an adventure she could have just simply getting lost. She was thinking about an elaborate scene when she almost forgot about the maps altogether until she was under the shade of the tall map stand itself.
Once Samantha got to the stand, she heard a commotion around the water fountains. She turned to see what was going on; she saw three boys huddled around the fountains, one of the boys head perked up awkwardly and turned around towards her direction at the same time she was looking at him.
She locked eyes with the tall, black haired boy, about a couple years older, if any, than her she guessed. Samantha stood there staring at the boy, something about the way he was looking at her made her uneasy and yet, she couldn’t help but love his dark grey eyes.
Even at the distance she can see his eyes, which is part of what made her uneasy. Samantha’s mind came to and she shook her head from any further thoughts and quickly grabbed a brightly colored map. She briskly walked over to a bench not too far away and sat down.
Samantha flipped to a random page in the map booklet. She starred at the pages pretending to read, but in her mind was the boy’s well rounded face. His black hair was spiked up with some of the bangs falling gently on his forehead, perhaps because of the heat. He was wearing a plain dark grey shirt that was tight fitting around his body. She sighed.
Samantha snapped out of her daydreaming and focused more on the booklet again. Skimming over some pictures of party balloons and fireworks. That reminded her of the fireworks show that was that night.
“That would be something nice to stay and see.” she thought to herself, for fear of that boy overhearing her.
She wondered if he was still looking at her, but for some reason she dared not look up again. She tried to keep her mind off of him by reading at the top of the page.
Illuminations Around the World theme park would like to invite you to stay after the normal park hours for our very special Illumination Fireworks Display! For your safety, we ask that everyone who is planning on staying after hours must purchase an armband showing your admittance. We hope you stay with us after hours, and we also like to enjoy the rest of your stay in Illuminations theme park!
Low on money, Samantha wondered how she would be able to find her father to bum more for the arm band. She neatly folded the booklet and slid it into the right pocket of her sundress. Looking around she remembered the boy that she saw. Her cheeks flushed an even darker shade of pink, that wasn’t from the sun. She slowly checked her surroundings again, but he was too far away with his friends for him to notice her again. She sighed and put a hand up to her cheek, noticed her face was growing hot. Then her eyes fell onto the drinking fountains.
Samantha smiled and stood up slowly and walked even slower towards the water fountain with both hands at her sides. She thought to herself as she walked. “It’s really not like me to get sidetracked like that. I thought I always had good control of my thoughts.” She looked to her left where the boys were squirting a tree with toy water guns.
“They must have won those at one of the booths nearby.” She said aloud to herself.
She caught sight of that boy again and almost ran straight into one of the lower fountains jetting out from the brick wall. Samantha laughed nervously and looked around to make sure no one saw her. “I really have lost my mind today.” She thought again. “It must be the heat. Yeah….that must be it.” She just stood there staring at the dull silver bowl.
“Why is he even making me feel like this?” She thought to herself. "It’s not like anyone would feel that way looking at me." The fire left her cheeks as she thought of school and all of the drama she has been put through. She held her bright red hair from her face as she bent over the small drinking fountain.
Samantha was roughly five foot, two, with red hair that glistened in the sunlight. Her hair fell gently in tussles down to her waist. She has big green eyes that added a coolness about her features that helped balance her wild hair. Being only 18, she looked and sometimes acted a lot older than she really was. At least, that is what she liked to think. She is shy and soft spoken, but speaks her mind often, only to herself.
Just as she started to take slow sips or the cool crisp water, she heard voices, three male voices to be exact. Samantha panicked and tried to fix how her hair looked while she was pretending to drink more water. The boys’ voices became hushed and after some time one of them cleared his throat to get her attention. She lifted herself away from the steady stream of water until she was standing erect. Samantha smiled sheepishly and tucked her hands behind her back. She looked from one boy to the other. One of them had dusty blond hair that covered most of his eyes. The second had dark brown hair almost shaven off his head. The third boy, the boy she saw earlier, wasn’t even looking at her now. He was filling up his water gun awkwardly with the little stream from the drinking fountains. Samantha shifted her weight from one foot to the next.
As she cleared her throat, she opened her mouth to introduce herself, trying to fill the awkwardness that hung in the heat. Right as she did the second boy with blond hair pulled up a two handed water gun and sprayed her right in the face. Samantha squealed loudly and threw her hands up to protect herself. The boy filling up the other water gun looked up at her yelling. Reacting with a flash the boy dropped the water gun he was filling and shoved the other boy into the wall by the fountain. As he shoved the blond boy, the gun dropped still in mid spray, causing the front of Samantha’s bright, green sun dress to get soaked.
“Dude!! What the hell is wrong with you?!” The black haired boy yelled, pushing him harder into the brick wall.
“Chill out Locke, we’re only havin’ some fun with your stalker girl.” The last boy said calmly.
Samantha stood there, wet from her head to the middle of her dress. A slight warm breeze blew past her and a few people walked by. She shivered as the freezing water was casing her dress to cling to her warm body. The boy named Locke turned to Samantha now, the rage melting from his face as he looked the shivering and panicked girl. He gave her a sympathetic smile. Samantha whimpered and looked down at her dress. The light green and blue dress looked almost black with the water seeping farther threw the fibers. She continued looking at the ground embarrassed, slowly wiping water from her face and neck.
“Listen," said a calm, reassuring voice, “I didn’t tell them to do this to you.” He paused for an answer before continuing. “Those guys are assholes, and I came to apologize for them, because I know they wouldn’t come talk to a pretty girl like you.”
Samantha never looked up but she could tell that he was smiling while he talked. His voice was gruff but sweet too. He had a bit of a southern drawl, but that didn’t bother her. She herself was born in Georgia.
Samantha took in a deep breath and sighed, gathering enough courage to lift her deep face up to the dark haired boy. “I…it’s alright.” She gulped in another small mouthful of air. “I mean it is just water, freezing water, but water. It will dry.” She said quietly and kept trying to reassure him that she was fine by herself. But the boy, Locke, stayed put. She slowly moved her head to focus on the brick wall next to them. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m fine, really.” She said looking back to him.
“Locke, ditch your girlfriend and let’s go!” One of the boys said. The other boy piped up. “Yeah let her go stalk someone else now.” He said under his breath, yet Samantha still heard.
She looked over again to see Locke turned around threatening the other two with a silent promise. Locke turned around to see Samantha staring at him again. He smiled, a little bit of worry crossing his face.
“I’m really sorry about them. I guess no one has taught them any manors quite yet.” He said more to himself and not her.
He took in a deep breath and then sighed. “Well, I have some change. Would you wanna come with me to get a soda. You know to make up for all of this?” Lock said nervously.
Samantha couldn’t believe her ears. She got the wrong intention of the boy as her hands clenched into fists and she starts to walk away from him. A look of confusion and anger crossed her face as she smiled an angry, grimace of a smile. Locke panics and grabs for her arm, but stops himself whenever he looked to her face and saw the angry and hurt smile.
He lets her walk away but throws a deadly glare to the other two boys he was with as she walked past them. Samantha wasn’t all that mad, she was confused and just wanted to get away. She walked over and went into to the girls’ restroom, just around the corner of the brick building. As she pushed open the bathroom door, a blast of cold air smacked her in the face.
She kept walking until she came to the sinks. She looked up into the tall, wall sized mirror in front of her. What little makeup she was wearing around her eyes was smudged and smeared down her face. She turned on the cool water in the sink and wiped the rest of the makeup off. After she was done, she dried her face with the scratchy paper towels and, checking herself only one in the mirror, left the bathroom.
“Hopefully if anyone saw that they’d be gone by now.” She said aloud to herself as she pulled the door open.
As she stepped out into the muggy, hot air, she looked around and she saw the black haired boy leaning on a lamp post, alone. He stood up straight when he saw her and waved her over. She sighed and started walking slowly. “He was only trying to help,” She thought. “He could be really nice if he’d stop flirting too much.” She smiled sheepishly again.
“They’re not here.” He said to her when she was within earshot. Samantha sighed and relief crossed her face.
She smiled at him and said. “I’m sorry about before. I shouldn’t have run off like that.” Samantha said shyly.
He walked closer to her, “What the hell are you sorry for?” he gave her a puzzling look. “We were the ones who were jerks to you.” He gave her a sweet yet flirty smirk.
She looked away, blushing just a bit. “Yeah, but…I….” she was stopped by his hand in front of her face. “No, ‘buts’.” He commanded with a smirk. He continued, “At least let me buy you a coke or something?” He asked rather smoothly.
The boy continued when he did not get an answer. “The name is Locke.” He outstretched his hand to her. “Very nice to meet you.”
Samantha slowly moved her red hair out of her face with a brush of her hand and then reached out to shake his.
“Nice to meet you too.” She says timidly. “My name is Sam.” She adds. He continues to smile but gives her a puzzled look.
“Sam? You’re way too cute for Sam.” He looks her up and down. “Sammy it is then!” He states smirking again.
Samantha begins to blush and looks down at their hands, still clasped together. He laughs and gives her hand a playful squeeze. She whimpers and pulls her hand away, while looking at the ground.
Locke chuckled to himself. “I’m not lying, you are cute.” He said, while his cheeks tinted pink. “Oh yeah!” he seemed to smack himself for not remembering something sooner.
He reached into his shorts' pocket and pulled out two green armbands. “I thought you might want to stay with me and watch the firework thing.” He asked nervously. “I was planning on staying anyways, and you had to buy them in pairs for the cheaper price.” Samantha looked up just in time to see him wink at her. She smiled back at him and reached out for an armband.
“That sounds great.” Samantha said rather boldly as she strapped the band on using her teeth, rather swiftly. She smiled up at him again hoping he saw, but he was too busy trying to get his own on.
Locke struggled with one hand trying to strap his band on. Samantha gently reached out and took his hand and fastened the arm band for him. She looked up and smiled at him. He smiled back, blushing. Seeing the pink on his face made her face flush that same, rosy color. She looked down and noticed she was still holding onto Locks hand. She dropped both hands quickly and looked away. After a while she looked back up at him.
“So, where is my coke?!” She said, laughing nervously.
