Chapter 4

“Pride,” observed Mary, who piqued herself upon the solidity of her reflections, “is a very common failing I believe.”

— Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Volume I, Chapter Five

So I agreed to go on the roller coaster with Josh. But had I agreed to go on a wild one? And had I agreed to do it right away? Aren’t you supposed to wait at least an hour after eating, or does that just apply to swimming?

As we headed toward Nickelodeon Universe, I managed to talk Josh into letting me do a few sketches of the roller coasters before we actually bought tickets and climbed into one. I mean, in case I do wind up puking and suddenly have to escape Josh and everyone else in the Mall of America with barf splattered down the front of my clothes, I should try to nail a few decent sketches first.

I stalled on the sketches, and Josh finally went to buy some tickets. I offered him cash, but he said no, he’d pick up the tickets because he was basically forcing me to go.

And when you look at it that way, he was.

But I didn’t know what to do about him springing for the tickets. Should I buy him a soda? But that wouldn’t make it even, so should I buy him a burger and fries, too, even though I already had a PB&J sandwich at home and didn’t want to add to the mix of things I might barf? But if I bought him a burger and fries, did that make it seem like a date?

Oh, wait. I glanced down at myself. No one went on a date wearing overalls.

I finished my third sketch just as Josh found me again. With a couple of sodas in his hand.

I frowned. “Weren’t you going to get tickets?”

“I did.” He looked sheepish, which was only fair, since he’d totally blown it and was acting like we were on a date—obviously ignoring both my overalls and my status as Mary Bennet. “But I was thirsty, and I figured you might be, too.” He thrust the plastic cup at me. “You like Diet Coke, right?”

“Um, yeah.” I scrunched my nose, wondering how he could possibly know that. Unless he was confusing me with some other girl. I mean, not that I should care. Josh was just my Physics partner. And I was lucky to have one.

Josh sat down next to me on the bench and glanced down at the sketch I’d almost finished. “Not bad. But is that a drawing of the kiddie roller coaster or a real one?”

I felt myself flushing, which was stupid, except that he’d busted me. “Mr. Gilbertson didn’t say how big the roller coaster had to be.” I pointed at the one called the Barnyard Hayride. The kids on it looked like they were maybe in kindergarten. “It’d be easier to do.”

“You’re joking.” Josh rolled his eyes. “You just don’t want to go on a real roller coaster.”

“As if!” Boy, was he perceptive. Heh heh. That was exactly my plan. “I mean, this one is fine, though. The Barnyard Hayride makes a few turns.”

“Right. It’s twenty feet long.” Josh shook his head. “I am not doing a design based on the Barnyard Hayride, and I’m definitely not riding on it. We wouldn’t even fit.”

It’d been worth trying. “I guess the Log Chute wouldn’t be so bad.” Except for the huge drop over the waterfall at the very end of it; my own stomach dropped every time I saw one of the hollowed-out logs plummet downward.

Josh crossed his arms, which were more muscular and wiry than I’d noticed before. When I’d been trying not to look at him. “Not totally lame, but still not a real roller coaster. You really don’t ride them? At all?”

I pushed my glasses up higher on my nose, which I seemed to do nonstop around Josh. “Like I said. It really didn’t go well the last time I did.”

He laughed. “You also said you were ten. A lot of girls don’t like roller coasters when they’re ten.”

I held up an inexplicably shaky hand. “Don’t tell me. This comes from your vast experience with girls.”

I closed my little notepad and stood up, not quite sure what to do with my soda. I probably couldn’t bring it on the Log Chute and wouldn’t want to anyway.

Josh shrugged as he rose to his feet a moment after me. “I have a couple of older sisters, but I’m not sure I’d call that vast experience.” He paused a moment, then grinned. “Although it’s about as much as I’d want with sisters.”

I slugged him lightly on the arm, partly because Josh had been tapping me on the arm almost since I’d known him. It was only fair.

“Anyway.” He rubbed his arm where I slugged him, as if I’d actually landed a blow he could feel. Not. “I think you’ll like roller coasters a lot better now.”

I just gave him a tight smile as we started walking slowly in the direction of the Log Chute. I stared upward as a log flew down the final drop and water splashed the riders. The little kid sitting in it looked thrilled, but the mom sitting behind him had her cheeks puffed out like she was trying not to barf. Oh, boy. The PB&J sandwich curdled in my stomach when I first agreed to go on a roller coaster. At this point, I figured I might heave even without going on the ride.

We passed a couple of girls I vaguely recognized from school. They were dressed in tight low-slung jeans and cropped spaghetti-strap tops, with the straps of their bras showing. One black, one red, and totally different from the color of their tops, as if they wanted you to notice their bras. At least I assume that’s the theory.

Fashion: yet another thing I didn’t understand.

One of the girls stared at me, then at Josh, then pointedly nudged the girl with her and they both broke into a giggle fit. Josh didn’t seem to notice, though. Either that or he figured he could afford to hang out with Mary Bennet if it scored him the best grade on the Physics project.

Which was kind of a depressing thought.

Despite my fervent prayers to have a lightning bolt strike me dead in the middle of the park—like, right this instant—we finally made it to the front of the line for the Log Chute, where Josh whipped out the tickets and swiped them twice through the reader, which made me wonder how much more those girls would giggle if they saw Josh paying for me to ride with him. Feeling sorry for Josh, I sighed.

At least we didn’t have to sit next to each other. Each “car” of the Log Chute was a hollowed-out log for one rider in front and one in back and a chunk of fake wood between them. I quickly debated whether it would be better to barf sitting in front, where Josh would see it, or in back, where it might hit the back of his head. Ew. Each choice was as bad as the next. Before I could decide, Josh climbed into the back seat, leaving the front seat to me.

Was that so he could try to look at my butt as I sat down? Or because he didn’t want chunks of whatever I’d eaten for lunch clinging to the back of his hair?

Well, overalls didn’t show any part of my body, thank you very much, and I could look straight ahead when my face turned green and I hurled. If I tilted my head down a little, I’d wind up with it in my lap.

The ride started moving, slowly, before I could come to my senses and leap out of the log. But . . . it was fine. We chugged through the water, past the lame-o statues of Paul Bunyan inside some sort of wide-open cave, until we reached the crest of the ride. Just one long, hideous drop to go. Thinking of Cat and Lydia, I bit off a tiny screech as the log shot downward and my stomach dropped somewhere below my knees.

But I held it in. Lunch, the screech, even the gulps of Diet Coke I’d slurped down before I handed the plastic cup to Josh when we got in line for the ride.

I was the new queen of roller coasters!

Okay, not exactly, but I’d survived. As I climbed out of the log, totally ungraceful and a little damp from the blast of water at the end, I let out a shaky breath. I was still Mary Bennet, but I was almost like a normal girl—if you didn’t count the overalls and bad hair and thick glasses.

Josh put his arm around me.

I mean, only for a moment. It was like he gave me a quick hug but didn’t know what to do with it, or with me. When my spine went ramrod straight, he whipped his arm back to his own side.

“You did great, Mar— I mean, MB.” He grinned as he held the gate open to let me go in front of him down the walkway back to the ground. “See? Just like I said.”

“Yeah, I didn’t even—” I clapped a hand over my mouth before I confessed to puking on roller coasters. Maybe it had been a one-time thing, or something ten-year-olds do. Maybe I wasn’t a total loser. “I mean, it was fine.”

“So, you wanna do the Orange Streak now? Or the Rock Bottom Plunge?”

Neither? “Gee, hard to decide. The Log Chute went so well, I thought maybe that should be the model for our design. We don’t have to ride another one.”

Josh waved the ride ticket in the air. “I already paid for the rides, and the Log Chute isn’t exactly a roller coaster.” As I started to protest, he held up a hand. “I mean, you still did great, and it’s kind of a roller coaster.”

In a really lame-o way, I could tell by the look on his face. “So I haven’t actually gone on a roller coaster yet?”

“No. I mean, yeah. Kind of.” He stumbled all over his words, which at least gave me the tiniest pinprick of hope that he didn’t have vast experience with girls.

Not that I cared, of course.

Accepting my fate, I looked around the amusement park, trying to figure out which of the rides I had the greatest likelihood of surviving. “Which rides were you talking about? The Orange Streak and the what?”

“The Rock Bottom Plunge.” He pointed in the air, first to one and then the other. The Plunge really looked terrifying, but Josh obviously didn’t care whether I lived or died. “The Plunge shoots you straight up and down, with that upside-down loop.” He practically drooled as he watched the eight-person car whip around the tracks, but I counted four upside-down loops. Was he absolutely freaking crazy? “The Streak is more of a straight shot. I mean, with turns and all.”

Puke City either way, but I’d puke upside-down on the Plunge. Ew!

I took a deep breath, reminding myself I’d survived the Log Chute without hurling. What was I so worried about? Of course, there was one huge difference between these rides and the Log Chute. I’d have to sit next to Josh. But I didn’t have to screech or cling to him or puke.

I could just have a nice, sweet, terrifying ride—while I bit my lip until the blood started dripping down my chin and onto my overalls—and be done with it.

Oh, boy. “Let’s go with the Orange Streak.”

Josh grinned. “Good choice. If you can believe it, I’ve actually seen some people puke on the Rock Bottom Plunge.”

“No way.” My face was probably turning green, so I looked up at the aqua-green tracks of the Plunge. It seemed like the right color for something likely to induce vomiting. “But I guess these things happen.”

Not to me. Not to me. Not to me.

Please, God.

“So what are we waiting for?” He grabbed my hand and tugged me in the direction of the Orange Streak.

At least, I hoped it was the Streak. I didn’t have the faintest sense of direction inside the maze of the amusement park, especially when a guy I barely knew started holding my hand. Sure, it was just to get me to move my feet in the direction of a roller coaster I didn’t want to ride, but still. He was holding my hand!

He let go of my hand after twenty feet, maybe because I was moving by then. Or maybe because a big pack of kids our age started toward us. I recognized one of them this time. Kyle, the huge guy from Physics. From the look of disgust on Kyle’s face as he flicked a glance from Josh to me, Kyle couldn’t believe Josh’s partner must be me.

That made two of us.

“Yo, Josh! Is that your Physics partner? Or are you on a date?” Kyle hauled up short ten feet away from us and gave an elbow to another huge guy next to him. It looked like the entire football team, along with a few twittering cheerleaders, and all of them were staring at me and laughing. Same old. And yet, not. I mean, I was used to getting this kind of abuse, but Josh didn’t deserve it.

I took a step toward the group, my fists clenched, but Josh pulled me backward.

He kept his hand on my arm when he finally answered Kyle. “Yeah, MB is my partner for the roller coaster project. So we’re checking out the roller coasters. Is that what you guys are doing, too?”

Not likely. None of them—including Kyle—looked like the type to even take Physics, let alone get a running start on an assignment that wasn’t due for another month and a half. I seriously doubted that Kyle cracked a textbook, although maybe he wasn’t as dumb as he looked.

No one could be that dumb.

“MB?” Kyle frowned. “Isn’t that Mary Bennet? Like, the Mary Bennet?”

Josh turned to me and acted like he was smiling, although his mouth looked more like a grim slash. “I guess your rep precedes you, MB. The Mary Bennet who aces every class.”

I kept my voice low, trying to say it so just Josh could hear. “I don’t think that’s what he means by—”

Kyle hulked closer, his posse staying so tight at his side that it felt like we might be stampeded any minute. “You’re not really hanging out with her, are ya, Josh? With her? You’re joking, right?”

Josh took a few steps closer to Kyle. “You got a problem with it, Kyle? Why? You couldn’t find a partner?”

“I wasn’t that desperate, man.”

As the crowd around Kyle whistled and hooted, I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. I’d rather ride a roller coaster than stand here and have Kyle and his buddies make fun of me in front of Josh, who didn’t know enough not to hang out with me. No grade was that important.

At least, not to a normal person.

I turned to him but didn’t touch him on the arm or whatever. No need to draw more hoots from the crowd. “I should go, Josh. I’ll let you hang with your friends.”

I walked away. And Josh didn’t follow.

Except, well, he did. Color me stunned!

“MB! Mary! Wait up!”

I’d barely made it twenty feet away when the grab on my arm would’ve told me Josh was there even if he hadn’t just yelled my name loud enough for half the people in the park, including Kyle and his buddies, to hear.

I turned slowly, wondering if Kyle and his posse were accosting me, too, or just Josh.

Just Josh. “Why’d you take off like that?”

I sighed. “I’m used to it, but it’s not your problem.”

“What’s not?” He glanced down at his hand on my arm, frowned, and retrieved his hand. “Kyle is just pissed that I wouldn’t be his Physics partner, and none of his pals are in our class. Everyone else knows enough about Kyle to realize he wouldn’t exactly be an asset to any team.”

I shrugged. “Except maybe the football team.”

“His grades are barely decent enough to stay on the football team. I think he has a tutor.”

“I thought they just did that for college football players.”

“Or high school kids whose parents have the dough to hire tutors.” Josh stuffed his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “But it doesn’t explain why you cut and ran like that.”

I bit my lip as I stared down at the ground. My hiking boots looked big and clunky and probably not even suitable for hiking. Unless we’re talking the Himalayas, maybe. Finally, I glanced back up at Josh, meeting his gaze for about two seconds before I stared back down at my boots. “Josh, it’s really decent of you to say you’d be my Physics partner, but you don’t have to. You’re just gonna get teased.”

“So?” Josh waited until I looked back up at him, then grinned at me. He really didn’t have a clue. “Those guys would tease any girl and guy they saw together. They always totally assume it’s a date.”

I wouldn’t know. “Even though it’s for homework.”

“Yeah. A class assignment. Man, we’re really taking a bullet for the team, hanging out at the Mall of America on a Saturday, riding roller coasters, when we could’ve both stayed home and studied. Woo!”

Even I had to laugh. “For me, riding a roller coaster is like taking a bullet for the team. Possibly fatal.”

“You’re doing just fine.” He glanced behind him, but Kyle and crew had apparently run out of ways to cut on me and left us alone. “So, you wanna ride the Orange Streak?”

“If those guys see us together again, it’ll totally kill your rep. Really. I didn’t think about that when you asked me to be your Physics partner.” Okay, maybe I did, but all I’d cared about at that moment was that Josh had rescued me. I wouldn’t have to do the project alone and make up some imaginary partner. “I understand if you want to forget it.”

Josh grabbed my arm. “Some girls will say anything to get out of riding a roller coaster with me. C’mon, MB. This is your lucky day.”

I let him drag me through the park, but I didn’t have to like it. “I don’t think a lucky day and a roller coaster have anything in common. At least not for me.”

Josh just grinned and kept walking. A couple of minutes later, we’d made it to the top of the stairs for the Orange Streak, and Josh again swiped the ticket twice through the reader. I couldn’t help wondering how he could be so totally clueless about what the other kids in school thought of me. If he actually knew, he’d be out of here faster than I could blink. Even if it meant pairing up with Kyle for Physics.

Suddenly, though, I was face to face with the Orange Streak, and my mind went blank. Standing still, the bright-orange roller coaster with yellow stripes along the sides looked innocuous, but I’d watched it zip through the air all around the park and heard more than a few screams. Okay, maybe most of them were coming from the mouths of teenage girls who were using it as an excuse to cling to the guy they were riding with, but still. Not all girls acted like Cat or Lydia.

Josh helped me into the seat, then climbed in next to me. The next moment was awkward and weird and, well, embarrassing. Pulling down the safety bar? Together? And squeezing even closer to each other?

I didn’t know what to do with my hands. Josh didn’t put his arm around me or anything, which was probably good, but he kept his hands loose in his lap, as if he wasn’t hyperventilating over what he looked like or whether I was paying attention. In other words, the exact opposite of me.

Why did I care, anyway? Josh was my Physics partner. We were riding the roller coasters only to get a good grade on our assignment. That’s all.

Or so I kept telling myself.

But he was really sweet—for a guy—and he talked to me and acted normal, and I guess I was getting used to the cute way his bangs hung in his eyes. Not that any of those thoughts helped me with the “what to do with my hands” thing.

Do other girls actually obsess about stuff like this? Like, all the time?

A bunch of other teenagers, and a few adults and younger kids, climbed in and filled up the long car, but luckily no one I knew. Or, at least, no one who was openly making fun of me. I bit my lip as the roller coaster started moving, slowly, but reminded myself that I’d made it through the Log Chute. I wasn’t ten anymore. I was seventeen, nearly eighteen, and sitting next to a guy. My entire life had changed.

The roller coaster moved faster now, but I weathered the first turn, no problem. I felt a little weird by the third turn, though. By then, all worries about my hands or Josh’s hands were long gone. I definitely did not feel like clinging to him, but I also wasn’t screaming—in part because I was afraid of opening my mouth and watching something disgusting fly out of it.

I felt this tiny burbling in my stomach. Maybe it was from the bubbles in the Diet Coke, but I hadn’t had more than a few sips. I took a deep breath to calm myself. I could do it. Even though my hands were clammy and my stomach was lurching and my face was probably starting to turn green, I could totally do it.

And I did.

Just when we’d made it past enough turns that I’d finally stopped counting, just when I thought the deep breathing might be working, just when I stopped worrying about Josh and those high-school kids who acted like I was a total joke, I barfed.

Even worse? I barfed all over Josh.