Clerence Cartwright

As the boys were so eager to know about my current affairs, they returned with Doc. However, I remembered myself promising to tell them tomorrow, so I preferred to clam up. Due to my stubbornness, Gregory Ellard, the richest among us all came out with an idea – treating us for a meal in the Italian restaurant located opposite Pavillion Mall.

He thought he knew me so well that I would surrender upon delicious food and drinks. But I'm immuned to such briberies compared to the others. Thus, my mouth was still shut even though they'd tried to make me spit out the answer with trap questions. The only thing I'd ever said was, "Nice dish, bud."

I'm not kidding. These were the only three words I'd spoken in the booth, until Doc suggested to play at the Fun Fair, which is currently where we are standing after lining up for 30 minutes at the little ticket office. The bumper car station ignites Doc's interest with cute Mario music and real life examples bumping each other in the moderately big space.

"One game?" he asks, raising his index finger.

With our faces revealing different expressions, the three of us keep silent. But our gazes never leave Doc's extraordinary gay face. He looks surprisingly adorable under the shining Fun Fair lights and even Hansel, the coldest rock of our team, also the best confession extorter, agrees with a slight smile appearing on his usual poker face.

So here we are queueing up again in front of the counter before walking pass the tiny metal door. As Hans doesn't want to drive, he manages to save his tokens and sit beside Greg. As for Doc and me, we gladly prefer driving since this is the best chance to kick each other's asses.

Not long after, the four of us have already seated in position. Hans and Greg in a blue vehicle; Doc in a red one while I in a green one. The game hasn't started yet due to lack of competitors. Hence, he wait with our rising anticipation and adrenaline. My heart budumps like a drum until it can almost leave a tattoo behind my chest. More people are joining this round and this will be fun.

Delighted and excited, I can't stop my right leg from shaking due to these reasons. Bookstore shifts, college, undone assignments, basketball training and Sasha are all thrown to the back of my head. The only thing I want to focus now is to enjoy.

The siren sounds like a truck's horn and our vehicles vibrate with the steering loosening. Lights with different colour begin to shimmer all around alongside with the changed background music, forming a special disco site full of moving bumper cars.

***

Sasha Shadows

Running and floating and penetrating with my fastest speed, I finally find a seat beside Clerence as he prepares himself to drive recklessly. One of his eyebrows cocks up along with his slightly crooked lips, which in turn forms a smirk on his face. To be honest, he looks just like a bad boy from those famous bad boy stories.

Soon, the roaring siren breaks me out of my reverie and what comes next is Clerence driving the car forward and turning left sharply. His target is locked onto a blue and a red bumper car. I nearly fly out of the vehicle as the driver knocks the blue car.

A scream escapes from my throat whereby Clerence laughs happily upon his successful evil plan. As for the gentlemen in that blue car, the driver is laughing maniacally while the other boy, which I assume is Hansel, has his right hand grabbing on a handle and his face bright with chuckles.

Occasionally, he would adjust the rectangular specs when it slips down from his nose bridge. Suddenly, our car is knocked from the right behind, thereby turning our heads to the very direction. Apparently, the culprit is Dominic.

"Ha!" Turning the steering wheel skillfully, Clerence tries to hunt down the other hot boy but is blocked by other drivers. "Oops, sorry!!" he almost yells at two girls which he accidentally bumps into throughout the chase. Luckily for us, Dominic is encountering numerous clashes along his fleeing route. Hence, this gives Clerence time to catch up with him.

"Baam!" we shout together though the boy beside me would never hear me.

"Aww man!" Dominic grumbles in defeat as Clerence chuckles. He sends him a salute before turning away to avoid his revengeful clash. "Come back here!"

With his excellent driving skill, Clerence manages to avoid most players who are trying to bump him. But he forgets about the guys in the blue car. "Cleeerrrreeeennnncceeeee!!!!!" The said boy stares at the voice source, frozen with his eyes widen until their car bumps onto the right side, which is my passenger side. "Woooohoooo!!!!" cheers the blue car driver as he maneuvers the car single-handed.

On the other hand, Hansel is hugging his stomach, laughing non-stop upon the adventurous experience. "Imma come and getcha!!" Chanting under his breath, Clerence turns the steering wheel again, intended to avenge himself. Nevertheless, the vehicle stops midway.

"Too late, Cartwright!" The blue car driver pipes as he gets down from the car with Hansel.

"NOOOO....." Dominic's frustrated exclamation drives the whole space's attention. "Why is it stopped?!" As a result, almost everyone laughs at his question because his car is just about .5 inch away from ours. "Another round!" he stomps in the driver seat like a child, totally not satisfied with the ending of the first game.

Shaking his head and chuckling with his face palmed, Clerence gets out of the green vehicle while I follow. "Sure, you can play with Greg and Hans because I'm out," he announces with both of his hands raised, showing he has already made his decision.

"We're not on for the second round bro, sorry," The driver named Greg apologises when he tails behind Clerence and me. "Now what should we play next?" he asks, scratching the back of his head to rummage for notions. Clerence is still leading the team without turning his head to see whether or not the others are following.

Whilst following the boy I love, I can't stop looking behind to examine the two, wondering what they are up to as I register Hansel whispering something into Greg's ear. In response, Greg snickers upon the 'plan' spoken by the bespectacled handsome boy before they all look at Clerence.

Their wicked smiles are obvious.

***

Back to Clerence Cartwright

"Hey Cartwright, wait up!" Greg demands from behind but my legs won't listen. Instead, I pick up my pace until I've arrived the roller coaster station.

"Shit," by the time I'm about to leave the place, my shoulder is patted.

"Hey bro, want a ride?!" shouts Greg with his terrible suggestion. He knows I'm not capable of the steepness on roller coaster tracks and also the speed on the roller coasters themselves, yet he still brings it out.

Hiding my nervous expression behind my fake smile, I utter, "No."

"Why not?" asks Doc in a whine after catching up with us.

"Because I don't wanna ride it!" Due to the loud music blasting from the speaker a few metres from us, I rant at them.

"Oh sure you want it," sings Hans in a different tone, his smugly smile tells me everything.

"Oh sure I don't want it!" And without any clue, I take my heels from the roaring roller coaster and away from those sick bastards.

"What the fuck?!"

"Catch him!"

I laugh at their stupidity while running away as fast as I can. The nerve cells in my mind runs 120 kilometres per hour when I begin to think for the best hiding spot. But before I can even take a sharp turn, Greg's large palm has already rested on my shoulder. "Gotcha!" he breathes with a pant.

But I am not going to give up just yet, since my body stores remaining strength for me to continue running. Therefore, I swipe his hand away and dart off, ignoring his 'hey, wait up' uttered almost without his voice in it since he is busy catching his breath.

People around are throwing questioning gazes at me, wondering the reason for me to run so badly, but all I can do is to keep running. Unfortunately before I can even notice, I've bumped into someone and both of us fall on our butts due to the impact. Our lips shaping the very 'ow' when I take in the sight of Kayla, rubbing her elbow while hissing in pain. She is wearing a white T-shirt printed with a Mickey Mouse and a blue jean skirt. Moreover that, her boots are the worst choice to be wearing in such place.

"Clerence?!" she is the first one to call the name, although I recognise her first.

"Kayla?" I reply as if it is a knee-jerk reaction. "What are you doing here?"

After standing up and scrubbing the dirt from my butt, I lend a hand for her to get on her feet as well. Astonishment is written all over her make-up smeared face at the sight of me. "I-I'm coming to play, obviously."

She must be so shocked until her arrogant aura disappears for good. Now the one standing in front of me is not the Kayla who appears to be a bully, but the Kayla who has turned into a kitten. As I'm about to open my mouth to say something, another shoulder pat alerts me.

"There you are..." It seems like the rest of the boys have finally caught up. And I'm not into fleeing anymore, since the three of them are busy sweating and bracing their hands on the knees.

Am I having a better stamina then them?

"Now, roller coaster," It seems like they haven't noticed Kayla yet as they immediately drag me towards the opposite direction as if I am a criminal.

"Or you're gonna tell us now," Hans threatens darkly with his low, husky voice.

"I said tomorrow, right?" I ask, trying to not let the girl in front hear any of our topics.

"Tell them what?" But hell yeah, it's her voice when she begins to walk towards us. Registering the voice, we all turn around while Greg is about to wave and say hi. However, the scene which she trips and falls headlong in front of us is shockingly funny.

ᵂᴱ'ᵛᴱ ᶠᴵᴺᴬᴸᴸᵞ ᴿᴱᴬᶜᴴᴱᴰ ᶜᴴᴬᴾᵀᴱᴿ ᴺᵁᴹᴮᴱᴿ 10(ノ^o^)ノ ᴬᴺᵞ ᵟᵁᴱˢᵀᴵᴼᴺˢ ˢᴼ ᶠᴬᴿ? ᴼᴿ ᴰᴼ ᵞᴼᵁ ᴴᴬᵛᴱ ᴬᴺᵞ ᶜᴸᵁᴱˢ ᵂᴴᴬᵀ ᵂᴵᴸᴸ ᴴᴬᴾᴾᴱᴺ ᴺᴱˣᵀ?

ᴾᴸᴱᴬˢᴱ ᴰᴼᴺ'ᵀ  ᴮᴱ ˢᴵᴸᴱᴺᵀ, ᴵ ᵂᴬᴺᴺᴬ "ᴴᴱᴬᴿ" ᵞᴼᵁᴿ ᵛᴼᴵᶜᴱˢ 🤣🤣🤣

ᴬᴸᴿᴵᴳᴴᵀ ᵀᴴᴬᴺᴷˢ ᶠᴼᴿ ᴾᴼᴾᴾᴵᴺᴳ ᴵᴺ. ᵂᴱ'ᴸᴸ ᴹᴱᴱᵀ ᴬᴳᴬᴵᴺ ᴼᴺ ᵀᴴᴱ ᴺᴱˣᵀ ᵁᴾᴰᴬᵀᴱ💕

ˢᴴᴼᵁᴸᴰ ᴵ ᵀᴴᴵᴺᴷ ᴼᶠ ᴬ ᴺᴬᴹᴱ ᶠᴼᴿ ᴹᵞ ᴸᴵᵀᵀᴸᴱ ᴿᴱᴬᴰᴱᴿˢ, ˢᴵᴺᶜᴱ ᴹᵞ ᶠᴬᴺˢ ᴬᴿᴱ ᴺᴬᴹᴱᴰ ˢᵀᴬᴿᴿᵞˢ... ᵂᴴᴬᵀ ᴬᴮᴼᵁᵀ ᴵᴹᴾᴼˢˢᴵᴮᴸᵞˢ? ᵞᴼᵁ ᶜᴬᴺ ᵀᴱᴸᴸ ᴹᴱ ᴵᶠ ᵞᴼᵁ ᴰᴼᴺ'ᵀ  ᴸᴵᴷᴱ ᵀᴴᴱ ᴺᴬᴹᴱ, ᴵ'ᴸᴸ ᵀᴴᴵᴺᴷ ᴼᶠ ᴬᴺᴼᵀᴴᴱᴿ ᴼᴺᴱ😉😉