Shifting Shadows (Sparks Collide Trilogy) (7 page)

We drove into the Zoomly’s Theme Park
and
Arcade
20 minutes later. The big sign broke
me out of my haze. “Roller
coaster’s
?
Really?
What are we, twelve?”

She scoffed “In my experience doing
something is better than sitting and whining. We’ll get our thrill on for a
couple of hours and if you’re still up for it we hit a few house parties later
just like we planned. This just seemed like a better pre-game to me.”

I couldn’t argue with that. I looked up
at the ‘coasters I used to ride as a kid. They’d added some huge ones since
then that I always wanted to try but never got around to. Kira looked up at
them too “Don’t worry, we won’t go on them till your sober but if you’re too
worried I’m going to whip you in air hockey, you don’t have to play me.”

“I’m actually feeling pretty solid
right now but the ‘coaster can wait so, you’re on.” I cracked my knuckles
slowly as a thought came to me. “How about we make it interesting? Loser buys
pretzels, popcorn, and anything else the winner feels like.” It wasn’t very
nice of me to mess with her like this but I couldn’t resist.

Her eyes fell on me and I noticed the
challenge in them. “Cool, if you want to just give your money away like that,
that’s totally fine with me.”

I laughed. Poor girl had no clue who
she was dealing with. I was an air hockey guru master. “We’ll see. I’ll call
Trent
and have him pass our location on to
everyone else.”

“Thanks, I’ll get in line with the
tweens and their parents.” She looked at the kids in line and back to me, eyes
sparkling at the height differences, daring me to laugh and I found myself
smiling as I pressed the cell to my ear.

The score was six to six and in
traditional air hockey style the first to seven won the whole thing. At first I
was going to let Kira win because it wouldn’t be a fair game anyway but she was
a sick air hockey player and her drive kicked my competitiveness into gear. She
had one the first round mostly because I had gone easier on her in the
beginning but I had won the last round and this was the final showdown.

The puck had gone back and forth, back
and forth. She swung out her arm-

“Hey, buddy” a hand clapped me on the
back and the puck flung it into my goal as I looked up into
Logan
’s face.

Kira screamed and did a happy dance.

“Dude, you are so dead.”

Logan
backed away palms out in front of him.
“What, I didn’t mess you up did I?”

I couldn’t help smiling “I frickin’
hate you right now.”

“Eh, you’ll get over it.”

Kira flung her arms around
Logan
“You have amazing timing you know that?
I am officially the air hockey champion of the world.” She backed away and held
her hand out to me. Mock seriously she said, “Good game.”

I took her hand in mine though I
noticed I only got the hand while
Logan
got the hug. “Yeah, yeah, if you’re
into cheating than it was a great game.”

She shrugged, the grin plastered to her
face “Hey, a win’s a win, right? I think some fried dough with powdered sugar
sounds amazing right now. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Definitely, and because
Logan
is the cause of my losing the bet, he
can buy.”

Logan
laughed, “I didn’t know there was a
bet involved.” He considered “I guess I can buy us dough but Jay buys the
drinks because honestly, you can’t eat those things without some.”

I rolled my eyes,
Logan
was always bargaining. “Deal but first
let’s work up an appetite with the Cliff Diver.”

I had noticed the Cliff Diver from out
in the parking lot before even entering the park and was intrigued by it. It
was the tallest ride I’d ever seen and its function was to slowly take you to
the top and then allow you to freefall down at incredible speeds. It would jolt
to a stop at random intervals so you never knew where it would stop or even if
it would. You simply bounced around waiting to see which direction it would
bring you next, further up and then down again or straight down. I was pumped.

“So where’s everyone else?” Jay asked.

“They went on Green Thing.”
Logan
pointed over to what must have been
one of the newer roller coasters at Zoomly’s. The thing was huge, spanned most
the park with its winding and flipping, and had an almost completely vertical
drop from the highest point. Not surprisingly it was lime green and looked
freshly painted. “It’s not
my
thing so I came to find you two.”

I looked at him. “You don’t like
heights?” If not, I thought the Cliff Diver might not be a good idea for him.

Jay answered “Nah, he’s good with
heights. It’s the twisting that makes him sick, always has.”

Smirking, he said “It’s true. It
involves a traumatic story with a tire swing.”

I looked skeptically at him but decided
to let it go as we got in line. I faced the guys, “You ready for this, James
Dellarson?”

He cringed slightly at the use of his
full name. I considered it a small triumph. “Piece of cake” he replied “and
F.Y.I. you’ve been hanging out with my uncle too much.”

I laughed. “That doesn’t bother me. Doc
is awesome.
Logan
, you sure you’re ok with this ride?”

“Hell yeah, no twisting, just straight
flying, you feel me?”

I looked all the way up at the ride
once again. “Definitely.”

I thought about flying and I missed my
broom with a yearning so deep, it took my breath away. My broom was the one
thing my parents would not allow me to bring. There wasn’t any situation, they
said, that I would need it for. They’d also made me swear on my magic that I
wouldn’t spell another broom to fly unless a life or death situation required
it. Which we all knew, wasn’t ever going to happen. Flying wasn’t much of a
defense for anything and there were quicker means for transportation.

Didn’t they understand that flying to a
witch was like flowers to the earth? Neither was necessary but they made life
better, more beautiful. I lamented my broom mournfully but tried to look
forward to this sort of flying. Diluting myself with this ride for a few short
minutes was better than nothing.

The seats were placed as two together,
a space, and then two more together. You were strapped into the seat and a bar
came from above your seat to hold you in place. A red-haired girl, no more than
13, eyed
Logan
and when our turn to get on the ride
came up, she hurried to sit next to him. According to the grumbles behind us,
she was ditching her friends in the process. There was that space, then I sat
on the inside and Jay on the outside.

As we slowly ascended, anticipation
that felt a lot like butterflies filled me. The ground was getting further away
and everything became so much smaller. I gripped the bar hard. “Jay?”

“Yeah?”

Even though the belt kept me pretty
secure, I managed to move my head just a little and turned towards him. “I’m
glad we’re eating
after
we ride this.” I joked.

He turned his head towards me and I was
shocked by the light in his eyes. Energy and excitement shone out of him. I
gasped involuntarily at the beauty of him in that moment. “I know what you
mean.” He said, laughing.

I nodded, speechless. I was staring at
him one second and then the next, the cold wind rushed up at me, pushing me
back. I faced forward and watched as we plummeted into the world, gripping my
bar and screaming my head off. We were bound on a fall that seemed to have no
end and every part of me felt alive.

Suddenly, we jerked to a stop and I
managed a few heavy breaths before we were lifted slowly up all over again. My
eyes met Jay’s, his purple eyes were intoxicated by the rush and I knew mine
must have looked the same. We stayed like that without exchanging words until
we dropped again. 

After the ride,
Logan
’s gaze kept sliding to me, concern and
pity shining like flashing marquees on his forehead. I ignored him as we walked
to the counter.

Logan
looked at the teenage girl behind the
stand “Three elephant ears, please.” She smiled and may have swallowed her own
tongue as she worshipped my friend.

I decided to help things move along or
we’d be here all night. I stood beside him, adding “and three lemonades.” The
girl’s blue eyes looked like they were about to bug out of her head as they
passed from
Logan
to me over and over again.

Kira went to the window next to ours
“Hi there, I’ll have three elephant ears and three lemonades, please.”

The girl behind that window said
“Coming right up. That’ll be fifteen dollars.”

I handed Kira six dollars and
Logan
placed nine more dollars in my hand to
give to her. She flipped her dark hair over her shoulder and laughed at us with
her eyes.

When the girl behind the second counter
handed us our drinks and plates we turned to go.
Logan
smiled at the girl who had yet to move
from her spot at the first window “Well, thanks anyways.”

A giggle came out of the young girl
“Anytime.”

We walked to find some seats as Kira
shook her head and said “You guys are ridiculous.”

They
were
so ridiculous but in a
cute, funny way. I thought I’d seen it all this week with girls going crazy
everywhere we went but complete loss of motor skills was a new one. Logan and
Jay had just made that girl’s day.

It wasn’t a surprise to me that
everywhere I went with my new group of friends, people stared. The towering
heights of the guys alone would have anyone doing a double take but get all of
them in a group together, add in the surreal good looks that frankly each one
of them possessed and you entered major gawking territory. I never had a huge
group of friends growing up but I was pretty certain this type of this wasn’t
normal.

Growing up I was the girl with the
protective parents. Being a witch can be hard when you’re a kid surrounded by
humans. I made a few mistakes and suddenly I’m the freaky girl. One mistake too
many and we had to move. We moved around a lot until I was nine years old and
then we settled in
Boston
. There, I was home schooled until
college.

I had lived at home and commuted but we
were always close with the neighbors. I hadn’t learned until I was older that
it had been a strategic choice that my parents made for us to fit in and be
liked by our neighbors. When you’re on the run, you need every illusion of
normalcy you can get. It was best, they explained, to be hidden in plain site.

I met people in undergrad and figured
out how to socialize as best I could. There’d been a few guys and a few dates
but no one was tripping over themselves to stare. I decided I was fine with
that, I’d never worried overmuch about my looks before, and honestly I wasn’t
going to start now. For now I was far, far away from home and loving the
freedom.

Jay and Logan had already polished off
their food and were talking sports as I tried to finish the colossal task of
powdered sugar that lay in front of me. I saw Brandon, Trent, Max, Mena,
Annabella, Demi, and Will coming over to us.

We all exchanged “Heys” but I noticed
everyone’s eyes fall on Jay like he was an escaped mental patient. I’d noticed
Logan
giving him similar looks earlier and I
wondered what that was all about.

Max was looking scrambled and nauseous
and Will was practically holding Max up as they walked. “Dude, I get why they
call it the green thing now, it’s the color of your face,”
Trent
said as he too, helped Max to sit
down.

Max shrugged “Go on the roller coaster
they tell me. It’ll be fun they tell me.”

Mena rolled her eyes “Stop being a
baby, it
was
fun.”

Demi came and sat next to me “Kira this
idea was brilliant. How did you come up with it?”

I was shocked at her nice tone. She was
hardly ever flat out nice. “I don’t know. It was just…needed.” I looked to Jay
as I said it and his eyes connected to mine in shared experiences.

“Well regardless of the fact that we
are all at least ten years too old and completely overdressed,” Demi continued
“it’s the most fun I had in a while.”

It was true. Demi was in a cute dress,
Annabella was in her designer labeled jeans and blouse, and heck, I was in a
skirt, but no one really seemed to care.

“Same for me,” Annabella added.
“Besides, kids today don’t know what they’re doing, they need us to show ‘
em
how it’s done.”