The Fall of Candy Corn (4 page)

“Uh-huh. She is.”

“Give me the phone.”

“Pizza and movies. Wanna join us?”

“What?” Candace asked.

“1512 Willow Way. Yeah. Brick outside — you can't miss it. See you.”

Tamara hung up and tossed the phone back to Candace. “He's coming over.”

“What did you do that for?” Candace asked.

“Because he's cool, and I thought it would be fun.”

Candace still hadn't gotten over how jealous Tamara had been of Josh and her other friends from The Zone for most of the summer. It just seemed weird that she was so willing to hang out with him after all that. A sudden thought occurred to her. “You like him, don't you?”

“Yeah, he's cool,” Tamara said, giving her a where-have-you-been look.

“No, I mean like him like him.”

Tamara stopped for a moment as if the thought was completely new to her. “He's cute and funny,” Tamara said musingly. “But, I don't think I like him in that way.”

“Why not?” Candace asked, warming to the thought of two of her best friends getting together.

“I don't know. It's just not . . . right. I don't know how else to explain it.”

Candace decided not to push, though the more she thought about it the more she liked the idea.

“So, double pepperoni?” Tamara asked, changing the subject.

“Is there any other kind?” Candace laughed.

“I've heard rumors, but I haven't been able to verify,” Tamara said.

She ordered the pizza, and they both sat down on the couch. “Who do you think will get here first, Josh or the pizza guy?” Tamara asked.

“I've got dibs on the pizza guy,” Candace said.

“Candace, you're dating someone. I don't think you can claim dibs on the pizza guy,” Tamara said seriously.

Candace threw a pillow at her. “Not what I meant.”

Tamara threw the pillow back. “Just checking.”

As it turned out, they arrived at the same time. The doorbell rang, and when Tamara and Candace went to answer it, they found Josh on the step paying the pizza delivery guy. Josh was tall with sandy hair and a great smile. Candace and Josh had become friends over the summer, bonding over sharing their secrets with each other. Josh had never told anyone how Candace felt about Kurt, and she, in turn, had never breathed a word of his secret to anyone.

Josh took the pizza and stepped inside. “Did someone call for pizza?” he joked.

“Let me pay for that,” Tamara said, fishing money out of her pocket.

“It's okay, I've got it. Mom said never to show up to a party empty-handed, and this way I haven't.”

“Please. You can't get paid that much from The Zone,” Tamara said.

Candace bit her lip. She elbowed Tamara.

“Ow! What?”

“What has your mom said about gentlemen?”

Tamara wrinkled her nose. “Always let them pay when they offer and never feel obligated because of that.”

“So?”

Tamara sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine. Thank you for the pizza, Joshua, but you're not getting a kiss for it.”

Josh stared at her like she had grown a second head. “Uh . . . not looking for one.”

“Good!” Tamara said, grabbing the pizza and leading the way back to the living room.

Josh looked at Candace. She just shrugged, and he shook his head. They then joined Tamara in the living room.

3

A large pizza and two movies later, Candace, Josh, and Tamara were laughing so hard they were crying. Tamara had just finished telling Josh about how the entire youth group was coming to the Scare and how Candace had totally freaked out.

It still freaked her out, but the way Tamara told it and the way Josh was laughing, she couldn't help but laugh too.

“So, which maze? What character did you get?” Josh asked after a minute.

“Candy Craze maze. Apparently, I'm playing Candy. I have no idea what that is,” she said.

Suddenly, Josh stopped laughing and stared at her, eyes bulging. “Are you kidding me?”

“No, why?”

“You're playing Candy in Candy Craze?”

“Yes.”

“And you don't know what that is?”

“No, why?” Candace said.

Suddenly, Josh started laughing again, so hard that he slid off the couch onto the ground where he clutched his sides as though in pain.

“What is it?” Candace asked, desperately wanting to be in on the joke.

“You're playing yourself,” he gasped.

“Myself?”

“Yes.”

“You mean?” Tamara asked, laughing too.

“Yes!”

Then they were both on the floor laughing. Candace stared at them in frustration. “What are you talking about?”

“You remember when you were trapped overnight in The Zone a few weeks ago?” Josh asked.

Of course she remembered. She didn't think she would ever forget that night. She and Kurt had been accidentally locked inside overnight. They had had their first big fight and broken up. Candace had been upset that he was a high school dropout with no plans for the future. They had gotten back together later on, but that night had been a terrible one. “Yeah, not forgetting that any time soon,” she said.

“And you remember the urban legend that started to pop up afterward?”

“You mean that a psycho killer chased me through the park all night?” Candace asked.

Josh nodded.

“So?” she urged.

“They based the new maze on that urban legend. A psycho killer is loose in a deserted theme park, and he's chasing a terrified cotton candy operator through the maze. Her name is Candy.”

She stared at him in horror, the full impact of what he was saying hitting her. “I'm playing myself,” she whispered.

“That's what Josh said a minute ago,” Tamara reminded her.

“This isn't funny,” Candace told them.

They stared at her for a moment in silence before bursting out in even harder laughter.

“Yes, it really is,” Tamara assured her.

Candace tried to decide which was more humiliating: the fact that she was playing herself in a fictitious version of her life or that they made her look like a floozy. She was standing in the costume department of The Zone on Saturday morning, looking at her reflection in a full-length mirror. The skirt was way shorter than the one she had worn all summer and had a tear in it revealing even more leg. Similarly, the blouse was slightly lower cut with several torn parts smeared with fake blood.

“You have got to be kidding me,” she said as she did a slow spin.

“You think this is bad, you should see what I lobbied against,” one of the costuming ladies told her. “The maze designers would have had you in your underwear.”

“You're kidding!”

“Only a little. It wasn't underwear, but it was indecent at any rate. It's going to be hard enough spending several hours a night running in this getup.”

“I'm not sure I can do this,” Candace said.

“Play yourself. I figure if you can't laugh at yourself, life isn't worth it. Give it a try. You'd be surprised at what you can do.”

Candace stared dubiously at the woman before adjusting her name tag that said Candy. “I guess it's true that the more things change, the more they stay the same,” she sighed.

She had definitely planned to not have anything to do with cotton candy ever again, and yet here she was, playing a victimized cotton candy vendor.

“Janet, could I get some help?” someone shouted from one of the dressing rooms.

“Stay here, I'll be right back,” Janet instructed.

Candace turned back to the mirror and stared at herself for a moment. Suddenly, the images of two men were reflected behind her, one on either side.

“Ummm . . . tasty,” the taller of the two muttered.

“Makes me want candy,” the other added in a voice that made Candace's skin crawl.

She turned to face the two men who both leered at her. “Who are you?” she demanded.

“I'm Will. This here is Brandon,” the taller one said.

“We're what you'd call professional Scare monsters,” Brandon added.

Professional creeps is more like it. Candace glanced toward the dressing rooms and wondered when Janet would reappear.

“This is our tenth year working Scare,” Will said. “And you know why?”

“No,” Candace said, taking a step backward.

“Because we like it,” Brandon breathed, his hand descending on her shoulder.

Candace swallowed her own fear and prepared to knee him in the groin like her father had taught her when she was younger. She took a deep breath, ready to shout for help first. Before she could, Josh appeared.

“Knock it off, guys. Save your scare tactics for the players,” Josh said.

Candace and the two men turned to look at him. Josh's tone was carefree as usual. He sounded like surfer Josh. But something in the way he held himself, though, was distinctly different. He looked taller somehow, and Candace had never noticed before just how broad his shoulders were.

Candace thought the white shirt of his vampire costume showed off the musculature of his upper body and made him seem more imposing than when he was wearing his normal tank top. It wasn't his shirt, she realized finally. It was the fact that he actually seemed dangerous. She found herself believing that he could rip both Will and Brandon apart with his bare hands and never break a sweat.

Brandon and Will must have felt it too. They beat a hasty retreat.

“No offense, miss,” Will said.

“Sorry, dude,” Brandon added.

Then the two were gone, and Candace sagged in relief. Josh stood for a moment, his posture still tense. Finally, he relaxed and turned to her.

“Sorry about that. I met those guys last year. They can be a little enthusiastic when it comes to scaring people, sometimes inappropriately so.”

“They scared me,” she admitted. “I'm so glad you came when you did.”

“Janet's been working on my costume. She told me you were over here, so I came to show you what I've got so far. Pretty cool, huh?” he asked, spinning.

“Very nice,” she said, her voice a little shaky. “I think you're missing the cape and fangs, though.”

“Janet's still working on those.”

“I don't know. You look more handsome than scary.”

“That's the idea,” he said, trying to look suave. “Seriously, thanks.”

“No problem,” she blushed slightly as she realized what she had said. “So, in which maze are the evil twins working? Not mine, I hope,” she said.

“Nah. Horrific History, I think.”

“That's the one Kurt's working.”

“Good, he can keep an eye on him. Are you going to be okay?”

She nodded. “I'm still rattled, but I'll be okay.”

“You want me to talk to a supervisor and see if I can get them fired?”

She wanted to say yes. Ultimately, though, that wouldn't help her face the jerks. She shook her head. “No, it'll be fine.”

“Okay. By the way, love your costume.”

She punched him in the arm.

“What was that for?”

“This is a terrible costume. I feel like I'm being exploited,”

she said, turning back to the mirror. “I can't believe they've made a maze out of this. I can't believe I'm starring in it.”

“Very few people have had the impact on this park that you have,” Josh said. “You should be proud.”

“Proud is not the word I would use.”

Janet finally returned. “That was quite a vanishing act,” she chided Josh. “I turned to get your cape, and when I turned back you were gone.”

“Sorry,” he said, looking sheepish.

Janet attached the cape. Josh turned slowly, the cape fluttering. “Better?” he asked.

“Much,” Candace said. “Which maze are you in, Count?”

“Why, Castle Dracula, of course,” he said.

“Seriously?”

“Yup. It's in the castle. Haven't you been to a Scare before?”