Thrown Out

I shoved the bag into the provided locker after I slipped my phone and earbuds in. 

“Jackie I’m done I’ll meet you by the water wheel,” I yelled. Once an okay came from the other end of the changing room I made my way out. I half expect to hear a cacophony on children and teenagers but instead I gazed out to the emptiness of Splash Land. An adult free water park right next to an adult only spa, winery and scenic resort. And by adult they meant those over twenty-one. I rankled at being treated to some kiddie park. I was 19 for god's sake, a college student and still I was being treated like some freshman high schooler.

I shook my head, “Whatever,” I said to myself and began walking to the giant water wheel. It was twenty feet tall and an active part of the lazy river. The park’s brochure said it provided a modicum of electricity to the food stands. And while they had it in the lazy river the water around was gated off in an attempt to stop idiot kids from climbing it. It didn’t work very well considering the park stationed three lifeguards right next to it.

They were talking with my brother, “Yeah I’m plat in Val but I’ve been preferring more open world sandpark games lately like Old World and Smog of Creation.”

“I get that but whenever I pop onto those games it feels like a job, having to help the guild escort a player’s wagon or gather a thousand iron. With Val I can pop on, get a few games in, hop off, easy.”

“Hey Carter,” I called out, “who are your new friends?”

“Oh, Hey June, meet Russel, Cameron, and Stella.” He pointed to each lifeguard left to right. Lingering a little too long on Stella. They were all in white shirts and red shorts. The word, lifeguard, visible on every sleeve and open area.

I waved to them, “Hey, hope my little brother isn’t causing too much trouble.”

“Nah we’ve just been chatting ‘bout games and such. Play any?” Cameron asked.

“The occasional final fantasy or COD, not much since I started college though.”

“Fair ‘nough schools gotta come first especially with how much it costs these days,” Stella said.

“Oh, here comes Jackie,” Carter said, waving towards Jackie, “Talk to you guys later.”

We made to meet her in the middle when Carter spotted a pizza vendor. Without hesitation he pointed to it and started moving there instead. I simply sighed and followed motioning Jackie to meet us there. 

Very careful not to run, the three of us speed walked to the pizza parlor. Other than the employees we were the only ones there. Not much of a surprise considering the doors just opened, not many people want to throw themselves down a water slide at 8 am. Especially not children who have been dreaming of sleeping in during summer break. But our parents wanted to enjoy their vacation which meant we were in the way. It was either this or they’d try to put us in the hotel daycare. 

I sat with a huff, “I can’t believe Mom and Dad won’t trust us to do anything but be in this water park.”

“I could be worse,” Jackie squeaked, her face flushed red though both of us ignored it. 

“Yeah you could be stuck in your dorm instead of hanging out with your wonderful two siblings,” Carter laughed as he pulled his wristband to show the QR code, “Everyone want Pepperoni?” 

Jackie and I nodded. Carter walked to the pizza parlor.

“So where we headed first?” I asked Jackie.

She deflated, “Are you going to make us stick together, Mom and Dad would never know we split up.”

“They would if I had to call them and say one of you got hurt or kidnapped.”

“There are only kids here who’s going to kidnap us?”

“Adults aren’t the only creeps around and you saying that proves my point. You’d find someone who pretends to be your friend and then follow them around wherever, especially to some secret location they say is a great spot.”

“I don’t follow people around…”

“Which is why I gave you the first pick, we’ll follow you first.”

Carter dropped three pizza slices on the middle of the table, “Technically I got first pick ‘cause I brought us to the pizza spot.”

“Shut up,” Jackie and I said.

“So what’ll it be Jacks,” I asked.

“How about that,” she pointed to the tallest of the water slides. It was neon green with twists, turns, loops, and one of those big bowls to make it feel like you were being flushed. It had to be a hundred feet up and three hundred long.

“You up for that Carter,” I asked.

“Sure,” he responded with a slight tremble in his voice.

“I’m not gonna force you to go if you don’t want to but you’ll have to be where it ends if you don’t go,” I looked to see where it ended, “Looks like the lazy river is where it lets out.”

“I’ll be fine, I’ll go down.”

“If you're sure…” 

The water park was big. It had to be if it wanted to fit the two dozen water slides, twelve wave pools, surfing pools, splash pads, food vendors and whatever else they could fit. Mom said it was a mile long and wide. So it took a while to find the stairs up to the Drainpipe. But once we did find it we started to have second thoughts.

“That’s so much rust,” Carter said.

“Don’t try to get out of it now,” Jackie said as she put her foot on the first step.

“Are you even tall enough to ride this,” Carter snapped.

“The only limit to rides is age and Jackie is twelve so yes she is tall enough, and yes it is a lot of rust. If you do want to back out that’s fine, if you don’t that’s also fine.” 

Both of them glared at me.

“And before we go up we need to grab our tube for it,” I pointed to the tubes stacked next to the stairs, “So decide now Carter are we taking up the double or the triple cause I’ll be upset if we have to walk back down.”

“Can’t we just take the singles,” Jackie whined before Carter could reply.

“No, we’re sticking together, that includes when tubes allow us too.”

“I… want to go down the slide.”

“Cool,” I grabbed a triple seater, “Up we go.”

By the time we reached the top it took ten minutes. We snagged our tube at least six times and Jackie stubbed her toe. Luckily none of us were panting when the lifeguard at the top waved.

“You guys are the first to make it, wanted to skip the lines so you got up early?”

“More like our parents wanted to start drinking so they kicked us out of the hotel,” Jackie said.

I smacked her arm, “Don’t be a brat,” I turned to the lifeguard, “Hi sorry about her, can we go down the slide?”

“Sure thing,” He grabbed our tube and situated it between the water gushing out from the giant hidden nozzles and the grate where the slide closed, “Hop on.”

Jackie and I sat in the two front seats while Carter had his back to us facing the erupting waterfall. 

“And go in 3-” He pressed the button and we… slid slowly, “Well that was anticlimactic,” He stepped up behind us and in front of Carter before jumping onto the back of the tube and shoving us down the slide.

Jackie screamed as the slide enveloped us. I could barely hear Carter gasp for breath or see him strangle his handholds. I just screamed with Jackie. Left, right, left we sped down the slide in complete darkness. When we thought we were in for a straight shot a sharp turn tried to capsize us when we thought it was a turn we pulled to the side only to nearly capsize ourselves on a straight away. And then there was a light and we exited into the fishbowl. Sheer sides with water hoses making them extra slick whizzed back and forth as our tube spun around.

And then Carter fell off. The tube went faster as it lost weight and we were flung to the other side of the bowl. We reached the tip and without thinking I flung myself out while grabbing Jackie by the arm, just as I saw the tube flip out of the bowl. 

We slid down to the center and dropped into the next half, tubeless. Rivets and exdents pulled and scraped at our exposed skin and swimsuits as we felt every ten feet we passed. I pulled Jackie on top of me and thirty seconds later we were in the lazy river with a team of lifeguards in the water surrounding the exit point.

“You fuckers,” I yelled as I spotted Carter being escorted out of the river by Cameron, or maybe it was Russel, “Your ride nearly killed us!”

“Ma’am, I understand you’re upset but please use appropriate language. While we get this sorted and contact your parents please exit the river and follow Stella to the food court.”

“You better get our parents, how fucking dare you let anyone ride that unhinged scrapheap!”

“Ma’am please watch your language or we will simply escort you out of the park, there are a lot of impressionable ears here.”

I looked around and saw that he was right, not that I cared much about it, the park filled up though what caught my eye was the water wheel. It was stopped and two lifeguards wrangled with a ladder and pool net to remove a popped three seater tube from the main axle. It was wrapped into and around most of the outside.

And then I heard a creak. And I realized the lifeguards weren’t the ones who turned off the wheel, the tube did. A crack spread from the axle and the two lifeguards looked at each other before jumping away from the ladder as the crack snapped sending a shower of splinters into the water and the wheel followed. Landing in the lazy river damming it off and sending waves toward us. We went under once before we were grabbed by a lifeguard who had kept his giant float. We swam to the edge and pulled ourselves out of the water as more lifeguards came running over.

“This park is so fucked,” I said.

“Language,” said a passing lifeguard.