by Jamie Ayres
Nate seized my arm and shouted, “Olga, will you go to prom with me?”
I gaped at him. This was so random. “And why are you asking me now?”
“I was going to ask you soon, since it’s only six weeks away, and thought why don’t we save ourselves the heartache of finding a date and go as friends?”
The part of just attending as friends felt worse than being stuck up here.
“And of course, in case we die.”
I shoved him lightly, afraid if I hit him too hard, he might fall out of the cart. “Not funny.”
But somehow, he did make me laugh, even as nervous sweat poured down my forehead. Or maybe the perspiration just came from being this much closer to the sun. I swore I could’ve reached out and touched its rays. Even the helium balloons from below popped before they made it this far.
The Jedi Order chanting “say yes, say yes, say yes” snapped me into focus. Our fellow thrill seekers joined them. Funny how a situation like this bonded people together so quickly. Before I could answer, a man literally stepped out of an elevator and stood on top of the track, adjusting something. Just seeing that took ten years off my life.
The chanting halted, and Kyle shouted to the worker, “Dude, they probably don’t pay you enough to risk your life like this.”
He smiled. “Just hold on tight, folks. We’ll have you down in a sec.”
“What happened?” Tammy asked, clearly annoyed.
He scanned the gages inside a box as he answered. “Well, on rare occasions, a combo of weight distribution, the force of the launch, and the wind can stall the coaster on top of the tower.”
I heard Nic suck in her breath. “Define rare.”
“I believe this is the third time in the ten years since its opening,” he answered, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead with a gloved hand.
Kyle snorted. “Weight distribution. I knew I shouldn’t have eaten so much at lunch.”
“Yo, how much longer we stuck up here for? We’ve been up here at least twenty minutes.” Sean’s eyes glistened as if he were ready to cry.
The worker chuckled. “It’s been about three minutes, and you’ll be down in about ten seconds. Hold on tight.”
My heart jumped in my chest, and I barely breathed as we nose-dived to the ground. When we came to a screeching halt, I turned to Nate. “Yes.”
Everyone cheered. I knew it was because we were all safe, but it felt like I’d just done the scariest thing by agreeing to attend Senior Prom with Nate. The g-force of the roller coasters at Cedar Point had nothing on falling in love.
“Following the light of the sun,
we left the old world.”
—Chris Columbus
Nicole and I pulled into the senior parking lot at Grand Haven High on Friday, April first, and a large crowd stared at something in the sky. Local news crews gathered everywhere, and Nicole barely squeezed into a parking slot.
“What in the world?” I wondered aloud as Nate opened my door, unusually silent. Upon hopping out of Nicole’s Honda, I discovered the nine-foot monkey statue from the entrance of the local Jungle River Mini Golf, standing atop our school’s roof. I turned to Nate.
“Oh my gosh! I can’t believe you did this. It’s so awesome! I thought you said pulling off the perfect practical joke would be too obvious for April Fool’s Day?”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He leaned toward me, and his eyelashes fluttered against my cheek. “We figured the fact it was so obvious added to its perfection,” he whispered in my ear, sending chills up my spine.
We met up with Sean and Kyle in the lobby. I noticed they all dressed alike, even Nate wore his Cantankerous Monkey Squad shirt underneath his heavy checkered flannel. They greeted each other with fist bumps as Nicole, Tammy, and I rolled our eyes.
“So is this the extent of our senior prank, or do ya’ll have more plans for the day?” Tammy asked.
“Let’s just let this be a wait and see kind of thing,” Nate said, divulging nothing.
“Well, I don’t know if you fellas know this or not,” I scolded in my best redneck voice. “But stealing is in fact a punishable crime in these here parts, and Jungle Golf will be darn tootin’ mad when they discover their monkey has been abducted.”
“True,” Nate said “But no monkeys were harmed during the operation of our prank, and if they don’t come for it themselves sometime today, we’ll return it to them tonight.”
“You morons!” Nicole let out an exaggerated sigh. “Don’t you think they’ll have a stake-out tonight and wait for something like that so they can arrest you?”
Sean half-shrugged. “You girls worry way too much.”
The bell tolled and I waved, hurrying off to class.
A couple hours later, I dropped my book bag on the cafeteria floor with a loud thud. “Is your band’s CD playing?”
“Sure sounds oddly familiar,” Nate said, offering his arm and ushering me toward the food line.
People around the lunchroom flashed a thumbs-up toward him.
I honed in on his guitar solo as we moved through the line. “Okay, you have to tell me how you guys did this.”
He pumped ketchup onto his hamburger. “I’d tell you, but then we’d have to kill you.”
“Whatever,” I said, adding chocolate milk to the last space on my lunch tray. “I guess nothing says Cantankerous Monkey Squad better than a publicity stunt. Your only problem is the music clearly pins the prank on the three of you.”
“Maybe.” He stole a fry off my now loaded tray. “Or it could just be a fan, or arch-enemy trying to make it look like us. There’s no hard evidence. And maybe I’ll get special treatment since my best friend is the probable class valedictorian.”
He playfully elbowed me.
There was the dreaded ‘friend’ word again.
Setting my tray on the lunch table, I cleared my throat. “Don’t you dare drag me into this.”
He rubbed his goatee. “Hmm, dare? Now that I think of it, I did win a dare when your parents came to your last cheerleading game. I never did cash in.”
I shifted my legs underneath me in the plastic chair. “You know, dares died out with middle school.”
“Poor, Olga,” Sean said. “Too chicken to accept the terms of a dare rightly won.”
“All right,” I agreed, knowing if I didn’t, I’d be labeled as a wuss forever. “What are your terms?”
The drama teacher, Ms. Frost, entered the cafeteria with hurried steps, her arms swinging at her sides. We directed our attention to the melodrama unfolding on stage with the rest of fifth period lunch. Our cafeteria also served as our auditorium, and from the look of things, Ms. Frost came to put an end to the boys’ prank. The guys must’ve hooked up their stereo equipment with the CD playing on a loop through the stage’s loudspeakers and not the main office, to make it difficult for someone like the lunch duty ladies to locate the source of the prank through all the wires.
Ms. Frost pulled the plug, and then, giving a steady stare at the band, indicated with her index finger that the boys should follow her.
They did, but first Nate turned toward me with a rueful smile. “Aren’t you coming?”
“What?” I eyed him nervously.
He swiped his hair to the side of his face and laughed. “You helped us, remember? United we stand, together we fall.”
I nodded slowly and stood, understanding these were his terms.
“Wait up!” Nicole and Tammy shouted. “We’re coming, too.”
Nate put his arm around me as we walked down the hall toward the main office. “I didn’t really expect you to follow, but thanks. Lunch just wouldn’t be the same without you.”
By seventh period, Kyle reported the monkey had left the building, returned to its rightful owner. When interrogated, the boys confessed to nothing but the music. Of course, Principal Matthews didn’t buy their omission of truth, but like Nate said, they had no hard proof. So it was lunch detention,
as Nate predicted, for the rest of the week for all of us. I just hoped they weren’t dumb enough to pull off another stunt before the day’s end. But I should’ve known better. Boys will be boys.
Nate asked to use the facilities during our eighth period Photography II class. After ten minutes, he still hadn’t returned.
The bell rung, signaling the end of the school day.
The teacher shot me a puzzled look, but I just shrugged and gathered my and Nate’s things before heading out the door.
Greeted by hundreds of squeals as I exited, it seemed like a million super-sized bouncy balls rebounded off the hard surfaces of the school’s tiles and walls. I caught one ball in mid-air and examined it more closely. Inside the glitter, a tiny, brown, angry monkey floated around. Sliding it in my jacket pocket, I laughed my way through the mania.
I passed Principal Matthews in the hall and heard the funniest walkie-talkie conversation ever. “Dean Reynolds and Janitor Michaels, I need help cleaning up immediately! I’ve never seen so many balls in my life! How are we ever going to get rid of all these monkey balls?”
Nate’s hand gripped my shoulder out of nowhere as he leaned down and whispered, “Best senior prank ever,” Nate said as he gripped my shoulder from behind and spun me around.
I laughed, hugging his side. “I just hope they still let you graduate high school after all this.”
As we made our way outside past the school dumpsters overflowing with boxes from Mario’s Pizza, a weekly Friday special, everyone patted Nate on the back while scurrying past us, already making plans for the weekend.
My phone buzzed from the front pocket of my backpack. I kept my gaze straight ahead and met the rest of the Jedi Order by Sean’s truck, the phone between my ear and shoulder.
“Hello?” I asked breathlessly, feeling dizzy from all the excitement.
“Olga? You’ll never guess what just happened.” The familiar voice practically shouted at me in a rushed, excited tone.
“Calm down, Dad, what’s up?”
I held the phone to my ear, a wide grin on my face as I listened to Dad and watched Nate chest bump with passerby.
Shutting the phone a few minutes later, I smiled from ear to ear. Practically screaming, the old cheerleader came out of me. “My parents invited all of you to Mackinac Island with us for this weekend. Who’s coming?”
“What?” Nate’s brows came together. “Are you serious?”
Mackinac was this place Conner visited with his Boy Scout troop for three summers in a row during middle school. His dad was the scout leader and secured a weeklong gig each summer for duty at Fort Mackinac. Ever since Conner told me about it when he returned from the first trip, I wanted to vacation there. I even thought about writing it on the life list, but then everybody made their suggestions and I ran out of room.
I polished my sunglasses on my T-shirt, then slid them on. “Yeah. One of the wealthy dudes my parents do business with at the marina owns a luxury sailing yacht. They were meeting today about something, and when this guy heard about my acceptance to UM and all the stuff that happened this year, he wanted to do something nice, so he told my dad to borrow one of his boats for the weekend. Dad asked him if it’d be okay if we took it to Mackinac, and he said yes. The vessel houses a dozen people, so we can all go.”
“I’ll come,” Tammy said, lighting a cigarette.
Nicole adjusted the wide purse strap over her shoulder. “Count me in.”
“For sure, yo!” Sean held out his fist to me for a knuckle bump.
The Volvo next to Kyle whirled to life, and he jumped. The kid honked his horn and screamed praises for the band’s prank through the car window.
Nate raised two fingers to his forehead and gave a salute.
“Dude, I’m totally there,” Kyle told me.
Sean opened the door to his Toyota Tacoma and then slid his key into the ignition, waiting.
“Sounds sweet,” Nate agreed, climbing into the back seat of the truck behind Sean as Kyle took the front passenger spot.
“Great. We leave tomorrow from the marina at 6:00 in the morning, and then we’ll arrive back home Sunday around 10:00 at night. Don’t be late. You know how my mom is about punctuality.” I directed my gaze at Tammy. “You ready to follow the boys?”
She nodded.
We were meeting Conner’s family for a small remembrance ceremony by the lake, since today marked the year anniversary of his death. His parents said we’d all release a balloon as a symbol of sending prayers up to heaven and letting go of our grief. Today had been one of those sad happy days. Conner was present in the back of my mind, just like every day, but I was glad the boys went ahead with the prank. It honored Conner more than sitting around and being sad.
Tammy tossed her cigarette on the ground, stomped out the last of the burning ember just before we loaded into her Lexus, then hit the gas with her famous lead foot. I was whiplashed back into the memory of last April Fool’s day, the image of her blowing smoke in my face and peeling out of the same parking lot as I waited for Conner to head out for our first spring sail.
The irony sent chills up my spine.
Nate and I explored the entire ship before settling into our favorite spot on the boat, an area in the front where there was a gracious view of both the sparkling lake and the sails dancing in the wind, and plenty of sea spray to cool our faces. Passing by all the gorgeous homes along the shore caused me to fantasize about plans for the future. But my fantasies came to an end when Sean barked at us to join the rest of the Jedi Order in the hot tub.
I nodded in the direction of our friends. “I can’t believe there’s actually a hot tub built into the back of the boat, because the water we’re floating on just isn’t enough, apparently.”
“Catch up with the times. Hot tubs on boat decks are all the rage now.”
Nate stretched his legs out in front of him and I did the same, my bare feet resting on top of his ankles. “Maybe in South Beach, but it seems out of place for Michigan.”
He laid a hand across my shin. “Well, it’s not really a hot tub. It’s a deluxe jetted soaking tub you have to fill up and drain with each use, probably because a hot tub would be too much maintenance for the amount of time these millionaires actually spend on this thing.”
Rolling my eyes, I gazed up at him and asked, “Why are you always so correct?”
He lifted his hands in an I-don’t-know kind of way, then we helped each other up and hurried below deck to our separate cabins. There were four bedrooms, each with a queen-sized bed, and the extra room served as a study. All three girls shared one room, the three boys in another at the opposite end of the hallway. Mom and Dad’s room separated us, as well as Robert and Loria’s.
My parents invited Conner’s parents because they thought getting out of town on the anniversary weekend of his death would do them some good. Plus, Mom probably didn’t want to be responsible for six teens all by herself.
Searching for my duffel bag in the pile of stuff thrown on the floor, I quickly found it and changed into my yellow and white striped one piece with the fake daisy on the right shoulder strap. I walked barefoot across the hardwood floor with rigid posture, returning to the saloon the same time as Nate. I admired the sight of him shirtless and sporting his black and white checkered swim trunks, then the boat rocked, waves pounding against the low windows. I lost my balance, falling straight into him, just as he also lost his balance. We ended up on the couch together. Warmth I never knew existed assaulted my body. His breath against my throat wreaked havoc on my nervous system as the stubble of his chin tickled me. He tipped my chin, forcing me to meet his eyes.
“Fancy meeting you here.” He smiled, holding me, dragging his fingers lightly across my arms.
“Are you guys coming or what?” Nicole called from above.
Biting my lip, I looked at Nate’s hair falling in his face, thick and dark, and my cheeks flushed.
“Guess we should head up,” he said.
R
eluctantly, I flipped over, not wanting to get up and climb the stairs, but I did. When we arrived on deck, everyone was in the water. Most noticeable was Tammy sporting her leopard print halter-top bikini. We passed through a sunken level with chairs just before the Jacuzzi, and above the four seats, a sitcom played on the wall-mounted television.
“Awesome.” I slipped into the warm, bubbling froth. “I didn’t notice the tv here before.”
“Covered up.” Kyle held up a large remote with more buttons on it than my laptop computer. “This little wall slides open with a this control.”
“Cool! Let me see.” I snatched the remote and repeatedly opened and shut the secret wall before I noticed their annoyed stares.
Sean whispered loudly to Nicole, “Girl, I hate to tell you this, but your best friend has issues.”
Tammy sighed. “I’m gonna be so spoiled by the end of this weekend. You’ll have no other choice, honey, than to make tons of money so I can marry rich and live on a cruise ship the rest of my life.”
Kyle wrapped her in a hug. “Anything for you.”
“Oh, barf,” Nicole muttered.
“You know, baby, you could try a little more affection,” Sean said.
“Enough of the mushy. What cult classic do you all want to watch?” Tammy asked, stepping out of the hot tub, displaying her supermodel legs and dangling belly ring. She held up The Goonies and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
“Goonies!” We all shouted in unison, except for Nate.
Nate sighed. “Well, I hate to do this to you kids, but I’m gonna play the patriarch card.”
Sean laughed. “Patriarch? What you talking about, dawg?”
“I’m the oldest member of the Jedi Order, which makes me the leader—or patriarch.”
“Bill and Ted it is,” Tammy said, inserting the DVD.