We chose to head to the park in the afternoon, giving time for the morning sun to both carry away the rain and warm the day. There was still a chilly bite left in the wind but I refused to let it bring down my excitement.
“They have the teacup ride!” I gushed, fidgeting excitedly as I waited for Wanda, Yelena and Pietro to catch up. “And they have ring toss and the bell game and-“
“Calm down,” Pietro snickered, patting my shoulder as he looked around the amusement park.
“I can’t calm down, I haven’t been to an amusement park in” I paused, my face scrunching as I tried to remember the last time I had been to an amusement park. It had been with Oscar, I knew that much, but the when was escaping me. Was it for his fifth birthday? Or was it during summer break one year.
“I want to try the drop one” Yelena announced, breaking me from my memory struggle. I felt myself tense at the mention of the dangerous looking activity.
“Maybe we should split up. We can meet back here in a couple hours and get something to eat” I proposed, my hand finding Wanda’s. Pietro narrowed his eyes at me and I stared back, attempting to explain my thoughts without words. When he didn’t get it I sighed heavily, freeing my hand from Wanda’s and tugging the man to the side.
“I want to spend time with my girlfriend, you want to make a move on Yelena. If we split up, both of those things can happen.”
Understanding appeared on Pietro’s face as his mouth shaped into an o. “Right, that makes sense.”
“Idiot” I grumbled, shuffling back over to the girls, Wanda’s hand catching mine immediately. “So the plan is that we split up. Tony gave us these wristbands so we could skip the lines to rides so two hours should be plenty of time to ride everything you want. We can meet up at the entrance to the food section.”
Pietro and Yelena nodded, before turning and heading off towards wherever they were going. I watched them go, the ordering and departure giving me a sense of deja vu. Similar to all cases of deja vu, though, the reason for the sensation escaped me.
“Alright, what should we ride first?” I asked, shaking off the feeling and turning to Wanda. She hummed, tugging me toward a map of the park.
“You said you liked the teacups right? We could do that one and then just ride the next thing we see once we get off” she suggested, seemingly overwhelmed by the number of rides and games as it neared a hundred.
“Spontaneous, I like it” I grinned, this time leading the way as we walked to the teacups. Thanks to Tony’s wristband we skipped the line of people and settled into a red and white teacup, my hands grasping the circular disc in the middle.
“We can go slow, right?” Wanda asked, her hands hesitantly moving to grip the wheel where there was free space.
“That’s no fun” I whined, pouting dramatically at her. She sighed and shot me a look, signaling her allowance of a speed I desired. I grinned, the expression growing as the ride jolted and began to move. We started out slow but the speed gradually grew faster until we were spinning as fast as I could get without making use of my powers.
Of course, I should have recalled the fact that the teacup ride was my least favorite, not my favorite.
“Why were you so excited about it then?” Wanda asked, rubbing circles on my back as I clutched my stomach with one hand and my head with the other. The ground felt unstable and shaky and my stomach still felt like it was spinning.
“I forgot.”
“You forgot that you get extremely motion sick on a spinning ride?” Wanda’s voice was more concerned than anything else, which was not how one would normally voice such a question.
“Yeah” I said softly, sitting down on a bench and closing my eyes. What else was I supposed to say? I remembered being on the ride with my little brother, I remembered how excited he looked across from me and that, in turn, got me excited because I thought I still held some memories from home. I thought that, if nothing else, I could remember what I liked doing at an amusement park.
“Olivia…” Wanda started and I opened my eyes, meeting green ones swarmed with pity. I was getting bad at remembering to keep my thoughts private.
“I don’t want to talk about it” I whispered, shaking my head and looking away, catching sight of a large sign that marked the position of a log ride. “How about we go on that one next? We still have plenty of time before we meet up with Lena and Sonic.”
I could feel Wanda’s gaze remain on me for a few moments longer before she looked over to the ride. “That one? Are you sure?”
I knew what the doubt lacing her voice meant. She was wondering if I had memories of that particular ride that would once again steer me wrong, or if I had forgotten it completely. Instead of answering the questions, both unspoken and spoken, I stood up, making sure I was steady before holding out my hand to her.
“Come on. We came here to have fun, not sit around. If we wanted to do that we could have stayed at the compound.”
Wanda eyed me before nodding, taking my hand and standing up. I was careful this time to keep my thoughts in the protected section of my mind. She didn’t need to know the fact that despite the now familiar sense of deja vu that came from watching the ride, and a fleeting memory of Oscar with drenched clothes and a wide smile, I had no recollection of ever riding it.
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