Total defeat.

That was the only way I could think of to describe how the rest of the day had gone. Despite my head start, Nora still managed to locate the exit to the mirror house faster than I had. Thankfully, we both agreed to move on from the Twister and to compete in other activities afterward. That had brought us to the arcade, where we ended up competing in most of the games. Oh, wait. I just thought of another way to describe that experience.

It was a massacre.

From the crane game, to whack-a-mole, to basketball and everything in between, Nora showed me no mercy. By the time we reached the final event of Dance Dance Rebellion, I could only watch in awe as she maintained a flawless streak on the highest difficulty. Even the little kids that had been running around the place stopped to watch her. When it was my turn, I could only try and maintain any paltry combos I managed to get. The game’s spokesperson relentlessly mocked me the entire time, while Nora and the kids hassled me from the sideline. With what little dignity I had, I left the arcade a broken man. Having Nora doubled over and laughing beside me wasn’t helping me recover either, but that was alright. I may have lost the war to her, but damn it all, I was going to at least win a single battle. I led on to the stall that would be our final battleground.

The sky had turned completely pitch-black except for the sporadic splatterings of stars. The cool breeze from earlier likewise had turned cold and nipped at my exposed arms. I began to regret not heeding Ethan’s advice about bringing a sweatshirt. Shivering and with no relief in sight, I couldn’t help but envy Nora. The girl was wrapped up in an overly large red sweatshirt, and when she pulled up the hood, I had to turn away before jealousy overwhelmed me. After a few more minutes of pretending to aimlessly wander around, I stopped in front of a ring toss stall.

“Hey, why don’t we try this one?” I asked, hoping my voice didn’t betray my eagerness.

Nora surveyed the stall I motioned toward with some interest before shrugging her shoulders. “Sure, I’ve never tried anything like this, but I’m sure I can still beat you.”

The trap had been sprung. And better yet, she was a total beginner. Forcing my maniacal grin down, I stepped up to the ring toss stand. In a single motion, the stall owner tossed an empty bucket from another customer behind the counter and placed a full one on the ledge in front of us.

“How many ya want?”

“However much ten bucks can get us,” I replied, rubbing my arms in an attempt to warm myself.

The burly man snatched the bill from me and shoved it into his pants pocket. He grabbed the bucket in front of us and replaced it with one that was decidedly less full. I snorted but refrain from commenting as Nora tapped me on the shoulder. “What’s up?”

“Should I get my own rings?”

I shook my head. “This should be enough for both of us.”

“Ok, we’ll let me pay for half then. It was ten dollars, right?”

She started to pull out her wallet until I bumped her with my elbow.

“Don’t worry about it. You paid for a lot of the arcade games.”

She hummed in response but put away her wallet anyway. “So, how do you play this?”

“All you have to do is get a ring around the neck of a bottle.”

A tilt of her head caused her long bangs to cascade into her eyes. “That’s it? Do we take turns?”

“No, we can go at the same time. He’ll let us know how many we end up making.”

Despite talking to another customer, the man must have heard me and flashed me a thumbs-up.

“Shit, this will be a piece of cake then!”

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She stared at the glass bottles, sizing up the thin glass necks and how to best get a ring around them. Then, she tossed one underhand at the center of the glass bottles. It spun around the neck of a bottle once before clattering to the bottom of the wooden bin the bottles were encased in. The look of frustration on her face only grew as her next two tosses garnered the same result. By her fifth throw, I couldn’t help but laugh aloud and became the target of her ire.

“Shut up! All you’ve been doing is watching me. Why don’t you give it a shot if you’re so good?”

Holding up my hands in surrender, I pulled out three rings from the bucket and walked closer to the stall until my knees bumped the guard. The first one I tossed like a frisbee, and it circled the neck three times, falling off at the last second. The next one I threw with less effort, hoping the lack of force would help it stay on. Unfortunately, it didn’t. The last ring I had, though, settled on the neck of a bottle in the front.

“Freakin’ lucky,” Nora mumbled under her breath.

Contrary to her claim about me being lucky, the girl began to copy what I was doing. Once she did, she ended up being much more successful and managed to get a ring on. And then she started to lean further and further over the guard. She ignored my subtle cues to move back until the stall owner finally noticed. “Girl in red, yer gonna have to back up or be done.”

Huffing, she did as instructed, and tossed her final ring. A miss, which earned another huff from her. I tossed my last one without a care for where it landed since I had already beat her. A final score of six to her two.

“So freakin’ lucky.”

“Has anyone ever told you you’re a sore loser?”

A punch to my shoulder told me few people had. And they sure as hell didn’t tell her a second time.

“Alright, ya got six and two. Pick outta a prize,” the man said.

His tone was a bit gruffer, but he probably thought we had been trying to cheat him. Which was funny considering that this entire stall was an elaborate scam, but whatever. I perused the prizes and realized that it wasn’t just an elaborate scam but an expensive one. It was a good thing all I had wanted to do was beat Nora at a game.

Most of the decent prizes were twenty rings and above. Even if I hadn’t blown most of my money earlier at the arcade, there was no chance I would ever spend that much to get something I could buy for cheaper elsewhere. As such, my choices were severely limited between some packs of stickers or some tiny, stuffed animals. I went with the latter, and so did Nora. What I was going to do with them, I wasn’t quite sure, but at least Nora seemed to enjoy the unicorn one she picked out.

“Alright, we should probably–” A hand clamped onto my shoulder and I turned to them with a start until I realized it was only Ethan.

“There you guys are. Why didn’t you answer our texts? We’ve been looking for you,” he said.

Releasing a breath I’d been holding in, I checked my phone since I hadn’t felt it vibrate. Sure enough, I’d gotten two texts from him and a text from Rika too. “My bad. I didn’t notice.”

He grinned. “I figured. You and Nora seemed to be having a lot of fun. I hardly even got to see you today.”

“Sorry,” I replied.

“I’m not blaming you. I’m glad.”

He lazily wandered over to the rest of our group that emerged from behind the crowd. Chloe handed him his car keys, and I duly noted how everyone had on a sweatshirt. Everyone except for me that was.

“You didn’t happen to have an extra sweatshirt lying around?”

“Sure don’t. I told you it was going to get chilly tonight.”

“Whatever, mom.”

“Oh, sick burn.”

I gave Nora a side-long glance, hoping to convey that her opinion wasn’t needed; she gave me the middle finger.

“That’s rather crude,” Amelia said, flipping her ponytail over her shoulder.

“Nobody asked what you think! Why don’t you stick to annoying everyone else?”

While the two of them loudly argued amongst themselves, and Chloe and Ethan conversed about something or other, Rika decided to make her presence known. The girl slammed into my side and almost bowled me and herself over. She braced herself by yanking on my arm, further convincing me that she was hell-bent on making me eat dirt.

“You want to ride the ferris wheel with me?”

I quirked an eyebrow at her request while I righted myself and regained a grip on the small stuffed animals. “What about everyone else?”

“They’ll be there too, of course.”

“Oh, gotcha. Sounds good to me.”

“Why?” She smirked at me. “Disappointed it’s not just you and me?”

I stared up at the sky and shook my head. “So much so that I don’t think I’ll ever recover.”

“You’re a lot more sarcastic than normal. Picked up some bad habits hanging around Nora all day.”

“Something like that. Anyway, you gather up the troops, and I’ll meet you all over there. I need to walk around a bit before I freeze to death.”

She saluted me and started toward Nora and Emilia first. My teeth chattered as I trudged on, the lights of the ferris wheel guiding my way.