The Life and Lies of The How-To Manual

“What ride is this?” I asked Toddy. He took a moment, reading a sign.

“It’s the Cyclone, the fastest ride in this park.” Toddy observed. I nodded and took his little hand in mine so we wouldn’t get separated. Toddy moved me up in the line. It was the afternoon and the lines were getting progressively longer. He looked up at me curiously.

“So remember, we have to stay out of sight of those people, okay?” I reminded the boy. He nodded furiously.

“Oh yes! We’re going under cover!” He laughed sweetly. I smiled. The line continued its sluggish pace forwards. I couldn’t help but yawn a little.

Ten minutes later, I had a knot twisting in my stomach. How was I going to do this? Seriously, I hated rollercoasters and now I was going on one to avoid the rest of the band! Plus, I was (mostly) blind! How would it feel? What was it going to be like?

“Are you okay, Miss Willow?” Toddy squeezed my hand. I looked away, seeing his concerned face at the corner of my darkened vision.

“I’m just nervous for this.”

“What, the rollercoaster?” He asked curiously. I nodded anxiously, following up by explaining, “I don’t like these rides typically.

“Oh, you’ll be fine! It’s not that scary! Only about four loops, two corkscrews, and two plummets. It barely lasts thirty seconds.” He explained soothingly. Wow, not even Jaime could get me to calm down for a rollercoaster.

“Only thirty seconds?”

“Yep!”

“You promise?”

“I promise.” He hooked my pinky with his before we relinked our hands. Wait, if an eight year old can ride an exciting, fast paced rollercoaster, I could to! If he had the courage to do this, then I certainly could!

We were slowly inching our way up in the line. I couldn’t help but shake a little. The attendant let us get up into our lines. Toddy led me through the crowd, scooting around people until we got to the middle car.

“What car are we in?” I asked him.

“Car three of six, row twelve.” He announced. I gripped onto the rail with one free hand as we waited until the gates opened and we could step inside. The platform rattled and shook as the car took off. We were left waiting. Some kids chattered nervously behind us. The people crowded and sweated under the blazing summer heat.

“We’re up!” Toddy called cheerfully. There was a faint click as the tracks rattled and the car halted. People whooped and hollered as the car unloaded its passengers and Toddy and I got on.

This was the moment that I finally learned how to ride a rollercoaster like Toddy:

How to Ride a Rollercoaster like Toddy:
1.Find a Toddy. (Too late, he’s mine! MWAHAHAHA!)
2.Let him find the fastest coaster he can.
3.Get in line and wait.
4.Get into the car and have a near panic attack.
5.He’ll tell you that it’ll be alright and it’ll be fun!
6.Let the coaster shoot you off and nearly crap yourself.
7.Have fun!
8.Get off.
9.Listen to Toddy whoop and holler.

Toddy and I walked off after it was done. We stopped long enough for me to write the manual entry. Turns out the rollercoaster hadn’t been that bad! It was kind of interesting when most of my vision was black. All I felt was being turned upside down and around and around. It wasn’t horrible at all! I probably would’ve regretted it if I didn’t go on.

“Woohoo! That was tons of fun! We should find another ride! Yes! Let’s go!” Toddy cried out in glee, fist pumping the air. I laughed along with him.

“Come on, Toddy. We should go do the teacups!” I chuckled. He agreed and led me off in the general direction. We passed by some shops and arcade games. The outside arcade lined each side of the street when Toddy pulled me down a side path.

“Blue haired alert!” He hissed to me. I turned my head away from the direction he pointed so I could see Autumn in the little sliver of my vision. As I focused on the picture, I saw her and Tony shooting baskets. Autumn would look up at Tony and stick her tongue out, teasing him. He would just turn around and kiss her forehead before scoring another basket. Where was the ATL boys!? They had to be close by! Oh no…

“Toddy!” I hissed to him, kneeling down to his level. We were stuck behind a tall bush.

“Yes, Miss Willow?” He asked quickly.

“Do you remember what the others looked like?”

“Of course! I have a, an…uh, what was it called? A photographic memory!” He nodded. I looked at him curiously.

“You do?”

“Yeah! My teachers want to send me to a private school for gifted kids but my parents say that it’s a waste of money so they won’t let me.” He sighed. I looked at him in surprise.

“I’m sorry, but your parents really need to care about you more.” I stated. He nodded.

“They pretend I don’t exist sometimes.”

“That’s horrible, kid. I’m sorry.” I whispered, giving him a quick hug. He shrugged.

“It’s okay. But back to the mission. I remember the others.” He steered the topic back to the present situation. I gave a quick look back to the couple who played arcade games.

“Okay, so if the blue haired girl and her boyfriend and there, can you see if the others are around?” I asked him. He let go of my hand and walked off. I bit my lip in anticipation. Getting out my phone, I pretended to be really interested in it until Toddy came back.

The boy returned soon enough with news of where the others were. Man, that boy was fast! He said that he saw who I thought was Jack and Alex in the hat shop nearby, Rian to the left street where we wanted to go, and Zack to the right. Damn, they were all over the place!

“What are we going to do?” He cried out in sadness. I patted his shoulder.

“Well, we can’t go back, and we’re going to have to choose a street to go down. The trick is, we have to make it quick. We can’t hide out here forever!” I explained. Toddy nodded.

“If we go to teacups, we’re going to have to hurry. I saw the man named Rian in a churro line.” He told me. I nodded and we started walking. I gave the boy careful instructions to keep up out of sight and within reach of large crowds, so no one would pay attention to us.

I should’ve suspected Rian would be in the churro line. Out of all the Mexican snacks, the churro was his favorite. I groaned.

Toddy whispered that we were coming up on the churro line. As we rushed past him, I saw that he was looking up at the menu. Just as we passed, he glanced to us. His eyes went wide, but the man shook his head, like he was just imagining things.

“Faster! Get us out of here!” I whispered to Toddy. He amped up the pace and took a sharp turn to the dragon boats. That was close.

Too close.

“Are we gone?” I asked him. Toddy nodded as we patiently waited in line for the dragon boats. Hopefully, Rian was looking over our head to the Xtreme Skateboard ride behind us, not at us two.

“We’re gone. Let’s get on this ride, and then the teacups, and then make a roundabout to the wooden rollercoaster. After that, hopefully, we can make our way back to ghost blasters!” Toddy suggested. The line for this ride wasn’t so long. It was just one of those big swings that go back and forth really high. I loved these, even though they were so simple. Soon enough we were sitting down.

“That sounds great, Toddy. Maybe we can get ice cream or something after the ghost blasters?” I asked him. He nodded excitedly. The ride started off and we were going high in no time.

By the time we had gotten off, done the teacups, and started to the line for the wooden rollercoaster, it was late in the afternoon. The bus wouldn’t be leaving until tomorrow morning, so I didn’t have to worry about time.

Technically, I should really worry about when Jaime was coming back to the bus, but honestly, I didn’t care. He can be a butt-queef with Vic and Mike. I was with Toddy, who was a little gentleman.

“Hey, I see a man. He’s back there a ways. Oh no…it’s Alex!” Toddy squeaked to me. We walked faster and faster, trying to expand the distance but not be noticed.

“Has he seen us?” I questioned, turning my head to catch a glimpse of Alex pointing…to us.

“Yep.” Toddy gulped and we broke out into a light jog to the white rollercoaster. The boards towered above us in the heat of the day.

“Come on!” I yelped. People gave us odd stares, but got out of our way. Toddy pulled me harder.

“If we get into line quick enough, we’ll be head of a small summer school! The kids will give us enough gap in line!” Toddy encourage. Wow, this boy was really smart for his age!

Following his word, I increased my speed as Toddy led me to the fenced off line. A rumble of kindergarteners under a summer school program filed in after us. I sighed in relief. The line wasn’t too long, but behind us, it was grown.

“Ding!” One of the boys called my name. I ducked further as the line started to move up. People grumbled as the group all ducked in behind the summer school class of little kids.

“How long until the front of the line?” I asked. Toddy glanced as he held my hand.

“Just a little bit longer. Maybe five minutes. It’s not too busy. I think most of the people went to the Xtreme Skateboard coaster.” He noticed. I silently bobbed my head. Five minutes could seem like an eternity.

“Once we get off, sprint, okay?” I asked Toddy. He nodded.

“Got it, boss.” He stated firmly. We reached our car in a matter of four minutes. When we got into that car, I saw that the group that had been chasing us had finally caught up. The car was off as I teased my friends with a wave.

“Willow! Come on!” Autumn called hopelessly. I stuck my tongue out as the car zoomed out of the track. We plummeted several hundred feet after a steep climb. The entire time, my stomach was doing flip flops, but not from the ride.

If the boys had seen me, would they call Jaime, Vic, and Mike? What would happen? No, I would have Toddy to protect me.

“Woohooooooooo!” Toddy’s voice trailed off as we dropped down again. The cart jittered on the track, making me question the safety of this ride. I guess this is what Jaime wanted to hide me from: Jittery coasters.

No, I was living, not hiding like he wanted me to.

The cars started to stop.

“Uh oh, here they come.” Toddy whispered to me. I nodded and jumped out, unbuckling our seatbelts as quickly as humanly possible. Toddy led me off the platform, descending the steps two at a time.

“They’ll be heading for the exit so we need to get there before them!” Toddy encouraged. I nodded and followed his lead. We basically sprinted past walking patrons and small children. Careful to look out for them, we bowled past the exit and kept on going, slowing down a little only to make sure we were going the right way.

“They’re behind us, by the churro stand. Take a left here and duck. I’ll be back.” Toddy commanded in his stern little boy voice. He pushed me down to sit in a hidden cove before sprinting off. Turning my head without giving myself away, I saw that Toddy was waving his hands, getting the group’s attention. They all followed him as he bolted to the Troika, a classic spinning ride.

It seemed like a brief eternity before he reappeared, taking my hand and yanking me up.

“Come on! I bought you a little time, about six minutes or so. They think you went towards the water park. We should have just enough time to escape to the Ghost Blasters Excitement Ride!” He whispered happily. I nodded and let him pull me towards the direction of the ride.

“We’re almost here.” I told him excitedly as I saw the sign that pointed to the ride. It was close by the entrance. We would be on the opposite side of the park by the time we got into our own cart.

Fifteen minutes of waiting in the line, and I was worried that the boys would catch up, but Toddy assured me we were safe. The park was large. What was the possibility of them catching up to us? I trusted this smart kid. He had a good set of senses about him.

But as we stepped onto the cart, I turned my head just enough to barely see the disapproving look of Jaime Preciado, arms folded across his chest, frown marring his face. If I wasn’t in the presence of other people, I would’ve flipped him off, yelling that he was a butt-queef, and danced into the sunset.

“Who was that?” Toddy said, catching my stare.

“My disapproving boyfriend that locked me on a bus so that I didn’t hurt myself.” I responded despondently. Toddy patted my arm.

“Don’t worry, Miss Willow. I’ll protect you.” He told me firmly. I laughed sadly, shaking my head.

“He’s a big boy, Toddy. I don’t know what’ll happen.” I answered truthfully. We passed through the ride, blasting ghosts. I kind of had a hard time because of…well, the still mostly blindness I possessed. The slivers of vision had grown a little larger since I had woken up, but I was still mostly blind. I just didn’t have to turn my head as much to see something, or someone.

When we got off, Toddy held onto my arm as I stepped out. He led me away from Jaime, now knowing who he was.

“Willow! Willow!” He called. I ignored him, leaning down and whispering to Toddy.

“You wanna sit down for a minute?” I asked, and he nodded. Toddy and I walked hand in hand until we reached a bench. Jaime ran until he caught up with me. I squeezed Toddy’s hand as he sat down. Taking a couple steps away, I glowered at Jaime.

“You can’t just run off like that! What if you got hit by a car on the way here!? What if you got hurt here-“

“Doing what!?!? Yes, I gave myself a paper cut on a cotton candy cone. Boo hoo, poor Willow.” I shoved back in his face. I could tell he was glaring at me. The heat of anger coming off his body was intense.

“I just want what’s best for you, Willow! The doctor said that if you got hurt anymore, then you’re going to die sooner!” Jaime argued, but I could tell he already knew it was futile. We had this discussion before.

“YOU LOCKED ME ON A BUS!” I yelled back at him. Jaime froze.

“Well-“

“No, no you can’t do that. I don’t care if you want to go hang out with Vic and Mike! I honestly don’t care! I want you to have fun! I want you to be happy, Jaime! I want you to live your life not always trying to worry and take care of me, because guess what? I’m fine!” I told him firmly, tears coming to my eyes.

“I only wanted to keep you safe! As much as you want to ‘live’ and ‘be free’ and whatever, I’m not going to let you throw yourself away just to ride one stupid rollercoaster!” Jaime cried out in desperation. I took a step back and Jaime stepped forwards. Suddenly, there was a tiny little body that shoved my boyfriend back.

“Don’t hurt her!” Toddy cried, standing with his hands on his hips in front of me. I turned my head sideways a little to see the scene of my little eight year old hero standing triumphantly before me. He was blocking Jaime from getting to me!

Jaime could only stand there, dumbstruck.

“Mister, you might think that it was ‘one stupid rollercoaster’, but Miss Willow was brave enough to ride the fastest, scariest rollercoaster in the park. And guess what? She’s the most courageous person I’ve ever known! She rode a rollercoaster while she’s blind and she loved it! So if I were you, I would stop being mean to my friend and let her have fun.” Toddy cried out in outrage. I couldn’t help but smile at him. Jaime just shut his mouth, unable to speak.

Jaime Preciado, butt-queef extraordinaire….bested by an eight year old gentleman.

“Thank you, Toddy. You’re awfully brave as well.” I nodded to him, patting his small head. He grinned up at me, squeezing my hand in encouragement.

“Well, I…I guess you’re, um, uh….” Jaime stuttered, trying to find words. I crossed my arms and bore a triumphant smirk as I turned to look at Jaime.

“Miss Willow?” Toddy whispered to me. I bent down to his level. He whispered in my ear.

“I think I should go to my parents now. It’s going to be about four soon. I should really get back to their smoke shack. Besides, if they wandered off, I need to find them.” He told me. I smiled and nodded. We started off where Toddy led me.

“Where are you going!?” Jaime cried out.

“I’m going to find this young man’s parents.” I explained. Turning around, I kept on walking. There was a patter of footsteps as Jaime caught up behind me.

“What’s your name, kid?” Jaime asked Toddy.

“My name is Toddy.” He stated firmly. I could’ve sworn he was scowling to my boy.

“I’m Jaime.”

“Willow called you a butt-queef.” Toddy pointed out. I blushed. Man, this little kid could be blunt. Honestly hurts, but it’s the truth!

“Well, I was being one earlier today.” Jaime admitted finally.

“Toddy is a true gentleman. We played black ops today, didn’t we?” I asked him. Toddy nodded and went off on an entire explanation about avoiding the rest of the group. Jaime “oh’d” and “aw’d” at all the right spots, agreeing and asking question. We kept on walking, with Toddy attached to my right hand and saying that we had tons of fun in the park. The four hours with the little boy had seemed to pass by in a blink.

All of a sudden, we stopped.

“Are we here?” I asked him.

“No.”

“What’s wrong?”

“We’re close, but I’m not going anywhere.” He planted his foot firmly. I raised an eyebrow. Uh oh. I’m not good with wild, unruly kids.

“Well how about-“

“I’ll only go back to my parents if butt-queef apologizes to Miss Willow.” Toddy nodded firmly. I sighed and bent down to his level. I laughed at the name he called Jaime.

“It’s okay, Toddy. Jaime and I are going to go back to the bus and-“

“No, I really need to apologize.” Jaime pulled me up. I turned around to him, curiosity etched on my face. I expected us to walk back to the bus, fight some more, and then…what?

“What?” I asked softly. Jaime nodded, his hand slowly reaching for mine. I let him take it in his.

“You’re right. I was being rash, just plain stupid. I was a butt-queef. I shouldn’t have done it. I think we should compromise on what we debate. Maybe Elitches wasn’t as dangerous as I thought. I should’ve listened more and not thought about what the doctor said. I’m sorry.” Jaime squeezed my hand. I looked down at my feet, half smiling.

“Now kisssss!” Toddy hissed not-so-quietly. We both chuckled at once and before I knew it, his lips were pressed against mine, quietly reassuring me that he was so sorry for what he did.

“Eww.” Toddy groaned. We separated and Himes held my hand as Toddy pulled me along with the other hand. All too soon, we were at a place that reeked of smoker odor.

“Are they here?” I asked.

“Yep. They’re here!” Toddy nodded. I leaned down and gave him a big hug.

“Hey, thanks for running around in the park with me.” I grinned. Toddy hugged me back.

“It was fun, Miss Willow! I wouldn’t do anything better besides that. I’m glad we could meet. You’re a great coaster buddy!” He giggled lightly. I ruffled his hair as he walked off.

“Toddy! Where the hell were you!?” His mother shrieked. Jaime must’ve sensed that I was about to run after him because he pulled me into his arms.

“Come on, let’s go.” He whispered to me, kissing the tip of my ear. I nodded, tears coming to my eyes. A boy as nice as Toddy doesn’t deserve those parents.

So quietly, Jaime led me away from any tragedy that happened there, tears dotting the corners of my eyes.

Notes

Hello everyone! I hope your holidays were spectacular! Anyways, I still need some more suggestions for chapters to write! Reader submitted How-To ideas will be awesome! So far I have...one! Thank you for...one! Hahaha XD Anyways, I still need more! Don't be shy!