Year 1-6: The theme park

Riku was nervously pacing up and down. He was waiting for Satsuki. Summer vacation had just started a few days ago, thankfully Riku thought. All the chaos that the twins had caused with their carelessness had stressed him out quite a lot. They did keep their promise; the school newspaper had retracted the article and released an official apology to Sani. Now with the summer vacation starting Riku hoped that everyone would just forget about this situation, plus he expected the twins to do good on their promise to be more careful of the information they dug up.
Anyway, Riku thought, he wanted to concentrate on what he was about to do. On the last day of school Satsuki had asked him out to go to a theme park. Riku decided to see this as a date. Satsuki was pretty nervous when she had asked him.
“Did I make you wait long?” She asked out of breath.
Riku shook his head. “No, I just got here a few minutes ago.” That was a lie; he had been waiting for more than an hour, mostly because he got sick of Hitomi gushing about him going on a date and he was quite nervous. This was his first date ever after all.
“You look cute in that outfit.” He pointed at her. Hitomi had told him to compliment Satsuki, but only compliment things she had control over.
She blushed. Satsuki was wearing a pair of pink shorts and a white shirt with a Shiba inu on it. “Thank you. I hope it´s not too plain though.”
“No, It´s really cute!” Riku would have thought that about anything she wore.

They got their tickets and made their way into the park.
“What should we ride first?” Riku asked, he hadn´t been to a theme park in years.
“Why don´t we start with something wild?” She smiled at him.
The wild ride turned out to be a roller-coaster with a steep drop and looping. Riku could feel his breakfast make its way up just looking at it.
“Is that too wild?” Satsuki asked concerned.
“No, I just haven’t been on a ride like this before. And here I thought you weren´t good with scary stuff.”
“That´s not really scary to me. I´ll hold your hand the whole time, ok?”
Riku was fine with that. Satsuki really did hold his hand the whole time, Riku was sure they were getting sweaty.
“Should we get the picture?” Satsuki asked after they were getting out of the ride.
“It´s probably going to look bad though.” Riku was right, he was screaming while Satsuki was laughing next to him.
“I need to get that!” She said amused.
“That´s so embarrassing.”
“No you look cute.” She said while getting to the counter.
Riku decided to wait outside, he didn´t want everyone to see him next to his screaming face.
“You look so funny!” He heard a familiar voice say. Riku turned to meet Shus face. Hayato was right behind him.
“Are you also on a date?” Shu asked.
“Kind of.” Riku answered.

The four decided to hang out together. The more the merrier, Shu had said.
They went from one ride to the next and Riku could feel the exhaustion build up. “I need to sit down for a bit.”
“Why don´t take this opportunity to get something to eat?” Shu asked. “It´s on me of course!”
Satsuki went with him leaving Hayato and Riku to find a place to sit.
“Are you ok?” Riku asked while sitting down. Hayato seemed even more exhausted that Riku.
“Oh yeah. I´m just tired. You see I started a part time job and Shu… he´s not liking it.”
“Why? Are you neglecting him?” Riku asked half joking.
“He thinks so. I understand him. You know we usually spend a lot of time together and I like that, but I also need some money for college. My family isn´t as well off as his.” Hayato yawned.
“Why did you even agree to come here with him if you´re so tired.” Riku laughed awkwardly.
“I got today off and I want to make him happy. It´s going to get really stressful when exams begin, at least for me. Shu tends to have good grades regardless of subject, I´m not like that.”
Riku nodded. Hayato was trying his best to make Shu happy, even if he was obviously tired out of his mind; Riku kind of admired him for that.
As soon as Shu and Satsuki showed up with the food Hayato looked fit again, he was hiding his exhaustion.

The day was slowly nearing its end. “We have time for one more ride, what do you guys want to do?” Hayato asked.
“The haunted house!” Shu called excitedly.
Satsuki took Rikus hand. “Like last time, you´ll protect me, won´t you?”
“Of course. But maybe it´s not that scary, I mean the haunted house at the cultural festival wasn’t that scary either.” Riku was absolutely wrong. He usually was good with this kind of stuff; now even he got scarred. Satsuki had closed her eyes from the beginning and hid her face on Rikus shoulder. He wanted to be happy about that but the actors running and screaming at him didn´t allow him to be anything but scarred.
Outside, waiting for Shu and Hayato Satsuki had to laugh. “I didn´t scream.” She sounded very proud of herself.
“No but I think I´ll have your nail imprints on my arm forever.” He said.
“So what, you´ll have a reminder of me forever.”
Shu and Hayato came out, both laughing loudly. “That was fun!” Shu said.
Hayato just looked at him smiling. He didn´t try to hide his tiredness anymore. Shu rubbed his arm. “Thank you.” He said softly.
Hayato looked confused. “Why?”
“You must be so exhausted from your job.” Shu looked concerned.
Riku turned to Satsuki; she was looking at the two longingly. Riku gathered all his courage and took her hand. She immediately turned to him. Riku tried to smile confidently, but he only managed an awkward nervous smile.