Playing it Safe

“She took everything…”

“You’re still thinking about that girl?”

Sprawled out on their separate beds in the comfy frontier-style Kidney suite, the sisters awoke to make conversation.

“How many do we have left?”

Katie shuffled her hand down the side of the bed to snatch up her bag.

“Uh… twenty-two.”

Frankie groaned.

“How many do you think… Bozo has?” Katie asked.

“Don’t remind me he’s here…” the loser flopped back onto her pillow and tried to forget.

“We can’t go making risky bets like that again.”

December Nineteenth. Five days remained.

Frankie wore her “Coaster Queen” shirt. Katie too finally tried her new outfit.

“Honestly, jeans are probably more efficient for rides.”

“That’s what matters most, isn’t it?” The little sister tried to hide her embarrassment over the tee she was wearing out here where everyone could see.

They let a bit more heat in here than they did in the rest of the park. It wasn’t anything like a real desert was, but the weather was calculated to give just the slightest edge of warmth over what most higher-tier parks considered optimal comfort. It definitely added character. The sisters, though, were well-used to this temperature after heading through many cheap parks with faulty environmental control. Walking the sand roads, Frankie could even feel the heat under her flip-flops, but that didn’t matter either with the task at hand.

“Gotta admit… after yesterday, I’m feeling a lot less optimistic.” Frankie breathed. “I dunno how we’ll make back everything we lost… much less win this contest.”

“You’ve pulled some crazy social engineering before. Do you think you can cook up something now?”

Instead of the empty sky or the comforting ground, Frankie steadied her gaze on the path ahead.

“I really don’t have any ideas coming to me at the moment. But still, I’ll do my best to think.”

“Hey, who’s that?”

The two of them both stopped in their tracks.

He wasn’t looking at them or anything- no, he was perfectly occupied, currently in an intense argument with a guest as silver tokens littered the floor- but their anger-fueled boss-for-a-day, Vincent Stamos, in the flesh (and the same white suit) was very much there.

The both of them shuddered. Very slowly, Frankie pulled her sister away, and into a fake, shaded alleyway- a tiny place, only meant for rest.

Panting, she let out her anxiety.

“That… was close.”

“Not… I mean, not really…” Katie argued, but she was almost just as shaken.

“Y-yeah?” Frankie laughed absurdly.

“Well, it’s better than the possibility of getting arrested. Thank goodness it wasn’t Bozo.”

“Mm…” Frankie counted her blessings, before quietly giggling again, shivering. “Still, I don’t wanna risk getting beat up again! That was a nightmare!”

“You’re right, it was…” Katie sighed. “What the heck…”

“What the heck, man…”

In silence, they panted, until finally they exhaled out their fear…

“Are you two done yet?”

Turning to Katie’s right and Frankie’s left, they saw a small kid had been watching them this whole time, sitting on the small provided stairwell for guests to take a break on.