“Annabeth! Dinner!” My mom shouted. My friend Lexi had come over to look at my car.
“Hey, I’ll see you later, Annabeth!” Lexi called as she began walking home. I waved and ran inside.
“Hi, Mom!” I greeted my mom as she handed me a plate. I filled it with spaghetti and meatballs.
“How’s Lexi doing?” My mom asked as we sat down.
“Good.” I swallowed. “Her mom got a car like mine, except it’s a CT-9 instead of a 10.”
“Cool! Wonder when your father will come-” As if on cue, my dad opened the door and strolled in.
“Hey, family!” He sang as he pulled off his shoes. “Okay, tomorrow I am seriously going to take that machine to work.
“Sorry, Dad.” I said. “I already said Mom can use it to drive me to the movies.” My dad frowned.
“Argh! Fine. That’s fine.” He scooped some spaghetti and sat down.
“Well, after we watch the news, I say we watch The Hawk!” My dad nodded. “A new episode aired last night.”
“Okay, but do we have to watch the news?” I muttered.
“Hmph. No, I guess not-”
“Yes!” I don’t know why I don’t like the news, but I don’t. The Hawk was super great. It’s about a superhero named the Hawk that can travel through dimensions when he hears someone cry for help. It’s pretty cool. After an hour-long episode, I went to bed.
“G’night.” My mom turned off the light. I smiled. I brought my phone out (no I didn’t hide it, I just put it there and waited until my mom left) and found Mason’s name on my contacts list.
He would be coming home on Sunday, since tomorrow, Saturday, is the first day of his spring break. The magical April 5th. I typed, ‘Can’t wait to see you on Sunday!’. I laid in bed. About an hour later, my buzzing phone woke me up. The clock read ‘11:51’. I picked up my phone. The text message read, ‘Sorry, but flight was delayed. Also, had to stay up late to finish a project. Won’t be coming until Monday night or Tuesday morning. Sorry, Ann.’ My heart sank. A tear trickled down my face and I wiped it off aggressively. Why couldn’t he come back sooner? I was angry and sad.
I slipped out of bed and pulled on my shoes and jacket. Exiting my room silently, I glanced in my parents’ room to make sure they were still asleep. I crept downstairs and grabbed the keys to
my car. I wasn’t going to drive it, I didn’t even know how. I just wanted to sit in it. And that’s what I did. I climbed in and turned it on. It was a very quiet car. I laid in the comfy seat and looked at the clock. 11:59. I watched it. 12:00. The car shuddered. My eyes widened. That shouldn’t happen. I turned off the car. The shuddering stopped.
Then the screen with all the buttons got very bright. I shielded my eyes. The car moved and turned. I looked out the window and saw a very strange sight. My neighborhood was being penetrated by blue sparks. The blue sparks covered the whole car. I screamed as I was pulled and spun with the car in a tornado of blue sparks. The car spun. I was being whipped around. I reached to my side and yanked the seat belt over to me. It took several tries to click it in, but it wasn’t much better with it. The seat belt locked, so whenever the car spun, I lost the wind in my lungs because the seat belt was cutting into my chest.
“Oof!” I yelled. “Heeeeeelp!” No one came to help. Maybe it was because I was not at home, I was surrounded by a blue spark tornado. The car spun and spun. My head began to hurt. I screamed again.
The blue tornado stopped. I took this as a good thing. It was a bad thing. The car dropped. I screamed my loudest scream yet. The car (and I) hit the ground with a thud. I unbuckled my seat belt and rolled out of the car onto some grass. There was loud carnival-sounding music and loud voices and laughter in the sun. The sun? It had been midnight thirty seconds ago! I looked up, first at my car. The car had no scratches or dents. I found this strange.
I looked up to the other side, opposite to my car and saw an amusement park. Except, there weren’t any big roller coasters or ferris wheels. There were a ton of tents and booths with games. There was something very odd about it all, though. The grass felt real, but also seemed artificial, as it was perfectly trimmed and all the same color. Most of the tents and booths were yellow or gold or red, but there was one thing that looked like a large dance floor. They were all spotless, and perfect, and every person there was smiling. I got up and began walking towards the strange theme park. I didn’t just want to leave my car alone, but I took the keys with me.
There was a large entrance, with a title that said largely:
Dan Chris Atnole’s Game Show Land!
“What?!” I uttered in absolute disbelief. Dan Chris Atnole? The Game Shows Weekly host? How does he have all this? And did he have a spinning car to get here too? I entered and looked around. There were giant board games, video games, and, now I could see, the tents and booths that had signs of different game shows back home.
“What?” I murmured. “‘Guess Who’? ‘Sorry’? ‘Monopoly with Dan Chris Atnole, The Game Show’?” This was confusing. There were people playing all these normal games that have been turned into game shows with Dan. I suddenly spotted a tall man walking in a loud suit.
“Dan?” I whispered. I ran over to him. “Dan! It’s me, Annabeth!” He turned around and flinched seeing me. Dan took off his expensive sunglasses and squinted at me.
“I don’t‒how did you‒I can’t‒!” Dan couldn’t seem to find the right words. He looked surprised and angry.
“Annabeth? Annabeth Sand-er, Randman?”
“Yes! I don’t know how I got here or why-” Dan noticed me watching him and quickly put a smile on his face.
“Annabeth! Welcome to my Game Show Land!” He gestured to the games around us.
“Yeah, um, how do I get out?.” I asked. “My car was like spinning and glowing‒”
“Oh, that must’ve been a dream, or something!” Dan laughed. “Everyone else just drove here.” He glanced at a parking lot that I swore was not there before. My eyebrows furrowed.
“But then‒well I guess I was asleep in the car...but how did I get here?” I turned around. Dan chuckled.
“Well, you must’ve been asleep the whole way!” He smiled hugely, which made me uncomfortable. “Sneaking out, I assume.”
“What?”
“Well, you must’ve snuck onto the bus to come here!” Dan said like it was obvious.
“I-I guess.” I didn’t remember a thing, but I supposed I was just tired. “So...where exactly are we?”
“Dan Chris Atnole’s-”
“No, I mean, where in the state.”
“Oh, don’t worry, near home.”
“Then why’d it take so long to get here? If I snuck out at midnight, and now it’s nine at the earliest, why did I just now get out of my car?” I was very suspicious.
“You must’ve fallen asleep, so they put you in your car. Anyway, this is my theme park! Better than any other theme park or game show in the whole world, might I mention.”
“I’ve never heard about it.”
“Well, we haven’t opened!”
“Theeeen, why are people here?”
“Well!” Dan laughed uncomfortably. “You certainly . . . talk a lot.”
“How am I here?” I asked again. “And where might here be?”
“I told you, you’re at my theme park.” I was about to say again I’ve never heard about it, but Dan continued. “You and several other people were er, invited to, uh, test out my theme park.” Dan chuckled like it was so obvious it tickled him pink. “Your parents got the email last night, so they drove you here!”
“No, I’m pretty sure I snuck out.”
“Silly girl, dreams can deceive us. Now, go find your parents and let me know how you like the theme park!” He handed me a fat roll of tickets.
“But‒” I started.
“Have fun!” Dan turned me around. “I have work to do!” I started to walk away. He was muttering to himself angrily. “Where is that stupid little . . . . Martin is in so much trouble!” I walked around. The ground was grassy and there were a lot of games and stuff everywhere. Most things were gold with some colored parts.
Were my parents really here? I’m pretty sure my car was spinning and crashed here. I saw a girl, and decided to find out the truth.