Author's Note: Feedback at [email protected]. That is all.
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Josie sat in her apartment getting ready for Senior Nite at Navy Pier. She originally had absolutely no intention of going but unfortunately Gus had to hear about it and now it was a requirement. She threw on a red print dress with a shawl and headed down to the pier. She only planned on staying for a half hour or so, just to satisfy Gus. She got there and looked around, noticing all the carnival rides and game booths. She really loved places like this. She remembered her parents taking her and Rob to places like this all the time. Remembering all the fun she used to have. Josie's mood lightened. She grinned from ear to ear entering the festivities.
"Josie!"
Josie turned to see Rob departing Guy and Jason's sides to run over to her. She then looked back at the boys who looked totally confused as to why "Robbie- Rob" was going over to talk to that loser.
"Josie! I'm so glad you came." He genuinely was. He wanted her to be happy and he could see that this assignment was really taking its toll on her. "What changed your mind?"
"Gus." Rob stopped talking then because he was well aware of her sister's boss' attitude to life.
"Oh. You wanna walk around for a bit?"
"No thanks Rob, I'm just gonna stay for a bit. Then I'm going to go home. Plus, those guys are waiting for you." Josie pointed at Guy and Jason hoping that her jealousy wasn't obvious.
"Oh. Okay, Josie but if you change your mind, I'll be around."
"Thanks, Rob. Call me later?"
"You bet." Then they departed ways. Rob headed back to his new friends.
"Rob? What were you doing?"
"Oh I was just talking to my old friend, Josie. Can you believe we ended up at the same school?"
"Wait a minute," Jason started. "You are friends with 'loser'?"
"Oh you guys are so wrong. Josie is great. She's funny and nice and she's so fun to be with. You guys should start talking to her more often. Get to know her better. She's amazing."
The two guys stared at each other, considering what Rob had said. They both shrugged it off for the meantime, deciding to concentrate on having a good evening. The guys walked away together looking for an appropriate booth to show off their skills at.
Meanwhile, Josie had decided to ride the Ferris wheel. She had always loved the calm ride. It was like driving, you never had to worry about anything. Josie walked up the stairs to the ride and handed the ticket to the carnie. She shifted into a comfortable position. Waiting for the ride to start but to her surprise she was interrupted.
"Where's your partner?"
"I don't have one."
"LONELY RIDE IN BUCKET FIVE!! SINGLE!!"
Sam heard this and turned to see who it was. He immediately started walking towards it without thinking about it when he saw that it was Josie.
Josie cringed in embarrassment. She wondered why every possible embarrassing thing ended up sooner or later happening to her.
Tommy and Kirsten who were in the bucket before her missed none of this commotion.
"Of course, it's 'loser' holding up the ride!"
Sam immediately sped up his walk as he could see Josie turn a new shade of red. He handed the carnie the ticket. He noticed that Josie didn't even notice he was there.
"This seat taken?" he asked, trying to sound as calm and cool as possible. He watched as Josie's head shot up in surprise. She looked so stunning. Her dress was in a class of its own. He loved the fact that she didn't try and dress as openly as Kirsten or Kristen or as covered as Aldys and the rest of the Denominators.
"Thank you!.....thank you." She looked really happy which pleased Sam to the core.
"You're welcome."
The second the ride started moving, reality hit him instantly like a slap in the face.
"Whoa!"
He glanced over the edge then jerked back into the seat closing his eyes trying to make sure he didn't completely lose his cool. Josie, on the other hand, watched him and tried to figure him out.
"Are you scared?"
"Well, the truth is, and I hope this doesn't undermine my position as an authority figure, but I'm a little afraid of heights." 'Oh my god, she's laughing at me,' he thought.
"He he he, you're afraid of the Ferris wheel�" She continued to quietly laugh good-naturedly. Like a normal man, he wanted to maintain his dignity by not seeming quite so sissy.
"Actually it's the plunging head first into the crowd part that gets me."
"Well, I bet you'd feel better if you had your Gordie Howe helmet on."
Sam was a little taken aback. "Hey, you remember that story?"
"I remember everything that you say....in your classroom."
They sat in silence for a few seconds until they were rudely interrupted by Tommy in the bucket in front of them.
"If the bucket's a rockin' don't come ne-ne-ne knockin'. Yeah!!!"
"Boys-"
"Mr. Coulson rocks my world!!!" Tommy continued.
Mr. Coulson stared at Josie who was just staring at her knees. He thought that it was odd. When it came to popular people, Josie became unusually quiet. He could only guess that it was a sensitive issue or something. He had every intention of finding out what troubled her and trying his absolute best to make her feel better about it.
"You know, I'd like to tell you that we all grow out of it. It's a lie. Some of us will always be rattling cages."
"Why do you do that?"
Sam was somewhat taken aback at her response. He expected her to remain quiet about it or take it more as a rhetorical statement.
"I don't know. It's weird, you know. Like Lara, for example, she wanted me to move to New York but I kept putting it off, for 5 years actually; not because I'm lazy, but because didn't want to deal with it."
Josie listened to this perfectly but caught one thing. "Wait, she wanted? What, she doesn't want you to move anymore?" she asked, laughing a little under her breath at the absurdity of the idea of someone not wanting Sam.
Sam was pleasantly surprised to realize that Josie had yet to cease amazing him. She had listened to him so intently to pick up on such a minor detail. "Actually, we're not together anymore."
"Oh......." Josie had to really fight to make sure her joy wasn't obvious.
"Yeah, I broke up with her last night. What she did to you made me so angry. But it was just the last thing in a long line of things she's done that were completely out of line. Last night just pushed me over the edge....... ...Actually, I shouldn't be talking about this stuff with you, I'm sorry."
Josie looked at him completely mesmerized that he was decent and dignified about everything he did. He was so worried about being appropriate with everything he did.
"Well, It's nice to have someone to talk to."
Sam just stared at her. She was absolutely correct. He did enjoy talking to her. He enjoyed doing anything with her. So he took his turn to look at his knees.
"Yeah, Same here."
Josie was in heaven. Sam liked talking to her! A gorgeous guy actually took her seriously and wasn't calling her "Josie Grossie". Sam renewed his composure.
"Well, all I can tell you is when you're my age, guys will be lined up around the block for you."
Where had that come from? He didn't want it to be true. He wanted to be the only one in line for her. This thought scared him but at least now he was able to admit it to himself. When he would admit it to other people? Well that was another story.
That comment caught Josie off guard. It didn't really follow suit as to what they were talking about. But all she could think was how wrong he was. She was his age (from what she could guess) and no guy wanted her.
"You have to say that cause you're my teacher."
"Actually, I shouldn't say that because I'm your teacher."
"Oh." Josie said all the while smiling. Sam cringed silently to himself in embarrassment from what he had managed to say.
While they were sitting there alone, Josie noticed that they weren't moving and hadn't been for quite some time. She glanced quickly over the side and saw that two carnies were arguing and pointing at the machine. She immediately thought of Sam and his fear of heights. She then made a snap decision that she wasn't going to let Sam know about it. She thought that if she could get him to focus on listening to her he might not notice that they were stopped.
Little did she know that the reason he hadn't noticed was because he had been fantasizing about Josie and marrying her. What it would be like to kiss her, like he had in that fantastic dream.
"You know Mr. Coulson, I saw something kind of funny today."
Sam was thrilled that Josie wanted to share an experience with him but the fact that she had addressed him so formally just served as a reminder of their predicament.
"Oh yeah, what?" he said as he shifted his body more towards her so she would have his full attention.
"Kirsten, Gibby and all of them were walking down the hall when they passed some people who are...(ahem) not their friends, if you get my drift-"
"I do."
"Anyways, one of the people they passed got kind of intimidated and dropped the books he was holding. Then, of course, the group had to make fun of them. Kirsten then said (switching into her best Kirsten impression) 'Yeah. I mean that guy is such a klutz-'Right then, she tripped on her shoes and flew across the hall and landed flat on her face. Everybody then laughed at her. I know it's terrible but I thought it was a nice piece of poetic justice."
'It's working,' Josie thought, she could see that Sam was giving her his undivided attention.
"Don't feel terrible about that Josie. Those girls can be really cruel. Besides, I would have laughed at that, too. I'm just sorry I missed it."
"Yeah," was all that Josie could say. She was too busy concentrating on the ride. It still wasn't moving and she couldn't think of what else to say.
"Well.......um.........Oh! I was just wondering if you could explain exactly what you wanted for that essay that's due on Tuesday. I was sort of confused about what to do."
Sam was really excited. This was his time to shine. After all, these were his gifts; advice and literature.
"Well actually Josie, I just wanted a piece that relates 'As You Like It' to you. It's really kind of a general assignment. You can relate yourself to one of the characters or you can write down your thoughts and feelings about one of the events in the book. Really whatever you want....just as long as it has you in it." Sam immediately caught his slip. "And As You Like It of course."
Josie listened to every word that he said, and breathed a sigh of relief. The ride had started moving again.
"Thank you for clearing that up for me. I pretty much understood; I just wanted a little clarification."
Once they got to the bottom, they got up and started to leave when the carnie stopped them to explain.
"I'm really sorry we had you guys stuck up at the top for so long we had a jam in the motor. But I hope you guys had fun!" he said apologetically. Josie just nodded knowingly while Sam head flipped up in shock.
"What?!?!"
Josie just said "Here, let's go, I'll explain." And with that, they left the Ferris wheel and headed towards other parts of the fair.
Josie turned to explain. "You see, Mr. Coulson, I noticed that the ride had stopped but we were at the very top and I wasn't about to tell you about it because that would be incredibly inconsiderate of me. But I didn't want you to notice on your own either because you'd be just as scared�so I tried to distract you."
"Distract me?"
"Yeah, like the Kirsten story, it wasn't really all that funny. And when I asked you for the advice about the assignment�Well, the truth is I've already written it. I understood perfectly what to do but my mind was drawing a blank on something that would grab your attention so...." Josie trailed off. "But what you said is going to help me when I review it. Which I plan on doing tomorrow."
Meanwhile Sam was in complete shock. Josie had actually done something that considerate just for him. He then thought that if that was Lara, she wouldn't hesitate to tell him about it just to make him squirm, but then he thought that he would never ride a Ferris wheel for Lara. Wow, Josie had gone to so much trouble so that his fear wouldn't get the best of him.
After a little walking around the two parted ways and Sam went home. He sat in his favorite chair to think about what had happened that night.
He rode a Ferris wheel for Josie and he had been trapped at a height that under normal circumstances would have made him so unbelievably nervous but this time, he didn't even notice�and it was all because of Josie.
It was at that point that Sam knew he was in trouble.
What did you think? Comments at [email protected] are welcome. Part 4 coming soon.