"Hey, Brook," Nora said lightly, coming into her room without knocking. "I started following that guy you like."

She didn't even look up from her homework. "Knock much?"

"He's just so cute with his sister," Nora continued. "Always doing such fun activities. Have you seen his latest posts?"

The homework was abandoned faster than the Titanic, Nora's phone grabbed as she started scrolling, her face freezing in horror.

"Yep." Nora took the phone back and continuing through the Animal Kingdom posts that Oliver had just uploaded. If only he'd uploaded them a few days ago. "You have to love his themed shirt. And his limited edition MagicBand that matches the park he's in. And the fact that his sister is wearing over a hundred dollars in park merchandise."

Brook snarled. "There's no way he's a freak like you."

"It would appear he is." Nora tried to keep from grinning. "I guess if you had babies with him they'd be born with mouse ears."

Brook threw a pillow at her. "You're so gross."

Nora left, trying not to cackle as she pulled up their texting conversation. Daisy perked her ears up at the sound, rushing through the hall to her, staying by her side.

"You're the best, Oliver. I really needed that," she texted him.

"I have no idea what I did," he texted back immediately.

"I know." She sent a gif of Bruce the shark smiling.

"You're one scary girl, Nora."

She sent one of the Evil Queen. "That's Your Majesty to you, Gaston."

He sent a muscle pose of his character and she couldn't help but giggle.

"Have you hung out with Levi lately?" he asked.

"No, he's had work and you stole my normal Disney time with him. Plus I've been hanging out with my ladies."

"Yeah, he said you were in a Bible study. That's cool. I'd like to hear more about that."

She raised an eyebrow. They'd talked about her? Kind of creepy. "How did your meet up go with him, anyway?"

He sent a selfie of himself, Levi, and Sarah in Pandora. It looked like they'd had a great time. Levi had said so, too, and was even smiling in the picture, her arms wrapped around Levi's neck like she'd known him forever.

Gosh darn, it was cute.

"And you're not just doing this to get on my good side?" Nora asked.

"Nope. I didn't realize I'd ruined his life so much. We actually get along very well."

"Good."

"I might be in love with him."

Nora stared at the message.

When she said nothing, he said, "I'm kidding, Nora. I only love women and myself."

She sent a gif of Genie's mouth dropping open. "You love women???"

"Very funny."

Nora bit the inside of her lip, texting before she could change her mind. "Can we hang out sometime?"

"Really?"

"I mean, when you're not dressed in fake muscles and flirting with me."

"Oh, you want real muscles and real flirting." He sent a thumb's up. "I'm kidding again. Don't leave the chat."

Which was a real shame, because she'd just found the Spongebob meme to match leaving. "Done?"

"It's out of my system. I have Thursday off."

"You're sure it's out of your system?"

"I swear, it's just as friends."

Yet again, she was surprised by how okay she was with their flirtatious back and forth. It somehow felt fake and real at the same time, kind of how she felt with Jack.

She really didn't need more of whatever that was. She wasn't going to make a habit out of meeting with him, at least alone or outside of Disney.

"Magic Kingdom at three?" she asked.

"It's a 'date'," he texted back.

"Hi, 'date'," Oliver greeted as soon as he saw her.

They'd agreed to meet at the hub. He took off his sunglasses, his eyes warm when they met her.

She couldn't help but be a bit pleased, the easy-going familiarity taking over. "Hi, Gaston."

He tutted, putting the sunglasses right back on, as if he was using them to hide. "So not classy. Are you trying to blow my cover?"

"Oh, yes. Definitely what I want to do is expose you for what you are—fake padded biceps."

"I didn't design the costume," he sniffed. "Besides, I don't need the pads."

Nora rolled her face up to the sky. "Are we done talking about you?"

"Hm..." He looked at his MagicBand, as if it was a watch. "I usually need a few more hours."

"And here I thought you'd talk about how amazing my Disney outfit is." Nora put a hand under her chin before striking a pose.

Oliver moved his sunglasses down the tip of his nose, as if he couldn't be bothered enough to take them off. Then he cleared his throat, narrating as if she was walking down a runway. "Here's Nora, local Annual Passholder, sporting an It's a Small World look, provided by some Etsy shop. Note the use of pastel colors, inspired by Imagineer Mary Blair's marvelous designs, along with that gorgeous Mickey headband. My, doesn't she look stunning."

She cocked her head to the side, holding back a grin. "I think that last part was a bit over the top."

He flicked her Mickey ear. "I thought it was pretty well known I'm over the top."

She straightened it, sticking out her tongue at him. "What did you want to do? You know, besides being obnoxious."

"Space Mountain." He pushed his sunglasses back up his nose. "And cream you at Space Ranger Spin."

"You're on."

They walked over to Tomorrowland, chatting away about casual Disney things. Everything was as easy as before. Maybe she was just getting good at being around people, now that she'd had so much practice with Levi, Maddie, and the other girls.

They did Space Ranger Spin first. Oliver stood next to Buzz, going through every single movement and word in the script like it was nothing.

"You seriously need to get away from this place sometimes," Nora commented, crossing her arms.

"You do not separate a man from his happy place." Oliver held up a pretend gun as they waited, taking aim at a distant, nonexistent target. "So if you aim at the one at the volcano..."

"No need to mansplain." She winked, so he would know she was kidding. "Don't worry, I'm a pro."

"I'm just giving you a tip, Nora. No need to fire your blaster at me, Space Ranger."

"That's Galactic Hero to you."

"Ooooh, you've gotten the top score?"

She coughed. "...Future Galactic Hero."

He grinned. "Maybe you do need some mansplaining, then."

Nora shoved him.

They boarded. He even offered to steer so she could have more time to shoot. It wasn't exactly easy to target things considering it was just a little red laser dot and a gun you could barely move. You know, while your vehicle was constantly moving. But hey, she still really enjoyed it, even if she felt Oliver was purposefully moving too much to throw her off. That was part of the fun was the challenge.

She cringed at the differences between their scores. He had actually gotten Galactic Hero. "Wow. You didn't go easy on me."

"Nope. A true gentleman never goes easy on a lady."

"I'd beat you at Toy Story Mania."

"We'll see. Maybe we can go to Hollywood Studios next time." He gave her that confident, promising smile. "Space Mountain time?"

The next few hours were a whirlwind of fun. They agreed on poses for Space Mountain, which ended up being really dorky, and on the Autopia, he called her a lousy driver and she said she would have run off the road if there hadn't been a barrier to prevent her from doing so.

"You really do love making sexist comments," Nora mused. It was hard to take any of Oliver's jokes seriously.

"I swear I believe you're actually a really good driver. And if it makes you feel better, I once rammed into a kid's car and got in trouble. You know, that stern look from a CM."

"I don't get that look. I'm a good kid."

Oliver hopped out of the car first, offering his hand. "Oh, sure."

She swatted it away as she stood up. "Can't you tell? CMs love me."

He grunted, clearly unable to debate the point. She walked with her head high.

They flew on Dumbo next, went under the sea with Ariel, and then went to Be Our Guest for dinner, which apparently Oliver had snagged reservations for somehow.

She wasn't exactly ecstatic.

"This is the most date-like place ever," Nora said, gaping up at the golden ceiling, with its beautiful painted surface that was straight out of the movie. "On our not date."

"I swear it's not a date."

"We're sitting in the most romantic room in the whole place."

The main room, the ballroom.

"I didn't pick or anything, it's just what's open. And I doubt you want to go to the West Wing, where it's super gloomy, compared to this room where it's snowing outside."

She definitely preferred the snow. She'd never eaten in here before since it was so hard to get reservations. She usually stood outside the gates to the castle, staring longingly at all the guests going in, wondering what it was like. "I admit it's gorgeous, but it still feels like a date."

"Drag some random guest over for all I care. I promise I only picked it because I haven't eaten here in a while considering I have Gaston PTSD that prevents me from coming anywhere near anything involving the Beast. It's easier when you have someone with you." He gave a low, evil laugh, using his Gaston voice, "The Beast would be so jealous."

He really needed to stay out of character. "Are you paying?"

"Yeah, because I get a discount and because you didn't know we'd be eating here, so it's only fair."

Nora frowned, not sure how she felt about that. Fair, but also not fair. "Next time don't spring surprises on me and I can save up for something like this."

Next time, she'd said. She was already sucked into the weird Oliver whirlpool. She wanted to hit him with her menu, but that wasn't classy at all.

"Yes, ma'am." She could tell he was smiling even though his menu was covering his face.

She blew out an exasperated breath. Maybe she should order something expensive as payback. But then she noticed that your meal cost the same, no matter what, because you picked an appetizer, an entrée, and a dessert per person.

"Hey." She pushed his menu. "This is expensive."

"You're just now figuring out Disney is expensive?"

"You can seriously afford this?"

"Nora," he said, "I'm Gaston."

"You don't get paid that much for being Gaston. Like, at all."

It was a downside of working for Disney. It was all perks, no salary.

"I make money on the side babysitting," he joked. "But seriously, you saw my TikTok. I have a lot of followers." He got comfortable in his chair. "That's my Disney money, whenever I want to splurge. And you know, save up. I really don't splurge much. Also," he pointed down, "you don't have to get that three for one thing, it's just the first page. Though I totally recommend you doing that because I want to get my own French Onion Soup and Grey Stuff and I'm not sharing because, as you keep pointing out, this isn't a date." He shook his head sassily back and forth. "I don't owe you anything. Be my guest, indeed."

She wanted to rub her face. "Fine, fine. New subject. It really went well with Levi on Sunday?"

"Yeah. I'm actually surprised he seems so...open to being my friend?" Oliver put his menu down. "I mean, I wouldn't be."

Nora thought on it. "I don't know. I think Levi would rather avoid conflict, so he probably thought the easiest way to get you off his back was to do what you wanted. Maybe he'll stop talking to you after this? Seemed like he wanted to do that with me when we first met, but I was pretty relentless."

Oliver snorted. "Either way, I do want to be a good friend to him. And I know you probably don't believe me just yet, but time will prove that out."

"I hope so."

Because if Oliver was actually a jerk still, she wanted nothing to do with him. And she wanted Levi to feel safe and loved, which wasn't going to happen with a Gaston-like guy making life difficult.

They ordered their food, which ended up being delicious, not that Nora was surprised. They watched it snow outside and the golden carts pass with their giant, domed lids over plates as they talked about their home lives, about school, about Disney. She opened up a lot easier than she used to and was glad that Oliver told her his side of the story when it came to meeting Levi, even going so far as apologizing to her.

"Seriously. It was stupid. I had no idea it'd messed him up so badly."

"I believe you." Because it was easy to believe anything Oliver said. She'd been right to warn Brook about him. Brook, who would be livid if she knew her sister was here, on a not-date with Oliver.

She smiled down at her plate before peeking at Oliver, who smirked back. It's a small world after all.

They finished up dinner, eating all the grey stuff, groaning on the way out.

"Why did we eat all that?" she asked.

"That's so much better than all the eggs." Oliver stretched, patting his stomach. "I'm now roughly the size of a barn."

She snorted. "How about we walk around a bit?"

"Sounds good to me."

They started towards the Haunted Mansion, slow and steady. Nora paused as she saw Peter Pan doing his meet and greets, confused. Normally meet and greets ended before dinnertime.

"They have some sort of party tonight. I don't know which one," Oliver explained. "Means some of the face characters are out later than normal. I'm glad it's not me."

They kept walking. The Liberty Belle chugged along merrily through the Rivers of America. Nora saw the peaceful moment as an opportunity. "So...you know Jack?"

"Jack who?" he asked absentmindedly.

"Sparrow. You know. The one you said I had a crush on."

His expression curdled. "Oh."

"Yeah." What a weird not date this was. "Why did you say that, Oliver?"

"It's not gossip, I swear," Oliver said. "I just...I was jealous."

Her fingers curled against her shorts. "Why?"

"Because you always went to visit him, but never bothered to visit me. Unless you were purposefully trying to drive me crazy by waiting in my tavern."

"I swear I just wanted cinnamon rolls."

He put his hands together, begging forgiveness. "It's not like I was..." He stopped, shaking his head. "I don't know. I just...I was being Gaston."

She studied him, trying to figure out how annoyed to be. "You played your role well."

"I don't want to be him all the time. I get I can be sometimes, but that's not me."

"You said characters were out still?" Nora said.

"...Some?"

"We should meet Jack," Nora said, trying to ignore the way her brain was telling her that this was an awful idea for so many reasons. She loved avoiding conflict and this felt a lot like making one. But who was she kidding? All she did when Jack was concerned was start conflict.

And what was the point of it, anyway? To get Oliver to tell the truth? To see Jack's reaction at her hanging out with Oliver? Were they even friends? Would he know Oliver? Oliver had said they had a history. Did Jack think she had a crush on either of them? She wanted to scream. It was so embarrassing.

"Are you sure?" Oliver asked. "I mean, we haven't even gone to Frontierland yet. You keep saying your 'this here's the wildest ride in the wilderness' mimicry is on point and I need to hear it in the proper setting."

"We should meet him," Nora said firmly.

Oliver shifted uneasily, but followed her lead to Adventureland. "He may not be there. Or it might be someone else."

"Why are you so nervous?" Nora asked, shutting down her heart as she went on her stubborn autopilot.

"It's weird."

"Tell me how it's weird."

Oliver gave her a look. "Imagine meeting me as Gaston next time, what that will be like interacting with me, knowing it's me, but not being able to say anything related to that."

Nora stared at him. "It's seriously not that hard to think about. You're still you and I'm still me and you're still Gaston. And you're the actor. This should be right up your alley."

"It's still weird," Oliver shot back, quieter as they got in line as he saw that it was, in fact, the Jack Sparrow he had indicated Nora had a crush on.

"I know you're friends," Nora almost hissed. "And from what you said as Gaston, it sounds like everyone talks about me behind my back. So stop hiding things from me."

"I'm not hiding the fact that he doesn't talk about you behind your back from you," Oliver whispered frantically. "Seriously. I was just being mean because I was jealous of him. You never get in my line, but you get in his all the time."

"Why doesn't he tell me who he is?" Nora demanded, done with pretenses.

His eyes widened. "Why would he? You're just a guest."

Yet again, she wanted to scream. "Come on, Oliver. You know who he is. Just tell me."

They'd been getting closer and closer in line. Her heart was doing a very unsteady, fast tango in her chest, like a broken audio animatronic, and she was getting ready to lose it.

"Step right up to meet the captain," the Photopass CM said.

Nora threw an acidic look at Oliver before stepped up, grabbing his hand preemptively, as if Oliver would run if she didn't yank him forward. She let go quickly. "Hi, Jack."

If she hadn't been so upset, she would have shuddered at her own tone.

"This was unexpected," Jack said uneasily, clearly recognizing Oliver, who gave the stupidest, least Oliver-like wave he'd probably ever given in his life.

What was she supposed to do now? Demand justice? Rant and rage? What was she thinking? Now she was acting like those psychotic guests they warned face characters about.

God, kill her now. Why had she come? "Sorry. We can go."

She whisked herself away before any more damage could be done, somehow still hearing Oliver's words to Jack, "For the record, I'm the only one who knows how the compass works."

Or, in other words that were just as clear to her, I didn't tell her who you are. I didn't say how she could find you.

Her hands balled into fists. Oliver followed after her a minute later, probably because he wanted to make sure their interaction hadn't been frowned upon by CMs or guests.

"What was that?" Oliver asked. "You can't just blackmail either of us into telling you."

"Pirate," Nora said. Because that's what she was. Always sneaking around, trying to get her way, even if it had to be underhanded.

Since when had she become that?

Oliver ran a hand over his face. "Aren't you two made for each other."

"What?"

"Nothing. Look, he'll tell you when he's ready, and these sorts of stunts aren't helping him trust you with the information. It's the kind of guest behavior that's going to get you banned from the parks. I'm sorry, Nora, but unless I need to make it my business, I'm keeping out of it."

He started walking towards Frontierland.

"Do you think I'd like him?" she blurted out.

There was a long pause. "Hard to say." His eyes were sad. "Can we get our goat on now?"

Nora couldn't help but smile. "Fine. We can go see the goat."

"Thanks. Then we can go home. You know, until our next not date."

It had been a fun day until she's ruined it. Could she hang out with Oliver, knowing he knew? Why did it feel like such a lie, for him to keep it from her, even when Jack had every right to his own identity?

It kept building and building and building. It wasn't even because she liked him anymore—she didn't, not really. It was because everyone was so against it. And maybe that was wrong, but she couldn't help but want to itch an itch that she'd had for months.

As they got in line, Oliver said, "I promise, I'll tell you soon."

Nora nodded. At least then she could put it behind her.

I need me some Disney not-dates. What did you guys think?

Question of the Chapter: What is the most romantic thing at a Disney park? Or theme park.

-Flips