"You're joking," Berkley gasped.

"Of course I'm not," I smirked. "You picked the last one and now it's my turn."

"But you know I can't ride this," she whined.

"You knew I couldn't ride the rollercoaster," I pointed out.

"But you did and you were fine!" She huffed.

"Correction," I scoffed. "I was terrified, my pride was injured, and now I'm emotionally scarred."

"Oh shut up," she snapped, "it wasn't that bad."

"Then this should be fine! This is one of the most harmless ride in the park," I grinned and grabbed her hand, pulling her after me as she tried in vain to dig her heals into the ground.

After she'd chosen to ride the tea cups and I pointed out the swing pirate ship, she accidentally let it slip that she was afraid of it. I saw my opportunity to exact my revenge and, by gosh, I was gonna get it.

"Wait! Wren please!" Berkley cried as we crept closer towards the front of the line.

"Oh come on," I sighed, "What's so scary about a swinging ship?"

"It's all left up to gravity and there aren't any seat belts!" She huffed.

"Rollercoasters utilized gravitational principles," I snorted.

"But this is different!"

"Berkley," I smiled and grabbed her shaking hands, "I promise you'll be fine. I faced my fear, you can face yours. I won't let anything happen to you."

My sappy inspirational words must have hit home because she took a deep breath and nodded, dropping one of my hands but keeping the other. I tried not to look down at our intertwined fingers in fear that I might jerk my hand away out of embarrassment. Finally it was our turn to board the ride and Berkley was a nervous wreck. She slid as close to me as she could as people began to fill the wide benched. Cody sat next to Nadia and Grant was beside Blair.

"Welcome and thank you for choosing The Pirate's Pendulum! Enjoy your ride, scalawags!" An overenthusiastic man with a mic said with a very poor pirate accent. At the sound of turning gears, Berkley yelped and buried her face in my shoulder, squeezing my hand tightly, and I froze. I barely knew her, but she was so close... She couldn't possibly be into me, could she? She didn't know anything about me. Nah, she was just afraid, that's all. I looked down at her. Her dark hair had fallen out of her bun when we rode the tea cups, so she'd taken it down and decided not to mess with it. It cascaded down my shoulder and her back, reaching to the end of her shoulder blades.

The boat began to sway back and forth slowly, gradually gaining speed and height. She buried her face deeper into my arm and I felt my face growing hot. What am I thinking? I don't know her either! But she was just so beautiful that I couldn't resist talking to her.

"Hey Romeo!" Grant shouted over the crowd and the wind. "Looks like you've finally found your Juliet!"

"I c- can still hear you!" Berkley growled, but didn't remove her face from my arm.