Page 76 of Lance

“Right next toyou.”

“Are youscared?”

Lance smiles a little. “A bit scared. Maybe you can hold myhand?”

A little smile tugs on Simon’s lips. “I think that would be all right.” He looks up at me. “What aboutWilla?”

“What do you say?” Lance asks me. “Ready to face yourfears?”

I shake my head, unable to speak. I feel strangely close to tears, watching them. “Sure,” I manage to say and they both grin at me, their expressions so similar I have tolaugh.

I basically feel like I’m going to pass out as we head to the entrance. The first hill of the rollercoaster looms high in the darkening night sky and I can’t keep my eyes off of it. Why did I agree to this? My hands are shaking as we climb into the car, Dylan and I sitting behind Lance and Simon. “You okay?” Lance asks, turning around to look at me as I pull the overhead restraints down over my chest. Something in my face must convey my fear as I grip the handles on the chest bars because he winces. “You got this, Willa,” hecalls.

“Yeah,” Simon shouts, too little for me to see over the seat. “You gotthis!”

And then we’re off and Kendra was right, this ride is crazy fast. We’re halfway up the first hill before I even manage to look around. “Oh,” I mutter, closing my eyes. “This was a bad idea.” Up in front of me, I hear Simon give a loud shout. But he doesn’t sound terrified. He sounds like he’s having fun. I somehow pry open my eyes to see that we’re right at the top of the hill now. I grip my handles tighter. The park is spread out all around us, the boardwalk all lit up below. The sky is an even darker pink now and just as I’m thinking how beautiful it is, we go over the crest of the hill and hurtledownward.

“God, Willa,” Dylan calls out over the rushing wind as we reach the bottom. “Could you scream a little bitlouder?”

“How are you not freakingout?”

“Because it’sfun!”

Fun? In what universe is this fun? We’re going way too fast and now here’s another hill and we’re going up and up and—oh no—is this even higher than the firstone?

I hear Lance shouting something to Simon and then, just as we’re cresting the hilltop, I see Simon’s little hands reaching up over his head. Lance’s hands are up too and so are Dylan’s. “Try it!” he calls to me. “Live alittle!”

Live a little.Isn’t that what Nia said to me when we were getting ready in our apartment that first night, when all of this started? And wasn’t that what I had been trying to do all these weeks, to break out of my shell and actually live? With a great rush of fear I release my death-grip on the handles and raise my hands over my head, and then we’re rushing back toward the earth and I’ve never felt this scared and exhilarated at the same time. “Don’t you dare hold on now!” Dylan shouts as we come out of the drop. And I don’t. Not even when we go upside down. In fact, my hands are still above my head when we finally slow down and pull into the station. And so areSimon’s.

My legs are shaky as we climb out of the train and back onto the platform. “How are you?” Lance asks, placing a hand on my back to steadyme.

“Comatose,” I mutter, and helaughs.

“You didgreat.”

“Willa!” Simon is shouting, jumping up and down. “Did you see? I didn’t even holdon!”

“I saw,” I told him. “That was crazybrave.”

“Willa didn’t hold on either,” Dylan says, and Simon grins at me, looking almostproud.

As we step back out onto the concourse, Simon looks over his shoulder at the mammoth coaster. “You know what?” he says, sliding his hand into Lance’s. “I think this was my very best dayever.”

Lance looks down at him, something unreadable in his eyes. “Mine too, kid,” he murmurs, so softly I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who hears. “Minetoo.”