10 DAYS winrina

Chapter 5

Day 5- The Boardwalk

Karina didn't come by the next afternoon, like I had expected her to. She usually came by an hour or two after school, but today she didn't. Instead, she came by during the night time, around ten, to be exact. The nuns have already seen enough of Karina to know who she was. When one of the younger nuns called me downstairs, I found Karina sitting on one of the couches while a bunch of the smaller girls surrounded her.

"Are you Winter's prince charming?" a toothless seven year old asked Karina, as she chuckled.

"I sure am." I heard Karina say, which made my ears perk up.

The toothless girl gasped, before bursting into a misfit of giggles. "But girls are icky! They have cooties!"

Karina chuckled, ruffling the little girl's messy blonde head of hair. "Not when you're a prince."

I had enough of what I heard, as I popped out from behind the wall. I approached Karina, dragging her away from the little crowd of girls. "Let's go, Karina." I muttered.

"Are you going to bring Winter to your magical kingdom now?" another squeaky voice asked, making my cheeks warm up.

"How did you guys guess?" Karina joked.

"Shouldn't you girls be in bed?" Mother Boa appeared from the doorway, crossing her arms. Immediately, all of the girls hurried out of the living room, turning off the television on the way. Mother Boa gave me a wink before she stepped out to follow the girls upstairs. She probably wanted to make sure they brushed their teeth and were tucked in bed.

I pulled Karina out to the front lobby of the orphanage, crossing my arms as I stared at her accusingly. "The girls will bug me forever about you, now." I sighed. "What are you even doing here this late?"

Karina smiled lightly. "I want to take you somewhere."

I frowned, as my suspicions rose. "You aren't actually taking me to a magical kingdom, are you?"

Karina laughed, shaking her head as she led me outside of the orphanage. She unlocked her car, and opened the passenger door for me. "No." she paused, to get into the driver's seat. "Just wait and see."

I crossed my arms, staring outside the window as Karina began to drive. Moments later, I noticed that we were in the parking lot of the boardwalk just a few minutes out of our town. The lights were all lit up today, and my eyes were immediately drawn to the Ferris wheel.

"You took me to the boardwalk?" I frowned.

Karina smiled, nodding. "I used to go all time as a kid. But I stopped a while ago."

"Why?" I asked, staring up at Karina.

Karina wasn't staring at me, though. Instead, her green eyes were dazed and distant, as she stared at all of the flashing lights. I couldn't help but noticed how much brighter her green eyes looked under all of the lights. It was the type of emerald green that almost looked unreal.

"Karina?" I gave her a light push. "Are you okay?"

Karina snapped out of her thoughts, as her eyes dropped down to me. It looked as if she just remembered that I was right next to her. "I'm fine." She licked her lips, putting a forced smile across her face. I frowned, as Karina pulled me towards the rollercoaster that didn't look too friendly. "You aren't scared of rollercoaster's, are you?"

I bit my lower lip, staring at the cart that went upside down in multiple loops. "I've never been on one." I admitted.

Karina grinned, pulling me towards the line that wasn't too long. "Then this will be your first time."

The gate opened up, as someone led us towards the cart, buckling us in. "Karina, I don't think this is a-"

Suddenly, I lurched forward, as the cart rolled on the tracks in full speed. My eyes widened, as my hair whipped behind my head from the intense speed. "Karina!" I screamed.

I could hear Karina calmly chuckling beside me, as we approached a crazy loop. My eyes squeezed shut, as I felt my legs go weak. "I'm going to kill you!" I screeched.

After what seemed like hours, which were actually minutes, the cart stopped. I felt someone shaking my shoulder, as I slowly opened my eyes. Karina stared back at me, and I noticed that the silver bar that was set in front of us rose up. "Winter?" Karina smiled weakly. "You're okay, right?"

I stared back at Karina with a pale face, as the conductor assisted us out. When we were back on the boardwalk, Karina led me to the trashcan. I glared at her, slapping her shoulder. "What the hell?!" I hissed.

Karina raised an eyebrow. "You aren't going to puke on me, are you?"

I grumbled, shaking my head. "That was horrible! I thought I was going to fall up there!"

Karina grinned, letting out a low chuckle. "Come on, I want to see the pictures."

My eyes widened, as Karina dragged me over to a little booth with little television screens. On the fourth box was a picture of me squeezing my eyes shut, looking completely miserable. Karina, however, was grinning at me, letting her hands flop all over the place. "I'll take two key chains." Karina told the manager of the booth, handing him a twenty dollar bill.

The guy handed Karina back two key chains with our faces on them. She handed me the blue one, keeping the red one for herself. "This is for you."

I couldn't help but smile at our completely different reactions. It was hilarious. "Thanks. Now I can remind myself every time I open the door that I completely freaked out on the first time I went on a rollercoaster." I sarcastically remarked, latching the keychain on to my small set of keys.

"I don't know." Karina smiled softly. "I think you look pretty cute."

I stared up at her eyes, trying to find any traces of dishonesty or lies. But, there was none. All I saw was sincerity.

I couldn't help but turned bright red, as I bit on my lower lip. "O-oh." I sputtered out. How lame was I? "Oh look! The ring toss! I love that game!" I rambled on, pulling Karina's arm towards the ring toss that had a bunch of stuffed animals hung up around it.

Around midnight, I figured that I had to get back to the orphanage sooner or later. Mother Boa was going to stay up worrying about me if I didn't come home in an hour, tops. She just wasn't used to me staying out late.

"I should get going." I said, holding a large green frog in one arm, which Karina had won for me at the ring toss.

Karina's smile faltered. "Oh." She paused, eyes lingering up to the Ferris wheel. "Do you have time for one last ride?"

The Ferris wheel was the first thing that my eyes landed on when Karina took me here earlier today. I knew I had to ride it, no matter what. "Yeah." I nodded, as Karina led me towards the Ferris wheel.

Since the Ferris wheel carts only had one seat, Karina and I had to sit next to each other. Our arms brushed, as the Ferris wheel slowly went up. When we stopped at the top, I took time to stare down. I could see everything from up here. I could see a little girl dropping her cotton candy and a bright neon green flip flop that was left on the boardwalk.

"It's beautiful." I muttered.

Suddenly, the night sky exploded into a bunch of bright colors, creating a booming noise every time the fireworks exploded into the sky.

I loved it. It was so beautiful.

"Reason number five, Winter." Karina's hot breath tickled my throat. "The boardwalk."