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♢♦♢ GOODBYE, PEANUT.. ♢♦♢
"Confess, Harley!"
Walking in Fork's foggy morning air, Harleen looks over at her mother and laughs, her tattooed hand holding onto a plastic bottle of icy Coca Cola. "Mom! I'm tellin' ya, there was no one!"
"Harleen," laughs Sharon. "How in the world do ya get mono in high school without kissing?"
Fluffy, white clouds, surrounded by the cool, blue sky, hover over their heads as they walk through the crowd of anxious people. Harley Quinn is dressed in black shorts, a red vest-like crop-top, black and red converse and a black choker with a white skull glued to its side, while her mother wears rimless, square framed, 90's styled sunglasses on the top of her head, blue pants, white sneakers and a pink top.
"I swear, Ma! I didn't have a boyfriend or a make out buddy, or nothin'," Harley laughs as she defends herself against her mother's accusation.
For the first time, she has the opportunity to get a good look at Haly's Funhouse. Sharon's rented car is parked at the front of an enormous, mostly empty parking lot near a large, obnoxiously-colored arch that welcomes them to the amusement park. Through the fog, she makes out several roller coaster tracks, twisting and looping and making sharp dives. Just looking at the tracks makes her stomach feel like it is dropping and twisting, too. Trains swoop up and down the tracks, but they're all empty. They must be testing out the rides before the park officially opens for the day. Hand in hand with her mother, she moves towards the archway and starts to make her way through the park. The two of them pass by opened food stations, the aroma of fried food hitting their noses.
Sharon gives her daughter a look of disbelief, clearly not believing her response. "Then how do ya explain how ya got sick for three months?"
"Don't ask me'! Immaculate infection?! I wish I got it the fun way!"
Apparently, Haly's Funhouse is a popular destination for the teenagers of Forks High School. They surround the mother-daughter, spending their day riding the coasters, eating obscenely expensive ice cream and pretzels, paying to play obscenely expensive games. Some of them buy obscenely expensive season passes, so that they could come over and over again.
After a few more minutes of walking and conversating, they reach the back of a long queue winding through silver railings that corrals the park-goers into a compact, twisting line. They can't see the ride itself from here, but as they join the back of the line, they pass under a colorful yellow arch from which the words "Mega-Mountain Splash Down!" jump out at them. To the right of the words, there is a cartoon depiction of a log with seats carved out in the middle splashing head-first into water rapids, sending up huge plumes of water in all directions.
A twinge of unease goes through Sharon. Her head jerks at the picture on the arch. The air is cool from the mist, and neither her nor Harley has the desire to get wet when it's chilly out. She turns around in time to see the log-shaped ride dive spectacularly down a steep trail and hit the water below, causing gigantic walls of water to spray up around it. A split-second later, the log surges through the wall of water, and she sees a rider gasp and open her eyes, drenched.
