Book 6: Chapter 7:

And so, Serra and Ryouta came up with a plan.

They both recognized that they had too many plans piling up and that having a large list of things to do actually took the fun out of it. Therefore, they decided against planning for an amusement park visit.

It was just one more thing on a growing list of things to think about.

So, instead…

“Alright! You’re set for the day and the park closes at ten. Have fun!” a teen behind the counter says.

Cassandra and Serra walk through the turnstile as Ryouta pushes Alice through a special access entrance.

Before them stands the nearest and, conveniently, the highest-rated amusement park in the state.

Why make plans to go in the future when they can just go the very next day?

Serra looks up at the highest roller coaster and gulps. Meanwhile, Cassandra desperately tries not to look at the cotton candy stall that is way too close to the entrance. She knew that she was going to be tempted today but not right from the very start!

“Why’d we have to come here right after I decided to diet?” Cassandra asks.

“Because we love you,” Ryouta answers.

“You’re not going to love me if I gain a hundred pounds from eating all the crap here.”

“I’ll still love you.”

“Yeah? What if I gain a hundred and one pounds?”

“That might be a bit too much even for me.”

Cassandra flicks Ryouta’s shoulder before sighing and returning to assaulting the cotton candy stall with her eyes.

“Seriously, this is unfair,” she says.

“Would you have rather us left you by yourself at the house?”

“No, but we could have gone somewhere where I wasn’t going to be tempted by food the whole time! I haven’t been to an amusement park like this since I was a little kid, and I always wanted to go back because of the food… and now here I am, finally back in an amusement park full of delicious and stupidly unhealthy food right after I started dieting and working out!”

“It is most alright, Cassandra!” Alice says. “You only started last night. With a diet that has only been underway for less than a full day, I would think it is alright to take a day off and start over tomorrow! It is not as if you are losing much progress.”

“You’re a bunch of enablers.”

Serra holds up her phone to Cassandra.

What Cassandra reads makes her blush and cross her arms over her chest.

“Yeah, like I can tell all the calories to just go to my chest instead. Even if they did, can you imagine the back pain I would be in? They already give me stiff shoulders,” Cassandra explains.

“Hmm. Was that not proven a myth with one of the explanations most likely being that women experiencing back pain were simply wearing poorly-fitting bras?” Alice asks. “I swear that I can recall reading such an article.”

Ryouta, having zero idea about women and their chests aside from the stereotype that big boobs cause big back pain, stays out of it and lets them have their feminine discussion.

The last thing that he wants to do is butt in and say something stupid that furthers the stereotype of men being bad with women’s anatomy.

If it’s his girlfriends potentially having a bad idea of their own anatomy, however, then that’s alright.

Also, there is the fact that Cassandra has subconsciously taken the lead of the group.

“Excuse me? Did you want one?” the girl behind the stall asks.

Cassandra not only took lead of the group but led them straight to the cotton candy stand without even looking toward it. Not only that, but she got in line, continued talking about her chest, back pain, and bras, all while maintaining a good distance in the line and holding her hand out to Alice for her card since all of their cards are being kept in Alice’s purse.

It is only when the confused spinner of the most cotton of candies asks Cassandra if she wants one that she realizes that her body is acting on its own.

“I – I…”

“Yeah, we’ll share it,” Ryouta answers, handing his own card to the worker.

Even if he’s paying with his card, it is still Alice and her family who are going to be paying off the balances of all their cards.

Him and Cassandra at least get to act like they’re taking turns paying for things this way.

Serra just doesn’t care.

“We’ll all get fat together,” Ryouta says, taking the oversized fluff of cotton candy and holding it between him and his girlfriends.

Each of them takes a piece to bite on.

As wonderfully sweet as it tastes to Cassandra, she still makes sure to bite the cotton candy with anger as if to warn it that it better not make her gain even a half of a half of a half of a pound.

Ryouta, Serra, and Alice have never seen somebody eat something while looking both blissful and angry at once.

Alice makes sure to sneak a picture of Cassandra for Azalabulia.

Even though they know Azalabulia’s real name now, Eros, they still all refer to her and keep her in their phones as Azalabulia on her request.

“Our dearest Azala has said that she is jealous and wishes that we have a fun time!” Alice says.

“Azala? Since when do you call her that?” Ryouta asks.

“Since now! I like to call you by your proper names, but Azalabulia is simply much too long of a name. As cute as Aza and Azawaza are, they are what you all call her. I like how Azala sounds, so I shall call her such from now on! Ah, I got another message from her. She says that she is hungover, so as much as she loves us, she is turning her phone off so that we do not accidentally wake her up.”

“I wonder how hung over she is.”

“I would assume very! Neither of us were able to sleep last night, so we were messaging over Fiscord for a while. She was drinking while we chatted. It was rather adorable seeing her messages go from being flawlessly spelled to unintelliglbe gibberish. I think she said that she finished the second bottle, so she was going to open a third, and then the gibberish began.”

“A third bottle? She’s… she’s not an alcoholic, is she?”

“Please, my hero! You cannot be an alcoholic if all you drink is wine.”

“I’m pretty sure you can be an alcoholic who only drinks wine.”

“Nonsense. I was taught that wine is a wonderful liquid as prestigious as water! Alcholics drink beer and harder liquors, no?”

“Alice… alcoholics can drink any alcoholic beverage. They’re not alcohol-wine-excluded-ics.”

“Are you telling me that my father, mother, uncles and aunts, cousins, servants, and horse are all alcoholics?”

“Wait, did you say horse at the end there?”

“I did! Have you never heard of the royal family’s horses being allowed wine?”

“How much… how much wine do they drink?”

“They can drink quite a fair amount before falling asleep! Of course, we make sure that they are in a safe and padded area before allowing them to drink so much that they pass out.”

“I…”

“Same,” Cassandra says, placing a hand on Ryouta’s shoulder.

Ryouta looks down at the stick the cotton candy was on.

It’s all gone.

He looks at Cassandra.

She has some cotton candfy fluff at the corner of her lips.

“Woahler coasthurr,” Serra says, tugging on Ryouta’s free hand while pointing at a small coaster in the distance.

One of the teens passing by turns his head to look at Serra and her way of speech with a mocking smile.

He then looks terrified by the look that not only Ryouta and Cassandra glare at him, but by the one that Alice shoots his way, too.

Cassandra grabs Alice’s wheelchair and Ryouta wraps his arm around Serra, bringing her close against him so that anybody who dares to think anything ill of Serra knows that he’s there to protect her.

Of course, he doesn’t exactly look that intimidating since he’s only of average height with a pretty lean build and bad legs… but that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to be as protective of his girlfriends as he can be.

Serra, having no idea why she’s suddenly being protected like this, smiles and wraps her arm halfway around Ryouta’s waist from behind.

She only wraps it halfway around so that she can squeeze his rear.

Ryouta flicks the side of her head and tells her, “You’re going to get us kicked out. We can’t do that sort of thing here. Seriously. There are kids around.”

Serra pouts and sticks her tongue out before giving him one more squeeze. Then she wraps her arm around him normally.

“Alright. Let’s go on that roller coaster first. They apparently set this place up so that the rides get more and more hardcore the farther in you go, so all the easy stuff is upfront,” Ryouta says.

“I’m just happy we got fast passes,” Cassandra says. “I would not want to wait in those lines. Seriously, it’s like, barely ten thirty and this place is already packed. Don’t these people have jobs or school or something?”

It is in this moment that Cassandra realizes just how privileged they are now. After all, they have Alice to pay for everything. They no longer need to worry about jobs, education – nothing. They simply need to enjoy their lives.

The amount of guilt that she feels about that lasts for only a few seconds.

No amount of guilt is going to stop her nor anybody else from feeling happy about getting to skip lines with an expensive pay-to-win pass.

And so, they reach the front of the line and are ready to get on the first ride of the day: the tamest roller coaster in the park.

Fortunately, the staff have been appropriately trained and help Cassandra in getting Alice into the front car of the train where there is more leg room and maneuverability than in the other cars. Cassandra sits next to her while Ryouta and Serra go to the back of the train and get in the very last car.

This way, if Serra has to cling onto the bar for dear life mid-ride, nobody but Ryouta will see her doing so.

“Ready?” Ryouta asks Serra after poking her.

Serra grips the bar that lowers itself over their laps and keeps her head forward.

Fortunately, there’s enough room for Ryouta to put his arm around her even now. He protected her up until this ride and will continue protecting her.

Not that there’s much protecting he’ll be able to do if anything actually goes wrong.

He doesn’t let her know that, though.

Meanwhile, at the front of the train, they can see Alice taking advantage of the fact that Cassandra is stuck with her. Everybody sitting behind them gets to see Alice clinging to Cassandra and playfully resting her head on her shoulder.

Alice even looks behind them, looking through all the other rows of people, to give a cute wave to Ryouta and Serra.

Even though none of the riders necessarily know that Alice is with Ryouta… he still feels embarrassed just thinking about all the rows of people who are confused about who Alice is looking and waving at.

Alice notices the red of his cheeks from the front and smiles before returning her embarrassing doting to Cassandra.

And so, the train ascends the first hill.

The rackety belt pulling the train up along the track causes the whole train to vibrate and shake, causing Serra to grip onto the bar in front of her even harder.

Even though Ryouta and Serra watched a video of this ride the night before, seeing just how slow and easy it is… Serra still can’t help but to worry.

Partly because of there being the fact that the train could always slide off the track and crash and everybody dies and all that, and partly because – well, because she does know that she sounds different and that the noises she makes can get her negative attention.

Even if she doesn’t notice it most of the time…

Ryouta keeps his arm firmly around her.

He also decides to both get revenge and calm his girlfriend at once.

With nobody behind them, no cameras, and being too high for anybody walking below to see, Ryouta slips his hand onto her chest and gets in a bit of groping.

Serra looks up at him and he mouths to her, making sure not to make any actual sound so those sitting right in front of them can’t hear, “We can’t get kicked out if nobody sees us.”

She smiles, closes her eyes, and leans her head up.

Finally, one of her hands has left the bar so that she can point at her lips.

Seeing her like this reminds him of the one time he came out of the shower and saw her on her knees making this exact same face and pointing at the same place, but this time, all she expects are his lips.

He really wants her to surprise him like that again.

For now, he leans down to press his lips – to press the side of his head against the headrest as the train rolls down the first hill!

Serra’s hands go back to having a death grip as Ryouta can’t help but laugh at the sensation of going up and down the hills.

Even if it is a tame ride, it’s still a fun one. Who can resist giggling and smiling while on a roller coaster?

And when Serra finally finds the courage to actually look ahead of her and enjoy the ride, she… ends up disappointed because it’s already over.

So, naturally, she looks over to the next and bigger roller coaster and points at that.

“Please keep your arms and legs inside the the ride at all times,” the announcer says over the speaker after seeing Serra’s arm reaching out.

Ryouta has to grab Serra’s arm himself to pull it in while waving in apology to the ride attendant.

More importantly to Ryouta, Serra looks up at him with sparkling eyes and says, “Fun.”

They head to the next ride.

Thanks to having the fast passes, the group is able to visit every big ride there is. Whether it’s bumper cars, indoor “experiences” on rails, simulated tornados and hurricanes in a large building with wind machines and water sprayers, or getting strapped into a row of seats that swing back and forth through the air almost to the point where they hang upside down a few times, they make sure to attack every ride that there is.

They also make sure to get on all of the roller coasters.

With every increasingly intense roller coaster that they ride, Serra has looked more and more excited by them. She might not make nearly as much noise as Ryouta does while riding them, but she does smile just as much while always looking excited.

And now, it is time for something that Ryouta has been hoping for.

Something that he and Serra mischeviously planned the moment that they saw the ride on the park’s website.

Something that is responsible for him wearing a hoodie over his shirt when it’s not cold enough to really need one… and responsible for Serra convincing Cassandra to wear a white shirt.

A water ride.

The park’s water ride.

They saw just how much water gets dumped on them in the video, but Cassandra has no such knowledge and does not expect to get more than a little wet.

Alice, on the other hand, knows that something is suspicious when she notices Ryouta and Serra looking at each other and smiling so frequently.

The thought of something being plotted behind her and Cassandra’s back would be cause for concern to any normal person.

But to Alice, it is cause to be excited. Excited in more than one way.

As soon as Alice sees one of the water rafts arrive at the docking area with freshly-soaked riders, she looks at Cassandra and puts the pieces together.

Ryouta and Serra notice the knowing look on Alice’s face and are worried that they might get ratted out… until Alice gives thems a silent thumbs-up.

She’s in on the plan with them now.

As for Cassandra, the nearby food stalls are keeping her busy trying to look at what people are getting from them instead of at the ride’s latest riders.

Now that it’s their turn to board the raft, the four get strapped in and Serra makes sure to bring Cassandra to sit with her.

They read that sitting on the side opposing the dock has the highest chance of rotating at the right time to be under the waterfall, so that is where Serra is sacrificing herself for the sake of getting Cassandra soaked.

And while getting soaked in a public amusement park while wearing a white shirt might be embarrassing and put Ryouta and Serra into the bad boyfriend and girlfriend department, Serra made sure that Cassandra’s thickest and most plain bra was on the top of her bra pile. Serra knows that Cassandra always picks the first bra from her pile to put on, so everything has been perfectly orchestrated up to now.

The raft departs the dock and begins its journey of oh-so-slowly spinning while traveling down the artificial river. Squirts of water occasionally shoot at them, water falls in bursts from bridges as they pass under them, and animatronic dinosaurs occasionally pop out from the bushes to roar at them and spit water at them, but it it is not until the river’s water gets choppy that the fun begins.

The raft bounces around, spins faster, water starts splashing over the sides and into the raft, and it feels like they’re going to get knocked off the underwater guidance rail at any time!

And soon they will be approaching the waterfall.

Only half of the raft is going to go under it. Even if Cassandra isn’t lined up to perfectly path under it, Ryouta read that he can start spinning the wheel in the center of the raft and may be able to do it quickly enough to spin them so that she gets lined up.

It is now that Cassandra realizes what’s happen – she realizes it upon hearing the roaring falling of water coming up behind her.

Ryouta and Serra nod at each other.

And now… Serra and Cassandra nod at each other before showing Ryouta and Alice their devilish smiles.

His eyes widen in shock and betrayal as he realizes what is about to happen.

Serra and Cassandra both spin the wheel with all of their strength.

Ryouta grabs onto it to try and stop them, but he needs Alice’s help if he wants to overpower them.

And Alice is more than contrent to be either the perpetrator or the victim, so she simply sits back and enjoys the suspense with closed eyes.

She doesn’t want to know who gets soaked until it happens.

The thought of potentially passing under a waterfall and getting drenched is just so exciting! And keeping her eyes closed makes it even more suspenseful!

Wearing such dark clothes helps, too. She won’t have to worry about being exposed, even temporarily, to any other park visitors.

Though, she wouldn’t mind if she was. The thought of that is exciting, too.

The moment of truth arrives.

Ryouta tries to spin the wheel, but both Cassandra and Serra are keeping it held in place by pulling it in the opposite direction that he’s trying to spin it.

The waterfall comes crashing down onto him and Alice.

Serra and Cassandra laugh with each other and finally let go of the wheel, content in seeing Ryouta and Alice utterly drenched in water.

The final section of the ride is grand in spectacle but trivial in soaking. The raft goes sliding down a tall hill and crashes into the river below, splashing water up onto the nearby crowds walking by while only a little bit of water actually splashes onto the raft’s riders. Furthermore, Cassandra knew to hunch over to protect her chest from getting soaked.

Only her back has gotten wet at all, and she doesn’t care if some random people can see the outline of a white bra strap underneath a white shirt.

At the dock, the attendants are ready to quickly help Alice out of the never-still raft, and the rest depart without any issue.

But there is one question that Ryouta wants answered.

“When… when did you plan that?” he asks.

“She told me this morning while I was getting dressed,” Cassandra explains.

“I see!” Alice says. “Is this why you suggested that I wear this blouse today? I was worried that it may be too dark for such a sunny day, but if this was your intention the entire time, well played!”

Cassandra and Serra high-five each other while Ryouta sighs in defeat.

Even though he’s the one who got soaked, he still takes off his hoodie, wrings the water out of it, and grumpily tosses it at Cassandra. The betrayal and realization that he’s more jealous than he realizes is too much for him.

“Why are you giving it to me?” Cassandra asks.

“Because. You got wet. Just put it on,” he explains.

For once, she is the one getting tsundere fanservice.

And for once, she understands why he likes it so much whenever she acts like this.

It’s cute.

She wants more of this.

“I’m barely wet. It’s not a big deal,” she says, handing it back over to him.

“Your back is wet. People can see your bra strap.”

“So? It’s just a strap. I don’t care if moms or little kids see it.”

“Just – just put it on.”

Cassandra raises an eyebrow while Alice giggles to herself with a hand over her mouth.

“What? Are you jealous or something that others might see a part of my bra?”

“It’s – it’s not like I’m jealous or anything. I wouldn’t be jealous over something that little after I planned on you getting even more soaked in the first place.”

Serra sneaks up from behind and pokes Ryouta in the side, causing him to jump and squeak almost on the same level as Cassandra.

The roles have been totally and utterly reversed.

Ryouta is the tsundere now.

But that makes Cassandra happy, so she slips on the hoodie to ensure that not a single prying eye can see even an inch of her bra straps.

“You should be thankful we tricked you. You would have been even more jealous if I got soaked,” she says.

“I… I didn’t consider that. I didn’t know that… I could feel so jealous over something so small,” he explains, dropping the tsundere act to be honest. “I knew you’d get soaked and would need a change of clothes or my hoodie to help you, but I didn’t think I’d actually get jealous or anything.”

“I almost feel bad for you, but I’m still kind of mad you even thought about getting me to wear white with the plan of soaking me in public in the first place. You think I want a bunch of brats able to see me like that?”

“I – I was going to cover you up as soon as we were off the ride.”

“The attendants and people in line still would have seen me. This is why Serra betrayed you to work with me.”

Serra doesn’t know exactly what is being said, but she understands enough to nod along with whatever Cassandra is saying.

Being a girl herself, there was no way that Serra was going to let something so potentially embarrassing happen to her beloved girlfriend!

Not around other people, anyways. If they were the only ones in the park then Serra absolutely, without a single ounce of hesitation, allowed Cassandra to get drenched.

Even now, Serra is upset with her own ethical decision since it means not getting to see Cassandra in a soaked, white shirt.

But she knows that she did the right thing.

And now she knows that doing the right thing is really boring.

“Goodness, my hero,” Alice says. “You are awfully cruel today, are you not? First you conspire to drench your girlfriend with the intention of exposing her, and then you give her your hoodie instead of me despite how wet I am!”

Ryouta looks down at her. Alice being wet shouldn’t be a problem since she’s wearing a dark blouse, but… it would appear that somebody has pulled down the neck of her blouse just enough to show off some of her dripping cleavage.

And that somebody would be none other than Alice herself.

Fortunately for Ryouta, Cassandra steps up to grab Alice’s blouse and pull it back up to where it belongs.

“It’s not like he’s the only one who gets jealous,” Cassandra explains.

“My, my! Am I not even allowed to show some of my breasts in public? To think that I am in love with such prudes! Prudes who wish to control my body and how I dress – oh, you two have become even better!”

“Why do I feel tempted to just take all her clothes off right now?” Ryouta asks Cassandra.

“Don’t. She’d like that way more and we’d both get way too jealous,” Cassandra says, earning a pout from Alice. “We’d also get kicked out. Also, I’ll forgive you for your plan if you buy me some French fries.”

“But my plan didn’t even work.”

“Yeah, but I still want French fries.”

And so, the group gets French fries.

Cassandra, being unable to decide, gets two orders of the speciality French fries: one drenched in gravy and cheese, the other drenched in salty vinegar.

It feels oh so wrong for her to devour such fatty food.

But it tastes oh so good.

She even ends up picking at Ryouta’s fries once she’s done with hers since she somehow manages to finish both of her orders before the rest of them can finish one order.

Ryouta places a hand over his stomach once he’s done and says, “Those are seriously filling.”

“I feel so barbaric for eating such messy crisps with my fingers! They were rather delightful, though,” Alice says.

“Hey. Are those… are those deep-fried cookies?” Cassandra asks, sniffing the air with closed eyes.

“How can you… how can you even… how?” Ryouta asks. “How can you still feel hungry and how can you tell what that smell is?”

“I smelled it when I was a kid at the amusement park.”

“And you’ve never forgotten the smell?”

“Yeah. How could I?”

Cassandra turns her head to look over her shoulder, pinpointing the exact direction that the deep-fried cookies are coming from without even being able to see them.

Her stomach grumbles.

“I’ll… I’ll go on a super diet starting tomorrow. I’ll only eat five calories a day for the next day,” she offers.

“I’m pretty sure you’d die if you did that,” Ryouta says.

“I wouldn’t die. You can survive for weeks without eating as long as you have water.”

“I’m not letting you starve yourself. At least eat like, eight hundred calories. I think it’s safe to eat that little for a whole week and that should make up for today.”

“Deal,” she says, already standing up to walk over to the cookies.

Serra pushes Alice in her wheelchair as Ryouta throws all of their trash away.

Off to get deep-fried cookies they go. Though, only one of them actually has any room in her stomach for them.

But at this point, they’re not even sure she’s storing her food in her stomach.

Ryouta is half tempted to believe that she’s somehow storing her food in her chest. That’s the only other place on her body that has any space for all the food that she has been eating today.

Women’s bodies are truly mysterious and magical things.