The Summer of Cotton Candy (18 page)

She grabbed a fresh uniform and headed for the bathroom to clean up. Once there, she wrestled with the safety pins that Glenda had so carefully placed. She ended up ripping the sleeve slightly and jabbing herself hard in the finger.

She put on the new costume and wrestled again with the safety pins. She left the old uniform soaking in cold water in one of the sinks and walked back to the picnic area, which she was officially renaming the Hell Zone, because surely it was the one place in all the universe where even God wouldn’t want to be. When she returned, she believed her suspicions were completely confirmed. They had ended the professional entertainment portion of the program and moved on to karaoke.

“This day just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?” Glenda said as she whizzed by with a tray of hot dogs high above her head.

Candace could only snort a reply as she headed back to the punch table. On stage someone was belting out a horrific rendition of “Open Arms.”

She filled her tray with fresh drinks and began distributing them. On her way back to the punch table Glenda walked by again. “Watch out for the kid in the white shirt at the far table. He’s grabby.”

“I got that,” Candace said. “I used to babysit that brat.”

“Kids today! No respect.”

Her comment was funny since Glenda and Candace were only a couple of years older than him. Unfortunately it wasn’t funny enough to cheer her up. She just kept moving, trying to lose herself in the one task she had.

She had half an hour left to go in her shift when someone began singing “I Want Candy.” She was going to kill whoever had put that song on the option list. At the same time Tamara walked by her. That was it, Candace couldn’t take anymore. Shifting her full tray to her left hand, she grabbed Tamara’s arm with her right.

“We need to talk,” Candace said.

Tamara looked like she was going to disagree, but she didn’t say anything and she followed Candace over to a bench under some trees. Candace managed to set the tray down without spilling the punch everywhere.

“What is wrong with you?” Candace asked. As soon as the words left her mouth she regretted them. That was no way to start a civilized conversation, but it was the perfect way to start a fight. Before she could apologize, though, Tamara exploded.

“What is wrong with
me
? I’m not the problem here, you are.”

“Oh, please. I’m the problem? My dad forced me to get a job. I got a job and suddenly my best friend won’t support me or even talk to me? I could have used a little sympathy and commiseration. This is not what I had planned for this summer either.”

“Well, you seem to have more fun here than you do with me!”

“Are you crazy? Are you kidding? Oh, that’s right. You have no idea how my summer’s been going because three days after I started working you stopped answering your phone! You have no idea what I’ve been through!”

“I’m here now, so tell me,” Tamara said, arms crossed.

“I have a boyfriend. My first boyfriend! You weren’t there to help me pick out date clothes. You weren’t there to talk to when I was freaking out because he’s a high school drop-out. You weren’t there to tell when we kissed on the Fourth of July and actual fireworks were going off over our heads like in some movie!”

“Oh yeah, your life has been real hard.”

“It has because Kurt’s ex-girlfriend has it in for me and has been trying to get me fired. She and the guy who tried to run me over with the train are both going to be tied to me by a rope at the end-of-the-summer Scavenger Hunt, and I’m terrified that one of them will finish what they’ve started. Oh, and let’s see, if that isn’t bad enough I got randomly drug tested and it came back positive, and I thought I was going to lose my job. They forced me to go home, and you wouldn’t answer your phone, and Kurt never once called or came by to see how I was! And the next day when I finally called your house and the maid told me where to find you, I find the two of you together.
And both of you were already avoiding me!
So, I’m sorry if I jumped to some conclusions, but what would you have done? Since I took this job I’ve been nearly killed, accused of taking drugs, suspended for yelling at a guy who was making lewd comments at me, lost my best friend, have been forced to serve as help at her birthday party where I’ve been forced to dress in the most humiliating thing I’ve ever worn, and been pinched by her fifteen-year-old cousin!”

There was silence for a long minute while Candace stood there, panting, fists clenched. Finally Tamara asked, “Trevor pinched you?”

“Yes, the little perv. And because it’s my job to be here, I couldn’t say or do a thing to him without risking getting fired.”

“What happened with the drug test?”

“It turned out to be all the fault of poppy-seed muffins.”

“I could have told you that.”

“And I wish you would have, but you wouldn’t even return my calls, and I needed you,” Candace said, beginning to cry.

Tamara stood there, biting her lip. “Do you still need me?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Even though you’ve got Josh and Kurt and your friends here?”

“Yes. You’re my best friend. I’ll always need you. And just because I’ve never really had other friends doesn’t make it unreasonable that I find some. I mean, most people have lots of friends. All I’ve ever had was you. Do you know how that made me feel when you turned your back on me?”

“I’m sorry,” Tamara said. “I’ve been a jerk. I freaked out because I thought you liked this place and these people more than me.”

“No, I don’t. But I do like some of these people, and despite all of the nightmares, I’m starting to like this place. Can you be okay with that?”

Tamara nodded, starting to cry herself. “As long as I still get to be your best friend.”

“Then stop acting like a big dork.”

“I can try.”

“Okay then.”

“Are we good?” Tamara asked.

“I don’t know, are we?”

Tamara nodded, and they hugged. Candace was so relieved she started to cry harder.

After a minute they pulled away and they both wiped their eyes. “So, you’re going to have to catch me up on Kurt.”

“Tonight?” Candace asked.

“Definitely. And you and I will do something cool for my birthday.”

“That would be awesome. First, though, I have to do something.”

“What?” Tamara asked.

“Come and watch if you like,” Candace said, picking up her tray.

Tamara trailed after her as Candace walked back to the party and headed straight for Trevor’s table. He was standing up and looking at the stage. Candace walked up to him. “Excuse me, what time is it?”

He glanced at his watch, one that was too expensive for a fifteen-year-old brat like him. “Three oh five, why?”

“That means that I’m officially off the clock. I’m on my own time.”

“And?” he asked her with a sleazy smile.

“I just wanted you to know that before I gave you this.”

She dumped the entire tray of punch over his head and let it clatter to the ground. Red rivulets ran down his pale hair and stained his shirt and pants. His expression passed from shock to fury as he looked down at himself.

“Have a nice day,” Candace said, as cheerily as she could and walked off. Over by the hot-dog table, Glenda gave her the thumbs-up. Candace walked over and picked up her cotton candy uniform from under the table and then left with Tamara.

Tamara and Candace hung out at the Coffee Garden until it closed at midnight, and then headed over to Candace’s house for another couple of hours. Since Candace had the next day off, they busily planned a coast drive for Tamara’s birthday. It ended up being more of a mall-hopping drive, but they had a great time. Candace told Tamara everything that had been going on at The Zone, while Tamara filled her in on every movie she had missed so far that summer. Tamara didn’t even complain when Candace had to go home early to get rested for work the next morning.

Of course, Candace didn’t get enough rest that night because once Tamara got home they were up IMing half the night. She barely spoke five words to Becca the next morning when she dropped off Candace’s muffin and picked up her cotton candy. Candace dropped the muffin bag on her counter, but before she could put it away, she had actually fallen asleep on her feet.

Candace yelped, startled when a hand fell on her arm, waking her up. She tottered and nearly fell over, but caught herself on the cart. Megan stared at her wide-eyed. Candace was instantly relieved to see that it was Megan and not Lisa who had caught her so unaware.

“Sorry,” Megan said.

“No, my bad. What’s up?”

“I was just wondering if you would be willing to trade shifts with me on Monday? I work the closing shift, but my friend’s playing in a concert and I’d like to go see it.”

“Monday, closing shift? Okay, sure.”

“Thank you so much! If you ever need to switch shifts, just let me know.”

“Okay,” Candace said, nodding as she came fully awake. “Do I need to do anything?”

“No, I’ll put in the form. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“You’re welcome.”

“I’ll leave you to your… Zoning?”

“Very funny. I like that. See you, Megan.”

Candace watched as Megan took off. Just then, she noticed a group of seven referees who seemed to be bearing down on Candace. They were wearing the striped olive green shirts of the Exploration Zone. She looked at their faces and realized none of them looked happy. She turned around to see if there was something behind her that had caught their attention, but there was nothing, just her.

“I’m popular today,” she said to herself.

They came to a stop in front of her. One man took an extra step forward, as if designating himself the leader. They all gave her hard looks, and she began to feel like she was some old-time rustler and they were the angry posse.

“Can I help you?” she asked at last.

“You’re Candy?” the man out front, Gib by his name tag, asked.

“Yes,” she replied, not bothering to correct the shortening of her name.

Everyone began to murmur at that. His eyes focused for a moment on something other than her, and he took a quick step forward and snatched the Muffin Mansion bag off her cart.

“Care to explain this?” he asked.

Candace crossed her arms. “Why should I?” she asked.

“It’s just that I’ve never seen you in the Muffin Mansion,” he said. “I think I’d remember seeing a cotton candy operator in there.”

Once again, the group behind him began to murmur, and several bobbed their heads up and down.

“It’s true, I’ve never been in there,” she said.

“Then how did you come to be in possession of this?” he asked, waving the bag under her nose. “And don’t bother lying, because we already know the truth.”

The group parted down the middle to reveal a woman in the back, about ten years older than Candace. Her hair was falling down from a bun at the back of her head. There were several fresh scratches covering her face, and her shirt had been torn. In her hands were the remnants of a cotton candy stick. It was squashed and torn in places, and one long tendril of spun sugar swung free and hung down to her knees.

“I got it from Becca.”

“And in exchange?” Gib prompted.

She tried desperately to figure out what he was getting at, even as she couldn’t take her eyes off the woman holding the crushed cone. “I gave her cotton candy.”

The whole group lurched forward a step at that, causing Candace to hastily retreat farther behind her cart.

Gib’s eyes were blazing and he fixed her with his glare. “Becca is allergic to sugar. It makes her hyper and a little bit crazy. Everybody in this park knows not to give her any. Especially not cotton candy, which is her favorite.”

“We’ve suspected for the last couple of weeks,” the woman in the back said, eyes wide and frightened-looking. “We couldn’t prove it, though.”

“She was starting to get that little extra bounce to her step,” another man spoke up.

“And yesterday we caught her hopping. Hopping, hopping, always hopping,” another spoke up.