“Your guardian!” She scratches her head nervously. “I thought I saw him enter with you and Gwenivere!”
I’m not exactly hurt, but maybe yeah. I think I’m hurt. It’s like the time Angelo went out with this girl just so he could hook up with her hot sister. I feel like that girl and Kurt is her hot sister.
It’s the lowest low. So I smile and turn around. I don’t need this. When Kurt and Gwen come back, they can deal with Violet and her purple hair, which isn’t even as amazing as everyone says it is. I weave through the undulating crowd as if I’m getting carried by a wave. Someone bumps into me from behind, a real hard shove. I turn around, ready to fight.
But it’s Princess Kai. Her powder blue eyes are wide as saucers, a hand over her mouth in an extremely familiar way.
“Wait—no—”
She hiccups and lurches forward, vomiting all over my feet.
The crowd splits around us, forming a neat path to the exit.
“Lord Sea.” She keeps hands over her mouth.
“Come,” I take her by the hand and lead the way. Kai hesitates before pushing out the silver door. “Shhh. Don’t worry.”
And we reappear on the Coney Island street.
We clean ourselves at the shower stations on the beach.
Out in the distance, the grayness cloaks the sky. Unwillingly, I flash back to the day the storm appeared. The sky changed. The wave came. And then I was inside out.
“I’m so humiliated.” Kai drops onto the sand. Her clothes are wet and her face is red from scrubbing. “I hate it here.”
“What are you talking about?” I hand her a piece of gum that was squished in the bottom of my backpack. At least it’s minty. “This is the best place on earth…when you’re not getting messed up at a supernatural bar and barfing on people.”
Her voice is high pitched but she laughs all the same. “You clearly haven’t been to many places.”
“That’s true, but no matter what, Coney is still my favorite place.”
Her face is skeptical so I ask, “What’s your favorite place, then?”
“The Hall of Records.” She licks her lips. “My father’s an elder of the court. A historian. I’m supposed to be his apprentice, but he wants me to be here and—”
She doesn’t let herself finish the sentence. I’ve never been around so many girls who find me this repulsive. I’m almost humbled, except I’m pretty sure they’re the crazy ones.
“Your dad wants you to court a champion?” I say it as suggestively as I can because I like the way she blushes, from the tip of her chin to her big blue eyes. My gut, my heart, and my mind seem to be cooperating. I wonder if it’s not having the pressure of Gwen and Kurt breathing down my neck. Then again, when I was captain of the swim team, I ate pressure for breakfast.
She gets up and dusts sand off her butt. “I didn’t think it’d be so exhausting.”
“What? Talking to me?”
She smiles. “No. Being with those girls. I’ve seen better behaved piranha. I told them I don’t like that fizzy stuff but they get nasty so I drank it and it made me sick—on you. I was trying to find a basin to wash my hands. Everything in that place was covered in slime. And when I opened a door, I saw Menana doing something—let’s just say that her father, King of the Rockies, would find a way to kill that demigod. So I turned and ran right out. Why are you laughing at me?”
“It’s not you.” I take my empty soda bottle and dunk it in the closest garbage can. “It’s all of this. Everyone is acting crazy and they use this championship as an excuse, you know?”
“I suppose so.”
“Come on. I’m going to prove to you that this is the best place on earth.” I hold out my hand to her, and to both of our surprise, she takes it.
•••
I get two tickets to the Wonder Wheel. The thing makes all kinds of creaky noises that let the fear of falling linger in the back of your head. But once you’re up, you can see the whole park, the black line of the horizon, and the winking Brooklyn streets.
Kai twirls her hair and glances at me every now and then, like she’s never been alone with a guy before. Her powder blue eyes remind me of those Precious Moments figurines you get at