It's a Fairy Tale ((Closed))

((Horrible pun, I know, but I'm tired, and I didn't feel like putting more thought into it.))

Lily Burr had had a crush on Braden Evens for over a year. She’d watched him in class, slipping in and out of day dreams. She’d talked to him on occasion, never about anything heavy or important. A project they had due, a test they had coming up, that sort of thing. She’d considered them to be friends, but never dreamed (well, she dreamed it, and much more, honestly) that he was interested in her the way she was interested in him. She felt the theme song of her life was “Invisible” by Taylor Swift. How many times did she watch him crush on someone that barely knew he existed?

But high school graduation had come around sooner than expected, and she feared she’d never see him again. She planned it all out, each moment of that night, picking her graduation dress special for him, washing her hair more times than necessary… She’d decided. She was going to ask him out. At least this way, if he said no, she wouldn’t have to deal with seeing him around at school.

Her long blue dress complimented her red hair, which she’d straightened for the occasion. The dress hung low in the back and was open on her sides. It showed off a lot of skin, but no cleavage. There, the dress covered everything, reaching her neck and strapping around it. She’d been so nervous that night, that she’d tripped as she’d walked to receive her diploma. It was so embarrassing, but she saw him smiling at her, a certain gleam in his eyes, and found it in her to pretend it hadn’t happened.

When she’d been alone with him, later that night, having managed to escape her family and pull him aside, she’d fumbled with her words, tripped over her dress, accidentally stepped on his foot and completely embarrassed herself. She’d begun to walk away but forced herself to stop. She’d never get another chance. She’d turned around and spit out the words. “Would you like to go on a date with me?” She’d immediately hated herself. It sounded so pathetic when said out loud. But he’d said yes. He’d said yes. She almost fainted right there and then. She wanted to. She hadn’t actually planned on how to deal with him saying yes. She’d practiced what she’d do when he said no, over and over again, promising herself she wouldn’t embarrass herself, but hadn’t even considered him saying yes. Sure, she’d hoped for it, but it hadn’t really seemed realistic.

Which, is how she’d come to that afternoon, racing around her house half naked, trying to decide on what to wear. “MOM!” She’d scream, before realizing her mom wasn’t home. Then she’d curse herself, have a mini freak out, and get back to trying on articles of clothing. She’d put something on, look in the mirror, and decide she was trying too hard. She’d change it, and then decide it wasn’t enough. She just couldn’t figure it out. She finally decided on a baby blue “wife beater” that cupped her breasts just the right way, but didn’t show off too much cleavage. Then she moved on to her bottom half.

She ran around the house in her (matching) underwear and bra that she wore when she wanted to feel cute, the shirt, and flip-flops, her hair half done up. “Where are the frigge- oh. There they are,” she’d say, grabbing a pair of shorts laying around her room and taking them to the full length mirror in her parents’ room. She ended up deciding on a pair of dark blue jean Capri pants that hugged her legs and ass just right.

As she was deciding on her shoes, having done her hair in two braids, thrown on minimum makeup, and done her nails, she heard his car honk outside of her house. Her heart skipped a beat. She was being picked up for a date. Her first date. She grabbed a simple pair of black flip-flops, slipped them on, snatched her keys and wallet, locked the door, and calmly walked down the sidewalk to his car, trying her hardest not to trip, and trying even harder not to run excitedly to the car. "Take your time," she told herself.

Before leaving his house, Braden had considered that perhaps he should be having trouble picking what to wear and that sort of thing, but really, he didn't have any trouble. The real thing was that he dressed to be comfortable. He knew that this being a date, a first date in fact, that he was going to need to be extra comfortable.

As a result, when he had left his house he was wearing comfortable clothes. HE had been smart enough to pick the blue jeans that had both knees (as opposed to the ones that had one knee and then a gaping hole where the other knee used to have been but it had worn out). He had also chosen a comfortable gray t-shirt with the message "Warning, may spontaneously combust" printed across it's front with the standard flammable materials symbol printed amongst the words.

As he arrived at Lily's house, he suddenly felt that he had under dressed for this occasion. Really, if he had thought about it, he probably would have worked out that a blue sleeveless shirt and a pair of jean capris really wasn't all that more dressy than his own clothes, but the way she looked in them was stunning. He blushed a little bit as she walked to the car slowly, and then it struck him that if he was going to be carrying around a beautiful girl like her on his arm all the time, he was most definitely going to need to start the evening right.

After unbuckling himself (safety first kids) he popped the door to the car and moved around to the passenger side, opening her door and holding it for her. He bowed slightly trying to make enough of a show out of this that she would think that he was trying to be funny (a good way to deal with situations that he wasn't entirely sure he was comfortable with), "So...where are we going, on this fine evening?"

Lily blushed deeply as he got out of his car, unable to read his shirt from the distance, though, at the moment, the hormones rushing through her body didn't allow her to realize why. It was really happening. She was going on her first date, and it was with Braden. She could just faint. As she reached the car, she giggled at his shirt. "Please don't," she said, smiling. "Though that'd make for an interesting evening... OK, spontaneity is allowed. Including combustion."

Wow. She felt so stupid. She blushed deeper as she got in the car, wanting to hide herself. "The fair," she told him, blushing again. The night would undoubtedly involve a lot of blushing. Her hand came up to fiddle with the lime green loop earring in her helix, nervously, and then moved down her ear to fidget with her two earlobe piercings: a small silver butterfly and a silver crescent moon. In her other ear was a matching silver sun, and a silver ladybug.

She glanced momentarily around his car and the turned her eyes toward him. She still was having trouble believing it was happening. How could it be, after all? Braden had had his share of girls, nothing very large, but more than she could say she'd had guy-wise. She was a virgin, in more ways than one. A "virgin" dater, a "virgin" kisser and a "virgin" flirter. How was she going to make it through the entire night?

"Oh crap," she said suddenly, as her mind cleared for a moment. "I forgot my glasses."

She jumped out of the car and rushed back into the house, unlocking the door, jumping over the dog that lay in front of it, and heading for her room. Upon entering, she looked around, trying to remember where she'd left them. Her eyes scanned the room, passing the large glass cage that held her Easter Hog-nosed snake, and landing on her night table.

"Ah," she exclaimed, rushing over and grabbing them. She tore back out of the house, making sure to lock the door behind her, and reached the car, her glasses in hand.

"Got them," she said, blushing once more. She put them on, grinning shyly, and got back into the car.

He smiled weakly when she suddenly rushed off to get her glasses. Honestly, he wasn't sure why glasses mattered for something like a fair. Sure there were colorful things to see some of the time, but he thought that it was mostly just going to be random fun and that sort of thing at the fair grounds with that game where you threw darts at the balloons and petting zoos and stuff. Really, if she could see to get to the car, he was pretty sure she could see to do most of those things too.

After buckling up again and looking over to Lily to make sure that she followed suit (always remember to wear your seat belts kids) he started up the car again, turning on the radio to a local classic rock station and turning down the music so that it was quiet enough that it wasn't going to stop them from conversing.

Really the problem was that he didn't know what to say. What were they going to talk about? They could talk about the fair that they were going to...they could talk about their classes...It was difficult to figure out exactly what it was that they should talk about since the only things that they had really talked about before were upcoming tests and assignments. He sighed softly and looked over to her as he drove down the road, and then quickly looked back to the road.

"You're glasses look nice...you look nice without them too." He felt like a twat saying things like that, but really...

Lily blushed again. "Thanks," she said. She looked at him and looked out the window. Shit. What were they going to talk about? She had no idea. Maybe... ask him a question? About something he likes? Talk about a teacher they'd had together? Why on earth was this so hard. She'd crushed on him for so long, she felt she should have had an idea of what to talk about...

And then The Who came on singing "Pinball Wizard" and she stopped thinking, or caring, for that matter, about talking. She began to shake her head to the music.

"Ever since I was a young boy,
I played the silver ball,
from Soho down to Brighton,
I must have played them all,
But I ain't seen nothing like him,
in any amusement hall.
That blind, deaf and dumb kid...
sure plays a mean pinballllll," she sang, wiggling her body to the beat.

She turned to smile at Braden, her eyes joyful. "I love this song!" she giggled, as The Who played in the background. She tilted her head slightly. "Favorite musician or band?" she asked him, still grinning. Pinball Wizard was definitely in her top 10 favorite songs, and it could always brighten up her mood. Not that her mood needed brightening. She was on a date with Braden. Why would it need brightening?

He chuckled when she started singing the song that was on the radio. It was nice to hear that she was enjoying herself already. It was also nice to hear that she enjoyed the classic rock. It wouldn't have been so good had she not known classic rock, or if she didn't like it or something like that. He was glad that they at least had that sort of thing in common.

When she had asked the question of his favorite band or song. He smirked and leaned his head back against the headrest, looking down the road. He spoke up almost instantly, "The Rolling Stones." He chuckled and looked over to her for a brief moment before looking back to the road, "They have a bunch of songs that I love, and their whole stage presence is just awesome."

There were other bands that he liked almost as much as he liked the Stones. He chuckled for a moment, "I also like the Eagles, and Queen, and the Ramones, and a bunch of other bands too." Really the discussion of a favorite song was a different topic. He really didn't have a favorite song. There were a lot of favorite songs. Nothing that he liked more than anything else.

"How about movies. You got a favorite movie?"

Lily smiled at his answer. "Shweeet," she said, not realizing how lame it sounded until after it had come out of her mouth. She quickly turned red and began fidgeting again with her earrings as the song ended. However, The Monkees came on with "Daydream Believer" which kept her from going quiet. For her, as long as there was music in the background, she could remain social in the most awkward of situations. She softly began to hum as he asked her about her favorite movie.

"Favorite movie..." she said. "Hmmm," she paused and scrunched up her face in thought, her lips moving to the side, her brow furrowing cutely, and her eyes looking upward, thinking hard. "I gotta admit, I'm partial to Alfred Hitchcock and Tim Burton. Disney is another favorite." Her response was pretty general, but she didn't have a real favorite. There were way too many out there.

"And who can leave out Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek movies..." she blushed again. "I really just love movies, I guess. Action and sci-fi are my favorite, though Alfred Hitchcock type horror is good. Modern horror movies scare the shi- the crap out of me." She caught herself in time, avoiding cursing, and, surprise surprise, she blushed. She actually wasn't an avid curser, but when she got nervous she tended to curse quite a bit. It was a bad habit to have, especially for someone who was nervous quite often, but she was working on it.

"Favorite animal?" She asked him, chewing slightly on her bottom lip.

She didn't appear to have a single favorite movie. That was a bit surprising actually. He had figured that she was going to be one of those people that absolutely loved a classic movie like 'gone with the wind' or 'Casablanca' or something like that...or possibly something starring a pretty boy like Leonardo Dicaprio or something. To find out that she liked action and sci-fi flicks was quite the surprise, and quite the pleasant surprise at that. He smiled as he tried to think of his own answer for when she asked him what his favorite film was.

He supposed he liked most of the same things that she did. He liked Star Wars, and the Star Trek movies (KHAAAAAAAAAANN!!!). He wasn't so much into horror movies, but psychological horror films like the Alfred Hitchcock films which were less about zombies that wanted to eat your brains and more about crazy people tended to be pretty good. He really liked the Princess Bride, but found it hard to enjoy a lot of today's comedies which were all about sex and drugs, so he couldn't really claim that he liked comedies, even if one of his favorites was a comedy.

When instead of asking for his favorite film she asked for his favorite animal he was a little bit caught off guard. Favorite animal? There were a whole bunch of cool animals out there. He thought about it for a moment as they continued down the road, "I like elephants. They are pretty cool." He also liked turtles and pandas, but wasn't sure if he should mention more than one animal, and he was pretty sure that lately he liked elephants more.

((Dude, I love this guy. Can I haz him?))

She smiled at his response. "They are, indeed," she told him, swaying slightly to the song. She paused and tilted her head slightly. "I really like prairie dogs and kinkajous," she told him. She'd considered leaving out the part about kinkajous, since most people had no idea what they were, and if they did, thought they looked weird. But she said it anyway. The music in the background allowed her eccentricity to shine through, and she didn't want to muffle it.

"But I also love terrapins and the eastern hog-nosed snake... and penguins..." she paused again and blushed, as she'd rambled a bit. "I love animals in general, actually. I have two dogs, a hog-nosed named Fu Man Chu, and a hedgehog." The name "Fu Man Chu" was a reference to a country song that she loved called "Live Like You Were Dying" and she thought it was a fun name, so she'd christened her snake the very same.

Her green eyes squinted as the sun came out from behind the clouds, blinding her for only a moment before retreating into its hideout. Her freckles seemed to sparkle in the light, her glasses dancing with the images of trees as they passed them.

((Reference picture - Kinkajou))

((Oh god! She sparkled! She's a vamp! Stake her now, Braden, while you still have the chance!))

He smiled softly. It definitely sounded like she liked animals. He now kind of felt a little bit awkward that he had held back on mentioning the pandas and the turtles. He also felt a little bit stupid for not mentioning his own dog. He smiled weakly as he looked out the windshield, "I have a dog. She's crazy and has too much energy." Really, he wasn't sure why he had said that part. It was true though. He really should have spent more time training her, but there wasn't much that he could do about it now at this very moment.

He looked over to see her as the light made her freckles appear to sparkle. He swallowed hard as he looked out the front windshield again, trying not to think about how beautiful she had looked in that moment, or how far those freckles might go down.

He stayed focused on the road now. She hadn't offered him any more questions to ask and honestly, he couldn't think of any to ask himself, at least not any that wouldn't make him look stupid.

"Awwn, that's adorable. One of mine, Chase, is a lazy mutt. He rarely gets off of his rear. Just lays in front of the door until someone feeds him or takes him out. His name is oxymoronic. My other one, Spot, has the energy of ten dogs." She grinned. They were talking. They, or at least she, was enjoying herself.

"Fu Man Chu is lazy, most of the time. But he's a snake. They do that. But when I take him out, he slithers all over me. He's a byoot. Max, the hedgehog, is pretty lazy too. Except at night. Oh, the joys of being nocturnal." She rambled, not realizing it, as she babbles.

"Anyway..." she blushed deeply. "Favorite food?"

He was actually glad that it was so easy to get her to talk so much about little things. He had been a little bit troubled when he had thought that it was going to be him doing most of the talking. He really hadn't wanted to do all that much talking if he could avoid it, as he was afraid of saying something phenomenally stupid in front of her, and had figured that if she did most of the talking it would limit his ability to do so. So far he had at least avoided asking how far down her freckles went, so it was working.

When she asked him about a favorite food, he really wasn't sure how to answer. That was of course when he started talking too much, "That's an interesting question. I'm not really sure I have an answer for that one. I mean, I suppose it would depend on whether you had a specific type of food in mind. Do candies count as food? Am I going to be general like 'I like beef'?"

He stopped there. He hadn't thought much about it, but with the fact that she had decided that she liked animals, it was possible that she was a vegetarian of vegan or something and was going to take offense to the fact that he suggested that he might eat something that could walk around. Had he just fucked up?

"Why leave it with beef? Steak is absolutely delicious!" She grinned, unable to stop from glancing at him, her eyes lingering on his face, enchanted. She cleared her throat and looked away, blushing. "I'm a vegetarian, though," she told him, shrugging. "I had a scarring experience with a feeder mouse once, and I haven't been able to eat meat since then. It took me a while to be able to feed Fu, actually. The thought of it just... I had to make my brother do it. But when he moved out, I had to step up to the plate, or get rid of the snake. He likes toads more, though."

She sure hadn't noticed his babbling, but she noticed her own, and the blood once again rushed to her face. "I don't really have a favorite food, myself. I just... I like food," she admitted shyly, rubbing her arm with her other hand, biting her bottom lip. The music had stopped and gone to commercial, so she felt a lot less confident.

The fact that she was on a date with Braden was hitting her again, and without the music in the background, she felt stupid, like anything she could say would be the wrong thing. She didn't want to talk anymore. Well, no, she did. She wanted to ask him all about his life, to ask him why he'd agreed to go on a date with her, to treat him like she had so many times in her dreams... But she couldn't.

He could hear her struggling with what she was saying. He had also picked up that it had started about the time that the music from the radio had been replaced by a commercial for a place that replaced windows and doors. He was a smart cookie and picked up on what the problem was. She was more comfortable when there was a steady beat to help her thoughts flow. He brought his hand up and tapped the bottom of the sun visor on her side of the car where he had a veritable menagerie of music in the form of CDs, including Rolling Stones 40 licks (both CDs) Vanhalen's Greatest hits, a promotional CD that had been given out by the local classic radio station that had opened up a few months ago, and some more contemporary things, like Evanescence, and Motion City Soundtrack. There were also a few burned CDs and the soundtrack from video game, all in the CD holder on the sunshield.

"If you want to put something up there in we won't have to listen to any more commercials." He smirked softly and looked over to her for a moment before looking back to the road, "Isn't going to be much use now since we're almost there, but it'll be good for the way back." He hoped that she didn't take this as him trying to stop her from talking and instead took it as what it actually was, him giving her some background music so that she didn't feel so out of place.

She blushed as he offered her music. Was she that obvious. She took the CDs graciously and began to thumb through them, stopping at the Rolling Stones CD. She took it out and popped it in the player, the red still in her cheeks. She watched as the sign directing them to the fair grounds passed by and smiled again, pushing a piece of stray hair behind her ear and chewing on her bottom lip.

As the music started up again, she felt her confidence return, though not as strongly as before. Did this mean she'd only be able to talk to him when there was music in the background? She hoped not. That would make for a quite awkward evening. As they reached the parking lot, she watched as volunteers wearing safety vests directed cars to open spaces, and giggled.

He parked just as the first song ended, and she took a deep breath. She could do this without music. She had to be able to. But nothing was coming to her. She didn't know what to say. She blushed again, feeling really stupid, and mentally yelling at herself. Why couldn't she think of anything to say? Because she was sitting less than a foot away from an adorable guy with the full package, that's why. She wanted to hit herself.

He turned off the ignition and thought about the things that they could do at the fair. The last time he remembered going to a fair was years ago. There had been some games, some people selling home made things, a petting zoo, some rides. It had been like a carnival only smaller and with more of a feature on the rural culture aspect than on the midway with its rides and cotton candy. The only other big difference was that everything in the fairground that was a ride or anything like that was built to come down and leave it as the empty fairground when the fair was over with.

He smiled as he looked at her and she seemed to fidget and twitch like this was the first time she had left her house or something. It was kind of funny. He knew that he couldn't leave her like that though. With that he unbuckled his seat belt (I'm telling you kids, safety is key), opened his door and moved around to open hers, holding his hand out to her to help her to her feet.

"So anything in particular that you want to do first?" He remained blissfully unaware that had this been some sort of porno flick, the answer to such a question would have been to pull him into the car followed by the words 'yea, you'.

Not surprisingly, that exact answer crossed her mind, despite the lack of cameras or a script. As she looked at him, his hair clinging to his forehead, his green eyes piercing hers, she felt her knees go week. She unbuckled herself, grasped his hand, and hoisted herself up, blushing some more.

She thought about the answer to that question. Was there anything she wanted to do first? This had been her idea, so you'd think she'd have some clue as to what she wanted. She grinned shyly and shrugged. Then the answer came to her, via her sweet tooth.

"Cotton candy," she told him simply, blushing some more.

The height difference between the two of them was great enough for him to have a great view of her breasts, but that thought crossed her mind for only a moment and then fluttered away as she stood by him, lost in a daydream as she looked at him. It was all she could do to keep from kissing him, right then and there.

"I'd like to find some cotton candy," she iterated, her smile widening. Sugar would keep her confidence up, she was sure of that.

The way her shirt hung and the fact that she was shorter than him gave him a good view of her breasts. They were great breasts. He gave his head a quick shake to clear the thoughts from his mind. He needed to keep himself going in a pure direction as they walked into the fair.

She wanted cotton candy. That was a good idea. There was absolutely nothing sexual about cotton candy at all. He nodded and took a hold of her hand slowly guiding her into the fair so that they could find cotton candy, and then find out what else it was that she wanted to do on this date.

While the scene of her pulling him into the car and telling him that all she really wanted to do was have some hot kinky fun with him had escaped him earlier, now that he had the view that was waiting for him any time her looked at her, it was hard to keep that kind of thought at bay for long. He had been doing so good at not thinking that kind of thought though...why did he have to end up ruining it by thinking about it, and her glorious chest.

This was because they didn't have music. That was the problem. He fumbled in his pocket for a moment, producing the white brick of an MP3 player that his iPod was and pulling out the ear buds that went with them. He put one in his ear and then offered her the other. This was definitely the right idea. How would they end up thinking about sex if they were listening to music?

Lily graciously took the ear bud, thanking him for it before she put it in her ear. She had a hard time ignoring the fact that his hand was holding hers, a hard time ignoring the fact that he was so close to her.

The music was a good idea. That'd get her mind of of... him. At least, she hoped it would. She couldn't spend the whole night wanting nothing more than to jump his bones. It wouldn't end well, she was sure. He'd had girlfriends, and undoubtedly had sex. She'd look like a fool, having no idea what she was doing. How was she supposed to know that being a virgin was a turn on to guys? Not like she'd ever discussed it with one. She looked around, searching for a cotton candy vendor.

She found one and pulled him to it, giggling. She looked at him, unsure about whether she was supposed to expect him to pay or not. As the vendor handed her the fluffy cone, she chewed on her lip, trying to decide whether or not to take out her wallet.

He nodded once they had reached the cotton candy salesman, and dipped his hand back into his back pocket, drawing out his wallet. This was the date, and he was supposed to pay for her, right? That was how dates worked, wasn't it? That seemed to have been how it had worked every time before. He exchanged the money for her cotton candy and slipped the wallet back into his back pocket.

He looked forward to the girl for a moment, and then turned his eyes away from her so that he didn't find himself staring at her chest. He smiled weakly and skipped to the next track on the MP3 player.

'you let me violate you
you let me desecrate you-'

He suddenly skipped to the next track again. Closer to God was not the best song to keep them from thinking about sex. He took a long breath as the next song began.

'You ain't got no kind of feeling inside-'

No, Tell Me Something Good was not a good song for not thinking about sex either.

He swallowed hard and quickly navigated to a playlist of Rolling Stones songs, which were probably as much about sex as the previous songs, but not so obvious.

"So...ummm...what now?" He smiled weakly.

She laughed as the first song came on and then as he quickly changed it. She would have done the same. The next song was skipped, too, understandably. She picked off a piece of cotton candy and place it on her outstretched tongue, quickly bringing it into her mouth. She didn't want to place her fingers in her mouth and get them all sticky, not if she wanted to hold his hand. And she did. She really did want to hold his hand.

She looked at him and shrugged slightly. "Ferris Wheel?" she offered, motioning toward it with her head. She had to admit, she was impressed by it. It was a good size for something they'd have to take down in a week or so. Her mind, subconsciously, let that thought pass by without turning it into an innuendo, and had she known it, she would have thanked her mind.

She pulled him toward it slightly as music played in her ear, placing the fluff on the tip of her tongue and drawing it back in time and time again. It was good. She loved sugar. She held a tuft of the candy out for him, offering it to him.

((I think I'm hearing my mom watch Star Trek in the room next to this one. I'm tempted to join her.))

He watched her tongue dip out and collect some of the puffy sugar. He watched her as she did it, trying not to think too seriously. He stared forward at her as she continued to do it and then thought about the Farris Wheel. If this was some sort of anime that would be the thing that the two young lovers went out and did. It made perfect sense for a date. There wasn't even anything sexual about it, unless you thought about the sort of things that could happen in a Farris Wheel, or the sort of things that might happen if it got stuck up at the top and people got bored and needed to do something to pass the time. He was lucky enough to not be thinking about that sort of thing yet.

He followed her as they continued to move towards the Farris Wheel. He was probably going to need to win her some kind of prize at the games in the midway. Maybe he could get her a stuffed snake or some other big stuffed animal. She liked animals.

As they moved to the Farris wheel, she eyed a game she used to love as a child. A blow-up platform on which a rope ladder was attached, slanting upwards. One had to reach the top without falling off, which was hard, since the ladder would spin around mercilessly if one wasn't careful.

"Ohh," she said, grinning widely, a twinkle in her eye as she remembered the many times she'd tried it. "Would you mind if I gave it a whirl?" she asked him, a hopeful expression upon her face. She eyed the prizes, a particularly small monkey that she found absolutely adorable, a large bear with a bow around it's neck (fitting the cliche), a Nemo-like fish... There was quite a large selection.

He smiled softly when she mentioned wanting to try out the ride with the spinning ladder, even going so far as to say that she wanted to give it a 'whirl'. She was a funny girl when she wanted to be. He nodded softly, "Sure. I'll wait for you down here. I have faith in you." He chuckled softly.

He himself was better that the balloon dart game, and that sort of standard fair game with the stall and stuff. This one was kind of out of his depth, not to mention that he was pretty sure that if he tried it that he'd fall and look like a complete idiot in front of her. If he let her go ahead and have her try and she fell, then at least his falling would just be a 'yeah this is hard, don't feel bad' sort of thing.

((Yes, that pun WAS intended))

She cracked her knuckles and chewed nervously on her bottom lip. She was going to do this. Her years upon years of gymnastics would not go to waste. She paid the two dollars, not even thinking about the fact that, it being a date, she probably should have let Braden pay, and grasped the rings of the rope ladder.

She let her flip flops fall to the ground, knowing that it'd be easier without them, and slithered up so her feet had a rung to grip. She eyed the top of the ladder, her hands gripping the sides and refusing to let go. She'd make sure she had a strong grip with one before moving the other, promising herself she wouldn't fall.

When her weight shifter and the ladder spun, her feet hooked onto the rope and her hands clung to it. She pressed her weight to it, knowing the journey up would be harder upside down. She moved slower know, deliberate, making it to the top at her steady pace. She rang the bell and let herself fall to the cushions below.