AN: Taken from a prompt about the protagonist overcoming a fear. This is also a companion story to Annie. Enjoy!
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Lisa had never liked roller coasters. In fact, she was terrified of them. It had been so since before she could remember. When she was ten years old and her family had visited an amusement park together, she mustered up the courage and went on one with her older brother, Sam. It had been awful—she’d been incredibly scared, and afterward had vomited. They had to leave the park early because of it, and Lisa had made herself a vow to stay away from roller coasters
Yet, seven years later, she found herself waiting in line for one with her best friend Annie. They were taking a trip to Six Flags for physics class. Lisa had wanted to skip it—the trip was optional, after all—but she finally caved in after urging from both Annie and her mother.
‘The whole class is going to go,’ Annie had said, ‘It won’t be nearly as much fun without my best friend there.’
‘Come on, you’ve been cooped up in school for too long. It will be fun, and you’ll still get to learn.’
So Lisa went. Six Flags is big, she thought. There are plenty of things there to do besides roller coasters. Besides, Annie will probably be with Thomas most of the time. She’d lasted about an hour, buying food from stands and playing the various games where you could win giant stuffed animals and pay for a certain number of tries. She’d taken a break for a sprite when Annie had found her.
‘Hi!’
‘Hey,’ Lisa said nervously.
‘I’ve been looking for you for a while,’ said Annie, ‘Thomas didn’t want to go on Superman with me. I finally convinced him to go. He said he liked it, but that he’d had enough. I’ve only been on that one today, but I don’t really want to do any by myself.’
‘Listen—’
Annie sighed. ‘Please, Lisa? It won’t be that bad, I promise. And we can go on one that isn’t so intense at first. It will be so much fun.’
‘Annie, did I tell you about what happened when I was ten?’
‘That was seven years ago, and on a roller coaster that’s at a completely different park,’ Annie said, ‘Please. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to go any more. Please try?’
‘Oh, alright.’
They’d chosen a roller coaster that was called The Bear. It looked fairly tame compared to everything else in the park. Still, the line was of fair length. They’d been waiting for about fifteen minutes now, and through each second of bit Lisa could feel herself staring up at the coaster and shaking.
Annie had a look of worry on her face. ‘Are you alright? I’m sorry if—we don’t have to go on this if you don’t want to.’
‘No,’ said Lisa. ‘We’re almost there anyway.’
Annie simply nodded.
To get into the carts, they had to walk up a flight of stairs and go into a small wooden room that was supposed to look old and run down. I can’t believe I’m doing this, Lisa thought.
They took their seats in one of the middle cars. Once everyone had gotten situated, an employee came around to check and secure safety belts. Lisa kept her grip tightly against the steel bar that hung in front of them; so much so that she felt like she might shatter it. Then, they were off. They went slowly at first, slowly upward. They went up and up until they finally hung in the air for a second or two. Lisa could see the drop. Her eyes were widening. It had to be at close to a ninety degree angle, if not that. Annie turned and smiled, and they were down. Lisa felt like her stomach was about to explode and that all the feeling had been sucked from her face. She was screaming. It felt like they would never stop, like they would keep falling downward into the center of the universe. But they were finally level, but not for long. They spiraled upward so fast that her surroundings began to blur. Then they were shooting downward again.
That was when Lisa realized something incredible; she was smiling. Then she began to laugh. This is fun, Lisa told herself, this is fun!
She freed her hands from the bar and shot them up into the air, continuing to smile and laugh. They came to a stop too soon.
As they were walking away, Annie, with one eyebrow raised, asked, ‘Do you want to go again?’
‘Totally.’
But unless you can significantly spruce up the language and story so that something interesting happens, I'm not sure what else you can do with this.