Stuck

“Come on! It’ll be fun.” 

Scorpia looks up at the roller coaster, with loops and sharp turns and screaming riders and her face turns white.

“Uh well you know, The park is closing soon so maybe we should head back and meet up with Entrapta.” 

It was true the park was closing soon but this was the biggest ride and Scorpia had been steering them away from it all day, but Catra never backed down from a challenge and she was going to ride this roller coaster no matter what it took.

“Come on you chicken! It’ll be fun, one last ride before we leave.” Catra insisted.

“Nope have fun dying, I’m going to go and find Entrapta, we’ll meet you at the gift shop.” Scorpia pulls out her phone to call Entrapta and wanders off towards the exit.

Luckily since it was the end of the day, there weren’t many people, and it looked like she’d be able to get on pretty quickly. The line had a cool apocalypse theme to it, the music just her sort of thing so she zoned out and waited. 

A few minutes later she’s up the front and notices a sign “singles will be paired” 

great, she’ll have to sit next to someone, hopefully they keep their lunch down whoever they are. Only a few more people ahead of her, Then people behind her start arguing,

“Come on let me sit with Bow! You two got to go together on the last ride, and I had to sit with that creepy old guy!”

“Come on Glimmer it’s not that big a deal.” Catra freezes, she knows that voice. It’s been years but there’s no mistaking it. Adora.

The arguing fades away as Catra tries her best to hunch over and cover her face with her hair. It’s just her luck! Things were left so awkward, and great she’s here with her new friends. She should have gone with Scorpia, but she’s being ushered forward into the front car, too late now. 

At least she gets to sit right up the front, she won’t have to look at them. She can almost see the gift shop, she hopes Scorpia found Entrapta alright, Entrapta had a talent for just disappearing. They were an odd bunch of friends but they had always been there for her. Whether she wanted them or not.

“Alright you sit up here.” She hears the worker say.

Please don’t be Adora. Catra looks down just in case, the rider gets into the car, she hopes it’s not Adora but there’s no mistaking those red shoes, only Adora would wear something like that. 

“Catra?”  Adora exclaims “how are you? It's been so long, why haven’t you answered my calls?” She rambles on.

Catra looks up at Adoras face, her smile is just as cheerful and big as she remembered. She sneaks a peek behind her, great Adoras friends are right at the back. Which means she’ll have to talk to her. What’s the chance she’d be paired up with Adora, and Adora was always a screamer on roller coasters! How lucky.

“I don’t know, I've just been busy I guess. You’re having fun with your new friends anyway” Catra says quietly. 

Adora went quiet and fidgeted with her shirt, red flannel. Her fashion sense hadn’t changed one bit. They both sat there avoiding eye contact. Thankfully the ride starts to move, it chugs up the first rise. Everyone behind them is chattering excitedly. 

The ride kicks into full gear, going up and down, left to right. Through the first loop, and the second and the third. Her hair is flying around, and probably smacking Adora and the people behind her. She tries to stick it behind her back and against the seat as they start up the next big hill. They’re almost to the peak when they shutter to a stop. 

The air is filled with confused chatter.

“Has something gone wrong?”

“What’s happening.”

“I’m scared!”

“Is this supposed to happen?”

Adora is looking nervously between down and back towards her friends. Catra didn’t mind heights that much but being stuck up here with Adora. They used to be so close.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Catra rolled out of bed and looked up at the clock, shoot! She was going to be late meeting Adora. She grabbed her school bag from where it hung on her door and rushed out the door grabbing a nutbar on her way. 

She rushed down the street and towards the corner where Adora and her meet every morning to walk to school. Adora is sitting there looking bored.

“Hey Adora!”

“Hey there you are! Come on we’re going to be late!” Adora stood up and they started walking quickly to school. “Where’s your sleepover stuff? You didn’t forget you’re sleeping over tonight did you?” 

She had. God she should have packed her bag the night before like Adora told her to. Now she’ll have to go back home and deal with shadow weaver, her parents died and she was dropped on Shadow weavers door, she’s not exactly sure now they’re related but she doesn’t treat Catra the way a relative should. Adora pokes her shoulder, breaking her out of thought.

“Don’t worry about it, you can borrow my stuff.”

“Thanks Adora.”

“No problem, what are friends for?” 

They round the corner to the school and rush in just as the bell goes.

They sit together in class and share answers, Adora and Catra have always been top students, they eat lunch together and walk home together. 

At Adoras home, Catra gets given some of Adoras old clothes to get changed into. 

“So what movie do you want to watch?”

“How about attack of the bots!”

“Isn’t that movie rated like MA15+.”

“What, are you scared?”

“Pfff no, I’m just worried about you.”

They get some junk food and cuddle up in a blanket fort to watch the movie. They end up falling asleep. 

Catra is the first to wake up. She notices Adora is still sleeping and decides to draw a moustache on her face. She reaches out and grabs a marker and as she goes to draw, she notices Adoras face, the way her hair is all spread out compared to its normal tight ponytail, the way her nose is a little scrunched up, and the way her arm is reached out towards Catra.

Her heart is racing and she feels her cheeks heat up, Adora opens her eyes and  notices the uncapped marker in Catra's hand and she jumps up to grab it from her; they wrestle trying to get it and end up on the floor laughing. They accidentally got some of the marker on the carpet. But it’s alright, they just tug the rug over a little to cover it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That mark is probably still there, it was only five years ago but it feels like an eternity ago everything changed when Adora moved school to Brightmoon and got her new friends. She slowly stopped inviting her over for sleepovers, she would call sometimes but only to invite her to hang out with her new friends. 

She still has one of Adoras old jumpers she once borrowed in her closet. It just sits there, she can’t bring herself to throw it out. When Adora first moved away she used to wear it when she felt lonely, which was most the time. 

It looked like the roller coaster wasn’t moving anytime soon. She looked to Adora who was still watching the ground with fear. She looks like she’s having an anxiety attack.

“So, uh Adora have you been here all day?” Catra asks awkwardly.

“Huh, oh well yeah most of the day, we wanted to hit all the rides.”

“Nice, me and my friends went to all the rides today, so we’ve been here since opening, this was the last ride.”

Adora snorted “All the rides?”

Catra feels her cheeks go red “well not all the rides, the water ride is so inconvenient!”

“Haha you’re just scared of the water, remember when you feel in that pool and wouldn’t even enter the building for a year.” Adora chuckles.

“It was traumatic!” 

They hadn’t had a friendly conversation in so long, this was nice.

“The other day Glimmer…” Adora keeps telling some story but Catra isn’t listening. Things get quiet again. 

“So Glimmer, Bow a few other friends and I are going to this party later tonight, you should come.”

“I’m probably busy.”

“Oh okay, yeah of course. I just miss you. We haven’t talked in so long.”

“Well you’re the one who left me!” Catra said quietly

“What! You know I didn’t have a choice to move schools, and I earned that scholarship.” Adora said angrily. Everyone else goes quiet in the car behind them.

“We were fine, our school was great, our teachers were great, our friendship was great. Everything was perfect, you didn’t have to leave.”

“I’m not having this argument again. Brightmoon was an amazing school I couldn’t pass it up.”

“Of course, Brightmoon, Brightmoon, Brightmoon. The school with the amazing curriculum, great teachers and better friends.” Tears were forming on the corner of her eyes at this point.

“...is that what you think? It was never about you, I missed you like crazy. But I’m allowed to have other friends. You could always join us!”  Adora rummages through her pockets and pulls out a pen and a napkin. “Here it’s my new number if you want to join us for the party or ever change your mind.”

Catra stuffs it into her pocket. If it was never about her why didn’t Adora invite her around to hang out just them. As she’s about to respond the ride starts moving again finally.

“Sorry about that folks, come to our counter to pick up a gift card for our gift shop as an apology.” Catra got out of her seat as quickly as possible and rushed off towards the gift shop.