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“Hello, and welcome to Coast Cruise, I’m Nick and I’ll be your guide today. Starting off on your right, you’ll see the model of Edinburgh castle. The castle stands thirteen feet tall and is equipped with a movable drawbridge, as well as a moat that contains some of the fiercest crocodiles known to man,” Nick rattles off, the words coming easy after so many days of saying the same thing over and over. The rudder of the boat is smooth against his hand, completely useless because of the underground track the ride follows but comforting to hold onto nonetheless.
The ride makes its way around the small lake in the center of the amusement park, Nick giving a running commentary of all the different things they pass. He’s relieved when they pass the bard’s hall (complete with music and dancing animatronics) and pull up in front of the dock at the end of the ride. Harvard leans down and pulls the boat closer so the passengers can disembark. In front of them, Nick can see Eugene loading up a fresh group of tourists, about to embark on his own tour of the three foot deep “lake”.
As soon as everyone’s off his boat, Nick hops onto the dock and high-fives Bobby, who’s working as a breaker today. “Lunchtime?”
Bobby nods. “Can you bring me back something from the vending machine too? I’m here until closing and I forgot my lunch at home.”
“No problemo,” Nick says, giving a little salute.
The employee cafeteria at King’s Row Medieval Fun Park is a squat little building in the South section of the park, all the way across the park from where Nick works in North. The food isn’t great, but it’s cheap, and there’s always plenty of workplace gossip if you know where to sit.
He’s about to grab the last can of Redbull when somebody snakes him. Turning around, he sees Seiji already popping the tab and taking a sip.
“Dude,” Nick says disappointedly, “I wanted that.”
Seiji just stares at him and takes another sip. Nick has a weird feeling like he’s watching a cat purposely push something off a table.
Seiji and Nick had had the unfortunate luck to be hired on the exact same day and trained on the same rides, which had sparked a fiery sense of competition, even if they ended up getting assigned to different rides in the end (Seiji worked the Dragon, the park’s most popular roller coaster, most days). Last time they had to work a ride together Nick had gotten so frustrated that he pushed Seiji into the water at Fairy Tale Brook.
Nick sighs and sits down next to Aiden, who’s talking to another employee about somebody sleeping with somebody else’s ex. Nick just wolfs down his food as quickly as he can, trying to avoid Seiji’s icy gaze from across the room. He tosses his tray, grabs a couple of protein bars for Bobby, and then starts power walking back to the lake, checking the time on his watch.
When Nick gets back to Coast Cruise he’s surprised to find his supervisor, Coach Williams, waiting for him. (Nick has no clue why she insists on being called coach, but she fits the look, always dressed in joggers and a track jacket).
“I need you to work Jousting School today,” she says without ceremony.
“What? Why? I was scheduled here all day.”
“Both Kally and Tanner called out this morning without any notice, and right now you’re one of the only people in the park who’s been trained on JS. And with today’s budget, we need all the rides to be open.”
“But what about Coast Cruise?” Nick asks.
“Bobby can cover you. Now hustle, I want JS open in the next twenty minutes.”
Nick wants to slam his head against a wall when he finally gets over to Jousting School and sees who he’s supposed to be working with. Seiji, the perfect employee, is already taking the small, motorized horses and setting them up on the course, looking comical with his legs tucked up to his chest in order to drive them.
“Hey,” Nick calls, putting on a cheerful facade and telling himself that it’s only one day. “What do you want me to do right now?”
“Finish getting the horses out,” Seiji says, his voice flat. “I’ll do the safety checks and then we can open the gate.”
Look, Nick knows he asked for this. He could have just started doing the safety checks and let Seiji finish the humiliating grunt work of getting all the toddler sized horses out onto the course. But no. And now Seiji’s doing safety checks in the control booth, which means he’ll probably be the one starting and stopping the ride, which then means that Nick has to be down on the ground giving instructions and having little kids ram their horses into his ankles.
This was off to a great start.
Seiji opens the gates that announce that the ride is open and people start lining up immediately. Coach had told Nick that the budget - the amount of people predicted to be at the park - was big, but he hadn’t realized just how big.
As soon as the first batch of kids are on their horses, Nick claps to get their attention.
“Welcome to Jousting School, where you can practice your horse riding and jousting skills through our obstacle course. Push the pedal on the left to make the horse go, and the pedal on the right to make it stop. Remember, the only thing you can hit with the lance are the targets. Ready? Go!” The ride starts up and two kids immediately drive straight into Nick.
This happens over and over, and even when Nick asks Seiji to switch tasks the other boy refuses, saying that he’s happy up in the control booth. Which, duh, but Nick isn’t happy on the ground with his swollen and bruised ankles and sweat from the heat making his sunglasses slide down his nose.
After two hours Nick has had enough. A breaker arrives so he can have his bathroom break, and he immediately radios to ask if there’s anyone who can take over his job.
“Sorry,” the voice on the other end says. “I’ve pulled up the roster of everyone working today and there’s no one else who’s been trained on Jousting School and we don’t have any On the Job Trainers who have gotten certified for that one yet. Looks like you’re on your own.”
When Nick gets back to JS, he finds it completely overwhelmed. Seiji’s on the ground trying to deal with a broken horse and the breaker is radioing maintenance. The breaker - his name tag says he’s Dante - turns and shakes his head. “They had a leakage at the water park and they’re all trying to deal with that right now.”
Seiji nods and lets the guy leave. “What happened?” Nick says. “I was gone for, like, fifteen minutes.”
“Crash,” Seiji says curtly. “Had to stop the ride.”
“Shit, we need to get this thing up and running again ASAP,” Nick says, glancing at the now-closed gates, where there’s a big crowd waiting.
“I didn't know you knew how to repair rides,” Seiji says sarcastically, pushing the horse over to the shed where they’re all stored. “All of them connected, dumbass, we can’t start the ride up without causing more damage to this one.”
“I’m aware of that, jerk, but let me see it. Sometimes the fixes aren’t that hard.” He grabs the horse from Seiji and pulls out his pocket knife to open up the control panel.
“You’re going to get a safety violation for that.”
“Won’t be the first, probably won’t be the last.”
“You could get fired for tampering with the ride equipment.”
“We could both get fired for not getting the ride up and running on the busiest day of the season, shithead. So do me a solid and turn on the power again? I think I got it.”
“This is a bad idea, fuckface.”
“Just do it.”
“Fine,” Seiji says, climbing into the control booth and flipping on the power. Nick tests the gas and breaks, grinning when they work.
“What did I tell you?” He calls up to Seiji.
“Okay, okay, you were right,” Seiji grumbles, and goes to open up the gates.
The rest of the day goes smoothly. Nick convinces Seiji to switch ground duty and control tower, so they both end up with bruised ankles and sunburns, but it’s totally worth it. One kid throws up, but it’s an easy clean up, and by closing time they’ve developed a good rhythm together.
They close up the gates and put all the horses away, double checking that all the power has been turned off. As they’re leaving, Nick says:
“You know, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. You know, having to work with the park’s legendary Ice Prince.”
“Hmm. You weren’t so bad yourself,” Seiji says, “for a total zero.”
“Hey!” Nick says, shoving Seiji, “Who fixed the ride?”
“You did, you did,” Seiji says, cracking a rare smile as he pushes Nick away.
“Hey,” Nick says, mustering up courage that he hadn’t realized he needed, “you maybe want to go get something to eat together?”
“Sure,” Seiji says, and Nick can feel his heart begin to beat a little bit faster. “I’d like that.”