Chapter 3

The four kids continued talking about what had happened and what was going to be happening, neither of them had any idea, When Alice remembered:

“My mom said something about the huge scholarship money we get if we sign up for this. She really wants me to do it. Then she told me, ‘Wayne told me all about it. You should totally do it.’” Alice sighed. “Then she told me they were running a test tonight. That they were turning the server on for a test program.”

I say we meet at the park soon to find him.” he said, “Does everyone have passes?” Jet asked.

“Yep. Got mine in my pocket.” Brian said.

“Ditto,” Alice said, wiping the rim of her yogurt cup with the napkin to keep it from running onto the table. She was too focused on the yogurt to look up at them.

“yea.” replied kat.

“So as soon as we finish here, we’ll go over.” Brian said.

Alice nodded at him. “I really want to know how the test goes tonight. Whatever, it’s out of our hands. I guess the most we can do,” Alice took another bite of yogurt, then covered her mouth and signalled the ‘one minute, i need to swallow first’ motion. “Is just wait it out and talk to Wayne– if we can find him.”

“Yea i guess your right.” said Kat

“Agreed.” Brian said.

“Should we hit the parks tonight, or should we just head for there tomorrow?” Alice asked. “I’m up for anything. We can just hitch a ride on a couple of buses, I know my way around.”

“Whatever is fine with me.” Brian said, finishing his yogurt.

“I could go tonight, if that’s cool with you,” she said, stirring her yogurt around. “I kinda like this, you know. It’s really exciting. And, we’ve all got to stick together. It’s thrilling,” she smiled up at everyone else around the table. “I don’t know I just get this funny feeling.”

“What do you mean?” Brian said.

“It’s just something about the way he drew us all together..” Alice said, resting the side of her head in her palm and pushing her yogurt away from her, as if to say she was done. “We all have so much in common, and everyone here is so nice. I like it. I feel like this is the beginning of something good.” Then, she sighed and looked away from her friends at the table. “Or else something terrible.”

“Maybe both. We won’t know sitting around here.” Brian said.

“You have an excellent point,” Alice said and stood up to take her yogurt to the trash. “Shall we go?” she asked, reaching for her yogurt.

We shall.” Brian said, throwing out his yogurt.

Alice threw out her yogurt then started for the door. “Magic Kingdom right?”

“It’s a good place to start,” Brian replied.

—————–

Alice wandered out and made her way to the bus stop with the others. When they got on the bus, it was much less crowded and they all managed to get seats together. It got quiet as the bus rolled along the pavement. “So… Brian. Tell me about yourself,” she said, trying to stay open and friendly, unlike she normally would have been.

“Like what?” Brian asked.

“I don’t know. You have any hobbies?” she asked.

“Playing video games and messing with my computer.” Brian said.

“That’s cool. I like video games. Kingdom Hearts and Professor Layton and stuff is really all though. Occasionally I’ll play Halo or something though. Anyways, video games are cool,” she said. “You must be pretty smart then, if you’re into messing with your computer.”

“I love Kingdom Hearts! That and Call of Duty.” Brian said. “I guess I know computers well. I know people who are better though. I know a guy who can hack into a computer mainframe in seconds, but I choose to use my powers for good.” Brian said jokingly.

Alice laughed. “That’s awesome. I can’t do anything like that, but I’m good with computer graphics. I’m an artist,” she said smiling widely at him. “Or, at least, I want to be one.”

“Same here. What program do you use? I use GIMP.” Brian said.

“GIMP, or photobucket, mostly Corel. There was a Corel program that came with my tablet, it creates textures of different materials. It’s really fun.” she said smiling.

“You got a tablet! LUCKY! My sister got one for school, but she never lets me use it.” Brian said

She laughed a little bit. “That’s terrible– to be deprived of a tablet, I mean,” she said. The bus pulled to a stop outside the ticket booths for Magic Kingdom. “Oh, this is our place!” she said and sprung out of her seat, her hair flying after her.

Brian casually walked out of the bus behind Alice.

They slipped through the gates with ease then drifted in and out of the afternoon crowds. Almost 3 o clock in the afternoon, and the crowds were starting to die down. Some of the younger kids were getting tired and they had to go home by then. “I don’t know where to start,” she said, looking around at Main Street as she strolled through. Then she looked over her shoulder at Brian. “The park is so big… Any ideas?”

“We should think of this methodically. We’re looking for Wayne, right? We should go somewhere Cast Members would be, specifically the Imagineers.” Brian said. “Maybe we should go to some place we’re not supposed to be, like the utilidoors.”

Her face fell; her biggest fear had come to get her, and it came faster than she expected. “You mean.. like, breaking the rules?”

“We’re practically Cast Members ourselves! We’re going to be DHIs, so being considered Cast Members is the next logical step. And if we get in trouble, we’ll blame Wayne.” Brian said.

Alice’s eyes danced around nervously. “A-alright,” she stuttered a bit. “I’m gonna have to trust you on this one. Do you know how to get into the Utilidors?” she asked, still seeming a bit nervous. Her head was rushing with the thoughts that followed Brian’s plans and she suddenly felt it was appropriate to apologize for her behavior. “I’m sorry, I’m just.. I guess I’m just too much of a goody-two shoes?” she said as if she was guessing, embarrassed.

Suddenly, it just occurred to Brian that this plan wouldn’t work well; if they were caught, the Wayne excuse might not work, and their passes to Disney would become null a void. “Actually, never mind the plan. Let’s just look around.” he said.

Suddenly, it just occurred to Brian that this plan wouldn’t work well; if they were caught, the Wayne excuse might not work, and their passes to Disney would become null a void. “Actually, never mind the plan. Let’s just look around.” he said.

“Yep. Let’s go.” Brian said, heading off in the direction of Adventureland.