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Caspar and Hilda had only started dating recently and had been planning their second date for weeks now. They had convinced their best friends Linhardt and Marianne, who also happened to be dating, to tag along to the amusement park with them on a double date. The amusement part had recently reopened under new management, so it seemed that everyone was visiting the amusement park this weekend. The couples waited in line for easily an hour before they finally arrived at the entrance booth. A bored man with blond hair sat behind the booth scrolling through his phone, his name tag read Leo in bold letters.
“How can I help you?” Leo asked without looking up from his phone.
“Four adult tickets, please!” Caspar requested.
“That will be 20 gold pieces.” Leo stated, ripping four tickets from the gigantic ticket wheel.
“Ugh, sorry one second.” Caspar said, digging around in his pocket for the money. That must have be the wrong pocket. Maybe it was in his back pocket, he thought as he continued to riffle through each of his pockets.
“Here.” Linhardt said rolling his eyes at Caspar, sliding his own money across the table as Leo slide the four tickets toward him in exchange.
“Thank you.” Leo stated, glaring at Caspar for wasting his time. “Please head on in.” He insisted, motioning toward the rotating entrance beside him.
“Hey, you didn’t have to do that. I have the money in one of my pockets!” Caspar protested. “Aha!” He exclaimed finally pulling the money out of his pocket.
“It’s fine, you can pay for lunch.” Linhardt said, shaking his head and grabbing the tickets off the counter and handing them out before making his way through the entrance, followed by Marianne and Hilda. Caspar quickly grabbed a map off the desk, flashing a quick smile to Leo before sliding through the entrance. “So, where should we go first?” Linhardt asked as Caspar popped open the map and stared at it intensely.
“Caspar?” Hilda asked with a concerned tone.
“Yes, babe?” He replied without looking up.
“You do know that the map is upside down, don’t you?” Hilda asked shyly, causing Marianne and Linhardt to burst out laughing.
“I-I… I totally knew that!” Caspar yelled, quickly flipping the map over. “Ah, yes, here is the entrance. So, should we start with the water rides or leave them for last?”
“Let’s just skip the water rides. Plus, this shirt is not made for water,“ Linhardt said, motioning to his nice button-up shirt.
“And I, for one, am not getting my hair wet.” Hilda added.
“Fineeeee.” Caspar groaned, “Can we at least go do the carnival games? I want to test my strength!” He smiled and flexing his arms, making a kissing motion at each of his biceps.
Marianne’s eyes light up at the thought of carnival games, “I love playing the one where the horses race around the course!”
“Then it’s settled! We will do some carnival games first, then it’s off to the big roller coasters!” Caspar exclaimed as he led everyone off in the direction of the carnival games.
First, they took turns testing their feats of strength. To everyone’s surprise, except her own, Hilda won and made the bell ring. Caspar, while a little disappointed that he didn’t win, was very impressed with his girlfriend’s strength. Afterwards, they each took turns picking a game to play before deciding to move onto another part of the park, carnival games were starting to cost too much money and they hadn’t even won any prizes to show for it. Instead of opening the map to decide what to do next, they decided it would be best to stroll around the park until they came across something that seemed fun, and it wasn’t too long before something caught their attention.
“Arrr, me mateys. Step right up and ride the flying pirate ship!” Proclaimed a man with white hair, an eye patch, and pirate attire. “Only few can survive this ship’s wild nature.” He continued, gesturing to the gigantic ride behind him.
“Come on, let’s ride.” Caspar said, grabbing Hilda’s hand and pulling her towards the line in front of the ride as Linhardt and Marianne nervously followed.
“I-I’m… K-Kinda scared.” Marianne’s voice stuttered out as they waited in line.
“Marianne! You guys can’t come to an amusement park and not enjoy the exhilarating rides!” Caspar rebuttaled.
“Excuse me. We came to have fun with our friends, not to have an adrenaline rush.” Linhardt protested as the man with the eye patch, Niles, opened up the line for them to enter the ship. Before Linhardt could say anything else, Caspar and Hilda quickly rushed onto the ride to find the best seat.
“Please enter the ride, ma’am.” Niles said to Marianne who was frozen in line.
“N-No thank you, If I get on, I’ll probably just get sick and cause problems for everyone. I think its best if I just, um, don’t ride.” Marianne interjected, before quickly making an exit from the line.
“Oh, honey!” Linhardt yelled as he chased after Marianne. Caspar frowned as he watched the two of them run away from the ride.
“Hey, don’t worry about them! Linhardt will take care of Marianne, as he always does. Let’s just enjoy the ride together!” Hilda smiled as she strapped herself into the ride.
“You’re always right, you know that?” Caspar laughed.
“Of course I am!” Hilda smirked as Niles walked around making sure everyone was strapped in correctly before starting the ride. Caspar’s shrill screams could be heard from the park bench that Marianne and Linhardt had taken residence on. Hilda, on the other hand, spent most of the ride with her eyes closed tight in fear. After the ride, Caspar and Hilda headed over to their friends on the bench. Marianne seemed like she was doing a lot better, as she and Linhardt were now too busy chatting about what to eat for lunch later.
“Since you guys are talking about food, Hilda and I are going to grab everyone pretzels. You guys stay right here!” Caspar exclaimed grabbing Hilda’s hand and headed off in the direction of the food stand.
“Okay, they are gone again. So, Hilda told me that she had been thinking of telling Caspar that she is trans.” Marianne said with a changing the subject.
“Very interesting, Caspar told me the same thing last night.”
“Oh gosh, I wonder who is going to let it slip first.” Marianne said, before getting lost in her thoughts.
“I bet it will be Caspar.” Linhardt replied after a moment of analyzing.
“Really? I think it will be Hilda, she is never one to hide anything.”
“But you must take into consideration how much of a loudmouth Caspar is.”
“But Hilda is the serious one and this is a serious topic.”
“Fine, What if we made an official bet out of it? 20 gold pieces?”
“What? No! We can’t make a bet about our best friends coming out to each other.”
“Why not? We can just say it’s for science- an experiment, if you will. We are just collecting data, and money, on who will come out first.”
“Fine, but only because I know that if I tell you no, then you will give me another speech about the importance of science. Oh, and before I forget, no interfering! I know you will just go to Caspar and bet him to tell Hilda, because you know he will accept any bet. Well, Not today.”
“You know me so well, darling.” Linhardt chuckled as he wrapped his arm around Marianne. Caspar and Hilda just arriving back before handing out pretzels and drinks then going to sit on a bench of their own.
“Do you think it could be happening right now?” Marianne asked looking over at the other couple who had already sat down and were laughing happily.
“No, it’s way too soon. I think it will happen after lunch, Caspar is always way too confident when he is full of food.” Linhardt replied, getting a small chuckle out of Marianne in response.
“Haha! I can’t believe that kid slipped and spilt his entire drink!” Caspar laughed.
“Yea, haha, it was really funny, but are we bad people for laughing at him?”
“Nah! He was only like a year younger than us, and it was his fault for trying to skateboard through the amusement park.”
“True.” Hilda said before taking a bite of her pretzel, “So, are you having a good time?”
“Mhmm!” Caspar nodded with his mouth full of food, quickly swallowing it with a large gulp. “I’m having lots of fun already, but I want to go on the big roller coasters!”
“Maybe we can do that next.” Hilda replied, knowing she had very little intention of going on the big rides. “I’m happy Linhardt and Marianne got to come with us. I figured Linhardt would tell us that he was too busy working on another project.”
“Well, he is my best friend, and sometimes he just can’t say no to me!” Caspar responded, knowing the main reason Linhardt decided to come is that Caspar begged him to tag along because he was super nervous to tell Hilda that he is trans. The couple continued to chat happily and eat their pretzels, when they were done they headed back towards the bench that Linhardt and Marianne were sitting on. “So, are you ready to go have some more fun?” Caspar asked.
“Yes, let’s make the most of today!” Marianne said cheerfully taking Linhardt’s hand and standing up from the bench, as Caspar popped open the large map.
“Let’s get any big rides over before we eat lunch and Caspar hurls all over us.” Linhardt said taking a look at the map. “What about the space simulation?”
“First, let’s go on the biggest ride possible!” Caspar said pointing to its location on the map.
“Do we have to? I would be just as happy to ride the teacups.” Hilda chimed in.
“Teacups are for babies. Don’t you want to ride the Mega Death Extra 5000?”
“Not really, why don’t you take Linhardt instead?”
“Because all four of us are going on. Duh.”
“Sure, I’ll go if you can convince Marianne to ride it.” Hilda said with a laugh.
“Challenge accepted.” Caspar grinned with a crack of his knuckles, giving Marianne a big smile. “Oh Marianneeeee!” Caspar sang as he grabbed Marianne’s hands. “I need you to listen to me.”
“Okay… I am listening…”
“You are a strong woman and you can ride anything.” Caspar stated with a squeeze of Marianne’s hand.
“I am a scared woman who doesn’t have a death wish.” Marianne retorted, pulling her hand away from Caspar.
“Marianne, I need you to listen.” Caspar’s tone got very serious, “I think you know that today is a very stressful day for me.” Caspar said looking up at Linhardt for confirmation that Marianne knew he was planning to come out, to which Linhardt gave a small nod of his head, “Since you know how important today is for me and riding the Mega Death Extra 5000 will help me feel a lot better. I will ask you one more time, will you please ride this roller coaster with me?”
Marianne took a big gulp, she knew Caspar was blackmailing her into going on this ride, but she also didn’t want to let one of her best friends down, “F-Fine… I’ll do it.”
“Yes!” Caspar leapt into the air full of joy, before running to give Marianne a large hug. “Thank you, Marianne!”
The four of them sat in two rows on the Mega Death Extra 5000, Caspar and Hilda in the front with Linhardt and Marianne behind them. They barely made it onto the ride as Marianne tried to flee the line before they sat down, but Caspar chased her down and brought her back. Now they were on the ride and there was no going back.
“Only few who enter will come out alive.” The man making the rides announcements began, “So don’t be afraid to have fun in your last few minutes of the living by raising your hands and screaming as loud as you can. Now if you will all pull the strap down and buckle it we will do our best to keep you from dying.” He finished before coming around to check that everyone was safely strapped in.
“Is it too late to get off?” Marianne yelled out to Caspar.
“Way too late!” Caspar yelled back, “You can do this Marianne!”
“Can I get off?” Hilda asked Caspar as she adjusted herself in the seat.
“Haha, no! This is going to be so fun! Trust me babe.” Caspar said as he reached his hand over and intertwined his fingers with Hilda's before giving her hand a squeeze. “If you get scared, just squeeze my hand for support.” Caspar smiled, pulling Hilda’s hand closer and placing a small kiss on her knuckles as the ride began to move forward.
The ride ended almost as quickly as it began- it was fast and exhilarating, causing the screams of the two couples to fill to air as the ride began with a steep drop before spinning around and around and around. Before they could all gain their baring from the loops, the ride pulled to a stop back at the entrance.
“It looks like everyone survived today’s ride. Please step out to your right to exit the ride or rejoin the line if you dare to ride again.” Boomed the announcer’s voice. The couples exited the ride in a dizzy haze, the four of them looking like a couple of drunks. They stood by the exit for a moment to gain their sense of reality.
“I hope you’re happy now.” Linhardt said to Caspar as he held his stomach that was still doing loops similar to those of the ride.
“Very happy! Come on, admit it was fun!”
“No.” Linhardt replied in a stern voice.
“I will say, it’s wasn’t as bad as the time my older brother threw up on me during a roller coaster.” Hilda admitted.
“I mean… I kinda had fun.” Marianne said in a shy voice, as she tended to Linhardt.
“Yes!” Caspar yelled triumphantly, “I will take that as 2 out of 3 victories.”
“Now can we go ride the teacups now?” Hilda pleaded with Caspar.
“Yea, please!” Marianne added, looking at Caspar for approval.
“Fine, I will do anything to keep the ladies happy.” Caspar replied with a wink, causing Linhardt, who was finally recovered from the ride, to roll his eyes.
After enjoying a few more rides, everyone waited in line for lunch at a food stand. They decided to go for the fast-food option at the park to keep their expenses down, meaning that everyone besides Marianne got a hamburger, while Marianne opted for a double portion of french fries considering she doesn’t eat meat. Once they order their food, Caspar paid for everyone's meals as payment for Linhardt having to pay for the tickets this morning. Caspar even had the money ready before they ordered the food, but only because Hilda told him to find it before he embarrassed himself more than he already had today. Taking their food, they all went to sit down at a table together under a large umbrella helping to keep them out of the heat.
“What has been everyone's favourite ride today?” Hilda asked taking a bite of her burger.
“The Mega Death Extra 5000! Obviously!” Caspar shouted out before anyone else could respond.
“I really enjoyed the Carnival games and Interactive rides.” Marianne pipped up.
“My favourite part is just walking around with my friends.” Linhardt said
Caspar rolled his eyes in response, “You know you can just say that you don’t like roller coasters.”
“No, I would never say that.” Linhardt replied in a sarcastic voice, “But if I had to pick, well I did enjoy the teacups.”
“Me too!” Hilda added in agreement with Linhardt, “But my favourite has got to be Merry Go Round! The music and colours were even better than the teacups!”
“Only if you like horses.” Caspar replied shaking his head.
The couples continued talking about their time at the park, from their favourite snacks to the people dressed up in character outfits. Every part of their day has been a blast so far, even if not everyone seemed to like the larger rides. They then moved on to talk about what they were looking forward to doing before they had to make their way home. Marianne mentioning the Ferris wheel, and Hilda and Caspar agreeing that they wanted to watch the fireworks at the end of the night. Before they knew it, they had talked all through their lunch and were ready to move onto something else.
“I’ll be back in a minute.” Marianne said as she grabbed the trays that she and Linhardt had used to eat and headed off to the bin.
Caspar then scrambled to grab his and Hilda’s stuff together, “Wait on me, I’ll come with you!” He exclaimed, but Marianne was already too far away. “Okay, well I’ll be right back as well.” Caspar said as he stood up with the trays.
“Wait! Caspar come here!” Hilda yelled quickly as he stood up.
“What?” He said in shock, quickly looking down at her, but instead of responding all she did was she burst out laughing, her eyes started to water as she continued to laugh. Caspar looked around, trying to figure out what Hilda was laughing at, when he couldn’t see anything he decided to ask, “what’s so funny?”
Linhardt bit his lip to stop a loud laugh from escaping his mouth, before looking at Hilda to break the news to Caspar.
“Your face!” Hilda could barely get the words out between her laughing, she wrapped he arms around her stomach in pain from all the laughing.
“What’s wrong with my face?” Caspar asked in shock as he set the trays back down and pulled out his phone to examine his face. He was met with quite an unpleasant image, his face has a large red smear of ketchup across up one of his cheeks. “Ah, Hilda! Why didn’t you tell me?” Caspar quickly put his phone away and grabbing a napkin of Hilda’s tray quickly cleaning up his face. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Caspar glared at Linhardt looking for a response, but Linhardt could only let out a small chuckle. Caspar finally just rolled his eyes and headed off towards the bins with the trays.
“What did I miss?” Marianne asked arriving back at the table shortly after Caspar’s departure.
“Caspar making a fool of himself, nothing out of the ordinary.” Linhardt said with a laugh.
Once Caspar got back, they decided to head out of the sitting area and look around the park, everyone wanted to take things slowly, as not to get sick, so Marianne asked if they could ride the Ferris wheel. Everyone decided that would probably be best and got in line for the Ferris wheel. Once they arrived at the front of the line, the couples had to separate to ride as only two people were allowed in each seat of the Ferris wheel. Hilda and Caspar got on first and Marianne and Linhardt got on the next seat, once the seats were filled up the Ferris wheel began to play a light tune as it rotated up and around to show a stunning overview of the park.
“Did you only suggest this in the hopes one of them would come out in their few minutes of alone time?” Linhardt asked in a whispered voice to Marianne on the ride got going.
“No, this is one of the few things I was excited to do today, the view of the park is supposed to be immaculate from the top of the Ferris wheel!” Marianne exclaimed with excitement looking out the side of the Ferris wheel as they slowly ascended around the Ferris wheel. The view of the park was outstanding from above, people migrating around the park in crowds, families enjoying their diner together, couples walking hand in hand, it was a heartwarming view. That was until the Ferris wheel began to slow down as Hilda and Caspar reached the top of the wheel. The wheel completely coming to a halt once they had reached the top.
“I am sorry for the inconvenience everyone, but we seem to be experiencing a technical difficultly, if you could just hang tight, and we will get the ride going again as soon as possible.” The voice of the operator of the ride boomed over the intercom.
“UGH! Are you serious?” Caspar complained as he sloughed down in his seat
“At least, we have the best view in the park.” Hilda said looking out the window dreamily.
“What if something happens and we never get off this ride! What if we are stuck up here forever!” Caspar shrieked with worry all of a sudden.
“That won’t happen!” Hilda said, trying to cheer him up.
“What if they can’t figure out what’s wrong? Then we will be stuck up here! And even if they find a way to get us out if we do get stuck, how do you know it will be today? What if we have to sleep up here! We will freeze to death or worse, fall to our death!” Caspar ranted, worried about what might happen with the ride.
“Hey! You are getting a little too worried now.” Hilda said, reaching out and grabbing both of his hands with her own. “If they can’t fix it, which they will- but if they can’t, they have to have a backup way to get us out, or they won’t even let us on this ride.”
“How do you know?” Caspar asked squeezing Hilda’s hands.
“Because I have common sense, and as a woman, I just know. Plus, don’t focus on the ride, focus on me- you would be up here all alone if it wasn’t for me.”
“That is true.” Caspar said relaxing a bit, “I will just keep talking to you and it will keep me distracted.”
“Exactly!” Hilda exclaimed.
“Soooo… what do you want to talk about?” Caspar asked as he twirled his thumbs nervously in his seat.
“Well, I’m having a great time on our date, but um… well… I uh… I need to… ugh…” Hilda was having a hard time trying to find the right words to say. “I need to tell you something.” She finally blurted out.
“Is everything okay?” Caspar asked reaching his hands out and holding Hilda’s hand. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”
“I know, it's just that, well…” though Hilda was normally calm in these situations, she didn’t want what she was about to say to affect her relationship with Caspar, but she would have to tell him eventually. “I guess I should just say it. Caspar, I am trans.” She finally got the words out and quickly dropped her gaze to her shoes, as Caspar's mouth dropped in a surprised expression. She knew that this was going to make things harder, it always did. “I just… I need you to know who I really am, even if it changes how you see me.”
Caspar took a second to compose himself before saying anything, the silence was starting to kill Hilda. Caspar on the other hand, while surprise, was also delighted. Now he could tell Hilda who he truly was, and they could support each other, they would truly understand each other.
Hilda ripped her hands away from Caspar, “If you can’t say anything, you must hate me.” Hilda said in a harsh tone.
“Hilda!” Caspar shouted grabbing her chin to look in her eyes, “I don’t hate you. I was just trying to think of the right thing to say. It doesn’t matter that you are trans, I will always care for you. Plus…” Caspar paused and Hilda’s eyes filled with confusion. “It doesn’t matter if you are trans, because so am I.” Caspar finally said with a smile.
Hilda’s eyes lit up at the sound of Caspar’s words, “Wait. Really?” Hilda asked almost bouncing in her chair from excitement. This meant that Caspar would understand her more than anyone else. This meant that she found someone with who she would be safe, someone she could, reasonably, see a future with.
“You think I would joke about something like that?” Caspar asked with a chuckle.
“Well, no, but it was a surprise.”
“You’re so cute.” Caspar said holding Hilda’s chin gently between his thumb and index finger, before leaning forward and gently pressing his lips to hers. The kiss lingered for a moment before the pair separated, this was the first kiss that they had shared. A red hue invaded Hilda’s cheeks as the pair sat in silence for a moment before Hilda leaned forward to place an even softer kiss on Caspar’s lips in return.
“Thank you for accepting me.” Hilda said holding Caspar’s hands.
“And thank you for accepting me.” Caspar replied with a smile, placing two kisses on the back of Hilda’s hands. As he did, the ride shook before it sprang back into action.
“Thank you for your patience, the ride is now back to running normally.” The voice on the intercom announced.
“Finally!” Caspar yelled in excitement.
“At least I was able to keep you from having a panic attack on the ride,” Hilda chuckled.
“Don’t you dare tell anyone how scared I was!” Caspar exclaimed as Hilda made a zipping motion over her lips, signalling that his secret was safe with her. The couple continued to enjoy the ride for a moment before they reached the bottom and got off waiting on Linhardt and Marianne to join them. They held hands as they smiled at each other.
“Well, well. You two look happy.” Linhardt said as he and Marianne had finally gotten off the Ferris wheel.
“Did something happen between you two?” Marianne inquired.
“If you call coming out to each other something, then I guess so.” Hilda laughed, “But I guess both of you already knew that we were both trans.”
“You guys knew and didn’t say anything!” Caspar yelled.
“It wasn’t our place to say anything.” Linhardt replied with a roll of his eyes.
“So who came out first?” Marianne asked.
“I did! I had to find some way to keep the ride entertaining.” Hilda said with a wink to Caspar, since she had kept his secret.
“That’s great!” Marianne exclaimed with a small smile, before looking over to Linhardt. “Isn’t that great, honey?”
“Yes. That's wonderful.” Linhardt replied slightly annoyed that he had lost the bet, but he was still truly happy for his friends.
“Let’s go find something else to ride!” Caspar exclaimed as he intertwined his fingers with Hilda’s, this was the most intimate handhold of the day. Not only was it full of love and acceptance, but it was full of the trust that Caspar and Hilda now shared. Nothing would be a secret between them anymore, because if they could get through this, then they could get through anything.
“It’s Hilda turn to pick a ride.” Linhardt smiled at his friends as he laced his fingers with Marianne’s. He could see how happy Caspar and Hilda were and how much they truly cared for one another. He and Marianne followed their friends through the park as they enjoyed a variety of ride that afternoon, but before they knew it, the sun was creeping down the horizon. It was almost time for everyone to head home. They stood around a fountain near the entrance of the park chatting about their day at the park, agreeing they should make more time to go on future double dates together.
“Me and Caspar are gonna go check out the souvenir shop before it closes, do you guys want to come?” Hilda asked once there was a break in their conversation.
“No thank you. I, for one, have spent enough money today.” Linhardt replied, taking a seat on one of the benches surrounding the fountain, “We will be here when you are done.”
“Okay, see you guys in a bit.” Hilda said as she happily skipped off in the direction of the shop with Caspar in tow.
“So, Seems like I was right after all.” Marianne said taking a seat on the bench beside Linhardt.
“I suppose you were.”
“My money?” Marianne asked holding out her hand. “You weren’t hoping I would forget our bet would you?”
“Of course not dear.” Linhardt said reaching into his pocket and handing over the agreed sum.
“Thank you.” Marianne sang as she took the money and headed to a stand full of stuffed animals nearby.
“Darling, what are you doing?” Linhardt asked as he followed Marianne over to the stand where she bought a large stuffed horse.
“I am going to name her Missus Apples!” Marianne exclaimed, hugging the stuffed horse.
“I would be mad that this is how you spent your winnings, if you weren’t so darn cute.” Linhardt stated with a roll of his eyes as he led Marianne and Missus Apples back over to Caspar and Hilda who had emerged from the nearby shop.
“She’s so cute!” Hilda pipped up stroking the horse’s mane.
“I know! Linhardt bought her for me.” Marianne said giving Linhardt a small wink.
“Well with a good day come to a close and a new stuffed friend. I do think it’s time we head home.” Linhardt said looking off towards the sun setting in the distance. The horizon was stained with an orange and purple hue.
“I agree, it’s getting rather cold.” Hilda said, rubbing her arms.
“Why don’t we stay and watch the sunset? You also said you would like to see the fireworks, so it’s a two for one deal.” Caspar asked with a smile, draping his jacket over Hilda’s shoulder.
“I guess I can agree to that.” Hilda replied as she rested her head on Caspar’s shoulder, letting out a small yawn. “What about you guys?” Hilda asked, looking at Marianne.
“I think we are going to head out, but don’t let us stop your fun.” Marianne smiled. “I’m happy everything worked out today.”
“Me too.” Hilda said pressing a kiss to Casper’s cheek. Caspar and Hilda saw Linhardt and Marianne out before finding the best place to watch the sunset together. Not only had things worked out today, but things also couldn’t have gone better. Caspar and Hilda had more in common than they had ever dreamed and it made their life even more perfect. With their biggest secrets out on the table, Hilda and Caspar could see themselves staying together into a very long and happy future.