Chapter Text
“Mischa, can’t you smile a little? Or at least pretend that you’re paying attention?”
They had just finished their fall concert, and Ocean was talking again.
“Why would I do that?” Mischa was sure his disdain showed clear on his face.
Ocean gave him a sickeningly sweet smile and clasped her hands in front of her. “Look, I get that you didn’t join the choir of your own volition, but you’re here now, so you need to act like you did, okay?”
She spun around to look at Constance next, her hair almost smacking Noel in the face. “And Constance! Why did you say that Father Markus drew inspiration from the lion king?”
“Well, he did,” She suddenly looked uncertain, “Didn’t he?”
“I mean, yeah,” Ocean conceded, drawing out the ‘yeah’ far more than necessary, “but they didn’t need to know that!” She slung her arms out, almost hitting Noel in the face again.
Noel jerked his face back once more to avoid her flailing limbs, and then burst out, “Oh, Honestly! Would it kill you to pay more attention to your surroundings?”
Ocean gave him a smug look. “Who says I wasn’t?”
“Why you little—” Noel lunged for her, but Constance jumped between them.
“Okay, lets not hurt anyone, yeah?” She placated. “Why don’t we go to the bumper cars and you two can take out your frustration there?” She said, with visible hope to diffuse the situation.
“Fine by me.”
Ocean smiled sharply, “Alright!”
“Okay, let's go then.” Constance ushered them in the direction of the bumper cars, before turning to look at Mischa and Ricky. “I’m gonna go with them to make sure they don’t kill each other. Why don’t you two go do the rides you want? Meet back here afterwards?”
After getting confirmation from both boys, she rushed after Ocean and Noel, hoping she wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire of a murder.
Mischa turned to Ricky. “Need help to ride?” He asked, accent thick.
Ricky shook his head, and Mischa nodded.
“I’ll be at shooting range.” At Ricky’s nod, Mischa turned and headed down the path, pulling out his phone as he went.
Within an hour, the group had met back up at the pavilion. Ocean and Noel were both fixing their hair and looking haughtily away from each other, Constance seemed frazzled, and Ricky seemed much happier.
“So! What next?” Ocean looked around at the group.
“The Cyclone! Please, please, please, can we ride the Cyclone? I wanna go before the fair closes!” Constance was bouncing in place.
Mischa looked up from his phone, “It’s almost six, fair closes at seven.”
“Then let’s go!” Ocean grabbed Constance’s hand and began to pull her along. Noel and Mischa followed at a more sedated pace with Ricky between them.
When they caught up, Ocean and Constance had already joined the line. They had to cut past a few people to get to them.
“Sorry, we had to move a little slower than the rest of our group.” Noel said, but the couple just waved them off.
Constance seemed to get more wound up the further they moved up in the line. Her excitement reached its peak as she got into the front row of the cart with Ocean.
Mischa and Noel helped Ricky climb into the final row before sitting down themselves. Another girl about their age sat down next to Ricky.
The attendant checked all of their restraints and then sent them off.
Ocean and Constance’s hands were in the air and they were making a show of screaming. Mischa was focusing on keeping hold of his hat and Ricky’s crutches.
When they reached the top of one of the loop-de-loops, the cart jerked. Mischa thought he heard a pained noise from behind him, but was distracted by the screech the cart let out. The cart rattled and jerked the whole rest of the ride. Luckily, they were close to the end.
When the cart came to a stop, Ocean climbed out as soon as she could. The others followed her shakily. She turned to the attendant.
“The cart’s broken! It was jerking all over the place! We’re lucky none of us got hurt!”
She jinxed it. As Mischa turned around to help Ricky up, the girl who was sat next to him stood up, and immediately fell to the floor. Her eyes seemed foggy and she swayed as she slowly pushed herself into a sitting position.
Constance dropped to her knees to help hold her up, and she tried to keep her awake and talking while the ride attendant called the park’s First Aid.
The girl ended up having to be carried out on a stretcher, and the choir watched as she was loaded into an ambulance.
There was silence for a few moments after the sirens had faded. Everyone was still trying to process what had just happened.
“I think that’s probably our sign to head home for the night.” Constance said, her voice shaking.
“I would have to agree,” Noel said, slowly, “Do you still feel okay to drive us Constance?” He swayed a little, so Mischa wrapped an arm around his waist to steady him. Noel offered him a small quirk of the lips for his efforts.
Constance took a deep breath. “Yeah, I'm okay.” She nodded quickly a couple of times and shook her hands out.
That was likely the first and last silent carpool the St. Cassian Chamber Choir ever had.