Author's Chapter Notes:
Did you think I forgot you all? Pshaw, I say! Never. Here's the next chapter (still set in the Magic Kingdom, where we'll be for awhile)...it's shorter but if you'd like, I can get the next one up by tonight. (And it's gooooooooood.) Enjoy!
Also, please note (and keep noting til the end!), that this was written this summer. Some things look different in the light of Season 5, but I hope this is still fun...
Also, please note (and keep noting til the end!), that this was written this summer. Some things look different in the light of Season 5, but I hope this is still fun...
Holly: (in front of the Pinocchio Village Haus restaurant) Well, I bought a ticket down spur-of-the-moment last night and flew in this morning. With the office empty I caught up on all my paperwork the day after everyone left, and I just figured…I needed a break. Plus as the “new girl” I thought it might be good for me to come for at least one day. You know…build camaraderie and all. (She looks down, a hint of a smile on her lips. She lifts her head again as she listens to a question from off-camera. ) Oh, I didn’t see much of what happened. I was just heading for the middle of the park and heard a lot of yelling. Why, what was going on?
----
“You might want to pick up the pace a little,” Michael said, glancing nervously over his shoulder as Holly pushed him around Fantasyland. Judy was still involved in a serious-looking discussion with the ride operator Michael had offended and two other cast members that had appeared after catching wind of the scuffle.
“I think Judy’s settling everything.”
Michael added a healthy dose of skepticism to his nervous look. “Yeah, well, she’s not that great at…anything, really.”
“She seems nice enough.”
“Well, she…” He took a moment to think, no doubt weighing Holly’s opinion while he glanced at the camera. “Yeah, she’s okay,” he finally agreed, a bit uneasily.
There was a pause. “Do you mind if I ask why you’re…in this?” Holly asked, tapping the handlebars of the wheelchair.
“Oh, it’s…it’s just that…I have a condition,” he answered vaguely.
“Oh really?”
“Yes. It only acts up in…heat. It’s sporastic.”
Holly frowned slightly but said nothing more. They were silent as she pushed him further and further from the scene of the incident. Once they were a fair distance away Michael found his grin again. “I can’t believe you’re here,” he said, tipping his head back to look at Holly. She was now the one to look a bit tentative. “I mean, I’m…glad you came,” he added.
Holly finally grinned. “Thanks.”
----
Andy was finishing paying for the oversized Goofy hat, complete with ears, at Sir Mickey’s when Dwight found him. “It’s time for our next challenge,” he informed his fellow coworker. Andy pulled the hat from its bag and plunked it on his head.
“Sure thing,” he said, grinning and cocking his head. “What am I beating you at now?”
Dwight snuck the briefest of sneaky glances at the camera before gazing stoically at Andy again. “A spin-off. On the tea cups.” Despite the serious look, anyone in the know would have no trouble noticing the gleeful lilt to his voice.
Andy blanched noticeably. “Umm…really?”
“Yes.”
Andy’s eyebrows knit together. “Really really?”
“Yes,” Dwight repeated. “Is there a problem with Michael’s choice?”
“No, I just…” Andy sighed. “Nope, that’ll work,” he tried again, shakily.
Dwight arched an eyebrow. “Good.” With that he marched out of the shop, leaving Andy to follow after him slowly. On the way to the ride, Dwight passed Jim, who looked much improved in mood. Dwight grabbed his arm.
“Jim, will you count Andy’s and my spins on the tea cups?”
“Sure,” Jim agreed, nodding. Once Dwight and Andy were no more than twenty feet away, though, Jim flashed a smirk at the camera and wandered off in the opposite direction.
As they neared the line Andy stopped and looked around. Dwight turned and glared at him. “What’s the hold up?” he inquired.
“Just looking for Ang,” Andy replied as he scanned the crowd. Dwight sneered at him.
“Need to ask permission from the little woman?” he mocked. Andy quickly shook his head and started for the end of the line.
The queue was surprisingly short for Mad Tea Party, which seemed to do nothing to help Andy soothe his nerves. He breathed deeply in line, arching his back to allow in more oxygen and perhaps Disney magic as well. Dwight, on the other hand, stood tall and proud, looking at the camera every few moments. When it was their turn to ride, Dwight stepped up onto the platform easily, but Andy gripped the handrail tightly and attempted to steel what little resolve he might have possessed.
“Are you riding, sir?” the cast member at the entrance asked, looking concerned. Andy squeezed his eyes shut for a second or two, slapped himself on the face quite hard, then finally nodded.
“Let’s do this like Brutus,” he muttered as he walked past the operator, who now looked quite worried.
The view shifted to show that, unbeknownst to the two competitors, Angela had snuck up to the far railing to watch. She bit her lip as they took their seats - Andy in an open pink cup; Dwight in a seafoam green one. Dwight gave Andy a smug grin from across the dais – Andy attempted to return it, but it packed much less punch. Just before the ride started he pulled his hat off his head and shoved it back in the bag.
The traditional welcome and warning came over the speakers, then the platform began to rotate. “Count starts now!” Dwight called, furiously spinning the small wheel in front of him to start his tea cup turning. Andy followed suit, much more delicately.
“One! Two! Three!” Dwight yelled as he spun, assumingly for the benefit of (the not-present) Jim.
Andy made it through a few rotations, but his pallor suddenly took on a greenish hue. He pushed through another half turn but then released the wheel as his cheeks puffed out, and his eyes scanned the cup desperately. His face fell as much as it could as he realized his shopping bag was his only available receptacle. Holding the bag wide open and not bothering – or remembering –to remove the hat, he emptied his stomach into it.
Dwight threw his arms in the air victoriously as Andy continued to hurl.
When the camera chanced panning her way, it showed Angela allowing herself the tiniest smile as well.
When the ride stopped Dwight leapt from his cup. Andy climbed out much more daintily. Angela had moved to meet them at the exit. “Sixty-seven rotations!” Dwight announced. “Was that your final count as well, Jim?” He looked around. “Jim?” he called out.
Andy handed the sloshing bag to Dwight, who held it high like a trophy. “Where’s the bathroom?” he moaned, looking at Angela. She put her arm around him.
“I’ll help you,” she said.
“After that I need a new hat,” Andy added as they walked away. As Angela left with her fiancé, she couldn’t help but peek over his shoulder at Dwight, that almost-smile lighting on her face again.
----
Once Andy had gotten himself together and she had wrapped up the discussion in which she had been involved, Judy gathered the group on the walkway into Liberty Square. “This area has one attraction everyone loves – the Haunted Mansion – and one that everyone loves to make fun of – the Hall of Presidents. I personally love both of them, so we’ll spend about an hour here for those of you that want to experience both. There’s also the Liberty Belle Riverboat, which is a nice way to relax and take a tour around Tom Sawyer’s Island. If you find yourself with some free time, there are a few really neat shops too. So, I’ll let you all wander and I’ll see you in an hour?” She smiled, but once the majority of the group had dispersed the smile immediately evaporated.
“Need a smoke?” Pam joked. Judy sighed deeply.
“I need a whole pack. And a drink.”
----
Judy: (in yet another smoking area; she looks very tired and enjoys a long drag before speaking) Getting Michael out of that one…definitely a low point of the week. And my career. And my life. (She takes another drag, then looks as if a realization dawns on her. ) Do you think Meredith has any-- (She stops and shakes her head suddenly.) Forget I asked that. And for God’s sakes, edit that out too.
----
At the Haunted Mansion, Andy moved to get in line without Angela, but she followed him into the queue. He gave her a confused look. “You’re riding, too?” he asked. Angela nodded, surprisingly with a smile on her face.
“Yes.” A pause. “Why?”
“You hate anything to do with the occult. You won’t even watch Scooby Doo with me because they always assume it’s a ghost causing trouble first.”
Angela shrugged. “I know. But this is just an innocent ride,” she answered airily.
“Isn’t Scooby Doo just an innocent cartoon?” he attempted to understand.
“No. It also promotes drug use, living out of a van in sin and gluttony,” she stated matter-of-factly.
Andy appeared to have no idea what to do with this response. After a silence he put on a half-grin. “You’re awfully chipper all of a sudden.”
Angela fiddled with her ponytail. “Just glad you’re all right.”
----
The cameraman was in a “Doom Buggie” between one shared by Holly and Michael and one occupied solely by Creed. As the buggies glided out of the séance scene with Madame Leota, they turned to face a giant mirror, showing the riders that they had picked up a hitchhiker along the way. On his left, Holly started and grabbed Michael’s hand. Michael zeroed in on it immediately.
“Wasn’t expecting that,” Holly explained, laughing faintly. Michael gave the camera, by way of the mirror, a wide-eyed stare.
On the cameraman’s right, Creed stared into the mirror in abject terror.
----
Creed: (at the ride’s exit; still looking frightened) I took the wrong pill before I got on that, brother.
----
Dwight, Oscar and Stanley exited the theater together after watching a “performance” at the Hall of Presidents. “You look happy, Stanley,” Oscar pointed out, glancing at his coworker in amusement.
Stanley nodded serenely. “I liked that,” he said. Dwight stared at him, shocked.
“Really?”
Again Stanley nodded. “It was interesting and I got to sit in the air conditioning for twenty minutes.”
“You didn’t like it, Dwight?” Oscar asked. Dwight snorted.
“A hero like Theodore Roosevelt shoved in a back corner while that ne’er-do-well Rutherford B. Hayes gets a cushy seat front and center?” he scoffed. “That man has the blood of the Amish on his hands.”
Oscar couldn’t look more baffled if he tried. “How so?”
Dwight just shook his head and walked away. “Do your homework, Oscar,” he barked.
----
Dwight: (near a store called The Yankee Trader; shaking his head again) No, I’m not explaining it to you, either. Not knowing your history should be considered treason. (He purses his lips as if to say, “So there.”)
----
After riding the Haunted Mansion, Jim and Pam managed to get aboard the Liberty Belle Riverboat just as it was about to leave port. They stood together along the railing as the boat paddled around Tom Sawyer’s Island. Jim smiled down at her.
“Definitely much more pleasant than last time we hit the high seas together,” he observed. Pam nodded.
“In more ways than one.”
In unison they seemed to realize the far-reaching implications of that seemingly innocuous statement and wore twin expressions of discomfort during the pause that followed. After a long moment Pam put on a smile again. “Are you feeling better?”
“Was I feeling bad?” Jim asked, looking confused.
“I just thought earlier, when you didn’t want to ride it’s a small world…” she began, looking out at the water.
“Oh, yeah. Yeah, I am. Just needed a minute. Plus that song…it’s like a virus you can’t shake.”
“You’re telling me – I rode it twice.” They exchanged a grin, but just as harmony was reestablished, it seemed that Jim’s earlier rhetorical question to himself came back to haunt him: in a moment that had to be scripted, a happy couple in the all-too-familiar bride and groom ears joined them at the railing.
Had Jim known the camera was filming him from around the corner, he no doubt would have given it the look he now wore and was sharing with the water. Pam managed to keep a tenuous hold on her smile and shared it with the couple.
“Congratulations,” Pam offered them.
“Thanks!” they accepted smilingly.
“We just got married,” the woman added, casting a loving glance at her new husband.
“That’s great,” Pam said kindly.
And subconsciously or not, she took a half step away from Jim.
Chapter End Notes:
So? More?
