Page 23 of Love at Full Tilt

Atalantia, Fableland

Orlando, FL

My family’s favorite story to tell is the day I got lost in Atalantia on my fifth birthday because I was following Lucy the Lobster.

I saw her red claws waving in the air as she waddled through the crowd on the way to Neptune’s Launch.

Seaward Bound was my favorite movie as a kid, and for a long time Lucy had felt like my only true friend.

She was the lone lobster hanging out with a bunch of fish.

Just like I was the only Korean American in my class at school, in my neighborhood, pretty much anywhere I looked.

Lucy understood what it was like to look different.

I just wanted to give her a hug, and Mama wasn’t moving fast enough. So I took matters into my own hands….

—Grace Choi, “Confessions,” facelessinFableland.com

Mason

Have you figured out the first clue yet?

(6:45 AM)

Mason

Carter and I only ever went to Neptune’s Landing as kids. We were pretty convinced the rest of Atalantia had cooties.

(6:47 AM)

Lia

Why? Because most of the rides are from the princess movies?

(6:55 AM)

Mason

I was not a sophisticated ten-year-old.

(7:00 AM)

Lia

It’s at the waterfalls next to the Seaward Bound ride.

(7:10 AM)

I unraveled today’s first clue in record time when it came in at midnight.

Even the cutest sea creatures have dark doppelg?ngers —it was obviously a reference to the dancing shadows of Lucy the Lobster and her friends from the animated film Seaward Bound.

According to F 3 , they can only be seen from the very center of the waterfall.

Which meant we were going to start our day in the park soaking wet.

Right now, I’m doing a poor job of texting and walking as Tess, Issy, and I head for the hotel shuttle. Atalantia opens early on Wednesdays for guests staying on-site and VIP visitors, and I plan to have us standing in front of the shell-encrusted gold gates at exactly eight.

When I met back up with Tess and Issy yesterday after lunch, I had not been prepared for how disappointed they’d be with me for doing the Last Steps walk-through without them.

“I know you’ve got this contest stuff, but this trip is supposed to be for us too,” Tess had said, kicking a few stray rocks off the sidewalk. “We have plans. ”

I had to bite my tongue to keep from reminding her that she was the one who had all the plans.

Issy and I had never agreed to anything.

We just hadn’t bothered to fight with her.

“Tess, do you really want me to lose this chance for life-changing money because I might have to go on a ride or two without you?” I’d hoped that saying it out loud might help her hear how unreasonable she sounded.

Her mouth had puckered into a pout, and she crossed her arms. “We’re supposed to experience it all together.”

“Then stay with me while I do the contest stuff.”

That didn’t seem to satisfy her, so to make peace, I suggested that we get to Atalantia early today and find the clues immediately, and then we could go back to Last Steps, or follow Tess’s detailed tour of Atalantia, or whatever she wanted to do.

I even offered to search for the clues independently from Mason, so it was a day for just the three of us.

He and I agreed to keep in touch via text and share whatever clues we worked out so we’d stay even on the leaderboard, but our texting started long before we got day three’s first clue.

I sent him pictures of everything we ate.

He replied with photos of his dachshunds.

I complained that Tess and Issy were going to drag me back through Last Steps.

He answered with a picture of his boot with the hole in the toe.

When he started his shift at the pharmacy last night, I got images of every shelf he restocked.

It was like he was making sure I remained part of his day, even if I wasn’t with him.

As we climb onto the small bus, I read over his texts one more time. I can feel Tess’s eyes settle on me, her gaze heavy with judgment.

“What?” I ask her, shoving my phone in my pocket.

“You’ve been on that so much lately,” she comments.

My face heats. “I need it for the contest.”

We sit down, me next to the window, Tess beside me, and Issy in the seat behind us.

“And for Mason.” Her lips tip into a teasing smile.

I shrug. “We’re just working together.”

Issy leans forward so her arms curl around my headrest. “That’s not how either of you look at each other.” She arches an eyebrow meaningfully.

My shoulders lift again. I don’t know what they want me tosay.

“He lives around here, right?” Tess asks.

“Yeah.” I look away from her to stare out the window. I can already see Atalantia’s centerpiece, Ocean’s Grace, the giant conch-shell castle from The Sea Witch’s Revenge, stretching up toward the clouds, its pearlescent pink sheen winking in the sunlight.

Tess shifts beside me. “Have you talked about what’s going on with you two?”

“We haven’t talked about anything,” I confess to my reflection. At least not anything related to the feelings I’m struggling to ignore. “He told me I was beautiful, that’s about it.”

“Aw, that boy is a walking green flag,” Issy quips. “Total romance hero material.”

“No kidding,” I mutter. That’s what’s making this so hard. He’s like no one I’ve met before.

“I get the sense he’s not much of a talker, though.” There’s a laugh in Tess’s voice that lets me know she’s not being critical.

“But he’s a total texter.” I can’t help but smile as I face them again and show off our string of messages.

For a few minutes, the three of us laugh over Mason’s pictures, and I have to explain to them about the boot, and how I admitted to him what happened the last time I was in a haunted house.

They’re both appalled at my honesty.

“You don’t understand.” I sigh, burying my face in my hands. “When I’m with him, I want to tell him everything. I want him to know every part of me. Even the embarrassing stuff.” I groan.

Tess shoves her shoulder into mine and leaves it there. Her expression gets serious again. “Just be careful, okay? We’re leaving in four days.”

“I know.” And I mean it.

I really do.

Until another message from him flashes on my screen and my heart takes flight.

Sprays of water still coat my forehead and cheeks from the Seaward Bound waterfalls when Issy and I stop and stare at my phone, trying to decipher the second clue.

We’d headed straight from the shuttle to the ride when we arrived at the park.

Most of Seaward Bound takes place deep under the waterfalls, where a submarine travels an underwater track, but guests can also explore the small paths around the falls by themselves.

If you’re brave enough to cut straight through the splashing water to the center, you’ll discover a small cave with a series of human-size shadows in the shape of lobsters, starfish, and seahorses dancing against the water’s gurgling backdrop.

After I’d scanned the QR code on the cave wall, Tess, Issy, and I stood there for a while laughing at the creatures’ awkward dance moves.

It was impossible to tell how the silhouettes had been designed and what made them move.

Another example of Fableland’s magic. Let Mason try to explain this one away.

Then Tess got a call from her girlfriend, Grace, and wandered off somewhere quiet to take it, leaving Issy and me to work out the next clue on our own.

This pool of circles can never be broken.

“Pools?” Issy sighs, brushing wet strands of hair off her forehead. “Practically everything in this park is water related.”

“Yeah, but they’re not all pools.” And most of them aren’t circles. Or full of circles. I’m still trying to decide what that phrase means.

As I let my brain marinate on it, I check the leaderboard in the app. Since we gained access to it yesterday, I haven’t been able to stop looking at it. It provides real-time updates on where people are in the process of searching, which is helpful but also incredibly stressful.

Sixty-six. That ranking from yesterday still haunts me. I lay awake half the night, tracing the patterns on the ceiling’s plaster as I panicked. Only sixty people will get through today. If I stay where I am on the board, I’ll get cut.

But for now, at least, I’m at the top of the list. Tess, Issy, and I were the first people to the waterfall, and I was the first to get the QR code, although a person with dark-brown skin, lilac hair, and a really excellent undercut scooched in after us to grab the code, too.

According to the leaderboard, their name is Ember.

They were in the top five yesterday too.

Definitely someone to keep an eye on.

I wish my head start was more of a comfort.

But as another contestant jogs by us, I can practically feel my advantage slipping away.

I don’t know these parks the way other people in this contest do.

Sure, I’ve studied every map I could find, but that’s not the same as navigating them in real life.

I’m not familiar with their contours, the places where the crowds tend to thicken and bottleneck, the shortcuts that let you avoid parades and other outdoor performances.

I fight off the itch to check the leaderboard again for reassurance. Instead, I turn my attention back to the clue.

Breaking the riddle up seems to be the best way for me to solve it. Since I can’t puzzle out the “pool of circles” part, I shift to the other key phrase: can never be broken.

“What are things that can’t be broken?” I ask out loud.

“My love affair with pork belly.” Issy grins.

I snort. “Nothing is stronger than that.”

Her mouth purses. “Metal? A lot of gemstones?”

“Maybe…” I bite my lip. So far the clues have been more abstract, so I try to consider less-literal interpretations. “Hearts? Promises? Vows?”