Page 6 of Love at Full Tilt

Phoenix’s Landing, Fableland

Orlando, FL

ELORRA

Love gets in the way of more-important stuff.

[Off-screen in the laboratory, explosion.]

QUEEN MAE

(cringes at the sound while waving away some smoke)

Maybe a distraction would do you good.

—Sunspark (00:10:21)

“What did people do at amusement parks before cell phones?”

Tess swipes her finger across another row of jewel-toned candies on her screen. When the person in front of her inches forward, she matches their pace by sliding along the metal railing.

It’s been half an hour, but the line for Dudley’s Tailspin still snakes around two more corners before entering the first indoor queuing area.

Above our heads, large fans spray mists of water to battle the heat, and the roof provides some sanctuary from Florida’s sun.

The railings that hem us in are crowded on all sides by carts overflowing with luggage and plastic taxicabs and cars.

Dudley’s Tailspin was one of Fable Industry’s first movies—it featured an anthropomorphic raccoon thief turned hero who steals planes to thwart heists—and the whole ride is themed like an airport.

The roller coaster has a nose capped with a propeller and wings as if it were a plane, and it’s supposed to do enough tight barrel rolls to make you feel like you’re flying.

I watch one of the cars zoom past before disappearing toward the sky. “Die of boredom?” I suggest.

Tess huffs appreciatively without looking up.

Beside her, Issy is absorbed in her social media, her red nails flying across her screen’s keyboard.

She’s cultivated quite a following since she launched her Issy Will Cook Anything video series, and no doubt she’s in the middle of some heated debate about the best method of hacking up a chicken or some other food-related thing.

Ever since she started the series, she’s been so much happier and more confident.

I wish it were something I could share with her, but opening up a pudding cup without tearing the foil is Michelin-star-level cooking in my house.

As we fall back into silence, I resume my search of the walls, corners, anything big enough to hold the elevator shaft that conceals Dudley’s stash.

The problem is I don’t know exactly what to look for.

I may have studied every secret in the four parks that make up Fableland, but I’ve never seen them with my own eyes, only in pictures online, half of which are so zoomed in it’s impossible to tell where in the queue the photo was taken.

And the rest are so grainy I’m convinced they were shot with a potato rather than a camera.

“Do you see it yet?” I push up on my tiptoes to peek over the supertall dad standing in the next row.

“See what?” Tess asks.

“The elevator. Dudley’s stash.” I wave my hand at the queue. “The whole reason we’re here.” Every second that we’re stuck in this line, my heart slams a little faster against my rib cage. It feels like it’s beating in time to all the seconds I’m losing as we wait.

The reasonable part of me knows that we entered the park the minute it opened, and the odds that ninety-nine people got here before us are slim to none, but it’s hard to be rational when it feels like your entire life is on the line. I’m desperate to scan that QR code and set the contest in motion.

“Shit. Right.” Issy jams her phone in her pocket and glances around. When Tess doesn’t do the same, she gives her a kick in the shin.

“Good God, woman, let me finish this round,” Tess mutters. Her small mouth dips into a frown as she rubs her ankle with her free hand.

Their apathy causes a twinge in my chest. I cross my arms to chase it away.

When we finally pass over the threshold into the first indoor queue, we’re assaulted by color and music as various animatronic versions of Dudley and Squirt trample suitcases on the luggage claim conveyor belt, hop the security line, and scuttle across the tarmac toward an unattended plane.

The cool fingers of overworked air-conditioning trace across my skin, helping dry up three pools’ worth of sweat.

More metal railings guide us forward. My eyes strain to see past everyone ahead of us in line. I wish I was taller. Or everyone else was shorter. Or they made comfortable sneakers with four-inch heels.

It takes some jumping and impressive tiptoe balancing, but eventually I catch sight of an elevator shaft on the opposite side of the room. Our timing could not be more perfect, because as I watch, its two doors yawn slowly open.

I strangle a squeal of excitement and dig for my phone. My pulse has ramped up, making my hands shake. This is it. The first clue.

“Let’s go.” I wave at Tess and Issy.

Tess peers up at me. “Where?”

“I found it.” I point toward the elevator.

Issy claps her hands. “Oh my God. Go get it!”

“You’re not going to come?” I frown.

Tess shakes her head. “We need to keep our place in line. We didn’t wait over half an hour to not go on the ride, right?”

She has a point.

Issy grabs my arm and gives it a shake. “We need to hear all about it when you get back. Every. Detail.”

I can’t linger any longer to see if they’ll change their minds. If the doors to the elevator close, I don’t know when they will open again. It could be ten minutes. It could be an hour. From what I’ve read, the elevator was built to be as chaotic as Dudley. I can’t chance wasting that kind of time.

The railings that herd the crowd through the room are tightly packed, so the only way to reach the elevator is to get to the walls. My muscles tense as I look around for an exit strategy.

The space between the railing’s bars is too thin for me to squeeze through, but the railing itself is a little too high to climb over without it turning into a spectacle.

The last thing I need is to become a meme or go viral because someone recorded me clumsily vaulting over it or getting stuck between its bars.

I hate that being plus size means going unnoticed until you don’t want to be.

Anything embarrassing becomes twice as funny to the rest of the world when you’re fat.

Thankfully, there’s a break in the bars up ahead, so I creep forward, apologizing to every person I bump into as I hold my breath to make myself as small as possible.

The moment I’m free, my heart starts screaming in my chest.

This is actually happening. It’s real. Money, new future, here I come.

The elevator doors are still open when I make it across the room, but there’s someone already there. He’s crouched near the right door. I spot the QR code as he scans it. At the beep of his phone, my stomach drops like I’m in a free fall.

I saw all the people at the welcome event yesterday. I know I’m not in this contest alone. But seeing someone else in action—seeing them get to the first QR code before me—ignites a bonfire of panic in my chest.

I’m already losing and I haven’t even started yet.

I don’t want to be a creep, but I can’t help inching closer to him. My hands itch as if I’m going to break into hives if I have to wait a minute longer.

Finally, after what feels like the length of two Fable Industry films, the guy rises, his body unfolding until he reaches his full height. As my eyes drift over the backward baseball hat and then his face, recognition kicks me in the teeth.

I can’t stop the gasp that rushes from my mouth.

He glances over at the sound, and a small smile lifts his lips. “Hey. Lia, right?”

Why does he remember my name?

My brain turns to mush and churns out the first coherent thought I have. Which, let’s be honest, is not actually that coherent. “Find the place where toast becomes bread and always adorned will be the royal head.”

One thick eyebrow creeps up his forehead. “Yep, you foundit.”

I can’t believe I just recited a random riddle to him like some off-brand version of Romeo.

Squatting to scan the code, I try to laugh, but in my head it sounds like a nervous cackle.

“Sorry. That was weird.” I shrug. “I guess I didn’t realize how worried I was about getting the first clue until I got here. ”

“Makes sense.” His voice is so soft I can barely hear it over the noise. “There’s a lot riding on this.”

He has no idea.

I aim my phone’s camera at the black-and-white square.

Above me, Dudley yells his various catchphrases at Squirt as he teeters atop the pile of stolen goods.

My hands tremble and it takes me a minute to hold my phone still enough to catch the code.

Being here, so close to the stories that have given me solacemy whole life, makes me feel light and heady, like I can’t quite anchor myself to the ground.

Finally, there’s a telltale beep, assuring me I’ve captured the code, and I stand back up.

The Scavenger app blinks, setting a buffering wheel spinning.

A second later, an icon that looks like a scroll with the number 2 at the center appears on the screen.

I click it, the gears in my head whirling before I even see the words.

Find the ball of fluff with the sparkle inside.

A smile overtakes my face. Another easy one. Obviously, it’s Smokey, Princess Regina’s dog from Percivel Night. At the beginning of the movie, Smokey swallows the Reddingshire jewels, then runs away, forcing Regina to leave in search for him, just days before her coronation.

I cast a glance over my shoulder. Reddingshire Castle, with its white marble turrets, spikes high into the bright-blue sky, the park’s welcoming beacon. According to my notes, Smokey’s in there, but the accounts as to where are conflicting.

“You good?” Mason’s voice breaks through my thoughts. When I turn my gaze back to him, he nods down at my phone.

“Oh, uh, yeah,” I mumble.

“Did you figure out the clue?”

My first instinct is to admit I don’t know where to find Smokey, but then it hits me. Mason is my competition. Just because he’s attractive enough to make my brain malfunction doesn’t mean I should share my secrets. We’re not on the same team.

I tip my chin up. “Obviously.”

I should have brought my notebooks with me. I thought we’d have time last night to work out the clues, and I can’t remember where the different forums said Smokey could be found. Some are more legit than others.

Mason has one of those heavy gazes that settles right against your skin, and he hasn’t looked away from me yet. My expression must betray my worry because he asks, “You okay?” His voice brushes against me like a flutter of wings.

“Yep. Just strategizing.” I put on a smile, even as my hand grips my phone a little harder.

Tess has begrudgingly accepted that this scavenger hunt is going to clash with her plans, but I can’t imagine she and Issy aregoing to be jazzed about spending the day wandering one of the park’s least exciting attractions in search of a small animatronic dog.

It’s another unpleasant reminder that we’re not at Fableland for the same reasons.

Mason’s head tilts. His expression is stoic and impossible to interpret through my haze of worry. “Have you been here a lot?” he asks.

I shake my head. “This is actually my first time.”

“You must be some superfan to win a spot in this contest without ever visiting the parks.”

I shrug. “You just had to answer some questions and be one of the first one hundred people to submit the correct answers.”

He reaches for the back of his hat and idly adjusts the brim against his neck. “The questions weren’t easy.”

“I guess I know a lot about this place.”

I hate being humble, but most people side-eye an eighteen-year-old—practically an adult—who still loves cartoons and make-believe as much as I do.

The negative attention I get for my body is bad enough: I don’t need any additional grief for my interests.

So with everyone who’s not Tess and Issy, I tamp my enthusiasm down to a low rumble, even if it feels like I’m tamping down my soul a little too.

Mason smiles. It’s far from mocking, just a shy curling of his lips. A dimple flares in his cheek, and another set of wings takes flight in my stomach.

Maybe he doesn’t think I’m such a dork. I mean, he’s in this contest too. He must understand the magic of this place.

His eyes are still pinned on me. I’m not sure I’ve seen him blink.

“Well”—I wave to the elevator doors, which have begun to slide closed—“good luck?”

I turn away, but his voice freezes me in place. “Do you want me to show you?”

I look back at him. “Show me?”

“Where to find the next clue?”

I smile tightly. “No thanks. Like I said, I’m good.”

This guy. First he manspreads all over the welcome room. Now he’s assuming I have no idea where I’m going (sure, it might be true, but that’s beside the point). Didn’t he marvel at my knowledge of the parks a second ago?

“ Super superfan, remember?” I point to myself. It takes an absurd amount of effort to sound breezy.

He pulls his cell phone out of his pocket and checks the time. It’s the model of phone I had years ago, when I got my first one in junior high. That unreadable expression has returned to his face. “Maybe I’ll see you there, then.”

My eyes drift back to the line for the ride. Tess and Issy have barely moved forward a few feet. They’re going to hire top-notch assassins to take me out when I tell them we have to go.

“What?” Mason asks.

“My friends are still in line.” I sigh.

“You know you get unlimited front-of-the-line passes for you and your guests as part of the contest, right?”

My gaze snaps back to Mason’s face. “What?” I studied all the information I got about the contest. Read every email a thousand times. How did I miss this?

He steps closer, his shadow swallowing me. “It’s in the app. Click the icon that looks like a gift box. Something new pops up in there after every clue. The passes are for clue one.”

I still want to kick him for second-guessing me, but now I want to hug him too.

Tess won’t be able to complain, no matter how much time I need to find clues, if we’re able to walk onto any ride she wants.

“Thanks.” I smile for real this time. Mason didn’t have to share that with me.

I would have found the rewards eventually, but he could have secured himself a lead for a little while.

And he offered to help me find clue two. It’s like he doesn’t know what a competition is.

He nods. “You’re welcome, Lia.”

I fight off a shiver. “I guess I’ll see you around.”

“I hope so,” he says. Then he wanders off, leaving me staring at his back, wondering if he meant it.