Canada's Wonderland

When the anticipated summer vacation became boring, my mom came home one day with a surprise. I was lounging on the couch doing nothing when 3 tickets were shoved in my face.

"Canada's Wonderland tickets were on sale today! I got you enough tickets to go twice with your sister and Arissa!" my mom said excitedly.

Since sitting on the couch wasn't my idea of 'fun', I didn’t want to miss my chance. Dialing Arissa's number as quickly as I could, a map of rides was already forming in my mind. The last time I went to Canada's Wonderland was years ago, and I didn't qualify for many of the rides. This year, all the rides were available for me.

"Hello?" Arissa’s voice said.

"Hi Arissa, it’s me Shirley. Want to go to Canada's Wonderland with my sister and I? My mom already bought us tickets, so we can go whenever we want." I told her.

"Really? I was thinking about going there too! Is it okay if one of my other friends come as well?"

"Sure! When we get there, we should…"

This went on for a while.

The beautiful day finally came. The sun kissed the flowers and the birds sang happily. Arissa's mom was taking my sister, Arissa, and I to Canada's Wonderland, where we would meet Arissa's friend, Yi Fong.

When we entered the gates of Canada's Wonderland, a train on the Leviathan thundered above our heads, followed by screaming. I glanced nervously at Arissa.

We quickly spotted a rocking boat and decided to go on it. While we were in line, we were chatting normally. This would be a piece of cake.

When it was our turn, we got on without a glance back. We were rocked up and down a few times before slowing down to a stop.

Our next ride was more of a roller coaster, called the Wild Beast. It zoomed forward and around a curve before climbing up a slope where we were suspended for a moment. I screamed because everyone else did.

Afterwards, wishing for more thrills, we came across Thunder Run. Yi Fong glanced at the speed of the trains and refused to go on. After a bit of convincing, she hesitantly agreed to go on with us. Our train sped forward into a dark cave with flashing lights all around us. We all hollered loudly, feeling the wind against our faces.


"Let’s go on the Bat!" Arissa said pointing to an image on the map. When we were actually standing in front of the Bat, my heart lurched. My eyes followed the red tracks leading to two loops. I had never been on loops, and this didn't seem like one for amateurs and my head barely passed the qualifying line.

"Let’s actually skip this one…" Yi Fong said nervously after we watched a train race past us with a lot of screaming. We moved on.

Our next ride was going to be Dragon Fire. There was a corkscrew and loops with rushing speed. Screaming filled the air.

"Uh…" my sister said with doubt. No one said anything, but we all didn't want to go on.


As we were making our way towards another ride, Arissa stopped.

"Wait! We haven't been on any of the bigger rides! We’ll have to go on one of them!" she exclaimed so we all agreed to backtrack to the Bat.

Arissa and I played hand games and tried to forget our situation. We suddenly found ourselves in the seats, being strapped tightly. I was sitting next to Arissa and my older sister was behind us. Screaming and screaming through horrifying loops, we finally stopped. My hand clenched the bars tightly, expecting to lurch forward again. 

Feeling somewhat heroic, we decided to go on the Behemoth. Before we could change our minds, we stepped into line. Up close, the ride seemed much higher than from afar. Since my sister and Arissa mutually agreed to go on, I didn't want to seem afraid.

We were almost there and half an hour already passed, but all the while, I was becoming more and more uneasy. I watched a train leave a station and listened to the screaming. Since the seating plan was 2 by 2, one of us was going to have to sit by ourselves.

I told Arissa and my sister that I was not going to go, fear overcoming my dignity. Arissa looked at my sister and a look of doubt crossed her face. But the train had arrived, and they still decided to go on. I went down the stairs and waited at the exit. I heard the train leave the station. I saw it climb up the slope. I felt my stomach clench when the train teetered at the peak. Soon enough, the ride was over and my sister and Arissa were running towards me.

"It was awesome!"

"The air was so fast!"

"If you scream, it’s better!"

"You need to ride it!"

They both took turns yelling excitedly at me. This time, comfortable with the knowledge of their experience, we lined up again. Arissa was going to sit with me, and my sister would sit behind us.

When it was our turn, I sat down, taking deep breaths. I reached over to the lap restraints and latched it down as tightly as I could. Groping for the body straps, I realized there was none. How is this piece of plastic and foam going to keep me in my seat? From waist up, I was exposed. The next thing I know, I’m moving forward and the people who work at the ride were wishing us a good journey.

Good journey?! More like the scare of our lives! I thought. Our train jerked up as it began to climb. The air was cold and I noticed how dark it was. 2 ladies behind my sister were talking calmly and laughing. Do they not realize that they are on the Behemoth?! I looked down, and we were pretty high up. I sucked in air preparing to scream as we drop. But we continued to climb, and climb. When will this thing drop? The heads in front of me disappeared. We had reached the peak. Our train was suspended for a moment and below us, city light glowed and car headlights flashed by. The faint sound of traffic was all we could hear. I got in as much of the cold air as I could before plunging into darkness. I was out of breathe that I couldn't even scream anymore when we began climbing again. Before I could recover, we were rushing back down. We slowed down after a while and returned into the booth, where everyone was applauding. A bit dazed, we then went on the Stunt Coaster, Flight Deck, and Skyrider, though nothing came close to the Behemoth.

When Arissa's dad came to pick us up, we were all exhausted. However, Arissa jumped into the car and began talking to her dad.

"Dad, dad! We went on the Behemoth! We went on the Behemoth!"

This lasted the whole ride home.