The Dream Train

Sam Gets Distracted, Too

Sam was impressed with the games at the arcade. There was a ton of classic games. His dad had taken him to a retro arcade when he was little and he had fond memories of mashing buttons with his dad for hours. There was no cost to play the games here in the pop-up arcade so Sam found an old fighter that he and his dad used to play.

Sam played against the computer for a few rounds before the guy that had been backstage at the horrible speech came up to him. "Can I have the next fight?" the guy asked.

"Sure." Sam K.O.'d the NPC and slid over so the other boy could take the second joystick. They selected their fighters and got into a very enthusiastic competition with a fair amount of trash talk and some mild swearing. Sam won the first round, the other boy won the second round, and then Sam won the final round.

"Rematch?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," the boy nodded. "I'm Donnie."

"Sam," Sam replied and offered his hand.

"Alright, Sam. Bring it on."

They turned back to the game.

After many rounds, Sam was feeling hungry. It was like Donnie read his mind. "Hey, you wanna go get some corn dogs?"

Sam shook his head. "No money. We could go back to my hotel, there's food there. I need to find my sister, first."

Donnie shook his head, "Nah, man, I got the hook-ups. Let's go get corn dogs. It won't cost us anything." He grinned at Sam.

Sam smiled back and nodded. Donnie led him over to the corn dog booth.

"Hey, Cass," Donnie called to the girl behind the counter. "Can I get corn dogs for me and my friend?"

The girl smiled at Donnie with all her teeth showing. "Why would I do that, Donald?"

Donnie's smile was smug. "Because you are madly in love with me."

The girl laughed. She tried to make it sound derisive but Sam thought she landed somewhere between sniveling and simpering.

The girl turned and a minute later she walked up to Donnie with two paper plates each loaded down with a pair of corn dogs and a pile of potato wedges. She set them on the counter and leaned across it. "Here are the dogs, Donnie. Now, where's my payment?"

Donnie laughed and then leaned close to her. "What do you want, Cass?"

She pouted her lips but the smile never faded. Sam started to feel awkward and tried not to watch the exchange. Donnie poked the girl in the nose. She stopped pouting and Donnie leaned across the counter. He kissed her and she reached out and grabbed his hair. After a few seconds, during which Sam tried to look anywhere else, Donnie pulled away from the girl's face. He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and grabbed the two plates.

"Hey," the girl called after him, "Don't you want your change?"

"Not today," Donnie laughed. "Keep the dream alive, Cass."

Donnie handed Sam a plate and led Sam out of the tent.

"Someday, Donald!" the girl yelled as they left.

Donnie laughed again and sat at a picnic table. Sam sat across from him. They both began shoveling food in their mouths. "After this," Donnie said around a mouthful of corndog, "We should go ride stuff."

"Because the best thing to do after eating a ton of junk food is to get on a ride that'll spin you all around?" Sam asked sarcastically.

Donnie shrugged, "You only live once."

Sam laughed. "Ok. Let's get sick."

Donnie stood up to throw his plate away and smacked Sam on the back. "That's my boy." Sam tossed his own plate in the trash and followed Donnie to the rides.

Ten minutes later, Sam and Donnie were next in line for the scrambler when Sam saw Ana moving through the crowd. His stomach lurched. He turned to Donnie. "Hey man, I'm sorry, I gotta bail. I need to catch up with my sister. We need to find out if anyone has found our grandmother, yet."

Donnie looked in the direction Sam was pointing. "Bruh, relax. That is definitely a grown-up problem. You're not a grown-up, you are. . .seventeen?"

"Not until September."

Donnie pulled Sam's arm and led him onto the ride. "Even worse. You don't need to worry about all that."

Sam found himself in the ride seat and an attendant was lowering the bar in front of them. "But my sister. . ."

"Ana's with Kelly, she's fine, and besides, that is not the girl you need to concern yourself with right now," Donnie nudged him and nodded at one of the other ride seats.

A pair of girls was giggling as their own bar was lowered. They were smiling shyly and Donnie and Sam and whispering furiously.

Sam looked from the girls to Donnie. Donnie raised his eyebrows and leered. Sam laughed. He felt a momentary pang of guilt as his eyes moved to the crowd across the pathway and he caught sight of Ana again. Then the ride started and he couldn't see anyone anymore. 

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Grammar discussion time! My grammar checker says "A pair of girls was giggling as their own bar was lowered." should be "A pair of girls were giggling as their own bar was lowered."  I say it should be "was" because "a pair" is singular.  I would write "a pair was giggling" not "a pair were giggling".  What do you think?