At least there's (funnel) cake

Iggy was the weird reclusive kid in his class. He got high marks in the subjects he excelled at, and worked to being reasonably average in his others. His fear aura made most of his interactions brief to say the least. There were exceptions to this, those rare occasions where he would get jumped thanks to it. It also wasn't surprising that he had rumors floating all around the school. Some of them were baseless, some of them has a smidgen of truth. But none of them ever quite hit the mark.

But recently, things had changed a little with Alma Malivani taking notice of him in spite of these things. In spite of the aura that hat to cause her some levels of discomfort. Was it a dare? It had to be a dare. She was too well known for it not to be one. But, she wasn't acting like people did when they were acting on dares. This seemed genuine though, not awkwardly forced. He was bracing himself for backlash that always seemed to come with these things.

It was his birthday and she'd insisted they come here to the space station's trashy theme park rather than sticking around the tree lighting. Incidentally this was the original plans they had for the weekend. He was reluctant to be going, but now more so because she insisted on paying for all of it. They barely knew each other so why?

He looked around, there were so many things. His parents wouldn't have even considered bringing him to a place like this. Alma had asked him what he wanted to do first and he had no idea. What do people do first? More importantly just how ballsy were these idiots to think they could just skirt a copyright infringement suit like this?

"I really don't even know where to start. Cooper can't even get on most of these," he scanned the park for something. "Why not one of the smaller roller coasters? We could maybe work our way up to that one or something."

He pointed to what was more than likely their signature coaster. Normally he'd be apprehensive about getting on a tame ride for a laundry list of reasons. He was feeling a little more like he can do things he generally wouldn't. Cooper seemed to approve of this plan though.

"Or we could walk around. That's always fun."

@Kadakism

"I can't see us not being hungry after all that," Iggy said in response to the confirmation of his plan. He was definitely becoming more at ease the more he hung around her. He felt himself returning a faint smile to her.

He slowly eased into an even pace with hers as they moved through the park. Truth be told he was taking everything in more than anything else. He'd missed both space cons due to having no one to really hang around. And that amusement park trip, which he'd heard very mixed opinions on.

Iggy wasn't really sure what all to talk about as they went along. He was however sure he'd found the first ride. It was almost tastelessly shaped like a stereotypical flying saucer, but easily recognized as a gravitron.

"You'd think they'd do something a little more.... I dunno, it's not like we're already in space," he frowned and turned to Alma. "We might lose our lunch before we even eat."

@Kadakism

From the sounds of things, it sounded like the management was just a tad out of touch with the consumers. But who cared, they can just laugh at all of it together. "That sounds like a smart move though. You know security drones as mascots. But if they're creepy that totally defeats the purpose."

Iggy hadn't even really begun to think about it until now, but Alma was awfully close to him. Not only that, but she seemed fine? Even more strange was the fact that he seemed rather fine with her being so close. He wanted to ask her if she was alright, he was kind of wondering if he was alright. He was contemplating how he should even bring it up when she brought up food. What kind of stuff did they even serve up here?

"I don't mind getting food. But is it going to be boring overpriced food I can get on Earth, or actual space fast food? I don't wanna get my hopes up," something in the back of his mind was telling him to just go ahead and ask her the question. "You'd tell me if my aura was bothering you right? Like if you need to... need to step away for a little bit? No one's stayed this close for this long outside of my parents."

@Kadakism

Hidden behind his bangs, Iggy's eyes widened in surprise. Cooper also seemed to react in a similar manner as he rested idly on Iggy's shoulder. He swallowed not quite knowing what to say in response to that. A challenge was it? Normally it just gave people an excuse to shy away from him. For Alma she didn't care? It really wasn't bothering her as much.
"I see, thank you," he said quietly.

He wasn't sure what to do now. Now his teenage mind was asking a million questions at once. They were walking together like a couple. His aura wasn't deterring Alma in the slightest. What? He fidgeted a bit. She was a girl, and a cute one at that. Was this a date? Hell if he knew, he'd never been on one. Does he ask her? No, he didn't want to make it weird. He glanced at her before diverting his attention to the food stalls. The things he saw definitely qualified as alien.

The stall they settled on was selling some kind of floating soup. He wasn't quite sure but Alma seemed to be trying to distract herself a bit. Not in a bad way, but in the way he was trying not to just stare at her. For now he focused on this weird floating chowder. "It looks good but how do you eat it? And it's floating. Is it the spoon?" he paused. "Only one way to find out. Then grab some funnel cake?"

@Kadakism

"I think it's worse when you hear the song once and you don't know anything but the melody," his expression darkened as if he was reliving some horror. "You wanna google it, but you can't because you don't even know its name. And you just hear it clawing and clawing at the back of your mind going 'what's my name Iggy?' Musical hell is a terrible place to be."

He was trying to keep up his serious expression. But then it broke, as he started to laugh at his own joke. He was having fun, more fun than he'd had in a while. He felt strangely at ease now, just sitting and talking. This was what normalcy was right? Probably definitely what being a teenager was about. He'd take it, even if it was just for the day. Alma wasn't terrible to hang out with.

"That got dark. You know I don't actually write stuff like that?" he was smiling and he couldn't make it go away if he wanted to.

@Kadakism