After nearly being put down, Jana had to admit that she found Shannon's idea of creating a bucket list a little bit offensive. But at least she wasn't trying to steal her herbal medicines or ask her a billion and one questions about wild wolfblood life. Jana had never been this grouchy before, well except once, when she had turned into the morwal. She expected that she would turn into one again next full moon.
Now that Rhydian had left for Canada.
She had spent the first week or so sitting in her room all day, wondering how she was going to cope without him. He had made her promise to talk to the Segolia people- and she had been on their website once or twice trying to find out if they had an office near where Rhydian and Maddy were living, but unfortunately they didn't. It wasn't until Rhydian talked to her on Skype that she began to feel a little better.
Of course Shannon and Tom had been worried about how she would cope, now that she was the only teenage wolfblood in town.
"I don't know why you're so offended," Shannon said, passing Jana the last of the rashers of bacon- slightly undercooked, just how she liked it. She knew Shannon was trying to make her happy.
"Maybe it's because I almost died once," Jana admitted, "I don't like thinking about anything to do with dying. It just makes me remember…"
"It's ok," Tom said, "We understand. We just don't think it's a good idea for you to be moping about all day. Now you're going to live in the human world- you need to start seeing more of it."
"We've got a couple of hours before the bus arrives," Shannon said looking at her phone, "Perfect."
Jana tried not to rub the mascara, not wanting to look like a zombie. She couldn't believe that she had been the fourth K once, and worn makeup because she wanted to. She would have had to be seriously mad (well she was a morwal at the time) to allow something like that to happen.
"Stand still," Shannon said as she tried to straighten Jana's hair.
"How much longer?" Jana asked, "You know it's never going to work."
"Only a few more minutes," Shannon said.
"I wish you'd tell me where we're going," Jana said.
"I don't want to ruin the surprise," Shannon replied excitedly.
Jana looked at the clothes she was wearing- a dark blue dress t-shirt and a pair of leggings- she grimaced, she would never have chosen to wear something so girly. At least Shannon had let her wear her boots- even though they were falling apart.
"Perfect," Shannon said as she sprayed the hairspray, making Jana cough. She looked in the mirror and barely recognised herself.
"Wow," Tom said, as he saw Jana. She tried not to laugh- she was sure Tom had had a crush on her once, but nothing was going to happen between them ever, especially now he was dating Shannon.
"You should sue," Meinir said appearing in the doorway. She had been living with Ceri and Gerwyn, unsure as to whether she would be able to return to the wild pack. If Aran became leader, then she was sure that she would return, but it would be weird being the only human in a wild wolfblood pack.
"Sorry, May," Jana said, earning a growl from the older girl, who hated the nickname, "We don't want to be late."
Shannon and Tom followed Jana down the stairs. Gerwyn was reading the paper- trying to pretend to be a stereotypical father- whilst Ceri was nagging him about helping with the housework.
"Have fun," he said glancing up from the article he was reading.
"Don't worry about curfew," Ceri added, "Just have a great time."
Jana was sure they knew about Shannon's little plan, and grimaced.
"Come on," Shannon yelled, "The bus will be here in a few minutes."
"How much longer?" Jana groaned as she laid her head against the window. They had been on the bus for three hours and she was beginning to feel a bit queasy- probably from eating too much chocolate and from something called travel sickness.
"Only another ten minutes or so," Tom said.
Jana put her head in her hands.
"It's not that bad," Tom began, "Remember that camping trip when went on at school, the journey was much longer."
"Yeah, remember that camping trip," Jana replied, "Especially the journey there."
"Oh, yeah," Tom said suddenly realising, "We'll be there soon."
Shannon hugged her friend, "You'll be ok."
Jana was overwhelmed by the colours and sounds. At first she flinched everytime she heard someone screaming but then realised they were yelling because they were enjoying themselves. She munched on a hot dog as Shannon and Tom argued over which way to go.
"Wolfbloods," Shannon said shaking her head, "How are you always hungry?"
Jana shrugged, "Fast metabolism."
"Right, well I think we should go here, here then here," Tom suggested, pointing at the map.
"I agree," Shannon said, "I don't think Jana should go on the sky drop just yet."
Tom nodded, "Especially not after all that chocolate."
"What's a sky drop?" Jana asked confused, "How can you drop the sky?"
Shannon and Tom laughed.
"It's a theme park ride," Shannon explained.
"What's a theme park?" Jana asked.
"This is a theme park," Tom said pointing to the rides, "Alton Towers. Come on let's go on Nemesis."
Jana stumbled off the ride and held onto a nearby fence until the dizziness passed. She had loved the ride- it was almost like running wild except a lot more scary. She was sure she could do this every day of her life and never get bored.
"That was awesome," Jana said when Tom and Shannon caught up with her, "Where to next?"
Shannon and Tom smiled, before pointing to a ride of the map- Thirteen.
"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself," Shannon said.
"I wish Rhydian was here with us," Jana admitted. She could imagine them daring each other to go on the scariest rides.
"Well-" Tom began, earning a thump from Shannon.
"When he visits with Maddy, we'll come back here," Shannon said.
Jana smiled, "Let's go!"
Jana felt nervous energy flood through her as the ride began to move. The ride reminded her so much of the wilderness, it was set in a haunted forest, not unlike the one she used to call home- except there were no weird hooded figures or actual ghosts.
The ride sped off quickly and Jana looked around her as the people on the ground became smaller and smaller. The roller coaster seemed to take ages to reach the top and then it sped towards the ground, weaving this way and that through the trees. Eventually it stopped in a dark room and Jana could hear the closing of a door behind her.
She felt trapped and began to breathe quickly. Then the ride dropped and she yelled in fear, the ride dropped again and she yelled again, this didn't seem so fun anymore.
Then the ride started to move backwards still in the dark before it went through another door and Jana could see daylight again. She was still breathing fast, absolutely terrified.
"Is it over?" Jana asked Shannon, who was watching her, concerned, "I don't want to go into any more of them rooms."
Shannon nodded, "It's ok. We didn't know it would be like that. We wouldn't have suggested this ride had we known."
"We could go to the waterpark," Tom volunteered.
"Yeah, that sounds great," Jana said.
Jana laughed as she dived into the water. At least humans had swimming pools. The waterpark was set in a tropical paradise with several slides running around the main pool. She splashed water at Tom who was trying to take a picture of her.
"Your dress," Shannon complained.
"You were the one who decided to give me a makeover," Jana said, knowing that her hair was probably back to its usually curly mess. She did feel bad; Shannon had spent so much time helping her get ready for the day out, "I'm sorry."
Shannon jumped into the water too, "It's ok."
"Thank you for bringing me here," Jana said, "I know I probably haven't been that great company today."
"Nonsense," Shannon said, "It's been good day out."
"You should what Shannon's got planned next," Tom admitted.
Jana smiled maybe the bucket list idea wasn't so bad after all.