Page 113 of Pick Me Up On Tuesdays

I groaned. "Max, this is not an episode of Max and the Reckless Decisions—"

"Come on! A missing kid, a dragon park, and an actual Neravine? This is documentary gold!"

The Neravine exhaled sharply, the sound eerily like waves retreating from shore. "He was here.

In the park. I told him to stay close, but he wandered off. He is young. Reckless."

"How young?" I asked, my stomach tightening.

"Barely past his fledgling years. He does not yet understand the dangers of the land."

Fantastic. A lost, magical child in a park filled with dragons and other assorted nightmares. This was exactly how peopleended up in those cautionary news reports about why field trips should be banned.

Joy and Max exchanged looks. "This is perfect," Max said. "We help her, save the day, and boom—front-page documentary material."

I hesitated. "Mrs. Catherine—"

Max threw an arm around my shoulders. "Ghost boy, buddy, think about it. A dramatic rescue mission? The audience will eat this up. Also, y’know, it’s the right thing to do or whatever."

Mr. Dax was currently passed out in the bus, meaning I was the only responsible-ish person left. Which meant if anything went wrong, I was the one who'd get the lecture. Yet here I was, already contemplating neck-deeping myself in trouble before we’d even started.

Why did it have to be me?

I sighed. "Fine. But if we get in trouble, I’m blaming you.”

Max grinned. "Wouldn’t have it any other way."

We gathered the rest of the group, quickly explaining the situation. Joy and Mia agreed to search the Eastern side of the park, near the flight training grounds. Shun and Max—who had just made up from a relationship break—took the Western sector, where smaller dragons were kept. The rest scattered—which left me and Ethan heading deeper into the park, toward the more untamed, less regulated areas.

On our way, Ethan purchased three cotton candies.

I squinted at him. "Are you stress-eating or bribing me to shut up—"

"Maybe the kid likes cotton candy,” he interjected.

I blinked. "Right. Because nothing says 'lost and afraid' like an impromptu sugar rush."

Ethan ignored me and took a massive bite, looking completely at peace with his life choices.

As we moved past the designated paths, eating cotton candy like unsupervised five-year-olds, the energy in the air shifted. The playful cheers of visitors faded, replaced by the distant rumble of dragon wings and the rustling of unseen creatures in the underbrush. The atmosphere thickened, the kind of silence that made you instinctively check over your shoulder.

I glanced at Ethan, who walked ahead of me, his jaw set, his eyes scanning the area like a predator searching for prey—or maybe just looking for more snacks. Hard to tell with him.

"Y'know," I muttered, lowering my voice as we stepped over a fallen branch, "if something jumps out at us, I’m throwing my cotton candy at it and running.”

Ethan smirked. "Coward."

"Survivor," I corrected. “And you just wasted half of our best peace offering." I gestured at the half-eaten fluff in his hand.

"If a dragon tries to eat us, I’ll just bribe it with the rest."

I sighed. "Yeah, I’m sure that'll work great. 'Please, mighty beast, spare us and take this artificially flavored cloud as tribute.'"

Ethan grinned munching into his candy. "Exactly."

But as he grinned, I couldn't help but wonder what was really going on in his mind. Everyone who'd witnessed what happened between Ethan and his dad—including me—had chosen not to mention it again. Maybe I didn’t want to rip the wound open. Maybe I knew he wouldn’t talk about it. Maybe it was easier to pretend it hadn’t happened. But whatever the reason, I knew he wasn’t as okay as he pretended to be. Still, I didn’t bring it up—not now.

Meanwhile, the deeper we went into the untamed part of the park, the more the world felt like it was holding its breath. Shadows stretched longer, twisting unnaturally as if the park itself wasn’t thrilled about our presence.

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