You'll crash and burn in the bumper cars at Jersey's Steel Pier

A chime rang out over the course, but the people in the cars barely heard it. Certainly Nick didn’t; his had was too busy rattling around from the impact of Gina slamming into his car from behind a second ago to focus.

But they noticed when the cars stopped moving.

“Hey, what’s the big deal?!” Dani groaned as her car slowed down to a stop, drifting listlessly across the court.

“Time’s up,” Sylvia explained, shouting over the chime as it died down. “We used up our five minutes of playing around.”

“That seems stupid,” Dani grimaced. “I mean, we’re the only ones here! This whole Amusement Park was made just for us, right? So why is there even a timer? Can’t we keep going for as long as we want to?”

She stared at Sylvia, who could only shrug in response. She wasn’t sure what Dani wanted her to say, honestly.

“Well… there are some differences,” Sylvia said as the girls began to slowly drive the cars back to the overhanging platform where they’d gotten on.

Mary stood on the edge with an apprehensive look on her face.

“Mary? You okay?” Holly asked as she pulled her car into the slot.

“I… I was just wondering,” Mary murmured, biting her lip, “would it be possible… that is… were you guys thinking of maybe… going again?” Her eyes watered hopefully. “If so… could I… could I join? Just for a little, I mean! It looked like fun, so… I wanted to play.”

Her face was bright red, and it was clear she wanted to wither away in shame. And maybe the Mary from the past would have done exactly that. But right now, she was determined, and she was adamant. And she was staring right at Nick as she said it.

He couldn’t help but smile at how far she’d come.

“Sure, Mary!” Holly was almost giddy with excitement. She patted the empty car next to hers. “If you want to come along, then that’s fine!”

Rose looked like she wanted to say something, and Gina cracked a lopsided grin. Both women were incredibly amused that Mary wanted to come along, and they both had ideas in mind about how they could give her a hard time.

They didn’t, though. They kept their thoughts to themselves, both deciding there was no point in putting all that pressure onto her.

“Okay, so, um… whoa, this is more snug than I thought,” Mary mumbled, trying to squeeze into the cramped conditions of the car. The power ran back through the machines, and they all turned on again. “Okay, so how do I- WHOOOOAAAAAAAA!”

The car shot off, zigzagging through the course and smacking into the others. Mary turned into a bobblehead as she struggled to regain her focus.

“Watch out!” Mary wailed as her car smashed into another girl’s, slapping into Rose and knocking both of them backwards. It took her a few seconds to balance everything.

Mary had never even driven an actual car before. She didn’t know how. But a ride like this was made for kids, right? So she shouldn’t HAVE to know! All she needed to do, all she needed to focus on, was keeping her position straight, and trying to get ahead!

That’s what she attempted to do, anyway.

After a bit of time, she was finally able to get the hang of things, and started driving forward. Of course, that was when Rose decided to get a little payback.

SMACK!

Mary’s car shook as Rose rammed her from the side.

“H-hey!” Mary spun the wheel, turning her back towards the other girl. “That was mean! Cut that out!” She **** her car forward and rammed Rose right from the front, mashing their large bumpers against one another.

It was actually kind of fun.

“Sorry, red!” Rose tittered. “You’re going to have to do a lot better than that!” She backed up her car slightly and slammed into Mary’s again, trying to **** her backwards. But because these were Bumper Cars and not actual cars, neither one of them really made all that much progress.

“Don’t worry, Mary! I got your back!”

Mary glanced over to see Holly coming in from the side. She slammed her car into Rose’s, shaking the blonde.

“Holly!” Rose pouted, a look of betrayal flashing across her face. “What’s the big deal!? I thought we were cool!”

“We are cool,” Holly replied, ramming her again. “But Mary’s still my besty. Sorry, I need to be on her side.”

Then Holly shook as someone slammed into her car. It was Dawn.

“Oh, Dawn!” Rose clasped her hands over her heart. “You came to help me! You really do care! Aww, that’s so sweet!”

Dawn smirked, and with a spin of the wheel, sent her car careening into Rose’s next.

“Nope,” she scoffed. “I’m just here to have some fun. Not taking anybody’s side! But you girls were making such nice, juicy targets, I couldn’t help myself!”

“You should save that line of thinking for yourself!”

Dawn whipped her head around to see Gina coming in hot. The punk girl slammed her car into Dawn’s from behind with enough **** that the brunette was practically launched across the course. Dawn clutched the wheel and cursed, and spun it around quickly to try and turn towards Gina so she could meet her head-on.

Nick watched all of this from across the course with a smile on his face.

“At least they’re having fun,” he murmured as he slammed his car into Dani’s. “What about you, Dani?” He shouted to his friend. “Are you enjoying yourself?”

“YEAH!” Dani shouted back, ramming her car into his in turn. “This is great! It’s a blast!” She flashed him a grin. “How about you?”

Nick nodded back. “More fun than I expected,” he admitted. “But that’s not saying a whole lot. Now then, I think… yeah, take that!”

He hit her car again.

The reason he was mainly focusing on Dani right now was because he was worried about her. She’d been having a pretty rough week. After a rough week before that.

And a rough week before that.

Out of all the girls in his “harem”, Dani definitely had it the roughest. And Nick didn’t like that one bit. He cared about her and wanted to help her; he certainly didn’t want her to suffer. But since he couldn’t do anything to give her what she wanted the way he could with Gina or Mary, the best thing for him at the moment was to try and give her some fun times in circumstances like this.

“Okay!” He shouted to her. “Let’s work together and go get them, alright?”

He pointed towards the pile of girls that had started to gather in the center of the course. Morgana and Sylvia had joined by this point, and started ramming the others.

Dani cracked a grin. “Sounds good! But Sylvia’s mind!”

She gripped the wheel so tightly her knuckles turned white. “I’m gonna show her why you don’t mess with me!” Dani snarled.

Nick wasn’t so sure that was a great idea, but he figured that as long as everybody was having fun, then it wouldn’t be a problem.

Dani gunned it for the other cars with Nick hot on her heels, and they joined the fray, laughing maniacally.

“…It looks like they’re really having fun,” Carly murmured, kicking her legs lazily off the platform as she rested her chin in her hands.

“Don’t even think about it,” Marley chastised her. “We can do other rides, whatever ones you want, but there’s absolutely no way I’m letting you get into one of those things on your own. Not a chance, Carly, you got that?”

Carly stuck out her tongue at her sister and Marley rolled her eyes.

“Can’t you just be mature for once?” She frowned, already knowing that the answer was almost-certainly a “no”.

“I think this was actually a good call,” Kim said, smiling broadly. She was enjoying the sight of her friends competing against each other like this. “The designs are a little direct, but… everyone really looks like they’re enjoying themselves.”

That was good. She loved seeing stuff like this herself. It reminded her that at the end of the day, everyone was capable of getting along and being friends. Even Sylvia.

Kim remembered the look in Dakota’s eyes earlier, and she frowned. She’d never really known what Dakota was up to, even before she learned that the pale woman was a host. But now that she did, she knew that things were even more complicated. The two of them had butted heads a few times, but at this point…

“Haah… it’s not something that’s easy to work through,” she muttered, shaking her head. “What a twisted mess.”

Honestly, Kim really did just want everybody to get along. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done, especially since she didn’t know what Dakota was planning, or how to help Sylvia get along with the others.

Maybe if she wasn’t stuck behind the counter, the two of them could actually try and do some bonding, but she doubted it.

The Rumper Cars kept going for another few minutes. Then when everything had settled down and everyone got out, they all shared some laughs.

“That was amazing!” Mary gushed. “It was so fun, racing around the track and ramming into people! I loved it!”

“I’m glad,” Nick smiled. “I was kind of worried you’d get overwhelmed, to be honest.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think you had the killer instinct,” Gina agreed, cracking a grin. “Charging in like that, ramming your car into all of us, that’s pretty cool, Mary. You’ve got a wild side to you, did you know that?”

Mary frowned, and pouted. She looked warily at Gina, not quite sure what to say.

“Thanks, I guess?” She mumbled.

“Hey, come on!” Gina grinned, patting her on the back. “It’s a compliment! A compliment! Just take it and smile!”

“…Right…” Mary tried to smile. “Thanks.”

Gina smiled back.

“Now then!” She clapped her hands together. “What are you girls in for now? I’d just love to go on one of those roller coasters!”

“I-I don’t know about that,” Morgana swallowed, shaking her head.

Gina sighed. “Come on, Morgana, you can’t seriously feel like throwing up, can you? It was just the Bumper Cars! Geez, if anybody here was going to be vomiting the whole damn time, I was certain that it would be Mary!”

“Me?!” Mary’s jaw dropped. “Why would you think it would be me!?”

Gina glanced at her and raised her eyebrow.

“Well, I mean… because morning sickness, right?” She said glancing at Mary’s belly.

Mary gasped and quickly covered her stomach. “That’s… I mean…” She stammered for words, her face bright red. “I-I suppose, but… I’ve been feeling totally fine! I’m not waking up sick in the mornings, so I don’t know why you’d think-! …Do you really think so?”

She was trying to control her facial expressions, but she was having trouble figuring out whether to feel scandalized, excited, or scared.

Dawn interrupted the conversation with a sigh.

“I already told you before, morning sickness won’t begin until at least your fifth week of pregnancy. And it usually doesn’t start until around your sixth,” she explained again to the girls. “Mary didn’t even have the chance to… ahem. Well, you know. That was about a week ago, if we’re being generous. So the chance of it being morning sickness…”

“Oh…” Mary thought she would feel relieved to hear that, and in a way she was. But she also couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed at the same time.

Gina scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Way to ruin the fun, Dawn,” she muttered under her breath, and her words stung Dawn more than she expected them to.

Sensing tension, it was Carly who stepped in and tried to remedy the situation.

“I think the way things were going was pretty good already,” she said calmly. “We had an idea that worked, right?”

She glanced at Nick for confirmation, urging him to join in the conversation himself.

“Yeah, Carly’s right,” Nick nodded, taking her cue. “In a situation like this, where everybody wants to do different stuff, I think the idea we had before will work. We just split up into two groups, and go on the rides we prefer.”

“Actually…” Kim cleared her throat, grabbing everyone’s attention. They all turned to look at her, surprised.

She looked a little wary.

“If you guys are going all over the park, doing different rides… what’s going to happen to me?” She asked, her face strained with worry. “I mean, am I going to end up in a situation where I have to start going back and forth and splitting my focus between the both of you? …Oh, God, am I going to be physically split into two copies?! Dakota wouldn’t do that, right!?”

“No, no, you’re going to be fine,” Sylvia said, trying not to laugh. “The only thing that’s going to happen is you’ll be teleported around the park. Dakota will play around with time a bit so it’ll FEEL like you’re in two places at once, but really what’s just happening is you’re hopping around to all sorts of different places, get it?”

Kim stared at Sylvia.

“That… I don’t think that really sounds better,” she muttered, shaking her head.

Sylvia just shrugged.

“Well… either way, I still think it’s the best method we have right now,” Nick said, glancing sympathetically at Kim. “We’ll have to try as good as we can to keep things going. Sound good? Everyone feel like they want to go on the same kinds of rides as before?”

“…Actually…”

Everyone turned to Mary, surprised to hear her speak up. She looked rather small, but her head was held high.

“I was thinking, um… maybe… maybe I could try the roller coasters… or the more intense rides. Would that be alright with everyone?”

“Really?” Carly brightened, cracking a grin. “Badass, Mary! That’s so cool!” She slapped the other girl on the back. “Way to get on the ball! And you’re exactly right! Let’s do this! Let’s go!”

“In that case, can I tag along, too?” Holly asked, skipping over to Mary and the other girls who were focusing on the more **** rides.

“You want to?” Mary asked, surprised.

“Of course,” Holly nodded eagerly. She smiled at her friend. “Mary, if you’re feeling up for it, then I can at least give it a shot, right?”

She flashed a toothy smile. “What are friends for, after all?”

Talking like that, it made Mary feel like she could handle this even more. She’d decided to try out the thrill rides because she wanted to expand her horizons like Carly had encouraged her, and knowing that Holly would be right there with her only made her more willing to try.

“Okay then,” Mary nodded. “We’ll do it!”

“Yeah!” Marley grinned. “That’s the spirit!”

Mary turned to Nick. “You’re okay with that, right?” She asked anxiously. “Me going with the other girls, I mean.”

“What? Yeah, of course!” Nick looked surprised that she would ask something like that. “Mary, whatever you want!” He assured her. “If you think that’s how you’ll have the most fun, then go right ahead! I may join up with you later, when Sylvia’s feeling up for it.”

He glanced at the blonde, who still wanted to spend time doing the easier rides in a strange instance of restraint from her.

Mary nodded.

“And don’t worry, Mary,” Rose said, linking arms with Nick and leaning forward to tease a bit of cleavage towards the farm girl. “I’ll be happy to take good care of him.”

Mary’s eye twitched in irritation. That was one thing she wasn’t thrilled about, that Rose would be throwing herself at Nick the second she turned her back (or even if she didn’t turn her back… like right now, for instance.)

“It’s fine,” she said, forcing a smile onto her lips. “I hope you two have a lot of fun together trying out the rides.

“Oh, we will,” Rose assured her, looking a little disappointed that her attempt to goad Mary into losing her cool had failed. But luckily, she had a backup plan for teasing the farm girl. “In fact… I think you’re being a bit unfair here, keeping him from appreciating all that eye candy! Let’s see what we can do about that, shall we?”

With a coy grin, her clothes suddenly started to change. Mary’s eyes widened as suddenly Rose’s current outfit was replaced with one identical to Mary’s, right down to her cowboy boots!

“That’s-!” Mary’s jaw dropped in shock. The last time she’d seen Rose wearing her clothes, it had been because Dakota had taken her transformation and planted it on the blonde. But now Rose had used her own transformation to take Mary’s look for her own.

“Yeah, I really do like these,” Rose said, stretching her back in a way that made her chest bounce with glee. “I feel like I’m shooting a western! Or maybe a pornographic one…” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at Mary, who made a sour expression.

“That’s… I don’t care!” Mary huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “If that’s what you want to do, well, it’s just fine with me!”

“What do you think, Nick?” Rose let him go, stepping forward and turning on her heel so she could show off her outfit to him. “I already collected my bounty for not wearing underwear for a full day… but I could always try again, just for fun…”

Nick sighed and rolled his eyes. “Rose, stop instigating,” he requested. “You look lovely.” He turned to Mary. “Mary, you look phenomenal as well. It’s not a competition.”

“I know it isn’t!” Mary sniffed.

“You’re right, it’s really no competition at all,” Rose tittered.

Nick’s eye twitched. “You know that’s not what I meant,” he snapped. But Rose ignored him, content with teasing him as much as she liked.

“If you say so,” she said in a sing-song voice. “Now, shall we be going?”

She took his arm again and lead him out of the warehouse housing the Bumper Cars, sticking her tongue out at Mary as she passed.

Mary was inflamed with anger. She’d show her!

I… I’m going to ride ALL the cool rides! She asserted. And that’ll show Rose! …Somehow.

She hadn’t fully thought it through yet, but she wasn’t going to let Rose mock her like this, that was for sure!