Up on a hill or right off a city sidewalk, long as it's got room for you and me

After a very intense but enjoyable night with three beautiful women, Nick was exhausted. Sleeping with women that exciting and passionate had been… a lot.

He was ready to get a good, long rest, and he hoped for an easy day, come morning.

Which was why he was so surprised when he woke up somewhere that he wasn’t expecting. There was brightness all around him, and not the lowkey, relaxing brightness of the Master Suite’s windows as the morning sunlight streamed into his face.

No, this was more intense. Like overhead floodlights.

Also, he was standing up. And fully dressed.

Yes, something was definitely “up” here.

Where am I? He wondered, looking around. He saw a bunch of tiled flooring and tall walls. He felt like he was in the lobby of a hotel, at first, but not Harem Hotel. This was much smaller. Almost like the waiting room of a hospital.

That wasn’t something that he liked the thought of. Nick didn’t like hospitals. But he could tell- this wasn’t that.

“Hello?” He cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted. “Is anyone here?!”

“Yes, there is,” a voice called from behind him. A familiar voice. He whirled around, and his eyes widened when he saw that it was who he thought it was.

“Gina,” he said, relieved. “What are you doing here?”

Gina was smiling at him. That was always a good sign. She seemed unburdened, brighter, somehow, not as weighted down with worries as she usually was.

Another good sign.

“Sorry- I guess you’re a little confused, huh?” Gina asked, scratching his cheek and giving him a sheepish smile.

Actually, now that Gina was here, just her, Nick figured out what was going on. “This is a Dream Alley dream, isn’t it?”

Gina’s eyes widened. “Yeah, how did you guess?” She asked, surprised.

“Well, today is my day with you,” Nick pointed out. “And it’s just the two of us here. Plus- when I wake up in a strange place in the middle of the week, it’s usually because someone’s bought a Dream Alley date for me.”

“…Yeah, I guess that’s true,” Gina said, laughing. “Sorry. This is the first time I’ve done a Dream Alley date or anything like that, so… I didn’t know what to expect.” She bit her lip. “I hope I didn’t interrupt anything…?” She asked coyly.

Nick understood what she was asking, and he cracked a smile. “No, we were all done,” he assured her. “Don’t worry.”

“Was it a good night?” Gina asked. It almost sounded like she was flirting with him, with her husky voice and lidded eyes.

“You could say that,” Nick replied. “It was definitely a night worth remembering.”

He didn’t want to think about last night right now, though. Not after the awkwardness.

“For now, I just want to focus on you, though,” he said, approaching her. “If that’s alright with you?”

Gina cracked another grin. “It sounds like money well spent, then,” she replied.

Gina: 8800 BP – 5000 BP = 3800 BP

Nick certainly hoped it would be. He didn’t know what Gina would do for a Dream Alley date, but he was looking forward to her having the freedom to express her individuality, given the conflicts she’d gone through in the time he knew her.

She deserved something bright. And the chance to have fun and be herself. He wanted to help her with that, given everything they’d been through together.

“Well, this is your date,” he said with a shrug, gesturing to the small entrance room around them. “So, what exactly is this place? You didn’t bring me to another hotel or something, did you?”

Gina blinked, and quickly shook her head. “No! No, no way!” She exclaimed, waving her hands. Once her initial surprise wore off, a soft smile touched her lips and she looked slyly at him. “Actually… this is more of a… a waiting room, I suppose.”

Nick wasn’t sure what she meant by that. “A waiting room?” He asked, looking at her. “Waiting for what?”

“Well…” Gina glanced towards the door. “…I didn’t want to ruin the surprise of what I have planned. And I thought that if you woke up surrounded by… everything… you might be even more confused, so… yeah, I made this place as the start.”

Nick had no idea what to make of her cryptic words. Usually, Gina wasn’t this elusive. He liked the fact that she was straightforward and upfront about everything. But he could also enjoy a bit of sneakiness on her part, too.

“Well, I’m fully awake now,” he told her, craning his head back towards the door. “I’m ready to see this surprise of yours.”

“One question first,” Gina said, skipping up to him and planting herself between his body and the door. She struck a pose. “What do you think of my date outfit?”

She almost sounded shy when she asked him that. Nick wasn’t sure what to say at first. He gave Gina’s appearance a quick once-over again.

He appreciated what he saw.

Gina was dressed casually. This wasn’t like her previous dates, where she had just thrown together something out of her closet, or when she really tried to look girly and feminine by picking out a pretty dress. While he’d appreciated their last date when she went all-out with something so pretty, he also liked her current style- it suited her.

She had mastered the art of dressing down without looking like a slob, even though she usually did dress like a slob. But no, all her clothes were clean, and her jeans were torn or frayed anywhere. There were no holes or patches on any of her clothes. Just a nice, neat pair of jeans and a black shirt with short sleeves. It showed off the sleeve of tattoos she’d gotten from her punishment transformation, and Nick had to make an effort not to look at her arm.

Casual. Completely casual. And she looked pretty good.

She’d even brushed her hair!

“…I think it suits you really well,” Nick said, hoping that she would believe him. “You definitely give off a vibe that you didn’t put any work into picking out your clothes and just naturally look amazing dressed casually.”

A lot of women might not appreciate that compliment, or even take it as a compliment in the first place. “You look like you didn’t put that much effort into your appearance” wasn’t exactly the most flattering thing to say.

But in Gina’s case? It was a little different. Because Nick knew that Gina liked to downplay things and keep it lowkey. And indeed, she seemed to smile a little brighter at his words, and nodded right along with him.

“Yeah, well, you know me,” she said, tucking a lock of her brushed hair behind her ear. “I’m not the sort of girl who goes all-out on my appearance like some of the ladies you know.”

That was as far as she wanted to take it. Gina could trashtalk with the best of them, but she wasn’t the type to cut other women down to prop herself up.

“I thought about bringing my leather jacket, too,” Gina said, turning towards the door and leading the way. “But given what we’re going to be doing on our date today, I thought it might get a little stuffy. Better to wear clothes that are easy to move around in, you know?”

She moved to open the door, but paused, and glanced down at her arm. “…Now that I think about it, though… maybe I should have gone with long sleeves,” she admitted. Her face flushed. “I guess I’ve been living with these so much, I forgot about them.”

Gina quickly moved her arm out of view from Nick, and tried not to think about all the erotic fantasies flooding her mind.

Today wasn’t about doing sexy things with him (even though that stuff would come later) it was about having fun together.

Gina looked back at Nick, and saw that he had a look of concern on his face.

“Hey, come on!” She called to him, waving her hand. “Don’t look at me like that! Trust me, it’s fine! I’m already happy just because you’re here, okay?”

Hearing that helped Nick relax a little bit. He nodded and approached her, feeling a little more at ease. “Well… if you say so,” he replied.

Gina cracked another grin. “Damn right I say so,” she replied, wiggling her eyebrows. “Now, let’s not beat around the bush, shall we? Onwards!”

And with that, she pushed the door open and stepped out of the waiting room.

Nick was hit by a harsh burst of sunlight immediately. He had to shield his eyes. Once they adjusted to his surroundings and he got a good look at where he was, he needed to take a moment in order to take it all in.

…Did Nick say before that Gina liked to downplay things and keep it lowkey?

…

Yeah, he would have to take that back.

“What… what IS this place?” He stammered, looking around.

His first instinct was to call it an amusement park. Because he could see a rollercoaster off in the distance, its bright red tracks weaving their way around the outside of… wherever this was. But… no, it wasn’t an amusement park… was it?

Were amusement parks indoors? Did they always have giant rock faces for walls, with climbing surfaces for bouldering? And a giant glass ceiling like a domed bubble for a roof? No, not any amusement park Nick knew about.

That was on the large scale, though. The first things that caught his eye. As he calmed down from the initial shock of the indoor rollercoaster and looked around, he saw more things. Shops and stores and kiosks all around him. Walkways of shiny black stone connected platforms made of the same material to one another, and in the gaps were large pits of sand. Not quite like a beach, more like a zen garden, almost. (But there was also a beach- Nick could see it in the distance, a little artificial cove with miniature palm trees way off in the distance.)

…Oh, and the pits of sand were all different colors. White sand, blue sand, red sand, and at one point he could swear he saw a pit that wasn’t filled with sand at all, but tiny little moist-looking beads. It looked slimy, and Nick pulled away.

He turned to Gina, and wondered what the hell was up with this place.

Then he saw the look on her face, and his whole attitude immediately changed. Gina wasn’t looking around in wonder like he was. No- she was looking right at him. Her eyes were brimming with hope, and she clasped her hands together in front of her.

“So… what do you think?” She asked, ignoring his previous question. She hadn’t even heard it because she’d been too nervous.

Nick just stared at her. He genuinely didn’t know what to think.

“It’s…” Nick croaked out, staring at her in amazement. “I… what… what is this place? It’s amazing! It’s like… I don’t even know!”

Whatever it was, he didn’t think any place like it existed on earth.

“Uhum, uh… that’s a really good question,” Gina said, scratching the back of her neck sheepishly. “It’s part amusement park, part shopping mall, part waterpark…”

“Waterpark!?” Nick knew there was a beach, but…

“Yeah, over there, see?” Gina pointed to the water. “It’s a wave pool. And there’s a waterslide built into that climbing wall over there.

Nick squinted and saw a crevice separating two of the rocky formations.

“…Anyway, part soundstage, part zen garden, um… …Oh, part arcade, part playplace, part…”

“Gina, how many parts can there be?!” Nick blurted out. He knew that the girl lacked self-control sometimes but this… this was excessive!

…He wasn’t complaining, though. What she was describing seemed like the kind of amazing, fun park he would have loved as a kid.

Gina flashed a cheeky smile. “…Part LEGO Land…”

Nick just shook his head incredulously.

“What? I… I used my imagination,” Gina said, puffing up her cheeks. “Don’t tell me you don’t like it?”

“No, I didn’t say that!” Nick shook his head. Definitely not. “I think it’s really creative, Gina! It’s just… a lot.”

“Well… look, when you were a kid, did you ever do that school project where you were supposed to design your dream house?” Gina asked him. “And you would do stuff like put the rollercoaster room right next to the basketball court- …Oh! That’s right! …Part basketball court…”

“Gina, focus,” Nick urged her.

She giggled. “I am focusing!” She snapped her fingers and the glass dome over their heads suddenly turned dark. Countless stars lit up across its surface, covering the ground with tiny lights like a disco ball. “…And can’t forget, part planetarium.”

It was a lot. Way more than he ever would have expected.

The dark covering over the dome receded and sunlight streamed back into the wide area again. Nick looked at Gina’s face as it slowly cleared up, and her beaming smile stretched across her lips. She had a soft expression and she looked eagerly at him.

“I know, it is a lot,” she admitted, scratching her cheek. “I just… wanted to do a little bit of everything, Nick. That’s the truth.”

Last night, Gina had been wracking her brain trying to figure out what she should do for her date with Nick. She was completely lost.

So, stuck without any thoughts on what he might enjoy, she decided to ask the only person she could ask, Cinder.

“I don’t fucking care, do whatever the fuck you want” had been the response she’d received in reply from her roommate.

Rude.

But, well…

It wasn’t the worst advice in the world, was it?

Gina decided that, well, Cinder had a point.

If she wanted the two of them to have fun together, then she should do whatever the fuck she wanted. That’s where Dream Alley came in!

But Gina had so many great ideas, it was impossible to come up with one place that could fit everything she wanted to do today!

…Or was it?

And so, she went back to her memories from childhood. Back when she was a kid and planning out stuff like “My Dream House” or “My Treehouse (No Boys Allowed)” or “Best Amusement Park Ever” fun little childish stuff like that.

Gina may not have been a child anymore, but there wasn’t anything wrong with being young at heart, right?

So, she planned it all out. She went back over her old plans (the ones she could remember, anyway) and created what was, in her mind, the perfect playplace to take Nick for a date! Even if it was filled with stuff that she would have enjoyed a lot more a decade and a half ago.

“So, this is your grand idea, huh?” Everywhere Nick looked, he saw something new. Like the designer orb ice cream shop right next to the pizza parlor, and the “Build Your Own Chili Dog” stand. “Gotta say… it’s really impressive, Gina.”

It may have been a bizarre and haphazard mix of crazy ideas, with Gina including everything she thought of, up to and including the kitchen sink, but he could tell just how much FUN she’d had dreaming all this up, and knowing that… he couldn’t really say anything against it.

He was just happy that Gina was happy, honestly.

“I know,” he snickered. “You could call it ‘Ginaland’ how about that? Or, no, ‘Ginaworld’!”

Gina snorted out a laugh. “Oh, please,” she said, socking him in the arm. “Don’t be stupid, I’m not going to name this place after myself! How vain do you think I am, huh?” She asked.

Nick opened his mouth to reply and she slapped her hand over it.

“Trick question,” she snapped, narrowing her eyes at him.

Nick just nodded and kept his mouth shut tight.

She relaxed and let go of his face. “Actually, it’s already got a name,” she said, pointing up at the large, garishly-decorated sign.

ANDYLAND

“…Andyland?” Nick looked at Gina. “You just took the ‘C’ off your favorite board game, really?”

“That isn’t my favorite board game anymore!” Gina’s cheeks turned red. “And-and it never was! I liked that mars explorer game you had, the really old one where you collected plant samples and stuff and got to blast off!”

“You remember that?!” Nick barely remembered that game. Back when they went to camp, his dad had brought a bunch of board games he’d picked up from various garage sales so he and Dakota would have stuff to do besides play video games all the time. Since, if he didn’t put his foot down, the two of them would hog the cabin outlet with their GameBoy Advanced chargers all day so they wouldn’t run out of battery.

He hadn’t thought of those board games in years…

Gina nodded. “I also really liked the one with that big playmat, the fantasy one? Where we would fire marbles at stuff with catapults and cannons and crossbows? That was a lot of fun. You had such neat boardgames, Nick!”

Gina’s family never bought her fun stuff like that. It was one of the reasons she had loved being friends with Nick and Dakota, playing with them a couple weeks out of the summer had always been the high point of her year.

“Still, though, why Andyland?” Nick still didn’t get that part.

“Well, uh… remember when I was a kid, and I was really obsessed with eating fast food all the time?” Gina asked. As if she still didn’t eat a ton of food that was bad for her.

Nick nodded. “Yeah, your mom wouldn’t ever let you eat junk food so you’d beg my parents to take you into town so we could get Wendy’s in secret.”

“Yeah…” Gina’s eyes darted around. “So, uh… I know I said I was trying to be creative, but I may have been a bit derivative…”

Nick didn’t get what she meant at first until a figure approached them, catching him by surprise. There weren’t supposed to be other people in Dream Alley! …Unless they were dreamed up as part of the scenario.

“Welcome to Andyland!” The pigtailed redhead declared with a bubbly smile. “I’m Andy, your friendly mascot! I hope you have a lot of fun today!”

“Andy!” Gina’s face lit up like she was meeting her childhood hero, and not an Original Character Do Not Steal ™ she dreamt up when she was eight.