It was a hot and sunny day for it to be the end of January. For all it was worth— it felt like my skin was melting off. Omari’s16th birthday was today. He has been alive for 16 whole years! Besides that's all Omari, Kiki, and Kaleb have been wanting to do is climb the dang volcano to the very top. A drop slide was up there, and me being the scaredy cat in the group, I refused. 
“Tayta, it is not allat bad, kid.” Kaleb kept trying to persuade me; he was adamant about this. He just kept going and going.  
Omari’s brows furrowed as he smacked his teeth and spoke, “Bella, jus do it. It's my birthday.” He nudged me over as all three guys looked at each other— he was too rough for his own good, it felt like rocks. This felt like a never-ending spiral of no’s and please. The smell of chlorine was hitting my nose like a bat as they kept pushing me to do it.  
“I guess...If I die- funerals on y'all and my casket should be pink, sparkly, and pretty.” I got up and looked around at the colorful pieces of plastic people call a water park. So innovative. Lumps of red, blue and yellow shaped and BAM- its super cool. Can I get sick from that? I don't even want to think about how many people get in this wasteland, that's nasty. 
“THANK GOD-” Omari exclaimed and stood up fully instead of crouching in front of me. With no hesitation all three of them went from these lil kids begging to standing up and dragging me. Tweedle stupid, Tweedle dee, and Tweedle dumber— can't forget Tweedle smart because that's obviously me.  
“FINALLY.” Kiki’s and Omari’s unnecessary comments squished together, sounded like a whole lotta gibberish. Did I say it was warm for it to be January? It's freezing. Well, now it is. The icy wind hitting against me. It felt like icicles sticking to every one of my pores.  
Kaleb scrambled over and picked me up, slinging me over his shoulder and now all 4 of us were on the way to plummet to our deaths...or I was just being dramatic. It's a water park after all. What harm is in it? The lawsuit I'm gonna pull out of all three of them if I get hurt, that's what. 
“Tayta, I see yo face. Fix it. You is not dyin.” Kiki smacked his teeth and snapped his fingers in my face. Like it mattered— IM GONNA DIE. Start kissing my aunt, uncles, mom and dad goodbye because my horrible final moment is going to be...down a slide. 
“Oh- hush up, Kiki! Thats why you still can’t make point guard.” He paused and looked at me before throwing a whole buncha curse words my way. “You- BLLEEEEPP BLEEP, you too short to even— BLEEP.” Mind you, he’s been on varsity for what? Two years now. He’s been trying for point since day one.  
“—aye, chill onna kid. Stop bein a wuss fa once.” Omari gritted and pushed him, making us wobble. Like I said, too rough.  
Kiki was rather quiet, always had been. So why was he instigating? 
We got to make the line as a now salty Kaleb basically chucked me off him. “I'm telling my mom.” I spoke, looking in between the 3 tall figures that are my cousins.  
“What yo momma finna beat me up? Puh-lease —” He had a smug look on his face like my mom won't knock him right out his shoes. I stand by that.  
“Yes.” Me, Kiki, and Omari all interrupted him. Greta Olivera is only afraid of God himself. Kaleb was nowhere nearby on the list— heck, he wasn't even on the list. 
We all started moving up as people having their own conversation started to echo in my ears or the occasional screams of people going down. Man... I'm starting to not like the idea of going down this. WHAT IF I DROWN? What if we ALL drown? Oh, my goodness— I didn't even get to tell my mom about the ring I lost at school yesterday or how I flunked the science test...or.... how I instigated a school fight, or— you know what? I’d rather die to a slide than to my mother. Let me not. 
“Omari....OMARI-” He groaned and looked to the source of noise, me. He sighed as Kaleb and Kiki side-eyed each other.  
“What, Tayta?” He spoke as the steps went further and further up. In 8 steps I would be on my death bed.... or death slide. So much for Omari’s birthday.  
“Ion wanna.” All 3 of them groaned and turned in my direction. CLUNK, now we were 7 steps away. The people above us were screaming even more. Sounded like nails on a chalkboard.  
There was something about the drop slide that didn't sit right with me. I'm an adrenaline junkie— I love this kind of stuff. Roller coasters, high things involving plummeting at high speed. Same old, same old. But my gut was telling me, ‘HEY BELLA, DONT RIDE THIS THING.’ Though, it was all the triplets wanted to do. Do people really want to die? Why would you pay for death? 
“Ya’ll...I don't—” An ear-piercing screech was heard, interrupted halfway into my sentence. WHAT HAPPENED? Better yet, WHO DIED? It all happened so fast as paramedics rushed up and pushed us out, I basically got thrown aside. My whole back hit the bars of the volcano. Now we were outside of the whole thing standing. I knew I should've trusted my gut and I knew I should've just held on when they were pushing through. My back hurts more than I was letting on and it felt like a thousand needles poking in one spot. 
“What the freak? Tayta you, ok? They pushed you wayyyy far out.” Kiki spoke as he moved around me looking for any sign of hurt or discomfort. Omari looked around the whole park and saw people gathering like sheep around the park’s main attraction— Kaleb was so busy and annoyed that he couldn't get on the slide. We were 6 steps away from facing the same fate as that poor person.  
Our parents started to gather round us. Omari’s dad, my Parents's, Kiki’s parent, I mean everybody.  
10 minutes into us telling our versions of the story, a stretcher was carried out and a girl with platinum blonde hair and really ugly long nails was carried out. Turns out, she had a panic attack and fainted on the slide. While in full panic mode, she got her hair caught and she was stuck. Really? All that telenovela drama and horror movie worth of a scream for.... that.  
The ride was closed for the rest of the day. Respectfully, I was right the whole time. THEY WERE WRONG. Mhm- I don't wanna hear any crap from any of them.  
“Can we go get churros?” Omari spoke as he looked around, it was starting to get colder. Kaleb’s dread-locs swung back and forth as he shivered. You woulda thought frosty the snowman hijacked the place.  
We all nodded in agreement as the whole sea of a family walked over to the stand. 1 per person. Or that's what they told us. The old man who looked like he was one churro away from a heart attack handed us the churros. They were covered in sugar and cinnamon, and we all took bites of each-others and Kaleb went as far as to steal his dad’s and run. We all quickly forgot about the girl who got stuck on a slide. 
Maybe I should trust my gut way more than I normally do.