A Perfectly Normal Trip to Lana'i Resort Where Nothing Bad Happens

[KamiKaze]

Two hours, thirty minutes. That was how long a flight from Albuquerque to Portland took. Roughly. It felt like longer, to be honest, but staying on a cramped plane, then a cramped bus, could do that. The view outside had been pretty, though. It hadn’t been the first time Bella had taken a flight, but she always liked the way a blanket of clouds looked under a plane. That meant they were above the stratosphere, right? Troposphere? She hadn’t been too good with science, but she could remember something like that. It was also a nice day out. It seemed like a good day to go swimming, too. Warm, but not blistering like New Mexico could get sometimes.

It’d been a miracle that she was able to go on the trip at all, but it was worth it. Mother wasn’t thrilled with the idea of flying out all the way to Oregon for the end-of-year trip, so it took some convincing. At first she’d tried to claim that she had an audition during the week, but Bella checked. No auditions were on the schedule at all. Then, she apparently tried to become a chaperone for the trip, but Principal Matthews had sent her a reply saying that they didn’t need any more. To be honest, Bella wasn’t sure if that was true or they thought that she’d be an inconvenience. It wouldn’t be the first time; originally parents were allowed backstage during school performances, but in her sophomore year there was suddenly a rule that they weren’t. Bella had never figured out if Mother was responsible, but she had a few suspicions. Anyways, after that message, Mother had tried to claim that if she wasn’t chaperoning, Bella wasn’t going. A bit of gentle convincing, a bit of shouting, and a few more days of both on and off, and Bella was finally allowed to go. It was pretty much last minute, too, so it was fortunate that they still had spaces at all.

After everyone had gotten off the bus, a tour guide had taken them around to get an idea of where everything was. Lana’i Resort wasn’t the biggest out there, but it did seem to have a lot. Bella was particularly interested in the beach and Sports Center, but the aquarium, “Ice Palace” and movie theater seemed nice. The casino had a nice entrance, too, but it was one of the few places they weren’t allowed in. Gambling laws were still a thing, after all. Though, not like Bella was ever really that interested in gambling. Apparently there was going to be a show at the outdoor theater later they could attend that was appropriate for high school students, but Bella didn’t know what it was. She’d have to ask. But, they gave them some coupons and passes for the week, which was nice.

Once Bella was finished unpacking, she’d talked with a few of her classmates, and they agreed that it was good to start with the Sports Center. By the sound of things, it had an excellent outdoor pool with flumes. Swimming was good for jet lag, and, well, everyone had agreed that it seemed like it was a good place to start. There was only one problem.

Bella got lost. Already.

There was a reason why she usually tried to stick around others during class trips. But Bella had looked at her phone for a few seconds, and when she looked up, the rest of the group disappeared. So now, here she was, trying to find out where that Sports Center was. She just had to get lost, didn’t she? Maybe if she didn’t have her earbuds in. Probably wasn’t polite, either, if others had to talk with her and she was listening to a string quartet cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Even if it was a good cover, it was probably still rude on some level. And she didn’t like coming off as rude. It wasn’t like Bella usually had this much free time to actually spend time with her classmates, either.

As said song still played in her ears, Bella pulled out the map from her tote, looking at it with a frown on her face. Maybe she could text them? She had at least one person’s number, so… that was a solution. She switched off her music, and turned her head. The movie theater was to her left, so that meant…

Bella looked the other way.

“Oh.”

She’d been standing in front of the Sports Center this entire time.

---

This is the TV2 AU I kept talking about! If you can’t tell by that intro post, the premise of this thread is that the TV2 kids get to spend a week at the resort for their end-of-year trip, and nothing bad happens during it. Both Whitree and Davison kids can post here. While TV2 specific, it’s open if you want to find a way to toss a TV1 character or a potential TV3 concept in.

In addition to the rules set by staff, it’s good to keep this stuff in mind:

• It’s a class trip, so anything terrible you get up to would have consequences if you’re caught. Also, keep in mind that they would have taken a flight on the way there, so anything that’d cause an issue with airport security would most likely be left at home.
• As implied by the intro, the kids do get some passes/coupons to help make their stay enjoyable.
• Like pre-game mega-threads, post order should be loose in here. Don’t trample over each other, but feel free to post ahead! However, it may be good to clarify where your kid is in the resort, just in case we're in five different places.
• Assuming that the Davison kids traveled from Albuquerque International Sunport to Portland International, the flight should take just above 2 hours and 30 minutes. Assuming that the Whitree kids departed from Stillwater Regional, it should take roughly 3 hours and 30 minutes.
• More stuff here will be added, in case something comes up.

This is just a silly AU idea about the kids enjoying the resort when it’s open for the season, not cold, and no one is dying. Enjoy!

[MurderWeasel]

Jewel Evans was pretty sure this end-of-year-trip thing was going to blow. She'd agreed to go on it way back when sign-ups had started, for a number of reasons: Coleen had said that they could have all sorts of fun free of their parents, her parents themselves had prodded her to do it lest she look back and wished she had (and had paid the reduced rate she still qualified for), and Chloe had gotten incredibly jealous of the opportunity and pouted that she couldn't come along. Back then it had been far in the future and Oregon had sounded mysterious and romantic and a week had sounded like nowhere near enough time to explore a little corner of the Pacific Northwest.

Of course, things had changed. Jewel found out it was some kind of hokey Hawaiian theme hotel, which was gonna really crimp her style, and Chloe had gotten over her pouting and signed up for this dance program of her own in Stillwater that she was more excited about anyways, and then right before the trip Coleen came down with mono so had to stay back in Whittree. So now Jewel was here in Oregon alone, and okay, the flight had been sort of exciting and sort of scary because she'd never been in an airplane and it was loud and bumpy and she'd just been sure for a second or two that it was going to tear itself to pieces and flip end over end in a flaming spiral and she'd cranked her music up really loud and closed her eyes and hoped it'd come quickly and not hurt so much but instead they had lifted cleanly off the ground and the shaking had minimized and then stopped and she'd turned her music down a little bit and stared out the window watching Stillwater shrink to a splotch with forest to the South and nothingness all around. Still, she was in Oregon alone and she'd done all this prep for the trip, getting her outfits all sorted out and her music all ready, she'd even bought a special bikini for the trip because she'd never been to the ocean and didn't really swim anyways and she'd picked one with skull patterns all over it; the other choice had had these straps that made a pentagram on the chest but Coleen had said that seemed sort of impractical. But alone, who was going to care if she wore the thing? And okay, sure, some of her classmates were here so she wasn't really alone, even some she liked okay, but it just wasn't what she'd been imagining.

And then, another bad part of this trip thing that Jewel had learned later was that they didn't even have the resort to themselves. There was this other class from New Mexico or something and also regular guests from wherever, and the Whittree class could hang out at most of the places but couldn't go in the really interesting ones like the casino, and the shows were supposed to be all-ages mostly despite the stage being called by the much-sexier term "cabaret" on the map, and it wasn't fair, what was even the point of turning eighteen if everyone was still going to treat you like you were twelve?

She was planning on spending a lot of her time talking to Coleen and reporting on everything and how lame it was to make Coleen feel better about having mono, and maybe some time pretending it was super amazing to Chloe, and then the rest doing the actual stuff they'd come to do, she supposed. First things first was finding an excuse to get her swimsuit on, if only so she could feel like she hadn't totally wasted her sixty bucks and all the wheedling it'd taken to get her dad to drive her over an hour to Oklahoma City to go to Hot Topic. She wasn't quite ready for the ocean yet, though, because that idea still seemed very big and strange and like maybe something she should ease into after the whole flying thing, and besides it was getting on in the day a bit and it'd be better to see the ocean in perfect conditions if at all possible. So she was heading to the sports center, which she figured was a good enough place to hang out, bag under her arm containing swimsuit and towel and magazine and phone. She was pretty sure she was one of the first to split from the hotel, but that was okay; everyone else could catch up and it wasn't like she was super interested in hanging out with most of them anyways.

There was this other girl sort of standing around outside the center, short and lean and not from Whittree, and Jewel looked at her and wondered what her deal was and why she was just standing around. She looked like a sort of normal girl, which made Jewel feel rather smug in her black shirt and skirt and stockings and lipstick, and so she walked up with confidence and said, "It's not closed, is it?"

[jimmydalad]

Saachi was glad that the flight was as long as it was. More opportunities for her to catch up on her sleep. After all the work she had put into the year, taking this trip with the rest of a school was a blessing. For one thing, she wasn't being watched by her parents. Granted, it took a lot to get her father to even entertain the idea of traveling and having to explain to her friends that she couldn't go out because her father said so sucked. She got the results necessary and that was all that mattered in the end. Most importantly, she could have fun. Fun without worrying about whether it would get back to her father or trying to argue a million points about why it was only logical that she should be allowed to go swimming or hang out with friends instead of studying for the class she had already secured an A in.

While she questioned the logic of trying to market the hotel as being Hawaii-like while being the same country as Hawaii, the resort didn't seem to be that bad. From what she saw from the map, at least they weren't going to run out of things to do, even if their options were limited. Wasn't like she was going to gamble or do something stupid like that anyways. Almost as soon as they got the map when they arrived, Saachi had already scanned it and started formulating plans on how to enjoy the trip. They had a lot of free time, probably because the teachers didn't want to have to deal with them. More freedom was not something she was going to complain about. She thought about going to the nature walk to practice her painting, but seeing the beach and then seeing the outdoor pool on the map made her think otherwise.

Quickly leaving the meeting area, Saachi rushed towards the Sports Center. First priority, get in that cute swimsuit she picked out just for this trip. Having had to hide the bikini deep in her bag to hide it from her parents, Sacchi ruffled through her belongings as she walked, glancing occasionally at the map to make sure she was going the right way. Why did she have to pack so many things? Art utensils, toiletries, and other trip necessities her parents convinced her of packing were unceremoniously shoved into the corners of her bag in Saachi's search for the swimsuit. Taking longer than she expected, Saachi managed to find her bikini and ripped it out of the bag. Garish pink in colour and not leaving much to the imagination, she had picked out this swimsuit partially out of spite for her father. The cute designs of the golden stars dotted all around the bikini certainly helped matters.

Swimsuit clutched in hand and bag hanging open, Saachi paused at the familiar sight of Jewel and some other girl. She quickly surmised that the other girl was from the other school that was here. While mentioned to them, Saachi didn't really care. She was surprised to see Jewel outside, let alone anywhere near the sports center. While she could certainly appreciate her art, there was not much else.

"Closed?" Saachi interjected, raising an eyebrow. It had better not be closed. She stepped forwards and pushed on the handle, leading the door to open easily. Looking rather bemused, she turned to the others.

"If it is closed, they're doing a rather poor job at keeping it closed. You here to swim or just stand around and do nothing?"

[KamiKaze]

Bella flinched for a second. Then turned her head. Was that a girl from the other school? One of the teachers had mentioned that they were going to share the week with another school, and that they should be mindful of that as they spent their time here. While it wasn’t as much as an issue if they were, say, just walking around the resort, it’d mean that the rooms where they stayed in the hotel could be close to theirs. So, it was a sign that they needed to keep things quiet, and try not to bug them too much. Common sense, really. It didn’t need to be said.

Even if she wasn’t from the other school, though, this girl was close to her age, and dressed oddly. Davison had a few goths, of course, but Bella didn’t usually talk to them. She looked like she could have been one, judging by the dark clothes and makeup.

Bella realized that she hadn’t taken out her earbuds. Even if she’d turned her music off, it was probably still rude. It didn’t help that one had fell out of her ear, dangling just above chest level. Again, if someone was talking to her, they’d probably think she was listening to music and ignoring them. Bella removed the other earbud.

Was that sarcasm? She wasn’t sure. Maybe it was. But before Bella could respond to the goth girl, a different girl showed up. This one was holding what looked like a pink bikini with a star pattern. She didn’t look like a goth, but she’d responded to the girl’s question before opening the entrance door, as if making a show out of it.

What she said, though, made Bella realize something.

“Oh… did I seem weird? I’m sorry, I was supposed to meet with some people here, and I got lost. I didn’t mean to come off as odd.”

Bella looked away for a second, feeling her face get red.

She supposed she did, though. Bella must have looked unusual, standing in front of the Sports Center with a map in her hand and one earbud hanging off her. No wonder they walked up to her. Though, that probably meant everyone was inside, perhaps already in the pool. If not, she could text them?

[MurderWeasel]

"You're fine," Jewel said to the first girl, "and I'm not really sure," she added to Saachi, who had turned up hot on her heels. Jewel looked her classmate over and took note of what struck her as something of an un-Saachi garment, but hey, it wasn't like Jewel was best friends with her or anything, maybe Saachi actually loved looking all slutty when she wasn't bound by dress code and Jewel was way off-base in expecting a conservative one-piece, or maybe Saachi just loosened up with the whole swimsuit thing like a lot of people did. It didn't matter anyways. "I was thinking of maybe getting ready to swim, then sticking my foot in the water and deciding it's too cold and just sitting next to it reading or maybe getting in a hot tub."

Jewel moved over to the door herself; if everything was open and this other girl was just standing around waiting for her friends then there was no reason not to go get ready and set up. She was really only half kidding about the sitting-by-the-pool-reading-a-magazine thing; Jewel had been swimming now and then in her life, of course, and she knew how to do a basic front crawl and breaststroke and backstroke at least in theory even if it had been a long long time since she'd actually done it, but the big draw of the pool was she wouldn't look like a total freak hanging out in her swimsuit near it even if she wasn't actually doing all that much with the water. Of course, it probably wouldn't hurt to get a little bit more acclimated to swimming again if she was actually going to go check out the ocean soon. Then again, it would also probably wreck her makeup if she got her face soaked. She also had this pretty nice SOTF retrospective she was about a third of the way through and itching to finish. She'd tried to read on the plane but the strangeness of it had shaken her focus too much to make real progress.

"Are you from the other school?" she said, turning back to the first girl again. It seemed like a safe enough bet, and more than that Jewel didn't actually care, but she could be a little welcoming and look better just by comparison to Saachi's sarcastic bite, and that was the sort of opportunity Jewel took by such ingrained habit she barely noticed.

[jimmydalad]

Saachi merely shrugged at the girl from the other school. Maybe there was something wrong with her delivery. She probably should keep that in mind for later. Her focus was more on Jewel anyways.

"Never thought of you as a type of person who would go anywhere near water." Saachi mused, more to herself than Jewel. Saachi knew of Jewel's less-than-stellar reputation at school. It was hard not to considering the crowd she usually hung out with and the attire she somehow chose willingly to wear. When she took a closer look, Saachi noticed that Jewel had put a lot of effort into her makeup, even today. While unseemly, it would be a bit of a shame to see it get ruined if it got wet.

"You might as well enjoy the water while you still can. There's not anything like this back in Whittree" Saachi said, leaning against the door frame. "I can understand wanting to keep your make-up unblemished, however. I can appreciate artistry in many forms, even if it's not something I personally find aesthetically pleasing." Twirling the swimsuit in her hand, Saachi focused her attention on the other girl. Jewel seemed to want to talk to her anyways, making obvious observations. Knowing better to butt in, Saachi stayed silent as Jewel asked the painfully obvious question, though she couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes at the fact.

"It doesn't seem like your people have arrived. You might as well join us and get ready at the very least. You aren't accomplishing much just standing outside. I mean, you did come to the sports center to go swimming, right?"

She might as well be nice. It was supposed to be a fun trip after all. She probably could've just gone on ahead, but getting changed alone when she went with the entire school was sad. At the same time, she didn't want to stand out here for too long. They all obviously had plans that involved the pool or water in some form, so it made sense in her mind that they went together. She took a few steps in and paused, tapping her foot in impatience.

"Let's continue talking in the changing rooms. They're right there. Not like we're kidnapping you or anything." She called out, breathing quietly to herself.

[KamiKaze]

So, the girls from the other school were kind of odd? Well, “odd” wasn’t the best phrasing. It implied that they were in some way “creepy” or even “dangerous.” Which they weren’t, as far as Bella could tell. But it was clear they had their own in-jokes and such. The goth girl had replied to bikini girl’s quip by telling a long, detailed story about only dipping her toes in, then reading a magazine because it was too cold. Okay, Bella couldn’t help but smile a bit at that.

The girl with the bikini, on the other hand, made an odd comment about the girl’s makeup. Bella didn’t like cosmetics too much. Sure, she wore it for performances and such, and sometimes even outside of them. But, it was never really something enjoyed wearing. Sometimes it felt kind of weird, and not something you could put on regularly. On the other hand, Bella could appreciate cosmetics for what it was. Some people put a lot of effort into applying theirs, and Bella had seen people work magic with stage makeup. So, she could understand her point? Even if she wasn’t sure if it was necessary to point out that she didn’t like it. Was that even a good way to address that?

“Oh” Bella responded. “Yeah! We’re from Albuquerque. We flew in today, too.”

She gently put her map and earbuds back into her tote. Bella thought it’d look even weirder if she just kept them in her hands while people were talking to her.

The girl with the bikini told her that it might be a good idea to get ready anyways. Bella agreed.

“Ah… I was just thinking they might be inside already, too. Couldn’t hurt to check, right?”

Bella stepped forward. Wait, she just remembered something.

“Oh, it might be good to introduce ourselves, since we’ll be sharing the week together and all.”

Even if they didn’t run into each other often- it was a reasonably-sized place, after all- it was good to get an idea of names and such. It was only polite. Bella lifted a hand.

“My name’s Bella. And you?”

[MurderWeasel]

"I'm Jewel," said Jewel, gesturing, "and this is Saachi. We're from Oklahoma."

Her lips had quirked down just a bit at Saachi's advice and inferences, but by now they were upturned again, though not parted enough to reveal teeth. The girl was fidgeting with her swimsuit, but Jewel could understand fidgeting; her hands were tamed mostly because one was steadying the bag over her shoulder and the other had been occupied pointing out Saachi. Briefly, Jewel's gaze slipped between the two other girls. It wasn't cold at all but that bikini in Saachi's hand almost made Jewel shiver anyways, but she endured. She wondered how long this Bella had been here, whether her friends were actually waiting or would catch up or would fail to show, but mostly in an idle way because the truth was she didn't truly much care. Bella had been nonexistent and then nameless and her friends were still, and it was only if that changed in some way that it'd affect Jewel. Like if one of Bella's friends happened to look a lot like a certain someone, now that might pique Jewel's interest.

"You're gonna have an awesome time and have some whirlwind fling with a cute guy, I just know it," Coleen groaned over the phone the night before. "And I'll just be lying here, dying. Whoever fucking gave me this, I hope it hit them twice as hard. I hope they puke their kidneys out."

"I don't think it'll be that special," Jewel said.

"Just, give me all the details," was Coleen's reply. "Tell me if he's handsome, what you do. You can make out on the beach and—" and there she sneezed and Jewel was pretty sure mono didn't make you sneeze but she seized the opportunity anyways and said, "You should get some rest. I'll tell you if there's anything cool."

"I'm just gonna die while you're gone," Coleen said, after a span of sniffling. "Make sure my funeral's okay. Mom'll fuck it up by having it in a church or something. I want to wear black lace and have it all in a graveyard and for them to slaughter a chicken right there and put it in the casket with me."

Jewel laughed and promised yeah okay chicken blood everywhere, and they said goodnight and now the conversation was bouncing around in Jewel's head and she was wondering what Coleen had actually been about to say before she sneezed. Maybe a thing to ask in the inevitable report tonight.

"And locker room's fine," she continued. She took a couple steps to keep with the other girls, which wasn't too hard because she had about half a foot on them and that gave her stride a little extra reach. She didn't actually know where in the building the locker room was, but logically it had to be between entrance and pool and well-marked, and really rec centers were all about the same, right? Jewel didn't frequent them, but she'd been a few times, birthday parties or roped into tagging along with parents or friends. Okay, maybe not for a couple years. But she was ready. She had her swimsuit and her music and her magazine and sort of a plan. She wasn't apprehensive about the current situation at all.

[jimmydalad]

It seems things were progressing at last. Feeling pleased about the turn of events, Saachi lead the girls towards the locker room. Or at least, where she assumed the locker room was. She'd mostly been following the signs that were littered about the area. It really shouldn't be hard for her to find a simple locker room. She'd rather not imagine how embarrassing it would be for her to lead them around in circles and get nowhere. She still maintained a sense of bravado as she took the lead.

Jewel was an oddity. Bella was yet to be determined. She looked foreign, though not Asian like herself. That could be a good avenue for conversation. She seemed to be in good shape too and her make-up was light in a similar style to herself. From initial impressions, she seemed to be a bit scatter-brained as well. Saachi mused that she probably wasn't the smartest girl in the world. Then again, not many people were as smart as she was. She probably did some sort of sport. Another thing she could talk about.

"Here it is," Saachi said, more to herself than anyone else. They had eventually managed to find the changing rooms. Took a bit longer than she would've preferred, but hopefully, the other two wouldn't care about that. Pushing open the door with little hesitation, Saachi was greeted with an empty locker room. For the most part, it seemed clean, though the floor was wet with water. from god-knows-where Grimacing and praying that it was just shower or pool water, she tiptoed to one of the benches. These shoes were expensive. Her parents would kill her if they got ruined. Once she reached the sweet safety of one of the wooden benches, she took her shoes and socks off and tucked them into her bag.

"So Bella, where you from?" Saachi asked as she began to take off her underwear underneath her dress. She continued to get ready for the pool as she talked to the girl from the other school, nodding to whatever response she gave. "You do sports? Your body's in good shape after all."

[KamiKaze]

Jewel and Saachi from Oklahoma. Bella had to remember that. They were pretty distinct names, so it should be easy. Jewel was the goth, Saachi had the swimsuit. Bella didn’t know what Oklahoma was like. Honestly, her only frame of reference was the musical. But she wouldn’t dare say that out loud.

Bella lowered her unshaken hand, but kept her gaze as she followed along. The way Jewel and Saachi acted so far, her impression was, well, bravado, she guessed.

It wasn’t long before they found the locker room. Bella had worn her swimsuit under her clothes, so she didn’t need to change too much. Just remove a layer, and she’d be ready to go. But, she’d give them their privacy for obvious reasons.

Bella did her own navigating around the wet puddle, then kicked off her shoes.

“Oh, where I’m from?” she answered. “Albuquerque. My parents are Italian, though, if that’s what you’re thinking of.”

Sometimes people mixed up Hispanic and Italian, and she didn’t know why, to be honest. Anyways, she got another question.

“Ah... not sports exactly, but I’m a dancer,” Bella said, putting her socks into her shoes. “To be specific, I practice ballet.”

One thing she noticed was how people tended to react to the word “ballet.” She guessed it came with a lot of connotations to some people? Some found it boring, some found it interesting, some were neutral. It was one of those things you could learn a lot about people from their reaction.

Oh, maybe she should ask a few, as well.

“What about you two? Like, um, is there anything you do for fun?”

She needed to stop with the filler words, but there they were. But, she honestly had no idea what types of things they’d be interested in. Again, goths were aplenty in Davison, but she never really got what they actually did in terms of activities.

[MurderWeasel]

"I like to go to Black Mass," Jewel said, ditching her own shoes and then setting about removing the layers of her clothing. "It's this thing where you get a bunch of people together out in the woods and then you chain a virgin to a big stone table and everyone has their way with them and then you, well—some of this stuff is secret and I probably shouldn't tell you."

She balled up her stockings and stuffed them into her bag and followed with her skirt and t-shirt.

"Kidding. I like SOTF and painting and music."

Her tone never shifted from flat and matter-of-fact. Partially this was due to her attention, which was somewhat divided; was Saachi hitting on the new girl? That'd been a pretty gutsy opening line, or else a pretty personal compliment, and maybe there was a slight flash of jealousy there because okay, Jewel didn't work out ever really unless forced to by gym class, but she put effort into how she looked and she liked it when people noticed. Was Saachi even a lesbian? If so, that was news to Jewel. Should she be feeling awkward about the fact that she'd just slipped out of her undergarments and was stashing them in the bag as well, swapping them for her bikini?

She took a glance towards Saachi and that was a mistake when it came to keeping her cool and avoiding opening the door for them to all assess each other's states of undress. Jewel had a very particular comfort zone and as long as she was within it she felt indestructible but as soon as she was forced outside her confidence withered and she was left small and cold and alone. Normally, changing with a bunch of other girls was something Jewel wouldn't bat an eye at; she did it all the time in gym class and she wasn't going to be one of those weird kids who hid in the toilet stalls to get into their ugly school-issued gym shorts. But something about the present situation—the presence (albeit respectful) of a stranger her own age who wasn't similarly exposed, or the newness of her surroundings coupled with the day of firsts she'd had, or the uncertainty regarding what was going on with Saachi—left her a little bit insecure, and quickly she slid into her swimsuit bottom and then pulled on the top, adjusting it until she was comfortable.

At least she was wearing the fucking bikini now, and also this was a nice opportunity to show off her navel ring, which she'd had for like two years because she and Coleen got pierced to match but school dress code and the Oklahoma climate meant she didn't get much mileage out of most of the time. It was simple, silver, understated, but that was how she preferred her jewelry; it was there to accent her, not the other way around.

Finally Jewel let her awareness expand again, taking in Saachi and Bella and the lockers and benches and tile floors and fluorescent lights that screamed swimming pool just as loudly as the faint chlorine odor already wafting around them. Ballet, huh? Jewel had thoughts about ballet, both positive and negative. It was something that she would never call goth on its own, but surely it could be easily repurposed. The aesthetic had similarities, the anachronistic elegance and inconvenient excess supported by painstaking attention and work.

Jewel took a hand towel from her bag and set to work removing her makeup, because she could already see she probably wasn't getting out of this without getting in the water and raccoon eye could actually look good but only if you did it on purpose. She was going to take her magazine with her too, though, and leave it somewhere dry but accessible. She couldn't imagine her aquatic adventure lasting all that long.

[Frozen Smoke]

Zach was, for obvious reasons, not in the female locker room. Instead, he was already sitting by the pool, wearing nothing except board shorts that were probably a size too big for him and a thoughtful expression. The book he'd been planning on reading - Hypertrue: The Future of Entertainment - sitting with a bookmark neatly pressed between the third page and the fourth. He'd tried to read it a bit, but he'd found it hard to concentrate on it, with everything running around in his head.

It wasn't that he was sad. That had passed.

His parents had sent him here as a present, and whilst it had been with the best of intentions, and they'd have worried too much if he'd said he'd rather stew in his room for a while, he couldn't help but feel it was to his detriment. They probably imagined if they physically removed him from the people, he wouldn't think about them as much, not realising that he now lacked any distraction from doing just that.

He sighed.

He didn't even know why he'd expected anything different really. It was clear who she'd chosen at that party, but she'd humoured him at least for the rest of the year. He'd spent some time being mad about that. That was over now, he could see she had just wanted to try and make everyone happy, and he hadn't understood that. At least she could be happy now. Without him.

He wasn't sure why his mind kept returning to it all though. Playing everything back. It was like some part of him was looking for the flaw, the hole in reality that would let him get back to the place he'd once fooled himself into thinking he'd been, but the illusion had been shattered and there was no piecing it back together. His father had told him that there were plenty more fish in the sea, but, well - He didn't understand.

At least the pool was quiet enough to let him get this shit out of his system.

[Endellion]

Misha walked out of the male locker room in just a pair of board shorts, looking not unlike a chameleon that didn't understand where the fuck it was. It wasn't that he hadn't dressed for the occasion; no, that was exactly the problem. A lot more of the... unique complexion covering most of his body was shown off than usual. Half-cooked lobster, he liked to call it, much to the chagrin of his family. The one time they'd said he shouldn't be so blasé about his condition had been put to rest very quickly, though, so now they kept it to themselves.

And hell, he wasn't to blame if he put a damper on the day of anyone that caught sight on him. Not this time, at least.

Get out of here for a little while, he'd been told by the note left with the ticket in his bedroom, go relax and enjoy the change of scenery. It hadn't been the best of years, and Misha hadn't had the heart to call the man he owed a life debt up just to refuse the generosity, much as he wanted to. Enjoying what you couldn't really feel wasn't easy, after all. So he had packed his bags and made sure to be on the plane when it took off.

He hadn't been stuck in economy class, at least, so the seats had been comfortable and he hadn't been stuck next to someone who didn't know the value of personal space and who he would entertain the idea of rabbit punching as they got off the plane. Going the rest of the way had been nice too, because the little things were underrated. But of course nothing could ever just go well, so he'd been in agony on and off for most of the flight and the entire car ride. What a lovely start to his holiday. Not to mention that his being in Lana'i in the first place felt like one of the Addams Family decided to go to the beach.

Easing himself down to sit, near someone who seemed to be off in his own world, it occurred to Misha that the pool was quieter than he expected. So he soon turned his attention to the nearest interesting thing. "Here to get away from something, huh?" He did have that kind of look on his face, so it seemed like a fair enough guess.

---

(It was brought to my attention that since there's absolutely no profile or anything of the sort to refer to for him unlike all the other characters in this thread so far, and since the occasion when he would get a formal one is still a ways of, I'll be putting a note of his appearance here as an addendum.)

[+] Misha Kalinin

Misha is 5'3" and weighs 113 pounds, with a thin frame and lacking in defined muscle owing to his physical condition. He has blue eyes and brown hair left in a somewhat unruly mop, with hair chalk used to add the occasional touch of dark blue, framing an unremarkable face. Approximately half of his skin surface is scar tissue, leaving him with an uneven complexion in all of the affected areas, and his skin is pale with slight discoloration on his thighs from skin grafts having been taken.

His board shorts are light gray, and when not wearing them he tends towards a white short-sleeved T-shirt with a design of oscillating waves in all colours of the rainbow running from front to back, black cargo pants and matching sneakers with a watch on his left wrist and a silver bracelet on the right.

[KamiKaze]

((I asked Jimmy, and he said I could post ahead.))

Bella felt her brows furrow a bit.

It was clear it was a joke of some kind. Otherwise, that’d mean Jewel’s free time was spent reenacting what could be best described as a particularly dark adaptation of The Rite of Spring, perhaps told by… she guessed an Argento spin? Maybe?

Thankfully, for all the virgins out there, that was a joke and her real hobbies were SOTF, painting, and music. It was… still a weird thing to joke about? Especially since they just met. Maybe that was just her sense of humor. Maybe she was trying to get a reaction out of her.

“Um… right....”

Bella had finished stuffing her street clothes into her bag. Her own swimsuit was a one-piece, with the upper half white and navy blue sailor stripes and the lower straight navy blue. It was nice looking, she guessed. Though, she just realized: she didn’t need to go to the locker room too much, since she’d worn it under her clothes. Was that weird? Maybe.

“Oh! Actually… I watch SOTF too. I watch other reality TV in my spare time, but SOTF’s the main one I watch nowadays.”

She shuffled her feet for a moment. She’d gotten them taken care of before the trip, so they weren’t as bad. But she was still self-conscious. A bit of blistering here and there still remained, and her toes still looked more scraggly.

Bella slung a white towel over her shoulder.

“Are you two ready?”

[Frozen Smoke]

Zach looked over at the source of the voice, and wished he hadn't. It was hard enough to look someone right in the eyes at the best of times without feeling awkward, let alone when there was so much else that made it hard to do so. He looked like something out of a horror movie, all covered in stretched, red flesh. He broke eye contact quickly, looking off to the side from him, a look of pained annoyance curling his face up at the side.

He didn't want to respond. He wanted him to just go away and leave him alone.

Maybe if he ignored him, he would.

The lack of an answer dragged on, as the boy continued to look back at him. He assumed. He wasn't really looking at his face, more over his shoulder. It almost hurt to look at him, it made him imagine what it must be like, and it made his skin crawl in the same ways his probably did.

"I guess." he finally replied, his voice quiet and non-committal.