(Right, sorry again for the abscence, guys. I'm all better now, I promise. ;) Also pushed Max and Elyssa into next day, too - I hope you don't mind, Foxy?)
They’d spent most of the rest of the afternoon at the beach, talking quietly. Max was, to be quite honest, a bit intrigued by the image of mermaids being in the waters here. She’d always wondered what they’d look like if they were real. The ones in stories surely had to be idealized versions?
Max felt herself relax progressively as the afternoon wore on. She didn’t know if she could fully trust Elyssa yet, but she did admit to herself that she liked her. It was nice, having someone to talk to again.
Max was the first one up the next morning. She got out of bed quietly, so as to not wake Elyssa, and gathered her things. It was still incredibly early, by design rather than chance as she hoped the showers would still be empty at this time of day. Something inside her shuddered at the thought of others there. She may be saved from much ridicule thanks to her powers but they weren’t perfect … there were certain things that were hard to hide when naked.
The bathroom was blissfully empty and she felt herself relax. At some point she would surely run into trouble but Max would rather not think about it yet – too much chance to turn it into another panic. She showered briefly, sighing blissfully at the warm water running down her back, before dressing and heading back to the room.
She sat down on her bed, reaching for sketchpad and pencil, and found an empty page. The face of her roommate was easy enough to draw from memory, not perfect, surely, but she’d always had a knack for getting the rough things right first try. She went on, idly drawing a mixture of fantasy and memory. All that talk of mermaids must have inspired her.
When Andy woke up the next morning it was with a vague sense of confusion. How the
hell had he gotten into bed last night? He remembered Alex singing but that was about it. There hadn’t been any alcohol involved, had there? Had he sleepwalked himself to bed? Or was Alex secretly a supervillain in training and mind-control-puppeteered them all to bed? Shaking his head he crawled out of bed – using the actual stairs this time, he’d learned his lesson about ill-timed jumps,
thank you – and grabbed his things when he noticed Alex wasn’t there. Maybe he’d gone to the showers already? Maybe even to breakfast? Andy sighed whistfully at the thought of his dad’s heavenly breakfast scones. Would be a while until he got to eat those again, wouldn’t it? Maybe he could bribe his sister into a care package? Was there anything she still owed him for? Probably not, seeing as he was the ‘bad’ child after all. It was much more likely he was already indebted to her indefinitely … in that case, would putting something
else on the list really matter? A lifetime of servitude was totally worth it for some scones. He wandered into the bathroom still half asleep and caught in his musings.
