Chapter 20
"Hello, my name is Midshore, I'll be a teacher for a few days, here among you." she said serenely with her head held high. "Don't cross me."
~*~
"With worms? Fish? I don't like fish..." Maria squirmed. "They're all... weird..."
"We don't have a competition for who can braid the most daisies," Timothy chuckled. "Once you see a fish up close, it won't be so scary. They don't have arms, hands, or teeth, so they really can't hurt you. We're in freshwater, nothing is going to hurt you in this little lake."
"And we can have a good, vegetarian salad for dinner to make you feel better," Miranda soothed as she walked past. "You won't have to think about fish for a while if you don't want to. But who knows? It could be your new favorite thing! It's very relaxing."
"They have fishing lures, you don't need to use a worm," Alex assured as he walked up from behind them. "Nothing scary about it. I'll show you the ropes."
"When is Midshore due to be in?" Gloria stopped Miranda on her way.
"Oh, I'm not sure, but I think she'll be in later today. She didn't specify."
"That's odd, she can teleport great distances. I suppose she's a bit rusty, but she should still be able to get here..." Gloria mumbled to herself as she walked with the group towards the water's edge. She looked up from her pondering and noticed Ashton had an added blush on his face and Aquila was holding her head higher than she had been an hour ago. From a distance, she saw Alex bump his shoulder and ask how it had gone, but then they turned away from her and Gloria couldn't eavesdrop on them further.
"We’re all set to go to the water, let's get moving! We can split evenly into two groups of four and find good spots that way, let's get moving!" Timothy bellowed out merrily as he pulled a cooler behind him.
Miranda, also pulling a cooler behind her, walked up next to Aquila and Gloria. "Maybe we should split the group into boys and girls, like we're in middle school!" She wrinkled her nose and giggled.
"We don't have to do tha-" Alex started to project.
"That's a great idea! Winning group gets to choose the popcorn toppings for tonight!" Timothy agreed.
"Popcorn?" Arhun asked.
Timothy quickly closed his mouth and acted as though he had said too much, all while having a glimmer of myrrh in his eye.
The group split up, with the men going left and the women going right. Gloria went with her group, and Aquila kept an icy distance between her and Maria. "You'll prevent me from killing her, right?" Aquila asked Gloria. "Because I kinda want to kill her but I also know that I don't. So keep me from killing her. Please." she tacked on at the end of her sentence.
"I'll keep you from killing her, yes," Gloria chuckled uneasily, crunching the fallen leaves as she walked. Aquila was always the calm one, dispassionate, level headed. Seeing her agitated to the point of wanting to cause pain made Gloria wonder if she really could restrain her if it came to it.
~*~
Seneca shrugged on his coat as he sent out a text to Nora. It was Chinese food night, and they were going to talk about the comparability of a book to its movie release. They'd gotten into this rhythm for the past month- he'd go to Nora's apartment once a week and they'd talk about books and movies and what made for good writing and what was only half baked.
"Oh, where are you going?" a familiar voice asked him from the dining room. Deliah stood up from the table where she'd been studying.
"To book club," he said. It had been their codeword for a while now. There was nothing wrong with what Seneca and Nora were doing, but it would look very strange if it got out that a teacher and student were spending so much time with each other outside of school. Especially because they were a man and woman...
"Where's your book club?" she asked as she leaned against the door post.
"Up by the campus, don't wait up for me," he said, patting his pockets to make sure he had everything. He picked up his back pack from next to the door.
"You can't go,” she said. “It's your turn to make dinner,"
Seneca turned to her, a wrinkled brow and look of confusion on his face. "We don't cook dinner, we're college students,"
"It's a new rule we're working on," she said slowly, as if she were checking each word as it came out of her mouth.
"It's not a rule I agreed to, you can make your own dinner," he said as he opened the door.
As he closed it, he thought he heard a quiet and angry "Rats!" come from behind him. What was this new play of Deliah's? Was she trying to get him to not go? Did she really think that weak reason would keep him from leaving for the evening? He walked up the street towards campus and tried not to shiver. It was becoming a very cold October. At least he'd be able to take the upcoming long weekend and visit Gloria- But that was a five hour drive home. Would she be able to take the time off and see him? He'd heard that one of Gloria's housemates took weekends off and went to see their son, maybe she could get away too? He'd have to ask her.
For now, all he had to think about was what he wanted from the Chinese restaurant and how the book he'd read was different than the movie he'd seen and how either could have been better. A relaxing evening for sure.
~*~
The men stood on the shore, poles hanging from their hands. Alex eyed them each. "Too bad they're all the same, or I'd make a remark about whose is bigger," he chuckled as he cast into the water.
"Well, I'm the one who's going to be a father, so we'll just say me," Timothy said, a grin on his face. Ashton and Alex eyed each other, and then looked out at their bobbers. Arhun didn't seem to notice the exchange of looks.
"So, Ashton, I saw you went to talk to Aquila earlier, how'd that go?" Alex asked. He cocked an eyebrow towards Ashton, hoping he would stick to their story.
"Oh, she was angry, but I think she'll be ok. She's a strong one, this'll blow over. I don't think it was that serious between the two of them anyway. Now, what she feels for Maria will be a hot topic for a while," he said, following the script.
"I would think she would be," Alex said. "To have another girl walk up and take what she'd been... developing for a while must be a huge burn. What do you think will make her feel better?"
"Probably some time alone, and probably an apology from Arhun. Not that we're telling you how to live, buddy," Ashton said to the younger man. "Just our experience. But she's probably going to be angry for a while,"
"You stole him from me, you bitch!" Aquila yelled as Gloria and Miranda tried to hold her back. "You knew I liked him and you stepped in anyway!"
"He flirted with me!" she said, on the ground where Aquila had pushed her. "You think I wanted that pale piece of babyface boy before last night? Never in a million years! He snores! He's anxious!-" Aquila made a new struggle towards her but Gloria held her tight. "-But he's really good on the inside. And most guys that go after me aren't. So forgive me for seeing something that you didn't, and actually doing something about it. You couldn't arouse a guy if you were giftwrapped!"
"Maria!" Miranda exclaimed. "I will not be having this type of talk!"
"It's true!" she yelled. "Aquila couldn't sleep with a guy if she begged him to do it. If she paid him! Aquila's so plain a sex worker wouldn't sleep with her!"
At that, Gloria lessened her grip on Aquila and she took the chance to run in and punch her once more, before Gloria and Miranda could rush back in.
"You bitch!" Aquila shouted, turning the heads of the men not too far away but out of eyeshot. "You who-"
At that moment, the air stood still and shimmered, And Midshore stepped into the periphery of Gloria's vision. With two flicks of her wrist, Maria was subdued and Aquila was frozen solid.
"They both need to cool off," Midshore said in a calm tone, barely audible after all of the yelling. "They'll both be fine, but they need to relax. I didn't bring any herbs with me for a calming tea, so this is the next best option."
The men came running over to see Aquila frozen and Maria in a daze. All four of them had a look of confusion on their faces. "Hello, my name is Midshore, I'll be a teacher for a few days, here among you." she said serenely with her head held high. "Don't cross me."
I had a lot of fun writing this chapter! I didn't originally intend for Aquila to fight Maria, but I think we all saw it coming. She tries to suppress her emotional side, but it sure flares up sometimes, which we can't fault her on in this case.
Bloopers!
To start, I didn't include all of the bloopers from last chapter at the end of last chapter, so here are a few:
^I was playing around with some cheats and used a cheat to summon a rabbit! They are so sososososo adorable.
^Buddy, you're in Maria's way. Please leave.
^Miranda, you don't have to be so suprised? It's a simple but rather unbreakable spell.
^ Don't worry Aquila, the scene is over, Gloria can put you back the way you're supposed to be.
^ Don't worry, the blue will go away. Eventually.
^ Awkward hug strikes again! I like to think this one isn't awkward though, it's a family hug.
^"Whoa my God! It's a ghost!"
^I was trying out some ideas for a new forum banner and was considering a 'too many people in the bed' theme, but I decided against it. didn't stop me from playing around though 😉!
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