Heyo, human beings from outer space!
Today I have another fun story for you! I read it to two people I knew and one thought it was just fantastic and the other was like "I was expecting it to be funnier." So, you'll just have to find out which one you are.
Read on if you dare.
"Hurry up, Anakin." Ahsoka tapped her foot impatiently against the hot cement, waiting for Anakin and the clones to finish with the sunscreen.
"Calm down. You'll have plenty of time to swim," Anakin grumbled, rubbing sunscreen into his legs. "Why are you so anxious to get into the water anyway?"
"There's never enough time to swim. You're taking too long," Ahsoka pushed. "Hurry, hurry, hurry!"
"Okay, okay," Anakin said, sounding impatient. He handed the bottle to Ahsoka. She squirted a huge, bubbly lump of sunscreen in her palm and proceeded to hurriedly smother it all over herself. Then she threw the bottle at Anakin's face, ran across the cement, and hurled herself into the pool.
She hit the water with a huge splash and her head dunked under. Everything sounded fuzzy and gurgly underwater. Ahsoka pushed off the side of the pool and glided through the water gracefully. Halfway across the pool, she surfaced for air.
"Oh my gosh." Ahsoka heard Anakin say.
"That was wizard," Hardcase hollered, waving to her.
Ahsoka waved back, hopping up and down on the tip of her toe, hardly able to touch the ground. "Come on in! The water's great!"
"Okay," Hardcase shouted back. "After I finish with the sunscreen!"
Ahsoka slid back into the water and kicked into a front stroke. She swam to the side of the pool, somersaulted underwater, kicked off the wall, and swam all the way back to the other end. She grabbed the edge of the pool and looked up at everyone. "Coming?"
"Yep!" Hardcase and Fives said simultaneously. They jumped into the water over her, making even larger splashes than Ahsoka. The water showered her and she squealed.
"My splash was bigger." Hardcase crossed his arms triumphantly.
"No, mine was!" Fives argued.
"Your splashes were both big. Now come on, race you to the diving boards!" Ahsoka cheered.
The three splashed into action. The clones had jumped in at least two metres ahead of Ahsoka, so she was at a disadvantage. She pushed off the wall and grabbed onto Fives' ankles, propelling herself forward. She held onto his shoulders as he cut through the water.
Fives tried to shake her off but failed miserably. At the right moment, she pushed off him and grabbed the wall before the others did.
"Hey! Cheater!" Fives yelled.
"Yeah, no fair," Hardcase agreed.
"I still win," Ahsoka said. She heaved herself out of the water and turned to see the rest of the pool. Many others had gotten in the water.
Fives and Hardcase followed her out to the pool and she waved for them to line up at the diving board. No one else was there, so Hardcase hopped on.
Ahsoka pushed past Fives and leapt onto the board after Hardcase. She ran up to him, used the Force to pull a pool noodle into her hands, and jabbed it at Hardcase's back.
"Walk the plank, Hardcase!" Ahsoka shouted.
"Aaaaah, no!" Hardcase wailed, turning around to swat the noodle away. Then he yelped and clutched his wrist, pretending like he chopped his hand off. Ahsoka poked at him again and he tipped and fell off the diving board, making a huge splash in the water.
"You killed my brother!" Fives shouted, running across the diving board. "I will avenge his death!" Fives snatched Ahsoka by the waist and held her above his head. She shrieked loudly as he tossed her into the pool.
Ahsoka surfaced from the water laughing. She splashed at Fives who jumped off the diving board after her. He showered her with lots of water.
As Ahsoka turned away from Fives' splashes, she noticed that Anakin hadn't gotten into the water yet.
"Race you to the other side!" Ahsoka challenged, kicking into a front stroke.
Misunderstanding the direction, Fives started swimming the wrong way. He yelped and corrected himself, trying to catch up to his commander. But she was too speedy and she kept the lead even when he swam as fast as he could.
"Anakin!" Ahsoka gasped, popping out from the water as Fives and Hardcase climbed out. Anakin startled and Ahsoka laughed at him. "Come on in, Anakin. It's really nice today."
"You know, Ahsoka," Anakin brushed his fingers over his chin as if stroking his non-existent beard like Obi-Wan and paced a few feet, "you should really be thankful for the opportunity to use this pool. You know, the town didn't have to be so kind as to allow us to use this nice pool facility–"
"Whoah, what's gotten into you?" Ahsoka asked, crumpling her face in puzzlement. "You never do this."
"I just think that we should slow down and take a moment to be grateful for–"
"Slow down?" Ahsoka gaped at him. "Anakin, are you feeling okay? You hate slowing down and– oh, I get it."
"Get what?" Anakin asked nervously.
"You're stalling," Ahsoka narrowed her eyes at him. "You don't want to get in the water."
"What? Why would you say that?"
"You never do this and now you're acting all nervous and guilty and everything," Ahsoka said. "Come on, Anakin, time to get wet."
"You know what, I think I actually need a little more sunscreen," Anakin backed up sheepishly.
"Just admit it. You're afraid of the water," Ahsoka said.
"I'm not afraid, Snips, I just–"
"Then you should have no issues getting in the water."
"It's not that I'm afraid."
"Then get in the water."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Look, I could do this all day," Ahsoka sighed, a smirk tugging at her lips. "But if you aren't going to get in willingly, I'll have to have to take other measures. So, get in the water."
"No."
"Okay." Ahsoka snapped her fingers and pointed to Anakin. "Boys, get him in the water."
Fives and Hardcase immediately lunged from behind, grabbing Anakin's arms. Anakin screeched as they shoved him forward. Teetering on the edge, he finally squeezed his eyes shut, let out a long yell, and fell in.
The water was shallow and only came up to just below his waist. Anakin landed upright on his feet but kept yelling.
Ahsoka raised her eyebrows, crossed her arms, and tapped her foot under water. "You done yet?"
Anakin stopped yelling and peeked his eyes open. Then he grinned sheepishly at Ahsoka, turning red at the sight of almost all the clones' eyes on him.
"You're afraid of water," Ahsoka said.
"I grew up on Tattooine, okay? Give me a break," Anakin growled.
"You shoulda just said that in the first place," Ahsoka rolled her eyes.
"I'm going to go sit in the hot tub," Anakin said, wading to the edge of the pool.
"Oh, sure, you go be boring," Ahsoka huffed. "Whatever."
"There's a hot tub?" Fives asked.
"Yeah. Wanna come?" Anakin said.
"You bet I do!" Fives ran (as best as he could with water up to his waist) to the edge of the pool and jumped out.
"Traitor!" Ahsoka hollered after him.
Fives just shrugged.
"Oh well. I'm going to go push Rex down the waterslide. Care to join me, Hardcase?"
Hardcase lit up. "In what universe would I not?"
Ahsoka spotted Rex on the edge of the pool talking with Kix. She kicked into the butterfly stroke to purposefully fling a bunch of water on the two when she reached them. Hardcase wasn't far behind.
"Rex, Rex, Rex, Rex, Rex, Rex, Rex," Ahsoka shouted, surfacing from the water.
"Yes, Commander?" Rex asked, wiping beads of water from his face.
"Come to the slide with us," Ahsoka said, pulling at his wrist.
"I don't think water slides are for me, Commander," Rex said, twisting his arm free.
"Sure they are! Don't be boring, Rex," Ahsoka yanked at his arm. "You can come, too, Kix."
And before the two elder clones knew what was happening, Ahsoka and Hardcase were dragging Kix and Rex to the water slide.
The slide wasn't huge, but it was decently sized and winded about before disappointing into the pool. Ahsoka shoved Kix and Rex up the ladder.
"Up you go," Ahsoka said, using the Force to lift them, making it easier against their resistance. She jumped up after them and Hardcase followed closely.
"Ready?" Hardcase asked.
"NO!" both Kix and Rex shouted.
"Ready or not, down you go!" Ahsoka and Hardcase gave Rex and Kix powerful shoves, sending them flying down the waterslide. The two clones wailed like terrified children all the way down and hit the water hard as a tangled mess.
Ahsoka and Hardcase nearly died from laughter.
"That was very unsafe, you two!" Kix hollered up at them. "You could've gotten Rex or me severely injured from pulling a stunt like that!"
"Yeah, and it's not like droids are trying to kill us with blasters and detonators every other day," Ahsoka hollered back.
"What she said!!" Hardcase shouted.
Kix and Rex shrugged at each other as if to agree with Ahsoka. Then Ahsoka heard them discuss visiting the hot tub and they climbed out of the pool.
"Ready? I'm going to go head-first, especially since the rules say exquisitely not to," Hardcase said, laying on his stomach at the entrance of the water slide.
"Great idea. Mind if I tag along?"
"The more the merrier!"
Ahsoka plopped down on Hardcase's back and pushed off. All the way down, she kept shoving the sides of the wall, propelling them faster and faster. They shot out of the slide and surfed the water for a brief moment before dunking under.
The two surfaced, sputtering from the water up their noses.
"That. Was. Totally awesome!" Hardcase cheered. "Let's go again!"
For the next half hour, Ahsoka and Hardcase (along with additional others who joined a time or two) found creative ways to send them flying down the water slide and into the pool. They scaped bottom a few times, leaving Ahsoka with scratches up her arm and on her feet and knees, but it was worth it.
Then the clones and Ahsoka had swimming races, diving competitions, and played a few water games. When the sun sank low on the horizon and the time they had left to swim dwindled to a few minutes, all the clones piled into the hot tub with Anakin.
"A-a-ah," Anakin said, waving Ahsoka away from the hot tub when she approached. "Eighteen years old and up for the hot tub."
"That's not fair!" Ahsoka protested.
"Sure it is. You're not eighteen, and the rest of us are older, so you can't come in the hot tub and we can."
"Well, technically, they're all ten!" Ahsoka pointed to the clones.
"And they also have enhanced ageing to make them over twenty. So, Snips, you can't come in." Anakin smirked at her. Ahsoka was pretty sure the rules were sixteen-years-old and up, but Anakin just had to torture her.
Oh if looks could kill.
So Ahsoka ran back to the pool and jumped in. She guessed she'd just have to enjoy having it all to herself.
At the end of the day, when everyone cleared from the pool and dried off, Anakin looked as red as a Millaflower from his sunburn. Hardcase had random red patches of sunburn all over him where he had missed with the sunscreen. Ahsoka's lekku, which were a considerable amount more sensitive, turned pink from the sun and remained that way for a while.
But overall, everyone had heaps of fun.
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Word Count: 2,056
Published: August 8, 2022
The first part, where Ahsoka is very eager to get in the water, is eerily similar to someone I know rather well... I read it her and she laughed and said it sounded just like her.
I only wrote this because I love to swim and I went swimming twice recently. That doesn't happen often anymore, even though we used to go all the time and I'm pretty good. My hair smells like chlorine.
Requests are open, feel free to message me or make a comment if you have any ideas!
Bye, peoples!