We both reentered the pool, Lyland entered quite a bit before I did. My head was reeling. Did I truly just ask Lyland to kiss me? Did that really just happen? We had been friends since we were little, and now things were going to be different. Just when I made the decision to disappear from my friends for a while.
Cleo beams at me, clearly waiting for the first chance she got to bring it up. Cash seemed to pick up on what had happened too, as he was glaring at me. His eyes were dark and hooded. He seems beyond annoyed and beyond tired. His skin was so pale it almost seems sickly.
"After this game, everyone who doesn't live here needs to go home," Cash demands. His voice carries a realm of superiority to it.
"It's passed curfew," the twins chime at the same time.
Cash lets out a heavy sigh, sliding his hands through his hair. "Fine, then everyone stays here but goes to seperate rooms." The tiredness slips into his voice as he says it. He was beyond exhausted, I think to myself. Secretly I wish there was something I could do to help, but I knew there wasn't.
"Cashel," Cleo argues, "all the girls are going to have a sleepover in my room." Grand. That means I'm going to be stuck with the twins for the rest of the night, in Cleo's room.
"Yes!" Izzy chimes.
Cash nods. Right, I think. He just doesn't want Lyland to be near me, or Raiden to have his girlfriend in the same room.
"I'm not scared of breaking curfew," Teegan adds. I had honestly forgot he was here.
"If its past curfew, you have to stay," Cash commands.
"I don't have to listen to you," Teegan counters.
"You have to stay Teegan," Raiden says. Teegan turns to Raiden in annoyance, but with one stern look from Raiden he looks down.
I felt a pull in my stomach. Raiden was going to be Duke soon, that's why Teegan listened to him. That's why Cashel's words meant nothing to him. Teegan's compliance meant he was a shifter. That means Lyland also has to listen to Raiden. Suddenly relief fills me, at least Cash isn't going to be the Duke, or Lyland would never be allowed to talk to me again.
"You can just stay in one of the empty rooms, buddy with Lyland if you want," Cash regains control. The way he said Lyland seems full of hatred. He definitely knows what just happened.
I twiddle my fingers, staring down at them. This was too uncomfortable for me. Regret swims through my veins, I made a huge mistake kissing Lyland. How was I going to explain to him I was going to isolate myself for a while right after kissing him? Besides now it would be even more discomforting to come to the Lupines' with Cash upset with me. He had no right to be upset in the first place.
(AUG3)
I wearily look towards Cleo, silently begging her to stop this before it becomes anything else. She seems to get the memo. "Okay, so for the ones who weren't here," she starts with a wink in my direction. "We are going to play Spike."
"What is that exactly?" Lyland asks. His stunning smile catches my attention, like electricity coursing through my veins. I look back down at my hands, as I bite the inside of my lip.
Cash lets out a quick chuckle in response. I glare up at him, biting the inside of my lip harder. He smirks at me in response, making me feel small.
"It's water volleyball, but there is balls of water flying full force from the back sides. If you get hit by the balls of water, you're out. You have to get out of the pool until the round is over. If the game ball lands in the water or if your team hits the ball twice, you lose a point. Three rounds, at 10 points each make a game," Cleo explains.
"What's in it for the winning team?" Teegan asks.
"We should make it a drinking game," Ivory adds.
"Yes!" Izzy cheers on her sister.
"Losing team has to cook breakfast," Cash suggests, "and clean up after everyone when its over."
Ivory and Islynd whisper to each other then they both reach out to the side of the pool. The light pink and white smoke of their powers swirls across the pool and forms into a bunch of bottles at the end. "For every point lost, the teams must drink. Two drinks for every teammate that gets knocked out. If you want to get someone back in one person has to down it," Ivy commands.
"Can I drink water?" I ask.
"Ditto," Lyland copies.
"You're scared of a little drink?" Cash questions Ly.
"More like you should be scared of him having a little drink," Teegan teases.
I look at Ly in confusion. Never once had I heard of Ly drinking, he didn't seem the type. "Why's that?" I ask before I realize the words had slipped out of my mouth.
"His whole, I'm happy all the time thing he does disappears," Teegan answers.
"Everyone drinks," Ivy says wicked gleaming at me.
"I really would prefer not to," I bite back.
"You two need to chill and have fun sometimes. Besides Aura, if you're gonna be dropping me for a few weeks, you should have fun with me first," Cleo says with her bubbly smile in place.
"Dropping you?" Lyland questions. I mentally groan, now I'm going to have to explain that later.
"Fine," I huff. "Only for you Cleo. Let's get this over with." Tonight was supposed to be about acting my age anyway, and this was what a lot of people my age did.
"Me and Raiden will be on one team, and Lyland and Teegan you two can be on the other team," Cash commands. He was still saying Lyland's name with venom in his voice.
"Okay, we get Aura," Lyland counters.
"Then you guys are definitely going to lose, I'm going with the winning team," Ivy announces. She slides through the water with confidence and grace. Her arm intertwines with Raiden's as if she's bragging.
Seeing that everyone else was walking over to the teams they chose, I move in the water towards Lyland. With a huge smile, he notices me and grabs my hands. With a soft tug, he pulls me closer to him, as his thumb caresses the back of my hand softly.
Cleo grabs my other hand happily, picking our side. Izzy looks back and forth before moving to stand behind her sister hesitantly. She didn't have a choice in the matter seeing as she was the last one to pick a team.
Ivy winks at me, with a mischievous smile on her face. Then she looks over at Cleo with spite. It was apparent she still hadn't dropped her grudge against us. She was going to be going after us, and I didn't feel like sitting by idly as she tries to make a fool out of me. This meant using my abilities if I had to.
My hands pull out of Ly and Cleo's, who both turn to me in surprise. The other team huddles up to talk strategy. "Let's move a little farther away guys," I say with a smile. Once I feel like we are far enough to not be eavesdropped on, I turn my back to the other team so they couldn't see my eyes.
My fingers glide against the top of the water, as I focus. What's their team's plan? I slid into a vision, keeping just enough focus on the real world to give my teammates a play-by-play. "They're going to go after Cleo first, as they think she's the biggest threat. Then Teegan, Lyland, and lastly me as I'm the weakest link."
With focus, I move forward into the future of the game. "Ly watch you're head as you play, you get out by the water spikes. If we don't play stategically they will win three to zero, it seems like they have us out powered. They're not planning on playing fair, which means we can't either."
I slip out of the vision as I look at my teammates who are watching me closely. Teegan looks at me in shock, "I thought you were human?"
"I'm not," I state. "Let's use their strategy against them, we go for Cash, then Raiden, then Ivy, and lastly Izzy. I'm our weakest link, so while you guys are doing that. I'll focus mostly on strategy and warnings."
Lyland laughs, "I doubt you're actually the weakest link. You may turn out to be the strongest player." I smile up at him and shake my head slightly. His flattery isn't going to my head.
Cash didn't underestimate me either, I could tell from the visions. While everyone else was focusing on getting out who they thought was the strongest, he was going to be going after me. He planned to flirt and get me distracted for some reason. I could easily turn that around on him.
We position ourselves towards the net. Cash stands on the other side of the net, holding the game ball right in his hands. His poisonously blue eyes pierce right through me. "How about we let Aura serve first?" He smirks.
"Channel your abilites," I chant in my head. I watch in slow motion as he tosses the ball at me with some force. It glides through the air, as I reach up and catch it with ease. He must have thrown it hard though, as it hurt when I caught it.
The other side looks at me in shock, and I feel a small smirk start to form on my face. "Thank you, Cashew. That's so sweet of you," I reply with a wink in his direction.
I throw the ball up in the air, watching as it comes down. My arms swing up hitting the ball and sending it over the net, right at Cash. Ignoring the burning of my arms at the contact, I try to send the most flirty smile I can manage at him.
Looking caught aback, Cash almost lets the ball hit him. He hits it last minute, sending it over the net. As he returns the serve, I hear the water cannons start to gear up. Meaning this game just got more interesting.
"Ly duck," I say quietly so he can hear me. He ducks down as a ball of water flies out of the cannon behind him. We smile at each other for a brief second and then return to the game. The ball of water Ly ducked sores straight over and hits Izzy directly in the face. I grimace at the sound, knowing it must have hurt. Izzy lets out a small squeak, and ducks under the water. Swimming over to the edge of the pool where she won't get hurt again.
Ivory hits the ball right when her sister gets smacked in the face. The ball soars over to our side directly towards Cleo. "Cleo get your head in the game," I hiss at her, as the ball comes directly at her. She hits it absentmindedly, almost missing. I splash her slightly to get the point across.
The ball goes over the net and hits the water. The other team was far too focused on their teammate getting out. I'm the first to let out a cheer, and the rest of my team follows. They all over at us unhappily, the competition was on now.
They all go after Cleo, trying to knock out our strongest player. It was no help that for some reason our strongest player was extremely distracted by Izzy who was sitting on the side. I jump in front of Cleo last minute, saving her from getting out. The ball hurt pretty bad when it hit me in the stomach, so I turn around in anger. "Clementine, focus!" I yell before moving to sit on the opposite edge of the pool from Izzy.
Thankfully, that seems to get Cleo's head in the game. "Revenge!" She screams her next serve. The cannons speed up quite a bit. I let out a small sigh of relief at not having to dodge the fast-speed water bombs and the ball.
Cleo hits it straight to Raiden since he was the one who threw the ball that got me out. Cash seems to get bored of the game and steps in front of the ball to keep it from hitting Raiden. "Oops, I'm out," he shrugs with a small smile teasing at the sides of his lips. He winks at Lyland as he gets out of the pool and sits right next to me.
"You got out on purpose," I complain to him when he sits next to me.
"It's not fun unless I can target you," he says with a lazy smile. He looks at me out of the side of his eyes, which are mostly covered by his long dark eyelashes. His simple demeanor made him look a little too attractive for my taste, so I look over at Ly.
"You guys got this!" I cheer. Sending a small kiss in Lyland's direction. Cash wasn't about to distract my team by getting in their heads. Ly sends me a goofy grin before focusing back on the game.
"Aww look at you and you're new boyfriend, so cute," Cash teases.
I smile playfully at Cash, "Thank you." If I don't give into him, it will bother him more, and I can save my energy by not arguing with him. It works seeing as he doesn't say another word.
He grabs a bottle from behind us and starts drinking it. "If I drink the whole thing can I get myself back in?" He calls to everyone in the pool.
"No, someone else has to drink for you!" Ivory calls, as she serves the ball.
"You want to drink this and get me back in?" Cash asks, shaking it around in front of me. I look over at him like he's crazy. "Worth a try," he chuckles, taking another big drink.
Teegan is the next to get out, followed closely by Raiden. Leaving Lyland, Cleo, and Ivory locked in battle. Lyland gets hit in the back of the head by one of the cannons. "I told you to watch your head!" I complain as he comes to sit next to me.
"Cleo's got this, we basically already one anyway," he says as he intertwines his hand with mine. Right when he said it, Cleo gets Ivory out.
"My sister's almost badass," Cash says as he jumps back into the pool. He takes another big drink, before heading back to where the game was being played. Everyone else follows suit, moving back for the next game.
The next game goes by faster, as no one is playing fair. Everyone uses their abilities, so it was basically played in super speed. Not to mention the other team had two witches that were manipulating the ball and water bombs. They won the next round with ease.
By the last game, everyone was a little buzzed. It was sloppy, and honestly quite hilarious. Especially to me who hadn't drunk much. Every other drink I faked, which got easier to do as everyone else got more and more distracted.
Lyland and Cash were beefing it out with each other. Same for Ivory and Cleo for some reason. Raiden and Teegan were playing it like they were close friends who were just having some drunken fun. While I and Izzy were playfully aiming right next to each other, not wanting to get each other out. If you ask me, she wasn't drinking either.
Everyone but me and Izzy was definitely on the drunker side. We ended up purposely getting ourselves out so we could sit on the side and make fun of everyone else.
Cleo jumps up to hit the ball and falls backward into the water. The splash hits both Lyland and Teegan, who look over in surprise. Somehow the ball makes it over the net though. Izzy bursts out laughing, and I follow suit. "Cleo's a mess," she giggles.
"She really is," I laugh. "To be fair, they're all a mess right now though." Their abilities were long forgotten, as they were all moving slowly and sloppily.
Lyland once again gets hit in the back of the head with a water bomb. He lets out an obscenity as he rubs the back of his head and joins us at the side of the pool. Instead of getting out he just lazily drapes over the edge of the pool by my lets.
"So, what are we laughing about?" he hazily asks.
"You're suprising inability to guard your head," I giggle.
He looks at me with slight annoyance, "Okay, look..."
"Yeah, that's exactly what you should have been doing!" I laugh. My laughter gets louder, as the annoyance in his eyes grows. Until I almost fall backward, and both Izzy and him laugh at me instead.
"I'm almost glad this game is over," I add once I calm down. "I'm ready to go to sleep after this." Realization hits me once I say that. I had been using my powers too much to help my team win. There had been so much excitement I hadn't noticed the headache that had formed.
"You over did yourself, didn't you?" Ly asks. His voice sounds deeper than normal, and the happiness had slipped away. Teegan was right, Ly didn't seem like the same person after he drank.
"A little bit, I'll be fine once I get some sleep," I answer him. He gives me a stern look, before turning back around in the pool. His hair drapes over the edge of the pool, tickling my leg. Without thinking, I start playing with his long silver hair. It looks so pretty when it is wet, not to mention it is so smooth and silky.
He leans his head against my leg in response. I continue to absent-mindedly play with his hair until the game is over. I cheer as Teegan scores the winning shot. We won another round, which means we won the whole game.
Lyland pulls me off of the wall and onto his shoulders, as we cheer. He runs through the water towards Cleo and Teegan, cheering like an idiot. Once he gets there he slides me off his shoulders and starts to talk to Teegan excitedly. I hug Cleo happily. "We won!"
"All thanks to you!" Cleo chimes. "You're the one who let us know everything that was going to happen so we wouldn't get out!" She spins me around softly, a bubbly smile stretching across her face.
"Yeah but it wouldn't have happened without you and Teegans pure skill," I laugh.
"We would have won faster if Lyland would have just watched his head!" Cleo gripes, sending him a taunting look.
"It's not my fault there were cannons aiming directly at the back of my head," he says humorously.
"You could have moved though," I say bumping into his arm. I had hoped the contact would cheer him up, but it didn't seem to. Now was not the time to tell him I was going to be less social for a while, because he seems very moody.
Once everyone finishes talking about the game, the other team puts up the net. "Playtimes over kids," Cash calls out.
"Kids?" Cleo rebates. "You're not that much older than the rest of us!" She sticks her tongue out at him.
"Yeah, but I don't do that," he counters, as he gestures toward her.
"Whatever, you're just a sore loser. Wah, I'm Cashel and I can't stand losing," She taunts. Her hands make a crying motion against her face, which makes me laugh. He makes a goofy face back at her. I smile at seeing Cash be silly, he was always so serious. It's almost like he and Lyland switch personalities when they drink.