A/N: As of tomorrow, the day after I hit the publish button for this chapter, I will no longer the unlucky number but one year older! Happy birthday to me~
(Update a couple days later: I can't believe I forgot that my birthday is also the House Pride Day of Slytherin, my house! That makes it twice as awesome!)
And because I'm in such a generous mood, I made this chapter the longest one yet in the story with a word count of 2,216 words in total, which may seems short to y'all but feels like a lot to me. (I don't think I've ever surpassed 2,000 words before.)
Anyway, enjoy~!
- Turtle's POV -
"Pass the salt, please?" I asked at the restaurant table.
Kinkajou attempted to pick Winter up and throw him at me, but a sleepy Qibli muttered, "No," and gripped Winter's arm, AKA his pillow.
Moon passed me the actual salt, which I dumped on my croissant.
"Isn't that too much, Turtle?" she asked when a small mountain of tiny white grains formed on the buttery bread.
"Um ..." I snapped back to being completely awake, blushing at the sight of my super salty croissant. "I― need something super sharp-tasting to wake me up."
"Oh, okay."
"So," I turned to Kinkajou. "What are we doing today?"
Her face lit up instantly. "Right! Uh ... we're going to be scuba-diving in the morning, and then we'll grab some lunch and just chillax."
"That's cool."
An awkward silence filled the air for the next two minutes. I sank my teeth into my salt-piled croissant. It was hard to keep a straight face while eating something so strong tasting it made tears sting at the corners of my eyelashes, but I persisted to shove the entire piece of bread down my throat―I wasn't about to let a stupid food overcome me.
"To cut the awkward silence," said Kinkajou. "Anyone have detention stories to tell?"
"Qibli does," replied a smirking Winter. He nudged his boyfriend, who was still slumped across the table.
"How about no?" Qibli muttered, voice groggy from lack of sleep. "I'm still tired."
"It's your fault you chose to stay up all night singing Vocaloid songs," said Moon before she gave him a sympathetic smile. "Your voice is nice, though."
"Thanks."
"However," Moon continued. "The fact that we could hear you across the hotel's thick walls really says something."
"Oh, crap," said Qibli. "That explains why that angry old dude knocked on our door at Five AM and began loudly ranting. He was talking super fast in Spanish, but I think I could pick up some cuss words."
"Um," Kinkajou cut in. "Sorry to interrupt your little conversation, but I was really looking forward to hearing that detention story."
"Oh yeah," I said. "I want to hear that too. Maybe I could get a little inspiration for my writing this way."
"You're going to base an event off of me?" Qibli groaned and rolled his eyes. "Is it the official Make-Fun-of Qibli-Day or what?"
"Well, aren't you a little ray of sunshine," Kinkajou replied.
"Sor-ry," grumbled Qibli. "It's just that not only did I not get enough sleep, but I realized that historically speaking, Eliza was pregnant with another child when Hamilton was seeing Maria Reynolds. Which really pissed me off, adding onto the fact that now there's a harem of, like, four people. If Laurens was still alive, that is. Oh, crap. Laurens. Then Phillip. Whyyy."
"Is this what girls are like when they're on their period?" Winter whispered not-so-quietly to Kinkajou, earning him a light slap on the cheek.
"... I think we should go back to our hotel to get our beach stuff now," said Moon, always the peacemaker.
"Wait," said a stubborn Kinkajou. "How did Qibli get detention?"
"He snuck into the teachers' lounge to avoid taking Mrs. Kestrel's test. According to Ms. Asha, he was actually doing a good job disguising himself. He had on a fake mustache with gray powder in his hair and all, but then the teachers began discussing a rumor about him. He accidentally said, 'What do you mean? I'm innocent,' and then it went downhill."
"It wasn't worth it," said Qibli. "Their hot chocolate didn't even have whipped cream in it. But you should see what Winter did."
"What did Winter do?" Moon asked.
"Apparently in history class, he suddenly pointed to Mr. Web's head and screamed, 'FIRE!' Mr. Webs actually believed him and danced around, flailing his arms and shrieking like a madman for five minutes straight before realizing that he wasn't on fire. Then he got pissed and gave Winter detention."
"I wouldn't call it shrieking," corrected Winter in a snooty accent. "He sounded like a squawking chicken."
"Like how you sound right now."
"Pfft, you wish."
"Guys, seriously. Let's get a taxi and go back to our hotel."
Hours later we were looking over the edge of a boat, into an endless field of leaping blue waves. I had always loved the sight of the ocean water. One moment it was tranquil, the next second it would change personality, to pick up in a sudden whirlwind of furious tides.
"Alright, gang," the tour guide buzzed over the intercom. "We're going to stop our boat right here, and you can get down into the water."
Kinkajou and I looked at each other with wide grins.
"Three," she said.
"Two," I replied.
"ONE," we screamed together. "GO!"
Our landing sent a small ripple across the water. We paddled around to get used to the water, then dived beneath the surface to reenact that underwater scene from Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Another loud splash announced the arrival of Winter. As soon as he hit the water, he immediately began swimming down to look for fish and other various species. He didn't find anything at first, then suddenly a tiny fish swam up in front of him.
At that time, Kinkajou also found a fish and screamed in delight, a scream which shocked Winter so much he ended up taking a huge gulp of water. The fish disappeared as well.
We all swam up to the surface again. Winter began immensely coughing, a frenzied look in his eye.
"What happened?" Kinkajou demanded.
"What happened?" Winter snapped at her. "What happened? You screamed, and I freaked out and drank some ocean water. And I may have swallowed that fish as well!" He continued to hack out little droplets of salt water.
When we told Qibli and Moon―who were still on deck―what happened, they took the situation in two very different ways that we didn't expect.
Moon tilted her head to the side, trying to recall anything she remembered from the books she'd read before the trip. While her eyes determinedly concentrated on the ground as if she was thinking hard, her lip trembled softly like she would burst into laughter any second.
Qibli, meanwhile, may have freaked out even more than Winter.
"What were you thinking?" he yelled, tightening his grip on Winter's shoulders and shaking our white-haired friend like a Magic 8 Ball. "We don't even know what fish you may have eaten. You could be dead in seconds!"
"Okay Qibli," said Moon. "I need you to relax. You're making it seem like Winter ate a bucket of nightlock, and this isn't the case, okay? We'll consult a doctor as soon as we get back."
Turned out that Winter did not―in fact―eat the fish. As we exited the hospital, I noticed a duo of teenagers at the corner of my eye. One of them, a shy-looking kid with green hair, turned to a girl with dark hair. He whispered something in her ear, and she nodded.
They made eye contact with me a split second, before quickly turning back to their conversation.
But that had been enough for me to register how familiar the two looked. I thought about it for a second, then shook my head. It probably wasn't them, but I'd better keep a close eye in case.
NOW! STOP READING! IT'S INTERMISSION TIME!
Looking back at the last question, I can't believe so many of you thought I was a child of Athena. 😂 But if I were an Athena kid, I'd probably be that weird demigod in the corner who's super obsessed with olives. While everyone else is consuming deep knowledge or making battle plans, I'd go up to the nymphs and demand ways to plant olive trees, constantly consult the Demeter cabin for help, etc. Everyone would run away from me because "OH NO, IT'S THAT OLIVE-LOVING CREEP AGAIN."
ANYWAY. Answer today's question down below:
Favorite male and female Vocaloid? If you don't listen to it, GO DO IT RIGHT NOW.
For dinner, we stopped at a fancy restaurant dressed in decked in extravagant suits and dresses. Apparently the restaurant mostly served only wealthy businesspeople, so it wasn't surprising when a lady arched her brow in the direction of us, a random group of obnoxious teenagers crashing a formal place.
We had made plans to eat in a private room almost as luxurious as our hotel suites. When Qibli noticed the golden plated walls, his jaw dropped to the floor. Then he leaned over to Winter, whispering something about stealing some of the stuff to sell on eBay.
"Qibli, no," said Winter.
"Qibli, yes," said Qibli.
A waiter came over to take our order. "Buenas noches," she smiled at Kinkajou. "¿Te gustaría pedir una bebida?"
"Quiero un Fanta, por favor," said Kinkajou, bouncing on her seat.
"Help, I take French and not Spanish," I whispered to Moon. "What is she saying?"
Winter, who overheard our conversation, turned over and said, "Don't worry, Turtle. Just tell me what drink you want; I'll order for you."
"Thanks," I replied. "I'd just like a water, please."
"Okay." Winter ordered his drink, then said, "Para mi amigo, el quiere tequila."
"Winter, no," snapped Moon. She hit him lightly and correctly ordered for me. "Lo siento, el no quiere tequila. ¿Puede tener agua?"
The waitress nodded, then left. She appeared five minutes later with our drinks, then again with the food we just ordered.
As soon as my plate was set before me, the aroma of freshly cooked oyster soup filled my nostrils. I inhaled deeply, letting in all the seafood goodness, then dug in. I had been taught to eat properly, but this time nothing could keep me from ripping into my food like an uncontrollable madman.
In the middle of our meal, our waitress suddenly came in again. According to Moon, the two people in the room across from us wanted to come in for a chat.
When the waitress told us their names and left, an image of the people I saw back at the hospital flashed in my mind.
"Clearsight and Fathom?" I muttered, repeating the names out loud. "What could they be doing here?"
And so a minute later, our former exchange classmates were sitting with us.
Clearsight's jaw was tight, setting a grim, intense expression that had never appeared on her face before. Every so often she played with her hair as she scanned around the room.
Fathom, meanwhile, was looking away, down, over the table, anywhere he couldn't meet our gaze. He finally cleared his throat and said, "You guys need to watch your backs."
"Let me guess," grumbled Winter. "It's Darkstalker, isn't it?"
"Yeah," said Clearsight. She took a deep breath and lowered her voice to a hushed whisper. "Whatever I'm going to tell you next stays between you guys and no one else, got it?"
"Got it, mate!" Kinkajou pumped her fist into the air, a grin spreading across her face.
"Okay," said Fathom. "It's pretty evident that Darkstalker murdered Principal Arctic, but after we left he suddenly disappeared. The police couldn't find him anywhere."
"Great," Winter groaned.
"A week later, weird events have been noted all over TV, like more murders and a sudden ghost sighting that terrorized little kids on an overnight school trip," Clearsight folded her arms and sighed. "Yet he's so sneaky, he still hasn't been caught. We suspect he's been paying other people to keep him hidden.
"Then, when we were scouring our place, we suddenly spotted a little note at the bottom of the couch. It said, 'Wherever you are, I'm following you.' And one day when Fathom and I were hanging out at the park, we heard the snap of a camera. We turned only to see a blurred figure standing there for a second before he materialized into the crowd."
"And we just saw him today here," whispered Fathom.
Qibli hit his head on the table three times. "Great," he groaned. "Next thing we know, someone will drop dead in front of us or whatever."
I took a sip of water, nodding. I wonder what will happen nex―
Suddenly a blast of pain flew through my forehead, powerful enough to emit a shriek from my lips.
"Turtle?" Moon asked. "Are you okay?"
I held up my finger, taking deep, steady breaths for five seconds. "Y-Yeah," I said. "I think I'm fine- AGH!"
PAIN. This time greater than the previous. I clutched at my forehead, shrieking as my vision swarmed before me, the floor whirling beneath my feet.
The last thing I heard was Kinkajou's desperate cry as she screamed my name, before a wave of darkness swept over my vision and I fell into unconsciousness.