Bobbing Along

[Madison Andrews]

Maddy loved one thing about summer. It was the best time for swimming. She could swim along in the pool happily keeping herself company, and other people would come to the pool too to do the same thing. And sometimes they'd socialize and Maddy would have fun with their expectations for her behavior by doing her best to completely switch those expectations around, upside-down and then knot said expectations so much they wouldn't know what to expect!

Ahh! Life truly was fantastic for Maddy since she'd come to Hammel. Yes, she missed her parents and siblings, but being allowed to be off and alone for the first time in her life was nice. Besides, most of the teachers and counselors and everyone seemed really nice and great. Besides, with Maddy's little melting problem, she needed to be somewhere where people would be able to keep an eye on her and make sure she could put herself back together.

The thought of melting made Maddy freeze on the point of getting into the pool. What if she melted in the pool? That wouldn't be good. How would she get back together with all that water and chlorine and chemicals? Why hadn't she thought of that before? She looked at the pool pensively and then sighed to herself. Maybe swimming wasn't a good idea. But she wanted to swim! She wore a one-piece, simple bathing suit which covered all the important bits and had pretty purple butterflies against a black background.Summer was almost over and she'd spent the whole summer swimming without issue.

Taking a deep breath, Maddy decided to do a cannonball. She stood back from the pool as far as possible, got a running start, Jumped into the pool and hugged her knees to her chest until she was sinking to the bottom of the pool. She opened her eyes underwater and looked around before allowing herself to float to the surface. She proceeded to float on her back, not having a care in the world to anyone who saw her. Ahh, the water was so nice this morning!

[Deleted]

What sort of freak would go to the swimming pool just to lounge around in her black lace bathing suit and matching sarong and idly read a book? Mei, that’s who. Surprisingly enough, the pool was one of those places that was so loud and obnoxious that it was easier to ignore the collective disturbances and retreat into oneself for solitude. The room echoed even the slightest noise, any hope for silence was absolutely impossible. A few voices in a silent room was far more distracting to Mei than simply being lost in a cluster.

For the most part.

If her mental shields hadn’t been up, then no doubt she would have been just as easily overwhelmed, with a bombardment of internal voices. And because they were siphoned directly into her mind, she would have no choice but to pay attention to every single one of them. Luckily, Mei was getting better at that, blocking them out. One would hope she would, after having been at Hammel for a almost a good four years now.

She supposed….this was her own fault. After all, she wasn’t paying attention to anything going on around her. She was seated on the next to lowest tier of the bleachers. She was holding her book out in front of her, completely engrossed in the story unfolding before her eyes in words most intricately twined.

Be that as it may….Mei was livid.

The splash which had consequently come from someone’s childish impulse to propel themselves curled up as a ball into the water of the deep end had soiled her precious book. Granted, Mei could simply purchase a new one when she felt like it(if she felt like it), but it was the principle of the matter. While Mei was infuriated, she held no conscience in directing that fury towards the deserved offender. Mei stood and traipsed on her bare feet to the edge of the pool, holding her chin up high and haughty like the young miss she was raised to be. Her eyes locked on the annoyance who had splashed her. “You ruined my book,” she said plainly, reaching out with her thoughts so that only the girl could hear. Her eyes shot daggers down onto the overly-relaxed figure of the girl who clearly gave no consideration for her surrounding peers.

[Madison Andrews]

Maddy was enjoying her reverie, floating along in the water. Her mind had even begun to sing that old familiar tune from Bed-nobs and Broomsticks that went, "Bobbing along, bobbing along at the bottom of the beautiful brighty sea..." Then the most horrible thing happened. She heard a voice only in her mind telling her that she'd ruined a book.

She'd ruined a book.

She'd ruined a book?

Maddy immediately came out of her back float to look around to find an Asian girl glaring down at her in a black lace bathing suit. She looked really angry and held a wet book in her hand. Maddy was immediately filled with shame. She liked books. Books were nice and good and provided an escape from the dreary world of life, the universe, and everything.

Books were all that was good in the world. How could she frame an apology to such a heinous crime? How could she have been so thoughtless? Who would bring a book to the pool and risk it being ruined? What kind of monster thought that kind of risk would be acceptable? What if the girl had been about to drop it anyhow?

The new thoughts invaded Maddy's mind as she realized it wasn't entirely her fault. Yes she should've been more aware of her surroundings, but she's not the person who brought a book into the danger zone to begin with. However, the Asian girl looked really angry so there was only one thing to do.

"I'm sorry," she said contritely, "I wasn't paying attention."

[Deleted]

What song was she singing? How childish, Mei would not endorse such….silliness. No, a swimming pool was, yes, a place for people to have fun, but not at the expense of others. And the rules specifically say ‘no horseplay’. Mei was confident in her presumption that that rule extended to performing cannonballs at any point. And if not, there were diving boards where one could to that well into the deepest end of the pool. And furthermore, the point of sport diving(as she understood it) was to make as little splash as possible.

Never mind, this wasn’t a sporting event, this was just a school swimming pool and Mei was just irritated that someone had been childish enough to, well, act like a child. She knew very well there was a risk when she started her reading. Mei just didn’t think anyone would be that careless to splash strangers who were obviously not in the pool.

Mei was a stranger to this girl. This girl who had no consideration to the people around her. A bothersome child.

That the girl was already accusing Mei in her mind only served to upset the black-haired girl even more. She was going to argue, wasn’t she? She was going to point out Mei’s blunder and fail to accept her own part of the responsibility. She was going to get angry at Mei, get defensive, and ridicule her for being so uptight. Mei braced herself for the what she expected to be an onslaught of words. Instead…the girl apologized. Even though she had no reason to. She was just…here. Playing. And being a girl having fun.

Mei stared at the girl, her lips slightly parted as she tried to compute the unexpected reasonableness of the girl. She lowered her head, expression unchanging. “Thank you…” she said softly, the anger having dissipated from her voice. She stood there for another moment before heading back to the bleachers to gather her things. It was best that she left. That was….humiliating. And her book. Her precious book was… Mei barely noticed the tear that fell down her cheek.

[Madison Andrews]

Maddy watched as the girl turned to go and clambered out of the pool after her before she knew what she was doing. The girl looked very upset. Understandable. Maddy would be upset if her book was ruined too. Though the speech in her head versus out of her head was an interesting little tidbit. Must be a telepath. Oh crap.

Panic filled Maddy as she continued to follow the girl, dripping wet. If the girl could read her mind then she could see Maddy. Really see her for all the thoughts in her head from the non-charitable ones to the more charitable ones. She could see that Maddy was pretending to be something she wasn't. She could hear everything. Maddy had to stop thinking right away. 

Just.

Stop.

But how does one stop thinking? Maddy thought all the time. She thought about things before she said them. She thought through her actions before she did them. She carefully constructed a face for the rest of the world of a carefree girl who did whatever came to her mind. Granted, half the time she really was a carefree fourteen year old girl who did whatever was on her mind. It's what happened when one cultivated a persona for over half of one's life. She sort of became her mask to a certain extent.

She had to stop thinking! Say something!

"Was it a good book?"

That was stupid.

[Deleted]

Mei hadn’t realized that she’d made it so obvious that she was a telepath. And that she could hear all of the unspoken thought that the girl had about her. Or maybe she simply hadn’t thought the girl to be bright enough to put two-and-two together. Either way, the girl knowing that Mei knew all those things somehow made it all worse. It would’ve been better if she was too dumb to figure it out. Just stay ignorant and go back to playing and leave Mei alone to deal with her anxiety by herself.

Mei wished she hadn’t confronted her. She wished she hadn’t come to the pool in the first place. This was a bad idea on levels, what had she been thinking?

She could hear her mother nagging on her with those same words, though with a lot more admonishment behind them.

Mei was torn away from her internalizations by the sound of a sudden voice which was much closer than she anticipated. She turned her head to face the girl, eyes wide in surprise that she’d been followed. Not only followed, but that she’d been caught. Caught doing what? Feeling sorry for herself? Feeling ashamed of herself? Crying over a silly book and losing her head over it when she should have known better? She turned away again, wiping her cheek dry, and rushing to think of some way to respond. “I-it was,” she whispered. “A very good book. Edger Rice Burroughs’ ‘A Princess of Mars’.” It was a science fantasy classic, full of planetary romance, sword fighting, and cataclysmic disaster. She was only halfway through the book.

[Madison Andrews]

Maddy immediately brightened. Edgar Rice Burroughs! And excellant author. Not as good as Douglas Addams or Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, but still he was a classic. Douglas Addams and other comedy scifi authors wouldn't be half so successful without the ground-work laid by Edgar Rice Burroughs and other writers like him. She couldn't help a smile errupting on her face at the thought of sharing something in common with this girl who she'd accidentally upset.

"That's horrible!" Maddy said, "If you need a copy to finish it, I have one back in my room."

The words were out of her mouth without really thinking about it and Maddy suddenly felt like melting. She had to check her mental library to make sure she'd brought Edgar Rice Burroughs with her to Vermont. If not, she could just write her mom and have her mom send it to her. It wouldn't be that difficult. Mom was always sending Maddy books. She'd be happy to send Maddy something along the lines of a classic. Luckily she was ninety-eight percent sure she had the book on her shelf in her room.

[Deleted]

Mei wasn’t expecting the girl to know anything about books, much less the specific author whom she was reading. It wasn’t like he wasn’t well known, he was the creator of the Tarzan stories, after all. He paved the way for many, many modern planetary fantasies which came after because of his Mars series. It was simply…kids these days were typically more interested in Twilight and Harry Potter. And while Mei couldn’t deny they were entertaining in their own right(some more than others…some much more), Mei always had an affinity for the old classics.

Mei returned her gaze to the girl when she made the offer. Again, she wasn’t expecting that level of…kindness? Usually it was….

Mei couldn’t think of what it usually was. When it came to talking about her personal interests, Mei typically assumed nobody else was interested in them. Or if they were, Mei was so quite and stand-off-ish that she was left alone. She didn’t mind the solitude, honestly, but it did make things awkward when she found herself in a situation where she had to speak about herself to someone else.

Shaking her head softly, Mei smiled. “That’s unnecessary. I can get another myself,” she replied. Mei still had quite a bit left in her allowance this month, so she could do that easily. Her head dropped slightly, down at her bag. “Thank you….” It really was her own fault this happened. She should have had more self control. Or thought things through more. Instead she went off on a person who didn’t deserve it. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly.

[Madison Andrews]

Maddy smiled at the girl's shyness... or what she translated as shyness. It was hard opening up to people. You never knew when people would embrace you for who you were or... well... be the bastards they truly were deep inside. Maddy had more than enough experience with that from grade school. Kids were the meanest of the lot. She remembered. She still had the emotional scars. She still acted like a bubble-head so people wouldn't see her for who she really was. Whoever that was. Maddy wasn't really sure what her personality was really like any more.

That was an odd thought.

Anyhow, Maddy could appreciate shyness. She understood it. She didn't act shy because that didn't necessarily work to keep the mean people of the world at bay. Nothing kept them from being mean, but if you acted like you didn't care long enough, then you started to genuinely not care. If you acted carefree long enough, you started to genuinely be very good at acting like you were carefree. Life sucked. People sucked.

Maddy smiled.

"No problem. You were upset," she said, "I really am sorry about your book."

[Deleted]

Shyness was putting it kindly. There was a reason why Mei didn’t go out of her way to talk to people. There was a reason why she wore the colors that she did and tried to seem as gloomy and unfriendly as possible. It was because of situations like this. If Mei had just kept to herself, out of the way, not come to the pool, then she wouldn’t have approached that girl in such an embarrassing way and made a fool of herself. She wouldn’t have had to apologize. She wouldn’t have been followed and be terrified of saying even one thing to this girl. And then she wouldn’t have the girl be thinking she was strange and weird for being so ‘shy’….

Though when she actually looked….she wasn’t thinking those things, was she? She was trying to understand….trying to be friendly. That was….how is it that that made Mei feel even more guilty for her behavior?

Mei managed the slightest of smiled towards the girl then opened her mouth to speak, putting a bit more effort into her words. “S-sometimes I get…carried away…” And didn’t think things through before she reacted. Her sister knew that side of her quite well. Mei swallowed and glanced down at the soaked pages of her book. “I’ll get another,” she again explained quietly. ”Or I’ll just read it online.” Mei fell silent again, unsure of where to steer the conversation next. What was supposed to happen now? Should they just part ways, now that the misunderstanding had been cleared up? Mei would continue to stand there in her uncertainty, staring down between her book, her bag, and the toes of the person standing next to her. "...you've read Edgar Rice Burroughs before?" she asked silently. She still couldn't believe there was another girl her age who knew of the author.

[Madison Andrews]

Maddy wondered what she should do next. She apologized. The girl apologized. The book issue was settled. At this point in the conversation, Maddy would normally say something offbeat and silly to throw the person she was talking to off and make herself appear foolish and carefree.  However... this girl was probably telepathic and she'd probably see right through that.

This was Maddy's worst fear come to life. Here was a person who could reject her out of hand and really mean it. As in, she could actually reject Maddy for Maddy. Not the Maddy that Maddy showed the world. 

She could see it happening too. The girl probably already thought she was an immature, silly, stupid girl for doing a cannonball. Never mind that she did it to get over her totally reasonable fear of melting in the pool. The girl was what? Two maybe three years older than Maddy? She probably thought Maddy was some stupid little child who didn't know anything and just went about cannonballing into pools like a wet maniac.

Well, there was one thing she could say to throw the girl off. Of course, it was risky. If other people heard about it, her whole reputation as an oddball might go down the drain or it might be confirmed. Who knew? It all depended on what people thought of books like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

"So..." Maddy began, rocking on her feet back and forth a bit, "Have you read any Douglas Adams?"

[Deleted]

Mei was normally very good about keeping out of other people’s heads. Normally. Though sometimes she simply couldn’t help herself in taking a peek. It’s not like she ever did it in the middle of a game, she wouldn’t cheat. But sometimes it was helpful in knowing….things…No, she was afraid to know what the other person was thinking about her. But at the same time, she wanted to know and couldn’t stop herself from looking.

This girl….was just as afraid as Mei was, in some respects, considering the direction her thoughts were running. That was…somewhat comforting, she supposed.

Mei had gotten lost enough in her own thoughts and worries after that, though, that she wasn’t paying attention to the ‘plan’ that Maddy had devised. Mei was too busy trying to think of a way to continue the conversation that had naturally just come to a sudden halt with no foreseeable way to continue.

At the time that Mei posed her question via telepathy to the girl, Maddy had at the same time offered her own. About Douglas Adams. Her eyes widened and she nodded slowly. “I….I have,” she said in a small voice of surprise. Maybe there was a connection there they could explore? “Who else have you read?” she asked, her voice slightly stronger.

[Madison Andrews]

Maddy's eyes widened as she was asked the best question in the world. What other authors had she read? Well, science fiction wise there were so many and they were all so varied and different. Science fiction and fantasy were like that. There were just so many possibilities for exploration. How do even go about answering the question?

Should she just name her favorites? Or should she go by the best of the best according to other people? Should she name them alphabetically or as she thought of them? There were really so many...

This was one topic Maddy could go on and on and on about. It was really the best topic for them to discuss together if they were to become friends because it was something Maddy wouldn't even begin to pretend to be something she wasn't over. In fact, they probably would remain friendly if they focused on this topic.

"Well, there's so many," Maddy laughed, "But let's see, there's Frank Herbert, Orson Scott Card, George Orwell, H.G. Wells, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley, Andre Norton, William Gibson, Kurt Vonnegut... Mary Shelley... Phillip K. Dick... umm... Arthur C. Clarke, and can't forget about Anne McCaffrey, though she might be more fantasy than science fiction. It really depends on how you view it."

[Deleted]

Her eyes went wide, Mei’s mirroring the other girl’s, one her question had been posed, surprised by the reaction it provoked. It wasn’t a bad one, as Mei had feared, but a good one! Already, Mei could tell that this girl was…she was like her. A reader. Not just any one, but a fan of science fiction. Mei herself could enjoy any epic tale, but the ones that were written long before their time were the ones she most appreciated. Jules Verne was an author that immediately came to mind in that regard.

But the authors she listed….ah, so many! But upon hearing each one of them, Mei found herself smiling in excitement, for having found a fellow science fiction/fantasy enthusiast. “Yes!” she said, her eyes squinting from her smile. “I mean…” Mei dropped her head, a blush spreading over her cheeks. “I like them too. All of them.” And then some, though she couldn’t say she’d read everything of each. It was a process, after all. “Anne McCafrey is….I think a good blend of both. It’s more fantasy with science-fiction elements….or science fiction with fantasy elements.” Which weren’t actually the same thing, but many people seemed to think so.

Mei put her hands over her mouth in a small, prayer-like gesture and considered another question. “W-what are your thoughts on…on H.P Lovecraft and Arthur Machen?” Mei might’ve had a secret love for the horror genre as well, but it was hard to find someone who actually interested and not simply following the fad that had popped up in recent years. She hoped she wasn’t hoping for too much from this girl.

[Madison Andrews]

Madison wrinkled her nose when she heard the name H.P. Lovecraft. She didn't like scary stuff or thing with too much of a dark and dreary atmosphere. She preferred to keep things light and fun. Lovecraft was good in terms of writing, but his writing was just too dark for Maddy.

"I-I don't really like Lovecraft and I've never heard of the other guy," Maddy said sadly, fearing she may have just lost a possible friend, "I'm sorry."

She looked down and bit her lower lip trying to think of something to say so that they didn't go back to an awkward silence again.