A Fish and a Wish and a Splash and a Splish {Emma}

[Garth Colbrith]

Walking briskly and looking entirely out of place with fishing poles slung over his shoulder, Garth made his way across campus quickly. He was already running a bit late, and he was in a bit of an awkward stride, being off balance and all. The poles would start slipping if he walked too fast, and his tackle box was making his arm swing out of rhythm with his natural pacing. Still, Garth felt a bit bad about being late; after all, it had been his idea to invite Emma out to the lake to "try something cool". Didn't that mean he was supposed to be on time? Well, it was too late for that now.

Jumping over a fallen limb, Garth mused over the fact that perhaps fishing had not been the best choice. It was getting cold, and he wasn't too sure what was biting at the time. But he could make it work. After all, most of the fun in fishing was just standing around and enjoying nature, not actually catching anything. That was how he had come to understand it, leastways. Garth wasn't exactly the best at fishing, but he liked the casting, and the waiting wasn't too bad either. With a few more hurried steps, he began to vaguely regret not actually putting his jacket on, and just carrying it instead. Oh well. There would be time for those things later. Now on to the lake!

"Hope she's not mad." Garth muttered to himself, looking at his watch. Seven minutes late and counting. Not that he was ever really on time for anything, but he probably could have ended up closer to five minutes late, instead of pushing ten. "Hope she likes fish..." Girls liked fish, right? Most of them anyways. Because fish were pretty shiny, and rainbow trout looked pretty awesome, especially flipping around. Eleanor Rose liked fish, that was for sure. Garth was willing to assume that all girls liked basically what his little sister liked.

Finally, erring on the late side of ten minutes late, Garth managed to make it to the lake without tripping or kicking anything that appeared to be alive. Good walk. Leaning the poles again a tree for just a moment, Garth took a good look around. Hopefully Emma was there and not too disappointed by his tardiness.

[Emma Hayes]

Emma was, in fact, already at the lake. Ever the punctual lass, she had been sure to get there ten minutes early. But she didn't really expect to see Garth there when she arrived. Emma was used to be earlier then others to every meeting; an old habit that refused to die.

She had awaken early this morning, a little excited for the outdoors excursion. Being from the Appalachia's, Emma loved nature. And all that came with it. Fishing, hiking, ATVs, even hunting on occasion. She just enjoyed be outside with good company. Which is why, the second Garth had suggested going to the lake, Emma had given her enthusiastic (or as enthusiastic as Emma got) approval. Which led her to be crouching by the edge of the lake, arms tightly clutching her jacket closed. She watched the water ripple in the breeze, pausing every so often to check her watch.

She had gotten the time correct, right? Emma knew that lateness wasn't that unexpected with Garth, but it was in her nature to worry. She didn't really know what they were meeting here for, Garth hadn't told her as much, but she could guess. It at least required water, she thought, which narrowed down the choices. She was trying to make a mental list when she heard someone coming up behind her. Standing, Emma turned to see Garth leaning poles against a nearby tree. Fishing it was then. She smiled brightly, as she had been telling Jared the other day, Emma loved to fish.

"Garth!" She called out, lifting a hand in an small wave. She started to walk towards him, still smiling. "Good morning. How are you?" Emma asked as she drew closer to the boy.

[Garth Colbrith]

Oh awesome! Emma was already there, but if the waving and general cheerfulness were any indication, she wasn't mad at him for being late. Excellent. "Hey Emma!" Garth called back, returning the wave and smiling back. "I'm pretty great, thanks for asking. Sorry I'm late, but I totally got distracted running out of the dorm." Someone had left glow sticks everywhere and Garth found it impossible to resist grabbing just a few and sticking them in his pocket. "Oh, and good morning, you want a glow stick?" He pulled one out, the blue one, and held it out to her slightly expectantly. Glowing was on a long list of cool things.

"Oh yeah!" Garth said, his mind moving quickly back to the task at hand. "Uhm, I kind of hope you like fishing! Because I brought all the stuff for it and I figured we could set up and hang out and see if anything bites. And if nothing bites, I can work on my infinitely sexy farmer's tan." Actually, Garth was sporting a rather impressive farmer's tan at the time, and he wasn't sure that it would fade with winter. Oh well. "So, if you're with it, I brought all the stuff we would need."

Turning around, Garth began to unload the things he had brought with him, naming each as he did. "So I have the poles, which are right here, and I brought lots of weights in case the water is deep." Shaking his round, Garth held up the weights for Emma to see. "And you get your choice of bait, I have some lures and a few flashers and I got crickets, if you're okay with live bait." He gently shook the jar of crickets that he had caught the night before and they began chirping in cacophonous harmony. "If you don't like live bait, shiny objects."

Sitting down and grabbing one of the poles, Garth quickly started weighing his line, checking the strength. His fishing line was pretty stable, and he motioned for Emma to sit beside him, grabbing the second pole.

"You can do yours, or I can, whichever you prefer." Garth said casually, taking out the hooks. "I don't think anything very big lives out here, so you want a smaller hook?" Charming girls by offering them pointy objects. This was Garthing 101.

[Emma Hayes]

"It's fine Garth." Emma said as she stopped in front of him. "I haven't been waiting long." To most people it would seem a white lie, but to Emma 20 minutes wasn't very long to wait for someone. She blinked in surprise at the glow stick. "S-sure." She took it from him, smiling slightly. "I do like the color blue."

Emma grinned up at Garth. If she had been a more excitable person, she'd probably be bouncing by now. As it stood, Emma wasn't that hyper, and she instead showed her glee by her large smile. "I love fishing." She stated, looking genuinely happy. She hadn't gotten the chance to go since things had been bad between her parents and with the stress of the divorce hanging over her, this was the perfect time to. Garth really couldn't have picked a better trip for today.

Emma laughed. "Of course. What would get a girl better then a farmer's tan?" She joked. In reality, Emma knew that a farmer's tan was in fact, a good way to get positive attention from the fairer sex. At least it was back home, she wasn't very sure of how things like that worked up here in the north.

She gave the equipment a glance over, listening to Garth explain it. "I'm okay with the crickets." Emma wasn't afraid of bugs or 'gross' things like many other girls were. "But shiny is nice too." She commented, smiling at Garth's terminology. Since meeting him, Emma had learned that if anything she could count on Garth for amusement. She didn't think of it in a mean way, but more of that he never failed to say something that would bring a smile to her face. It was nice to have people like that around. She counted herself lucky to get to be around the friends she'd made.

Emma sat next to him, taking a pole with her. She pondered his hook choices, still smiling. "Smaller is fine." Emma nodded to one, holding out a hand for it. "I can do it. But thank you." She said of his offer. She had been enough times to know how to do it herself, but Emma still found it sweet that he offered to help. Another thing she had discovered since meeting Garth, he was quiet the gentleman when he wanted to be.

[Garth Colbrith]

Emma liked the color blue. Not only was that a bonus in his glow stick picking abilities, but this meant that he had a new handy-dandy Emma tidbit. Garth filed that away mentally, making sure he could use it later. And she liked fishing? He was on fire today. But more than being awesome, Garth was more reasonably happy. Something about hanging out with Emma always made him feel calm and very natural, like he could just hang with her and not worry. Not that he worried or anything. Maybe it was the fact that Emma herself always seemed so genuine and friendly. Such a sincere girl.

"The only thing sexier than farmer's tan is soccer tan." Garth bragged, smiling quickly. He had once rocked a soccer tan after a very interesting nap in the middle of a field in the middle of the day. Both his farmer's tan and soccer tan had lasted until February of the next year. "Its how I snag all of my lovely ladies. No one can resist the power of awkward tan lines!" True to form, Garth even chuckled at his own joke.

"We should start with crickets." Garth said, thinking it over for a moment and then shaking down the crickets trying to climb to the top. "Probably some kind of sunfish in here." Because obviously, crickets beat shiny object three to one in a fair fight. "Shiny object can come if this fails miserably."

After tying on his own hook, Garth handed one to Emma, placing it in her palm gently to minimize her chances of getting stabbed by accident. He had done that once, and it hadn't been pretty. He was quite sure that Emma could handle this on her own though. She seemed capable of not stabbing herself most, if not all, of the time. He settled for slipping on a bobber at foot up and adding two weights. The lake wasn't going to have anything too deep. Carefully hooking a cricket, Garth checked his rod and then deemed himself ready to rock

"So, what have you been up to?" Garth asked casually, getting up and stretching his arm back. "Other than being awesome." Casting wasn't exactly his strong suit, so he made a point to step out of range from Emma, because a hook in the ear makes everyone unhappy. Garth swung his arm forward and encouragingly yet slightly surprisingly, he managed to hit the water and not simply catch a tree. "Success! Bonus points!" Garth found no shame in cheering himself on. "Let the fishing games commence!" This was destined to be fun.

[Emma Hayes]

"Oh yes, the legendary soccer tan." Emma went right along with Garth's jokes, clearly in a good mood. She giggled at herself; she didn't usually act like this, but it seemed that certain people at this school could cause her to even surprise herself. "How could any woman resist that?" She mocked swooned at him, still giggling.

"Alright." Emma agreed to the crickets and nodded to the observation of sunfish. "We'll just use the shiny things if we need reinforcements." Emma took the offered hook and set to fixing up the pole quickly. She watched Garth work out of the corner of her eye, and if asked, she was totally not making sure he didn't hook himself. She wasn't that much of an overprotective worry wort. Not at all.

"There's not much to report." Emma started, smiling and standing to cast for herself. Awesome? Emma pretended the faint blush on her face was just a result of the cool autumn air. She was really bad at taking compliments. "School work mostly. I went to town with Jared the other day, but that's it on my end." She left out the part about the recent calls from her mother. Emma was having a good time and would rather not spoil it. Instead, she let out a cheery laugh at Garth's mini celebration for casting. After giving a short clap to commemorate his efforts, she did the same and settled into the peacefulness of fishing.

"What about yourself?" She asked, looking back to him from the water. "What have you been doing since we last met?"

[Garth Colbrith]

Settling back, Garth decided that this fishing trip was going terribly well. Emma not only seemed to be happy with the idea, but she was relaxed and fun. She was giggling, and he saw her watching him when he was tying on his hook. She was totally checking him out, and Garth couldn't say that he minded. And was that blushing? He personally thought Emma looked charmingly adorable when she blushed, but he would never mention that to her. Actually, Emma had quite a few adorable traits, but he never really mentioned that because they were friends, and that might make things weird.

"School and the town." Garth parroted, musing. He had been in town that week too, passing the time wandering up and down the side of the road in the safest manner possible. He actually spent alot of time doing things like that, just walking aimlessly around various places. Perhaps not the most constructive use of his time, but Garth was content with himself. "Sounds good Emma. Make sure you don't get carried away now. Hate to see you checking into rehab for that terrible homework addiction of yours." He smiled at the applause and would have bowed if he wasn't fairly certain he would have hit himself in the face with his pole.

"Ah, I haven't even been up to anything." Garth admitted. "Been going to classes, pretending to pass, the normal." He was actually very boring by himself. Lots of sleeping, eating, doing homework and the occasional rolling around in the grass. And dodging practice. "I did meet a rather fascinating squirrel the other day, so I think I secured a new friend. That, or I looked very much like a delicious snack. Hopefully, my new friend has no desire to eat me."

Garth's eyes flicked to his bobber, which was floating innocently in the water. Nothing biting in under a minute? How predictable. Still, Garth reeled in just a few inches of slack, looking for turtles or exciting leaves. Nothing. Silly normal lake.

"So, are you a catch and release girl, or do you want to find a legally questionable manner to eat these things?" Garth asked after a moment of quiet. Not that he minded the quiet. "I'm sure I could find someone willing to let us set a fire of awesomeness and roast fish on a stick on the incredible off chance that we manage to catch anything." Yep, excellent plan. Fun with the lake and fish on a stick.

[Emma Hayes]

Emma would have had a fit of humiliation if she realized Garth saw her watching him. She usually tried to be discreet when staring at people. She would have died of embarrassment if she knew Garth thought she was 'adorable'. Emma actually thought highly of Garth, too. While she currently wasn't checking him out, she did find him rather handsome. Garth also held her seal of approval for being a good person and a good friend. Because of that last bit, Emma kept any admiring thoughts she had to herself.

"Hmm." Emma made a noise of jovial agreement. "I'll try very hard to keep my addiction limited." She raised one hand like she was pledging, the other keeping her pole steady. She tipped her head to him in acknowledgment. "Sounds like we've both had a uneventful few weeks." She said. While time spent at Hammel was interesting, with all the powers and the potential mishaps that came with them, the place was a school and had the issue of getting monotonous.

"A squirrel?" Emma asked, looking both amused and confused. Well, stranger things happened around here then someone befriending a small mammal. "I don't think squirrels usually eats humans, so I think you're safe Garth." She laughed slightly, somewhat taken by the idea of a such a small creature trying to attack a human. Emma had to calm herself to keep her powers from activating and showing off her imagination.

"We can do either." Emma declared. She didn't mind getting a meal along out of their fishing fun. "It shouldn't be hard to get a fire going." Either they could start it themselves or find someone else. Either way, Emma liked fish well enough. But first they needed to catch some.

Emma watched the water, waiting patiently for something to bite. After a few moments of nothing but gentle bobbing, Emma spoke back up. "I love this weather." She commented softly, as the breeze picked up. Autumn was Emma's favorite season. She liked the colors and the falling leaves.