fandomhigh | Swimming With the Fishes, Tuesday, period 1

Mae was actually pretty excited for her classes this session, and thus showed up to the docks for swimming a little bit early. She hung around, kicking her feet, and watched her fellow students arrive.

Then classtime started, and there was no sign of the teacher.

Several minutes went by, and still no teacher.

She was just about to mention the fifteen minute rule sacred to lazy students everywhere when she had another idea instead.

She hopped up on a pilon and waved her hands in the air. "ATTENTION SWIMMING WITH THE FISHES CLASS! I am your substitute teacher Mae Borowski! You may call me Lord High Master of All Fishes! Our scheduled teacher has been eaten by a manta ray or possibly kidnapped by giant crab monsters, so I'm taking over." She pointed to a pile of snorkeling equipment. "Today we're going snorkeling. With . . . whatever the hell happens to be in the water right now. Probably manta rays and giant crab monsters. I don't know. Stick a mask and fins on and go find out."

That was all you had to do as a teacher, right?

"Oh! You should probably try not to drown. Thanks!"

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Astrid was definitely convinced that that was exactly what Mae had been thinking, too. Completely...

"Shouldn't be too hard to find a stick," Astrid allowed, already looking around a little for good stick locations. "I mean, unless the woodchucks have been through here recently..."

"An underwater stick might be more appropriate," Mae mused. "For the Lord of all fishes and all."

"Which most of the sticks will be now if the woodchucks have been through here recently," Astrid pointed out, then grinned a little. "I'm not too snorkled out yet," said she who would pretty much live in the water if she could, "I think we could find one pretty easily."

"Yes!" Mae threw her arms up in a victory V. "You're the best!"

And something about that hit Astrid in an unexpected way that she wasn't prepared for, even though she knew she was tailoring her responses in a way that she figured would maybe get a reaction out of Mae like that. Maybe it was because she had been tailoring her responses that way, but it wasn't as if she hadn't been tailoring them to herself either. But all of a sudden, she just felt an odd almost panic in her chest, as her face filled with heat and a redness she hoped she could blame on her pale skin's tendency to burn quickly in the sun.

There was a moment where she didn't know what to do with herself. It didn't even mean anything, it was just Mae getting carried away in her excitement, that was all, it...

So she turned, and she ran, toward where the snorkling equipment was, for once actually glad for her long legs because they might give her a decent head-start.

"Last one to find a sceptre-stick has to abdicate her throne!" she called out as she rushed toward the snorkels and the water and away from her own awkwardness.

And until she said that, Mae had been sure that she'd somehow fucked up their whole friendship, though she had no idea how.

But hey, maybe Astrid was just just-as-awkward a Mae was herself.

"Usurper!" she shouted, and bolted after her. "Pretender to the throne! You'll never unseat me alive, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Swimming With the Fishes, Tuesday, period 1

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