31.6-1: 《warm》 are you the original or original?

「page vii」

°

「

I should have mentioned this earlier,

as the general assumption is that things listed chronologically,

must fall in chronological order.

That is not the case here.

」

°

“Virgo is a Conjuror.”

Atienna stared up at the ceiling.

Why had she said that with such confidence when she had been so hesitant to fall onto any sort of conclusion before? Was it because she had noticed that all  others gathered at the Wibele had all in some way shape or form progressed in their understanding of Ndoto? Had she felt the need to show that she too had made some progress?

That certainly wasn’t like her. In all honesty, she didn’t quite care what that group thought of her. If the other five were truly at her side then perhaps she would out of consideration for them. 

Threshold. 

Doppelgangers.

Virgo.

Conjuring.

The Raincoat Killer.

It’s not as if she hadn’t made any progress here herself—though, she reasoned her information about Virgo would’ve been the most useful and  easiest to digest. Even if it pertained to the concept of conjuring life. 

Conjuring life. The idea had tickled her mind since the memories of that meeting of the saint candidates from centuries ago had bled into her. The tickle had become an itch when she had arrived in Ndoto but she had been hesitant to scratch that itch since then. But…

One simple organism was one thing. One complex organism was another. One person was one thing. One entire population was another. An entire world….

Atienna stretched out her hand and studied the lines on her palm. She wondered if any of the others had touched the idea yet that the ability to conjure life meant not only the possibility of the Ndotoans being conjured beings but also themselves. Perhaps they had sidestepped the existential dilemma. Perhaps they thought that they would know if they were conjured?

Of course, that in itself was jumping to conclusions—as Alice and Gabrielle had said. 

Alice…

Alice had mentioned the behavior of the doppelganger was far enough from the behavior of the people mimicked to discern one from the other. Atienna wondered about that as Sefu and Alice had not been able to distinguish the doppelganger from the real her. Though… from what she’d heard from the others, they had been able to detect the doppelganger’s presence fairly easily outside of her case.

Gabrielle being able to identify Olive’s doppelganger was no surprise as Gabrielle had known Olive since he was a child. Olive had quite a few people beside him that would most likely be able to distinguish him from a fake—Trystan, Derik, Alexander, Alice, Claire, and so on. Of course, half of those people were no longer at his side.

Cadence too had people who Atienna was certain would be able to distinguish her from a fake. The Foxmans, the Romanos, especially Fortuna, and maybe a few of the children she’d watched over.

Werner—Gilbert, Greta, his siblings, a select few of his men and superiors.

Maria had Lita, Simon, Albatross, Andres, Giorgio, Morandi, her crew, and perhaps even Conta.

Jericho had at one point Talib, Gabrielle, Alice, and the others in that peacekeeping group.

But what did that mean for Atienna herself? Even Sefu who spoke of fakes—perhaps he’d been referring to the doppelganger all along—was not able to detect that the doppelganger was her. She wondered if Safiyah would be able to detect any difference. Would Bachiru? Kamaria? Kichea? Her father? Her…. mother? Albertine…

Perhaps not given their vague mentions of her appearance here and there before she’d even arrived. Perhaps not given that she’d been keeping her distance from them for a while now. Well, perhaps not if that Atienna was… 

That aside, there was the matter of what whoever and whatever spoke through Kafke said. 

The gardener and their gardens. Complete annihilation of those gardens. Finding roots.  It was quite difficult to take the word of a peculiar entity like that at face-value—especially given the fact that the entity called for annihilation and destruction. 

Atienna wondered. This root that seemed to be a target…. Was it a place? A person? Both? Perhaps it was something akin to Scorpio’s towers…?

And this gardener that Atienna supposedly was ‘the closest contact to’—a very specific choice of words.  Briefly, she thought of her mother. Then she thought of the intentions of Kafke.

She rose from her bed and headed to her desk at the corner. It was an organized chaos of papers and files pertaining to the Raincoat Killer. She had done some additional research about PD Oran and his talks after the Wibele meeting and had come to discover that he was hosting another gathering during the upcoming weekend at a beach in a distant district.

After gathering her thoughts, Atienna decided to call Alice. The phones here were quite interesting to use, requiring no operator to direct calls. It was fascinating, although Atienna wondered what happened to the operators given that their jobs were taken over by an automation of some kind.

Atienna’s first call went unanswered. The second went through and Alice answered with a—

“Doctor Alice Kingsely.”

“Hello, Alice,” Atienna greeted her. After a pause, she added, “It’s 1 in the afternoon in Virgo, isn’t it?”

“And it’s 3pm in Libra,” Alice returned. “How are you?”

Near the end of their convergence at the Wibele, they had all agreed to come up with codewords and phrases to identify themselves. It was to ensure they were not the doppelganger and—as per following Werner’s journal entries—

Atienna thought it was a decent idea although she pondered its effectiveness if someone was ‘watching’ them.

“So Oran will be holding a talk at a beach  in the Traveller District,” Alice drew after Atienna had told her of her discoveries, “I wasn’t aware that Ndoto had any beaches. For a place that’s enclosed by walls, it’s hard to imagine something as boundless as the sea contained within it.”

“It is… peculiar,” Atienna agreed, briefly thinking of Maria. “Perhaps… it’s a conjured construct.” She tried a moment later, “Or perhaps this is how reality is.”

Alice paused for a moment before she said, “Regardless, good work. I’m going to ask Gabrielle to accompany us and discuss the matter further with the other groups. I assume we’ll not disclose this to Nico Fabrizzio?”

Atienna agreed. 

After discussing a couple more parameters, Atienna ended the call and headed out into the dining area of the apartment. There she found Sefu sitting at the table, head buried in one hand and using the other to slowly feed himself a loaf of bread.

He looked up at her as she entered, opened his mouth, closed it. He settled on a— “Good Morning, Atienna.”

He’d been quite odd since they’d gotten back from the Wibele. Atienna usually found home in silence, but the ones that had accompanied them since then had been rather uncomfortable. Was it the doppelganger issue? Ah—Sefu had been upset about it. Of course he would be. He’d been so vehement about ‘the fake’ and yet had somehow spent an entire day with said fake without him knowing.

“It’s alright, Sefu.” She smiled wanly but quickly moved to change the subject before he could reply—

“How do you feel about going to the beach today?”

“The beach?” Sefu’s brows rose. He put a hand to his chin. “Well, if it is  anything like that river in Cancer, I don’t have much hope for it.”

Atienna chuckled. “Ah, are you declining my invitation?”

“Of course not, Atienna.” Sefu placed a hand on his chest. “Where you go, I will follow.”

Atienna let out a breath and looked out the window. “I wonder if the sun will come out if we go.”

mbili

---

“You literally take ten years to change,” Olive called out to his sister in annoyance from their living room. “Hurry up!”

Olive wasn’t actually too annoyed. His favorite cartoon was on right now and breakfast was a whopping pile of pancakes topped with a heaping of strawberries and syrup. His dad who was eating across from him at the moment had chided him for indulging in too much syrup despite the fact that his pancakes were covered in so much powdered sugar that it looked like a mountain.

Olive was half-way through his tower when his show cut to a commercial break. And that was when he realized his sister still wasn’t ready. Ugh. “Lavi!” He shouted. “I’m going to leave your butt behin—”

A sharp crack on his head cut him off short. He yelped and looked up to find his mother standing behind him.

“Why are you shouting for?” his mother sighed, hand on hip. “You should be nicer to your sister.” She pointed to his plate. “You’re not even done with your breakfast yet and yet you’re always complaining about being hungry at school before lunch!”

Olive opened his mouth and then shut it. He was 75% sure that Lavi got her attitude from their mom and… Olive glanced at his dad who looked more amused than anything else.

“You know you complain about Lavi a lot, but she’s always defending you when your mother complains about you,” dad said suddenly

Mom bristled. “Why would you say that? Making me look like the bad guy!” She caught herself and rested a hand on Olive’s head. “Listen, you two need to look out for each other. After your father and I go to the tree, it’ll just be you two—”

“I know…” Olive resisted rolling his eyes.

Lavi finally came down fifteen minutes later. Since she took forever to finish off breakfast, Olive took the time to drag their bikes out from the garage. Once she finished and they double-checked their bags to make sure they had everything packed, Olive ushered Lavi out the door. A minute later and they were pedaling down the street.

“You know yelling at me doesn’t make me move faster,” Lavi began.

“What took you so long anyways?” Olive grumbled. “Is it that hard to pick a bathing suit? Either way, you’d be fab—”

“Ew—” Lavi made a face. “And no, it isn’t hard, but it is hard to pack everything for the beach last minute when you suddenly changed your mind last minute.”

“It’s not like we’re not still going to the mall.” Olive thought Lavi was overdramatic.

“Why are you so mean to me but so nice to your friends?” Lavi huffed. She made air quotation marks. “‘Nice.’”

“If I wasn’t nice to you then why did I agree to swing by to pick Kamaria to come with us when it’s so far away?”

Lavi rolled her eyes. “You only agreed to invite her because she’s on the way to Claire and Eunji’s.”

“You’re asking a lot from me though. Kamaria’s my technical soccer rival.”

They eventually reached their first stop at a neighborhood cul-de-sac not too far from their own. Their first pick up was already waiting at the foot of his driveway. He already had his bike out and its pale rose tone matched his button-up blouse which was only a few shades lighter than his khaki shorts.

Olive slowed to a stop at the driveway with Lavi. “What’s with the get up, Trystan?

Trystan Carter looked around. “What get up?”

 Olive had thought he’d packed too much by bringing a beach bag, but looking at Trystan’s bulging bookbag that was buckled up his chest made Olive realize he’d been rather tame in his packing.

“You look like a dork.”

Trystan frowned. 

“Well, come on.”

They began pedaling their way as a trio through the district towards their next pick up.

“I was wondering if you’d finished going over the minutes from the previous meeting,” Trystan said suddenly as he pedaled up closer to Olive. “You know that with the tree festival on indefinite hiatus we have to think about our school’s annual tree festival celebration too. At the last student council meeting—”

Olive sighed. “Why are you talking about the student council now?”

Trystan appeared nonplussed. “Because we’re in it, Olivier. Isn’t that why we’re all meeting up with Claire and Eunji today? To discuss that and the other items we have on our itinerary?”

“No, I lied about that,” Olive replied. “We’re just having fun today. Beach then mall.”

Trystan opened his mouth, stammered for a moment, and then finally said, “I canceled my KM-level tutoring sessions today so we could do this! The student I was supposed to be tutoring is going to take his test in two weeks—”

“And I’m touched by your sacrifice!” Olive snorted. “Besides, I’m sure that guy was happy you canceled. I mean, look at how nice it is today? Who’d want to be cooped up on a day like this?”

“How can you act so responsible in front of the teachers,” Trystan muttered, “and act like this now?”

“Because I’m at school then,” Olive interjected. “I’m not now.”

“He’s saying he’s two-faced,” Lavi added from beside him.

Trystan frowned. He always took things way too seriously, but Olive knew exactly how to butter him up.

“Hey—I really am touched that you always put our friendship first. It means a lot to me. You know I’ll always do the same for you, right?”

And like that Trystan clammed up with a flush. He coughed, glanced at Lavi, and said, “Of course.” After a while he asked, “By the way, I heard from Claire that you two went to the gates the other weekend. Is that true?”

“Yep.” Olive snickered. “There were about of VNWs at the gate—ELPIS members—and—”

“That’s dangerous, Olivier! What were you even doing there?”

Olive snorted. “They weren’t dangerous. They were entertaining.” Werner was the one who wasn’t using his head when it came to fun. Olive was very particular about what kind of fun he had. 

Eventually they picked up Eric, Stanley, and Heather from their respective houses. They weren’t the type Olive usually hung out with at school. In fact, he had met each of them when he’d been skipping classes. Olive had encountered Eric and Heather hanging out at the local playground. The two had been trying to trick a young kid who was there into asking his parents to give him a bottle of alcohol to give to him. It was a stupid idea, really. The age-restriction  was one slice of the stupid pie, but the fact that they were pressuring the kid to nab some high KM-level alcohol was another slice. Olive told them as much and shooed the kid away. Watching the dynamic duo’s faces contort had been hilarious.  Just as the two were about to shove him into the pavement, Olive had offered them a much better solution.

His solution: Werner—which usually wasn’t the case. Werner’s age checked one box, but his KM-level hadn’t been high enough. But that was an easy fix since Otto had a decent KM-level and heeded Werner’s every request. Two bottles of twice-handed-down beer later and a fast friendship had formed.

Stanely, on the other hand, was someone Olive had befriended while working his part-time job at the mall. He’d tried to set off the fire alarm for some sort of prank with a box of wet matches. Olive had watched him for the better part of half an hour before offering his services via a fiery gift from the tree.

All the people he hung with usually didn’t come from the same box, but that’s what made things interesting. 

It took their quintet about fifteen minutes of cycling plus a bus ride to reach Claire and Eunji’s apartment complex.  The two siblings were already standing at the complex’s gates, bikes ready, sun hats on. Olive had to do a double-take at Eunji because she was wearing a stunning sky blue checkered sundown. The moment was broken when Olive realized Claire’s entertaining blonde friend from the university was standing behind them with his own bike. He definitely hadn’t been invited but Olive didn’t mind the extra company.

The two siblings were still hot in the middle of their conversation when they were close to pulling up, but abruptly fell quiet as soon as they were within earshot.

“Did something happen between you two?” Olive asked, brow arched. He smiled at Eunji. “Love the dress Eunji.”

Eunji gleaned at him for a moment before offering a smile. 

It was weird. Sort of. For the past few weeks she’d been unusually shy which Olive had attributed to a flirty game of some kind. Ever since they’d come back from the gates, she’d started treating him just as she had before she’d started acting shy. In other words, she was trying to play it cool. Their relationship was complicated in an interesting way like that.

Lavi leaned forward across her handlebars. “Claire probably did something stupid. Right, Eunji?”

“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Olive teased. He nodded at Claire. “By the way—I forgot to ask the other day—did you finish up that TV project of yours? Sorry I couldn’t stay longer to help you hook everything up.”

“Oh yeah, no worries. I finished it.” He chuckled. “Roping in that one Albatross kid to help us for a couple days was a good idea. Does he still think you’re going  to take him to Maria?”

Olive shrugged. “It’s not like I’m not… It’s just that I’m just not taking him now. And not tomorrow. And not the day after that.” 

Claire laughed.

* * *

Kamaria was tending to the garden in front of her family’s house when they arrived.

“It’s interesting how different this district is from all the others,” Trystan noted after Kamaria told them she needed to head inside to grab some things.

Olive arched a brow. “What do you mean?”

“The way the houses are here are different from all the other districts,” Trystan elaborated. “The atmosphere also seems rather different… doesn’t it?”

“Maybe ‘cause they’re native Ndotoans?” Olive arched a brow.

“No, it’s more than that…”

Heather and Stanely exchanged looks and shrugged. Trystan said weird things sometimes.

“Is Atienna around?” Olive asked once Kamaria returned with her bike in tow.

“She said she was really busy with work this morning,” Kamaria replied. She then muttered seemingly to herself: “She’s always being pulled in two directions.”

* * *

It took them an hour to get to the beach. Olive could smell it when they were 15 minutes away. Salty heaviness that felt oddly fresh.  It was more crowded than he’d been expecting. Olive had factored in the postponement of the Tree Festival leading to an increased number of people at public places like this, but obviously he’d missed an influencing parameter or two.

As they pulled up along the sand back, Olive scanned the horizon. The sky was a clear blue and the ocean just slightly darker. The line between the two was just barely distinguishable. The sandbank itself was also barely distinguishable from the people dotting it.

Olive figured he could probably convince a few groups to make way for them with a guilt trip or two. As he put together a plan inside his head, he noticed that most people on the beach were congregating in one area. Something over there had their attention. Olive was kinda curious. He found his curiosity increased tenfold when he spotted a familiar group at the edge of the crowd.

“Hey…” Eric squinted in that direction. “Isn’t that the VNW ELPIS professor guy that was on that interview show with that one policy maker?”

Trystan frowned. 

“Yep, Mr. Weingartner and co.” Olive grinned.  He knew what he was going to do today. “Let’s go say hello.” 

Stanley frowned. “But what if we get VNW? My aunt was saying that what they’re saying on the news is fake—”

“And what makes your aunt more reliable than the news?” Kamaria asked in an innocent tone that Olive new hid a jab.

“Well, she’s—” 

Olive was already parking his bicycle and heading down to the sand. As he suspected, Stanley and the others minus Kamaria started following him. Claire broke off, gesturing to one of the many food stands lining the walkway leading to the sand—

“Let me go grab popcorn.”

Olive waved him off. He was a bit disappointed when Eunji followed him but thought it was funny when Felix did too. 

“Do you know these people outside of when you met them with Mr. Waltz at the gates on the weekend?” Trystan asked. 

“Some of them.” Olive shrugged. “Not sure if you heard but Coach Charming was one of those people.”

Trystan stood still for a moment before catching up to him. “I heard he was going on medical leave for a few days, but I never thought—why would he be—”

Olive stopped short, causing Trystan to nearly run into him. 

Heather squinted ahead. “Uh-oh.”

A small group of men and women had approached the Weingartner’s group. It looked like they were rearing for a fight. One of the men pushed the man standing next to Weingartner to the side. If Olive recalled correctly, that guy’s name was Valentino. Valentino held his ground even as the man grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt.

Weingartner tried to placate the man but that seemed to aggravate one of the other men who was with him. He shoved Weingartner back once but when he went back for another shove, Weingartner didn’t budge. Thinking in the most simple of units—

m_Weinv_Wein + m_Weirdov_Weirdo = m’_Weinv’_Wein + m’_Weirdov’_Weirdo

And since Weingartner was stationary:

m_Weirdov_Weirdo  = m’_Weinv’_Wein + m’_Weirdov’_Weirdo

—which meant: 

The man stumbled back and fell against another man standing at the lip of the crowd. Said man immediately whipped around, revealing himself to be Kafke. Kafke, being the calm and collected person Olive knew him to be, whipped around and shoved the stumbling man back so hard he hit the ground.

One of the man’s companions immediately retaliated by pushing Kafke back. A split second later and the companion was being tackled to the ground and pummeled by a pair of bawled fists. The man who was straddling the companion was wearing a loosely buttoned blue blouse dotted with flowers and cat-faces and a pair of dark blue swim trunks. The shirt was one of Jericho’s design which meant that it was none other than Werner.

Unsurprising.

No sooner had Olive realized it was Werner, Werner was being pulled off the man he was straddling by—Ludwig? Yes, Ludwig: the VNW guy from the gate who had been working at the Wibele recently. The man Kaiser had shoved to the ground was up on his feet in an instant.  Nico suddenly appeared between Werner and the other man and held them both at bay before turning to talk down the angry man—the one that wasn’t his husband. 

Hypothesis: a guidance officer spiel. Hypothesis supported by the fact that Nico whipped out his ID a second after. 

Werner’s and Nico’s shirt matched, Olive realized as he watched them. It looked like they had decided to go onto some sort of family date and maybe Ludwig had tagged along. Olive knew Werner wouldn’t have a family outing without—

Olive scanned the crowd and sure enough he found Kaiser, clipped into something that looked like both a harness and a life jacket, in the arms of a woman whom he’d seen frequenting the Wibele. Viktoria? That sounded right. She looked worried and like she would jump in to break up the fight herself if she wasn’t holding Kaiser.

Now the man Nico had been trying to talk down was jabbing a finger at his chest and gesturing to Professor Volker’s group behind him.  ‘What are you guidance officers doing letting all these VNWs out?’ was what the guy was probably shouting. 

Now Guidance Officer Gabrielle was in the foray trying to step in-between both parties with Nico. Olive wondered how she wasn’t melting in the heat in her long sleeve button up. Professor Kingsley was standing at the lip of the crowd behind her. She was more sensibly dressed in a sun gown. 

Claire came to Olive’s side holding five plastic bags of popcorn. He whistled as he passed the bags around and stared down the beach towards the commotion. 

Olive snickered. “How many guidance officers does it take to change a light bulb?”

A soft flash suddenly lit up all of the faces of those part of the fiasco down on the beach. Another flash of light popped up a second later. And a second after that. And another second after that. 

Olive followed the flashes and found a man in floral print and khakis kneeling opposite to the crowd and facing the commotion. In the man’s hand was an intricate camera. Behind him and looking out in Olive’s direction stood two adolescents eating ice cream cones. Sidra and Ahlam, Jericho’s siblings. Only two conclusions could be drawn from this. One: someone had stolen Jericho’s camera, clothes, and siblings. Two: that man down there was Jericho.

Jericho continued to take photo after photo, drawing the attention of everyone involved in the fiasco. He seemed to have earned the mire of the neutral, good, and bad sides involved—minus Werner who brightened and waved at him—but Olive knew that Jericho of all people could talk down anyone. At least Olive thought so until one of the angry men started to jab a finger in Jericho’s direction. Nico stepped forward too, pointing at Jericho’s camera.

Jericho ushered his siblings back, approached the man calmly, arms raised, camera swinging at his chest. ‘I just wanted to capture the daily interactions between guidance officers and civilians,’ was what he was probably saying. Much to Olive’s surprise, whatever Jericho said to the leading angry man caused him to grab Jericho by the scruff. 

Werner broke free from Ludwig’s hold and lunged at Jericho’s handler with a beach umbrella he seemed to have pulled from nowhere.

Oh, now Shion was there, blowing a whistle hanging from her neck. Where she popped in from, Olive didn’t know. Unlike Nico, she was in uniform which meant she was on duty. Werner paused to wave at her which is when the man he’d been about to whack with the umbrella nailed him in the face. 

Ludwig caught Werner in alarm, while Kafke and Nil Abero who popped out from the crowd started to egg their opposition on. A second later and they were throwing fists.

The crowd behind the commotion parted suddenly and star-struck. Gasps filled the air. Down descended Cadence, dressed in a bikini with a wrap skirt around her waist, a large sunhat on her head, and an umbrella held by Feliciano hiding her own shadow.  She looked like she’d walked straight out of one of her fashion magazines. 

Kafke gasped and immediately released the man whose shirt he’d grabbed. Everyone stared, whispered, gawked. Clearly, Cadence had been the draw of the crowd. Werner, still holding his bruised cheek, waved at her brightly but was met with a wagging finger and what looked like a lecture.

“You see,” Claire drew as he crunched on a popcorn kernel, “this is why I want to be famous.” He pointed out to the crowd. “Look. Even the angry ones are calming down.”

“Which angry ones?” Olive snorted. 

The attention on the beach suddenly shifted away from Cadence and to the opposite direction. Olive followed their stares but already sort of knew who had drawn away the crowd’s gaze. There was only one person who commanded attention more than Cadence.

Down the beach came Maria in all her gloria. Clearly she was not on duty as she was wearing a black swimsuit accented in gold and a matching pair of sunglasses. Flanking her left was guidance officer Araceli and Araceli’s secretary Ambrose. Flanking her right was her own secretary Conta.

Werner waved at her too, while everyone else besides Shion, Jericho, Cadence, and Nico seemed to gawk and whisper amongst themselves. It wasn’t every day that chief guidance officers came by the beach.

“What’s going on?” Trystan whispered beside Olive.

“What do you mean?”

“Why are there so many people here today?”

“What are you talking about?” Stanley gestured around. “It’s a beach, man.”

“That’s not what I’m saying,” Trystan muttered. “Are the guidance officers here because of the murders on the news? Since everyone is out here today, maybe they need more hands to keep an eye on things…”

Trystan always said weird things.

Maria soon reached the lip of the crowd. The atmosphere down there visibly changed in an instant and with a spread of her arms and a slew of words Olive couldn’t understand, Maria dispersed the crowd.

“That was cinematic,” Olive noted, grabbing a handful of popcorn from Claire’s bucket and munching.

“You think we can ask for an encore?” Claire snickered.

Olive glanced over his shoulder as he snorted and realized a familiar someone was standing a few feet behind him. 

“Atienna…?” Olive arched a brow before he suppressed a smirk. He glanced down at the beach and then back at her and called out—  “Hey, Atienna, did we synchronize and all decide to come to the beach at the same time?”

Sefu who stood beside Atienna acknowledged him with furrowed brows before nudging Atienna’s arm.

Atienna glanced at Sefu, then at Olive, and seemed to stare straight through him. She smiled faintly. “Perhaps we did.”

Oh, she was being a different kind of weird today. Olive figured he could adapt and still get some fun out of it. Before he could think of another tease, he noticed Kamaria coming up behind Atienna.  

“Atienna, what are you doing here?”

Atienna visibly tensed but smoothed her expression into a smile as she turned. “Kamaria…? I suppose that I’m here for the same reason you are. How’ve you been?”

Kamaria cocked her head. “Since this morning?”

“Since this morning?” Atienna parroted. She shared a tense look with Sefu before turning back to her sister. “Kamaria, what was the last thing we talked about…?”

“What? Oh…” Kamaria looked Atienna up and down. “Nothing. Nevermind.”

Oof. Awkward. 

Olive sidestepped away from the conversation. “Well… I’ll meet you down there maybe?”

Olive—with his gaggle at his feet—jogged down the sandy slope to where Werner, Cadence, Maria, Jericho, the others, and the VNW others were still gathered. Much to his surprise and joy there were a few more familiar faces with them now. Among them were more VNWs like Coach Charming, that one blonde guy with the ponytail, Klaus, Emilia something, Vogel something, and Mai and Kai. Save for the ponytail blonde guy, none of them were dressed for beach weather. Coach Charming  was the only one in that group that wasn’t sweating. Otto was there too, grimacing at the bruise that was purpling Kafke’s cheek.

“Olive?” Gabrielle noticed Olive first and eyed Olive’s gang that came up behind up. Her eyes widened a fraction and she looked back at Alice and Charming.

“Trystan…?” Coach Charming stared behind Olive towards Trystan. “Trystan Carter?”

Trystan shared a look with Olive. He asked after a pause, “How are you feeling, Coach? I heard the news—”

Maria waved with both of her arms. “Dear Olive and friends, you are out to enjoy the beach, yes?” She spun in a circle, gesturing at the open ocean and sky. “It is a beautiful day for that, no? Not a day to cause trouble, yes?”

Olive half-flinched. “Yep… No trouble here…”

Gabrielle’s and Alice’s gazes lingered on Araceli who stood cross-armed beside Maria.

“Ollie! Lavi! Trystan!” Werner waved at them with his free hand. His other was holding an ice pack to his cheek. “I didn’t know you guys were coming here!” He looked around. “Woah—it’s like a beach party, isn’t it?” He grinned. “This is great!” 

“You got in a fight,” Cadence interjected. “This is not great, Werner. You need to have some self control.”

“But those guys were being rude to Kaki…” Werner frowned. “And Hauptmann was saying that they were being rough with him and his friends too…”

“Hauptmann?” Jericho asked, brows raised.

Werner pointed to Professor Weingartner.

“That’s Professor Volker Weingartner, Werner,” Jericho explained. “Volker Weingartner.”

Werner’s brows met and he glanced at Klaus and Emilia. “Wait… But I thought his first name was Hauptmann? Klaus and Emi call him that all the time…”

“You know people can have multiple nicknames, Werner,” Olive interjected. “That’s why some of these guys call me ‘Prince’ and ‘Your Highness.’”

Claire chuckled. Mai and Kai stared at him. 

Trystan muttered, “Is that why you’ve been so high on your horse recently?”

Coach Charming and Gabrielle continued to stare at Trystan.

Werner brightened. “Oh, I get it—”

“No, he’s joking, Werner,” Jericho interjected, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Sidra and Ahlam joined him. Ahlam gave Olive a jerk of his head while Sidra waved. They were in some of Lavi’s classes.

“Huh?” Werner stared over Olive’s shoulder, brightened, waved. “Atienna!”

Olive turned his neck and saw Atienna, Kamaria, and Sefu walking down the sandy slope towards them.

“It’s quite a surprise to see so many familiar faces in one place,” Atienna noted once she’d joined their circle. “I hope you don’t mind me intruding?”

“You’re  always welcome, Atienna,” Werner assured her before turning back to everyone. “Anyways, where are all you guys at?” He pointed off in the distance. “We were set up over there! My Mutti’s there right now. We were having a family day date—” 

“Family day date plus extras,” Nico muttered, side eyeing Ludwig and Viktoria. He nodded at Maria, Araclei, and then Shion. “Thanks for the assist by the way.”

“If you were all the way over there, what brought you here?” Araceli asked.

“We only came this way because Kafke swung by us  and said you were here, Caddy,” Werner explained. “Kaki’s actually here to get a photo and signature!”

Kafke cleared his throat and rubbed his red knuckles on his swim trunks. “Cadence, it’s great to see you again.”

Ew. Cringe.

“Are your brothers here too, Caddy?” Werner asked. “Al, Carl, and Fran?”

Cadence sighed. “Of course they are, Werner, but let’s not get sidetracked—”

“But we’re not on a track?” Werner scratched his head before he whipped back to everyone. “Oh, but this is great, you guys! We can have a beach party!” He thumbed Cadence. “At Caddy’s tent!” He turned to her. “You brought your big beach tent, right? I love that thing! It’s like a fort, like a Caddy Kingdom.”

“Caddy Kingdom?” Ludwig asked.

Werner spun in a slow circle, gesturing to everyone. “Let’s all meet up at Caddy’s tent, okay?”

Cadence sighed again. “Werner, why are you inviting everyone to some place that isn’t yours?”

“Huh?” Werner dropped his arms. “Oh… Did you not want everyone to come? Aw, sorry, Caddy. I just got a little bit excited…”

Olive suppressed a grin. Cadence was the type to be easily swayed by others and she was all about keeping her princess-like philanthropist appearance in place.

“Well, I suppose there’s plenty of room under the tent,” Cadence relented. “It was getting rather boring anyways.”

Kafke’s brows rose. “Really? You’ll let me come in your tent? I’m honored—”

Cadence’s nose wrinkled just slightly. “Everyone who’s here may come if they so wish.”

“Wait, for real?” Stanley whispered to Olive. “I mean that’s the Cadence Foxman, right? Is this happening? We’re hanging out with the Foxmans today? And chief guidance officers?”

“It’s nice to have connections,” Olive whispered back. He faced forward with a charming smile. “Sounds good to me.”

“Awesome! Let’s all meet at Caddy’s tent then!” Werner thumbed behind him. “I gotta go pick up my mom back at our old spot first though.”

“I’ll come with you,” Jericho offered. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen your mom. I’d like to say hello.”

Werner brightened while Nico frowned.

“Wait,” Alice interjected. “Why is it that you’ve all come out to the beach today? Olive, Miss Foxman, Werner, Miss Gloria-Fernandez, Jericho? I know you said you wanted to have a family day, Werner, but is there any other reason why you decided to come today?” She locked eyes with Atienna.

It had been on a whim really. Olive hadn’t really thought about it until this morning. He exchanged a look with Jericho who eyed Maria who smiled at Werner who hummed at Cadence.

“I just wanted to see if the sun would come out,” they all said in unison.

Werner looked around and chuckled. “That was cool. I guess we’re all on the same wavelength.”

“A coincidence,” Jericho agreed.

“The sun…” Atienna murmured. “You said you wanted to see if the sun would come out.” She slowly pointed upwards. “So does that mean… have you noticed anything peculiar about the sky…?”

Olive exchanged a look with Jericho. “What do you mean?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Trystand Werner look up.

* * *

Cadence’s tent was a ways away down the beach at a front that was noticeably emptier. The tent stood tall five feet above Olive’s head and was striped white and green.  There were tables of fruits, vegetables, crackers, cheeses, and tiny finger sandwiches lining the ends of the tent. Definitely too much food for just Cadence’s family, but Olive supposed Ndoto was about too much of everything.

Emilia and Klaus who seemed to arrive ahead of Olive’s group with Professor Weingartner were already perusing the tables. Emilia seemed rather enraptured by a platter of cheeses. She seemed to have found some companionship with Sefu as he was perusing the cheeses with her. Sefu’s presence indicated that Atienna had gotten here already too.

Olive scanned the tent. 

There. 

Weingartner, Charming, and Valentino were standing at the far end of the tent looking out at the water and sand. With them were Gabrielle, Alice, and Atienna. Heather, Stanley, and Eric joined Sefu and Emilia at the food tables, while Claire, Eunji, Trystan, Kamaria, and Felix followed Olive towards Weingartner’s group.

Olive signalled the the four to hang back so he could eavesdrop but as soon as he was within listening distance of the adults, Gabrielle turned to him and smiled.

“Need something, Prince?”

“Nope, do you need something?” 

Olive casually fell into place beside Gabrielle and looked down the beach. 

The Foxman weres lounging there beneath some beach umbrellas. Francis was laying on his stomach while Charite was lathering some sunscreen onto his back. Allen, Carl, and Cadence were basking beside them. Carl had an unflattering dollop of lotion on his nose, while Allen’s arms were beat red. Another woman—face shadowed over by a large sunhat and eyes concealed by a large pair of sunglasses—Olive didn’t quite recognize was lounging on a beach chair beside them.

Jericho was down a little ways further, taking photos of his siblings in different poses at the water’s edge.

Olive looped his arm around Atienna’s and ushered her down the sand to where the Foxmans were. Olive’s gang followed behind him and, as expected, the group of adults joined them too. Francis rose to a sit when they drew close and greeted them with a—

“Hey, I’m glad you all could make it.”

Olive had always been weirded out by how on point Francis was socially, although he secretly hoped he had that sort of charm too. That charm paired with Jericho’s charm. To be blindly followed by others and have their trust in him—well, Olive found the idea alluring.

“Hey, guys, look!”

Werner bounded out to them from the tent holding two big plastic bags of… marinated meat?  He’d either abandoned or lost his blouse along the way and now boasted his full chest of tattoos. Behind him came Kafke who was also holding a bag of meat, Ludwig, Viktoria who was still holding Kaiser, Nico, and Werner’s mother. There was a noticeable gap in walking distance between the two siblings and Werner’s mother.

Jericho jogged up to join them. 

“We got food!” Werner cheered.

Cadence blinked up at him as his shadow fell over her. “Oh, Werner, thank you but I’d rather not eat anything heavy while we’re out here.”

Kafke looked as if his world had been shattered. 

“Huh?” Werner hefted the bags up and down. “It’s pretty light to me.”

“I don’t think that’s what she meant,” Jericho said, eyeing the bags. “She’s right though. If you’re planning on swimming soon, you shouldn’t be eating anything too heavy.”

“Huh? Oh! Aw, are you worried about the meat, J-man? There’s some tofu too!”

“That’s not exactly my concern,” Jericho drew slowly, “but offering a kindness when you’re also holding onto some cruelty is hypocritical. You can’t have both.”

“Huh…?”

“You can’t offer someone tofu when you’re eating meat.” Jericho pushed his glasses up his nose. “You can’t do good while doing bad.”

“You can’t…?”

Jericho was going to fry Werner’s brain at this point. Olive respected Jericho a whole lot but sometimes he got a little too passionate and lost sight of things: like the fact that morality debates were way too over Werner’s head. 

“If you have so much ELPIS doctrine to spew,” Nico said as he came up beside Werner, “then I’d love to take you into the precinct for an interview.”

Jericho smiled cordially. “I’d rather not have my words twisted like Professor Weingartner’s were.” 

“And that’s why I’m here!” came a familiar voice.

Alice and Gabrielle visibly tensed.

Down from the tent came a familiar trio. A woman, a man, and a girl. As they drew nearer and nearer, Alice and Gabrielle grew tenser and tenser. Lavi, on the other hand, grew brighter and brighter until her hand flew up in the air and she gave a shout—

“Csilla!”

“Hi, Lavi!” Csilla returned the wave as she bounded down to them. She greeted Lavi with a hug.

Csilla’s parents, Izsak and Elizabeta, joined them not soon after. Elizabeta lingered slightly behind Izsak, gaze fixated on Gabrielle and Alice.

“Hope you don’t mind the intrusion,” Izsak said. “Werner and I ran into each other up there and we had the brilliant idea to do some barbecuing.”

Werner randomly high-fived him.

“And he mentioned that you guys have a good spot out here and…” Izsak put his hands on his hips as he looked around. “I do spot a good spot!” He turned to Elizabeta and motioned her forward. “Come on, honey. What’s wrong?”

Elizabeta, stiff, stomped forward until she was side-by-side with Izsak.

“Izsak…” Gabrielle whispered. “Izsak?” She glanced down at Francis then back up at Izsak as if she were connecting dots together.

Izsak chuckled. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost, Gabe.”

Gabrielle smiled wryly. “It feels like I’m seeing one. Feels a bit different from talking to one over the phone—that’s for sure.”

“Really?” Izsak felt up his body before looking back at his wife. “Honey, you think I moved onto the tree sometime between my last lunch with Gabe and now, do you? You would’ve noticed right, honey?”

“The last lunch?” Gabrielle seemed to have been confused out of her stupor. “What do you mean?”

Alice drew slowly, eyes lingering on Izsak’s face. “You mentioned meeting with Izsak when we were all at the Wibele. Don’t you recall?²⁶”

Gabrielle frowned. “Did I?”

Weingartner nodded before putting his hand to his chin. “I can’t recollect what you said…” He looked up at Valentino. “Valentino?”

There was a long stretch of silence as Weingartner, Atienna, Charming, Valentino, Gabrielle, and Atienna exchanged looks.

“You feeling alright, you two?” Izsak patted Gabrielle and Alice on the arm. “You know what’ll probably make you feel better? Some sizzling meat.” He whipped around, framing the sand in front of him with his fingers. “Now, let’s see. Haven’t made anything in a while, but a grill about yey-high should do it, right?” He glanced back at Jericho. “I know you were feeling cold feet before, but I’m quite a mean griller—of meat and non-meat.”

“Izsak is a master of the grill, J-man!” Werner nodded. “Nico and I went on a double date once with Izsak and Elizabeta and Izsak cooked the entire thing himself! He’s real good!”

“We could make that a triple date with the fiancées.” Izsak winked down at Francis and Charite. 

Werner beamed and nodded while Nico’s frown deepened.

“It’s good to see you, Izsak,” Jericho replied after squeezing Werner’s shoulder, “but I actually do have some things I need to get to while I’m here, so I need to head out now—”

Werner’s face fell.

“Leaving so soon, Jericho?”

Maria, fashionably tardy as always, descended the sand towards them. Conta was at her side as always. It looked like Araceli and Ambrose had gone off somewhere else though.

“You are going to that ELPIS meeting, no? That is the main reason you came to the beach, yes?” Maria smiled warmly and held out her hand. It was hard to tell whether she wanted to take his hand or wanted him to take hers. “May I join you, dear Jericho?”

Jericho regarded her for a moment.

They stared at each other, having some mutual silent battle of some kind. Eventually Jericho smiled lightly and conceded with an— “of course.”

The two departed side-by-side.

Izsak watched them go before slapping Werner hard on the back and ruffling Csilla’s hair. “Let’s get cooking, shall we?” 

As the last minute barbecue went underway, Olive spent some time building a sand castle with Csilla, Lavi, Claire, Trystan, Sidra, Ahlam, and Eunji, but ultimately decided that being an architect was not his calling so left it to them. Trystan was getting way too serious about ‘measuring angles’ and ‘having things up to code like real life’ anyways. As Olive wandered around the tent and tables, he picked at the plates of his friends who’d chosen to spend their time eating. When he was bored of that, he tried to egg Coach Charming on by ordering him around. It really was nice being thought of as a prince. After that, Olive was bored again.

This was a problem he always had: boredom. No matter how fun and thrilling and exciting things got, eventually it all became dull and boring. His guidance officer advised him to always keep himself busy which is why Olive involved himself in so many extracurriculars—but it still wasn’t enough. Boredom reigned. That was what happened when you were in paradise. 

Olive continued to wander around the tent and beach keeping his eyes peeled for something interesting. His patience paid off as he soon spied Atiena, Alice, Gabrielle and Volker exiting the tent together.

* * *

After roping Claire and Trystan into his endeavor, Olive followed Atienna, Alice, Gabrielle, and Volker out the tent. He tried his best to keep a distance between his group and them so they wouldn’t catch onto his stalking but realized he’d kept too much of a distance once they entered a more crowded area of the beach. One moment they were in front of him and the next Olive was staring at the hairy belly of a middle-aged man.

Damn. 

Searching the crowd turned out fruitless. Claire complaining about the heat didn’t make it any better.

Just as Olive decided to give up and return to the tent, he spotted familiar faces standing behind an ice cream stand that had been set up near the walkways leading to the beach.

It was Eunji and Felix, who both must’ve left the tent before him at some point, Mai, Kai, and Arjun. Arjun: the guy who was hiding from the guidance officers. Hiding in plain sight. Olive wondered if he should tip off Nico or Maria about him just to see what would happen. 

Olive approached them casually and managed to catch the end of their conversation as they noticed him—

“You really haven’t had any strange dreams like this?^✦” Mai was asking.

“Dreams like what?” Claire interjected, throwing an arm around Eunji’s shoulder. “What are you guys talking about?” He gasped and pointed at Arjun. “Aren’t you a wanted man?”

Trystan tensed. “We should really be reporting this to the guidance officers…”

“Don’t sweat it, Trystan.” Olive waved him off. “It’s not that serious.”

“You were followed, Eunho.” Mai’s lips drew thin.

“You weren’t the ones we were following,” Claire corrected. “Right, Ollie?”

“Yep, but we were doing some following,” Olive provided. He threw an arm around Eunji’s shoulder. “You guys didn’t happen to see Atienna, Gabrielle, and a couple others walking this way, did you?”

Mai studied Olive for a moment before her gaze trailed to Claire. Her eyes narrowed. “Why are you following them?”

“They were going to see PD Oran,” Eunji provided, nodding at Claire.

“Eunji!” Mai warned.

“PD Oran…?” Claire rubbed his chin. He nudged Olive’s shoulder. “That’s where Jericho and Guidance Officer Maria were headed, right?”

Tingles ran up Olive’s back. 

Finally, something exciting.

* * *

It didn’t take long for Olive, Trystan, and Claire to find the place where PD Oran was having his talk. Olive had seen plenty of fliers littering the path there. He imagined Jericho had come along this treaded path in the sand while belting out platitudes left and right. Jericho was pretty committed to the whole green, peace, hippie thing. 

Olive uncrinkled the flier³⁵ he had in his hand as they approached a makeshift wooden stand—a bunch of soap boxes stacked on top of each other—that was surrounded by a crowd. The makeup of the crowd was exactly what Olive had been expecting: a bunch of people in floral print, wearing floral headbands and peace-sign trinkets.

“—as newly integrated Ndotoans, we must understand the gift from the tree,” came a voice from the stand. “You have to think: ‘how can we appreciate something we do not fully understand.’”

Olive stood on his tippy toes and spotted a middle-aged man standing up on the boxes. He was dressed in a clean suit and had a nice comb over. He was clearly sweating in the heat but his eyes were blazing with passion. PD Oran in the flesh. In front of him on the sand stood Jericho who was handing out bright packets to the crowd. Maria stood right at the front across from him and was happily accepting everything he was handing out.

They wern’t the ones Olive was interested in though so he scanned the audience. There. He spotted Gabrielle weaving through the crowd and searching people’s faces. Alice was following behind her, her glances more subtle that Gabrielle’s At an opposite end of the crowd, Olive spotted Professor Weingartner doing the same.

“—the components of the tree’s gift,” Oran was saying. “And just as we should seek to understand this gift, we should also seek to understand why it is that we must keep the gates closed.” His gaze swept the crowd. “Knowledge is…”

The audience began to whisper in the silence that followed.

Olive looked up and froze. Oran was staring squarely straight at him—and Trystan. The older man’s eyes were wide, his mouth slightly ajar, his face pale. 

“Is it me or is he looking at us?” Trystan whispered. 

“He is,” Claire answered, smiling with narrowed eyes. “Feeling guilty, probably.”

“For… what…?” Trystan whispered.

“Knowledge is power,” Jericho finished, glancing up at Oran. “Right Professor Oran?”

PD Oran tore his gaze away from Olive and Trystan and looked down at Jericho before clearing his throat. “R-Right. And that’s why—”

“Olive.” 

Olive turned to find Atienna standing behind him. She had a pleasant smile on, her hands folded in front of her waist.

“I didn’t think you’d be interested in these types of things.”

“What can I say?” Olive shrugged. “Kids these days are pretty progressive.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Right, Claire—”

Claire was no longer smiling, although his eyes were still narrowed—at Atienna. “Yep, we can be pretty progressive.” He looked Atienna up and down. “I like your make-up by the way.”

Atienna covered a laugh with her hand. “I’m not wearing any, but I’m flattered.” She regarded him for a moment before she asked, “Is everything alright? You look worried.”

Claire finally smiled. “Just peachy.”

“Good.” She nodded at Olive. “See you around, Olive.”

Olive waved as she disappeared into the crowd before arching a brow at Claire. “What was that about?”

“What do you mean?”

Olive shrugged and scanned the crowd again. He found Atienna standing with Gabrielle and Alice at the opposite end of the audience.

How had she gotten over there so fast?

* * *

Olive had gone back near Cadence’s tent. He’d gotten bored of listening Oran drone on and on and of watching Atienna’s group’s fruitless search for whoever it was they were looking for, so he’d returned here with Trystand and Claire after half an hour.

It was well into the afternoon now. Gabrielle, Atienna, Alice, and the professor had returned to the tent an hour earlier and so had Eunji, Felix, Mai and Kai. Jericho and Maria were back too, arriving just as Izsak and Werner had finished off their grilling.

Half an hour had passed since then.

“Look!” 

Olive was now standing on the sand just a couple of feet away from the water’s edge. Behind him stood Atienna, Ludwig, Shion, Maria, Cadence, Nico, and Jericho. Werner was crouched in front of them proudly wielding a stick. He gestured widely to the sand in front of him. 

Etched into the sand there were seven stick figures and a stick-cat. Two figures were wearing either sunglasses or glasses, another was holding a rectangle that Olive supposed was a book, another had a circle on its head, and the last was holding a stick of some kind. They were all smiling.

“We haven’t all hung out in a while,” Werner explained, “so I thought it’d be to memorate—”

“Commemorate,” Jericho corrected.

“—commemorate all of us being here,” Werner continued. He stood up, hands on hips. “Now whenever we come here by ourselves, we can look at this and remember all the good times we had!”

Atienna smiled slightly though it didn’t reach her eyes. “It looks very nice, Werner.”

Shion’s gaze lingered on her.

“We should make a bigger picture altogether, no?” Maria suggested. “That would be a true commemoration, yes?”

Just as she said that, a wave came up the shoreline, consumed the drawing, and pulled back, leaving nothing behind. Werner stared down at the blank canvas—

Click!

Clearly, Werner was devastated but the situation was so funny that Olive had to pinch himself not to laugh.

“‘The Despair of a Creator,’” Jericho said, lowering his camera. “Don’t worry. I took a photo before it was washed away.”

Werner brightened. “That’s my J-man!” 

“Hey, Olive!” a voice called from behind. “Look what I found!”

Claire came jogging down to them holding a big inflated beach ball. “Want to play some volleyball? We could do it chicken fight style and ride on each other’s shoulders in the deeper part of the water for fun.”

Olive jumped. “Dibs on—”

“Eunji’ll be my partner,” Claire interrupted. “It only makes sense.”

What a block.

“Fine. I call Lavi then.”

“Oh! Can I play?” Werner asked. He looked around. “We should all play! It’ll be fun!”

“The more the merrier, no?” Maria agreed.

 Olive proceeded to call over Lavi and Eunji who were still building the sand castle with Csilla, Alham, Kamaria, and Sidra. He then followed Werner to where most of the adults were gathered beneath the beach umbrellas.  A second later and Werner was on his knees in front of Nico who was laying on his stomach with his head down.

“Please, Liebling—it’ll be so fun!”

“I’m tired, Tesoro,” Nico mumbled. “Maybe some other time.”

Werner hung his head before he explained, “Nico and I caught a bad cold a few days ago. We only just got better so…” He patted Nico’s head. “Rest well, Liebling.”

“Oh come now, Nico. Don’t be such a downer.” Cadence let out a breath from where she lay beside him. She stood, flipped her hair over her shoulder. “I’ll do it with you, Werner. Just don’t get my hair wet and promise me not to ever fight again—”

“Okay, I promise!” Werner brightened. “I’ll ride on your shoulders, Caddy!”

Carl looked the man up and down. “You’ll crush her to death.” He stood up, brushing the sand from his arms. “You’re with me, Cadence.”

“Carl.” Allen frowned.

“What? Might as well since we’re here.” He spread his arms and gestured around. 

“I have a strong back,” Kafke interjected from where he stood a few feet away awkwardly eating some ribs off a paper plate.

“No, I’ll settle for Carl.” Cadence put a sympathetic hand on Werner’s shoulder. “Let’s go find someone to be your partner, Werner.”

Francis rose from where he lay beside Charite and offered her a hand. “How about a quick game?”

Charite accepted the gesture. “Of course, darling. Will you be riding on my shoulders or will I be riding on yours?”

Shion came up to them with Maria and Jericho.

“Shion?” Werner whipped around and tried. “Can you be my partner?”

Shion held up an apologetic hand. “I actually should get back to my rounds soon, but I can be a referee for a little bit?”

Werner hung his head again.

“I…” Atienna paused. “I… suppose I can be your partner, Werner.”

Werner looked like he’d just passed all of his KM-level exams. 

After they recruited several more people to join their game,  Izsak used his gift from the tree to create a net for them in the water while Jericho and Maria designated the teams which Olive aptly named himself. 

On team ELPIS there was Jericho and Sidra, Francis and Charite,  Sefu and Kamaria, Carl and Cadence, Izsak and Csilla. On team Saint Candidate there was Werner and Atienna, Claire and Eunji, Olive and Lavi, Maria and Conta. 

The game turned out exactly how Olive had been expecting and it took all of his might not to collapse into the water laughing.

Werner kept crashing into other players on his team whenever he tried to lunge for the ball, while Maria leapt several feet into the air allowing Conta to smash the beach ball onto the opposing team’s side. Carl, despite Cadence’s protests, kept flinging her off of his shoulders in an attempt to get a spike or two in using her head as a battering ram. Francis and Charite spent most of the game just chatting to themselves, causing them to miss the ball even when it landed right in front of them. 

Eventually Conta hit the ball so hard that it landed far off into the waters.

“I’ll go get it,” Francis offered, setting Charite down. “My contribution to the team, so to speak.”

“Careful,” Allen called out from where he stood  ankle-deep in water.

“I know, Al. Don’t worry.”

Olive looked over his shoulder as Francis went out to get the ball. He noticed Gabrielle and Alice speaking with Miss Wtorek beneath one of the umbrellas. The latter’s arms were crossed which clearly indicated that she was uncomfortable. A gasp drew Olive’s attention back to Francis’s pursuit of the ball—rather, to what was once Francis’s pursuit of the ball. The ball itself was still bobbing on the waves, but Francis was nowhere to be seen.

“Francis!” Cadence cried.

A second later and Charite and Carl were swimming out in the direction. Werner immediately set Atienna down and swam after them.

Atienna called out in alarm as she followed him, “Werner, wait—”

But whatever had caused Francis to go under seemed to drag Charite, Carl, and Werner under too. Werner’s last words were left hanging in the air— “Ow, cramp!”

Atienna now treaded water alone over there with her gaze trained on the rippling waves.

“Wait, Atienna!” Sefu shouted— 

But Atienna had already dove into the water.

Seconds ticked by back, long and slow.

Olive felt his heart begin to hammer in his chest . His legs began to cramp and his stomach began to churn. 

They were alright, right? He thought. Should he go after them? But what if he drowned too—

Before he could finish the rest of his thoughts, Maria was blitzing down the water after them. She stopped where they had all disappeared before taking a deep breath and diving in.

Olive wasn’t sure if it was a second or a minute had passed by until—

Atienna’s head popped out from the water³⁶ and she let out a loud and deep gasp. Werner’s head popped up beside her a second after followed by Maria’s head and then Carl’s and Francis’s and Charite’s.

“You alright?” Allen shouted over to them.

Nico was pacing worriedly beside him and relaxed just slightly when Werner offered a wave.

Once Maria brought them all to shore, the drenched quintet took a moment to recollect themselves on the towels beneath the umbrellas. Olive sat down beside them, trying to process his thoughts and feelings. He’d never, ever experienced anything like that before: that feeling, that was. Not even when he’d gone with his friends to light up firecrackers near the gates, not even when he’d followed through with a dare to climb to the top of the gates with just a rope, not even when he’d accidentally set a park on fire when pranking someone from a different school.

Olive wasn’t even sure what to call the emotion he’d felt a couple minutes ago. He figured Sefu who sat across from him staring intently at Atienna probably knew what the emotion was called.

Cadence was walking in a circle around them. “Oh, that was stupid, Francis. You should have just let the ball go. And Werner, I told you not to eat too much before going into the water! And, Carl—”

“I think they’ve learned their lesson, no?” Maria interjected, grinning despite the harrowing situation as always. “You should not reach for things you are uncertain of, yes?”

Huh?

“Did you see that?” Carl asked abruptly, half-panting, staring at Atienna.

“See what?” Francis asked. He sat up and turned to Charite who was breathing heavily beside him. He squeezed her hand.

Carl ignored him.

Atienna nodded silently. 

“See what?” Gabrielle repeated from behind them. “Did you see something?”

After a long pause, Atienna let out a breath: “A garden…”

“I think that’s enough of the beach for today,” Cadence finally huffed at the end. She put a hand to her cheek and looked down at them all. “But I’d hate to end the day so soon… Do you all have plans for this afternoon? How does the mall sound?”

moja/mbili

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