Realistic or Modern Life Beneath Dreams

[DrTrollinski]

Jason stepped inside with him and watched as he more or less fell into his arms. What was the problem?

Whatever it was, he was in a bit of a state. He'd poured the Fortisip away. He was starving hungry, probably, and he was freaking out. He needed someone to tell him it was okay to eat. Jason got it - it's not as if he was going to turn around and say no, was it?

He hugged him back, "It's okay." He said. "Listen to me, calm down." He said. "I'll tell you, sure - I know somewhere in there you're strong enough to tell yourself that. I know you are. I know there's a part of you in there that'll do the same as ten-year-old Tate and say 'hell yeah, I can eat another slice of pizza'. But we've just gotta' find where he's gotten to, right? He certainly ain't gone. I think I saw him last night. You made the decision to buy those snacks and eat that cake yourself. I didn't even have to hint." He pulled away and offered him a smile, holding his shoulders.

"I know you're strong enough. I believe in you. But I will always give you that nudge if you need me to. Always." He said.

He didn't mention what Tate said about 'it'. Jason felt it. Not his problems directly, but... He knew the feeling, let's say. All for different problems, but he knew.

"You can go eat something. You must be starving." He said. "You want me to make some of my famous scrambled eggs or do you wanna' cook for yourself? Either way, I'll chill with you and have another coffee. Just take a deep breath, okay? You're fine. You're perfectly fine." He said. "And most of all... It's not stupid. It makes sense, bro. I've always been the one to say 'no, Tate, have another cookie', ain't I?" He laughed a little and patted his pal's shoulder. "C'mon. Cheer up. Let's go get some food in ya'."

If Jason could be one thing, he could be positive. Big smiles.

 

[Jupiter]

"Um... make me eggs." He bit his lip. "If it's not too much trouble- I just know if I do it myself I'll cut portions or something." Tate mumbled.

The good thing here was that Tate recognised these behaviours and knew that he needed to change them, and needed to challenge himself to do stuff. He only trusted Jason to cook for him, he wouldn't trust anyone else. No, they could poison him... they could add something in that might make him get fat.

Tate grimaced. That's what he needed. To gain weight. Even the word made him crawl.

"I- I'll watch." He mumbled, and then followed Jason out of the bathroom. As they came out, Elmore was downstairs.

"Woah. Two in a bathroom. Don't mind me boys, but you share a room, don't need to go into the bathrooms to have your fun." He winked.

Tate let out a small, awkward laugh, and beelined straight for the kitchen so that he could avoid confrontation. Tate and Jason. Ha. Ha ha.

He sat down at the kitchen island, Elmore walking past and heading outside.

God; Tate felt fat in comparison to everyone else in their swimming trunks, but he was the opposite. His arms and top of his body was still covered, his legs the only fat (boney) part of his body on show. Part of him was scared someone would mention his weight today - but... we'll see about that.

Yab could always be the one to say something unkind.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Eggs, sure." Jason nodded. "Whatever you need, man. If you have any doubts at all while we're here, you're to tell me straight away, alright? Don't let yourself suffer in silence. You deserve better." He gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder, then lead him from the bathroom and of course, they bumped into Elmore. Jason smiled at him, but, now wasn't the best time. "Very funny, guy. Very funny." He gently punched his shoulder. "If me and Tate got up to something, that must have been pretty boring considering we've both got clothes on. You know it's only you that gets my shorts down, bro." He nudged Elmore again and brushed past him. It was a joke, of course. He wasn't being flirtatious in the slightest.

Finally, through to the kitchen. Here they were. Jason got some eggs from the fridge - these were the last of the breakfast things they had from last night. The very last. Obviously there was plenty of butter, but, that was all they really needed. Also, I imagine Elmore's family would have left some salt and pepper in the cupboards. It's not as if seasoning was going to go rotten, was it? Anyway, he got a pan out and cracked three eggs into it, then put some butter in, and he made the scrambled eggs his way. He didn't apply heat until the eggs were beaten, and from there he did nothing but gradual stirring on medium heat.

Once it got hot, he took it off the heat, stirred, put it back on. Off, on, off, on. Just over and over until the eggs got some form, started to clump up. Then he added a dash of milk (usually he'd use creme fraiche, but, it's a house of teenagers for god's sake. No one's got time for the fancy shit), which gave the eggs more of a creamy texture. But it wasn't overpowering.

While they were coming close to being done, he added the salt and pepper to give it that kick. He'd already put one slice of toast in, so, he put that on a plate - he'd let Tate butter it as much or as little as he wanted - and then put the scrambled eggs on the side. He didn't dump it on the toast, just in case Tate didn't want that.

He slid the plate towards him,

"Profitez de votre repas, mon pote." He winked and took a small bow, then chuckled. He made himself a coffee.

 

[Jupiter]

Tate watched the eggs be made, and Elmore joined everyone else. While the eggs were being made by Jason, he was outside.

"Think we're just waiting for Tate to eat." Elmore announced.

"Thought he wasn't a breakfast person." Yab mentioned.

"Yeah, but he's having something now. Jason's making him eggs."

"At least he's having something." Stella mumbled. "He's very..."

"Skeleton." Yab mumbled.

Elmore grimaced.

-

When the eggs were done, Tate pulled them towards him, buttering the bread extremely thinly because, well, butter had way too many calories in it. He put the eggs on top of the toast because then he'd be able to have the meal over with much faster, and began to eat.

If anyone came in, Tate would stop. He couldn't eat in front of someone who wasn't Jason, and while that may become a problem later on, right now it was just what he needed.

"Good eggs." Tate mumbled. "You always made good eggs."

 

[DrTrollinski]

"I think maybe we should all keep out of it, wouldn't you agree?" Jenna asked, looking over everyone. It was mainly what Yab said that made her jump to it - they had no idea what Tate was in hospital for, and now they were all going to make observations? She thought it was harsh, even if it wasn't in their intentions to be. She didn't want Tate to think that they were judging him or looking at him every time he turned his back - If Tate got upset, then Jason would get upset, too.

And the last thing they needed was Jason getting upset, after what happened last time.

"I mean, it couldn't hurt to just... Ask." Nolan said.

"Yes. Yes it could. Just don't." Jenna said. "We don't need... Drama. Or upset. Or anything in between, okay? We're meant to be here to enjoy ourselves. If they wanna' enjoy themselves by sitting alone while Tate has breakfast, then so be it. I don't mind."

"I've gotta' agree with Jenna." Will said. Yes, Will had joined them.

"Typically." Nolan said.

"Okay then." Will sighed. "No, I mean, the main thing is we're all here. Tate's clearly okay enough to be here with us, so, let's not worry?"

--

"Aw, thanks." He chuckled and sipped his coffee. "You should try French scrambled eggs sometime. It's weird, because the technique behind it is a lot different to regular scrambled eggs, but, I've tried them and I think they're pretty good. Remind me sometime this week and I'll make some for you to try out." He nodded. "And, Tate... I'm sorry if I came off as a little... Blunt, a while ago." He said. "I've been thinking, maybe I was a little too direct. Sorry if that's the case. You know me - I worry a lot." He laughed.

 

[Jupiter]

Yab shrugged his shoulders. "Just saying it how it is. He's not looking well."

Stella sighed. "None of our business, either way. If he's out of hospital, he is okay, so we don't need to ask or discuss him behind his back. This is supposed to be a fun trip, as well, so we... Are going to make it be that way." Stella smiled. "For all involved."

-

Tate smiled. "I will, it sounds nice. I've always wanted to try like some more of the french stuff. Whenever I've been at yours its been good food, and I mean what other time do I have to try that kind of thing, you know? I doubt I'll be going to France myself, any time soon I mean."

He was still smiling, but it fell when Jason apologised. "It's fine. I was being stupid, running up and down. I'm just not used to the freedom to... Well... Destroy myself again, being there. I don't want to destroy myself, but for the last few months I've had literally no choice anyway, so suddenly getting here and... If I wanted to, I could eat nothing, exercise all the time, do all the things I used to do..."

"And it's like, he's back and telling me to abuse that privilege, but... I don't really want to listen to it again. That's the real step forward, not listening." He shrugged. "But... I don't want to let this get past because it's gonna nag at me... Don't call it the unspeakable. It's not Voldemort or some higher power, it's a little tiny cretin in the back of my mind and it's got a louder voice than anything." He sighed. "We can call it what it is, it won't send me into turmoil just by the word anorexia or bulimia or anything. It's... I know it's nothing to be celebrated, but it shouldn't be hidden from."

He sighed. "At the same time... I don't know if everyone should know yet. I mean, they probably already do, it's not hard to figure out, but... Fuck, you know? It's just complicated. But don't apologise. I know shits hard. Mornings are going to be hard for me, because that's when the eating begins. It gets easier throughout the day the more I relax, but... Breakfasts are going to be hard. Just need... Encouragement. And a slap around the head if I pour any more fortishit down the sink." He laughed.

He'd talked his way through his breakfast, and was now finished. He picked up the plate and took it to the sink, running the tap and cleaning it off. "We've been holding everyone up, though, we should probably get going to the lake."

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Oh, bullshit!" Jason laughed, "Like, dude, we went to France when we were twelve, remember? But then again..." He paused. "I vaguely remember us touching very little French food. Only the most common stuff. I'll give you a whole cook-off one night, bro, all of the good French shit and all that. What more could you want, right?" He smirked.

"I get you, though. I guess I'm not quite used to calling it exactly what it is for that reason. It's the A-word, after all. Actually, no... The a-word is used to describe autism, so maybe not." He laughed a little. "But you get the idea. I'll keep it in mind, though - One minute you weren't here and the next minute you were. I guess we both need to settle into how things are now. Things have changed, man - For better and for worse. I'm sure you'll see a lot of differences in all the guys, too. You've got some catching up to do, bro." He winked.

"As for them knowing... I guess they probably have their suspicions, but, if you feel like you need to keep it secret for a while, you do that. My lips are sealed. You don't have to tell them anything if you don't want to. But yes." He stood up and slammed down the rest of his coffee.

"Shall we?" He nodded back towards the door.

 

[Jupiter]

When Tate had finished washing the plate, he rubbed his hands on his swimming trunks and nodded. "We shall indeed, good sir." He smiled, and though he was a little nervous to be out there with his legs in this state, he knew that recovering meant pushing himself more and more. Besides, he didn't want to be left out, did he? No, no he did not, so Tate followed Jason out of the door.

"Yay! You made it, we were worrying you'd forgotten that there's a lake." Yab said sarcastically, and everyone else, or mine at least, grinned.

"Lake time!" Elmore yelled out, clapping his hands together. "Ladies and gentlemen, follow me!"

He gathered up his bag, which had various things in it to be found out later, and made the group follow him down a set of stairs and through a path that was all lit with fancy fairy lights for later in the night. It was a very posh, well put together place. No shack in the middle of the woods for them.

Anyway, soon enough they were confronted with their portion of the world, their cut off section, just for them, purely and simply. It was a beautiful scene, especially with the sun blaring down on them. If you want to choose a picture, do so, but I just can't find out that I want to show how beautiful this lake should be.

"Voila." Elmore grinned. "Welcome to paradise. And..."

He opened the bag. It had seemed heavy, and no wonder, inside it was a wine cooler with ice in it, which he carefully placed on the floor, and inside... Various shooters. Cherry sours, apple sours, tequila, sambuca... It began right now, it would seem.

Out of his pocket he pulled shot glasses.

"Do we begin?"

 

[DrTrollinski]

So, off they went to the lake. Much to Jason's pleasure, no one made any comments on Tate - even Yab seemed happy to see him. He had no idea if they all knew and he and Tate were just delusional, or if they were genuinely clueless, but it didn't take the brain of an Archbishop to figure out that Tate's hospital visit and his change in body weight were connected somehow. Figuring out it was an eating disorder? That would be a little tougher to do. People who live on hospital food for months generally lose a lot of weight, anyway. Plus, they were in no place to try and force it out of him, Jason thought.

Also, how's this for the lake? You're welcome to say no.

Spoiler: Lake

When they got there, all of my guys just looked in amazement. It was perfect. It was everything they'd ever hoped for - and more.

"This is incredible." Jenna grinned, and she leaned her head on Stella's shoulder, as some chill as fuck best friends do. "Wow." She said. It was just perfect. Completely perfect.

"Amazing." Jason laughed, stepping forward a little and staring out over the open water. He felt so at peace already.

Even more so when the alcohol got cracked out.

"We do begin. Pour me some of the good shit." Jason said, "And not tequila, either. You only drink that if you want to get more drunk - Never drink it sober." He said. "It's fucking gross, dude. But I'll happy have some of the sour stuff. Hit me up. Wine me, dine me, and sixty-nine me, y'know?" He laughed loudly and got a couple of laughs from other people as he reached out and nudged Elmore. "Everyone... Get on it. Let's turn this shit up." He nodded, "Who's brought a loud-as-shit portable speaker? We need some music here." He said.

 

[Jupiter]

Yes, a thousand times yes.

Anyway.

"Pouring some of the good shit." Elmore grabbed the bottles of sourz, cherry and apple, and opened them both, pouring shots of each, well, two shots for each person. One cherry, one apple. Once he had finished pouring, he passed the shot glasses around and each person had two in their hands.

"I'm not going to toast. Someone cover Jason's mouth." Elmore announced. "But leave it open. For shots."

And with that, he grinned widely and drank down his cherry sourz first, then his apple. Following suit, everyone soon realised that that was the announcement for them to drink too, so they drank their shots down.

The thing about sourz was that it just tasted like fruit, so that was fine, but my god. As it said on the tin, it was fucking sour. So, everyone shuddered a bit when they drank it.

"Now we may have music." Elmore laughed, and pulled a speaker out of his bag. "It's not the biggest and bestest, but it's loud. Who wants the aux?"

 

[DrTrollinski]

Jason drank down his shots as soon as Elmore did, and he was happy to get started. He squinted, yes, but he enjoyed it overall. He could only laugh. It felt good to engage in underaged drinking with no one around who could catch them doing it. He was loving this, to say the very least. Start the party early, and all - by the afternoon, he was going to be paralytic.

I did that once with my buddy Tim, on the day of our final exam (once it was over) - I did a double brandy and coke, plus nine pints of beer in no more than a couple of hours.

Safe to say, when I woke up on my bathroom floor a few hours later, I did not feel good.

Music? Who did the music go to?

"Don't give that shit to Nolan. He'll put on some of his family's rocky fuckin'... Yodeling music from up in the Canadian mountains." Jason said.

"Oh, very funny. What's more your style? How about we go by Jason and get lit to some Bach. Busting out the tunes from the 1700's."

"Ha-ha." Jason pushed him, gently. "Put on a summer playlist, or something. We'll do the whole 'generic teen summer getaway movie' theme, shall we?" He winked.

 

[Jupiter]

"Fuck no am I putting a generic summer playlist on." Elmore laughed. "I'm sorry, but do you think that I'm going to sit idly by and let you guys poison me with the likes of Bieber and that british shit One Direction. Fuck them, I say."

"Fuck them." Tate nodded.

"Okay. I'm putting on my playlist. You can feel free to change the songs but whatever you play has thirty seconds before we vote for something else if it's shit, and if you get three no's during your playlist, you have to pass the aux on." Elmore laughed, plugging his phone into the speaker and selecting a song. The first song to play was Don't Threaten Me With a Good Time by Panic! At the Disco.

Fitting.

A listen below.

​

"Now. The drinking games begin. Or do we swim?"

"Swim." Stella grinned.

"Drinking game." Yab grinned.

"I vote... Swim?" Tate added.

"And I vote drinking game." Elmore added. "Up to you guys. Deciding vote."

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Right, that sounds fair." Jason nodded.

Music went on, and now it came down to deciding what the first thing they were going to do was - Swimming or a drinking game.

"Well, ladies first." Jason looked to Jenna.

"Gonna' have to be a swim, guys. Sorry."

"Let's make it swim from me, too." Jason said, simply.

Will was indifferent, "I don't mind. I'm happy to do either, so, just take the majority from the rest of them." He said, simply.

Nolan should have been obvious. "Drinking game, obviously."

"How many votes is that for each? Did anyone take count? I didn't." Jason said.

 

[Jupiter]

"Um... I believe it was me, Jenna, Tate and Jason for swim." She smiled. "And Elmore, Nolan, and Yab for drinking game. We class Will's as a both way vote so that's five for swim and four for drinking game."

Elmore sighed. "Looks like it is a win for the swimming."

"The best choice, of course." Stella laughed. She took off her bathrobe and left it on a chair behind her.

A few eyes rolled over her body and she did something spontaneous - she ran and jumped off the edge of the deck, straight into the lake, plunging into the cold water and letting it soak over her. Elmore laughed. "Do as the lady says, boys." He grinned and followed suit, taking his shirt off (revealing a very muscly body may I add) and discarding it, jumping into the lake himself.

For a while, he didn't come back up. Stella had resurfaced, and flicked her hair out of her face - natural beauty with her lack of makeup and great skin care routine, of course.

"I hope he died." Yab laughed, but Elmore came up again, several feet away from Stella in the water, having swam under the water. "Damn. Misplaced hopes and dreams."

And with that, Yab ran over and grabbed Jenna, picking her up. "Miss wanted to swim!" He laughed, and even if she kicked and flailed, Yab threw her into the lake beside Stella.

"Asshole!" Stella yelled, but couldn't help but laugh. Just friendly fun, of course.

Yab held his arms out to grab Tate next. "You too."

"Don't." Tate held his arms up in defence. "Yabetz."

"What was that? Don't what?" He rushed forward and grabbed Tate, holding him tightly and running towards the lake, jumping in with Tate in his arms, straight into he cold water.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Nonononono." Jenna quickly said, and she screamed as she was thrown in, but, it was all in good fun. She resurfaced after a few seconds and spat out some water, then ran her hands over her head and pushed her hair back behind her. She had lovely long hair - trimmed and kept neat, but, it went right down her back. That was one of the things a couple of the guys liked about Jenna (outside of her amazing and innocent personality, of course) - Smooth hair that hadn't been cut down. Just trimmed and left to be... Well, how it was. Either way, no one was really caught staring as either of the two girls went in the water (none of my fellas, anyway).

All fun and games. Yab could be okay at points - this was one of those times. They laughed as he threw people in and eventually ended up in the water himself.

Jason took his shirt off; he was toned. Not muscles that completely bulged out, but, visible muscle all the same. It would have been more clear if he was still playing baseball and hadn't more or less given it up after Tate went into the hospital. He was still pretty active. Will was just skinny - tall but thin, no visible muscle but hardly any fat, either. He was very... Welterweight, despite his height. Just as Will got his shirt off, of course, Nolan ran in and swept him up from behind, much like Yab had done with Jenna, and ran to the water and immediately launched him in. He didn't scream, but he did laugh. A nasty surprise but not one he was going to be bitter over.

"Well." He coughed as he resurfaced. "That was refreshing." He laughed.

Jason looked at Nolan and slowly shook his head.

"Okay, okay, fine." Nolan whipped his shirt off, and, seeing as he played football like Elmore, but was also practicing for this MMA thing he'd be yammering on about, he was up there on the muscle chart, too. He took a dive into the water instead of a jump, and Jason shortly followed in suit. More of a cannonball from him, though, which sent water everywhere. He looked around and ran his hands over his head.

"Now, just imagine how awkward this would look if it was just a bunch of guys, eh?" Nolan said with a chuckle. "I mean, I love you guys, but..." He shook his head. "I'm not looking to hold my breath for any of you fellas, if you catch my drift."

"Aw, dammit." Jason joked. "The only thing I'm worried about is if there's some fucking monster in this lake."

"Oh, I'm sure." Will rolled his eyes.

 

[Jupiter]

Tate, shirt sticking to him (the only boy who as far had not removed his shirt, and was not planning on) grinned. He slicked his wet black hair back and moved slightly away from Yab. He wasn't sure if Yab had done it out of maliciousness or if Yab was just wanting to have a good time, but either way they were in the water now, like it or not.

All of them were.

I don't think I described Yab's body. Skinny, but toned, tall and lanky, the kind of body that looked like it was begging to have tattoos on it. And scars, a few on his arms, some cigarette burns, some from fights, some unknown. Tate couldn't help but wonder if Yab was like him.

"The only monster in this lake is Yab." Elmore announced loudly, grinning, and Yab sunk under the water menacingly, swimming along until he reached where in his mind Stella was, reaching out his arms to find her legs, and grabbing them. Stella let out a shriek and swam backwards, and Yab resurfaced, laughing.

"So, now we're in the water, what do we do." Stella laughed it off.

"Wrestle. Compete. Anyone bring a blow up ball?" Elmore asked.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Oh, yeah. I brought a blow up ball. Let me just pull that out of my ass." Nolan said, falling onto his back and floating on the surface of the water. "One of you better have a ball somewhere, guys. Swimming straight-up can only be fun for so long." He laughed.

"Competing always sounds fun, though. Just need something to compete with." Jason said, and with that he took hold of Jenna's shoulder. "Don't we, Jenna?"

"What are you doing?" She grinned and brushed his hand off, but, it quickly found its way back. "I've only been under once. Don't, Jason."

"Awwww, be a good sport." He said, putting a leg out behind both of hers and pulling her back.

"No, no. Jase." She grabbed his arm as she fell over backward. She let out a scream as she plunged under the water, but quickly popped back up and got an armful of water, sweeping it up in his face. "Oh, you dick." She laughed, wiping her eyes. "I'll get you back, just you wait."

"I'm waiting." He winked.

 

[Jupiter]

"Hang on hang on. We could play a drinking game in the water." Elmore laughed loudly, but Yab shook his head, running a hand through his wet hair.

"How's that gonna work? We can't put the drinks in the water and no ones gonna keep climbing out are they?" Yab asked.

"No, true, good point."

"So..." Stella raised her eyebrows.

"I'll go find a ball." Elmore laughed, and he swam to the edge and climbed onto the deck, disappearing into the house, swimming trunks clinging to his toned legs.

They watched him go, but soon Jason was taking Jenna under, and the group watched, laughing. But no one noticed Yab sink slowly under the water again, swim towards Jason, and...

He flew up out of the water and sprayed almost everyone around, pouncing onto Jason and pulling him under with him. Tate laughed, but soon Stella was splashing at him. Blindly, Tate tried to splash her back in defence, but ended up getting Jenna.

"Ah! I'm sorry! I'm under attack!" He laughed out, and tried to swim away instead, but Stella swam after him.

Yab, now back under, had swum over to Nolan, and did the exact same to him.

They were just clowning around, and this wasn't even where the real fun was going to be. Oh, the night planned, the drinking... I mean, it had already started, so... they were going to be fucked.

 

[DrTrollinski]

Jason let out a roar as Yab came up from under and dragged him down - like a crocodile taking its prey to the den. He wasn't expecting it, but, he knew it couldn't be anyone else other than one of them. He did fight back, but, he eventually resurfaced and coughed, spitting some water out of his mouth, right on time to see Yab go for Nolan. He wanted to start a war, it seemed. Nolan did it in a certain way, though. If someone hopped on your back, there was one of two things you could do - pull them up and over and flip them over your head, or just collapse back on them, which, considering they were in the water and lifting Yab would be too hard, is exactly what he did. He just fell back and took the both of them under.

"Oh, I've got a better idea." Jason scrambled over once the two resurfaced and grabbed one of Yab's arms. Nolan was on the same page, and he simply grabbed Yab's other one and kept it from flailing around. "Will, give us a hand here!"

Will rushed over and grabbed Yab by the ankles, pulling his legs up and out the water.

"Let's see if you can hold your breath until Elmo gets back." Jason said.

Obviously he wouldn't actually hold him under for that long.

"Three! Two! Annnnnd one!" Jason called out, and in sync, they all dropped down and plunged him straight under.

Jason obviously released him once he was under, just to avoid inciting any panic. The other two did the same.


"Oh, you did not." Jenna laughed, and as soon as Tate started swimming, with Stella giving chase, she followed soon after, swimming as fast as she could to get after him and, with a bit of luck, catch him and get some sweet payback.

 

[Jupiter]

Yab would have laughed if he didn't know that that meant he'd inhale a bunch of water, but... Okay, so he started laughing when they grabbed him, and when they held him under, he inhaled the water we were on about, so immediately once they let go he came back up, coughing and spluttering, but laughing all the same, and he began to just splash at anyone and anything that was around and that he could hit with the water.

Tate, on the other hand, was being pursued by both Stella and Jenna now, and so his swimming was mock frantic.

Ah, Elmore returned to the frantic mess of people playing in water with a blow up ball that he'd been blowing up on the way back from the place.

"Right. I leave for like two seconds and come back to carnage." He laughed, put the stopper in the ball, and threw it in for them, leaving it floating in the middle.

"Pick teams, bitches." Elmore laughed. "We're playing old fashioned volleyball."

He cannonballed in and splashed as many people as he could by doing so, coming back up for air just moments after.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"I put dibs on Tate, Jenna, and Nolan." Jason said. "Teams are fair that way. One football player on each team - the ones who are really good with balls." He looked between Elmore and Nolan and quickly arched his eyebrows up and down a few times. "And we both get a girl each. I'd say teams are pretty even. Plus, Will's taller than all of us, so you've got a pretty sizeable advantage there." He scrambled over to the ball and grabbed it. "And seeing as we've won every bet so far, it's only fair that my team serves. Everyone get into position." He said, grinning, and he stepped back.

"Hey!" He yelled out to Stella and Jenna, "Let up chase. We're gonna' play a game." He said, motioning them over with his hand.

Now it was time to get competitive.

Again.

 

[Jupiter]

The whole two weeks were going to be competitive as fuck, to be honest, so there was going to be no difference today as there was going to be on the last day. Maybe tomorrow they'd be competitive about who had the worst hangover, a day or two later who'd done the worst shit.

Competitions.

"Fair team." Elmore nodded, and Yab swam over to him, grinning. It was a fair team, but was it actually? I mean... Yab was also pretty tall, but then again, Tate was pretty tall as well, which just added to his skinniness. I'd say about 6'3 for Tate, Yab about 6'4. Sounds too much but... not necessarily.

Elmore, he was average, reaching just 6 foot, but, still.

And seeing as we're talking about height, Stella was just an average 5'7. Model height.

Anyway, enough about the heights, unnecessary information. Stella gave up chase when called and swam over to Elmore's team. "What are we playing?"

Tate swam to Jason's as Yab spoke. "Volleyball I think. Tomorrow we should play drunk dodgeball."

"If you're feeling up to it, hangovers and all." Elmore laughed.

"We'll just play it at night time when everyone's recovered." Yab grinned.

"Damn, you really want to hit someone with balls, don't you." A smirk grew on Elmore's face.

"Damn straight." With the final laugh from Yab, it was time to begin.

"Classic volleyball, have to keep it going and whoever hits it onto the other teams side gets a point. Classic, like I said." Elmore announced.

"Are we doing it on shoulders?" Stella asked. Good point. Easier to play it in water on shoulders.

"Uh... up to you." Elmore raised his eyebrows at Jason.

 

[DrTrollinski]

With most of the guys averaging at roughly the same sort of height (even though, like you said, this information is rather irrelevant seeing as it's unlikely we'll even use it past this point, but yolo) in the group, things were pretty evened out. I know a guy that's no taller than 5' 6". Nicest guy you'd ever meet, though. Regardless - there was no one in the group that was going to be picked on for being too small, and because all of the guys were at least 6ft (conveniently), it's not like anyone at school was going to pick fights with them, either. Jason was chill enough - he couldn't remember the last time he took a measure of how tall he was, but, he knew he was taller than his dad, and he was roughly the same height as Tate. Not that he cared too much, though - in a group of people, there was Will that seemed to stand out that little bit more.

While everyone else grew fairly evenly over the years, Will was the kid who was tall enough to be a middle-schooler in the 4th grade, and in middle school, he was tall enough to count as a high school student. It wasn't like people looked the other way, but, with him at a comfortable 4 inches higher than Yab, Jason wasn't kidding when they said they had the tallest person on their team. Nolan was 6' 2". It was good that he was that tall and getting into MMA - why? Reach advantage. You're going to throw a punch a lot further than your opponent who's 5' 8". So for him I guess it's a relevant factor. Anyway, yes, Will was there - and he hated how tall he was. He'd be happy enough with Elmore's height, but his height as it was? He couldn't sit in the back of an Audi R8 purely because the optimum height for one of them is no taller than 5' 8". Which meant all of them except the girls were a bit fucked.

That is, assuming, one of them drives an Audi R8 at some point soon. Which is unlikely.

"Hang on." Jason held up a hand. "You're under the impression that I'm planning to recover at all, Yab. You can throw as many balls as you want - but if I'm too fucked to throw them back, go easy on me, okay?" He said. "I can't say I've tried drinking for two weeks straight. Any of you are welcome to join me. Life's a lot better when you're wasted, as a few of us know, I'm sure." He chuckled. "And..." He thought about Elmore's proposal.

"Y'know, I don't think shoulders is a good idea. Yeah, some of the bottom might be a bit uneven, but, I'd rather someone trip or miss the ball rather than stumble off to the side with someone's weight on top of them. That's a broken ankle waiting to happen, dude." He said.

He wasn't wrong - but he was mainly thinking about Tate.

"I mean, I'm not complaining." Will held up his hands. "Anything the guys miss here I can probably recover if I'm close enough. You guys are fucked if you go any deeper, though." He winked.

"Worst case scenario, Jenna gets on my shoulders to even it out a little." Jason said. "Come on. Enough chit-chat. Let's dance."

 

[Jupiter]

"Fair play, and good reason." Elmore shuddered, and then clapped his hands together. "This is a real test. What shall the stakes be?"

"How about this time we don't have stakes?" Stella groaned. "Sick of being on the losing team when it comes to stakes."

"Well people do tend to prefer being on the winning team usually." Yab laughed.

"Yeah but Elmore loses everything."

"Except football." Elmore interjected.

"Alright; shut up, lets play!" Yab yelled.

And so they began.

The game was fairly even sided, so it wasn't a case of who knew the route better or who had the furthest to travel - there was a good chance Elmore's team would win this time, not that it mattered as there were no stakes.

The whole play was a bit messy though, obviously in the water they weren't up to optimum speed, but they gave a good go at it, they really did. They were just having fun, that was all that really mattered this time.

The game wasn't happening for a certain period of time. It wasn't that they had to score a certain number of points to win, but every so often Stella would yell out the point score, and it stayed pretty even throughout. Whoever may have had skill - it was lost in the water, so it was an average, skillless, fun game. A perfect pass time before they decided to get fucked and play a drinking game.

Tate was starting to get tired out - and he was trying his best not to let the monster get hold of him and remind him of how amazing this would be for weight loss - battling the water and exercising, he should be trying hard to win and trying hard to excel in sport. But, no, he was trying to be old Tate, trying to just have fun for funs sake rather than letting the monster distort his fun for disorders sake.

And how he felt was clear on his face - distracted and happy. He was with his friends doing something he couldn't possibly have done before now.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"No stakes." Jason said. "Because the more we drink, the worse the stakes are going to forget - and knowing you guys, one of the stakes will end with me passed out in the bathroom with a sore ass, if you catch my drift."

"Now that sounds like a fun game." Nolan said.

"Annnd that's exactly what I mean. No stakes." He said. At least that was all decided - the game went on. They had fun - they laughed, they played, they jumped around and found themselves hitting the water face-first more than a few times, but it was all in good spirit. Once everyone settled into it, it was just one of those happy moments where they could all have a joke around. Jenna found herself under the water more times than she could count - mostly on the back of Jason's doing. Seeing as there were no stakes, sometimes when she jumped up to try and hit the ball (not every time, because that's just mean), she got a little push off to the side and went into the water, down like a rock.

Obviously, Jason and Tate got similar treatment from Nolan, usually in the heat of the game when it was getting intense.

Due to all of the messing around, and the fact that they had two baseball players going against a football player and someone who was 6' 8", they had the floor completely wiped with themselves.

Elmore won.

"Now you see why we didn't want stakes, fuckers." Jason laughed once they'd finally hit that last score, and he leaned over and tried to catch his breath, his hands on his knees. Nolan seemed to have enjoyed himself, too - he finished it up by going behind Jason and giving him an outward push with his foot, sending him toppling over into the water again. Nolan strolled off back to the jetty and sat on the edge of it, taking a deep breath.

"That was fun." He said. "How about another drink?" He asked.

Meanwhile, Jason got back up and gave Tate a gentle pat on the shoulder, along with a nod. It didn't mean anything in particular - just him being friendly, really.