Possibilities

Chapter One : Drawings in the Sun

It was another bright sunny day in the unusually quiet town of Beach City. Not a single fluffy cloud was in the blue sky, letting the scorching sun heat up the pavement. If people hadn't come up with shoes, their feet would defiantly be burning by now. Steven was thankful that he had his bright red sandals on his feet. His favorite and only pair that his dad had bought for him when he had grown out of the smaller red sandals. But it still didn't change the fact that it was hot, even for the gems who are usually not affected by weather.

They were all outside at Greg's car wash, his van was parked under the cool shade casted by the building. The shade would be enough to keep the inside of the van tolerable temperate for now, but after being in his van for hours cleaning out the mess, the heat had only gotten worse. The back doors of the van were opened all the way, and a pile of random things scattered on the pavement underneath the open doors.

Pearl had said the best way to clean out his mess-of-a-home would be to get all of its contents out first. So Steven, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl and Greg had been doing that all afternoon. It defiantly wasn't the first thing they wanted to do after coming back from Homeworld, but Steven's kind heart couldn't say no to his own dad. Pearl had protested when he told the Crystal Gems about the mess that he wanted to help clean up. She had said there were more important things to do, and she was defiantly right.

White Diamond had agreed to cure all the corrupted gems, but refuses to leave Homeworld. There was only one way to help the corruptions on Earth, and it was to send them to Homeworld to be cured. It was definitely going to take a while for the Crystal Gems to go through the entire list of missing gems from the Gem War, but once they cross out the names of the corruptions that have already been bubbled, they would know how many corruptions remained active on Earth. All they had to do was find them and bubble them before sending them all off to Homeworld. It was much more important for Pearl to get started on that, but Steven had insisted that there was no rush to get it done, and that he wanted a small break from gem stuff. He seemed excited to be back on Earth, and able to spend time with his dad. Pearl gave in, understanding that Steven probably did in fact need a break from gem stuff.

And so the gems all came along with Steven to help him clean out his dad's van. Garnet had helped out a little, but was now leaning against the wall with her arms crossed since it was 'break time'. Amethyst on the other hand had her face dunked in a bucket of ice cold water, bubbling nonsense that everyone had to assume was a complaint about the weather. It was the only thing she had been talking about through out the two hours of van-cleaning. Pearl however, denied taking the break and was still rummaging through things in Greg's van. She had been carefully collecting and stacking up books and comics, then placing the pile outside before hurrying back inside the van. Steven was very surprised at how eager Pearl seemed to clean out every inch of his dad's van when she was the one that protested in the first place. But then again, Steven knew Pearl loved cleaning and organizing things. If she sees a chance to make something neat, she would take it in an instant. She seemed so determined to get this task done, while Steven just slumped in to a beach chair, sighing as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"I wonder when dad will be back with the soda's... it feels like it's been forever!" He complained, groaning as he turned in the beach chair to face Garnet, who was still leaning against the stone wall on the shady side. "Hey Garnet, can you use your future vision to see when dad will come back?" He asked her and sat up, confused as to why she now had a grin on her face.

"That won't be necessary Steven." She said as Steven followed her gaze, which was more like the way her head was facing since he couldn't really see her eyes with the reflective glasses on.

The boy smiled and jumped off the chair, running towards his dad who had just stepped on to the premises with two plastic bags in his hands. "Daaadd!" Steven shouted and ran up to him, hugging him briefly before looking up at him with stars in his eyes. "Did you get the sodas?!" He asked, and Greg replied. "Of course I did stchu-ball! Sorry it took a while.. I think mayor Dewy- I mean, Bill Dewy is getting used to his job..something went wrong with the cash register and he had to call tech support." Greg shrugged, handing the bags to Steven who took them happily.

"There should be five in each! I got a ton since I thought one can wouldn't be enough in this heat!" He chuckled, and so did Steven. "Thanks dad!" He said as he made his way back to the shade, where the Crystal Gems were lazily taking a break. Except Pearl, who was still in the van cleaning.

"YEAYAH!" Amethyst sprung up with her face and hair soaking wet. She hurried her way over to Steven and snatched one of the plastic bags from his hands. "Hey! Amethyst those are for everyone to share!" Steven said as he watched Amethyst eat the whole entire bag of five soda's, and then burped loudly. She sat down and chuckled, pretending to clear her ear out with her pinky. "Sorry Stevo, I couldn't hear you." She teased him, and Steven tightened his grip on the remaining plastic bag. "Now we only have five-! Which should be enough for all of us." He put his hand in the bag, grabbing the cold soda and handing it to his dad. He then proceeded to go around and hand out the other ones. Garnet immediately popped open her can and started drinking, while Amethyst just ate the whole thing… again. Then Steven came to Pearl, who was still cleaning out the inside of the van. He crawled in and handed a drink out to Pearl, who looked at him with a confused expression on her face.

"..uh.. Steven- I don't remember asking for juice." She said as she sat down on the floor as the half gem chuckled. "It's not juice! It's cold soda! It makes you feel good on hot days like this!" He said with his arm still extended out, the soda still in his hand. He had an adorable smile on his face that made Pearl unable to decline. She sighed and took the can from him, surprised at the sudden coldness in her palm. It did feel nice, but she didn't exactly want to drink it. "I'll.. save this for later." Pearl said as the gem on her forehead glowed brightly, swallowing up the soda can as it disappeared in to her gem. It was probably being sorted out by the Pearl inside Pearl's Pearl by now.

"So.. when will your break be over?" She asked curiously, but also trying to start up a nice conversation with Steven.

"Maybe in a few minutes! I'm still a little tired from this heat!" He replied and got out the last soda from the plastic bag. It was like holding ice in his sweaty palms, sending a chill down his spine. He shivered briefly before setting the empty bag aside and opening the soda can, quickly bringing it up to his mouth and drinking it as if he had never had a drink before. And for some reason, Pearl found it cute and silly at the same time. Wondering what the rush was as well as being worried that he was going to spill some of it on the collar of his red shirt.

Thankfully, that didn't happen. Steven had gulped down all of the soda in one go, and moved the van away from his mouth whilst letting out a sigh of relief.

"That was the best! I'm gunna go throw this away now!" Steven said as he put the empty can in the plastic bag and hopped out of the of the van. Pearl smiled lightly as she watched him collect the other empty cans from Garnet and Greg, and then went over to the trash can and properly separated the recyclables from plastic to cans. She couldn't help but feel slightly proud of him for doing so, since she helped him learn to get in the habit of recycling instead of just throwing everything away.

But then she remembered she still had a van to clean out. The pale gem shook her head and got herself back into reality. She continued to get every item out of the van, and was nearly done. "I don't know how he lives in this.." She mumbled to herself with an annoyed look on her face and folded up some of his clothes that were scattered about the small space.

Her finger tips suddenly hit something under the heap of fabric. It wasn't clothing, and felt almost like a hardcover book. She cautiously moved the clothing aside and pulled out what was underneath, and was surprised to find a very worn-out sketch book with a few doodles on the front of it. The sketchbook was more like a sketchpad, with spirals on the shorter side of the rectangular paper.

Curiosity overtook her again, and she opened the sketchpad to the very first page. There was a detailed pencil drawing of toddler Steven, fast asleep on top of a pillow from Vidalia's house. If it wasn't for all the pencil smears it could have easily been classified as a black and white photograph. She never expected Greg to be a good artist- Well, he was an adequate musician, but she never imaged him drawing this good as well. She never really saw him draw except for that one time when he said he was coming up with a new album cover, but Pearl didn't bother to take a look at it since at the time, she wasn't too fond of Greg and his type of music. She wasn't into loud noises and rock guitars, but over time did learn to appreciate the lyrics of some of his songs and especially the ones he created using his normal wooden guitar.

She remembered a younger Steven, trying to play his ukulele while sitting next to his dad who would be playing the guitar. It was so adorable, and Pearl didn't notice the slight blue blush on her cheeks from the memory of it.

She gently grazed the tip of her fingers across the delicate paper, and then turned to the next page. This time it was a sketch of the beach. He seemed to had been struggling with drawing the texture of water, but it wasn't too bad. She turned to the next page, and the next. His drawings got better and better with each new page she turned to. Most of them were sketches of Steven, or scenery and objects. Then some were crazy album covers with flames and a small portrait of himself. She even found one drawing of Garnet, leaning against the porch wall in front of the beach house. The drawing however was only half complete, and Pearl guessed that Garnet had caught him drawing her and went back in the house.

Then on the next page, there was even a drawing of a younger Amethyst with medium length hair. She was laying on the sand on the beach with a slightly older Steven laying next to her. Both of them were looking up at the sky, as if they were having a conversation about space or maybe about the constellations. "I see he finally learned how to draw water texture.." Pearl mumbled to herself again with a slight smile as she looked at the ocean waters he had drawn. She took her time examining that drawing since she was coming to the end of the sketch book, but eventually turned the page.

There was a drawing of her. She was in her old Crystal Gem outfit, sitting on the couch beside Steven with a book in her hands. She remembered this- Steven had brought home a new book from the library and wanted some one to read it to him. Garnet at the time was not home, and Amethyst didn't like books, so she took the liberty to educate him a bit. Even if it was a non-fiction story, there were still some useful information within the book.

She didn't realize herself smiling slightly as she looked at the drawing. It was like a picture taken and printed out with a pencil on the paper in front of her.

"I see you found my old sketch book.." Greg's voice snapped Pearl out of her thoughts as she looked up to find him sitting on the edge of the van. His head was turned slightly to face her, and he seemed to have a blush of embarrassment on his face. "Greg I.. didn't know you liked to draw so much." She said as she moved over and sat next to him, swinging her legs off the edge of the van as she showed him the sketch she had been looking at of her and Steven. "This drawing.. you did a fine job capturing this moment." She gestured to the sketch, giving the compliment out with a smile. "I do a bit of drawing myself, but I've never drawn Steven now that I think of it.." She tapped her finger on her lips, pondering on when and how she would draw Steven if given the chance.

"You draw? Can I take a look at some of your drawings? Since I did let you look at mine!" Greg chuckled, watching as Pearl blushed a slight blue. "..I..I haven't drawn in months..! The last time I drew was when I sketched out the Aquamarine Steven was looking for when-" She paused, deciding to drop that story. "Anyway, I tossed away that drawing.. but I may have some." She said as her gem glowed brightly and she summoned an old lined-paper book. She handed it to Greg, looking away nervously. "..there isn't a lot, but you should find some of my drawings in there." The pale gem moved her gaze back to Greg's sketchbook in her hands, and looked at the drawing of her and Steven.

The human flipped through the pages curiously, passing by some pages with a bunch of ancient gem writing since he couldn't exactly read those. But the sketches he found in the journal were amazing to his eyes. She drew a lot of different types of flowers, and some of the places Rose used to go often. Like her garden and her armory. Pearl was really good at drawing the gem weapons in Greg's opinion, even though he's never seen a lot of gem weapons Pearl had drawn, it still looked very real. And of course, there were a couple drawings of Rose.

Pearl seemed to notice Greg stopped on a sketch of Rose that she had done from behind. She was standing on the shore, her back turned to Pearl and her dress flowing slightly in the still wind.

"I could never capture her beauty.." She added with a blush. "..It was.. difficult for me to draw her, since when I got that journal, she was already pregnant with Steven.." The gem finally decided to look up, and met Greg's eyes. He seemed to have a look of remorse in his eyes. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-" She gulped and looked away once again, nervously rubbing her arm. Greg's sketch book was now resting beside her, still turned to the page of the sketch he did of Pearl and Steven.

"Bismuth was a much better artist than me.. She made that painting of Rose, and asked me to hold on to it in my gem." She sighed a sad sigh. "Rose never got to see it. When I heard Bismuth went missing during the war- I just.. couldn't give it to her. But eventually I showed Garnet and Amethyst, and we hung it up in the house." She said with a warm feeling in her light manipulated heart, chuckling slightly. "I was almost jealous of Bismuth, since she was also making a huge statue of Rose for her in her forge… But- anyway, you should really take a look at some of Bismuth's drawings. She draws with lava on metal and stone, it's quite beautiful." She said joyfully and clasped her hands together, and Greg smiled.

"That does sound pretty cool- but you should really give yourself more credit Pearl. These drawings are amazing!" He smiled back, and the blue tint of embarrassment appeared on her cheeks again. She scratched one side of her face with a finger nervously, glancing away with a silly smile. "T..thank you Greg." She replied as he continued to look at the rest of her drawings, which were mostly of the temple and other ancient-looking gem places.

He closed the journal and handed it back to her. "Thanks for letting me see your drawings! I defiantly have some new ideas for album covers!" He smiled as Pearl took her journal back and stored it back in her gem. "Well if you ever need any help drawing, I'd be happy to contribute." Pearl said professionally as she picked up Greg's sketch book and looked at the drawing once more before handing it back to him.

"You really like this drawing huh?" He asked a rhetorical question, and Pearl only nodded slightly.

Then the human ripped the drawing out of the sketch book, making sure not to rip the actual part where the sketch starts. "Greg! What are you doing?" Pearl said almost in a panic, wondering why he would take out such a great drawing from his sketch book. "I'm just giving it to you!" He handed the thin paper to her. "You can have it, if you like it that much." He watched as Pearl slowly took the paper as if it was some magical gem artifact. "I.. don't know what to say.." She mumbled quietly, a small smile on her face that Greg thought was kinda cute.

"I have one more sketch book somewhere in this van, or maybe it's in the car wash office? I put it somewhere... but when I find it, you can take a look at those too if you like!" He said with more confidence this time. He wasn't so sure about showing his old drawings to Pearl, but she found his old sketch book and now she's seen them. He was defiantly more proud of his recent sketches, which he considered much better than the ones Pearl had seen today. But she had thought the old ones were good too- Greg wondered how she would react to his newer ones. He watched as Pearl put the paper away in her gem, turning to Greg to thank him.

But her eyes fell on the sketch that was on the next page of Greg's sketchbook. She had been so fixed on that drawing of her and Steven, she hadn't bothered to see the last two sketches beyond it.

The next one was an unfinished bust-drawing of her. She had her eyes closed with a smile on her face as if enjoying the warmth of sunlight.

The human followed her gaze, and blushed. "Oh yeah.. I never finished this one.. and the next one is just a similar thing.. I think I saw you dancing outside once, and that inspired an album cover." He shrugged slightly, scratching the back of his head.

"Well why don't you finish that drawing, and I'll finish cleaning your van?" The pale gem suggested as she hopped off the edge of the van and stood up, facing him and leaning forward slightly. "Do we have a deal?" She said in a teasing tone, making Greg laugh a little. "It seems like we do." He replied in an also teasing tone, and the two of them laughed at their silliness.

It was only then that Pearl noticed Garnet, still leaning against the building. She completely forgot she was even there, since Garnet was so quiet and still, she seemed as if she was a part of the wall.

But the most odd part was the small grin she gave Pearl before turning around and walking away. "Its getting late, we should go." She said with her back to Pearl, still walking on ahead. The pale gem didn't even notice the setting sun until now as Garnet contiued. "Steven and Amethyst are back home playing video games while eating all the ice cream." She said with a chuckle, using the knowledge of her future vision. Since every path she saw for Steven's future as of tonight- was of him playing video games, with a tub of strawberry ice cream.

"Steven can't eat a whole tub of ice cream!" Pearl said in a worried tone, then turned back to face Greg. "I'll finish cleaning this up tomorrow, so.. don't create a mess!" She ordered, but then thought of a better idea. "Actually.. why don't we just do this-" Pearl said to herself as she started putting all of Greg's belongings that were scattered on the pavement in her gem. One by one they glowed and disappeared in to her Pearl, leaving nothing behind while Greg watched impressively.

"I guess I'm spending the night in the storage unit!" He got up as he looked around at the empty van, and the now cleared pavement. There wasn't a single trace of any of his things other than the sketchbook in his hands. Greg didn't really mind spending time in the storage unit, since it was like a secondary home to him. It had a couch, a functioning TV, and other things piled up in boxes.

He watched as Pearl put a hand on her gem, loosing her balance a bit and swaying. Out of instinct, Greg caught her before she stumbled and helped her get back on her two feet. The gem clung on to him with a tight grasp, waiting for the dizziness to go away. He looked at Pearl with a worried expression on his face. "..You alright?" He asked, and Pearl nodded. "Don't worry- just a little light headed.." She smiled and stood up straight on her own and eventually he let go. "Well you did just put all of my things in your gem!" Greg said jokingly, and was happy to see Pearl perk up a bit. But he was still slightly worried about her. "Pearl- do you want a ride back?" Greg suggested, but the gem shook her head. "I'm alright. The house is not that far from here." She said as she waved. "I'll come back tomorrow morning."

And then she left, and started walking beside the tall red gem known as Garnet. Greg sat in his empty van, watching the two until he could no longer see them.