Wow, first published fic. Exciting.
"So Charlie, what's this I hear about you being this new kid's monitor?"
Charlie sighed. He was sitting with the usual suspects at lunch. "It's true. Just wait till you see him, he should be here any minute—that is, if he makes it to the table without another incident."
Fidelio frowned. "Incident? Like what? Is he a klutz, or a troublemaker?"
"No, nothing like that. So far he's been pretty good…" Charlie inhaled wearily. "It's just that—well, you'll see sooner or later. He's endowed, and it's a really impractical endowment…"
"Hi, Charlie. Can I sit here?"
The table's occupants looked up as one to see a tall, thin boy with pale blue eyes and greenish-brown hair that was, inexplicably, dripping wet. A large portion of his clothes were in the same state.
"Oh, Dagbert. Again?" Charlie pulled out a chair between himself and Gabriel, who scooted nervously aside. "So guys, as I was saying, this is Dagbert Endless. Dagbert, these are my friends."
The others introduced themselves, looking curiously at the damp new boy. After several long moments of uncomfortable silence, Fidelio voiced the thought they all dwelled on.
"Excuse me for asking, but why are you so wet?"
Dagbert didn't seem embarrassed in the slightest. "It's part of my endowment. I'm a drowner."
Gabriel frowned. "A drowner? What's that mean? You don't drown other people, do you?" (Billy scooted farther away from Dagbert's sopping sleeve.)
Dagbert smirked crookedly, picking up Charlie's glass of water to sip from it. "I wish. (Billy skittered to the edge of his chair.) No, it's nothing that glamorous. It's a little hard to explain, but—"
The rest of his words were obliterated in a flurry of bubbling as water gushed out of the tumbler with more force than the average gardening hose, completely drenching Dagbert. Billy yelped, toppling off his chair completely, but Charlie didn't budge an inch.
"Basically, he's super-susceptible to drowning," Charlie explained, picking up where his charge had left off. "He can drown in anything, even half an inch of water, or so he said."
"Omigod!" Gabriel screeched, panicking. "Charlie! Aren't you gonna do anything?"
Charlie shrugged. "I could, but it won't matter much anyway. The last few times it happened the effect only lasted a few seconds."
"Things have started drowning him while you were with him? But he's only been here—"
"A few hours. Yeah, I know." Charlie looked a little embarrassed for his fellow student. "I guess it's connected to the tides. When the moon is making the tides higher, the effect grows stronger. That's what he said, anyway. Maybe this week's a neap tide or whatever."
"Um, Charlie?" Billy interjected. "Don't you think you should do something already?"
"What for? Dagbert said it usually stops on its own af…"
Charlie glanced over, then not seeing Dagbert on his chair, downward. Dagbert was sprawled on the floor, spluttering under a miniature Niagara Falls. He was turning what would have been a fairly attractive shade of blue on anything but a face.
"Oh. Sorry, Dagbert. Need a hand?"
Continued when I feel like it. Hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing, and don't forget to review and tell me exactly what you thought.