"Dammit Peter!" I yelled, falling off of my water mattress for the fourth time in the last hour.
Every time I would get even remotely dry and relaxed Peter would rush over and flip me into the pool. It had been unexpected and funny the first time. The second time, it had still been a little funny. But by the third time it was get a little annoying. This time I just felt frustrated as I climbed back onto the mattress.
All I had really wanted to do was relax in the pool while most of the students were gone on some field trip Hank had set up. It had been empty when I'd gotten out here and the sun had been so warm as I'd set up my mattress. But not two seconds later Peter was there asking if he could join me. I had said yes of course, never turning down an opportunity to hang out with my favorite speedster. But I also hadn't expected him to turn my relaxation into his amusement.
Peter looked at me from the opposite side of the pool. "What?" he asked, feigning ignorance as only he could.
"You know what," I said with a glare as I re-positioned myself back on the mattress.
"You fell off again (nick name)? Maybe you should get an inner tube. I've heard they require less balance."
I stared at Peter, my eye twitching slightly as I took a deep breath and shook my head. There was no point arguing about it. Even if I did argue about it he'd just pretend he didn't know what I was talking about and turn it into a joke. That was usually what I liked about hanging out with him. He could find a way to laugh and make others laugh about almost anything. But when he was using it to take away what little quiet and relaxation I was able to get… well then I didn't find it quite as funny.
Before I knew it Peter was next to me, wading in the water as I lay on my mattress. He looked at me for a few seconds, seeming to be contemplating something. I wasn't sure if I liked the idea of him contemplating things right now. It meant he might've been thinking up new ways to take my relaxation time away.
Peter suddenly grinned, playful look appearing on his face. I readied myself for the worst, fully prepared to find myself toppling off of my mattress again. But all he did was send a little splash my way.
"No," I laughed, surprised at how little effort he was putting into the splashes while I paddled away. "Peter, stop!"
"Come on, (your name)! There's nothing wrong with actually enjoying the water!"
"I was enjoying the water before you started flipping me off my mattress!"
Peter laughed, swimming over to my new location. "Me, flip you off?" he asked, grinning cheekily. "I'd never flip off somebody, especially not you. Now push off… or even pull the mattress away? That sounds more my style."
My eyes widened as I looked at Peter pleadingly. He just grinned back before lunging towards my mattress. I did my best to latch onto the mattress but he was, unsurprisingly, too fast for me. I was underwater in less than a second and my mattress was nowhere to be seen by the time I reached the surface.
I looked around as I swam over to the side of the pool and climbed out. I finally spotted Peter sitting in a lounge chair with an amused look on his face. I followed his gaze and saw what looked to be an inflatable mattress sitting on the roof of the mansion.
"I just bought that!" I cried out, turning towards Peter.
"Don't worry, I'll get it down for you before the house can blow up again," Peter joked.
"You're so funny…" I sighed, rolling my eyes.
"I know," Peter said, standing up and stretching. "But until I go get it…"
Peter was suddenly next to me and lifting me into his arms. "H-hey! Don't you dare!"
"What do you think I'd do?" Peter asked, inching closer to the pool as he grinned all the while.
"You'd throw me in with no hesitation if you were given the chance!" I laughed, struggling to get out of his hold.
Peter laughed as he looked down at me. "I mean that does sound like fun and all… but I was think of taking a swim with you!"
I looked at Peter with confusion as he stood at the edge of the pool. It wasn't until we were in the air that I'd realized he'd jumped. I cried out, doing my best to take a deep breath before we hit the water. I opened my eyes when we didn't resurface as soon as I'd thought we would.
I could make out the blurry outline of Peter's face wearing his old pair of goggles and huge grin. I glared and held up my middle finger. Peter's grin grew if that was even possible as he brought up back up to the surface.
"And you accuse me of flipping you off!"
I shook my head, laughing slightly as I began trying to think of how to get revenge on Peter for all of this. There was no way he was getting away with livening up my afternoon without some form of payback. But the revenge would have to be fitting to what he'd done.
I smirked as I got out of Peter's hold and swam a few feet away. "Aren't you going to say something?" Peter asked, looking at me expectantly.
I turned around, grinning as I used my power to lift a snowball sized sphere of water out of the pool. "Run."
I began chuck sphere after sphere towards Peter as he zoomed around the pool, both of us laughing the entire time. Every so often he would run past me and reposition me so my water balls would hit me rather than him. Eventually though he stopped behind me, grabbing me and turning me around to kiss me.
"Do I win?" he asked.
"Nah, you just lost big time," I said, glancing up.
"Shit…" Peter said as he looked up.
His eyes widened as I broke my concentration, dove under the water and let the bigger sphere I'd made come crash down. It was when I was riding the wave of water leaving the pool that I realized my revenge may have not been my best plan. I did my best to contain the water and keep it in the pool but it was too late. The next thing I knew, I was sitting in a tree that lived near.
As I looked around I spotted Peter laughing in one of the pool side chair, the entire area around the pool soaked. "That was awesome!" he shouted as I used some of the excess water around me to make a slide and get down from the tree.
I looked into the pool and sighed as I noticed only about a quarter of the water was still in it. "Hank's going to kill me… he just got this looking nice again."
"That sounds like one beast of a problem."
I shot a look at Peter and that quickly shut him up. Now wasn't the time for Peter's stupid, yet undeniably silly, jokes. I had to figure out how to fix the mess I'd made before Hank and Charles got back with the students.
"Why don't you just put all back in?" Peter asked, suddenly next to me. "Just take it out of the lawn and plop it back in the pool."
"It'd be all muddy then…" I sighed, wishing I could separate the water and dirt particles in it. "I unfortunately don't have a filter option with my powers. Whatever's in the water comes with it."
Peter hummed thoughtfully before disappearing and reappearing with a cup of water. He poured the water into the pool before looking at me with a grin and doing it few more times. I laughed, walking over to where he was pouring tapping on his shoulder the next time he appeared. "While it's a fun idea to watch you do this a couple thousand times but a hose would almost be faster…"
"Faster than me?" Peter scoffed.
"More effective than you running back and forth at the very least," I said with a shrug. "But it's up to you. The real issue right now is cleaning up the lawn…"
Before I could even blink Peter had a hose filling up the pool and was looking at the lawn thoughtfully. "So the water needs to go with more muddy water?"
"Mm-hm…" I hummed.
Not missing a beat, we both looked at each other. "The pond!" we said at the same time, both grinning.
The pond on campus would work perfectly for all this water. Charles and Hank would never notice the difference when all was said and done. I quickly put a my shorts on over my bathing suit and formed all the excess water I could find into one big murky sphere. Now I just had to make sure I didn't accidentally drop the water sphere on the way there. It took a lot of concentration to hold anything this big. So walking to the pond while leading the sphere would take a little while.
Peter walked slowly with me, surprisingly staying quiet so as to not break my concentration. After about ten minute we finally made it to the pond, only to see Hank walking towards us with Charles and the students. "Shit…" I muttered at the looked at us with confusion.
I should've know we wouldn't have gotten away with it, that was asking too much. I did my best to gently lower the water into the pond but soon found my concentration wavering. The sphere was about half way in when the rest of it dispersed and caused a wave to spread through the pond.
I quickly looked at Peter. "Run."
Peter laughed, quickly grabbed me and ran us to the pool. "Think we should let them cool off before we show our faces around here again?"
"Cool off? They're probably plenty cool right now," I said putting my shoes and shirt on. "Dry off it more like it."
Peter laughed. "Date night?"
"Date night," I nodded with a smile.