------------ x
pretzels
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and melons
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"I… I…" Roxas stammered. "But it was right here, I swear!"
Hayner frowned. "You don't have the munny?" he enquired.
Olette and Pence looked taken-aback.
"No, I… I…" Roxas trailed off, trying to find an explanation. "That guy! That guy must have stolen it!"
"What guy?" asked Pence, his brow furrowing.
"That guy outside with the black hood, and I fell over and then…" Roxas paused, confused as to why they weren't smiling and nodded as the answer dawned on them.
"There was no guy," Hayner pointed out flatly, crushing Roxas's idea.
The three teens stared at their friend for a minute, the cogs in their brains whirring and spinning as they tried to place his expression.
Guilty? Smug? Scared? Perplexed?
"It was… right… here…" Roxas mumbled slowly to no one in particular, patting his empty trouser pocket.
"Who, the munny or the guy?" Hayner smirked sourly.
Roxas lowered his head, his plain black trainers seeming more interesting than anything else going on in the conversation.
"Look, it doesn't matter," Olette announced hastily, ever the peacemaker. "I've… I've got some spare munny. Y'know, just in case we wanted to buy more pretzels and melons than we'd planned."
Hayner and Roxas looked more surprised than grateful, but Pence's expression reflected only admiration and devotion.
"That was really clever of you, Olette," he beamed cheerfully.
The girl played with a curl of her wavy chocolate brown hair and grinned.
"Thanks," she replied. "I think I might just have enough if you guys are willing to go without any melon and just share a few pretzels between all of us."
The boys exchanged glances, then shrugged and nodded merrily.
"Great, thanks Olette!" Hayner exclaimed, and then nudged her arm as a supposed sign of affection.
Roxas breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks Olette," he murmured. "I'm really sorry about the other money. I swear I had it a minute ago."
Hayner rolled his eyes. "Don't worry about it Roxas, you probably just left it at home or something," he assured his friend.
"Yeah, we can use it to buy even more sea salt ice cream than usual tomorrow when you find it again," Pence agreed, and then snatched up his camera from its cord around his neck and took a quick snap of the other three before they had a chance to fidget or primp themselves.
"Pe-e-nce!" they groaned, rolling their eyes at the raven-haired boy.
He grinned mischievously and bounded up the steps towards the train.
"Excuse me!" a sharp voice sliced through their happy bubble.
"Oh, right, sorry," Olette apologised hastily, sliding her munny across the counter.
"You still want four tickets?" the person enquired. Their face couldn't be seen but through the gap Olette noticed how bony and callused the person's hands were. As if noticing her discern, two heavy black sleeves fell forward and veiled them.
"Um…" the brunette murmured absent-mindedly, waking from her reverie.
"Yes, four tickets please," Hayner answered for her. "Four student tickets please."
He paused for a moment, then nudged Roxas and muttered, "Students are cheaper, right?"
Roxas shrugged lifelessly, looking instead at the hands of the person behind the counter, like Olette.
He or she must have been wearing a black cloak, same as the figure who had tripped him up and stolen their munny outside.
"Hope you enjoy the ride, here are your tickets," the hands droned monotonously, waggling four slips of paper through the slot like doggie treats. "Your student tickets."
Hayner scowled at the mockery and snatched the tickets up before anyone else could.
"C'mon," he huffed sulkily. "We're gonna miss it."
"Yeah, it's lucky we got here earlier or we might not have had time to stand around chatting," Pence agreed, jogging after the blond boy with Roxas and Olette in tow.
Roxas flashed a quick glance at Pence to check if he was mad at him, but it seemed he was merely making a comment and not blaming the blond for anything.
"Like I said, I'm sorry," Roxas informed them again.
"Don't worry about it," Olette smiled kindly. "C'mon, the train leaves soon."
The four teenagers piled into a carriage and scoped up and down. There wasn't a single other person aboard; the carriage was empty.
They took their seats opposite one another, Pence and Olette on one side, Hayner and Roxas on the other. They were still fairly spread out, and yet close enough to grin and nudge each other with excitement.
"We're finally going to the beach!" Olette exclaimed enthusiastically.
"Haven't we been wanting to go for like, ever?" Hayner added.
"It's nice that we're going just before the end of the vacation," Pence noted.
"Yeah, it kind of bookends the whole summer," Olette agreed, smiling wistfully. "What do you think, Roxas?"
The three turned to look at their friend, who was sprawled lazily across his seat, evidently not thinking about very much at all.
"Yeah, yeah, it's been a good summer," he murmured non-commitally.
Olette beamed happily. "The best summer ever!" she grinned.
"Tickets, please!"
They looked up with a jolt. Fortunately, the only girl among them took charge and handed the four student tickets into the hand of the collector.
He too was cloaked in black, his hood up and his face not visible beneath the layers of dark material. He eyed her for a moment with a questioning look on his face. She winked at him in a conspirational manner, and he nodded slightly, then turned and swept away.
"Y'know… we should make the most of the time we have together," Hayner observed thoughtfully. "After all… we don't know how much time we have left. It might not be very long at all."
The four sat silently, mourning the close of the hot summer days they had enjoyed so much.
Olette smirked, her eyes glinting wickedly, not their usual warm emerald green, but instead yellow and luminous, glaring icily out of the window.
----------------------- x
"Is it really that hard to make a beach?"
"It would just give the enemy another entry point."
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It might not be very long at all.
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a/n-- before anyone asks, no, i really don't know what the heck this crap is. i was aiming for some kind of conspiracy, like, they finally get to go to the beach, but it's all evil and then they all die. and only olette is in on the plot, along with some other members of the org plotting to overthrow everyone and stuff. yeah. so, they all die. so it's all good. bring out the champagne! also, i was bored, and felt like writing something. don't flame me..?