The next morning, Nova drifted in-and-out of sleep, willing herself not to awaken. She knew she'd stayed up far too late the night before, working on her novel, having been suddenly inspired by all of the excitement over the past few days.
Sibel woke up exceptionally early for herself with a hot flash. She rubbed her neck, and lay out of the covers for a while, listening to her and her sister breathing.
Rodney and John weren't able to get much sleep either. First, they got kidnapped, second, the girls turned out to have a power that was unable to be explained.
Nova finally stirred awake, unable to any longer stand the fevered daze she seemed to be in. She groaned, and rolled over, miscalculating the distance between herself and the edge of her top bunk, falling to the floor with a very loud THUNK! which completed her waking up process.
Sibel jumped up and hit her head on the top bunk, which made her jump even more, and fall onto her sister on the floor.
"Ouch!" Nova shouted, becoming extremely bruised from so much physical impact. "Wow!" She exclaimed. "I'm awake. Are you awake, Sibel?"
"Entirely and totally!" Sibel said, as she rolled away and rubbed her head. "Let's go get ready."
"Let's." Nova agreed, and jumped up off of the floor to grab her daytime clothes. While getting dressed, she called to her sister in the next room "So...I don't know about you, but I think the guys took it pretty well yesterday."
"Amazingly, I agree. I mean...John said that he thought it was cool!" Sibel made a weird face as she braided her hair. She ran over and grabbed her notebook. She sat down on the bed and scribbled a little note about the zoanthropic morphing process. "Ready?"
"As I'll ever be!" Nova shook herself, brushed off her shirt, and then straightened. "Off to breakfast!"
"Amen!" Sibel jumped up and took her sister by the arm. They skipped off towards the mess hall together.
Breakfast tray in hand, Nova sat herself down at an empty table, while Sibel plopped down next to her, and they began feasting on their cafeteria food.
Sibel heard a familiar whisper and saw John and Rodney enter the mess hall as well. She smiled then continued eating. They each got their own trays, and sat across from the girls.
"Good morning, campers!" John said, in an uncharacteristically chipper fashion. Nova nodded a greeting at both men, and continued eating.
Sibel smiled, then leaned back and set her feet up on John's lap again. It had become almost a tradition for her to do that as a greeting to the handsome man.
"How did you two sleep?" Rodney asked.
Nova glanced at her sister, and then back at McKay. "Mm...okay, I guess. You know, a little feverish, but not insomniatic."
"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams," Sibel thought to her sister. "How about you guys?"
"Not a wink." John said, bluntly. But that didn't wipe the chipper smile off of his face, and Nova's guess was that he'd had a few cups of coffee too many that morning.
"Well, that could be a good thing!" Sibel replied as she finished her last piece of bacon, "What exactly is on the schedule for today?"
John and Rodney glanced at each other, then back at the girls, and shrugged.
"Day off, I guess." The colonel said.
"Oh, really?" Sibel raised an eyebrow at the two boys then glanced at her sister. "What do you want to force them to embarrassingly do with us today?"
Nova smirked. "Hmm...we could make them take 'dance' lessons, or attend a karaoke party with us. Or we could go around asking people for their blankets and build a giant fort out of picnic tables and comforters in the mess hall!" She threw out idea after idea, like a malfunctioned computer that couldn't make up it's mind.
"I think we should do all of them!" Sibel jumped up, realizing that she said it out loud.
"So that's why they always look at each other and giggle without saying anything..." Rodney said, remembering that the two could communicate telepathically.
"Well, we kinda did that before we could communicate telepathically," Nova paused and thought for a moment. "I don't think that was even part of the package, I think that we already had a special connection, and it was just enhanced when...that thing happened." It made sense.
"Yeah, either way, ready for dance lessons boys?!" Sibel blurted out, happily, pulling the two out of their seats and pushing them towards the exit.
"For--what?" John voiced, allowing himself to be dragged outdoors.
"Sibel does the best Jitterbug on the planet, and a thousand other dances who's names I don't know, you'll love it!" Nova insisted, walking
"What can I say? It's an art that I love to show the world!" Sibel said laughing, as the four took a spot on one of the balconies. She closed the door. "I don't think that we should surprise them even more by getting dresses on, but it would be fun, no?"
"Haha, it would be fantasmically amazing!" Nova replied, despite the fact that she wasn't very fond of frilly things.
"Well should we excuse ourselves for a moment, or save that little trick for later?" Sibel giggled, and the guys gave each other a 'they're talking through their mind powers again' look.
"Save it," Nova started. "For the karaoke party. THAT will really get their attention." She smiled at John and Rodney, a faint look of mischief crossing her face and flashing behind her eyes.
Sibel started cracking up just thinking about it. She hid her face in her hands then pushed her curly hair back. "Well, where should we start?"
"Basic steps!" Nova exclaimed, taking Rodney by the hand and motioning Sibel do the same with John. "You know better than I do, so maybe you should instruct." She giggled.
"Okay, then...Waltz? But that can be soooo boring!" Sibel began arguing with herself. "But...it is a basic dance. What do you two know?"
"Well, I took a class in high school, but that was years ago." John stated, shrugging a little.
Sibel smiled, "Well, I'm just curious!" She looked at her sister. "So, we'll just start with the Waltz!" She grabbed John's hand.
"The waltz it is!" Nova laughed, turning to face her dance partner and waiting for her sister's instructions.
After an hour or so, the boys were amazed by the girl's teaching. "How did you two learn to dance like that?!" Rodney asked, surprised.
"I learned from Sibel." Nova stated, wearing a smile. She glanced over at her sister.
Sibel flushed being put in the spotlight, as Rodney gave her the 'how do you know these things?' look again. "Um...well, I had to teach myself...not enough money for lessons." She rubbed the sweat off her brow nervously.
"She teaches herself a lot of things." Nova filled in.
"Impressive." John said, raising his eyebrows.
"Heh...not really, lots of people have to do it!" Sibel jumped behind her sister and whispered in her ear. "What do you want to do next?"
"I want to take a magical carpet ride over China on Chinese New Year and see the fireworks....but I'm pretty sure that's out of the question, so...I don't know!" Nova glanced at the guys. "What do you want to do next?" She asked, a little louder.
Sibel started giggling uncontrollably. "I agree! You guys should choose next!" Rodney and John looked at each other, and then huddled, discussing different things that they could do.
"This ought to be interesting." Nova mumbled to her sister, wearing that 'queen of the world' grin that looked slapped on just a tiny bit crooked.
Extremely," Sibel smiled, seeing the boys look over at them.
"What--are you crazy?" Rodney stepped back from John, staring at him.
"Come on Rodney, it'll be fun!" Sheppard retorted, crossing his arms.
Sibel's eyes opened wide. "As long as we get to make them dress up as animals with us and do karaoke, I'm fine with anything!" She thought to her sister, imagining Sheppard dressed up as a moose.
Nova covered her mouth, and tried not to laugh out loud. "Whatcha got in mind, colonel?" She asked.
"Oh, nothing much..."
"And you're sure this is a good idea?" Nova wasn't one to be skeptical, but something about standing at the top of a set of basement stairs sitting on a lunch tray that was barely bigger than her butt made her just a little nervous.
"It'll be fine! I do this all the time!" John ignored the appalled look that McKay threw at him.
Sibel laughed maniacally. "I'll race ya!" She jumped onto one next to her sister.
"Next week's cookies say I can beat you to the bottom of these stairs." Nova bet, glaring playfully at Sibel.
Sibel glared back. "So be it! Let the games begin!"
Rodney gave a call, and the girls flew down the stairs on their sled-trays. Nova and Sibel hit the bottom of the stairs, sliding into the wall quite loudly.
"Who was it?!" Nova called up to the men.
Rodney and John looked at each other, and John hit his hand to his head.
"It was a tie..." Rodney said, slightly amazed that it always seemed to turn out that way.
"I'll give you half of my cookies anyways!" Sibel said, not wanting to start a wrestling match again. She was eager to see Rodney go down the stairs as well.
"Alright, now you two!" Nova shouted, climbing over the railing and landing on the next set of stairs. "On my mark! Three...two...one...MARK!"
The two men flew down the stairs. Rodney kept his eyes closed the entire time in fear that something would go wrong, like usual. Moments later, both trays smacked up against the wall, and the sound reverberated throughout the lower floor.
"Are you guys okay?" Sibel yelled down rubbing her ears.
Rodney opened his eyes, and was in perfect condition which was surprising. "Um.. Yes?"
"Haha, you tied too!" Nova said, whipping around the end of the staircase and flopping down on the ground next to McKay.
"See? Perfectly safe!" John insisted. "Of course, you fall off every now and again, but, hey..."
"That's normal for almost every situation in life!" Sibel said as she sat down next to John. She smiled evilly at her sister, imagining what else they would make the two guys do with them.
Nova held her hand up, like she was holding an invisible clipboard. "Alright...dancing! Check! Sledding down the stairs on lunch trays and possibly putting ourselves in mortal danger...Check! Now, there's just one thing left to do." She smirked at her sister.
Sibel started giggling and hid her face to conceal the evilness as best as she could. She jumped up. "Ready for your next mission?!" She asked the two men.
"Not quite sure..." John replied, standing up slowly.
"Good!" Nova squealed, and grabbed them by the arms and started running back up the stairs. John barely managed to grab Sibel, and the four of them were led by an overly-energetic Nova to the nearest transporter, a few floors up.
They pushed the two men into the room. "Are you ready, Nova?" Sibel asked, trying to contain her giggles.
"Oh, I'm ready, Sibel. Costumes, please?"
Sibel ran into the girls closets and brought out the five animal costumes that they had. Sibel grabbed the lion one and handed the lamb one to her sister. She looked at the guys. "Choose which ones you want to be! There's a tiger, a bunny, and a moose left!" Sibel ran into the bathroom with her sister, and they came out dressed as they were when they did karaoke.
"...This explains some things." John muttered, grabbing the tiger costume from the bed and slipping it awkwardly on over his clothes.
Rodney looked at the two, and he decided that he didn't want to be the moose. He grabbed the bunny costume and did the same as John did. Sibel giggled. "Pink bunny Rodney...a rare sight, no?" She asked her sister.
Nova giggled, and then grabbed Rodney in a bear hug, nearly squeezing the life out of him. "BUNNY!" She exclaimed.
Sibel cracked up watching Rodney try to wriggle away. She stood next to Colonel Sheppard. "Well, figures you'd choose my counterpart!" She laughed seeing the tiger outfit.
"Yeah, you like it?" John asked, turning slightly to the side. Nova finally released Rodney and allowed him to breath, and then ran over to the closet and rolled out the karaoke machine.
Sibel giggled then kicked John's butt. She ran over and helped her sister with the machine. "What kind of songs should we do tonight? Showtunes? Love songs? Duets?"
"Showtunes!" Nova said, and then to answer the look from her sister that seemed to ask 'why?', she said "They're most likely to recognize showtunes than anything else."
"Very true! Which ones first? We have sooo many!"
"Hmm..." She flipped through the CD case, and then glanced back. "What do you guys think? We've got some Alan Menken, ooh some stuff from Annie get your Gun, that's fun! And...stuff!"
"Singing in the Rain, Disney movies on Broadway, too.." Sibel stared at the two, who looked slightly frightened.
"Oh, and some very nice Little Shop tracks!" Nova added. She stared expectantly at John and Rodney, wearing an almost-vacant smile.
"I never really watched many movies...period...so I think that John should choose!" Rodney pushed John forward and hid.
John felt cornered, and, not knowing what to do next, said "...Ahh, you two pick!" And smiled, innocently.
Sibel giggled, "I'm not suuure...we coould do one, then make them join in!"
Well, I see that working." Nova agreed, and flipped again through the CDs. "You have more musical taste than I do, pick something...colorful! And fun! And energetic!"
Sibel immediately jumped up with a CD, hiding it from the group. She put it in and handed microphones out. "I think that it's track 3..." She said as they heard some music come on. "Yup!" She restarted it and paused it. "The lyrics are on the computer monitor!" They started scrolling.
"She's in love?" Rodney asked, skeptically.
"Well, she is!" Nova giggled, flipping her hair behind her shoulders and gripping her microphone carefully with her big mitten.
"Which she?" Sibel giggled as she hugged John.
"Y'know...HER." Nova smiled, feeling very proud of her noncommittal statement.
Sibel laughed as they finished their karaoke session. She fell down on the ground and pulled Nova with her. "That was too much fun!"
Nova let out an amused coming-down-off-of-a-laughing-fit sigh, and lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling. She invited Sheppard and McKay to join them on the floor.
The two guys stood there out of breath, then got pulled down onto the girls sideways. "I know, we're comfy!" Sibel said. "We get that a lot..."
"We do?" Nova asked, thinking about all the times her and her sister had sat on each other. She put both of her arms around Rodney's one arm, trying to remove any possible chance of his escape.
Sibel simply laid there, sure that Sheppard didn't really want to move. "Wow, what time is it?"
Nova glanced at the clock, and her eyes widened. "Dinner time!" She exclaimed. "That's what time it is."
"RACE YA!" Sibel jumped out of her costume extremely fast and ran out the door, not waiting for them to agree.
"Hey!" Nova shouted, tearing off her gloves and shedding her costume with very similar speed, and then taking off after her sister.
The guys stood there struggling to get out of their costumes and follow but failed miserably. Sibel ran in and grabbed her dinner, then sat down at the table and started eating. She wanted to get as close to desert as possible before the others arrived.
Nova followed very closely, and then flounced down into a seat next to Sibel. "Hello!" She greeted, and then started stuffing her face. Several minutes later, John and Rodney showed up as well.
"You two look out of breath!" Sibel giggled as she realized that they truly did 'leave the guys in the dust'. She continued eating and finished as Rodney and John sat down. She ran over and got herself an enormous bowl of vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, and sweet granola flakes. "Yummy..." Sibel said, as she sat down with her dad's homemade concoction.
"No more ice cream for me, I think I'm gaining." Nova speculated, as she came back with a jello cup. "It's evil like that, ice cream is."
"Yes, but oh so good evilness!" Sibel smiled as she continued to eat. "So, what are we going to do after this?" She asked the two men.
"I was thinking somewhere along the lines of the beach." John said, and then excused himself to get his own dessert.
Nova glanced at her sister, and shrugged. "Beach sounds nice." She mumbled.
Sibel flushed. "And romantic..." Sibel smiled as John came back. She looked at the two men. "It's weird...I still have that ominous, imminent doom feeling, but it's not the same, you know?"
John looked around, and shrugged. "Not really," He replied. "I just feel hungry." He started eating his dessert.
Nova looked at Sibel with a bit of concern on her face. "Anything to worry about?"
"Not really...Maybe...Well, I don't know..." Sibel thought back then thought. "Want to go change?" Sibel smirked, remembering their earlier conversation.
Nova smiled ominously. "Good idea."
"Where do you want us to meet you boys, we need to go grab a few things...like...um.. FLASHLIGHTS! From our quarters!" Sibel said, as she put her bowl away and stood behind her sister.
"...For what?" John asked, completely forgetting what he'd said earlier.
"You wanted to go to the beach." Nova reminded him.
"Right! Ah, just meet up in the jumper bay in a few." He said.
"Alright!" Sibel grabbed her sister and the two ran off. "You have to pick a different dress than the one that you wore for Rodney and yours date, so you can surprise him again!"
"Hah, that was probably the only nice dress I had..." Nova mumbled in response, as the girls reached their quarters. "How about something more casual? Like..." She grabbed a pair of denim shorts from her dresser. "Whoa, I haven't seen these in a while."
Sibel laughed. "What do you think we should both do?" She asked the kittens. They stared at her for several moments, then went back to napping on each others backs. "Those will look awesome on you!" She ran over to the closet and took out some of Nova's shirts. "Choose from these three!"
Nova looked them over, and then pointed. "That one! I'm so tired of dark colors..."
Sibel tossed the shirt to her. "Then what will I wear...?" She stared at the closet full of randomly colored clothes.
"You should wear that thing I made you pack!" Nova called, as she walked into the bathroom to change, once again leaving the door cracked so she could converse with her sister.
Sibel blinked a few moments. "You made me pack a lot of things! I have everything from dresses to paintball outfits in there..." Sibel looked through. "Well, I don't think that I should go in a dress since you're not really going to be fancy." Sibel scanned the clothes and simply put on her favorite pair of jeans. She looked at several shirts then chose a gray tank top with a black vest attached. "This will work!"
Nova came out of the bathroom, hopping on one foot and trying to tie her shoe. "I hate laces..." She growled, and then looked up. "Oh, I love that top! Didn't I make you pack that, too...?"
"I think...that you made me pack my entire closet!" Sibel suddenly realized this as she quickly switched out. She straightened out the rosy-heart pattern on the tank top and smiled. "Ready when you are!"
"Flashlights!" Nova remembered, grabbing hers from her ripped tactical vest that was hung on the back of a chair.
"Right!" Sibel opened the door and grabbed the flashlight on the nightstand. "So we should come up with questions to ask them, not awkward ones though, Nova!" Sibel explained as they began to walk towards the jumper bay.
"You mean so that we don't have several moments of complete silence like Rodney and I did on our--hey, don't even pretend like you weren't watching us the first hour!" Nova exclaimed, poking her sister in the shoulder. They arrived in the bay.
"Ouch! I wasn't going to pretend I didn't..." Sibel smiled, "I am going to pretend that I didn't burst onto the balcony singing She's in Love!" Sibel laughed as the guys stared at the two girls.
"You ready?" John asked, not moving.
"You never did." Nova mumbled to her sister, and then, to John "Yes, I think so!"
Sibel giggled seeing the way that Rodney looked at her sister, "Let's go then!" Sibel grabbed John by the arm.
They climbed into the jumper, and John piloted them off toward the shore.
Sibel took the seat next to John and Rodney and Nova sat behind them, "Well, are we just going to be walking or what? Or wait... IS it a surprise?!" Sibel's eyes opened wide.
"Well, if it was a surprise, wouldn't telling us ruin it?" Nova asked the back of Sibel's head.
Sibel stared, "Yes...." Sibel then started tapping her toes to the song that she had stuck in her head at the moment. They arrived on the shore smoothly and happily. The four stepped out as the Jumper door opened, "I love the ocean at night so much more than during the daytime!!!"
"So do I." Nova agreed, grabbing Rodney's arm. She took a deep breath, and started walking.
"Daytime, night time, it's all the same to me." John shrugged, but the look on his face said that he was lying.
Sibel giggled seeing the look on John's face, she could read him like a book. She snuck behind him and jumped on his back for no reason, "Normally, I would have tackled you to the ground, but since we're not on the beach yet, it might be painful..."
"Thanks for that." John said, hoisting Sibel up to be more comfortably seated, and started walking as well.
Sibel was excited, she hadn't gotten a guy to agree to carrying her in a while, "Rodney you forgot to bring Ronan to carry Nova for you!!!" Sibel laughed. Rodney flushed.
Nova glanced at him, and then said to Sibel "Ah, I'm not as fond of being carried as you are. I prefer my own two legs, they're much more controllable." She giggled.
"Eh, I like the feeling of not being able to control myself..." Sibel paused, "Sometimes..." The four arrived at the beach and you could see the stars glittering on the ocean's surface. Sibel got off of John's back and sat down in the sand. She dug a hole around her feet and buried them.
John sat down next to Sibel, and started drawing in the sand on top of her feet. Nova spun around, sitting down and moving her arm in such a way that forced Rodney to sit down on the sand facing her.
"Questions or game? DUDE!!! It would be so much fun to play hide and seek here!!!" Sibel said looking at the brush around her trying to make sure that no silence stayed for more than several seconds.
"Haha, I'm not so sure Hide and Seek is such a great idea, remember what happened last time I did that in the dark in a strange place?" Nova was referring to when they were teenagers, and she'd sprained her ankle on the neighbor's lawn.
"What questions?" John asked, curiously. "Have you two been plotting evil things again?" He asked, smirking.
"Not evil, we just want to make sure that there's not such thing as 'awkward silence' while we're here!" Sibel laughed feeling John poke through the sand to her foot. She dug a deeper hole in fear of being tickled.
"Silence is fine," Nova agreed, "But awkward silence is a no-no. For me, at least." She lay down on the sand, putting her hands behind her head to keep it out of her hair.
"I agree!" Rodney replied as he watched Nova lay back. "If you guys could be any animals, which ones?!" Sibel asked.
"Hmm..." John stopped playing with the sand, and rubbed his hands together contemplatively. "A big bird of prey." He finally said.
"Probably an octopus..." Sibel turned quickly towards McKay, "Wow... Odd choice!! Your turn to ask a question, guys!"
"We get a turn?" John asked, raising an eyebrow.
"That's the way the question game works!" Nova said, sitting back up and trying to adjust herself comfortably.
"Exactly!!!" Sibel smiled. She had played the question game with almost every single one of her friends and seemed to have mastered it at this point, "Anything and everything is included!" Sibel said explaining the guidelines, if they could even be called guidelines.
"Hmm..." John stared out over the ocean for a moment, and then said "When you were in kindergarten, what did you want to be?"
Sibel looked at her sister then back at John, "A werewolf..."
Nova had to laugh. "Well, there ya go." She murmured. "I wanted to be an ice cream truck driver. My grandpa drove an ice cream truck, and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world."
Sibel laid down on the ground and stared up at the sky, "If you could turn into any mythological creature in the world, what?"
John wrinkled up his forehead. "That's a good question...never was into mythology." He said, and then "I always wanted to be that guy with all the hands, though." He looked over at Rodney.
Rodney stared, "A sphinx..." Rodney replied not able to think of anything else.
"Ooh, sphinx! That works!" Upon John's surprised look, Nova shrugged. "They're supposed to be smart."
"Nova, you get to ask the next question!!! Since I came up with the first one!!" Sibel smiled.
"Yay!" Nova clapped. "Okay...what's your personal theme song? Seriously, any song, from any decade, any tv show, any movie."
Rodney stared for a second, "The Star Trek theme song..."
"Space!" Nova exclaimed. "The final fronteir. These are the voyages...hmm..." She thought for a moment. "We really should re-write the introduction to fit us. My dad used to love that music...it still makes me nostalgic."
"Hehe... Very very true!" Sibel said rembering all of those times, "WE could write a poem about everything! Even though people would be scared of it..." Sibel laughed.
"Mine's that song by Billy Joel...ahh you know, the one that wouldn't die for so long." John said, attempting desperately to remember the name.
Sibel giggled seeing the strained look on John's face.
"Which one?" Nova asked. "There's a lot of Billy Joel songs that wouldn't die."
"I'm Moving Out!" John exclaimed.
Rodney blinked. "Why?"
Nova laughed. "The song, silly! By Billy Joel."
Sibel started cracking up then sat back up. Rodney saw the group staring at him as he thought of a question, "What was your favorite place back on earth?" he finally came up with.
"Hmm..." Nova thought for a long moment, closing her eyes. Finally, she said "You know, I went all over the place, but I think if I had to go back now, I'd want to go back to California."
"If only they could--" John started to misquote the lyrics from a Beach Boys song, when Nova cut him off with her hand.
"Please, don't. Every joke, every pun, done to death. Seriously."
Sibel giggled, "Well, it would really depend. I love California, but my favorite place was probably Colorado!"
"Ooh, mountains!" Nova said, sighing. "Seems like years ago when we left, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, it's really weird!" Sibel got a weird look on her face then laid back again, "If you guys could do anything right now, what?"
John concentrated really hard on the stars. He lay down next to Sibel, and said "Well, since I don't wanna say what I'm really thinking, I'll say that I'd love to be paintball fighting right now."
Sibel turned onto her side, "Uh huh, I'm really curious as to what you're thinking...."
"I'm not!" Rodney blurted, "I would probably want to go home and visit my cat..."
"Yeah," Nova sighed. "You must be really worried about him. I remember once when I was a teenager, I left my cats at home alone for a few days, and when I came back I was worried sick that one of them would be locked out of the room with their food and water...I fussed over it for hours, but they were fine when I got home." She smiled. "Hey, now you can come visit Mittens and Pretzel!"
"Very true!!!!" Sibel exclaimed still looking at John on her side, "They'll love you to pieces!!!! Literally..."
"They're kittens." Nova mumbled, glancing at the scratch marks on her arms and legs. "Anyway...you're turn!" She looked at John.
He thought for a moment, and then said "Favorite movie?"
Sibel blinked a few times, "Thumbelina..."
"I KNEW IT!" Nova shouted, and then was quiet for a moment. "Sorry. I just knew you were going to say that." She was quiet again, and then said "Well, It's a draw for me. Either the Princess Bride, Ever After, or The Emperor's New Groove. All very quotable!"
"You always knew that!" Sibel laughed, "Your turn again, Nova!"
Nova bit her lip. "Umm...okay, all honesty; Who has ever wished they were a Jedi knight?"
"I HAVE!!!!!" Sibel bursted out nearly screaming. Rodney simply nodded quietly.
After a few moment of silence, John slowly raised his hand.
"YAY! Then I'm not alone!" Nova exclaimed, smiling wide.
"Pffft, remember, I was the one who fantasized about Anakin..." Sibel said as she looked up at the sky lying on her back.
"This is also true." Nova said. "Your turn!" She nodded at Rodney.
Rodney thought for a second, "If you were stranded on an island, what could you not live without?"
"Whoooo that's a toughy..." Nova studied the constellations overhead. "Hmm...well, if I were stranded on an island...I think I'd want a pirate costume." She looked up at Rodney's confused and bewildered expression, and said "What! I had a pirate thing when I was a teenager!"
"Pfft, a thing??? More like an almost-as-bad-as-Sibel-with-Koreans obsession!!!" Sibel joked.
"Okay, so maybe I learned every lyric to that pirate song that Elizabeth sings in the first P.O.C movie, and maybe I made a cutlass out of cardboard and spent September 19 every year from the day I was 12 to the day I was 20 walking around town pretending to be Blackbeard..."
Sibel giggled uncontrollably rembering it, "If I was stuck on an island... Well I'm not even going to say..." She said as she grabbed John's hand.
"Very creative, Sibella." Nova teased, and giggled.
"Pffft, fine, you want creative? John dressed as a pirate captain!" Sibel laughed.
"There ya go!" Nova laughed as well. "Okay, I've got one; if you were stuck in a room with nothing but a table and a mirror, and there's absolutely no way out, how would you get out?"
Sibel's eyes opened wide, "I can't even remember that one.... I'm terrible with riddles," Sibel laughed nervously then sat up to look at her sister.
John bent one knee. "You look in the mirror, you see what you saw, you take the saw and saw the table in half, you put the two halves together, it makes a whole, you put the hole in the wall and crawl out."
"Yes!" Nova smiled. "I love that one!"
"Mr. Mensa." Rodney muttered, looking unimpressed.
Sibel stared, "Mr. Mensa?" Sibel asked curiously giving John the 'and-you-never-told-me-this" look.
"He qualified, but never entered." Nova mumbled, flipping through mission reports in her mind.
"...you don't forget anything, do you?" John asked, turning to face Nova, wearing an appalled look.
"You have no idea... It freaks me out sometimes. My memory is terrible usually, but I remember really odd little things. Like, my first boyfriend, I remember exactly what shirt he was wearing when we met in 6th grade." Sibel replied as she laid back down, "Of course.. I also remember the exact shoes that you were wearing when I met you, John..."
Nova pointed at her sister, but kept her eyes on Rodney. "Now, see, this is why we would be perfect FBI partners. I don't remember stuff like that, but she does, and I can remember every file I've ever read."
Sibel laughed, "Pfft, I belong to Men in Black, forget the FBI!!!" Sibel stayed up since she was slightly uncomfortable on the sand, "If you could have an animal companion that lived forever, what?"
"A talking dog." John said, blatantly.
"Really?" Nova replied, raising one eyebrow. He shrugged.
"An owl..." Rodney finished off the question with his answer. Sibel looked back, "Not even going to comment about Sword in the Stone..."
"Owl would be cool." Nova defended. "Athena had an owl. She's my favorite Greek goddess!"
"Wow, what time is it?" Sibel asked unable to tell from the darkness of the planet or the position of the stars.
John glanced at his watch. "About ten-thirty." He said, sitting up with Sibel.
"Wow, we've been out for an hour already?!" Nova asked, in astonishment.
"What time are we supposed to head back?" Rodney asked John unsure of what he had planned since he was 'the leader'.
John closed his eyes, and put his elbow on his knee. He opened his eyes again. "You know, I vaguely remember Sam saying something about not staying out past midnight..."
Sibel giggled, "You're just as bad as me!!! Of course, I don't usually fall asleep until at least 2 o clock in the morning..."
"Well, what do you all want to do?" Rodney asked as he sat up.
Nova shifted positions so that she was leaning against Rodney's side. "Too bad that's not a lake," She pointed to the ocean. "I'm a champion stone-skipper."
"No, I am the champion." John interjected.
Sibel started cracking up, "I thought that you said skinny-dipper at first!!"
Nova covered her mouth, trying not to laugh hysterically. "Oh, see that would be interesting." She shook her head. "After all the ice cream we've had the past couple months though, it could be more mentally scarring than anything else."
Sibel sat up and laughed harder, "We're not fat we're fluffy!!!!"
"Amen!" Nova exclaimed. "Besides, I think that Dad would kick us into next week if he heard us say that either one of us was fat."
"Yeah.... No, he would kick us back to Earth, THEN kick us into next week!" Sibel said as she laid back not noticing that John had sneaked his arm behind her, "Well, what should we do?"
"An excellent question, dear sister!" Nova replied. She closed her eyes for a moment, listening to Rodney breathing. Then, without opening her eyes, said "Maybe we could camp on the beach. You wanted to go camping, didn't you, Sibel?"
"YES!!!! But all my camping gear is on Atlantis!!! Ah well, we could all sleep in the jumper!!!" Sibel exclaimed sitting straight up, " OR OR OR!!! We could build a raft and tie it to the beach then sleep on that and let the ocean rock us to sleep!" Sibel continued to come up with random ideas.
"But what if we fell off in the middle of the night?" Nova wondered aloud, her eyes shooting open. "We'd be in the water. With the aquatic life."
"WHOA!!! MAYBE THEN WE'D TURN INTO MERMAIDS!!" Sibel jumped up and ran over to her sister. She pulled her sister off the ground, "WHAT DO YOU WANNA DO?!!" She stared into her eyes waiting for the response.
"OOH! We could...um..." Nova tried to hide a yawn, and then said "Uh, we could go to Narnia! Or, we could draw a map of Atlantis, or..."
"Oh, that works!!! Or we could make the guys act out a scene from a random play with us!" Sibel exclaimed her love for acting shining through, "Or we could just sit here and do nothing..." Sibel kept the quote in her mind and saved it for later.
"Scene from a random play would be fun." Nova said, smirking deviously at John and Rodney.
Sibel started cracking up as she imagined Rodney dressing up as the Phantom of The Opera. She sent the image to her sister as well.
Nova resisted laughing out loud, and the men clearly indicated that they knew the girls were thinking to each other again. She cleared her throat. "Ahem...how about something we'd all know? OR we could act out that scene from...oh wait, that wouldn't work, we've got two chicks...hmm..."
Sibel started cracking up, "A crossover between the little mermaid and... PHANTOM OF THE OPERA!!!!" Sibel screamed pointing at Rodney not letting the joke die.
"Where do you get these ideas?" Nova asked, grabbing her sister and sitting on the ground. "Besides, I don't remember Phantom of the Opera, I only saw it once, and I didn't really like it." She defended herself from her sister's evil death glare.
"Hmmm...." Sibel started cracking up again then whispered, "Beauty and the Beast," into her sister's ear.
Nova choked back laughter. "Um, maybe we could do a scene from Aladdin, I've always wanted to be Jafar...whoa, ever notice how much Jafar sounds like Jaffa?" It was official; She was slap happy.
Sibel giggled the weirdest sounding giggle in the world, "I don't want to be Jasmine though!!!! Her head's too big in the second movie..."
Nova laughed. "Fine, then, we can do the Broadway version!"
"Aladdin? Really?" John asked, looking disapproving.
Sibel stared off into space, "I forgot that there was a broadway version..."
Rodney stared at Nova, "Um... ARe you sure about this? John and I aren't actors you know..."
"Puh-leeze!" Nova said, smiling. "Sibel and I aren't astronauts either, but that hasn't prevented us from leaving our own galaxy!"
Sibel giggled, "Astronauts..."
Rodney stared at her and she stared back then said, "Sugar's kicking in worse than before..." "Well, I'm not sure... We're not really singers either!" Rodney tried to argue even though the girls had heard them in karaoke.
Nova scoffed. "And we are?!" Images of her and her sister screeching at the top of their lungs filled her mind.
"You're not bad, anyway." John said, shrugging.
"Well, thank you for that. But you guys aren't, either. You know, if you don't want to do it, you could just say so..."
Sibel laughed, "Do guys ever say no to pretty girls?" John started to retort, but decided it was best not to.
Sibel saw the beginning of the gesture and fell back, "Well, Nova, what do you want to do first and we'll make them do it!"
"Mmm we could build that raft you were talking about sleeping on!" Nova suggested, smiling.
Sibel jumped up and ran into the brush, "I'll find the wood!"
"There's some rope and tar in the jumper." John said.
"Tar? Why?" Nova asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
"...Good question." He walked off toward the jumper, and Nova threw her hands up.
"I'll..." She sat down. "Sit here and wait for you to come back with the supplies."
Rodney sat with his computer drawing out a plan of the raft schematics to be helpful; he was afraid to sink secretly. Rodney jumped as an enormous bunch of sticks and logs landed in front of the two. Sibel came out a few seconds afterwards and sat down, "Think that's enough?"
Nova sized up the pile. "Hmm...should be. If we could figure out how to get a little bit of railing around the edges, that would be great! And it'd help center the weight, too." John came back with a small paint bucket and a huge coil of rope.
"Ready?" Rodney asked as they finished up the raft and tied a few more knots, "Um... Who's going to test it?"
Nova stared at their creation. It was actually quite beautiful, considering it had only taken them two and a half hours. "I will." She said, finally. "I'm the most likely to dry off fast if it fails, you guys are all wearing long pants."
"Can you swim?" John asked, skeptically.
Nova glared sideways. "No, I just have faith in our craftmanship. Of course I can swim!"
"DUH!!! She's a sea nymph!!!" Sibel joked as she watched her sister turn around and give her a funny look.
Nova threw off her shoes. "I'll need help getting it to the water's edge." She stated.
Sibel stepped forward, "Nova and I are stronger than you two put together, not to be rude of course!" She ran towards the raft and stood next to it as she rolled up her pants partially since she had already taken off her shoes.
"Freeze!" John exclaimed. He grabbed a flat piece of wood, and tossed it on to the little raft. "Don't need you getting stranded." He teased.
"Good idea." Nova replied, and the girls dragged the raft to the water's edge. She pushed it away from the shore until it was floating, and then followed it into the water, and climbed on to it, careful not to tip it over in the process.
Sibel watched and smiled, "Is it comfortable??" She saw her sister slightly nervous about tipping it over.
"It's a little wobbly." Nova called back. "But I think it'll float." She stood up, slowly, steadying herself, and jumped up and down a couple of times, then shifted her weight back and forth. It barely gave. "Yep, we did a good job!" She shouted.
"YES!!" Sibel jumped then slipped on a rock in the water and fell in. She sat there for a moment, "Oops... Well, if I'm already wet!" Sibel went over to the raft and climbed onto it with her sister, "It is actually comfortable..."
"It is!" Nova said. "Those leaves were a good idea." She patted the 'floor', and then pushed them a little bit closer to the shore. "Come on guys, it's great!"
The guys looked at each other, "I'm not sure that that's a good idea..." Rodney replied extremely nervous about how much weight the raft could handle.
"Come on, what could it hurt?" Nova asked. "It can hold me, it's not gonna sink." She joked. "Besides, it's warm out!"
"Surprisingly she's right! I'm warmer wet than I was dry!" Sibel laughed as she jumped back into the water and went over to the guys. "I never had a problem with it," John replied walking into the water. Sibel ran behind Rodney and pushed him towards the water, "Come on Rodney! Don't be a fraidy-cat!!!"
Nova helped center the John's weight as he climbed on, and then waited for Sibel to force Rodney into the water, resisting the urge to root like she was at a baseball game.
"Rodney I swear... You don't know how strong I really am!! Do NOT make me carry you out there!!" Sibel warned as she gave a final shove which made Rodney fly a couple feet but he landed perfectly fine in the water.
"Okay okay!!!" He said afraid she'd push him again. Nova and John helped him onto the raft.
Sibel came back out and jumped on, "This is too much fun!"
"There!" Nova said, and then laughed. "Now, we're all on the water. Do we just...drift...until we can't see the shore anymore?"
"Works for me!" Sibel said happily as she giggle watching Rodney clutch to the raft for dear life.
"Come on, I'm afraid of fish." Nova said, shaking her head at Rodney and smiling. "Have fun!" She pried his hands off of the log.
"I'm afraid of jellyfish... But that's only because I nearly stepped on several when I was a kid... And my friend got stung by them several times when she was on vacation..." Sibel replied to the comment as she laid back. Rodney gave her the 'you're-not-helping' look. He relaxed as much as possible then decided to lay down so he didn't have to look at the water.
Nova put her hand on Rodney's arm, and then to Sibel, said "Hey, I nearly stepped on several of those too. Do you remember trying to dissect them with a plastic scalpel?"
"No... But I remember being forced to disect a squid in 4th grade. Then a frog, a crawfish, a trout, and more... It was terrible!" Sibel said remembering all the nasty little details.
"We just dissected frogs." John said, making a face.
"Frogs are nasty!!! Especially when the teacher asks you to cut open their stomach and you find out that the frog was pregnant..." Sibel replied the realized, "We should have made another raft!"
"That would have taken forever!" Nova whined. "Maybe we can build another one tomorrow. And then we can do dueling duets across the water!"
Sibel laughed, "That would be so awesome!!!" Sibel sat up, "What time is it now? Or are we actually going to camp on the beach tonight?"
John glanced at his watch again. "Midnight exactly, just turned." He said.
"...CAN we camp on the beach?" Nova asked, curiously. "We won't like...get in trouble, or anything?"
Rodney looked at John, "Well, as long as we let them know, since it is our day off, I think. Unless when you talked to Carter she said something different," Rodney replied looking at John for approval. He never really was fond of camping but they had the jumper, "Everything should be fine.." He mumbled to himself.
"It'll be fine." John said, waving his hand in dismissal.
"Sweet!" Nova exclaimed. "You get your wish, Sibel!"
"WHOOHOO!" Sibel nearly jumped up but decided not to since with her clumsy nature, she would most likely fall off the raft; who knows what odd alien creatures lurk beneath the surface.
Nova lay down, and sighed. "Sure is nice out."
"We should head back to shore, I don't want to drift too far away... I'm afraid of what could be lurking in these waters!" Sibel said as she grabbed the wood and started pushing back to shore slowly.
"Thanks for mentioning that, Sibel!" Nova said, grimacing and grabbing onto Rodney's arm. "I really hate fish..."