CH 48

Joan and Allison were the last two on the relay race. It was easier that way. Joan was number three, Allison was the 'finisher.' They were behind by a good hundred yards when the number two girl came running at Joan. Joan was ready. She started running slow. At the hand off, Joan took off running around the corner so fast she had to lean into it. On the inside track, the other girl looked far ahead. Joan caught her by the end of the backstretch. Running around the second corner, Joan passed her and kept pushing. Allison was ready for her, poised to run and her hand out for the baton. Joan passed it to her and Allison took off. Joan slowed to a stop as cheers came from their team and the parents that assembled to watch the match.

"Damn," the other coach said as she looked at her stopwatch.

Next was the Long Jump. Joan waited until Allie had passed the finish line first, they went over to the long jump pit together. "Now we get to jump, froggy!" Allison chirped.

"Redeep!" Joan intoned in her deepest voice. Looking over at the track, she said, "Looks like the hurdles are next on the track."

"Yeah, so don't put your foot through another one," Allison said with a giggle.

Joan winced. "Yeah, landing face first doesn't feel very good."

"Use three steps instead of two."

"That's worse, I keep knocking them over."

Allison jogged up to the line. Joan followed. They waited as the other team's girls did their jumps and got the jump measured. After the last one, Allison got up in the line. The recorder got her name and motioned her forward.

Allison took off running, then bounced in the air, both feet forward. She flew over the pit and hit the grass. She stayed in place as the tape was ran out to where she landed.

The recorder wrote the jump down and said, "That's going to be hard to beat."

Joan took her place at the start line. "I'll do it."

"You are..."

"Joan Connor."

The recorder motioned her on. "Give it your best shot."

Joan took off, pushing hard to gain speed. at the line before the pit, she landed her last footstep just before the line and flung herself into the air. stretching out, her feet in front of her, she lowered them enough so she wouldn't land in her butt like last time. She hit the grass and let herself fall forward, stopping in a push-up position.

She got measured. The gun went off for the hurdles before she got up. "Darn it!" Louder she called, "GO ALLISON!"

Allison did the hurdles flawlessly and won first place.

OK, this time she would do the 100 yard dash. It was longer waiting that doing the dash. No one was even close to her at the finish line.

"Connor!" Coach Hughes yelled and waved her over. Joan want over to her. "Yes?"

"Richards twisted her ankle, I need you to do the 440."

"Hokay, Tell me when to stop," she said with a sigh. The thing about the 440 was it took longer. Running for all that time wasn't her idea of excitement. This time she had the inside lane. Way ahead of her was the other girl running who had the second lane. She got set. The gun shot, Joan took off. Being on the inside, she had to slow a bit on the corner. She found her shoes would lose their grip if she help up at full speed. Even so, at the end of the turn, she was even with the other girl. Joan passed, her, the other girl charged harder and fell behind. Joan kept up her pace and raced down the backstretch. Half way around the second turn, her foot slipped. She stumbled but didn't fall. Racing past her cheering team mates, she heard Coach Hughes yell.

"Slow down on the corners!"

Around the first turn again, Joan slowed to keep her footing. She was around the corner and the other girl was just getting to it. Joan manged to keep her feet under her the rest of the race. After the last turn, she put on a full-burn push to make it to the finish line. She slowed to a stop. Coming around the last corner, the other girl fell. Her team mates ran over and helped her up to get her walking. She looked exhausted. She did manage to plod along and finish the race. Right over the line, she puked in the grass.

"Yuck," Joan said with a wince. The girl was cheered for finishing.

Unlike team games, track and field meets didn't seem very organized. A few things happened all at the same time, and there was the chance of missing an event if one you were involved with wasn't finished yet. Worse yet, when Joan finished her events, it was walk around and talk to people time until everyone else was done. She also noticed it was more about 'personal scores' that it was about team spirit. She wasn't liking these games very much. She'd rather go swim in the lake.

.

JJ had been noticing Eddie Littleton wasn't talking to anyone at school he didn't have to. He wouldn't even look at Peggy. One day during a lunch break, he went over and sat at the desk in front of Eddie. Eddie looked up at him in surprise.

"Hey, Eddie," JJ offered.

Eddie looked back down.

"I thought maybe you'd like to know Peggy is doing well," JJ offered. "Why don't you even say hi to her?"

"She's not in our family any more," Eddie grumbled quietly.

"No matter what, she's still your sister," JJ told him. "You two used to always hang around together."

Eddie looked up and glared at him. "You stole her from us!"

"No I didn't. Your parents kicked her out," JJ countered. "Eddie, even so, don't you miss her?"

Eddie glanced over at Peggy, who was involved with Jackie, Louise and another girl. "She's no longer one of us."

"So, you don't care about your sister then?" JJ asked.

"She's turned violent," Eddie whispered.

"No," JJ said in a smooth tone. "Peggy is one of the most non violent people I know. She is kind and caring, she is even kind to the baby alligators in the lake. She feeds them like … old people in the park feed the pigeons. I know it would mean much to her if you'd just swallow your pride and talk to her."

Eddie looked up at him again. "What does that mean?" he asked, not sounding happy.

"It means drop the holier-than-thou attitude and talk to her," JJ stated. "You know, for being non-violent, you people sure are mean."

Eddie frowned at him. "We're mean?" he asked in a challenge.

"Yup, rotten to the core," JJ stated. "You can't stand violence, supposedly, but you really don't care how bad you hurt your own family with comments. You do know that emotional pain is much worse that say, a punch to the face. You get hit in the face, after the bruise is gone, it's over. Words that hurt someone, especially from their own family, last for years. What your family did to Peggy was brutal. You do know she will never fully recover from the mass of rejection she suffered from her own family. That hurt her much worse than any beating she could have gotten. "

Eddie paused, then said, "She's no longer our problem."

JJ shook his head. "Wow, I mean, wow. Isn't that the most heartless thing I've ever heard. You really hate your sister, don't you?"

Eddie clenched his fists and glared at him. "No! I hate YOU for taking her away from us!" he spat. "She was the last one … I needed her, and you stole her away from me!" he grated as tears came to his eyes. "I hate you so bad, I've pray you die!"

"Now that sounded like a truly non-violent attitude," JJ said with a fake smile. "Guess what, I'm not going anywhere, especially since Peggy needs me. She doesn't have anyone else who gives a shit about her. You don't care about her at all, do you?"

Eddie struggled up and out of his seat with a wailing scream that drew everyone's attention. JJ popped up out of his seat in time to meet Eddie's charge. Eddie flailed away at JJ with his fists. Eddie only blocked the punches aimed at his face. Jackie hit him harder when she was just playing.

The rest of the class bore looks of pure shock as Eddie flailed away, fists flying fast at JJ again and again.

"Eddie!" Peggy cried and ran over to them.

"Stay back!" JJ snapped and gave some ground. Eddie tried another flailing swing, JJ stepped into it, making Eddie's arm hook around his neck. Eddie ran into him, crying.

"It hurt's doesn't it?" JJ asked him. "That is how Peggy feels now that you won't even look at her."

Eddie collapsed, crying. Peggy came over and knelt in front of him. She held him, his arms went around her. They knelt, crying together.

"Why didn't you fight back?" Jackie asked as she came over beside JJ.

"What fight?" JJ asked. "I didn't see any fight. No one saw any fight, did they?" he asked and looked around.

All the kids shook their heads.

"I'm so sorry!" Eddie cried as he clung to Peggy. "They said to never talk to you! They said pretend you don't exist … but I can't! I can't stand not even talking to you!"

Miss Winters came in at a stiff walk. "What is going on in here?" she asked sternly.

JJ pointed at Peggy and Eddie kneeling on the floor. "It's a family feud," he offered.

Peggy looked up at Miss Winters. "Miss Winters, my ex-parents told Eddie he can never speak to me again, and he's having a hard time with that."

Eyeing them, she said, "I see."

"Eddie, as long as you only talk to Peggy in school, they'll never know," Jackie offered.

JJ nodded."See, even Jackie can come up with good ideas!" he beamed.

Jackie smacked him in the shoulder.

"What?" JJ asked, with a fake look of surprise. "I gave you a compliment."

"Jerk."

"Stop it," Miss Winters said firmly. She held a hand out to Eddie and Peggy. "All right, both of you, come with me. Everyone else, take your seats."

.

Miss Winters took them to an empty room and made them tell her what this was about. After hearing how since Peggy had been kicked out of their house, Eddie wasn't allowed to talk to her, and he was becoming very upset by it, she assured them that they could interact in school, and Eddie could interact with anyone he wanted to. Part of schooling was learning how to be sociable and interact with others. Once she was sure they had calmed down, she took them back to class.

After school, Miss Winters went down to see the sheriff. His car wasn't there, so she waited in his office. She was there about an hour when he came in. Striding in, he saw her and smiled. "Miss Winters! What can I do for you? Coffee?"

"No thank you," she said and eyed him. "I think I may have a case of child abuse in my classroom."

"All right, what do you got?" he asked.

She explained about Peggy being kicked out of her house and Eddie being told to never interact with her, when before, the siblings were always at each other's side. "Sheriff, he broke down today and cried his eyes out. Isn't there a law on mental abuse?"

The Sheriff sat down and wiped his chin. "Miss Winters, that's a sticky subject. If they haven't been mean directly towards Eddie, only told him not to speak to his sister, how he takes that can't truly be considered abuse. At times I wish there was, but there is no law against being an asshole."

"Is there something we can do?"

He shrugged. "Unfortunately, no. I would suggest not pressing his parents about it either. They do have the right to chose how he gets an education, they could well pull him out of class and home-school him, and then he wouldn't have as much time around others as he has now." Casting her a sympathetic look, he said, "Some things are not easy to deal with. We just have to do the best we can."

"Yeah," she said with a sigh. leaning back to look at the ceiling she said, "At times I almost with I was a private tutor again."

"Less to deal with?" he asked.

She let out a snort. "No, but at least there I learned what I had to watch out for. It took me a while to discover all the dangers. Then Oh God, my boyfriend was NOT who I thought he was."

"Got in trouble, did he?"

"That's putting it mildly. That whole place was too much. Secrets around every corner and under every bed." she then tipped her head and added, "I do believe it taught me alot though. I don't think there is anything left that can scare me."

The Sheriff laughed. "So, what did your boyfriend do?"

"If you mean job, the family was rich enough he didn't have to do anything. I did try to understand … the way he was, but in the end, I just couldn't handle it. I doubt he will ever take the trouble to come find me." Her words were softening into a musing tone. "The thing is, I do believe we have lived before. Both he and I. At times I do think we were destined to be together, others … not so much."

"What you're saying is you're not over him," the sheriff concluded.

"No, I'm not. It's not like I don't love him, he's just too strange to deal with," she said in exasperation.

"It can be tough dealing with some people," the Sheriff agreed. "Everyone has their quirks, you just have to figure out what quirks you can live with."

"Like the Connors, two wives in the house? or worse yet that Littleton bunch? Three husbands and two wives? What are they, orgy freaks or something?"

"They are just very different," he offered with a grin. "Far as I'm concerned, it's their business."

"For having a screwed up family, the Connor kids are fairly normal at least." she told him.

'If you only knew,' he thought. "Well, they've done good for the community since they came, so I have no problem with them. Gotta say, that mermaid show they put on at the big lake was really fantastic. Never seen nothing like that before."

"So, there's nothing we can do officially to help out Eddie Littleton?" she asked.

"Just keep doing what you're doing. Oh, there's going to be a new primary school student coming in the next week or two," the Sheriff told her. He looked on the screen and said, "Daniel Collins. He'll be arriving with his guardian."

"D..Daniel, here?" Miss Winters cried, staring at the Sheriff.

He nodded, noting she looked a bit pale. "I take it you know him?"

"I used to tutor him. He's coming to public school? Here? What happened up there?" she asked.

"I'm sure I don't know."

"Who's his guardian?" she asked intently.

"A William Loomis …"

"They are letting Willy look out for Daniel?" Miss Winters cried, looking frantic. "What is wrong with them! Where's his mother? Where's Carol?"

"I only got the notification from Mrs. Connor," he told her. "If they are going to stay up there, I'm sure there's nothing to worry about."

Miss Winters looked at him like was daft. "They are staying with the Connors? With Willy … and … I have to stop this!" she then turned and bolted out the door.

.

In John's study, John was looking at General Watson like he'd lost his mind with this request. "Cure a vampire? Are you serious?" he asked.

General Watson said, "Well, from what we've found, it's cure or kill. The place they live up there in New England is nutso. Heard there's plenty of what they call, 'negative psychic energy' floating around. A team is going up to that area and radiate it with positive frequencies to negate the negative energy. We're sure that's what part of the problem is. In the meantime, the family is being moved to keep them safe. We boxed the vampire up, that wasn't hard once he was cornered. Instead of just burning him and the box we put him in, we'd like to see if there is anything you can do with him."

John eyed the man. "This goes way above and beyond any rational train of thought. This is a real blood sucking vampire, you're talking about, seriously?"

"I am. It took having it proved to me, but yes, there is such a thing," General Watson stated. "How you can cure him, I have no clue. We do need to find out if it's possible."

"If we find it cannot be done, we destroy it," Cameron stated.

"If he bites anyone, he gets vaporized in a bolt of plasma," Delilah said firmly.

"That is why I need you to take care of this," General Watson told them. "You are the only ones who I have confidence in that can complete this mission, if not one way, then the other."

John looked at Cameron and Delilah. "Thoughts?" he asked.

"Understand, if this thing is a danger to our children, he gets fried," Cameron stated.

"I'll be happy to reduce him to ash and throw his remains into the lake." Delilah said.

"Bring him as long as you understand there is a very good change he might not survive us," John told General Watson.

"Just do your best, I'll accept whatever happens," General Watson told them.

.

It wasn't but a few days later, they had another visitor. Cameron was building up a small rock circle planter for a flower garden when Miss Winters drove in. Cameron saw her park, but kept mortaring the stones in place to make a perfect circle. She wasn't going to waste a batch of mortar.

"Mrs. Connor?" Miss Winters asked as she approached.

Cameron glanced at her. "It's Cameron. What can I do for you, Victoria?"

"I heard you are going to host a man named William Loomis, and a Daniel Collins?"

"Those are two of them, yes," Cameron agreed and put the last stone in place. she checked to be sure it was set properly, then stood up. "What about them?"

"There's something you should know. There might be difficulties with their stay," Miss Winters said, not knowing how else to put it.

Cameron cast her a brief smile. "There will be. From what I've learned, Daniel is not one to behave himself. That will be corrected. William, or Willy, as he is better known, is a little on the dense side. His loyalty is not in question, just his intelligence. You may want to wait to come see Barnabas. He will need to know who is in charge, and I will show him. That may not be pleasant to watch. It will probably be best to come see him a few days after they arrive."

"Barnabas is coming?" Miss Winters asked, looking frightened.

"Yes," Cameron said and faced Miss Winters. "From what I know, all he has faced is a couple ghosts and a bunch of humans. Nothing like myself or Delilah. It may take a day or two to convince him he will need to behave, or be destroyed."

"Mrs. Connor, you don't understand, Barnabas is a vampire for real!" Miss Winters said firmly.

"I am a terminator for real," Cameron replied and flashed her red eyes. "If I decide someone needs to die, they die. There is no reprieve or escape. Your best hope to save Barnabas is to help convince him we will cure him, or destroy him. There is no other option."

Delilah came around the side of the house carrying a few 50 LB bags of potting soil. "Cam, you ready for this yet?" she called.

"As soon as the mortar dries," Cameron told her.

Seeing the teacher Delilah said, "Hi, Miss Winters, no trouble with the kids, is there?"

"No, I came about something else," she said, noticing the 150 pounds of soil Delilah had brought out like they weighed nothing.

"That Barnabas guys is her boyfriend," Cameron stated.

"Ah, Ok, so they have to be careful necking?" Delilah asked with a crooked grin.

"Yes, no muffler burn that goes deep," Cameron replied.

"I'm sure that sucks," Delilah said and put the bags of soil down. "So, what can you tell us about this guy?"

Miss Winters said, "I am serious. Barnabas is a vampire, he is very dangerous. He's at least a couple hundred years old!"

"and," Delilah prodded.

"He can do things," she insisted. "He drinks blood!"

Cameron and Delilah looked at each other.

"Impressed yet?" Cameron asked.

"No," Delilah replied. To Miss Winters, she asked, "Has he got canons?"

"Excuse me? What do you mean?" Miss Winters asked.

Delilah held up an arm and morphed it into a plasma canon. "Canons, like this that can shoot plasma."

Miss Winters stared at it. "How ... did you do that?"

"I'm a terminator. Want to see what it does?" Delilah asked.

"Delilah," Cameron said and shook her head.

"OK," Delilah said in a huff.

The front door burst open, Jackie and Louise came out in bikinis, carrying their tails over their shoulders. Seeing Delilah's arm morph back, Jackie asked, "Mom, do we need our canons?"

"No dear, I was just showing Miss Winters here."

"Jackie, you have those too?' Miss Winters asked.

"yup!" Holding her tail over her shoulder with her right arm, Jackie morphed her left arm out. In a deep tone she said, "Weapons of mass destruction! MRUHAHAHA!"

"Put it away, it's not a toy," Delilah told her.

"I know that, Mom." Jackie replied in a huff.

Louise giggled.

Miss Winters stared. "How did you get that?" she asked weakly.

"I was born with it," Jackie beamed.

"Homework done?" Cameron asked.

"All done! We're going to swim over and bug Bob and Joan," Jackie said.

"Be home before dark," Delilah told her.

We will," Jackie assured her. "Hey Miss Winters..." Jackie had run over, and looking at the adults, she didn't see the new stone flower garden and tripped over it with a yelp.

"YEOWIEEE!" Jackie cried and held her bleeding shin.

Cameron picked her up and set her down to sit on the stone edge. Miss Winters also hurried to help if she could. Cameron had moved Jackie's hand to see she'd peeled some shin skin down. Miss Winters blinked, there was a shin shaped metal bar under her skin, not bone.

"No swimming for a bit," Cameron said and pushed the skin back up in place. "Hold it, I'll get a bandage."

Jackie frowned. "Who put this stupid thing in the yard?" she cried.

"I did. Be right back. Then you can fix it." Cameron told her.

"Has anyone fed the alligator yet?" Delilah asked.

"Peggy was going to do it." Louise said.

"Yeah, OK, She's going to stop sucking face with JJ to come feed the alligator? Right!" Jackie said with a snort.

"Yeah," Louise said thoughtfully. "We should feed her before we go, otherwise she's going to follow us."

"An alligator follows you?" Miss Winters asked.

Louise nodded. "She does, and many of her little ones do now also. I think we're spoiling them."

A call came from the dock. "Cam! Help please!"

They turned to see Allison walked towards them. On the dock was her mermaid tail and a trident. Allison was wearing a bikini and some odd adornments in her hair. At she got closer, Cameron saw the adornments were little alligators.

"Is it feeding time or what?" Allison asked with a flail of her arms. "I pause at the dock to put my trident up before I get on, and they're all over me!"

Delilah studied Allison's hair. A few eight inch long alligators were clinging on by biting her hair. "They do almost work for hair clips," she offered.

Jackie giggled.

"Could you get them off, please?" Allison asked. "Without hurting them or ripping my hair out?"

Miss Winters shuddered and asked, "Why did you go near that dock if you knew they were there?"

Allison frowned at her. "They usually swim away."

"Maybe they thought your hair was spaghetti," Jackie said and giggled.

Louise went over and gently lifted one of the small alligators up. Turning it upside down, she used a finger to rub it's belly. The little alligator let go of Allison's hair and wiggled. "Hey this works!" she beamed.

"Be careful of their mouths," Cameron cautioned, "Hold them behind their front legs."

Miss Winters watched dumbfounded as they picked alligators out of Allison's hair. Jackie, Louise and Cameron went down to put the little creatures back in the water.

"Weren't you scared?" Miss Winters asked Allison. "At lease ... creeped out by those things hanging off you?"

Allison shrugged. "Naw, just irritated a bit. Believe me, I've seen stranger stuff that baby alligators grabbing my hair."

Looking at Allison, Miss Winters asked, "Are you and Cameron twins?"

"Close enough," Allison told her. "Cameron is Big Me. Well, any more, older me."

"What do you mean, big me?"

Allison shook her head. "OK, just think of us as twins, it's easier." She then frowned and felt behind her. "I, ah still got one on me. Could you get it off?"

Miss Winters looked. Down towards the bottom of her hair, there was one partially covered by hair. She touched it then pulled back. Allison bend over to bring her hair around to the front. "I'll get it," Allison said in a grumble. She uncover it then held onto it and tickled it's belly. It squirmed and let go. In it's squirming, Allison dropped it.

Miss Winters yelped out and backed away. It ran on it's stubbly little legs. Allison chased it trying to catch it again. She managed to get it running down the yard towards the dock. Cameron and the girls watched the chase. The little gator escaped by running though the fence and heading for the water.

"At least it's gone," Allison said in a huff.

"They'll be back!" Jackie intoned, then giggled.

"We should feed them before they are," Louise reminded her.

"I'll help, so long as they don't try to eat my hair again," Allison said.

The girls went back in the house. Cameron touched the planter. "The mortar should be set enough." She and Delilah filled the planter with the soil Delilah brought.

"Victoria, what can you tell us about Barnabas, besides the fact he's a blood sucker," Delilah asked.

"You must like him for some reason," Cameron added.

Miss Winters blinked. "Well, he's a perfect gentleman, most of the time. He's pleasant to be around. We got along well together, that was until..."

Since she stopped, Cameron guessed, "Until you tried to make out?"

Miss Winters flushed. "No! We didn't do anything like that!"

"Until what?"

Miss Winters winced and said, "I doubt you'll believe me."

"Try us."

"I was sent back to the 1700's. I know it's unbelievable, but it's true."

Delilah chuckled. "Hon, Myself and Cam came from the future, Cam has time skipped here and there, and I had to chase the girls into an alternate reality to get them back home. We know all about time travel. So what happened back there that made you flee?"

"That's where I found out Barnabas is a vampire, and ... I met myself," Miss Winters explained.

"So what did he do to you?" Cameron asked.

"He saved me from sleep walking off a cliff," Miss Winters said meekly.

Delilah and Cameron fixed their gazes on her. "What else?" Cameron asked.

With a shrug, Miss Winters said, "Nothing else. I just discovered he's a vampire."

Delilah frowned at her. "You're telling us, Barnabas has always been good to you and he saved your life, but you ran away from him just because he's a vampire?"

"He is a vampire!" Miss Winters stated. "He's dangerous!"

"One question," Cameron said firmly. "When Barnabas gets here, do you have any intention on assisting us in curing him? Or do you just not want to know?"

Miss Winters stared at her.

"You do know myself and Cameron are the most dangerous things to ever walk the Earth, don't you?" Delilah asked.

Miss Winters turned her head to stare at Delilah.

"If the need comes up, I can vaporize Mr. Vampire in less than a heartbeat," Delilah stated as her eyed turned red. "I've killed lots and lots of bad guys, Cameron as too. Armies of bad guys and other terminators. Hell, even Jackie and Joan have taken some out. The way I see it, if we have to destroy him, we fail. So, do you have any interest in helping trying to cure and save Barnabas? Or do you stand by and leave his fate to us?"

Miss Winters just stared so Cameron said, "Go home and thing about it." She turned Miss Winters to face her car then walked her to it. "If you hold any affection for him at all, or even would like to see him again and not as ashes on the wind, let us know. Be careful driving home."

Cameron opened Miss Winter's door for her. Miss Winters resisted Cameron's push and blurted out, "Can we help him?"

"Time will tell. All we can do is try."

Miss Winters nodded and got in her car. She got out of the driveway and a ways down the road before she burst out in tears.

.

Joan and Bob found the perfect spot. After helping his mother clean the house, then fish off the dock for a bit, they put the fishing gear away in the boathouse they'd built and things got amorous. Bob finally repaid Joan and licked her slit. Joan loved it, letting out squeaks of joy, and wanted more. Not just his tongue. Hot and eager himself, Bob did. They had a wonderful sex session with tons of kisses and did their best to make it last as long as possible.

Sweaty and panting, they held each other tight, enjoying the afterglow. Joan's eyes were also lighting up the inside if the boathouse in a light blue glow. "I don't want to go home, I want to stay here with you," she said and kissed him again.

"I want that too, but you have to, hon," Bob told her gently.

"Yeah, it'll get dark soon, so I gotta go," she grumbled.

Tracing a finger down her cheek, Bob said, "We need to use protection too."

"Won't do any good," Joan told him. "I learned all about birth control in health class. Anything those pills do, my nanites will undo. If I do want a baby, the end of the rubber will rip right off."

"Really?" he asked.

Joan nodded. "Yup. Right now, I don't want a baby, so we're safe. I just want you as close as we can get," she said with a grin.

"Me too," he agreed grinning back at her.

Joan tensed to move then relaxed. "I really don't want to leave," she said in a huff.

"Me either, but we do need to go," Bob said. He got up first and held her hand. Joan got up and hugged him. "See you tomorrow," she said.

"I'll walk you out and keep looking at the lake. Your eyes right now are like blue headlights."

Joan giggled. "They are head lights."

It was tough getting her tail back on and saying goodbye to Bob. She understood a little more about why having sex while they were still in school wasn't a good thing. She didn't want to go home, deal with school or anything else right now. She wanted crawl in bed with Bob and stay there.

Diving into the water, Joan could see very well. The blue glow in the water was also making all the fish swim away a little faster than they usually did. Feeling very good (except for the fact she had to leave Bob), Joan swam easy across the lake.

Mid-lake, she noticed a merman swimming parallel to her and slowly getting closer. She waved to him. He waved back. After surfacing for a breath, she noticed he did too. Going back under he was even closer. Up ahead, she saw the dock. She didn't want him swimming up to where the alligators were, so she waved again and put on speed. At first he kept up, then was falling behind. Joan raced to the dock and jumped up on. She did a flip to stop and took her tail off. She wonder briefly why the dock looked blue, then giggled. That was her.

Joan saw the new planter in the yard that now had yellow and purple flowers in it. Going inside, she saw dinner was almost ready. She'd arrived home just in time. "Who put the new planter in the yard? It's really pretty." she offered.

Delilah eyed her and asked, "That planter made you that happy?" she asked.

Grinning, Joan told her, "Naw, that was Bob."

"Not surprised. Joan, you need to slow down with him a bit."

"Yeah, I do," she admitted.