Once they'd had their fill of Eddie's signature grilled cheese sandwiches, they all sat around the picnic table wiping their buttery fingers and enjoying some ice-cold sodas.
"Boy is it getting hot," Chrissy noted, "The sun is so high overhead we've lost all our shade."
"We have time to take a swim before we head to the library," Eddie offered, "I have a second pair of trunks."
"I have a suit you could borrow," Chrissy said to Lydia.
Stiles and Lydia both agreed that a swim would be nice. It wasn't quite California-level hot, but it was still pretty warm now that the dampness from the morning had burned off.
The boys offered to change outside of the tent so that the girls could have privacy, to which the girls rolled their eyes and said, "Why can't you just wait until we're done?"
Eddie shrugged, "Don't wanna wait."
With that, he ducked into the tent and retrieved two pairs of swim trunks, and he and Stiles ventured off into the wooded space behind the tent.
Neither of the guys were shy so they wasted no time tearing their shirts off.
"Hey, nice ink!" Eddie said, staring at Stiles' back.
"I uh, what?" Stiles tried to look at his own back to no avail, "What are you talking about?"
Eddie laughed heartily, "You're hilarious. As if you don't know you've got a big lightning strike right down the middle of your back. You're a riot."
"I'm being super serious right now, what is on my back?!"
Eddie looked confused, "Ok, so don't panic, but you definitely have a tattoo, like, a big one."
"Hey Lyds, can you come look at something?!"
Eddie quickly pulled his shorts down and put his trunks on so as not to flash Lydia. Moments later the girls emerged from the tent looking puzzled. Chrissy was dressed in a pink and orange striped one piece with her hair pulled half up in a little ponytail. Lydia was wearing a one-piece as well, but hers was a color-blocked green and purple pattern, and she had her hair fully up in a messy bun.
"What's wrong?" she asked, noticing the panic in Stiles' eyes.
"Look at my back!" he spun around and hitched his thumbs over his shoulders at the offending area.
"Holy shit, Stiles! When did you get that?!"
"I didn't!" Stiles exclaimed, "I can't even see it, how bad is it? Does it look badass or just stupid?"
"Badass," Eddie concurred.
"It's… a lot," Lydia murmured, moving to trace the black lines with her fingertips.
"Can we just take a moment to discuss the fact that this morning I did NOT have a tattoo on my back?!"
"Ok, deep breaths," Lydia said softly, turning Stiles around to face her, "This has got to be connected to what happened to us. It can't be a coincidence that you saw lightning and now you have a lightning strike tattoo."
"Aw man, it's some sort of voodoo curse or something isn't it?"
"That would be wicked," Eddie says, before realizing no one else thinks it's a good thing, "What, come on! You don't think it's cool that someone hexed you? I wanna be hexed!"
Stiles paused for a moment, considering what Eddie said, and then shrugged, "I guess it is kinda cool, isn't it? Like someone went through the trouble of hexing me ."
"First things first, let's swim and see if this rubs off," Lydia suggested.
"Doesn't look like marker," Eddie pointed out.
"Doesn't hurt to test it," Chrissy shrugged.
So the four of them wandered the narrow path from the campsite to the lake.
"Oh this is pretty!" Lydia exclaimed, taking in the body of water that sprawled out before them.
"Isn't it? I've lived in Indiana my whole life and I've never been here, but it's a real gem, I'm glad we came up here."
Eddie put his arm around Chrissy's shoulder, "It makes the town pool look like a swamp, don't it?" He pressed a kiss into her hair.
"How warm is it this time of year?" Lydia walked over to the edge and dipped a toe in. Just as she was about to shriek from the sting of cold water, Stiles barreled past her and scooped her up, carrying her into the lake with a splash.
"Mieczyslaw Stilinksi I am going to kill you," Lydia screeched, panting from the sudden rush.
"Hey don't go giving out my full name to just anyone," Stiles groaned, "Lydia Fe-"
Eddie and Chrissy laughed as Lydia stifled him with her hand and dragged him underwater as though she was going to drown him.
Chrissy took Eddie's hand and they ran into the water to join their friends, whooping at how chilly it was once they were partially submerged.
"Did it come off?" Chrissy asked.
Stiles spun away from them and everyone inspected his back to see if the thick black lines had smudged at all. They hadn't.
"I told you it wasn't fake," Eddie said, "I know good ink when I see it. That looks professionally done."
"I'd have seen it before," Lydia muses, "So it definitely wasn't there last night, and it wouldn't have healed by this morning if it was from after I went to bed."
Stiles rolled his eyes, "As if I just went out to get a late-night tat without telling you."
Chrissy was absentmindedly tracing the lines of her favorite tattoo Eddie had, a recent addition to his collection. It was half a moon half a rose, because Chrissy's birthday was in June. "Even if you break my heart, at least its still a cool tat." (She'd swatted him and scowled, but it was hard to stay mad at him when she knew he was just teasing.)
"Do either of you know anyone with a similar tattoo?" Chrissy asked.
"I heard once that if you get struck by lightning it makes a burn mark in the shape of a lightning strike on your skin. Could that be it?" Eddie leaned back and started floating in the cool water.
"Normally it would leave a red or white scar," Lydia says, "But if Stile did see dark lightning before we got here, maybe this was caused by a dark lightning strike?"
"But wouldn't I have felt that?" Stiles looks perplexed.
"I would imagine so," Lydia agrees before joining Eddie in floating.
"Alright, so when we get to the library we need to thoroughly investigate this dark lightning phenomenon. Hopefully there's enough material in 1987 to give us something to work with," Chrissy chews her lip in thought, "It wouldn't hurt to look into any other time travel ideas we can come up with, but I think this is by far our best lead."
Before long they're all floating and the conversation moves from the task of researching to researching for school, and then just school in general.
"I almost didn't graduate," Eddie admits, "But I couldn't stand the thought of spending one more year in school without Chrissy, so I had to buckle down."
"Happy to be your motivating factor anytime," Chrissy smiles at him.
"I'm jealous that you guys are staying close after graduation, Stiles and I are going to be apart for a while once I start grad school and he goes into FBI training."
"Well if my band ever takes off, I will probably have to tour and that means either Chrissy comes with or we set up a homestead somewhere."
"And we've already discussed that I don't really want to live on a crowded tour bus with your bandmates," Chrissy reminds him, "So we're hoping to save up enough money, for a downpayment on a little place of our own."
Lydia wrinkles her nose, "I remember riding on the team bus with Jackson once after a game and that was revolting, what is it about groups of straight guys rebuking hygiene when there are no women around?"
Chrissy giggles, "See Eddie? I told you, you guys are gross ."
Eddie stands and shakes his head sending water flying every which way, "Yeah but you love us anyway."
"We'd love you more if you used soap regularly," Lydia chides.
Eddie and Stiles roll their eyes. The four of them plod out of the water and over to their towls on the bank, which are warm from the sun beating down on them for the last hour.
"Well I feel refreshed and ready to hit the books," Eddie proclaims, before faking like he's choking, "Oh god, those words do not feel right coming out of my mouth."
"These two are infectious," Stiles says warningly, "I can tell. They weasel their way into your heart with their cute little smiles and then they make you read and learn stuff."
"Exactamundo," Eddie says, giving Stiles two finger guns in response.
"You know you love it," Lydia replied, swatting Stiles with her towel.
"We're the best thing that could have happened to you two," Chrissy teases.
The boys share a knowing glance.
"Come on ladies, let's get dried off and I'll take you to the library so you can get your nerd brain on."
"I love it when you talk nerdy to me," Lydia laughs.
"Couldn't agree more," Chrissy hums, nudging Eddie with her elbow.
The walk back to the campsite is full of plenty of giggles and hand holding. Stiles decides right then and there that if they are stuck in 1987, at least they're stuck with two really awesome new friends.