She couldn't stop staring at it. The way it caught the light from the pink and blue reflectors inside the pool around her. All alone, floating past her on a Lilly pad was this small little plastic arrangement of pineapples. She couldn't tell if they were bothering her or if she enjoyed them. Yes they were a little over the top, yes they looked a little out of place in this small pool next to a cabana bar, yes she was the only person in that pool to see them, but did they bother her?
She didn't think so. Maybe in a way they were cute. In a way they made the experience that much more real.
Oh, now she hears it.
None of it's real. Of course you can touch the pineapple if neccesarry to shoo it away, and of course she could get rid of the pineapple by setting it away. It's plastic, it's not real. She can't bite into and feel the juices sprits across her tongue. She cant remove the core and lay her lips over it to suck the flavor dry. This is not an island paradise.
That's just the name of the resort.
Her eyes found her brother Justin over by the much larger pool less than thirty feet away from her. Through a fence, across a stone path, and through a useless gate made up of boards too far apart to keep anyone out he stood with a big goofy smile on his face as he told another one of his pointless stories to some girl.
The annoying thing was... this nobody Regina George wanna be was eating it up. With hr thin green top covering only her nipples and her tiny matching bikini bottoms, blonde hair pulled back into a bun on top of her head to keep it dry, and that fake pearl necklace dangling from her neck like a knock off flint-stone.
'Gross.' The thought echoed across her mind. Looking around she came to another thought: 'Where the hell is everybody? Surly they're not all just at one pool, there's so many at this resort.' She could hear the soft beat of a bearskin drum so close to her yet far enough to where she couldn't see the source. Her eyes met the bartender as she rose from her pink seashell float. Rising to her feet feeling the cold water swarm up to her waist she made her way over to the bar and pulled herself onto one of the stools.
"Can I ask you something?" She said without looking at him.
Her eyes were on the blue and grey marble top her fingers across the surface she watched as the droplets gathered as he made his way over to her.
"Of course." He smiled as he flipped a hand towel over his shoulder.
"I'll take a papaya smoothie, but..." her eyes slowly floated up to meet his. The sapphires in his head were so pretty that she couldn't look away. "What's the point of the Pineapple display?" She chuckled. "I don't see any other fake fruits or flowers around here, even the vines on the beams here..." She ran one hand up the wood as she kept looking at him just to show him what she meant. "None of these are fake. Why the Pineapple?"
He popped the glass down in front of her with a confused expression on her face before following her gaze to the party going on at the next pool over. "To tell you the truth..." He sighed flipping his long shaggy brown hair out of his eyes. The golden locks falling down around his ears but stopping just before the side burns. "I'm not the one who put it there... no one knows who did. They just don't move it because they're not sure if they should. I've actually noticed it for some time and I myself haven't moved it because I didn't feel like it was something I should do. If you were to decide to move it there's nothing I or anyone else can do to stop you. I can kind of tell this has nothing to do with the Pineapple simply because you keep looking over at where the crowds at. For any situation you can chose to leave the pineapple there and eventually someone else may decide to move it, however we wouldn't be having this conversation if you didn't feel like you had a plastic display to get out of your way now would it."
She gave him an odd look. Some random stranger, or moreover a guy who works at this lavish yet completely painted resort, just gave her a philosophy and she actually understood the premise. This wasn't about plastic objects it was about plastic rules. Rules that had always been there. Rules a wizard like her was so used to breaking. She was a troublemaker. The along comes one more plastic rule, one she barely notices but it's enough to make her think, and now she wants to know if it's a rule that would stop her. This is more than just forbidden spells, it's more than shoplifting a top, it's even more than making your parents forget they ever met (All of which happened at this very resort almost ten years ago).
On that same day she noticed this Pineapple display in her own life. The one rule she never understood. The one rule she pretends isn't there because the more she thinks about it the more she wants to break it. On that same day Justin became something to her, something dangerous yet inviting. He became her Plastic fruit. With the magic in her blood she can make it real. She could bite into it like it was fresh off the tree. Or wherever Pineapples come from.
She wanted Justin. She wanted to taste the forbidden fruit he had to offer. He got on her nerves, he was relentlessly annoying, and he had the worst way of pointing out her failures, but he was Justin. Justin the older brother, the protective smart big guy who got her out of all sorts of trouble, the one thing she wasn't allowed to have.
Why? Why wasn't she allowed to have him? Because of some... Pineapple Display. An old rule from here say and they say. He's pretty, he's gentle, he's so good to her, and he's right over there. He could be in her suite tonight. No, he would probably end up in Regina's suite, or based on that bad nail polish and the fact that she didn't look any older than sixteen means she would be in his... for maybe an hour... till her parents came looking for her.
Imagine his shock when he finds out she's not eighteen. Twenty six years old, drunk, and never been in trouble a day in his life. Maybe it was meant for her to get that Pineapple Display out of the pool. Maybe she should be the one to take the initiative. Slipping her fingers into her purple bra she snagged a card.
She reached it towards the bartender but he shook his head 'no.'
"It's on the house." He smiled. "So long as you move that ugly plastic pineapple."
With a wink she plopped herself down in the water and moved to scoop it up in her hands. Stepping out of the pool she walked across the concrete and made her way to the real party. She'd better hurry, it looks like Justin's already inviting this cheap panty waste over for a little fruit salad.