Chapter 3: A Familiar Face
Let me just say that first off, with my impression of how Aunt Gretchen, Malvin and Malcom looked, I would have probably thought that if my eyes were just a little bit more lighter, then they would've popped clean off their sockets!
Malvin was wearing some Green Shorts that had small Palm Trees that were imprinted on them for the design. He also was wearing an oversized blue tie-dye T-Shirt that had a bunch of messed up splotches around it, and he was carrying a beach ball.
Malcom was not wearing any shirt above his hips, but he had one of those floaties that were wrapped around him, and he was wearing some sunglasses that were apparently two sizes too big for him. He had orange shorts that instead of Palm Tree Imprint designs, there were symbols of oranges or maybe it was tangerines. Anyways, they were cut open so you could see inside of it. The oranges or tangerines of course.
"Wow. I have to say your boys look… fabulous!" Mom exclaimed.
"Thank you! We are just about to take one last dip into the Free Form Pools! Care to join us?" Aunt Gretchen replied back.
"Sure, we could stick around for maybe a few minutes. But later we have to lodge so we can clean up and get some sleep." Mom said.
"Can we go now?" Malcom whined.
"Meet you two at the pools!" Aunt Gretchen waved them off as they ran towards the pools to get there as fast as they could.
"They never seem to change huh?" Rodrick muttered in a low voice.
"Rodrick!" Mom scolded him as we started to walk after them.
"Oh maybe not now child. But after this trip, I guarantee you that they will be two changed kids. They'll improve over time the more we get here, don't you worry." Aunt Gretchen must've heard Rodrick.
I was still worried though about how we would get pass lodging and security. Surely they would recognize our faces even when a few weeks have passed! I noticed Dad was behind the group, so I joined in the back with him.
"So how do you expect us to get pass security?" I asked Dad.
"The day is almost over. They probably won't recognize us with our clothes, but you have to remember to keep your head down. Don't show them your face."
"Ugh. That would be easier said than done." I muttered to myself.
We finally got down to the front door where the receptionists were. Luckily they were still registering another family, and when Aunt Gretchen waved to them, they looked towards us and nodded. Me and Dad and Mom were trying to keep a low profile by looking downwards, but when I glanced up to take a peek, I immediately regret it.
"Hold on there." I heard one of the receptionists say.
I closed my eyes, and took a deep breath. I wished I could send messages to my family through my mind telling me how much I loved them and that I had a good enough life. But they were already making their way towards the exit door leading towards the Free-form pools.
"I reckon I thought I see you from somewhere." The receptionist said.
My brother Rodrick pulled out some shades from his pocket, wore them, and then patted my shoulder.
"I'm sorry sir but he is autistic," he said in a deep voice that sounded too fake. "He doesn't like to look at people."
I had assumed the receptionist glared towards Rodrick since it was a long awkward silence before he thankfully bought it and let us go.
When we were outside I was already ready to give Rodrick a piece of my boiling mind.
"What the heck were you thinking Rodrick? Calling me autistic?" I growled towards him.
"Hey Greg, I just saved your butt out there from being kicked. Why don't you take a moment to thank me for what I did?" he smirked towards me.
"I'm sure you could've said something BESIDES calling me autistic. Making me a fool in front of everyone?" I tried my best not to shout.
"Two things. One, sure, I could've said another mental disorder that would've had the same result, and two, you already are a fool so it would be no surprise to everyone." He said.
"Argh." I muttered.
We finally found Malvin and Malcom hanging out by the pool with a few other kids about their age around them. They seemed like they were close to having the time of their life!
"Well, we can relax here for a few minutes, and then we'll be heading back." Aunt Gretchen said, as she stepped inside the pool.
"That is a great idea." Mom said and stepped inside the pool too.
"Great. Just a few more minutes left of trying to hide myself like a fugitive." I muttered underneath my breath again.
"Hey, cheer up Greg. That's not the least worst you can think of."
"Well that's the worst thing I could feel right now!"
"You're wrong. The worst thing that could happen is… this!" Rodrick exclaimed as he quickly pulled my shorts down.
"Rodrick! What the-" I stammered as it only took a second to hear a bunch of laughter around me. I quickly tried pulling my pants up, but it's amazing how fast sweat from perspiration gets to you. My hands fumbled around my shorts as my cheeks slowly turned pink. I glared towards Rodrick only to find him already in the pool throwing the beach ball towards Malvin.
"You're not ready for the Wild Slide yet pal!" I heard one man exclaimed.
"Don't you think you are a bit quite too young?" I heard a woman ask.
"Hey Greg! I'd say you should stop disturbing public decency at the Mild Slide!" Rodrick called out to me, his mouth curled into a sneer.
I knew that blaming Rodrick would do me no good, so I managed to pull back up my shorts and get into the pool, trying my best to look normal.
Rodrick passed the ball towards Malcom and turned towards me to snicker.
"You shoulda seen the look on your face! It was so freaking priceless!"
I glared a dagger at him.
"Well that may have been so, but this vacation trip isn't over yet. It's just begun!" I exclaimed.
"Great for me, bad for you." He replied back. "That will give me plenty of time. Don't worry Greg, I'm not even getting started."
"Same thing here." I smirked back.
I saw the ball soaring towards me, so I extended my arms and hands to catch it, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere a little kid jumped in my way and caught the ball, a splash that was so unexpected that I nearly fell back into the water.
"He was throwing the ball to me." The kid smiled smugly towards me before swimming away and throwing it again.
I rolled my eyes. Rodrick went over to the edge of the pool and rested both of his arms on it.
"There is more of where that came from." Rodrick smirked.
"Huh?" I looked towards the front but saw nothing. It was completely normal.
"Made you look!" Rodrick laughed.
I couldn't stand how annoying it was, but after glancing at him for a second and looking forward, the Beach Ball went and whammed against my face!
"OOOF!" I exclaimed in surprise and a bit in pain.
The kid who intercepted the ball thrown towards me giggled uncontrollably.
"Now that ball was thrown towards you." He said.
I looked around. Now being a big star where everyone takes photos of me is something that I value, but someone taking embarrassing photos of me is something different. I thought I could hear the distant sound of a flash from a camera.
"This has to be one of the worst moments of my life." I muttered to myself as I rested my arms at the edge of the pool. I wanted to become invisible right then and there.
A few more agonizing minutes later, Aunt Gretchen was thinking straight now and led us to where she was lodging.
"Rented myself a fairly small place our size but we'd be happy to accommodate a room for you two. Make yourself at home." She said as she opened the door.
"That's very nice of you!" Mom exclaimed.
After depositing our shoes in a rack near the front door, Rodrick and I then started to look for our own rooms. Of course, most of the rooms on the inside were fairly stuffed, so I had to make a compromise with my comfort zone. Good thing Aunt Gretchen didn't bring any pets with her this time!
Aunt Gretchen had only one room that housed a standard bed and a dresser and a bunch of other furniture, but that was for Mom and Dad. That meant the only space that seemed suitable for sleeping in was the living room.
I and Rodrick looked towards each other, but even before I could make a move, he tripped me and bolted as fast as he can.
"Hey, that's not fair!" I exclaimed as I scrambled to my feet but it was too late. Rodrick was already looking relaxed on his soon to be couch and bed.
"Oh Greg, sure it's fair! You can sleep down on the floor and hope that the crumbs coming from my food don't attract ants and bugs." Rodrick smiled.
"Great, thanks for the reminder." I said to myself.
So while he was out cold real fast, I looked around the place to see if there was anything I could make use of. I remembered in the past that my Mom said that I should be more creative with my mind. Well, I find that to be only working in very specific situations.
There was a nearby chair next to the balcony that looked like it was woven by some sort of rope. But I didn't plan on sitting there because I learned out the hard way.
It all started as an innocent family trip to this thrift store named Goodwill, about a few years ago. My Mom was searching for some type of clothing that I don't even remember, but when she noticed me being bored, she said that I should be "more creative".
At first, I didn't know what she was talking about, but she said to "discover your inner comfort".
"Huh." I said to myself as I walked around the Goodwill isles. There wasn't really much. Just toys, clothes, pants, more clothes, shoes, very samey.
I did notice some furniture after a few more seconds of walking. My brother Rodrick went over to a nearby Recliner and tried it out. A few seconds later, he was out cold.
"Let's not try the Recliners," I said to myself.
Then that was when I noticed a rather peculiar looking chair that had ropes and some sort of bamboo like material wrapped around the seating. Now that looked cool, so I walked towards it and sat down.
It actually felt very comfortable. I could imagine just having a couple of these chairs out in the balcony of my future mansion, or even create artificial islands in my pool and have a chair or two on one of those islands.
And Mom said we couldn't have any toys, but she didn't say we couldn't have any extra chairs yet!
I rested a bit of my head on the chair, which added even MORE to the experience.
So now I figured that this chair was going to have to be a keeper. In fact, I was so excited that I quickly got up and was planning to tell Mom about it, but I wasn't expecting to scream about it though.
Since I rested my head on it, my hair actually clung onto the surface, so me getting up very quickly was worse than it yanking huge clumps of hair out of my head!
I didn't even know that my scream would be that shrill. It was so loud that I thought my voice could be in competition with the other voices that had the ability to break glass with the sound waves.
I shook my head as I walked away from that chair that still gives me chills.
I checked a couple of the bathroom closets. There were a couple of bath towels. That could get me somewhere.
I checked the regular, standard closets, but I didn't find any cot or Air Mattress of some sort.
I couldn't even find a hammock. I wasn't going to take a chance by sleeping on the floor though.
I'm already in trouble for sleeping while sitting on the toilet again, the other day, which was about a week or so ago, but in my defense, I was tired, and it was a good place to sleep. And when you need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, you can feel more carefree that you don't have to worry about that.
I did notice that Mom and Dad and Aunt Gretchen and her boys placed down all of their baggage on a wall that was next to the window that headed towards my direction, and I came up with an uncomfortable idea.
I took some extra socks and my phone and hid them in one of the closets in the bathroom, and got some bath towels as well. Just didn't want it to crush because of my plan. Didn't want to take any chances, that's what. Then I went over to where all of the baggages were.
I then put the bath towels over the baggages making myself a poorly but functional make-shift comfortable mattress.
Everything got very quiet inside the place a few minutes later, but there was still a lot of noise coming from outside. I noticed that the sliding door was slightly open though, so I closed it. The noise was quieter, but didn't muffle it all the way.
At least it was quiet enough to get some sleep in.
I sighed as I got on my make-shift bed among the baggage and went to sleep, very slowly unfortunately. Half the time I was worried about the location of my phone and extra socks.
Malcom and Malvin have a really long history of vandalizing our possessions, and I was really hoping that they wouldn't mess around with my phone and extra socks.
No matter where I'd put my baggage, there were high chances that something in my baggage might get crushed, so neither my phone or socks would be up to it.
I just settled down and hope that nothing would go wrong. And even if Malcom and Malvin were to destroy something, at least I would be making progress with sleeping and risking on breaking some of their stuff on the bags.
I didn't know how long it was until the next day, but one thing was for sure though. It was still quiet around, and Rodrick was still sleeping on the couch.
"I guess this means I could be the first one up." I said to myself.
I went over to check on the phone and extra socks, and luckily they weren't damaged in some sort of way.
I picked up the phone and extra socks, and then stuffed them back in my baggage. The Bathroom Closet I figured looked like a good place to hide my phone and sock hoard, so maybe tonight I can hide it there again if I have to sleep in my Baggage Bed.
I took out my toothbrush from my baggage and saw that there was a yellow toothpaste nearby on the sink when I returned to the bathroom, which had the words on it:
Delicia Picante!
I shrugged. But "Delicia" looked like the word "delicious" to me, so maybe it would bring a great tasting sensation to my mouth that I hopefully wouldn't swallow.
After I forced the toothbrush into my mouth, my eyes immediately turned blurry from all of the unexpected tears come from my eyes. I immediately spit it out.
"What is this?!" I exclaimed in disbelief. This didn't taste delicious at all. It tasted extremely hot and spicy, and I thought it was going to burn my tongue if I left it there for another second.
I went over to my baggage once again and took out my nearly empty toothpaste. I'd rather bring more pain and pressure to my thumbs on squeezing the best I can the toothpaste out of the tube then take some highly spicy and hot toothpaste that probably was only decided for machos.
After I finished with that obligatory cleaning of my teeth, I went back into the living room, and was surprised to see everyone already there awake. Everyone except Rodrick.
That probably explained why I wasted minutes just trying to squeeze the toothpaste out of the tube.
"Good Morning Greg." Dad said as he opened his wallet.
"Good Morning Dad." I replied back as I went over to the baggage to collect the Bath Towels. I then noticed Mom come in carrying Manny. "Good Morning Mom."
"Good Morning Gregory, did you sleep well?" Mom chirped cheerfully.
"Nope, not at all." I replied back.
"We are going to head over to the Breezes Restaurant for some breakfast. Wake your brother up will you son?" Dad said as he headed towards the front door after finishing checking his wallet, probably checking how much money worth of food he could afford.
I went over to Rodrick.
"Hey Rodrick! Get up!" I also punched him in the arm for an effect.
No answer.
I grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the floor, but either he gained so much weight or he is deliberately forcing himself to stay on the couch.
"What the…"
All of a sudden I saw a small smirk on his face that I had been assuming he was trying to hide.
"Hey Dad, I think I'm big enough to go to the Teen Zone, mind if you can give me permission to stay there?" I said especially loud enough for Rodrick to hear.
All of a sudden, I felt a sharp burst of pain on my arm, and Rodrick just went passed me towards the front door where Aunt Gretchen and Mom and Manny were.
"Rodrick! What was the big deal?" I rubbed my arm.
"Nothing, I just needed to get you back," Rodrick jeered, not even looking towards me.
"Well that was harder than the punch I gave you," I muttered back.
I went over to the front door and put my shoes on after Rodrick put his on and everyone else's. And after a short elevator trip down, I got outside with the rest of the family including Aunt Gretchen, Malvin and Malcom. I began to realize why we were going to the Breezes Restaurant. I vaguely recognized that it was the same employee that worked at the Swim-Up Bar the last time we visited here. Good thing Dad wouldn't take his chances. But I still wasn't looking forward to having out food stolen by birds.
We got some food from the Breezes Restaurant, but unfortunately the only tables available were the ones outside.
I was already thinking of just taking the food and eating near the Free-Form pools, and I could tell from the way Mom looked, she was very uncomfortable with this place.
"Have you been to this place before?" Mom asked her younger sister.
"Oh sure." Aunt Gretchen said. "But when you have these two Mean-Machines, you can eat food anywhere without anyone bothering you."
I noticed some birds already landing down on the floor seconds into eating out food in the table. This time I always carried my soda with me so that no slugs or anything could get their second go at quenching their morning thirst.
I was starting to get nervous when Aunt Gretchen all of a sudden snapped her right finger.
Malvin and Malcom got up from their chairs and then started running around in a circle around the table, constantly shouting and even waving their plastic knives around wildly around. I had to duck a few of their swings, but I was surprised to see it having an EFFECT.
The birds quickly flapped their swings and flew away, and I was even more impressed that none of our food ever got touched by any one of them.
Malvin and Malcom were still at it though, shouting and screeching, even though I really didn't think it was necessary, but they still were at it.
It was really soon starting to get annoying really fast, but just when I was about to say something, Malcom swung his fist accidentally at my soda, and it fell down and spilled onto my Burger and my French Fries that was already dipped in ketchup.
Rodrick snickered, pointed at my food, and snapped a picture of it with his phone.
"My little bro making his own Burger and French Fries, his gourmet speciality." He said as he was rapidly typing with his thumbs. I started breathing heavily.
"HEY!" I finally mustered up the courage to shout at them.
Malvin and Malcom stopped what they were doing.
"The birds are gone now." I said. Malvin and Malcom glared at me.
"Relax, its fin-" I began when I all of a sudden heard a large flapping of wings.
Malvin and Malcom then started running around and shouting and waving their plastic knives around. I sighed angrily as I just started stuffing as much food in my mouth as fast as I could before they could knock anything else down.
This was going to be a fairly long breakfast.
After we were done, Dad and Aunt Gretchen paid for the breakfast, and once we were near the Free-Form pools, Aunt Gretchen had an idea.
"They just recently built a new play-place around the Teen Zone." Aunt Gretchen announced.
"Really?" Mom asked.
"Yip. Battleboat Beach they call it or something like that. It's like a jumbo sized Pirate Playhouse, but for the teens instead. It's really nice, and is one of the few places that's better than average quality."
"That sounds like fun. Greg, you and Rodrick can head over there if you want." Dad nodded.
Now that I think of it, new places needed new employees, so that was probably one of the few places in the resort where no one would ever recognize me from before.
"That sounds like a great idea," I said.
"And has Manny ever been to the Pirate Playhouse before?" Aunt Gretchen asked.
"I don't remember, but he'd sure love to, won't he Manny?" Mom said as she ruffled Manny's hair.
"Well, Malvin and Malcom would sure like to go; we can go there now if you want." Aunt Gretchen replied.
"Good idea." Dad concluded. He then turned towards me and Rodrick. "You two behave yourselves and have a good time." He said.
"As in, we go right now?" Rodrick asked.
"Yes! You two can go over to the Battleboat Beach and have a good time!" Mom said.
"Well I'll be. Thanks, see you in how long?" I asked Mom.
"You don't have to worry, we'll come over when it's time!" she said.
"Good." Rodrick nodded before walking over towards the Teen Zone that had the Battleboat Beach, I followed him.
"So Rodrick! Ready for this?" I said as we were walking, getting close to the Battleboat Beach.
"Oh yeah." He replied back not looking. "I'll have everyone scrambling for the beach in no problem."
"I know that was just an exaggeration." I snickered.
"Oh no it isn't. I'm laying facts here." He replied back.
"No, you are laying fiction here." I replied back in return.
"Nope not at all, it's Non-Fiction." Rodrick said.
"You know we could be doing this all day." I said as we finally got to the booth. It was fairly massive hut, followed by a fence that covered a large amount of square feet, with two big Battleboats that were made out of some kind of wood. It actually looked just like Pirate Ships in real life, but a little more smaller.
"Welcome to Battleboat Beach. I see you two are new to this place?" one of the guys inside the hut said to us.
"We are." I replied back.
"Okay. You two are wearing appropriate clothing so we don't need to do a dress code check." The guy looked like a surfer dude. He had blond hair, had dark tan skin, and was wearing a tooth necklace around him.
Another guy in the hut went over to us and gave us what looked like to be wooden swords that I have to admit, did look realistic.
The blond hair guy went over to some shelves inside the hut and got what looked like to be vests that had a plastic looking square that was decorated in the center of it.
"Wear these." He said, and then went over to some nearby shelves.
"Are these safe to wear around water?" I asked him.
"Oh yeah. They even act like life-vests so you can play even if you don't know how to swim." The blond hair guy said.
While we were getting dressed in these, we also received from him some play pirate hats, and some eye patches too. I then noticed on the shelves some really cool looking masks, like a pretend Beard and Mustache, a Mask that covered both of your eyes, and much more.
"What are those Face-Masks over there?" I pointed to the shelves.
The blond guy looked towards them.
"Oh, those? Those are only for premium members of Battleboat Beach. To be a premium member is costs $19.99 of U.S Currency, or $378.03 pesos." he replied back.
"Shoot, don't have any money on me, sorry." I said.
I and Rodrick finally finished dressing a few seconds later.
"Lookin' sharp." He nodded as he looked at us for a few seconds, moving his upper body back a bit.
"You guys are set to go." The other guy said who had brown hair and wore a brown shirt that had a picture of a boat. "You guys are gonna be at the Red Team Battleboat." He said as he pointed over to the Boat that was the closest to the beach.
We headed over to the Battleboat, which had a ladder to go up on it near the back. After we climbed the ladder, we could see a couple other people my age around the Battleboat's deck. I'm actually impressed by how realistic it looked, just like the swords.
There were a couple benches near the edge, as well as a steering wheel from the North of my point of view. There was also a Captain's Cabin there too. I went inside of it, and was surprised to see a small well that had no roof or support, just a small hole around there that had water about 5 inches from the Deck's surface. There were also a couple of buckets around there too.
That was when I noticed the Water Cannons that were facing the other Battleboat, which had a bunch of kids about Rodrick's age. Two of them even had some Face-Masks on.
I looked around and noticed that there were 5 Water Cannons, but there were 2 small holes that were each between the first and the second and the fourth and the last cannon, and more backwards.
"What's this?" I called down towards the hut.
The blond hair guy looked towards me through the opening.
"That's the Water Blasters." He said. Unlike the Water Cannons that shoot towards their target, the Water Blasters have more range and shoot towards the air.
I nodded back.
I also noticed that there were some stairs leading up on the Captain's Cabin's exterior roof, and I saw what looked like to be a big dark wooden bucket. There was also two buttons on either side, they were red, and were supported by some black beams that clung onto the surface of the exterior roof.
"Woah! What's this over here?" I asked the blond hair guy again from the Battleboat.
He looked over but shook his head.
"Sorry mate, but you are not allowed to use the Waterpult." He said.
"The Waterpult?" I asked.
"Yeah. The Waterpult requires large amounts of water put into that jumbo bucket over there you see? It's supported by some mechanical arms, and just like a catapult, throws the huge amounts of water at its enemies, showering them. It's the best weapon here, but unfortunately all members of the Battleship have to be a premium member.
"But that's not fair! You saw us, you assigned us here randomly." I exclaimed.
"Actually we assign you to each boat by skill level. When you are in battle we observe how you play, and determine your skill level. Since you two are newbies, you are at zero skill level." The blond hair guy explained.
"For now at least." Rodrick smirked.
"I like the attitude mate." The blond hair guy gave him a thumbs-up before returning to register another teenager who just arrived near the hut.
We waited for more people to arrive, so I just spent my time walking around the deck, observing it, and also looking down at the water down below. Both ships were fenced in, but there was some water that I could thankfully see the bottom, but it looked like some five to eight feet worth of depth.
I couldn't help but still notice the steering wheel. Can this ship actually move?
"Can this ship actually move?" I said the exact thing in my mind.
It took the blonde hair guy a few seconds to attend to another person, before he looked back towards me.
"Yes it can. The controls are fairly easy, there are two buttons on each end, the left one makes the ship move forward, the right one makes it move backward, and they are bigger than your thumb, so don't worry."
"Cool." I said.
Turns out, the kids around this ship actually agreed to having me as Captain. I spent the next few minutes inside the Captain's cabin devising a strategy of my own. It's an old technique I used from Twisted Wizard, after I learned some more mechanics of the ship.
The Water Cannons acted like those Water Boats. Shoots out a stream of water at whatever it is aiming at, and it is powered by a tube connected downwards to a regular sized bucket which you pour water in through the hole where the bucket is settled in.
With the Water Blasters, they shoot out a stream of water in the air, so it's almost impossible to tell where it would exactly land. However, the hole in the ground was surrounded by this metal plate, with a red arrow pointing towards the other ship. I figured that would be the direction of the aiming.
The Water Blasters needed to be filled with water which you just simply pour in through the hole, the exact hole where water would need to go in and would be squirted out. And there is a black beam with a red button closest to the Captain's Cabin to activate it.
And with the Waterpult, well, it's not for our use unfortunately.
After I finished with my rather, interesting Twisting Wizard strategy, I'd say about 65% of everyone seemed on board with it. I'm not even sure if Rodrick was in on it, he looked so unpredictable.
When we got back outside, it was another moment where my eyes would literally fall out of their sockets if they were a bit lighter upon looking at the other Battleboat.
I could see almost everyone wearing masks, and some of them even had duel wooden swords with them.
I even saw this one guy who was wearing normal gear like me and Rodrick, but had this very long sword that looked like it was made out of STEEL.
On our team though, we did have a couple premium member people with us.
There was this one guy who was wearing a fake goatee and had a small Water Pistol the looked black and lightweight, which I think is great for shooting the enemies in the eyes to blind them.
Rodrick was leaning out, resting his arms against the wooden railing on the deck towards the ship.
I did the same, only I was on the opposite side as him. Perhaps he was trying to observe what kinds of people he had to deal with. Save some of that for me of course.
"Hey… Greg is your name, right?" I heard a female voice from behind me.
I turned around and noticed a decently looking girl wearing the same gear as me, although she had what looked like to be some kind of fake high-tech looking Water Rifle or Machine of some sort. And she had a bandanna though instead of a Pirate Hat.
"Yeah, that's me."
Of course. I introduced my name to everyone on board so that they would know to call me in case of emergencies out there on the field in case we were having difficulty with our plan.
"I heard your plan about this strategy of your own where you force people to separate from their groups decreasing their multitudes making it easier to take them on." She replied back.
"Yep, the strategy still works." I replied back nervously.
She had black hair that the Bandanna was slightly covering; light skin, blue eyes, and was just a teensy bit taller than me, even though she looked about my age.
I couldn't help but admire the Water Rifle that she had.
"Say, what's that Water Rifle thingy you got there?" I asked.
"Oh this?" she looked down at it. "It's a rapid fire Water Gun. You could say it's an Aqua Machine Gun."
"Whoa. How does that thing work?" I ask.
She gestured over to the barrel of the Gun. "You see that rotator? It's filled with holes where the water from this thing can shoot, and it turns around really fast, and at the same time, holding down the trigger will release the Water Stream, which some gets through and some gets blocked, creating that streamline effect.
"That's pretty cool!" I was awe-struck by this.
"Thanks. Are you new around here?" she asked.
Uh oh. This was pretty bad. If she finds out that I was one of the family members featured on the website, my life could be over this instant! I even wondered for a slightest if she could secretly be a spy working for the Isla de Corales security systems and all that sort of stuff!
"Nah, there's no way." I thought to myself. Still, I was gonna have to stay low-profile about this thing.
"Erm, actually this is my second-time." I said. But this is my first time here at Battleboat Beach."
She nodded. "This is my first time here, but I've heard about this new place from the Entertainment part on the website. Figured being a Premium Member would really boost my skill level points. Besides, they were even considering having tournaments on this if things go well with this new game for the next few weeks."
Hold on. She just said she'd been on the website. This was really bad. There was no freaking way that she didn't see my family's picture on there. Maybe she just saw the Entertainment Part and that's all. Either that, or Isla de Corales just gave up ever trying to find us and took down the picture from their website, but still, I wasn't on board with that thought.
"Well maybe this team can really win, with us being both our first time here." I grinned.
"Yeah. Maybe." She did a slight grin back.
"Hey Gregory, never knew you just got yourself a new potential Girlfriend!" I heard Rodrick walking towards us.
Ah great. Ruining this moment.
"Oh excuse my older brother. He is normally so immature." I chuckled.
"Ah Gregory. So how is this thing going to work out?" he said.
"What do you mean how is this thing going to work out?" I growled at him.
"Um… yeah, and we aren't even close to being a couple. More of just potential acquaintances."
"Oh don't play dumb like that Greg," Rodrick laughed. "I know you."
I rolled my eyes.
"Get lost Rodrick. Why don't you do your scouting and see if you could make yourself useful?" I asked him.
"Oh I will. In good time." He laughed as he walked away, but not before he winked towards me secretly.
"Well… that was pretty awkward."
"Yeah. By the way, you never told me your name. What's your name?" I asked.
"Cara." She replied back. "And I've heard enough Gregs to know your name." she chuckled.
"That's right." I chuckled a bit.
"Attention pirates of Battleboat Beach!" I heard the Blonde Hair guy come out from his hut with a Megaphone. "Everyone is already set! Everyone if you would pull up the ladders!"
I saw another kid with red hair walk over and picked up our ladder. The same with the other boat and ironically, it was another kid who had red hair.
"Rules are very simple!" The Blond Hair guy said. "If a Sword or weapon heavy enough hits your chest pad in your vest, it should turn red, and you are to immediately head over to one of the capsules located on the shorelines!"
I was confused.
"Confused? Well let me tell you the basic gameplay. After my signal, you will all have a Three Minute Grace-Period of moving the boat around and shooting your Water Cannons, Water Blasters, and if you are very lucky, the Waterpult. After that you will all are required to arrive on the Beach Island down at the middle of the arena. You will all have another Three Minutes period to take down any one in the enemy team that you cross,"
Now that made things a bit more sensible.
"And those capsules? Well, they are controlled by us and are found near the shorelines of the beach. You are not allowed to get into them unless if your pad is red and you need to get back."
"Ah…" I said to myself.
"After the Three Minute Period is over, you are required to get back on the boat and shoot more at each other for Three More Minutes, and the cycle continues. However, as you make your way back when you are on the Beach when the time is up, you are not allowed to attack each other!"
That was good news. I was used to getting prepared to get attacked suddenly by someone or two in Twisted Wizard, but if I run into a pack I'd wouldn't know what to do.
"So just remember the main goal of the game! Take everyone you see out! What's your strategy? Going in with the hardcore attitude? Or being stealthy and picking them off slowly with the ninja attitude! Your decision!"
"Uh, excuse me?" I heard a voice call from the other ship. "What happens if barely anyone is getting hit?"
The Blond Hair Guy turned towards him.
"Well there is Sudden Death, which happens only when it cycles back to getting on the ships for a third time. Then there would be a period where you'd have to walk the planks!"
Now that was giving me chills. I had this dream the other day that involved a plank and Rodrick was recording it the whole time.
"What does he even mean by 'walk the planks'?" I thought to myself.
"And what do I mean by 'walk the planks'? It's just like it sounds. If you notice at the middle of the arena, there is a black ship about the same size as both of your ships."
I looked over and I couldn't believe that I hadn't noticed it until now.
"That is where you are to board the "Plankship". It's filled with all sorts of small obstacles that you can attack from, and you are not allowed to be inside both boats! You have a 5 minute period to attack as much enemies as you can, and if after the 5 minutes there are still some people left, the winning team is the one with the most amount of people left on their side!"
"Okay… this just got a little interesting." I thought to myself.
"So without further ado, we'll start this match in one minute! Make sure to get your positions and tactics ready! There will be three rounds! Each round has the potential to last up to 20 minutes, but don't worry, Sudden Death is highly unlikely." he shouted.
"Alrighty." I said.
I could see almost everyone in their starting positions, so that was taken care of. For my strategy, I and Rodrick were to take the front section near the steering wheel, which the red haired kid was ready to drive.
"Ready Rodrick to kick some butt?" I asked him as he was staring at the other boat.
No answer.
"Rodrick?" I asked him.
No answer.
"Earth, to Rodrick!" I exclaimed towards him.
Rodrick finally shook his head for a second.
"I think I just saw both of them." He said firmly.
"You saw both of them?" I was confused. "What are you talking about?"
"Look near their Captain's Cabin."
I looked towards the Cabin, but most of everyone's face was hidden by their masks. But I did saw two people, who looked very familiar…
"Wait, that's them?!" I gulped.
"You got that right." Rodrick had this weird and strange monotone of his voice.
I couldn't believe it. Out of all the places in the Teen Zone, those two were at the same place at the same time and as our opponents.
"Get ready to go down big time you two." I heard Rodrick mutter under his breath. I knew it made sense for him to say that. Cause guess what?
Those two people were Rodrigo, and that girl who WAS Rodrick's girlfriend.
Over four months?! That's way too long, I am very sorry for the inconvenience, but hopefully with more time around my sleeve, I'll be able to use that to my advantage. But I did create an extra-long chapter, with over 7,300 words, the longest chapter currently that I created. And for your information I updated my profile so that it now has a section where it will let you know the last recent activity of writing that I did, along with a couple small updates to make it easier and organized. Once again, I am sorry for taking so long, but enjoy my upcoming works!