"Oh my God, really?"
"Yes, I know, it was so awkward," Roger groaned. He rolled over on the floor to hide his face.
"You really need practice with this," Roger's friend, Margo, told him.
Still groaning, Roger rolled over on his back. "I know I do. I just, like… panic."
Margo sat up on her bed, studying him. "I get it. But if he's gonna like you, he's gonna like you for you, so just act normal. Try your best."
Roger sighed, looking over at his best friend. She was Korean, with a dark pixie cut that she had gotten from the lake's "hair-cutter." She was fifteen, about a year older than him, and pansexual. She had been the one to help him figure out he was gay, and they had been best friends since.
"Yeah, but that would mean I would have to face him again. I am never leaving your houseboat ever again."
"No, no, you have to," Margo ordered. "Come on, let's go now."
Roger groaned loudly. He didn't have the courage or motivation to purposefully talk to Edilio.
"Not to talk to him, just to be seen by him, maybe," she compromised. She stood up, and bent down to grab Roger's arm and pull him up into a sitting position.
"Fine," Roger said, resigning. He stood up and followed her out into the houseboat's main room.
Margo's five-year-old brother, Mack, was sitting in a circle on the floor with Justin and Atria, the two littles Roger lived with. They were watching something in the middle of them all intently,, pointing at it. Liz, another girl who lived in the houseboat with them, was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, reading a book. Her boyfriend, Alan, lived with them, too, but he wasn't there currently.
"What are you guys doing?" Roger asked as he and Margo walked past.
"There's a roly-poly," Justin said, sounding like he was concentrating hard.
"Her name is Jojo," Mack informed them. "She is a baby."
Atria nodded. "We're keeping her safe."
Roger and Margo smiled. "From what?" Margo asked.
"Coyotes," the three littles said.
"And Drake," Mack added, a hint of terror in his voice. Drake was a sort of bogeyman for the littles.
Margo grabbed a wooden baseball bat that was leaning against the wall, and put it on the floor next to the three kids. "Use this in case any coyotes come, alright?"
"And don't leave the boat," Roger told them. "Stay here until we get back."
The kids agreed, and Roger and Margo walked out onto the deck. It was sunny out, around noon, and most of the kids were crowded on the edge of the lake, watching something. The pair looked at each other, neither knowing what it was about.
"Hey," Margo called to John Terrafino as he passed by, holding a little's hand. "What's going on?"
"Caine's here," John answered. "Helping move some train walls. Causing commotion." He shrugged, and then moved on to join the crowd.
Roger thought of Diana, who lived on his houseboat with him. Caine being so near would probably make her anxious, since she left him behind last week after they migrated to the lake.
"Let's go check it out," Margo suggested. When Roger looked uninterested, she added, "Edilio will probably be there."
Roger smiled, blushing. "Okay, okay. Just for a bit, though."
They walked to over to the scene, and as they approached they could hear aggravated yelling.
"Caine, please could you just stack them for now? We will need you again, but—"
"I never agreed to a two-part job!"
"I know, but we haven't—"
Roger and Margo found their way to the front of the crowd, to see Sam, Edilio, Dekka, and Brianna standing in a cluster, all yelling at Caine, while Computer Jack was looking frantically at a piece of paper that looked like it had a drawing of something on it, maybe the layout of the to-be bathrooms.
"You haven't even dug the trenches yet!" Caine criticized. "What did you need the train car walls for?"
"To see how much we had to be able to use," Computer Jack tried to explain.
"We didn't want to waste time digging big holes if we only had enough for small holes," Edilio said, backing up Jack. Roger admired how he was still trying to stay calm.
Sam, on the other hand, was not trying to stay calm. "Can't you just stop being selfish for once?" he shouted, throwing his hands up. "Not everybody worships you, 'King Caine.'"
Caine, who was still levitating a train car wall, moved it so that it hung over Sam. "Well, then, maybe I should crush you," he started to lower the wall, so that Sam and the others had to duck to avoid it hitting his head, "with my royal might."
Laughs broke out among the crowd of onlooking kids. Roger rolled his eyes, and Margo groaned.
Jack used his super-strength to push the wall out of the way, and it fell to the ground in front of them, forgotten by Caine's telekinesis.
"Come on, Caine, what the hell?" the Breeze said, exasperated.
"Just stack the walls out of the way, and we'll pay you extra," Dekka tried to reason, holding her hands out in a peace gesture.
Caine swiped his hand through the air, knocking the lake's representatives off their feet with his power. "I'll be back in a few days, and you better have twice the payment ready." He spun around and stalked away from the lake.
Brianna, who had unsurprisingly gotten up the fastest, raced in front of Caine to give him the middle finger, and then sped back to safety. Some of the crowd yelled insults at him.
The crowd started to disperse. Some stayed behind, like Roger and Margo stayed behind, mostly so Roger could watch Edilio, but also because they wanted to know what would happen with the bathrooms.
Edilio, Sam, Dekka, and Brianna were discussing what to do about the situation, and Jack shouted his input while he was moving the car walls aside. After about thirty seconds, they evidently came to some sort conclusion, because Sam and Edilio started walking back to the lake, while Dekka and Brianna stayed behind with Jack, who was still taking care of the train car walls.
Margo turned to Roger, and gave him an "I'm gonna embarrass you, good luck" look. Roger's eyes widened, but before he could protest, Margo said, "Hey, Edilio."
Edilio turned to them, Sam moving on. He smiled, and blushed slightly when he saw Roger, no doubt remembering the embarrassing moments they'd shared. "Yeah?"
"How long will the construction of the bathrooms be?" Margo asked, impressing Roger not for the first time with the ability to quickly improvise.
Shrugging, Edilio said, "It depends. Hopefully only about a week or two, if Caine cooperates."
Margo nodded, and then left unceremoniously, leaving Roger and Edilio behind together.
Roger glanced at him, then looked at the ground. He could feel his face reddening out of awkwardness. "Caine's a dick," he finally said.
Edilio laughed, which made Roger smile. "Yeah, he is," Edilio agreed. "But he's a telekinetic dick, so we need him for some things."
"Like moving train car walls," Roger volunteered. Why was he so bad at conversation?
"Exactly," Edilio said, smiling. "So, you draw, I guess? That was kind of a dumb question, you're not called the Artful Roger for nothing…."
"I do, yeah," Roger replied. "I'm confident enough to say I'm pretty good." He laughed shortly.
"I bet you are," Edilio said. "What kind of stuff do you draw?"
Roger shrugged. "Whatever, really. People, usually, that's what I'm best at."
"That's cool," Edilio said, and he sounded like he meant it. "Well, I have to get back to work. Lake to run, and stuff."
"Yeah, that's okay," Roger said. "See you around."
"I hope so," Edilio said, and turned around to walk back to the docks.
I hope so. That sounded sincere, like he actually wanted to be with Roger again.
Roger hurried over to Margo, who had been standing in the outskirts of the trailer park that surrounded the lake.
"I hate you," he told her.
Brianna and Dekka stood in silence as they waited for Jack to finish moving the train car walls away from the build site. He was grunting with the effort; apparently the walls were pushing his limits.
"Hurry up," Dekka grunted, visibly impatient. She was using her anti-gravity powers to lessen the gravity in the area around the walls, so it was easier for Jack to push them around.
Brianna glanced at her, trying to look annoyed. Not for the first time, she noticed that Dekka was very pretty, even if she didn't show it off. Not that she cared, of course, she was just noticing.
"Why don't you try pushing giant metal walls around?" Jack said. "It's not easy, even with super-strength." He muttered something about never asking for his power, which he did every time he used it.
Dekka threw an uncomfortable look in Brianna's direction, which Brianna ignored, pretending to be interested in Edilio and the Artful Roger, who were having a conversation near the trailer homes that some kids occupied. She'd only stayed because Jack was here, not because Dekka was here.
"Why don't you leave, then, if you're so angry and impatient?" Brianna asked Dekka. "Jack can handle the walls without your gravity turn-offs. Can't you, Jack?"
"No," Jack wheezed, collapsing with the effort of pulling a wall.
Dekka looked fed up. "Okay, just because I told you how I feel about you doesn't mean you can start being a total bitch to me because you don't want to reciprocate them!" she said, raising her voice, and stepping forward Brianna. "We're still going to work with each other, because we both are loyal to Sam, and we both can fight, and you're just going to have to deal with that. So stop being such a twelve-year-old about it, why don't you?"
Brianna was in front of her in an instant. "You were the one to ruin it. We were best friends, like sisters, and then your feelings got in the way, not mine. So why don't you stop being so… Dekka about it?"
They stood there, fuming, inches away for a few moments. Jack remained where he had fallen, sitting up, uncertain. There was something, though, that made Brianna enjoy it. She and Dekka were in very close proximity to each other, and it was… exciting.
No, she told herself, she was just happy to finally yell at her. That was it.
Brianna turned and walked over to Jack, but then suddenly fell flat on her face.
"Hey, you tripped me!" she accused Dekka, shaking her finger at her.
Dekka turned and stalked off.