A Picnic in the Sun

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Alice Ripley

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Inactive
Mar 29, 2009
100
Alice, her arms spread wide, lifted and lowered the rug by its worn, tan tassels. She got down on her hands and knees, her long, lacy, white cotton skirt pressing into the sand as she pulled a big wrinkle straight. It was a slightly course rug, but it was large and the best part was that it was a rental from a stand behind the beach. Alice pulled up the other part of the rental, a very large straw umbrella. Even with the spiked end, Alice almost exhausted herself pushing it into the sand. When it was in the ground behind the rug, she reached into the straw cover and found a modern metal handle. In a minute, the rug was totally covered by new shade.

Alex had to get something that they forgot at the supply stand. Alice looked around for her coming up, but did not yet see her. She sat down on the rug, pulling off her boots. The sand bit at her bare feet with grit and heat, but Alice liked the way the sand felt between her toes and on the top of her feet. She walked around the finished picnic set, looking out to the expanse of water. All that water had an end at land, somewhere out there, but the dancing blue did not look like it could ever end. Lands other than the beach felt like a myth. Likewise, the storm clouds that had been here the day before left no evidence to mark their passing. The sky had not a single cloud – not a single blemish on its perfect blue skin.

...There are two oceans here today...

Alice leaned backwards and fell gently on the rug, her feet kicking up sand to land on her similarly lacy and white blouse, which had tiny chest pockets and short-sleeves with sewn-on bows of short ribbon, giving her white outfit a sandy, tan hint of the beach. She lay, feeling out the slight burn of the sand on her soft heels, watching the seagulls flock overhead, holding onto the handle of the picnic basket just in case the gulls got greedy.
 
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Alex Monroe

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Inactive
Mar 25, 2009
257
“Thank you, have a nice day.” The girl at the supply stand said with a sunny yet insincere smile of someone thirty minutes from their one break of the day. Giving the girl a polite nod she took the sack and left. As her sandal clad feet walked through the sand she opened the bag up and examined the contents making sure they had given her everything. Napkins, plates and cups She couldn’t’ believe that they packed a lunch and neglected to bring things to eat off of. Of course the stand wouldn’t just let her buy two of everything she had to waste her money on packs of everything, costing her more money. At this rate she was going to need to find a job by the end of the week unless she likes dumpster diving for food. But that can be worried about another day, right now Alex intended to enjoy her day out with Alice.

As she made her way back to where Alice was setting up she adjusted the shoulder strap of the white camisole she was wearing. It was a rather beautiful day, Alex though as her gaze turne dot the shore, watching the waves roll in and out, and then out to the horizon, eastward towards home. That’s what it reminded her of, home. Pausing at that thought she looked down at herself and frowned, a twinge of homesickness threatening to overtake her. Standing three in her denim mini skirt sand black knee length tights she there she wiggled her toes, shoving out some sand from her opened toed sandals. It wasn’t her home anymore and probably wouldn’t be ever again. Dismissing those thoughts she made her way over to Alice, putting aside her homesickness, money troubles, body troubles, killer student troubles, she cold worry about them this afternoon.

“I go the stuff.” Alex said standing at the edge of rug, holding up the back as though she was a hunter showing off her killed preyed. A wide grin of triumph on her face.
 
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Alice Ripley

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Mar 29, 2009
100
Alice listened to the water rolling steadily along the beach as she waited for Alex. It sounded like the sea was breathing, and with every reach across the shore it had given her ears another impassive exhale. She heard children laughing as they braced their shoulders against the waves and got knocked down. She remembered a Summer day at Wisconsin Dells when she wore floats on her arms and clips in her air. They offered to give her a blue-flavored snow-cone if she would walk down the gritty ramp into the wave pool when they went to the water-park. She remembered thinking that water, even a lot of it, was no different than the water in her baths. And then sheer wave caught her and she fell from surprise. For a moment, it was wonder that water could behave that way, and then she scratched her back on the ramp and by instinct knew that a larger snow-cone would follow a fit of crying.

...D-D-Daddy! You're t-t-terrible...!
...Hehehe, here's your snow-cone...
...Thomas, I swear! What if you got our daughter killed out there...!?
...Aw c'mon babe, it was funny...!

Alice smiled. She remembered going back in the wave pool a few times, getting tossed by the waves of water and obese people in air tubes. When she got older, though, the floats on her arms came off, and she never got in another wave-pool again.

“I got the stuff.” Alice rolled onto her stomach and there was Alex, looking as radiant as she had hours ago when they woke up.

“The boss will be pleased,” Alice said with her rising smile and her best gangster impersonation, getting up to help set up. “I should've thought 'bout this stuff b'fore we left th'Academy. Thanks for getting th'rest there.”
 
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Alex Monroe

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Inactive
Mar 25, 2009
257
“Good good, just as I planned.” Alex said stroking her chin as though there was a goatee there. She then looked up scanning the surroundings of the spot Alice picked. The waves, the bright white sandy beach, the sound, the smell of the sea she took it all in and smiled. “This is a nice spot.” She said. “I wonder why I’ve never come here before.” She knew the answer to it, she never wanted to, what she would do here, swim, Alex would probably die before she ever had to wear a woman’s bathing suit, and long walks on the beach at sun down by yourself are just a recipe for disaster. But now, she defiantly needed to come out here more now.

“Don’t worry about it.” Alex said sliding off her sandals she took a seat on the rug tucking her legs under herself. “It took two of us to forget this stuff to begin with.” Glancing up at Alice placed the bag beside the basket of food and then patted the blanket next to her. “Come sit.”
 
A

Alice Ripley

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Inactive
Mar 29, 2009
100
Alice ducked under the drooping ends of the umbrella and plopped herself down by Alex and scooted close, her right leg folded under her and her left trailing off the rug onto the sand. She crushed her skirt beneath the basket and began drawing out the contents in simple disposable plastic containers with clear lids that the restaurant offered for take-out. The clear lids were beaded with condensation on the inside; she remembered her hunger when she caught the red and orange texture of penne rosa. Some might think it was silly to eat the same thing two days in a row – she did not. Alice handed Alex her own container then dug out their beverages, kept in large styrofoam cups. Alice waited patiently for Alex take the cup.

...Pretty good for having a dorm an'no kitchen...

“This is gonna be nice. This is so different than a bay off a big lake! Did th'East Coast look like this?”
 
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Alex Monroe

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Inactive
Mar 25, 2009
257
Alex eagerly took the container with her food and her drink. She held the cup between her hands as she carefully opened up the container with her food take a quick whiff of the chicken fettuccini and smiled. “Yeah it is,” Alex said absently, not realizing she was commenting on something Alice thought and not what something she actually said. Putting her food down in front of her she reached into the bag, pulling out two plastic forks wrapped in plastic she held one out for Alice too take while she tried to open the plastic wrapper around her with her teeth.

“Not really.” Alex said after finally opening the wrapper. “The water was much calmer, the waves never that big, and the water was never this blue. And the beaches never this white. The sand was always a weird brown color.” Alex chuckled for a second, not the answer Alice imagined Alex was sure. “Other than that it kinda is.” She grinned.
 
A

Alice Ripley

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Inactive
Mar 29, 2009
100
Alice heard the answer to her thoughts and almost wanted to laugh. It seemed that Alex could hear some thoughts as if they were spoken, so clearly she could pick up on them. It occurred to her that some of her more colorful thoughts had probably been read last night. How much tension, she wondered with her smile, had she been indirectly responsible for the night before after their date? She felt a sense of gladness, but felt confused about it.

“Well then I'm happy that this is not just new for me, right?” Alice attacked her spicy pasta only seconds after stabbing the plastic fork from the plastic packaging. This was actually somehow less spicy, less flavorful than the school's version, though Alice still kept up the attack, skewering all the noodles she could with tines of her fork before biting down. She supposed that it made sense. After all, would a high-class school on an island with machinations and magical apparatuses have a bad cafeteria staff? Wouldn't that be too typical?

“Mmmm mm, b'nnn nnmm.” She rolled her eyes at herself, blushing of embarrassment.

...I mean, that is, thanks for coming out on this picnic with me. I'm...glad you're not sick of me yet...

She smiled at Alex before going back to her pasta like a hamster.
 
A

Alex Monroe

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Inactive
Mar 25, 2009
257
Alex watched as Alice shoveled some her pasta into her mouth and smiled. She defiantly wasn’t one of those girls that are uncomfortable eating in front of a boy, Alex thought. Then she realized, she didn’t see Alex as a boy, but could she really blame her for that? She shoveled some fettuccini in her mouth and chewed it and that thought over.

The second Alice thought something she realized was directed at her Alex’s bulged and if it wasn’t for fork in her mouth she probably would have spit the contents of her mouth clear to the water. Looking at Alice she wondered what would be appropriate, her mouth was full and she couldn’t exactly go spewing it on Alice as she talked. But communicating telepathically has a tendency to unnerve people, and sometimes cause headaches so that wasn’t the best choice either. Gulping down the food she looked at Alice and chuckled nervously. “Yeah no problem my pleaser,” She said twirling some more pasta onto her fork. “And don’t worry about getting tired of you. I just hope I don’t run you off like I did my three other roommates.”
 
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Alice Ripley

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Inactive
Mar 29, 2009
100
"I don't see myself wantin' t'head out anytime soon." She playfully nudged Alex's shoulder with her head. Only a minute into the assault, Alice could count the amount of shells left with two hands,

...Mwa haha ha, do not resist, noodles! You underestimate the power of the dark side of the force of my appetite! Alright, when did I get this hyper...?

She rested her fork on the black rim of the plastic carry-out container. She did not want to make Alex feel like she ought to eat faster. Alice just liked to attack her food for some reason. When she let herself listen, the sound of the ocean came back to her attention. She thought about it, so constant and yet, so dynamic. It did not seem to care if it knocked a swimmer into the edges of shells or trap unwary surfers in undercurrents. While the sky was an expanse where anything could go, Alice recognized the difference in the shifting blue — evolved organs, developed instincts, incredible depths. Despite the world resting within in it, the seas remained unemotional about it all. She caught herself staring off into the sands and the foam of the waves, feeling the drain of her philosophical thoughts. She watched a surfer lose balance and fall into the sea and come out, hoping that nobody saw him fall on not so much as a wave. Then, an idea.

"Alex? Have you ever been windsurfing?"
 
A

Alex Monroe

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Inactive
Mar 25, 2009
257
“OH you say that now,” Alex washing down some of her fettuccini with some pink lemonade. “But you haven’t heard me talk in my sleep, well it’s more like scream incoherently in my sleep.” She added with a wink. While it is true she was joking about the screaming there was a small kernel of truth to it. When she first got here her previous roommates complained about her constantly sobbing in her sleep. She wasn’t even aware she was doing it at the time, but she could guess why. Of course she wasn’t worried about Alice hearing it, she was pretty sure she hadn’t sobbed in her sleep for weeks, in the shower, in brushing her teeth, getting dressed in the morning, she defiantly still cried when she did that.

“No,” Alex said the image of herself cart wheeling across the water out of control across the water into some jagged rocks did not endear her to the prospect of ever doing it. “Why? have you?"
 
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