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"Your... mask became worn?" He asked, curious. "What were you doing -- turning it into an impromptu slingshot?" Hell, that's what he would do. He started to follow her then stopped, not wanting to come off as a creepy stalker or anything. Then again, that'd be pretty funny! He wondered if he could get some good footage out of thi- no. There were some places for recording, and some places that weren't. This happened to be one of those places, given how one of the store employees were shuffling closer to them, trying to look inconspicuous by fixing up the shelves.

Seeing that she was moving away, Alex had no choice but to follow her. "Hey, it's a possibility! Elastic's pretty good for making slingshots, though I suppose if you got it wet enough again and again it'd start to dry out and crack and, well, fall apart which I guess that's what's happening to your's, right?"

He looked at the mask she held up, then nodded. "Ah! I see whatcha mean -- my own pair back home were doing that too. I'll need to dig them up again to see if that's the case." Unless my step-mother threw them out, he thought, Then digging them up might be a tad bit difficult.

"Meadow? Um... well, not quite." He admitted. "I'm a Hillworth study. I take it you go to Meadowview? What's it like there?" He was curious, but family tradition on his father's side demanded that he attend Hillworth. Of course, step-mother's willpower also attested to his attendance and living quarters on that campus.

"Ahh, sounds like Hillworth in that respect," Alexander said, picking up a pool toy and tossing it up in the air, catching it as if to figure out the weight of it. "Haha! I don't envy you for those. Hillworth..." He shook his head, "Plaid green pants, white shirt, tie, and a black sweater vest over that. Well, they're supposed to be black and white," he said quickly. "But considering the crowd, you get an interesting mix of faded pinks'n'oranges under gray vests. And ties -- some students actually make a pretty profit over clip on ties."

He laughed, then shrugged. "Hillworth... Just imagine a bunch of boys getting shoved together in one place. It's loud, messy, and to give you a good idea, someone let off a stinkbomb in the dorms earlier. Hopefully it'll air out soon, 'cause I honestly don't wanna walk around with that smell, y'know?" He looked down at himself, then grabbed the edge of his jacket and sniffed. "Ugh! Too late! Already got some of it on me! Blagh!"

"Wh- aw c'mon! I didn't get that close to the blast zone!" Alex protested, "Or at least I think I didn't, unless the wind is working against me. Stupid wind. Hey, at least it wasn't a stink bomb made with bits of skunk in it? Now that would've been worse, considering the fact that the chemicals in skunk spray actually attach to your skin and something or other in tomato soup weakens the chemical bond to get rid of it, but in the meantime it just stinks, y'know?"

He felt a flash of jealousy at her state. How lucky she was! She wasn't written off as 'troubled' or labeled immediately as an 'upstart' or 'vandal' because of her school. She was just... her. Him, on the other hand, had learned quickly that it was wise to not linger in a spot for too long once word of what school he went to got out. In fact, the sport shop's employee had discreetly moved closer, ready to swoop in and ask if they needed any help or drop some Very Big Hints about moving on.

Alexander was flattered by the attention.

"So, uh, do you need anything else beside that mask to go diving?" He asked, "I haven't done it much myself, but snorkels? Oxygen tanks? Flippers...?"

"Beer-do? Ew," he replied, wrinkling his nose. "Man, that must've stank just as bad or at least get the neighbors wondering if there was a frat party somewhere nearby, or at least get them drilling their kids to find out where they really were last night."

Oh geeze, so much went into diving! It made Alex glad of video games keeping the equipment right there on the dockside for when your character needed to go diving. Or not -- some heroes just liked to jump on in and swim around while their air gauge slowly emptied. He wondered what the Turtles could have learned to go with a diving buddy in their very first game -- y'know, the one with the dam and the electric kelp and the bombs? That level was the bane of his childhood!

"Man, there's more to diving than I thought," Alex laughed, shaking his head. "It seems interesting," not really, "and I bet the view underwater is pretty awesome. Or, at least better than what the various underwater screensavers make them out to be, considering how neat and organized artists tend to make things while drawing them."

Now was probably not the time to entertain her with tales of finding a dead skunk. And, being a child, thought that the most awesome thing in the world to do was to chuck it over the neighbor's fence right before their pool party. Man! Those were the days...

When the shop employee came up, Alex started to say something before Natasha beat him to the punch. He stood back and grinned, watching as she sent him off on an impossible errand. "Pearl," he repeated, "Complete with the luminescent blue-pink hues or that off-white of uncolored plastic? Or are you wanting to take it up to Crystal-level and ask for black pearl, complete with greens and pinks found faster in an oil slick?"

He sighed, shaking his head. "Y'know, the attention was really flattering at first. Then the thrill of being watched kinda dies off when you realize that it's not your butt their looking at, but your hands. It's almost as if they want you to slip something into your pocket, like this tiny alligator thing. Do people actually throw these weights into a pool to go diving after? It looks like an alligator! What if someone lives in a place with alligators and bought this, and got a real gator mixed up with one of these? Eeesh! Talk about embarrassing." He set the weight down, then shook his head. "Makes me glad I do everything online."

"And would you like extra sparkles with that?" He added innocently, joining in on her chuckle. "Hey, you never know what they keep back there, aside from products that nobody knows about or things employees don't care to restock to the point where it collects dust and becomes obsolete."

He shrugged as she poked the alligator weight. "I dunno," he began, "If you have murky water? Probably. Could also trick that weight out with decorative flames to make it more eye-catchy. Personally I'd attach a bubble-jet to it so it'd bubble all the time, just to confuse people."

But ah! There. Alex paused as she looked at him sharply. "Yeah! Don't you send e-mails'n'check out stuff online?" He replied, his own puzzlement showing. "Y'know, check out videos, interactive underwater screensavers that are interactive only to the point of a fish swimming by every other minute, Jetski races on that one social networking site, risk, oceanic-risk where you try to take over underwater kingdoms instead of real land countries..." He trailed off, then laughed. "Man! I should've played the land version of Risk more! Maybe then I'd finally ace a geography exam!"

Outside? What was this mysterious concept of daylight and... stuff? Alex's pastey-white skin was more than proof enough that he didn't delight in outdoor sports that often. Truth to be told, his pale complexion would have been the envy of middle school girls who dreamed of being swept away in the middle of the night by a sparkling vampire. Or something like that -- Alex hated those stupid ads on his page and were happy when they finally went away.

"Real as in have something under your feet and handle bars to grip? Yep. Real as in out on the water? Nope." He laughed, shrugging. "My family's not one for vacations, so I take what experiences I can get -- even if it's made-up and not the real thing. It's something to go off on and get an idea about."