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Reese rolled himself into the room, closely followed by Wilbur. The man carried a book with him, intent on sitting out as much of this as possible, and offered a respectful nod to the teacher before turning to the boy.

"You'll behave, won't you Young Sir?"

" 'Courthe," Reese said, looking over at his new teacher with a grin. He waved, then turned and started his way towards the pool.

Wilbur gave a weary sort of sigh. Reese was starting to sound entirely too much like Z for the butler's tastes. Shaking his head, he'd find a place to keep himself occupied until needed.


Reese took an inventory of the pool as he made his way over. He could see the floaty things plus the dark masses of the rings under the water, and really hoped they'd be playing with them. Poppa had bought him a set of sinking rings over the summer, so he knew what those were for.

"Hi there!" he called with enthusiasm, stopping himself a short distance in front of the instructor. "I'm Reethe!"

"Trick caching?" Reese repeated with interest. Well, that was something new. He'd never heard of this...'trick catching' before. Would it be the same as diving down for the rings? Rolling forward more, following the teacher's direction, Reese pushed himself as close to the edge of the pool as he dared. He'd set the break on his wheelchair, lifting up his arms in classic 'uppie, uppie!' fashion.

"Yeth, pleathe," he said politely, glancing over at Wilbur to make sure his behavior had approval. But the man was reading, and it brought a rather sneaky twinkle to Reese's eyes. If Wilbur was interested in the book, then Reese could really have fun with this class.

The moment Orpheus' hands let him go, Reese dunked himself under the surface. He came up spouting water all over, laughing happily as he felt his body relax. It was always so nice being in water. His place, his element...he could stretch and curl himself around here as naturally as Wilbur or Poppa or Orpheus walked.

Beaming excitedly at his teacher, he made a few short circles around the shallow end of the pool. He mostly used his arms to swim, but almost like kicking feet, his tail would stick out sort of straight and the fin on his back would quickly wiggle. The combined actions added speed in short bursts...and with time and practice would probably be something he could better control.

"Tho what'th trick caching?" Reese asked as he made a pass around Orpheus' side, making a short turn and doing another circle as he waited for the answer.

Reese looked out to where the rings floated and sat. His tail suddenly poking up from under the water's surface, which he also looked at with great interest.

"With my tail?" he spoke curiously, his tail curling up and down in a wave of sorts before sliding under the surface again. He looked up at his teacher with a smile. "I can do that." He nodded his head...and then, taking a breath, ducked under the water and headed out again.

He was excited. This class was turning out to be a lot of fun, and by the time he made it to the nearest ring, he was going pretty fast. A little too fast. He aimed for that first ring and zipped past, expecting his tail to curl under him and grab the ring.

When he surfaced for a breath, he lifted his tail up...and frowned deeply when it was empty. "Maaan, I mithed..."

Reese was frowning, bobbing a little bit in the water as he kept himself from floating too far off. He couldn't see them after he was swimming past them.

"How do I aim? I can't thee the ring onthe I thwim patht it." He muttered the last bit out of the corner of his mouth, his eyes glancing with mixed disappointment and determination out into the pool.

Reese puffed air into his cheeks, his eyes a little wide as he thought. How long could he hold his breath? He'd never really considered it before. Longer than Poppa or Wilbur could, that's for sure. Was that a lot longer than most kids his age? Poppa could hold his breath a really long time...

"A long time?" he said with caution, a goofy grin sitting crookedly on his face. Made sense to him.

"I'm gonna try again," Reese said to the teacher, nodding his head before taking in a deep breath. He was under and away, swimming around to the side of the closest ring. He kept telling himself to not rush it. Last time was too fast. This time he had to go slower. But he didn't want to go too slow...that wasn't the point, was it? He shouldn't have to stop to actually pick up the ring with his tail.

In his thoughts, he must have circled that ring almost three times before he actually started moving towards it. Not as fast...probably still too fast. He'd forgotten to aim. He swam a little too far to the right, his tail coiling frantically for the ring...and as soon as he realized he'd missed it, he bolted himself towards the surface.

"Dammit!" he shouted, splashing his hand angrily into the water. And immediately, he shrunk back, nose under the surface. He'd said a bad word, one he'd picked up from Z. He looked at the teacher and then slowly slid his eyes over to where Wilbur stood. The butler had glanced up from his book, a brow raised.

Reese shrunk down even more. Man, he was gonna get a talking to for that one.

"Thorry, Orpheuth..." he apologized as sincerely as possible as he swam back, keeping his head low.

"You have a kid, too?" Reese asked with interest. Man, that must be cool to be the teacher's son. Reese bet his kid got away with a whole bunch of stuff...especially if he was allowed to say bad words like that one.

He took a moment to just tread water. He was catching his breath, getting himself prepared to go for it again. He was gonna do it this time, he knew it. He had too. He didn't want to disappoint his teacher by not being able to get the ring.