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There was something joyful about a simple beach ball. Not the sort of JOY that was associated with a certain other holiday-town. It was a sort of glee that bubbled up from within, resulting in a wide grin and pure happiness. it was the sort of feeling that Merope hadn't felt in a long while, and he was surprised at how much he had missed it.

All in all, he was thankful that he had summed up the courage to ask Shehk to blow something for him. Originally the intention was to blow it up, toss it out, and forget all about it. But now... Now he was pleased that they hadn't, and chose instead to keep it and bring it with them elsewhere. It was the last one he had -- the other one he had attempted to blow up was nothing more but a pile of shredded rubber, buried in his trash can back in his dorm room after unsuccessfully attempting to blow it up himself.

He and Shehk arrived at the lake, choosing to leave the assembly soon after the ball was blown up. At the water's edge he stopped and began to strip, dropping his shirt and jacket in a pile. The boil began to dig through his pockets, checking for anything that wasn't waterproof. "Hoi, Shehk! Are you ready?" He called, pulling out some wadded pieces of paper and stuffing them under his shirt for safekeeping.

Shehk was ready. The question Merope himself had to face was he ready. It was easy enough to walk over to the blown up beach ball and pick it up. He even made it to the water's edge before he stopped, staring down at the placid waters. Quickly he tried to think of the last time he had swam. He couldn't remember. Was it when he swam with Astra? Most likely. After returning from his journey the gym was still in too much disarray to be reopened for swimming use. He didn't have the courage to step into the lake and swim there, either. Considering how quickly he had failed with swimming in the gym's pool, though...

Merope took a deep breath, filling his lungs to maximum capacity before releasing it again. He took one step, then another and another. He didn't stop when the cold water hit his feet, nor when it went over his knees. He stopped when he was almost waist deep, taking a moment to swish his tail in the water thoughtfully.

It had been too long since he last immersed himself in a lake like this. Before he could stop and think, Merope threw the beachball up into the air and smacked it towards Shehk when it came back down. "Catch it!"

BALLBALLBALLBALLBALLBALLBALL

Shehk went running along the trajectory of the beach ball, her tail wagging a mile a minute in an excited dog-like fashion, as she caught it gently, grinning like an idiot. It was beautiful fun, really. She got to chase a ball while not slobbering all over it like it was supposed to be tennis or something.

"I got it!" she called back holding it up above her head before she heard Roch pipe up, looking over her shoulder at the reaper boil curiously.

"Hey! Not a lot right now, really. Playing with Merope - I think that's plenty, myself." she grinned, clearly not bothered by the events of the assembly and what they meant for Amityville. Right now she needed to keep her head above the water, and keep other confused students afloat, amongst a pile of confusion and controversy. It was all madness, and all she could do was not succumb to it.

"Want to play?" she offered as she moved to pace into the water herself, shivering from the slight chill of it before she moved to be about waist deep, holding the ball above her head and carefully mimicking Merope's serve from earlier.

"Someone catch it!" she called.

Sammy was next to wander down from the assembly, along the way she was removing her jacket, stuffing her cellphone and other random things into it's pockets, by the time she was at the waters edge jacket, shirt, pants, and most of all boots where piled up nicely in her arms before being dumped beside Meropes own clothes.

Without bothering to test the water she sprinted over diving in surfacing up beside Merope spitting a bit of water in his direction. "You know. Next assembly, you should throw one of these at Arel on stage just to see him panic a bit."

Standing up she waved properly to Shehk and Roch, "Hey Puppy Face! Roch!" She paused glancing towards the other new comer (Angerona) "Don't just stand around toss the ball toss it!"

While she was curious about the horsemen offer, for now she would set it aside. She was learning bass with Roch, seeing Shehk for the first time in a while, going for a swim, and hopefully Siddie wouldn't be too far behind to join them. After all the chaos of Giftmas it was nice to have an almost 'normal' day again.

Roch looked at the water, then at the coat he was still wearing. Er... as much as he liked undead guys (he'd been taught to play by one, after all) he was still a reaper. And he had had enough with freezing back in the snow globe. He headed to a fallen log right off of the lake and dropped down beside it, using it as a backrest.

He held out his hand, summoning his guitar. If he wasn't gonna play WITH them, he figured he might as well play FOR them, he thought as he started playing a lighthearted song.

Siddie paused a little way away from the water to remove her boots and stockings; chances were high that she was going to be in the water one way or another, and while she didn't mind her dress getting wet, she DID mind if her boots did. She left the shoes with the assorted piles of discarded clothing and picked her way down to the water, hesitating at the edge. That looked cold.

Chili had no such reservations. The drutten took a flying leap off her mistress's shoulder, curling into a ball in the air, and created a splash considerably bigger than such a small minipet should be able to make. When she surfaced, she was chirping excitedly; she spit water at the nearest person.

"It's cold!" Siddie protested, and stuck a toe into the water, then pulled it back out. "And we don't have any towels, either." Big wobbly puppy eyes just didn't work when one's eyes weren't visible, though.

Genora blinked at what the ghost ghoul had said about the water being cold. "Cold? It actually feels refreshing, but I can't really tell." She said with a nervous smile then used a free hand to rub the back of her neck. She giggled as the boil introduced himself, since her eyes that he was kinda cute. "Hello there Ulmuka!" She said with a wave then smiled at the soaking wet boil.