Welcome

[Trevor Omark]

It felt good to be useful. His brain was finally being appreciate. At least Liam did. And the boy seemed really nice. He found himself very much enjoying his company. It felt amazing. He was making friends. OK, he didn't have many yet. But counting Rue, that might be three! That was like...three more than he ever had before. Maybe he was getting better at this. He could still feel nerves jamming through his veins as he talked to people. Made his insides feel queasy and everything. Always did. But he wasn't as nervous around Liam. He just liked his company.

Trevor grinned and nodded at the boy. Not that Rue would ever let him take up a life of crime. And their respective godly fathers might have something to say about it. But still. Could still be fun to come up with evil plans. Even if they never used it.

Liam didn't seem extremely happy about the idea that the lake might be too deep to dive. But it was true after all. If was going to the brains of the operation, then he couldn't be giving out bad information, now could he? But a breath holding competition was fine. He didn't mind doing something that Liam was very likely to win. Trevor was just happy to have a friend.

Nodding at his fellow twelve year old, Trevor took a full deep breath at three, held it and plunged his head under. He remained as still as possible as he bobbed in just under the surface of the water. What Trevor lacked in any kind of physicality, he made up for in brains. The more you worked, the more oxygen your body needs. Air in your lungs becomes useless when you hold it. So you don't 'hold' it, you release slowly. He could just hear the muffled sounds of water in his ears, the bubbles around him as his body displaced the water nearby and from his mouth as he slowly released it. Finally, he lungs burning, be surfaced. He took a big breath in, wiped the water and his longer hair that had plastered itself to his face. A few seconds later Liam emerged. Didn't lose by a lot, just a little.

"You won." he panted. "Just by a second or two." He giggled.

[Liam Knight]

Wiping his hands across his eyes to clear most of the water away, Liam finally opened them and looked around. He found Trevor quickly and wa delighted to find out from the boy that he'd won, albeit narrowly. "Woop!" he cheered, punching his fist, and throwing a trail of water droplets across the lake as he did so. Truth be told, he was slightly surprised at how close the contest had been, but a victory was a victory and even against a friend, the competitive side of Liam would have been thoroughly disappointed to lose. "I'll reach the bottom of this lake some day soon, no problems" he joked.

The sun beating down upon him, Liam could almost feel the water on his upper body begin to evaporate as he trod water once more. If anything, it felt like it had got hotter during the moments he'd been underwater. Despite being milder than most lakes he'd swum in before, it had still been a nice respite from the heat above the waves. Glancing around at the shimmering light on the lake's surface, Liam realised that he'd been out in this heat for a while now and hadn't had a drink in all that time. What would his mother say? Of course, his mother wasn't there to supervise him at camp, but the twelve year old still found himself behaving as though she might be just around the corner.

"Fancy heading to the mess hall?" he asked Trevor. "Could really do with a drink." Waiting for the blond's answer, he manoeuvred himself so that he was laying on his back. "This weather's almost too nice" he commented.

[Trevor Omark]

The contest was made close by pure brain power. Knowing how to make the most of what he had, though his lung capacity was smaller, not being a very athletic boy. Trevor couldn't help but laugh softly at Liam's reaction to winning their contest. He flinched just slightly as a few droplets of water sprayed his face.

Liam was really cute .... Wait .... WHAT? That wasn't right was it? Trevor suddenly felt like he swallowed a marble. It was a lump in his throat that fell to his tummy and rattled around. That was weird. The blond boy decided to do a brain check. Same result. Liam was a very cute boy.

Again, Trevor laughed at Liam's assertion that he would one day he would reach the bottom of the lake. "Well....maybe we could find a way to help you stay under water longer?" The boy grinned a bit at his friend and laughed. He was the brain and Liam was the muscle.

Another check. Trevor began to do the one thing he knew how to do. Use his brain. Did it feel any different than it did when he was around Claire? No. Liam was his friend just the same as she was. Just...he hadn't really thought of Claire as being really cute, or anything like that. Why was he admiring Liam than? Liam was a boy. Trevor needed to figure this out. Just not right now. Later.

Trevor realized he was thirsty too at Liam suggestion. They'd been in the sun and swimming for quite some time. He nodded at Liam as his fellow twelve year old floated onto his back "Yeah, it's pretty hot out here. I'm kinda thirsty too." Too nice? Trevor didn't think so. It was like California in the summer all the time. "I dunno, it's sort of like California in the summer all the time. That's where I'm from. Where are you from?"

This post has been edited by Trevor Omark on Apr 17 2012, 06:20 PM

[Liam Knight]

"I wonder if Hermes would just give me some SCUBA gear or something," Liam pondered aloud, looking wistfully into the sky as he did. He'd heard that sometimes parents would gift their children special items, but somehow he felt that even his father were to offer him something, a modern technology such as underwater breathing apparatus wouldn't be it. Still, that was what he wanted, and he certainly wasn't the first twelve year old to wish for an unattainable present from his father.

When Trevor agreed that he was thirsty too, Liam smiled, and began to scull towards the nearest shore. "I'm from Canada," he explained when asked where he was originally from. "Halifax, in Nova Scotia." It was probably about as far away from California as was possible in North America, and yet here was the pair of them, together at a camp near New York. "It maybe gets this nice in summer, but not at this time of year." He couldn't help but feel slightly jealous of Trevor being from California. They set films there, set books there. Celebrities lived there, celebrities moved there. Nothing happened in Halifax.

"Race you to the shore?" he suggested, rolling onto his front ready to forward crawl if the challenge was accepted. "Come on surfer boy". 'Cause that was another thing they did in California of course, they all surfed.

[Trevor Omark]

The thought of Hermes providing Liam SCUBA gear so he could get to the bottom of the lake was rather a silly one and it made Trevor laugh. "Hmmm, I dunno, but it would be fun to see if we could figure out a way ourselves to get you down there." The 12 year old boy liked the idea of the challenge. Kind of an adventure from a story book. Two kids trying to discover the mysteries of the depths and in order to do so, have to devise an ingenious way to delve down in the deep!

Slowly moving toward the shore, Trevor listened to Liam talk. A Canadian! Trevor wasn't sure he'd ever met a Canadian before. And was almost right. While it wasn't THE farthest point from California in North America, it was darn close (Trevor was pretty sure it was little north and east from Halifax in Newfoundland, if his memory of maps was fairly accurate. He was certain it was. BUt despite the distance, here they were, two boys at Camp Blood.

If Liam knew the truth of his past, the boy would not be jealous of him. More probably happened in Halifax then in the cold confines of his Grandparents manor, which comprised of 90% of his life.

"You're on!" Trevor responded to Liam challenge while rolling to his front ready to race his friend to shore. Trevor laughed at the apparent nickname Liam slapped on him being from California. Trevor had actually done some surfing growing up. Gramma and Grampa did like the beach and belonged to some private clubs and stuff. Surfing was something that kept him out of their way and was....'acceptable' behaviour while there. He enjoyed it and he wasn't terrible at it either.

This post has been edited by Trevor Omark on Apr 23 2012, 10:45 PM

[Liam Knight]

Could they figure out a way themselves to reach the bottom of the lake? Liam certainly liked the idea of the challenge, although he had doubts over whether they could actually achieve the goal. "We could sellotape a bunch of straws together?" he suggested hopefully. "Then just keep one end above the surface and breathe through that?" Even as he said it, he had his doubts about the plan's practicality. There was probably a reason that he wasn't the brains of the pair.

His challenge accepted, Liam readied himself for the new competition. Angling himself carefully so that he was pointing towards the nearest shoreline, he looked over and waited until Trevor was also ready. When the boy was, he took the role of starter. "On three" he commanded. "One... two... three!" On the final number, he brought his right arm over and started into a front crawl, his arms windmilling as he propelled himself through the water as fast as possible.

Although generally athletic, swimming wasn't one of Liam's main strengths, having only been to the pool a few times with school when he was younger. Still, it wasn't far to the shore and in no time at all he was scrambling through the shallows before, finally, his feet were slapping against dry ground again. The second he felt that sensation, he looked across to the side Trevor had started on. Who had been victorious this time?

This post has been edited by Liam Knight on Apr 23 2012, 10:44 PM

[Trevor Omark]

Scratching his head at Liam's suggestion, Trevor his new friend a playful little grin and shook his head. "Hmm, nah, I don't think so." he let out his giggle-laugh. For a number of reasons, the first of which that came to the boys mind was that tape didn't hold too well when it gets wet. "But maybe a bigger kind of tube, krazy glue and a pump of some sort? Dunno..." the twelve year olds brain was churning. Something to consider. Later though.

Trevor too aimed himself at the closest point of the shore line and prepared himself for this race. Once again, Liam counted down from three. On three, he took off. He too went front crawl with strong smooth strokes and pushed off. He scrambled at the very last moment, switching to a butterfly until he simply had no room for his narrow frame.

While not terribly athletic, the one thing he could do reasonably well was swim. Living in his grandparents manor gave him access to a pool as his primary source of exercise. He was allowed to use it as long as he kept things clean, like anything else, and, as mentioned, he did have some experience surfing, in which, of course, swimming was required. In a long distance race, Liam would undoubtedly win, due to a greater endurance, in this case, Trevor's ability to swim, won out, though not by much. Scrambling from the water, Trevor was just beginning to get to his feet when Liam surfaced. Trevor gave a very slight smile. "My grandparents have an indoor pool." He stated, suggesting that his experience won out in this case.

The boy plucked his towel up and began to dry himself before sliding his t-shirt back on and pushing his feet back into his sandals. No point in his short over his wet swim suit, he go back to his cabin and change later.

He waited patiently for Liam to be ready to head off to grab drinks.

[Liam Knight]

A pump? Already Trevor's plan was sounding better thought out than Liam's. Given some time, paper to plan on, and materials, perhaps they could get some sort of working system mocked up. Maybe it wouldn't work, but it would be fun to try at least. As long as he didn't end up drowning, of course.

With a small pang of disappointment, Liam realised that he had lost this time, reaching the shore after his opponent. "Well it shows!" he grinned as Trevor revealed the advantage he had had as a kid. "We'll have to rematch sometime, once I've had a bit more practice". He could certainly see swimming becoming quite a regular part of his schedule; the lake was warm, yet refreshing and conveniently located within the camp.

Walking the short distance to his towel, Liam gave himself a quick dry, before pulling on his t-shirt and slipping his flip-flops on. He was still rather damp, but confident that the beating sunshine would deal with that far easier than he could himself. Throwing the towel over his right shoulder, he looked over to Trevor. "Shall we?" he asked, before setting off in the direction of the mess hall.

[out!]

[Trevor Omark]

The basic concept Trevor had come up with on the fly wasn't bad. It needed a lot of work. He did not want to see his new friend drown. If all else fails, he could puppy dog eye Rue to act as a safety measure. If something went wrong she could just jump in and pull him out. Duh. Child of Poseidon.

Trevor grinned at Liam as he conceded his defeat but the boy was far too soft spoken to gloat. His smile was small, a little shy and but it was a grin. A real grin. This is what it was like to have a friend. It felt great. "Anytime you want!" Trevor laugh-giggled.

Once Liam was ready, Trevor slung his towel over his shoulder, folded his shorts into a ball and followed alongside his friend toward the mess hall, all the while smiling brightly.

{out}