AND WE'LL ALL FLOAT ON, ALRIGHT

[vkatsuragi]

It was easily predictable that Victoria wouldn't particularly like swimming when done with her school's gym class. It was an athletic activity, yes, and she enjoyed that aspect of it at least, but after having gotten used to practicing on one's own or in small groups of similarly-disciplined peers, sitting around uncomfortably in a wet bathing suit around the other students for some reason didn't quite appeal. There was no question in her mind that she preferred swimming laps after school in her free time, with few or no people around and no lesson plan that she had to follow. Which was exactly what she found herself doing right now.

Admittedly this wasn't Victoria's chosen sport or even really that much of a regular one for her, but she did come to swim laps every now and then if only for a simple change of pace. She wasn't the world's strongest or most passionate swimmer, but she did enjoy it a decent amount. It gave her a good chance to get a different type of exercise and a change of scenery, if only a small one.

Victoria was already submerged in the water, propelling herself forward at a moderate pace from one end of the pool to the other, spinning herself around and pushing herself in the other direction each time she reached one of the walls. From the little she had seen of actual swimmers, she knew that this probably wasn't the proper way of turning (and who knew what other techniques she wasn't one hundred percent on), but she was there more for the workout than for the prospect of learning about it and as long as she was getting somewhere, well, she considered it a success.

Usually Victoria would come, spend about an hour or so in the pool and then go home, but today she was somewhat intent upon staying for at least a little while longer. It was the end of the week and she had frustrations to work off, not to mention the fact that there were only a few other swimmers minding their own business, which made it quiet save for the white noise of splashing water. It was therapeutic, and if she went home she would have to deal with her family, whom she loved but at the moment did not feel like being around, especially since her father had just returned from another one of his business trips. So she was content to simply stay here, pushing herself until the familiar feeling of exhaustion set in and she could be satisfied with her workout. She was a determined, hard worker, and to her nothing felt better than the satisfying rush that came from a job well done.

She hit the end of another lap and turned herself around, setting her sights on the other side, when all of a sudden her ears picked up the sound of feet hitting the tiles by the pool. Someone new was approaching, and her overactive instincts told her she needed to see who it was. Increasing her speed just slightly, she reached out and grabbed the edge of the pool wall, stopping and letting herself rest for a moment while she looked around for whoever was coming near.

Tag: Oliver/Mandee
Words: 566
Outfit: CLICK
Notes: Here you go! Sorry if it's terrible though.

[Oliver Lee Winchester]

Oliver Winchester had decided on a whim to head down to the pool to go for a swim. The pool was there for a reason, he figured, and besides, it was a lot easier to swim when there weren't many people around than it would be during class. A lot more comfortable, at the very least. At just a few days shy of fifteen, his body had made strides toward adulthood. Though he was still quite skinny and lanky, he had built up a bit of muscle mass over the past year. It wasn't likely that a boy whose hobbies involved more intellectual than physical exploits would end up being a muscle man by any means of the imagination, but he was starting to look less like a little boy and more like a young man. Something that he was quite pleased about.

The recent change that he was most pleased about was the fact that his voice was finally starting to settle. It still cracked every once in a great while, but it wasn't an almost constant noise as it had been for the past several months, and Oliver considered himself to be through the worst - for the second time.

He left the locker room in just his swim trunks, a towel hanging over his shoulder. As he entered the room, his first instinct was to turn around as he saw someone in the pool. If it had been someone he knew, he might not have minded, but this was a girl that he'd only seen on a couple of occasions. This very fact, though, was ironically what made him stay. His sister (well, past sister, really - she wasn't his sister by blood in this life) had recently talked to Victoria within the cafeteria, asking her a few seemingly innocent questions. He'd told her that something about Victoria seemed off to him, and that he'd noticed Jennah seemed interested in the girl for some reason that he could not place. Of course, Jennah was naturally quiet about the whole thing, so Oliver didn't have much to go on.

With a bit of investigation, though, Kate had given him at least a little bit to work with, though. She was into martial arts (great, another one...perhaps he should leave this to someone like Echo or Jennah, but neither of them were recruiters), and had been perusing over a copy of The Art of War by Sun Tzu in the cafeteria - Not exactly a normal read for a high school student. Oliver was well aware, though, that this didn't have to mean anything. Still, while he was here, why not try?

As Oliver's feet hit the wet deck, Oliver noted just how loud the footsteps sounded even to his own ears. He leaped into the pool from the side (into the deep end, of course - last thing he wanted to do was break his legs underneath him), feeling considerably more at ease now that he was in the water. Not just because there were no more footsteps drawing unwanted attention to him, but also because his body was submerged below the surface. Reincarnate or not, he was still a teenage boy going through an awkward time and didn't exactly want to show that off in front of an older girl that he barely knew.

He made his way over to the girl, stopping a few feet from her. He did not want to move any closer - Kate/Alison had informed him that this girl replied in the affirmative when she asked if she participated in martial arts, and Oliver was naturally defensive. However, it was worth a shot to at least try to say something, right? "Hey, I'm Oliver...want to race?"[/color] He tried to make it sound like just an innocent question, and in some ways it was - but as he started treading water, he was also studying the girl.

Word count: 663
To: Kate with Victoria
Notes: Pssh, that wasn't terrible at all! Don't worry about it. =P

[vkatsuragi]

Well, it didn't seem to be anyone very important after all. Victoria recognized the boy she saw walking down toward the deep end of the pool - he had been talking with the girl she had sparred with before, hadn't he? - but she never really sensed any sort of danger or hostility from him and either way he didn't really look like much, so she had been quick to pass him off as not being any immediate threat. Which meant that there was no real need to pay him too much attention. That small matter settled, she decided that she might as well prolong her pause in her workout and hoisted herself up, dragging herself out of the pool and twisting around so that she could sit on the edge, her feet dangling idly in the water.

She felt the muscles in her arms and abdomen and thighs burning slightly from effort, the good burn that told her that she was earning results. For someone who was still young, Vic actually had a fairly decent physique; the strenuous amount of physical activity she took part in every day meant that her muscles were well-toned, and she and her brother both had grown to be fairly tall, coupled with the countless lessons in the importance of proper posture given to them by their parents over the years. For the most part she had had more important things to worry about than body issues, although of course she was a teenager and they did show themselves every now and then.

The more pressing issue at the moment - or at least, according to her parents - was that Victoria seemed to lack a social life, or for that matter very many friends to speak of at all. The only people she seemed to interact with on a daily basis were the people she trained with, which hardly ever turned out to be very many people anyway, and certainly not people she considered to be particularly good friends. She had her brother, who she talked to on a regular basis, and then she had her parents, whom she talked to when they weren't busy with their work...which was not frequently. And then there was that girl who wouldn't leave her alone at the lunch table, and the girl who had actually tried to challenge her skills in martial arts, but it wasn't as if either of them were actually friends.

Of course she didn't see what the big rush was for her to have a budding social life in the first place; she was, quite frankly, too busy to care, and besides she had certain...secrets that would not go over very well if she had friends to figure them out.

But in any case, there was no time to consider any of that at the moment; she saw the scrawny boy from before actually approaching her, looking as if he were about to say something to her. She had no idea what he wanted; she couldn't even recall his name, let alone any occasion where they had actually chanced to talk to each other. So, why now, when she was clearly otherwise occupied? "Hey, I'm Oliver...want to race?" Her eyebrows shot up in surprise and slight irritation. That came out of nowhere, and to be perfectly honest she really didn't want to race. She wanted to be left alone.

"Victoria...and no, not really," she responded flatly, not actually looking directly at him.

Tag: Oliver/Mandee
Words: 580
Outfit: CLICK
Notes: Laaaaa she's mean.

[Oliver Lee Winchester]

Oliver knew this was going to be a tough one. He'd sworn that he wouldn't get himself into a mess like this after Angelo, but things with Angelo ended up going pretty well...in fact, he and Angelo were cordial toward each other now. One might even consider them to be friends, albeit only casual ones who got together to chat every once in a while. If he could recruit Michelangelo, he could recruit anyone, couldn't he?

Perhaps if he kept telling himself this he might actually convince himself that it was true.

The girl was an intimidating figure, especially as she pulled herself out of the water. Now she had a height advantage that she hadn't possessed when both of them were still in the water, and Oliver didn't like this. Once again he found himself thinking back to Angelo. Angelo had the height advantage as well. He felt tempted to pull himself out of the water to rectify the situation, but didn't. That might look a bit too obvious, and besides, he still didn't want to get too close to the girl. He remained at a respectable distance a few feet out. He took a deep breath at the reaction to his question. Oh yes, this one would be a challenge. He could sense it already. "Fair enough."[/color] Oliver responded with a shrug. In other cases he might have played up the whole 'little kid' thing, but given how she responsed to the racing suggestion, he had a feeling that would only annoy her worse. So how was he supposed to go about prying for information?

"Pleasure to meet you, Victoria. Do you come here often?"[/color] Really, he didn't need to focus on recruiting so much entirely as getting to know this girl. He couldn't recruit unless he knew a bit about her, and from his conversations with Petra, he knew that he needed to know more than 'she likes martial arts'. He couldn't do that unless he carried on a conversation with her. Sure, he could spy on her, but that didn't seem like a logical option, especially when he considered what might happen if she caught him. He looked contemplative as he tried to figure out where to go next.

Though the height difference bothered him slightly, he opted to stay in the water. He felt more comfortable where he was at this point in time. He could maintain a fair distance from her without appearing suspicious. Then again, would he really appear suspicious if he kept his distance? As with Angelo a few months before, everything about this girl screamed 'keep away'. Oliver was already coming to realize that he was breaking his own promise to himself after recruiting Angelo as well - That he would never do anything like this again. He had a feeling that resolution would never last long, even if he made it after every hard recruit. Hard recruits were just a part of recruiting. It wasn't like they were recruiting people for the school football team. They were recruiting people with deep dark secrets that they could not risk sharing with just anyone. Even the most outgoing people that Oliver knew kept mum when it came to RSOR. And this girl? She was far from outgoing.

"I was curious...do you know Echo Song? I've heard you enjoy martial arts and he happens to work and train at a dojo in town."[/color] Well, he was going to try to brush up against the subject at least. Test the waters a bit, to see how she would react.

Word count: 612
To: Kate with Victoria
Notes: Yay I finished it. XD