HOT DIVE INTO FROZEN WAVES -- or something [private]

The lake wasn't so bad of a place: a dirt path led right to it from the main areas of camp, with nice blooming trees and shrubbery on either side as she walked along it on her way to the giant body of water. Winding through this little piece of nature brought her straight to the lake, water shimmering in the sunlight as she heard people shouting, splashing, running around or in the lake, full of life and noise as birds squawked overhead. Towels were spread out on the ground, sometimes accompanied by picnic baskets, umbrellas, and foldout chairs obviously bought (or stolen?) from the camp store. It was such a nice place, she thought to herself as she moved towards the boat docks, and it was a shame she hadn't come here more often. Her parents had never brought her to a lake to swim -- more or less, they took her to beaches all along the east coast (mainly in New Jersey, once in Florida) and left it at that. If most lakes looked like this -- full of life, bright in the sun and clean throughout most of its shore -- then maybe she really had missed out on something all these years.

The shore was a mix of sand and dirt, more sand as she approached the waterline; her sandals sank and ended up almost tossing sand everywhere as she moved. The boat docks were fairly tall, built jutting out from a sort of mini-promontory. The wood looked almost brand-new, no holes or clinging lichens anywhere and probably wasn't rickety at all. Work of the Hephaes-something kids, perhaps? Probably.

Running a hand through her short hair, having grown only maybe an inch since she'd cut it a month ago, Bee looked around for Valerie, the daughter of Apollo.

Valerie arrived shortly after her new friend Bee, she probably would have gotten there first but a friend delayed her by wanting to quickly ask her something. Valerie couldn't simply blow off any friend so stopped to answer it first, before making her way to the lake. "Hey!" She called out when she managed to spot Bee, however a group of taller demigods walked past her, momentarily hiding the shorter demigod from sight. This unfortunately happened to be rather frequent in occurrence due to Valerie being on the shorter side of tiny. She hoped to Zeus that she grew taller before she stopped growing, otherwise it was going to real boring real fast being so lacking in height.
She managed to get around the group so that Bee could actually see the Daughter of Apollo. "Hey!" She called out again, just in case her friend missed her. "Sorry, can't help it that I am short." Valerie smiled, it was amusing when her friends couldn't find her because someone or something hid her from sight.

At the sound of a familiar voice, Bee turned her head in that direction -- but was momentarily confused when a group of taller, probably older demigods walked past her line of vision at what seemed like a snail's pace. Darned people, never walking at average speed. Frowning, it took her another few seconds before she spotted a semi-familiar head going around the slow group clad in shorts and a t-shirt like her. Bee waved at her and smiled as she came over, readjusting the towel on her shoulder to keep it from sliding off. "That's perfectly fine, can't expect you to run around in stilts. Should we put out towels down here and go on?"

The slow group of demigods had passed on; a wooden canoe tied to the dock bobbed with the lake's waves, sometimes bumping into the wooden columns elevating the dock above the water. The water lapped gently at the shore, several feet away from where the duo was standing; rocks and shells littered the ground, but not so much that it'd hurt walking around the area barefoot. Nice place overall.

"Yeah I think we might go a bit further on before putting them down if that is okay?" She suggested, keeping hold of her towel whilst looking further down the lake. There seemed a few nice sunny spots, however they would need to walk to them. That wasn't too bad really, they were here for the lake anyway and it paid to put your stuff in a good spot.
She didn't want to leave it on the dock just in case someone picked it up mistaking it for their own or pinching it if they were a son or daughter of Hermes.
Valerie pushed some of her hair out of her face, that was the problem of not having it in a ponytail. It happened to get in your eyes and generally be a pain when the wind blew.

"Oh yeah? Perfectly fine, whatever you think. I don't know this place very well so...." A shrug, but then she related that was a mistake when the movement pushed the towel into her ear at an uncomfortably fast speed. Bee lightly plucked it off and held it against her chest, noting the wave-like patterns in the fabric. Very nice, very nice.

Squinting in the sunlight, Bee held her hand over her eyes as she surveyed the area. Everyone else had sort of sporadically placed their stuff all around, no distinct pattern -- and she noticed that for some reason there was no lifeguard tower in her line of vision. What then? Maybe they thought most of the kids knew how to swim ready. Or that there was at least one Good Samaritan or water god's kid willing to help out a drowning camper. What a hoot this place was.

"Yeah I just don't want a Hermes kid deciding to liberate our stuff or someone moving it because they think it is abandoned." She explained as Valerie walked across the shore towards a particular spot. Upon reaching it she lay her towel down on the ground. "Here should do." It was relatively sunny, but the Sun didn't bother the daughter of Apollo. Valerie possessed a power well it wasn't really an exciting power but it could be based explain like this. Valerie's power happened to be very similar to Meerkats who can look directly into the sun without having their vision blurred or blocked by glare. Only difference being Valerie didn't have the black around her eyes, it was just her power.
Of course, this power happened to be a double edge one, she might be able to see well in the light, in the darkness however her eyes sight was beyond awful. She had worse eyesight than a mortal at night time, unable to see very well in darkened environments, her eyes taking twice as long to adjust to low light levels.

She took off her clothing so that she was in her swimsuit, as it would be awkward swimming in regular clothing. "You want to catch the sun for a bit or go right in for a swim?" Valerie inquired glancing at her friend, just in case she was changing. That would be awkward for both of them if she watched that action.

Tanning or swimming? Bee couldn't really say she didn't like either, but was swimming really... safe? With all those nymphs in there she was almost certain one would try to pull her down and she wouldn't be able to get back up, even if she were a strong swimmer -- that and the fact that bees and water don't necessarily mix. Bee could certainly surf and swim in regular waters, but swimming in a lake full of magical creatures was certainly a whole 'nother ball park.

"I think swimming, maybe?" she ventured hesitantly, taking the whole scene in: glittering blue waters, unassuming teenagers running around, no monsters in sight. But as much as she squinted, she couldn't see anything lurking in the depths of the lake, nothing besides shells and sand and some underwater plants and fish. No freaky underwater ladies, no mysterious sea creatures that had just so happened to creep up a stream from the ocean straight into the waters of the lake. With a frown, Bee wiped a bead of sweat off her nose with a finger. "Just tell me, though: Do those water nymph ladies cause much trouble? I hear sometimes they're not too... friendly."

"Swimming is good." Valerie said in agreement making her way down into the water, enjoying the cool liquid against her legs. "They should be just don't leave trash in the water or they really won't be happy with you." She made her way further into the water till she had no option other sink or swim.
"The water is lovely." She called back to her friend still on the back as she swam further out into the lake. Valerie however chose not to go too far out. It was safety really, if she ran into trouble then it was just a short mad dash back to the bank and dry land.

OOC: I apologise that my reply is short.

Well, Bee certainly didn't have any trash with her, so those nymph ladies probably wouldn't have an issue with her. As Valerie made her way out into the waters, the daughter of Melisseus spread out her towel on the ground by her friend's and then peeled off her t-shirt and shorts, leaving them in a heap on the bright orange material. Her blue one-piece wasn't too stunning, but Bee wasn't really in it for the fashion.

And so, now barefoot, the demititan followed Valerie into the water; the cold waves lapped at her ankles and made her shiver, but it was soothing compared to the scorching heat of the sun. Further and further she went into the water, until it was lapping at her neck and cheeks because she was too damned short to walk further. Kicking off from the ground, she swam out after the daughter of Apollo, calling out to her: "Ain't too bad over here, feels almost like the beach. Wanna race or somethin'?"

[ooc: it's fine brah post as little/as much as you want]

Valerie smiled at her friend, greatly enjoying the feeling of cool water against her skin. Going for a swim was a brilliant idea. She stopped swimming, moving her limbs to keep herself afloat so that Bee could catch up with her. "Sure." Valerie responded to Bee's challenge. "Where do you want to race to?" She inquired wondering what places they would use as a marker for swimming.
As she had never seen Bee swim before, Valerie possessed no idea as to how good of a swimmer she might be. Valerie would have to go all out if she was to stand a chance at winning the race. Worry gnawed at her gut, if she ran into trouble if they swam into deeper waters she might not make it out. She was a decent swimmer but was not overly confident with her abilities.

Oh, maybe she shouldn't have gotten distracted by a dragonfly -- water filled Bee's mouth when she stopped kicking to glance at it, open-mouthed, and forced her to turn her head away from Valerie and spew the cold water out. Ugh. It tasted vaguely... fishy. The nymphs probably brought in fish and stuff to populate the lake, so maybe she shouldn't have been so surprised about the very faint taste.

Pursing her lips as she treaded water to keep afloat, Bee glanced around at the lake: there was the dock with the abandoned little boat, several umbrellas firmly entrenched in the ground along the shoreline, some rocks jutting out into the lake.... They were rather far out now, far enough for it to be a fun race back to the dock or the rocks. Rocks -- may be dangerous if they ran into them or a minor wave swept them into it. Dock was probably safer, since the area around it was a lot less rocky but still rather firm. "See that boat tied to the dock? That looks good enough, at least -- it's far and we won't get hurt too bad if we accidentally run into the thing. Would be nice to get to shall-- mmf!"

More water in the mouth. Ugh. She spat it out and shook her head in disgust: "-- shallow water."

"Yeah." Valerie said trying to keep the water from splashing into her own mouth. She coughed as she breathed in some of the lake water. "So you want to do the count or do we just go?" Valerie moved back towards shallow water, not wanting to actually drown, she wanted to stay afloat.

OOC: I had a much better and larger post but my pc ate it sorry :(

She thought a moment, feeling the water lapping at her neck as she floated. Bee couldn't feel the sandy lake bottom with her toes anymore, so it was probably better for them to go back before she got too tired to swim and, like, sank to the bottom and had to be rescued by one of the fish ladies down there. That'd be weird, wouldn't it? Like Ariel from that Disney movie, minus the talking fish and bird and the sea witch and the demititan being a prince she fell in love with and all. "A countdown would be more fair -- to five? Or maybe ten, I dunno. Longer it takes the more likely we'll be spewing water like broken fountains."

Valerie found herself laughing at what Bee had to say. She was quite cool Bee, even though the daughter of Apollo had not know her for very long she felt certain that Bee would always be a good friend of her's. She decided to give the count down so that they could start swimming at roughly the same time. "One, two, three, four and five." She yelled the last part starting to swim as fast as she could in an attempt to beat Bee. From what she had seen of her already, Bee appeared to be a decent swimmer, she might be a great one for all Valerie knew.
If she was the race would be more than a little one sided, however if she ended up finding herself in trouble then her friend should be able to help. Which was comforting to her. Hopefully Bee didn't find herself in trouble either, as Valerie was definitely not the strongest of Demigods so she would have struggled to swim and carry her friend out from the lake. This would not stop her from trying if Bee found herself in trouble, Valerie would never desert a friend in need, that was just wrong.

At first, Bee hadn't noticed Valerie had started counting -- because water somehow got into her mouth again and left her sputtering in another direction, cursing whatever water god or nymphs ran this body of water. By the time she had turned back to the daughter of Apollo again, she was already on two or three when it registered to her that oh yeah, swimming contest. Crap. By the time she had even tried to position herself for her mega-awesome-powerful breaststroke, Valerie had taken off like a racecar, splashing water back towards the demititan as she went. Bee kicked off and went after her, trying to keep herself steady as she tried to move to the side away from Valerie to keep her from hitting Bee with her arms as she swam.

Was this a bad start? For Bee, sure. She wasn't amazing at swimming, but several years of surfing with friends or her stepdad had developed her abilities fairly well over the years -- but not enough to catch up to Valerie yet, of course. Bee's head was, at this point, only reaching the level of the daughter of Apollo's waist as they raced, which meant Valerie's headstart had made so large a difference that the other girl wasn't too sure she could win unless some miracle occurred. She had to hand it to her, though, she was pretty good as far as she could judge amidst the splashing water and deep breaths and the chaos of the churning currents of the lake.

[ooc: Should we roll dice to decide who wins? unless someone plans on getting grabbed/hit by something lol]

OOC: I have something planned so don't worry xD

BIC: Valerie was pleased that she managed to get a good head start on her friend, now if only she could keep her lead till they reached their designated finishing line. That, however would be much more difficult than simply gaining a lead.
Valerie was enjoying herself immensely, it felt good to swim and it felt good to be back at the lake with a friend, doing something which she loved to do. Sure races weren't her most favourite thing to do in the world, yet they still held a certain enjoyment of their own.

As nice as the lake was, it still held dangers of it's own. Water could after all kill just as well as say a sword, or poison or claws. As she went to breath in, a wave splashed water into her mouth causing her to stop spluttering. Her sudden lack of forward momentum caused the small demigod to sink, resulting in her breathing in more water. Valerie panicked, probably the worst thing one could do in this situation. Coughing and spluttering in the lake struggling to keep her own head above the water. "HELP!" She yelled out before she disappeared back under the water, fighting frantically against the water.

Swim swim swim oh Jesus Christ my sides hurt. Bee was trying so hard to catch up, but she could only currently reach up to Valerie's neck with her arms as she moved forward, with the boat getting closer every moment they swam, every --

And then, amidst the splashing coming from the two racers and the sounds of birds and other children in or near the lake, Bee faintly heard something strange -- like choking and spluttering, or.... Almost immediately, she noticed that there wasn't any more splashing in her face as she swam, and that Valerie wasn't in front of her anymore: in fact, it seemed as if just two seconds ago she had passed her as she raced forward, trying to beat her friend to the boat tied to the wooden dock just so close....

It was only when Bee slowed momentarily to a weird doggy-paddle, confused by her newfound lead and the fact that she didn't hear anything akin to a racing swim, that she heard the strangled cry for help and splashing close behind her; spinning around, she saw Valerie repeatedly bobbing up and down in the water, sinking and then rising once and then back down, almost flailing. Oh sweet baby Jesus, this was a bad idea. "Val? Val, calm down, I'm coming!" Maybe she couldn't hear her, but that didn't matter; they'd both sink if she kept panicking. Bee kicked off and swam towards her, trying to reach out for her friend and grab her by the arm.

Valerie felt something grab her hand and she gripped onto it, frantically struggling to break the surface. Valerie's head emerged from the water, coughing and spitting out water. She tried to let go of Bee because with Valerie attached to her arm, her friend either couldn't swim or would face a significant struggle to. Fighting against her growing panic, Valerie managed to let go of her friend, so that she could swim on her own. Her lungs burned and she blinked water out of her eyes. Bee had just saved her life.
This wasn't the first time Valerie had come close to death, but it was the first time in a while she'd face it. Facing death suddenly was for Valerie a very nasty shock. She didn't want to die just yet, well who did really? It would have made for a poor ending to the fourteen year old girl. "Thanks." She managed to say eventually, her voice weak and hoarse.

She had succeeded in grabbing Valerie's arm and calming her enough to let her swim on her own, so that was good: nobody would be dying because of a swimming race gone bad today. And seriously? Bee would never have been able to forgive herself if her friend had drowned just now. Thank God she hadn't. The demititans were already seen as a murderous bunch, people would immediately get suspicious if someone had drowned on her watch -- but why so many thoughts about herself and what would happen to her? Valerie had almost drowned. She should be thinking of her now, not her own fragile reputation.

"Let's get you back to shore," Bee said to her, maybe a little more loudly than called for; she didn't know if Valerie was in a haze of pain from swallowing all that water and flailing or not, but better safe than sorry. Treading water, the demititan tried to keep her distance to give her friend enough room to breathe, to swim back to shore when the time came. "Do you need help getting back? Should I just trail behind? God, I'm sorry I ever suggested we race."

Valerie nodded shakily in agreement with Bee, swimming with all the speed she could muster to get back to the shore, or at least so she might have solid ground beneath her feet instead of more water.
"I should be fine." She replied to Bee. "Not your fault, mine for trying to be a fish." Valerie sounded completely breathless. After what seemed like an age Valerie felt solid ground beneath her feet. She waded ashore, before collapsing, her legs in the water. Valerie coughed hard, spitting out a bit of water. "Yeah.... Proof I am not a daughter of Pos.." She was interrupted by a coughing fit. "Yeah... I think I am not welcome in the water." Valerie joked weakly with a smile on her face. After a short moment, Valerie pushed herself up with her arms so that she was sitting up. "Thank you for saving my life Bee.. I'll make sure everyone knows you did."

After a five second delay as Valerie took off swimming towards the shore, almost as fast as she had been racing beforehand (which greatly worried Bee, because she wasn't sure if her friend was strong enough to do that anymore without another large risk of almost-drowning), the demititan began to swam after her at a more relaxed, languid pace. She wanted to stay behind Valerie, enough to ensure she could swiftly come to her rescue again if she needed to. Val hadn't sounded so hot before, and she couldn't risk almost not being able to get to her in time again.

It took what seemed like an eternity to get back to shore, but they did it without incident and to Bee's great relief as she felt the sandy lake bottom with her toes, pushing off it to get to shore faster now. Valerie collapsed on the shore just as Bee finally hit a point too shallow for her to continue swimming, walking up to her friend's side as she wiped the water off her face. "Think you need to go to the infirmary? You don't need to advertise this to everyone, but thanks anyway. Friends save friends from drowning -- or something. Shouldn't get gold medals for duty."

"I'll be fine." Valerie said, she just needed time to get air back into her lungs and recover from the shock of having almost drowned. It wasn't an experience that she was keen to repeat any time soon. "If you say so but you saved my life... I owe you big for that." She hadn't wanted to die, no one wanted to die at the age of fourteen. Especially before any of the things which she wanted to experience happened, like a boyfriend, first kiss and all of that.
"Maybe." She shrugged at her mention of gold medals for duty, but she glad that Bee saved her from drowning, friends save friends from drowning. A good way to live, saving your friends.
If one didn't well there would not be many friends left for them would there? Valerie coughed a few more times, getting rid of the last traces of water from her lungs. "For the record." She gasped. "The lake should not be drunk from." Valerie's sense of humour hadn't diminished because of her near drowning. "Also on the plus side at least we are both cooler now."

"Well, if you insist." Bee watched Valerie another moment to check for any signs of choking to death or spitting up more water, but then felt satisfied that she wasn't going to die on her watch and chose to sat down beside the daughter of Apollo, a few feet away from where the lake's waves lapped at the shore. Wasn't such a bad day; it felt ten times cooler than it had at the hill, anyway, so she wasn't sweating like a pig anymore. How long would that last? Let's find out. "Don't plan on drinking from the lake, but thanks for the suggestion. Tastes too fishy for me, I don't like sushi."

The nymphs were probably at fault for that, but Bee couldn't just throw trash into the lake and demand they fix the water's taste, now could she? She'd probably get slaughtered, demititan or not, especially with her stunning lack of training and little control of her powers. (And bees against water? Not a good thing.) "Want me to go and get your towel for you?"

"Trust me I'm fine, if I feel like I need to go I'll tell you Bee." She offered her rescuer a kind somewhat reassuring smile, it might just help her friend relax. It was much cooler down here than on the hill, but being drenched probably helped there a lot. She laughed lightly at Bee's comment about drinking the water. "Yeah, me neither." Though perhaps the nymphs might like it? She didn't know for certain even if they ate fish.
Valerie declined the offer of the towel. "No thank you I'm fine but we could head back over to them if you wanted?" She suggested, she didn't want to dry off just yet, she wanted to enjoy feeling cool for a while longer. Hence why her legs were still partially in the lake.

"Oh, no, that's fine. Just thought you might want to be dry or something, before you catch pneumonia." But in this weather? Maybe that was a stupid thing. Bee had little medical knowledge besides what she saw on House and Law and Order: SVU and Dr. G: Medical Examiner back in the day when the Health Channel was still actually the Health Channel. Wiggling her toes in the sand, she leaned back on her arms and tried to let herself relax; her pounding heart had begun to slow back to normal, her shoulders didn't ache too bad from how bad she was swimming. The adrenaline rush was still probably wreaking havoc on her system.

"You probably would have won the race, y'know," Bee said to Valerie casually, "so congrats for that."