July 21st
I walked down to the pool to check on it. I saw that Scarlett bought chlorine tablets, so I thought it would be nice to clean it. I opened the door, only to be greeted by Gruma holding a bikini. “Oops! Sorry, I was waiting for Scarlett,” she said as she blushed and hid the swimwear.
“What’s going on?” I asked as she seemed to be acting strangely. Also, why is she at the pool? No one has gone there since we bought the ship. Never mind, I’m going to check on the pool. That’s what I came here for anyways. I walked past Gruma and up to the pool. I looked in and was shocked that it was crystal clear. Someone must’ve messed with the pool. Who would’ve done that? As if to answer my question, a certain vulpine entered the room.
“Hey Quentin, did you see what Gruma made for me?” Scarlett asked as she held the bikini Gruma had in front of her. I noticed that it was dark green, seemingly to complement her fur. Better than being for Gruma. That would’ve scared me.
“Yes,” I quickly replied before walking over to the hot tub. I checked the temperature and saw that it was set to one hundred degrees Fahrenheit and not one hundred degrees Celsius. Some aliens would prefer the latter. I, meanwhile, didn’t want to become a boiled human. When I finished checking it, I looked back and was shocked. She’s pretty. I’ll admit that.
“What is it? Do I look that good?” Scarlett asked as she held her hands on her hips and showcased her bikini. I noticed that she had a visible belly button. It looked human, which reminded me of what she really was.
“Yes. It looks good on you,” I nervously admitted. Oh no! I don’t want to be into that kind of stuff! I’ve seen the kind of things they draw online. It terrifies me. “The only problem is that I don’t have swimming trunks. So I guess I’ll have to wait,” I said as I came up with a way out the situation.
“It’s a good thing I had Gruma make some for you,” Scarlett said as she pulled out a pair of blue swimming trunks. I grabbed the swimming trunks and walked into the bathroom nearby. Remember, Quentin, you were going to invite her here anyways. You were planning to give her the opportunity to enjoy the summers that she missed. She just beat you to the punch. Go out there and enjoy yourself. I changed into my swimming trunks and walked back out to see Scarlett diving into the deep end of the pool. I was going to check on her when her head emerged from the water. She shook the water off and shouted with glee, “Feels good in here!”
I walked over to the shallow end. Before I could step in, Scarlett teased, “Are you not brave enough to dive in the deep end? Where is our fearless captain?” I smirked as I walked over to the deep end. I got on the diving board and prepared myself. After a few fake-outs, I jumped into the pool.
“Cannonball!” I shouted before landing in the water. I heard Scarlett yelp as she got splashed. When I emerged from the water, I laughed. Scarlett playfully slapped my shoulder as she laughed as well.
“Beware, Quentin. I’m going to do that to you when you least expect it,” she said as she calmed herself down. Once the laughter died down, she looked at Gruma and asked, “Are you going to come in?”
“I don’t know how to swim. My homeland was landlocked,” she answered as she walked to the shallow side. She dipped a toe in the water. She quickly pulled it out and shook her head. “I don’t want to get in! I could die!” she shouted with irrational fear.
“Gruma, you are over six feet tall. You can comfortably stand up in the shallow end,” I said as I pointed at a sign that read that it was three feet deep. Good thing I had the ship register itself in US Customary Units. I could’ve handled metric too, but it was only me and Scarlett at the time to worry about so I didn't think about Harry.
The Taraxian nodded and descended the steps into the pool. She stood up in the shallow end and said, “Okay, now I’m in. How do you swim?” Scarlett sighed before swimming over to her. She performed a backstroke before switching to a breaststroke when she neared Gruma.
“Let’s start with floats. You need to know how to float before you can swim. It takes time. For now, let’s stick at the shallow end,” Scarlett explained as she stood up. “Once we get some floats down, we can move onto doggy paddling.” She laid face down in the water. She floated in that position until she raised her head up. “That’s a front float. It’s a simple float to learn. However, we can use a kickboard if you’re not comfortable.” She pointed at a board on the wall.
“No. I think I can—” Gruma said before she sank like a rock. I quickly swam over to help Scarlett pick her up. We were able to get her above water while she was still conscious. I noticed something as we picked her up.
“Scarlett, I think her bones and muscles are too dense to float,” I explained as it seemed to make sense. Great fighter, terrible swimmer. Luckily for her, the latter is not a common scenario.
“You calling me fat?” She glared daggers at me as she snarled.
“No! He’s just saying that Taraxians are not physically capable of swimming. You’re absolutely amazing at everything else! Please don’t hurt him!” Scarlett quickly cried as she stood in front of me. Her ears were pinned against her head.
Her plea worked as Gruma sighed and blew water out of her nose. “I’m sorry, Quentin. I’m still working on controlling my anger. I’ll leave now.” She walked out of the pool and towards the door. Before she left, I noticed that she was wearing her typical leotard. Poor timing to ask myself, but does she ever change? She finally left the room, leaving me and Scarlett alone.
While she was gone, we had a small swimming contest to see who was the fastest. Shockingly enough, she was faster than me. I thought the fur would’ve gotten too soaked, but it wasn’t the case. She was soaked, but she wasn’t slowed down too much. After the race, I decided to move over to the hot tub and relax. I turned on the nearby TV screen and switched it to a new show called Galaxy Quest: The Next Millenium. The franchise was an obvious Star Trek knockoff, but it had its charm. Ironic charm.
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“Captain, we have a situation! There’s two Dr. Neutrons!” Ensign Rogers cried as he pointed to the duplicate alien scientists.
“My God! I don’t need more competition!” Captain Jason Clark shouted as he go up from his chair.
“I’m Dr. Neutron! He’s the fake!” shouted the Dr. Neutron with a beard. Considering that his species had no hair whatsoever, it was a stupid plot point that the confusion even happened.
“He brings up a pretty good argument. There’s only one way to resolve this. If you answer correctly, you’ll live. If I had to choose between the most beautiful woman in the world or this ship, which would I choose?”
“The woman, of course!” the goateed scientist shouted with a smirk as he looked at the other scientist. His smirk was poorly timed. A laser shot hit him, killing him instantly and bloodlessly. That’s incorrect. Laser shots still cause blood to spill. Often more blood is spilt since the heat causes some blood vessels to explode.
“You almost killed me. Very illogical,” Dr. Neutron said calmly as he looked at the corpse on the ground.
“I didn’t. You know as well as anybody that while I love women, I love this baby more,” Captain Clark said as he rubbed his seat. Everyone looked at him oddly and backed away. The credits rolled afterwards, making me laugh. This show’s a hilarious mess!
“What were you watching?” Scarlett asked as she sat down next to me. She closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief. “This feels better. Now I know why my parents always went to the hot tub when my siblings and I went swimming.”
“I was watching a knockoff Star Trek. But now I’m trying to find something else to watch,” I answered. I noticed my remote was gone. I looked next to me and saw that Scarlett was changing the channel.
“Now it’s time for me to watch something I wasn’t able to before I was abducted.” She stopped at a channel showing Dr. No, the James Bond movie. She was absolutely captivated by it, which made me happy. Good thing that she likes action movies. If she liked cheesy romcoms, that would’ve been torturous.
As we watched the movie, I asked her, “Is this helping you catch up on the time you missed?”
“To be honest, nothing will truly fill that void left in me.” She shrugged and looked at me. “But I appreciate the effort. What are some future plans you have for me?”
“It’ll be several months, but I’ve been planning for us to have a Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas party. Separately, of course. I also want to know when your birthday is,” I said as I mentally prepared to memorize the date she’d give.
“March 25th,” she replied. My eyes widened in shock as I realized something.
“You’re older than me,” I subconsciously said. “My birthday is April 14th.”
Scarlett laughed at my shock. “Quentin, I’m less than a month older than you! It doesn’t matter to me!” I sighed in relief as she averted an awkward moment. In retrospect, it was a massive overreaction.
We watched the rest of the movie before getting ready to leave. I grabbed our towels and tossed one to her. She shook some water off herself before drying with the towel. She looked at me with embarrassment on her face. “Don’t tell anyone about that.”
“I won’t,” I said with an innocent smile. I waited as she left the room first. Once she was gone, I pulled out a notebook and scratched off Have a Pool Party. A smile graced my face as I felt I was making her life better. It was then that I realized that I knew nothing about her past. Her time under the Qarri was off-limits, but anything before that was free.
I sprinted through the halls until I caught up with her right before she entered her bedroom. “Scarlett… can we… talk some more?” I panted for a bit as she smirked at me.
“And I’m the one that looks like a dog,” she teased. She tossed her towel onto a counter and let her tail slowly wag. “Come on in. You can sit on my bed if you want to.”
We walked into the room. I went to the bed and sat down while looking at a painting on the wall. She has a talent. That’s a beautiful painting she made. The painting I saw had two parents, a tall father and short mother, with three children. There were two girls. The older one had blonde hair and blue eyes. She was probably twelve. The younger one was about nine years old with red hair and blue eyes. The last child was a young boy, no older than seven-years-old. He had blonde hair and green eyes. I pointed at the redhead girl in the painting and asked, “Is she supposed to be you?”
“Yes. It’s a family portrait to the best of my ability. My memory is a bit foggy. Not due to anything the Qarri did, but just the time that has passed,” she answered as she sat down next to me. She pointed at her older sister. “That’s Amanda. She was cool. A bit of a troublemaker. She was rebellious and often did what she thought was fun. She never wore the fancy clothes my parents bought for her, preferring to wear torn jeans and tank tops. She played pranks on others and even had a boyfriend before she was sixteen.” She laughed for a bit. “The day before I was abducted, she got her nose pierced, angering my parents.”
She pointed at her younger brother. “That’s Arthur. He was a total sweetheart. Unlike Amanda, he listened to my parents and loved pleasing them. He was kind to everyone, even when he started getting bullied in school for it. He looked up to me. Not that I see myself as anyone to look up to. Back when I was human, I was a whiny brat. I did well in school, but I also threw a fit when I got a C on a test. I would cry every time I got injured, no matter how minor. I was a total wuss. For all the evil the Qarri did to me, they made sure to kill the annoying brat that I was.” She started to sob. I quickly pulled her into a side hug.
“Don’t hate yourself! I was also something of a brat as a kid. Everyone is. I kept begging my parents for money, candy, and games until my father decided to destroy that behavior. When I turned eleven, he signed me up in a local Scout troop and took us on a hiking trip. I took time, but it eventually made me the man I am today. Not exactly an exemplar of manliness or morality, but certainly less annoying,” I said as we looked at the painting. She returned my hug as she pulled out her SAD. She got both of us in the screen before pressing a button. Before I could react, a flash came out from it.
“Thank you, Quentin,” she said as she got up and messed with it for a while. After a few seconds, she took it off and put it on her dresser. She looked at me with a sad smile. “The woman you’ll marry will be the luckiest woman in the world.” Scarlett, it’s not that I don’t like you, it’s that you look like an anthropomorphic fox. Once you’re human again, I’ll happily date you.
“Thank you,” I said as I got up and walked to the door. I took one last look at her and asked, “Are we still going to play Street Fighter tomorrow?”
“You know I’m going to wipe the floor with you!” she replied as her tail wagged. Hearing that, I walked out of the room and went to mine.
All in all, it was a good day. I got to spend time with the two ladies on this ship and help them enjoy their time here. While I wished Gruma was able to stay longer, I knew why she left. All I had to do now was find a way to become friends with Harry. He was less aggressive than when we met, but he was still rude and obnoxious. We needed to learn to get along before we ran into any major threats. Daraxes was one thing, but the Qarri was another. I wished he wasn’t so stubborn. It would’ve made my life much easier.