The climate of Frangea was legendary for its mildness. Though winter was barely over and spring just beginning to show its vital force, great tree blossoms had been cascading petals along every boulevard and freeway for weeks on end before Spring Break. The sun shone warmly, and the emerald sea sparkled invitingly so that the beach was frequented from early morning to golden twilight by sun worshippers from all over the land.

Being so close to Blossom Bay meant the pupils of the various schools in the area made full use of the opportunity, making it difficult for Soo Toglak to arrange lessons with Lyra that might reveal her inadequacy and provoke further humiliation. Thus they took trips to the Congress of Dolls frequently, made sure they were seen there, and then departed to a more distant cove south of the cliffs.

"You were making notes," Soo said as the girls travelled in a buggy over the peninsula that terminated Blossom Bay and led down to a smaller beach.

"Was I?" Lyra replied, thoughtful after paying her respects to the masses of dolls. She had seemed a little agitated by the display, excited by something she had seen and scribbled on a notepad eagerly. "Oh, I was comparing prices. Shame the Queen of the Dolls is not for sale, for a queenly sale it would be."

"Seriously? Here's our stop," and Soo skipped out of the buggy and descended the steps to the warm sand, the subject forgotten. A sprinkling of families were occupying stretches along the sweep of the tiny bay, and she nodded in satisfaction. The location was perfect, there being no inconvenient witnesses to her clumsy efforts.

The girls were soon in the water and Lyra showed her pupil how to anticipate the movement of the waves, to feel currents tugging at their legs and the best way to breathe at certain times in the various strokes. Soo did her best to emulate her friend but of course could not match the fluid way the Meditia girl moved through the water.

They splashed about and laughed and chased each other through the roaring surf until exhaustion ended the day's session. Thus they collapsed on the beach and let the sun dry them before showering and towelling down and returning back up to the slopes of Mount Syzywyg without of course mentioning where they had been. Except regarding the dolls of course.

"I outgrew dolls when daddy bought me a car," Pinky observed casually that first evening, for Soo had to make some conversation regarding where they had been earlier.

"You can drive?" Petal Mara, the gentle spirit from Greenvale said, brown eyes wide in curiosity.

"Only on a private circuit. The parents wouldn't let me take it on the freeways around Brandhaven," naming one of the three great connurbations of her homeland of Perfecta. "When I hit sixteen though I shall travel all over the world in my flitter car."

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"It can fly as well?"

"Of course. Wheels have their uses, but all the best parties are on the top floor." This said, Pinky went back to sorting a hundred or so hair clips for morning, afternoon and evening suitability, depending on her costume.

"Dolls are banned in Evernight," Danique Ferale said.

"Let me guess," Soo blurted out quickly. "Too happy?"

The brooding girl with a mass of stormy black hair made no reply but rolled over onto her stomach and resumed flicking through a glossy magazine that had at least three skulls on the cover.

"Ouch," Lyra whispered. Soo shrugged as if to say, what can anyone expect?

"I am," Lyra then said out loud, addressing the dorm in general, "a teacher and this benighted girl from grassy lands is my pupil." Soo looked alarmed at this declaration but Lyra smiled reassuringly. "Meditia Winkel is a place where dolls are more than companions. They draw out your inner soul and teach you to see yourself as others see you. I am showing Soo how she can expand her awareness of self through the strange eyes of the little folk we call dolls."

"And they certainly have strange eyes," Soo admitted with a convincing air of truth.

All this chatter about dolls was just vague enough to explain the absence of the two girls to their dorm mates without creating an inconvenient interest in details. Though on occasion there was a look in Danique's eyes that suggested she yearned for some companion to draw out that which was deeply buried in her tortured soul.

Thus at first the swimming lessons went swimmingly so to speak and Soo found she had muscles that had never ached before. Then one time she found herself alone in Scallop Cove, sitting upon the sand, waiting for her teacher to arrive. Lyra did so, eventually and apologised for being late.

"It's such a busy time," she said. "Spring Break approaches and crowding thoughts fit to break one's plans seem ever more intense."

"It's okay," Soo said, limbering up for the twilit session. They had begun practices in the early evening after lessons during week days and the Mangoria girl was starting to feel she was truly learning something from the mermaid of Meditia. "I'm really grateful you can find the time to help me."

Two days later Soo was alone again and swam in quiet, thoughtful solitude, wondering at the growing unreliability of her friend.

"You promised!" she said in a quiet moment early the next day for they could not speak in the dorm before witnesses.

"I am sorry," was all Lyra said.

Their lesson that evening was sullen and distracted so that little was learnt. Soo watched the sun go down, sitting upon the beach with a towel wrapped around her as Lyra gathered her things.

"What are your plans for Spring Break?" she said, knowing the Meditia girl would understand the question fully. "Signing up for that trip to the Wilds of Fregonia in the north? I hear Danique is actually considering it."

Lyra paused and looked at her.

"This I will not do," she said emphatically. "Wild I can be, when nature is so free, but mountains are not me, my heart lies in the sea."

"You'll stay here and teach me more?" Soo said hopefully.

"I will my friend, I will."

Yet the day after many girls departed the school on the short break, including Danique late the previous evening intent on some crazy adventure elsewhere in Frangea, Soo again found herself swimming alone at Scallop Cove. She felt more than just disppointed by the neglect, she felt betrayed.