xp_logs | Sam & Tabitha

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Sam runs into Tabitha at the lake.

It took the cool water of the lake on the grounds to really clear her mind. She wasn't the greatest swimmer, so it took a lot of concentration to complete the exercise. That might be why it was her favorite, and why she was there every morning.

Sam hadn't been swimming in awhile, one of the many summer pleasures he couldn't enjoy while at Muir Island. It had been a childhood summer pastime of his to swim at one of many swimming holes back home, and now that he was catching the tail end of the warm weather he intended on getting as many summer activities done as possible, which included swimming.

Drawing nearer to the lake, he heard splashing that indicated he wasn't the only one with the same idea. He squinted and smiled when he recognized who it was. "Heya, good morning. How's the water?" He laid down his towel on a large rock by the side of the lake, then slipped off his sandals and his shirt before wading into the water, shivering a bit as he got used to the temperature.

Tabitha slid under the surface in surprise when she heard his voice. She sputtered back to the surface, face split wide in a grin. "Sam!" She splashed closer so she could talk to him. "I knew you were back, I meant to hunt you down, but-" she shrugged. "But you're here!" If her feet had been a little closer to the ground, she may as well have been bouncing.

He returned the grin, submerging himself into water up to his neck and shuddering a bit at the initial shock but then quickly adjusting to it. "I am, yeah, and glad to be back. How're you doing, Tabby?" Sam waded toward the deeper water where was swimming. "Gosh, this is great, I've missed this."

She attempted to shrug without drowning herself. "Oh, the usual. Trying not to get students killed while preparing them for the big scary world. Rescuing them from mind-control, you know the routine."

"Same old, same old, yeah." Sam chuckled, some things never changed. "Hopefully I can help y'all out with some of that, that's why I came back anyway. I'm looking forward to it." He'd missed the routine here and being able to contribute; not that helping Jay hadn't been important, of course, but with his brother doing better he felt the need to get back to what he'd been doing before. "And to see lots of old friends, too, yourself included." He smiled again, splashing a little water her way.

Wait, was he flirting with her?

Wait, was she flirting with him?

Did she want to flirt? Why was this so complicated?

Now she was confused. She just kept her smile in place. "What about the whole saving-the-world-teamwork aspect? Coming back to that?" she asked the first question not related to flirting that popped into her head.

He was just trying to be playful with the splashing, though being the oldest of many siblings he knew the difference between being playful and being annoying so he didn't keep on splashing Tabby. "Well, yeah, that's part and parcel of the job, I reckon." Sam brushed some wet hair off of his forehead, still treading water and acclimating to the temperature. "It's what we do after all, yeah?"

She grinned. "I have to come up with some sort of guidance for my trouble---" she coughed and cut off what she was *going* to say. "For the New Mutants. Actual powers training and stuff. Maybe I should bribe Kyle into putting in a confidence course!" she said, as if suddenly inspired.

Sam chuckled at her correction. "Nice save there, heh." He raised his eyebrows at her suggestion. "A confidence course, huh. That would be something new and different, yeah." It wasn't something with which he was intimately familiar but it might be useful to some of their students. "You can talk to him about it, see what he thinks about the idea maybe."

She paddled closer to the dock. "What's actually on a confidence course, anyhow?" she wondered out loud. "A giant tower that requires teamwork to climb, you think?"

He had to think about that first before answering. "Huh, I imagine it'd be things like that. Stuff that requires teamwork to figure out or to do." A giant tower that you had to work together to climb would fit in nicely. "Worth looking into, I suppose." Maybe they could get some ideas from Survivor or some other show where people were forced to work together.

"I have to research this, and find Kyle. Possibly in that order." She turned back to Sam as she grabbed the ladder. "Thanks, you're a genius! How are you at manual labor?"

He turned to face Tabby as she left, still treading water. "Aww, shucks, I didn't do anything, it was all your idea. And I'm handy enough, just let me know what I can help you with and I'll do what I can." Doing chores and odd ends was second nature to Sam, something he was used to doing his whole life after all.

She plopped her butt up on the dock for the sole purpose of rubbing her hands together in an evil fashion. "Peerrrrrfect." She added a cackle for good measure.

It really did have the desired effect. Sam chuckled and shook his head. "What have I gotten myself into, I wonder?" It was probably too late to worry about that.