xp_logs | Hope and Maddie: Late Night Bonding

It's hot out and Maddie cannot sleep so she beings ~~corrupting~~ influencing her roommate, per Haller's instructions.

It was one of those nights where sleep just impossible to fully achieve. Outside, it was hot and muggy, and Maddie swore she could still feel this deep in her bones even in her nicely air conditioned room. She had tossed and turned, gotten out of her bed to get a glass of water, go to the bathroom, but deep sleep still eluded her. So, as she lay awake in bed, staring at the ceiling in the dark, her mind wandered, jumping from topic to topic before finally settling on one idea which kept spinning in her mind.

The redhead rolled over and turned on the lamp beside her before throwing her legs over the edge of her bed, rising, and pulled open the curtain that separated her bed from her roommate's. "Hope," she whispered, inching closer and squatting beside the other girl's bed. "Hope. Are you awake?"

"Hmmm..." Hope rolled over, opening her eyes just a crack. "I am now..." She muttered fuzzily. She had finally dozed off a little with this heat and now her roommate was kneeling at her bedside. So she forced her eyes a little more open and rubbed the sleep out of them. "What is going on? Are you alright?" She could not really think of any other reason why her roommate would be kneeling besides her bed...

"I'm fine." Maddie went ahead and raised her voice to a more normal, yet still soft, level. "I couldn't sleep. It's too muggy. Like it seeped through my skin."

Hearing Maddie say the words made Hope realize how hot it was herself. It layed over her as a sticky blanket, even despite the airco. "It is very hot." She agreed. "It would be nice if it was somewhat cooler..."

An impish grin spread across Maddie's lips. "Come on. I have an idea. Get up."

Hope frowned at her, but she did get out of bed. "What are you planning, Madelyne?" She rubbed her eyes lightly in an attempt to loose the remains of sleep that still clung at her.

"Let's go swimming," the other girl replied with glee. She grabbed her roommate's hand and began tugging her in the direction of the door. Maddie wasn't sure if midnight swimming went against the mansion's rules, but she figured that would only be a problem if they were caught. Besides, this was totally one of those "forgiveness is easier than permission" times. It was hot, sticky, and uncomfortable, that totally justified a possibly forbidden nighttime dip in the pool.

Swim? "Madelyne, it's the middle of the night...We can't..." Hope protested faintly as Maddie started pulling her along. Deep inside she felt a little thrill though at doing something... possibly forbidden... "We can't just go swimming?"

"Who's going to be around to tell us we can't?" Maddie's eyes twinkled mischievously as she tugged at her roommate's arm, imploring her to hurry up as they made their way through the common area of their suite. The redhead paused a moment, glancing at the door to Tandy's room, chewed her lip in concentration then shook her head. "I don't want to risk Tandy shooting blades at us accidentally for waking her up in the middle of the night. Look," she turned to face Hope clasping both her hands around the hand she had been holding. "It's the middle of the night, no one's awake, and if they are they aren't going to be wandering down to go swimming. They're probably grabbing a midnight snack or watching infomercials. We'll just head down to the pool, take a quick dip, then come back to our room. And I'm a telepath, remember? I can keep a listen for people coming.

"Come on. You know you wanna."

Hope bit her lip as she considered Maddie's words, in the mean time doing the best to be as quiet as possible out of consideration for her other suite mate. "But... it just not proper..." She protested softly. "Even if no one is around, it could still be forbidden." With one free hand she quickly grabbed her bathrobe that was draped over a chair. "And I am not going to walk through the school in just my nightgown." She gestured at the sleeveless, silky, short nightgown she was wearing...

"Okay. That's fine." If Hope wanted to wear a bathrobe over her nightgown, Maddie wasn't going to stop her. Personally, she didn't care if anyone saw her in her sleep shorts and tank top, but whatever. "I've never heard of it being forbidden, have you? They haven't told us we can't do it, so obviously it's fine.

"Besides, think how awesome it'll feel to jump into the pool in this heat. Nice and cool and refreshing..."

Quickly tugging the bathrobe over her gown, Hope pictured herself in the cool water. It might even help her with the visualizations she had been practicing with to return to her own body when she left it... Still, she could not let go with one final protest. "But I also have never heard it's allowed... There must be some kind of rule because of the possible risks associated with it..."

"Hope," Maddie reached out touched Hope's shoulders. "Part of the fun is the thrill of doing something that may not be quite allowed. Trust me. Now come on." Moving behind her roommate, Maddie started lightly pushing her toward the hallway door. "Trust me. It'll be probably the most fun you've had in your life. If it doesn't rank in the top 10, you get a total refund and reimbursement."

"I didn't pay you anything!" Hope protested, but she let herself pushed without too much physical struggles.

"Consider this a free trial of the services I offer, then." Maddie closed the door behind them. "Now are you going to walk the rest of the way?"

"Alright..." Hope stopped her struggles and walked besides Maddie. She could always sit on the side and dangle her feet in the water or something... if she didn't want to...

***

Outside Hope took a deep breath of the night air. It was still quite warm, but somehow not a muggy as inside. The water of the pool was smooth before them and Hope reached for the ties of her bathrobe... Pulling it open she looked at her nightgown and back at the water. "We didn't really think this through..." She addressed Maddie.

But her roommate was no longer beside her. On the ground where Maddie had been standing her shorts and tank top lay in a small pile; she had already made her way to the edge of the pool. If she had heard Hope's remark she showed no acknowledgement, and instead raised her arms over her head and dove smoothly into the pristine water.

"Madelyne?" Hope's voice was shocked and her eyes wide. "What in the world are you doing?" She quickly diverted her eyes and looked at the ground.

Maddie's head surfaced and she pushed her wild hair away from her face. She was treading water, her eyes closed for a few moments as she enjoyed the cool sensation of the water compared to the mugginess of the night, before slowly crawling toward the pool's edge and the girl who was still standing there. "I'm swimming," she proclaimed matter-of-factly. "Come on in. It feels great."

"You are not wearing anything..." Hope replied, still keeping her eyes carefully on the ground in front of her. "I cannot just join you..."

Yeah. Maddie had expected this, or rather she wasn't surprised that her roommate was shocked at her own behavior. Sigh. She had so much work to do, and it was beginning tonight. "Why not," the redhead asked as she rest her arms and chin on the pool's edge. "No one's around. We're both girls. I mean, it's not a big deal. I have all the same parts you do."

"I know that... It just isn't proper... You can swim in your shirt or something!" Hope explained, meeting Maddie's eyes firmly.

"Um. Then I would get my shirt wet and walking back to our room would leave a water trail. And they drag you down in the water," the other girl replied. "I only ever wore shirts in the pool to help me improve my times."

"And just showing everything to everyone is okay?" Hope asked, almost incredulously. "Water we can clean up if we have too..."

The redhead laughed and threw her arms out, waving to the dark expanse surrounding them. "What 'everyone'? The only people that would possibly see you are the squirrels and chipmunks and deer, and I don't think they count as people." She propelled herself backward and dove under the water's surface; just because her roommate didn't want to swim didn't mean Maddie couldn't enjoy herself.

When she surfaced again, having momentarily quenched her desire to feel like a mermaid, Maddie stared up at the still dry Hope and mentally sighed a sigh of utter exasperation. She knew her roommate wasn't a total stick in the mud; there had been several moments since the first innuendo with the violin where Maddie felt Hope let go of the robotic Miss Prim and Proper act. Had Hope not showed that she had a bit of a mischievous side, Maddie would have given up long ago. But as it stood, the rambunctious redhead kept trying to "influence" her roommate, just as Mr. Haller suggested.

It wasn't that she felt a duty to corrupt this girl and tell her mother to suck it (which, to be fair, she totally did as well), but Hope seemed more genuine in those moments where she rebelled against her upbringing. Maddie liked Hope, and she wanted to help Hope see that there was more out there than what the other girl's mother had taught her, and give her a choice to be who she wanted. Obviously, tonight, maybe Hope was choosing to refrain from the midnight dip as her choice, but Maddie had a feeling it had more to do with the lessons Mrs. Abbott had instilled in her young daughter than a desire not to swim.

"I'm not going to force you to do anything. But it seems a shame to come all the way out here and, instead of enjoying the water, just stand on the sidelines. Come on in with your nightgown if you want, or not. I just didn't want to walk all the way back to our room in wet clothes, it's totally uncomfortable." But one last shot couldn't hurt.

Hope bit her lip, different sides of her mind warring with each other. The water looked so inviting, nice and cool. She looked down at herself... But swimming in the nude? No, that was still a bridge too far... So hesitantly Hope untied her bathrobe and put it a safe distance from the pool... She would have something dry to walk back to her room...

She sat down on the edge of the pool and let her legs dangle in the water... It was as nice and cool as she had imagined... So with a small splash she slid in the pool, letting herself sink to the bottom immediately. After a few seconds she pushed herself of surfaced with another splash. "This is indeed very nice." She admitted to Maddie.

Maddie hummed in reply. "Mhmmmmm. I know." She ducked down and sommersaulted under the water. When she resurfaced, nose burning slightly from water flowing up it, Maddie glanced over at Hope with a conspiratorial smile. "So Miss Abbott, how does it feel to do something that might be against the rules?"

"It feels..." Hope paused for a moment. "It doesn't feel that bad... And the water feels great.." She dove under again, swimming a few meters before surfacing, pushing the gown back down, so it would stop floating up. "The nightgown is annoying... it keeps floating up..."

The redhead shrugged in reply. "I'm just gonna go ahead and say it," she flipped to her back and began lazily lifting one arm then the other into the air and back down over her head. "I told you so. The fabric gets wet and it creates drag which weighs you down. And then it starts to float up to the surface. Major annoyance."

"Yes, but..." Hope again dove under and tried a somersault herself. She came up sputtering though, her gown plastered over her head. "Okay... I am tired of this..." She swam to the side and pulled the gown over her head, putting it on the edge of the pool. Her head fire engine red, she quickly dove under again.

"Bow chica bow wow," Maddie teased and giggled. She had missed show entirely, however, as she had been gazing up at the stars, trying to find the one constellation she actually remembered in the night sky. "Ah ha! Orion's belt, I've found you. I can't find the rest of you, Orion, but I found your belt. Victory is mine."

When Maddie caught Hope's head reemerging from its aquatic hiding place from the corner of her eye, the redhead began swimming toward her. "Why Miss Abbott," she began in a high pitched, sing-songy voice. "Are you," she gasped, "naked? What would your mother say?"

"Madelyne..." Hope said, her cheeks turning even more red if possible and still more than a little uncomfortable. "Please... no teasing..." She quickly dove under again, hiding her face.

Maddie continued to laugh as she waited for the inevitable need for oxygen to drive Hope to the surface. "Come on Hope," she said. "I told you that you don't need to call me by my full name. It's 'Maddie'. There's no need to be so formal. Especially not since we've seen each other naked.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she quickly added. "I promise that's the last of it for tonight. You wanna race?"

"I will do my best." Hope wiped the hair from her face. "And as long as we don't have to get out out of the water... I will race you..." Hope started swimming to the edge of the pool.

Maddie joined her at the edge, her hand resting on the cement. "What do you say: there and back, then we head on back to bed?"

"Sounds like an excellent plan to me." Hope prepared herself to push of from the side. "Are you ready?"

"Oh sweetheart, I was born ready." Maddie glanced over at her roommate, eyebrows raised, and readied herself to race. "On the count of three. One... Two... Three!"