Finding Fun by the Beach

Laying down on the sand feels really good, I can’t help but think. Comfy. For the first time in a while I’m not thinking about complicated rituals and obscure theories. I’m having some genuine me-time. Still figuring out what to do about that, but figuring it out is supposed to be where a lot of the fun is. Ali went off with Jase for something I really don’t want to think about too much. Ever since he recovered from getting run over by a car, they’ve gotten back to a good place, which is good for both of them. Means League meetings involve a lot of PDA again, but it keeps them both in high spirits. Isaac is running away to Europe like I did last year. He claims it’s to visit Maestro White in her new job at CERN, but I get a gut feeling there’s more to it. He hasn’t been hanging out with the League as much as he used to. Something’s going on. I figure he’ll fix it or tell me at some point, and it isn’t my business until he does. Which leaves me to figure out how to enjoy a summer all on my own.

Not that I didn’t enjoy last summer. It was the best. It also involved things so expensive I could work a thousand lifetimes and likely still not afford. Ali’s family paved a lot of ways for our Euro-trip. I need to enjoy myself without that stuff, too. That’s what this adventure is about. Finding the fun.

Step one was getting the heck away from the Villa. I love it there, sure, but it’s like when I was back in the Tower: if you don’t make an effort to see what lies beyond, it’ll start to feel like a prison. So I grabbed a bus to the city. As I was trying to figure out where to go next, I spotted a bus filled with kids around my age soon to depart. I grabbed a ticket and before I knew it I was here. The beach.

If this is what people do to relax, I can understand, but it’s been a few days and I have yet to find much fun. I went to the big blowout they held last night, apparently they hold them all the time, and it was fine. It would’ve been really fun with Ali. Or maybe Ike. Or even, god help me for thinking this, Phillipe. But without anyone to talk to about the most insane bubbling thoughts in my mind, it was fine. I even flirted for a bit with this one cute boy, but what are you supposed to do when they start up a really boring story that segues perfectly into a brilliant joke about the were-snake tribes of the Alashan Plateau. Life doesn’t have the same verve when you can’t be yourself. But here, alone on the beach, I can. And it is relaxing.

But I don’t want to just relax. I can relax back in town and around the Villa. I want to find something fun out in the world. A thing outside our walls that I can do to, I don’t know, just be outside the Magisterium. If the answer isn’t in hanging out with other people my age, perhaps I can find it in some activity, some adventure. Thinking back to my childhood, I remember how much I’d enjoy sneaking out of the tower, exploring down in the woods around. Wondering if there might be anything like that in such a built up, touristy area like this, I get up and pull out my phone. It won’t be on the beach, I think as the first light of the sun peeks in over the horizon. I stop for one last relaxing moment, taking in the sunrise. It is spectacular. Then, I’m off the beach before the masses arrive.

As I head into the city for my breakfast, I start scrolling through naturey and explorey things I could do around here. There are a few options, though not many. Arriving at the small diner that I’ve been eating breakfast at the last couple days, I decide on kayaking. It’s supposedly fun, somewhat social, outdoors, and should give me an idea of the area. Checks every box. Also, not too expensive, which is a plus. Heading inside, I greet the lady behind the counter with a nod and head to my table.

She comes over as soon as I’ve seated myself. “So,” she asks while I’m looking at the menu, “Did you like the party?”

I smile and shrug. “I think I hyped it up too much in my mind,” I reply, “It couldn’t really live up to what I wanted.”

She frowns, shakes her head, and says, “That’s just too bad. I really hope you find something you like around here.”

“But I have,” I say, “I found this place, didn’t I?”

She rolls her eyes at me. “That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it.” Then, she adds, “So, decided on what you’ll have?”

“I’m thinking just a simple french toast plate.”

She nods. “Alright, thanks. Be back in a sec.” And she heads away to give my order to the cook in the back.

I take the time to look up how far the kayaking thing is from here, and figure out how I’ll get there. It is a ways away. Walking isn’t going to be ideal. Taking the bus will be better. There is, in fact, a bus that goes pretty much direct from a few blocks from here down to the starting point for the kayaking. Smiling, I start the next step. Planning the money side of it all. After all, I only have so much and I need to make it last for however long I’ll be out here, and still have enough to get me back to the Villa. Or I could bug someone for a ride at the end of summer. But that would probably be even more, seeing as I’d need enough to stay in this expensive tourist trap of a beach for the whole summer.

As I’m almost done taking my budget notes, the hostess returns with my plate of toast. Perfect timing. “So,” she asks me, “Got any plans for today, or just wandering the beach some more?”

“I’m thinking kayaking,” I reply, “Do you know if it’s any good around here?”

“Will it matter if I say anything?” she asks, smirking at me.

I chuckle. “Nah. But it might make you feel better.”

Her smirk turns into a more genuine smile. “I don’t want to influence your opinion on things,” she says, “But do tell me all about it tomorrow.”

“Of course,” I say. She heads back to the front counter area, and I start to chow down on my breakfast.

It takes me a little longer than I expect to eat it all. The french toast here, evidently, is very rich. But eventually, I do manage to finish. Heading up to the front counter, I pay. “Have a great day,” the lady says to me.

“You as well,” I reply. And with that I’m out the door and heading towards the bus.

Because I was slow eating, I need to rush to get to the bus stop early. And I want to get there early, just in case the bus is early. After all, if I miss the bus, the next one won’t come for another ten minutes. I don’t know what I could do for ten minutes at a bus stop. So, instead, I put on my game face and pick up the pace.

Walking at my the-exam-is-in-five-minutes pace, I make it to the stop with time to spare. Sitting down, I call up the place to set up a spot for today. Turns out, it isn’t that hard. They have a lot of space, and not that many people are interested in kayaking around during their beach time. I suppose that makes some sense, but it means less stress on me for doing these fun but not necessarily mainstream activities. Ooh, maybe I should try the opposite tomorrow, like visit an art gallery. Ike’s art last semester may be entirely terrible, but some of the pieces by the Maestro who was teaching Oils looked inspiring. But that is tomorrow me’s problem. Right now me has a bus to get on. And as I think this, as though to show the world agrees with me, the bus pulls up to the stop. Paying my two bucks, I head to the back.

The bus is pretty crowded. At least, in the beginning. It drives like a block or two parallel the beach, then the next beach as well. However, while I stay on, most of the crowd gets off before it turns inland. All that is left is me, and a bunch of local looking types. One of these comes up to me. “What’re you doing here?” he asks, “Ain’t you want to head out and party with the rest of your friends?”

I look up at him. “Not particularly. Not right now at least. Why do you care?”

“Ignore him,” the bus driver shouts, “Landon just hates you out-of-towners. Thinks you’re ruining the vibe of the place.”

“Is that true?” I ask the local, Landon, evidently. “Do you think me sitting here quietly is upsetting the city’s essence?”

“Yeah,” Landon replies instinctually. Then, thinking a moment, he clarifies, “Well, maybe not you right now exactly, but people like you always do. You think you can do anything and so you do everything. And, for the most part, you do get away with it because your tourist bucks are so important to the city government, and that just confirms for all your out of towner friends that when they come here, they too’ll be able to to anything.”

I think about how to approach that, and decide a friendlier version of Therese’s jabs. “Are you saying you’d rather me never to talk to my ‘out of town’ friends about my trip?”

“Yeah,” Landon says, though he sounds suspicious.

“But what if they end up coming here later anyway? You guys’ government does set this place up to draw college kids in. Then, wouldn’t they be just like those out of towners you hate?”

“Yeah, they would,” he agrees wholeheartedly, then suddenly becomes even more suspicious.

“How many out-of-towners would you say you told this to, roughly?”

“A bunch,” he states.

“So, had they gone back and told their friends about this encounter, wouldn’t that have made their friends who came at some later point better?”

He looks uncertain. “Maybe.”

“Try,” I say with a pleasant smile as we’re coming up to my spot. “Next time, approach the out of towner more pleasantly, see if you can get them to agree with you and tell their friends.” With a shrug, I add, “You may find it somewhat more effective than an angry and agitated rant.” With that, I pull the cord. The bus comes to a stop and the doors open. I climb on out of the bus into the middle of a slightly built up residential area. The bus continues on its way, this Landon fellow clearly in thought. Now, I must admit, that was quite good fun. It gives me high hopes for the kayaking. I cross the street and make my ways to the waterside.

The kayaks aren’t on a beach, per se. It’s more of rocks, shrubs, and moss that drops off into a lake or really slow river looking thing. Approaching the larger building, I look for whoever runs the place. It takes me a bit of effort, but I find him in the back, behind a warehouse filled with kayaks, near the life vests. There are a few people beside him looking at the vests. “Hi,” I greet him, “I’m Natalya. I called ahead.”

He nods, smiling. “Of course. The trip starts in ten minutes, but in the meantime, you get to pick out your life vest, then go and talk to Madison in the warehouse to pick a kayak. I hope you have a fun time.”

I smile back at him. “As do I.”