Or maybe I'm just crazy 'bout the thought of thinking I adore you

Rose tried to remain positive as they headed back from the Master’s Suite.

“Well… that could have gone better, but it could have gone a lot worse, too!” She chirped.

Ella stared incredulously at Rose, shocked that the actress was pretending this wasn’t a big deal. It was a VERY big deal!

“That-!” Ella shook her head. “I barely even got to talk with him… so much for your great plan.”

“It’s not my fault!” Rose said defensively. “How was I supposed to know that Kim got a bounty that she would use TONIGHT to spend the night away from the Master’s Suite, and that the only reason Nick came by was to give Mary a courtesy?! That would have been impossible to predict! Or that Kim would magically transform into a bombshell!”

Ella knew that Rose was right on some level, but she still felt like being petty. “Looks like you’re not as smart as you think you are,” she sneered.

Rose scowled. “And it looks like you’re letting out your inner Cinder just a little bit, huh?”

Ella blanched. Hearing Rose say that… “Sh-shut up!” She protested, stomping her foot. “No I’m not, I just… I…”

…

Okay… maybe… maybe Rose wasn’t completely off base. Maybe Ella was being a little more venomous than usual. Acting like that… she could hardly deny it was how Cinder would have behaved, getting all defensive and hostile and aggressive.

“I-I’m sorry,” she apologized contritely, hanging her head. “You’re right, there’s no excuse… I shouldn’t be acting like I know everything… you were just trying to help. I understand that, okay?”

Rose looked stunned. She had been expecting Ella to double down, maybe even to go full Cinder, but a contrite apology and an acknowledgment of what she’d done wrong?

…Was she trying to make Rose look bad in comparison or something?

“Well… hey, like I said, it’s okay!” Rose reached out to give Ella a comforting pat, but then decided that she better not. “We’ll get ‘em next time! It’s no big deal! Just need to keep a positive attitude and do our best, right?”

Ella nodded shakily and tried to smile. Rose was attempting to make her feel better, in her own way… and that was kinda nice.

Maybe she wasn’t so bad, after all.

“Yeah, you’re right,” she said finally. “Thanks, Rose.”

Rose puffed up her chest with pride. “You’re very welcome!” She said. “Now, just because things didn’t go the way we planned, that doesn’t mean that the rest of the plan was a bad one! No, we can still plan things out for your date with Nick tomorrow.”

“Yeah, um… about that…” Ella had been uncertain about this scheme of hers BEFORE tonight had gone off the rails.

Right now?

“…I don’t think Dream Alley is the way to go here,” she said, shaking her head.

Rose frowned. “Are you sure?” She asked. “Because I really think it’s worth a shot. You can do whatever you want there! Create the perfect fantasy for the two of you!”

“Yeah, um… that’s kinda the problem,” Ella muttered, shaking her head. “See, uh… it’s like… well, let’s say I do what you’re saying, right? And I try to… I don’t know… come up with some perfect date. But if CINDER takes over, then…”

Rose winced. “Oh yeah… I hadn’t considered that.”

Of course she hadn’t. Because Rose didn’t live with the constant reminder of Cinder’s presence throbbing in her skull. How COULD she consider that?

Ella sighed and snapped her rubber-band. “Nick and I, we hardly know each other. That’s the thing. And I just… well, I don’t know, okay? I want to get to know him better… I want him to get to know me better, but… maybe you were right, and we should wait until we’re more comfortable with each other before I do something that… big.”

Ella was hoping she could use “Maybe you were right” as a magic charm to get Rose to go along with her idea. Knowing the other woman’s ego, it had a pretty good shot at working.

“Yeah, definitely, that WAS a good point I made!” Rose said, falling for it immediately because of course she did. “Yeah, Ella, you’re right on the money there! We need to be careful- don’t want you pushing things too far with Nick, before you’re both ready! Vivian just had a Dream Alley date blow up in her face, after all.”

Ella nodded rapidly. Yes! It was working!

“…But that doesn’t change the fact that we still need to figure out what to do for your date together,” Rose pointed out.

Ella’s shoulders slumped and she sighed. Yeah… that was the thing, wasn’t it? She still had tomorrow with Nick, whether she used Dream Alley or not.

“Don’t worry!” Rose patted the dejected maid on the back. “Like I told you, you’ve got me in your corner! And I’ve got all kinds of ideas about how you two can have a good time together! We can talk about them all night!”

For once, Ella wished Cinder could take over. Just so she could get a break from the overeager blonde.

But as usual, Cinder didn’t do what Ella wanted her to do.

While Rose was busy with Ella (or Ella was busy with Rose… it was hard to tell at this point) some of the other girls were actually enjoying themselves.

Well… not Emmy…

“Ugh… this feels so weird,” Emmy said, shaking her head. She sat on the steps of the pool and paused to catch her breath. In theory, learning how to swim shouldn’t be that difficult. After all, she was pretty athletic. She could vaguely remember taking part in sports like running and basketball and a lot of soccer as a kid. But she’d never learned how to swim.

…She’d never learned how to do those sports, either, technically. She’d just had the memory of them implanted into her mind. But apparently that didn’t apply to swimming.

“So Dakota could put all that stuff in my brain, even though none of it happened… but she didn’t bother with me knowing how to swim?” Emmy said glumly, resting her chin in her hands. “How does THAT make any sense?”

A wave of awkward looks passed between the other women in the water. There was something Emmy was in the dark on, that much was clear.

“Well… when it comes to water… Dakota has a few hang-ups,” Sylvia said, scratching her cheek. She swam over to the edge of the pool and pulled up next to Emmy.

“At least when I got my memories implanted, they came with swim lessons,” Marley said, nodding to her sister. The two of them had to be careful when it came to swimming, if they went too far apart Marley would end up in a bit of a sticky situation. “Carly and I used to go to the community pool a lot when we were kids. I really enjoyed the waterslide they had there…”

“And I enjoyed all the boys trying to pick me up,” Carly giggled. “Of course, nothing ever came of it.”

“Yeah, because I had to remind them that you were still in junior high,” Marley said dryly. “Those were college kids.”

Dani laughed. “I bet that sent ‘em running.”

Marley rolled her eyes. “Only the slightly creepy ones. The full-on creeps, well…”

“I was an early bloomer, couldn’t help it,” Carly laughed, splashing her sister. “I looked like I was in college too!”

“What, so I didn’t?” Marley huffed.

“Aww. Are you upset nobody tried to hit on you at the public pool? Maybe if you wore a cuter swimsuit back then, instead of that frumpy one-piece dad bought…”

Marley rolled her eyes again. “No, Carly, I’m not upset that I didn’t get targeted by child predators.”

“Well, when you put it THAT way…”

Emmy was surprised that her mother was so light-hearted. Everything since she had been brought back to life had been so intense and emotional, but being here and seeing her mom just… enjoying life like this…

It really made her heart ache for more like this.

“I never had that problem,” Vivian called. She was the only one not swimming- too busy lying down on a deck chair and looking gorgeous, posing like a model for the invisible cameras in the audience.

She looked at Emmy and cracked a grin. “I was too busy enjoying myself in the infinity pool at our estate.”

Emmy raised her eyebrow. “What’s an infinity pool?” She asked, picturing some sort of complicated self-sustaining system where the water was continuously recycled so that it never needed cleaning. That seemed like the kind of thing a rich person like Vivian would have.

Dani rolled her eyes and swam over next to Emmy. “It’s like a regular swimming pool but way more pretentious.”

That got a bunch of giggles from the other girls and a rueful look from Vivian. Emmy could tell that the girl was upset, but she was hiding it behind a smile and a chuckle.

She’s trying not to ruin the mood, but I think that hit a sore spot… I wish I was able to do stuff like that. Emmy knew that she had to give herself some grace, considering she’d only been alive for a couple of days. But it still stung knowing she had difficulty with her emotions, both expressing them and keeping them contained.

These were things that came with social experience, after all. And she didn’t really have that. There was no one on this island she could really consider a “peer”.

Shared life experiences? Kind of hard to do when the only people who could somewhat sympathize with her bizarre existence were her aunt, who’d had an entirely new past dreamed up out of nowhere, and Sylvia, who was Marley’s mother and… off in a lot of ways.

They both tried to relate to her, they really did, but Emmy had so much to learn…

And she really just wished she could be a normal girl and not caught up in this mess.

“…And that’s what makes an infinity pool so great,” Vivian finished. “The water rolls right over the edge, so it looks like it continues on forever!”

She’d been talking the whole time, and Emmy had barely been listening, much to the young woman’s embarrassment.

“Right, so like I said, it’s basically a regular pool, but way more expensive just so you can have something pretentious-looking,” Dani pointed out, drawing on her inner Kim to critique Vivian’s unnecessary extravagance.

Vivian laughed and waved her hand. “Maybe we could get Dakota to install one in here,” she suggested. “So I can prove you wrong.”

“Unlikely,” Dani said, shaking her head. “Like Sylvia said, Dakota doesn’t like water.”

“Well… more or less,” Sylvia said, shrugging sheepishly. “Actually, you may have forgotten, my girl, but back when she was a contestant she spent a lot of time swimming in the pool. Especially after she got that transformation that gave her alternate memories!”

“Oh yeah, she did do that a lot,” Dani nodded.

“Until she got the transformation that made her horny whenever she got wet,” Marley pointed out. That had been right after she came onto the show, so she had never really been exposed to this pool-loving Dakota the others were talking about.

“Wait, Dakota? The host?” Emmy scrunched up her face in confusion. “She was a contestant before? Those are the girls that are, um… in Nick’s harem thing, right?”

“…Yeah,” Carly said with a cautious nod, knowing how sensitive this topic was. “We’re all a part of it, technically. Besides you, I mean, of course.” The last thing Carly wanted was her daughter ending up entangled in Nick’s web of romantic intrigue.

Carly was pretty permissive when it came to sex stuff. And she loved her daughter, and cared about Nick quite a lot.

But even SHE had lines that she drew in the sand. Very FIRM lines.

And it Nick crossed them, he would NOT like the result.

Marley cleared her throat loudly and raised her hand. “I’m not,” she reminded her sister. “For the record.”

“Oh, don’t sell yourself short, my girl!” Sylvia chirped, shaking her head. “You are absolutely a part of Daddy’s harem! Perhaps not in an official capacity, but if you asked Daddy how he felt about you, I’m certain he would agree!”

Marley turned bright red and Emmy’s jaw dropped. She slowly shook her head.

“W-wait, so… you and Nick, you both are…” Her eyes slid from her aunt to her sister. “BOTH of you, then?”

“I mean… I’m in a relationship with Dani,” Carly said weakly. “The thing with me and Nick, that’s just… a physical thing. I mean, we really like each other too, but it’s different, so, um…”

She had no idea how to go about describing her relationship with Nick to her daughter. She didn’t even know how to explain it herself, let alone make it palatable to her child, who she was trying to spare the more skeevy aspects of this show.

“…Anyway, long story short, yes, we’re all part of Nick’s harem,” Dani said, cutting to the chase and sparing the twins further embarrassment. She rolled her eyes. “Though some of us by duress…”

Sylvia winced. “Well… you’re happy now, aren’t you?” She pointed out.

“Okay… I think… maybe I should just drop it,” Emmy decided. The direction of the conversation had gone down a weird path, and she felt that any discussion about this mysterious Dakota was making everybody uncomfortable.

Emmy wasn’t sure what she was missing. But with such a sensitive subject, it was better to be safe than sorry.

“Emmy,” Vivian said from her seat, sitting up and beckoning the brunette over to her. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Uh… yeah.” Emmy was happy to take any excuse she could get to remove herself from the conversation. She climbed out of the water and padded over to Vivian, wondering what the heiress wanted from her.

“What is it?” She asked timidly.

“Hmm? I thought you needed an escape hatch,” Vivian said, keeping her voice low. “I don’t know all the details exactly but Dakota is a bit of a no-no topic where Sylvia is concerned, and vice-versa. So keep that in mind for the future, ‘kay?”

She remembered the confrontation between Kim and Dakota this morning very well, and how Kim had nearly sent the island down a calamitous path through her confrontation with the host, and might have screwed things up for all of them if not for Vivian’s quick thinking.

If Vivian could avoid that happening again, that would probably be for the best.

Emmy didn’t understand any of that, of course. But she was still amazed.

Wow… she saw how uncomfortable I was, and then she made an excuse so I could get out of the conversation without looking rude! She’s so smart! I wish I could do that! It was so obvious in hindsight. She could have said “I need to go to bathroom” or something to end the talk and take a quick break, and it wouldn’t draw attention at all! This was the kind of stuff she wanted to learn about. The sort of thing that she missed out on by becoming 18 with a tap of Dakota’s cane, instead of growing up like a normal person did.

“Thanks…” she murmured, smiling bashfully. “I was kinda…”

“Yeah, those guys are a lot,” Vivian murmured, glancing at the women in the pool. They were all direct and blunt in their own ways, which could make things awkward. Vivian was blunt in her own way too, but at least she could turn it off sometimes to be more socially conscious. (In theory, anyway…)

“…In the future, stick with your aunt,” Vivian advised. “She’s probably got the best head on her shoulders when it comes to not putting her foot in her mouth.” She ended that comment with a cheeky wink that made Emmy giggle.

“So is that why you’re not swimming with the rest of us?” Emmy asked, looking back at her mom and sister, who were back to debating about the merits of hitting on women at the pool and whether or not it was creepy to do so when you didn’t know with absolute certainty that you were hitting on an adult first.

“Mm? Because your mom’s got a knack for blurtin’ stuff out, like her girlfriend? Nah, that’s not why,” Vivian laughed. “Even I can get like that.”

Vivian’s impulsiveness with her tongue had gotten her into plenty of trouble before, nobody could dispute that. Just this round, in fact.

“No, the reason why is… I’m not in the mood for swimming,” she said, stretching her arms over her head. “For me, dressing up in a swimsuit and posing is more than enough, but chlorine messes my hair, and that’s quite a bit of showering to get it all silky again. And it stings my eyes.”

Emmy nodded. That was another thing she hadn’t been expecting, having zero experience with pools before.

“Then… why did you come?” She asked, sitting down next to Vivian.

Vivian twitched, something that didn’t go unnoticed by the other girl, even though she kept on smiling at her.

Emmy backtracked. “I mean, I’m glad you came,” she clarified, shaking her head. “It’s just, well… you didn’t have to, and if you’re not having fun-”

“Oh, I’m having fun,” Vivian assured her with a catlike smile, stretching back on her chair and resting her head on her palms. She basked in the imaginary sun. “Believe me. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be than right here.”

Emmy frowned. That didn’t make any sense. Vivian wasn’t getting any swimming done (even though Emmy wasn’t so sure swimming was actually that fun) and she wasn’t really joining in on the conversation much, either, until recently.

“But… you’ve just been sitting here.”

“Yep, ‘at’s right,” Vivian chirped, wiggling her eyebrows. She picked up a pair of sunglasses from the table beside her chair and flicked them open, slipping them over her eyes. “And I’m loving it.”

Emmy just stared at her. “So… you’re happy just… being here, then? That really doesn’t make any sense. Isn’t your pool back home way nicer than this one?”

Vivian’s expression was hard to read with her sunglasses covering her eyes, but she was still smiling.

“My pool back home is a lot… quieter than this one,” she said finally, glancing towards the girls in the water.

Emmy wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but Vivian sounded happy at least.