Trapped

(Avery is a girl, by the way. hey mistakes happen)

"What do you think we'll find down there?" I wonder out loud. Thaniel shrugs.

"Fish I suppose." He answers, I laugh slightly at his response.

"Amazing, you must be a rocket scientist." I joke, earning a small laugh out of him.

"If he were a rocket scientist, I would be scared." Angler interjected causing me to smile.

"Boy's." I sigh playfully. Angler looks at me with amusement. "You're practically one of us." He states.

"Was that an insult or a compliment?" I ask, Angler shrugs. "Besides I'm not that guy-ish." I mumble.

>>>Whoops!<<<

Thaniel,

"It was most definitely a compliment. I mean, c'mon. How could being one of us be an insult. Really."

I say this with complete mock seriousness, and they both laugh. Avery stops eventually.

"No, but really. What DO you think we'll find?"

"Really, we've got no ideas at all," I say.

"Dad thinks that there's some precious mineral or something down there," Angler says.

"What, just because it's shiny?" says Avery.

"Yeah, it could just be a huge pile of iron pyrite,"

Angler

Just then, Ora, Aisha, and Kate- My other three friends going on the journey, entered the room, ready to go.

"I suppose we're just waiting on the thumbs up now," I comment.

As the others introduced themselves, I began thinking it wouldn't be so bad after all. It would be interesting, exploring that crack.

"What do you think, Angler?" Thaniel asked. I had no idea what he was talking about.

"Yes," I replied. This was probably not the right answer, because the room exploded with laughter.

Yes, this couldn't be bad at all.

Aisha

I stood in the corner, feeling uncomfortable to just jump into the conversation.

"Hey Aisha! You going to come introduce yourself or am I going to have to embarass you?" Angler asked.

"Too late" I replied. If I wasn't arabian and didn't have tan skin I probably would have blushed. I didn't really know how I felt about Angler. I had a huge crush on him, but e never really noticed so I flirted and dated other guys.

Maybe finally he would actually notice me as something other as his friend because of this trip. sigh

I introduced myself to the rest of the crew. This was going to be an interesting trip. I glanced over at the girl who stood near the wall. I smiled at Angler's remark to her. Walking up to her i held out my hand. "Hey, I'm Avery." I introduced.

"Aisha." She said in a light voice, a bit hesitant in shaking my hand. "Come no need to be shy." I beckoned her to follow me into the group who had already broke into groups and started conversing. She followed behind me. stealing a last glance at Angler.

"Thaniel this is Aisha. Aisha this is Thaniel." I introduce them to each other, they nod a quick hello to each other as Angler walks over to us. "Thaniel, no funny business with the ladies." He jokes, causing me to laugh lightly.

Thaniel,

"Why, I don't know what you mean!" I pretend to be affronted at Angler's comment.

"What does he mean?" the girl called Aisha says hesitantly. Angler grins, and is about to say something, but I interrupt him.

"What he means is that, ah, shall we say, my masculine charms sometimes go into kick without me meaning to," I wink.

"Like now?" says Avery.

"Affirmative," I laugh, "So, Angler, when do we get wet? Soon, I hope."

"Probably in like 10 minutes. God I hope you mean go in the water wet.." Angler replied a smile across his face.

"You perv" Avery said, smiling brightly in Angler's direction, trying to catch his eye. Oh no, I never realized that Angler and Avery could get together. Shit.

I caught Thaniel looking at me and it took me a minute to realize he was talking to me.

"So do you swim well?"

Cate, (who likes Thaniel now by the way, as Avery is a girl! Sorry )

I realise I had been loitering at the side of the room for some time now, and when I saw that Thaniel was talking to Aisha I stepped forward quickly.

"I'm a good swimmer Thaniel" I said.

He looked at me and smiled.

"Great," he turned back to Aisha.

I was put out, but I tried not to show it. Instead I joined in with the diving conversation, albiet nervously, because of what had happened to my father.

"So, when are we going to, dive?" I asked hoping that the answer would be two hours.

"About five minutes, Ok?" Angler said.

I swallowed, hard.

"Hey Asa or whatever your name is could I speak to you for a moment?" Cate said in a sickingly sweet voice.

"Umm, sure" I replied, wondering what the heck she wold want from me. We had basicaly nothing in common other than our flirting skills. Yeah, me Ms. Quiet Goody-Goodcould flirt. Shocker, I know. I walked over to Cate and she shooed Thanel away who had followed me.

"You keep your slutty greasy hands away from Thaniel or bad shiz is gonna go down..maybe someone will "accidently" forget their oxegen mask..." she whispered-yelled. ME! SLUT! How dare she! She was the one who felt the need to interrupt every conversation ANY girl had with Thaniel. Gosh.


***hey, just felt like a little tenion is needed, hope I wasn't too out of character ***

Cate, (nope not out of character really )

I turned away from Aisha or Asa or whatever and smiled at Thaniel.

"Whats up?" He asked.

"Oh, nothing Thaniel. Aisha just wanted a little girl talk. She's feeling fragile at the moment" I smiled sweetly.

"Fragile? Aisha are you alright?" He crossed over and put his arm around Aisha. I glowered at her and she shrugged it off gently. He looked a little hurt and he didn't try and touch her again. I smiled to myself, my little prep talk appeared to have worked.

I felt bad shrugging off Thaniel's arm but it was when I saw the demon Cat (yes that was intended) smile that I felt I needed revenge. I turned to Thaniel andgave him a big hug then called him the nicest, most sensitive guy I ever met then gave him a quick peck on the cheek before smiling sweetly at Cate and skipping towards the water suits. It was time to go down.

I fumed at Aisha my face going bright red. But when Thaniel looked at me I quickly calmed down. He looked dazed and happy. I was annoyed very annoyed and I realised that I would have to play the sensitive pathetic little baby to win his heart. And what a good time to do so, patircularly when we were so close to diving. I was very sensitive about diving and it was time to play that up.

"Thaniel, I don't think I can do this" I said in my best interpretation of Aishas 'help me' voice.

"Sure you can," He cam over to me and handed me a diving suit. I sighed for added effect.

"Cate, calm down." He put his arm around my shoulders, I allowed myself a slight smile.

"Thanks, Thaniel, your a great guy." I immitated Aisha and hugged him, I left out the peck on the cheek though or my plan would look too obvious.

I knew that I didn't like Thaniel that way and it would be cruel to mess with his heart but I really hated Cate after she called me a slut. I pretended I couldn't get into my diving suit.

"Oh My God! This is so hard to put on! Hey Thaniel, do you think you could waste some time helping me?" I asked in my "I'm a damsel, your the knight, save me" voice. He quickly came over and helped me. I "accidenty" let him near the cleavage area a couple times. When I was finally in the wet suit, I gave him a big hug and a long lingerig kiss on the cheek just for good measure. Ha! Take that Cate....wait I ws getting farther from my true objective, to get Angler. I shook my head and heard Angler call out:

"So who wants to go first?"

>>>Okay guys, ummm, could we lower the heat in the romance department just a wee bit? Romance okay, but this IS rated 12+ after all...<<<

Thaniel,

Okay. So maybe my "masculine charms" were going into hyperdrive. Why? No idea. Apparently teenage girls like it when I make jokes, but suddenly, they're all jostling for my attention. I don't even think that I'm that good looking...I shug. Ah, well. Cate and Aisha keep calling me to either of them, which, I admit, I both like and find annoying. Girls. Seriously. I finally escape and walk over to Angler.

"We ready?" I ask.

"Almost," he says tensely.

I witnessed the scene between Thaniel and the two girls deciding not to get involved at that moment. walked over the Angler and Thaniel. "Girls." I sighed jokingly.

"One of us." Angler joked. I laughed lightly. "You seem to be the real ladies man." I nudged Thaniel looking back over my shoulder to the two girls who watched this group intently. I backed away from Thaniel somewhat, not wanting them to get the wrong Idea.

"Apparently." He smiled, glancing over at the two girls. Angler sighed. "Thaniel you might want to cool it with your 'masculine charms'. We don't want a cat fight." He chastised. Thaniel shrugged with a smile.