t h i r t y - f o u r : this is trying

Shawn's POV:

"I'm going to try... just for you. Because for some reason, I like you."

She smiles, "I'm not going to take offense from your lack of enthusiasm because vulnerability is just not really in your character, and I want to cherish this moment."

I smile at her. God, she's weird. Luckily, I like weird girls. I'm opening myself up to her because, for once, someone understands.

I'd be stupid to let her go without trying.

*awkward silence*

"So I can call you my--"

"No," I interject.

"Shawn," she stretches out my name, "Please," she pouts.

"Kara," I warn her.

"Boyfriend?" she says in a high pitched tone.

I despise that word so much.

"No, Kara. We're us. Case closed. Now, we need to get serious. We need to talk about--"

"Let's go skinny dipping," she interrupts. Huh? I'm not completely opposed to that...

"As intriguing as that sounds, we need to focus."

I put on the most serious face possible to remind her of why we're here (mostly why we're here).

"Those time travelers are probably pissed because of the bust and their device is missing."

"Stolen," she points.

"Right, stolen," I roll my eyes.

She walks over to the tent and sits next to me.

"Maybe I can hold it for a while to throw them off. I wasn't really even a member like everyone else. They wouldn't suspect me."

"You couldn't even keep a book safe, let alone a complex piece of technology like the remote."

"Hey!"

"It's true," I laugh. "It's highly unlikely that she's gonna return it to you, after your fight, I mean."

"Yeah, of course she won't. I think she has some inclination that I'm... I don't know. You know she accused me of liking you?"

"She wasn't wrong," I smirk.

"Shut up. The first time was before I had even come to terms with it myself."

"She's jealous."

"What? Have you seen her? Jealous my ass."

"Exactly. You have a pretty nice ass."

She giggles. Straightening, she says, "Tiana has everything. After pushing away her friends, only speaking to us when it's convenient, bullying countless people, and being a bitch overall, she's ended up on the top of the social ladder. What could she want that she doesn't have?"

"Sense, a guy who actually likes her, personality, real friends. The list is endless. She's probably lonely, with fake friends just like herself."

"She knows that Kaylynn, Lisa, and I would do anything for her. We're her real friends. We were her real friends before she blew the whole thing up."

"People like her only care about status and being above everyone. Of course she'd be jealous of you. You're a friendly person who people actually like. You're not feared like her, not as much at least."

"Wait, were you afraid of her?" she giggles softly.

"It's not funny. The real question is am I still afraid of her."

"She's harmless, I swear."

"Not when her friends and equally popular people like her back her up. Then it's a bunch of people against one."

"I know. I should have thought about her actions from the opposite perspective. We can't dismiss it as 'girls will be girls," she airquotes, "She needs to be held accountable."

I nod, "Finally someone gets it."

"So we need a date."

Huh?

"The date that we're gonna go back to and when we're gonna do it," she clarifies. Phew. Thank God she wasn't talking about any other kind of date. I don't even know how to plan a date. Seriously. This Friday, I'm just going to play it by ear.

"Right. Well, according to President Carrington's memoir--"

"It amazes me how much you can casually quote and recall from her book."

I roll my eyes, "I like to be fully informed if I'm going to overthrow a government."

"True, true. Continue," she smiles.

"As I was saying, she attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and she went on to work at a science lab in Georgetown."

"What lab?"

"I think it was called Arel or Arial-something starting with an A--"

"Aural Laboratories," she interjects.

"Right. So we know where we're going."

"And the Reversal took place on," she checks her phone, "December 31, 2020."

"To make sure we started a new way of life in a new year."

"Twenty years ago," she adds. "Now, when should we go?"

"Do you have any serious events coming up? Like anything your parents wouldn't want you to miss?"

She shakes her head.

I pat my thigh, "Okay. Three weeks from now. July 5th."

She nods, "It's a plan. Almost. What the hell will we actually do? How are we getting into a lab? How do we figure we can initiate equality? This might take multiple trips."

"Of course it will. The only bad part about this is that nobody will know we saved the world."

"How humble of you," she nudges my shoulder.

I nudge her back, "I'm bursting with humility."

She leans in for a kiss, hopping onto my lap, and tipping us over into the tent.

"Ahhh. Ow, Kara. You know there are rocks under us, right?"

"Grow up."

I flip her over, "How do the rocks feel?"

She giggles, "Marvelous."

I let out a chuckle, too. "Because I'm with you." CORNY.

"Could you be anymore corny right now?" my laughing intensifies.

"You like me corny." No matter how much that may be true, I have to pretend like I don't like it. It's only acceptable when she does it.

I trap her in another kiss, pinning her down to the tent floor. Bet she's not thinking about the rocks now.

She sits up, "Let's go."

"Hmm? Where?"

Now I'm kissing her cheek. Come back.

Exiting the tent, she starts removing her top.

"Wait, I thought--"

"Shut up and follow."

Do not have to tell me twice.

We walk to the nearby waterfall. She's already half naked, clad with a red bra and her remaining pair of shorts.

In a flash, she drops those too, and wades into the water.

"You know, it might be just a little too cold for me," I joke.

"Get in!"

Removing my shorts, I jump in with her, but she's under the waterfall by then.

"It's soooo refreshing!"

She lets the water cascade over her eyes, neck, and down each ringlet of curls.

This is straight out of a magazine. Circa 2000s, of course.

I walk over to my... friend that is a girl, and I kiss her, softly at first, morphing it into something stronger.

"Second time we've kissed in such close vicinity to water. At least this time I'm not getting thrown into it."

"We can arrange that."

"Noooo," she giggles, "Just kiss me."

She wraps her hands in my hair, pulling me closer, but we can't get any closer. She's pressed against my chest, and her lips are locked into mine. This makeout session is better than some of the sex I've had. No lie. We connect on more than a sexual level. We were friends first. We are still friends. Thinking about the times I hated her and her friends' guts for being so rude and privileged just makes me laugh. After getting to know her, I've learned that she isn't a bad person. It's her environment--those rightist, prejudiced people. Thankfully, she's different, and I wouldn't have known if--

"Whatcha thinking about?"

"Hmm?"

"I mean, you just started smiling out of nowhere," she giggles. "You okay?"

"Just thinking about you."

"God, that's so corny. Coming from you, especially."

"I'm just showing you what you sound like," I shrug. I was being serious, but she doesn't need to know that.

"Right, because I'm one of those people."

"Yes, exactly."

I look up at the sky. The trees are placed perfectly around the waterfall, so that we can clearly see the stars.

The moonlight reflects off the water, making the darkness disappear entirely.

"You know what this looks like?"

I shake my head, "What?"

"It's stupid, but this old TV show I found on Netflix, from like 2008. It's called H2O: Just Add Water. Basically, these three teenagers get lost on an island in Australia, and it has a moon pool. Every full moon, the pool has this magic energy that turns humans into mermaids. This show just had me casually thinking that I could be a mermaid, freely traveling throughout the sea. The mermaids also had powers like manipulating water, freezing water, and boiling water. I would do the little hand motions," she giggles, "just to make sure I'm not missing out on something wonderful like that. And when I finally confirmed that I wasn't a mermaid, I'd watch the show over again, just to feel included," she looks down. "Anyway, this waterfall reminds me of the moon pool."

"That is--"

"Pathetic?" she interjects.

"Cute."

Pathetic for anyone else.

"It's so beautiful," she glances from the sky to the water.

I pull her close. I don't want this to end, but we have more planning to do, if we're going to make our plans a reality. There are so many obstacles in our way: her parents, her friends, society... the time travelers, searching the city for their device. Shit, I'd be pissed too if my time traveling remote just disappeared. Who knows how long they've been working on it?

"We should get back to the tent."

"I don't want this to end."

Me neither.

We walk back to the tent to dry off.

"Let's make a deal," she starts. I nod in response. "No more camping," she smiles.

"What? This has been fun. Camping is fun. We haven't seen one bug."

"Correction: you haven't seen one bug."

Fair.

"Also, I'm afraid of my bare buttcheeks being out in the dark."

That doesn't sound too scary to me...

"I mean for when I shower," she holds up her soap and washcloth.

"You sounded pretty fearless when you suggested skinny dipping earlier," I cross my arms with a smirk.

"I was trying to be fun while also being scared out of my mind."

"I'll go out with you then."

We return to the waterfall, and she balances her things on a rock.

"Okay, turn around."

I promptly turn because I am respectful.

"See, no bears or lions or anything scary. Maybe some leeches."

"Shawn!"

"Or maybe not. Hurry up."

"Okay, I'm naked and getting in."

After a few seconds, she says, "Shit."

"What?"

"I forgot my soap on the rock."

I turn to get it for her. "Ahh," she shrieks, flying back into the water.

"Sorry. I thought you wanted me to get it. I'm turning around now."

The silence is deadly.

"So, say we do go back to 2020. Won't there be tons of security surrounding the literal future of society?," she says.

"We need to befriend one of the closest scientists to the experiment," I add.

"So who was close to it, vulnerable, and possibly easily impressionable?"

"We need to go back further--to the first utterance of the ideas for the New World."

"And that's when?"

"2017. When President Carrington came up with the idea in college."

"I've heard about this. She sent out this viral tweet and basically shook the world."

"We need to go there and figure out who supported her the most. Then, we need to share our beliefs with her, to get her to sympathize with us in a way."

"We would have planted the seeds, and after a while, she'd lean more in our direction. By 2020, she'd be ready to change the plan."

"We are like evil masterminds."

"This duo should have been a thing years ago."

"Honestly," I chuckle.

"Okay, I'm walking over to the edge of the waterfall to rinse."

With a few splashes, she's slipped on her sandals and leaned against my back.

"Boo!"

"Ahh, I'm so scared."

"Whatever. I'm going to get dressed in the tent. Do you want me to come back and be your lookout?"

"No need. I am not afraid of the elements."

She enters the tent, and I head toward the glistening body of water, our moon pool.