Pool of Trouble

[Lara Jean Reynolds]

Tag: Derek Prince

Lara Jean charged through the halls like a woman on a mission. "Excuse me, sorry," she said as she bumped into another student. After someone told her that the person she was searching for would be at the pool, the seventeen year old wasted no time and headed straight to it. She had spent most of the morning trying to find that boy and now she was not going to lose him.

She halt to a stop at the entrance of the pool. Okay, this was unfamiliar territory. There were a number of people there and not to mention that most of them had only their swimming trunks on. Lara Jean averted her eyes away when a couple of boys walked past her. Oh god.

After managing to determine where Derek Prince was, she went to the lane he was swimming at and waited for him to resurface above water.

[Derek Prince]

Swimming was one of Derek's favorite sports. It was definitely his favorite of all the teams he was, on so it often took precedent over his other extra curricular activities. It wasn't odd to find Derek at the pool at any time of day for several hours. 

 In all his time of visiting the pool, Derek had never once seen Lara Jean Reynolds anywhere near there. Maybe that was why he spent so much of his free time there. After today however, he wouldn't be able to say that any more. He hadn't noticed yet but she was already in the pool area searching.

 Lara must have spotted Derek just before as reached the end of his lap. He when he wasn't doing a return lapped he always finished by diving down, touching the bottom of the pool and then resurfacing. When he did resurface he shook his hair out of his eyes and wiped his hand across his face as he breathed heavily.

 Once Derek could see clearly again, he looked up from where he was treading water and spotted her. He winced and sunk down a little further into the water and glared at her. "What are you doing here?" He asked in an accusatory tone. He knew he had no right to ask, but the sight of her had startled him. He wasn't even sure if she had ever seen him this exposed before considering he was in nothing but his swim shorts that he now wished were a little longer than they were.

[Lara Jean Reynolds]

Once she saw his head breaking through the surface of the water, the relief on her face was evident. At last, her search had come to a stop. A smile appeared on her face as she knew he must have seen her. But the smile quickly fell when she saw him lowering himself into the further. Her tilted and she gave him look to say 'are you kidding me'.

Lara Jean returned his glare. Well, she was not too happy either having to sought him out for a favor. She was silent for a while. Eyes darting all around the room, feeling awkward already. "I erm... Need your help," she replied in a hush tone. Her eyes looked up to his. "I need a favor," she said a little louder. "Please?"

[Derek Prince]

The look of surprise that had immediately been plastered across Derek's face was not subtle in the slightest. Derek could have sworn that he had water in his ears and he must have misunderstood her. That is until her original statement was followed by the word "please." Maybe this wasn't Lara talking to him from the edge of the pool. Maybe this was another student, a human shapeshifter. It wasn't an insane assumption, this was a school full of mutants.

Derek's surprise at Lara's words were not absurd. Derek and Lara were both intelligent students which was often reflected by their grades. The problem was that the two of them believed that they were both smarter than the other. This lead to their personal "who's smarter than who" competition. They rarely intentionally assisted one another so Derek couldn't figure out what had made Lara come to him now. It would be a cold day in hell when Derek went to Lara for assistance. Wait. Did that make Lara smarter than him? It would make sense that if you needed help with something to go to someone you believed was smart. Derek knew Lara was intelligent just like she knew that he was, and it would make sense to got to someone who was at least able to compete with you when you were stumped yourself. Did the fact that she was coming to him despite their differences and rivalry make her more mature than him? Derek decided not to think about it.

"Er... I'm kinda busy." Derek made a wide motion at the pool he was currently like submerged in. He eyed her suspiciously "Why does Lara Jean Reynolds need my help anyway?" Derek, who usually took on a much more subdued demeanor around girls didn't mind giving Lara a hard time. She was the exception to that particular hang up if his.

[Lara Jean Reynolds]

Busy. Urgh. Lara Jean was already hating for coming to look for him. She was going out of her way, out of her comfort zone too probably, just to ask the obnoxious Derek Prince for a little favor. Any other circumstances, she might not have even bothered to do so. But her grades were at stake here - that sounded way more dramatic than it actually was, but yeah.

"Okay, listen..." She fixed her gaze onto his. Maybe if she was not looking everywhere else, he might actually take her seriously. "You're busy. Fine. This won't take long, as long as you tell me exactly what Mr. Fredrick said something about erm extra credit in the last history class." Lara Jean did not beat around the bush. The sooner she gets her info, the sooner she can start working on it and the sooner he could...go back to swimming and playing in the water.

"If you tell me to go ask him myself, rethink," she said quickly before he could reply. "If I could have asked him, I wouldn't be here talking to you, okay? So...okay. Yeah."

[Derek Prince]

Derek raised an eyebrow and gave Lara a quizzical look as she concentrated on him and her tone changed. As she went into detail about exactly what she had needed from him, Derek lazily swam to the very edge of the pool and rested his arms and head on the side of it and grinned slowly. In all honesty, Derek wasn't exactly all that busy. He had already finished his laps for the time being and was actually about to leave the pool when Lara arrived, he was actually starting to get pretty pruney, but he didn't want her to know that.

"Lara Jean Reynolds wasn't paying attention in class? That can't be right, I must be mental." Derek spoke in a mocking tone as he addressed Lara. Derek was not about to pass up a chance to make Lara squirm. Especially with the current circumstances, Lara needed something that she thought Derek had and it was his favorite thing, information.

Derek floated back a little and put his hand on his chest and dramatically looked away from the girl. "Lara, I'm hurt. You're only speaking to me because you need something? That's not very nice...love." He couldn't help but add the sarcastic term of endearment. Phillip was his brother after all, he was bound to have some similar traits even though he refused to admit it.

[Lara Jean Reynolds]

The girl glared at him as he mocked her and his penchant for calling her by her full name. She did not find it to be sweet like how it would be pictured in most YA novels. Lara Jean rolled her eyes. Whilst it was not a secret, she did not exactly expressly tell she had ADHD. She wondered if Derek knew about it. Maybe he did not. Well she was not going to tell him, so she ignored what he said and refused to comment on it.

Ugh. Talking to him already felt like a chore she hated doing. She laughed sarcastically at his choice of word. "Oh please. As if you'd talk to me if you didn't need something," she said flatly. Lara Jean tried remember a time where the two made small talk. Was there even any?

[Derek Prince]

Derek was having fun, withholding information was a pastime he didn't get to exploit very often. Usually, the two were often on the same page when it came to school work and rarely needed to speak to each other aside from sarcastic comments and looks of superiority when grades came out.

Lara was right and Derek was glad that day had not come and hoped it never would, he was sure that somewhere down the road Lara would be looking to get revenge for his less than helpful attitude. Derek swam back up ti the edge of the pool, looked up at Lara and shrugged. "Yeah you're right.... guess there a first time for everything." Derek grinned a devilish grin, maybe that was a little to mean, but this was his rival after all, she had plagued his existence ever since they met. "So, extra credit for Mr. Fredrick? Yeah I know what it is.... but what do I get if I tell you? You know they say nothing in life is free."

[Lara Jean Reynolds]

First time for everything. The girl was mocking every single thing he said in her mind. If it were not for that devilish grin, she might have thought he was almost sincere about it. Almost. Right then, Lara Jean just wanted to slap that smug look he had on.

Nothing in life is free. She laughed sarcastically. "You get the pleasure of feeling like you did something helpful for once. Isn't that enough, Derek?" Maybe being all sarcastic was not a smart move. She wanted his help after all and poking at him might not help her.

Lara Jean thought of what there was to offer to him, but nothing came to mind. She knew about his family's wealth and doubt she could give him something that he could not just buy it for himself. What did he not have? A decent attitude maybe.

"I can't believe I'm saying this," she said in a calm and low voice, "but what... What do you want?"