In Charlotte's Eyes

ONE: [C] Passing Time Away

A considerable amount of time had passed since that strange phenomena with the pool. Airy still hadn't come back. Everyone else seemed to accept that fact already, but Charlotte hadn't. She still needed to win. She still needed to win, go back home, and..

She didn't know what else to do back at home.

Make things right..? For lack of a better term.

Whatever it was, she needed to do something to settle the ceaseless restlessness that dwelled inside of her. She just needed to hold out long enough until Airy came back. All this other stuff the others were doing, it was just noise to fill in the space.

Backpack was spending a lot of time segregated from everyone. He would occasionally come back, but he was really distant. The only person who he talked to was Scenty, Charlotte noticed.

Charlotte was present for talks about what to do next, but she never was really invested in the talks. Her mind was more focused on Airy coming back, fixing her mold, and the strange dream she had a week ago.

Dreams were supposed to be forgotten, yet this particular one never faded.

"C'mon, Moldy."

Charlotte snapped out of her spaced out state. Circle was the one who met her eyes. Behind him, everyone else-save Backpack-were strolling away, towards the wooden stakes. She glanced from the group back to Circle. "..Huh?"

"We're gonna try to get a stake out of the ground. Come help us."

"Oh." She looked away, uncomfortable. "Yeah. Okay."

He nodded, then scampered away to catch up with the group. Charlotte tailed them.

"-onna do this?" Atom's voice asked, once everyone was at the stake.

"There's, like.." Whippy Creamy started, then whispered under his breath as he did a head count. "Nine of us. If we all just push against it, it should come out, right?"

"It isn't that simple." Scenty commented.

"Well, what do you suggest?" He retorted.

Scenty looked away, humming uncomfortably. She clearly didn't have a response.

"I think pushing on it is as good of an idea as any." Tray finally spoke, interrupting the awkward moment.

Airline Food shrugged. "Might as well try it."

"Okay! Everyone, get around the stake." Whippy Creamy ordered confidently. Everyone obeyed, although there was barely enough room for everyone to stand. "Uhh, let's all push it.. that way." He pointed to his left.

So, everyone pushed and pulled. Everyone struggled, grunting and groaning as they tried to make the damn thing budge.

A few minutes passed of this, and they weren't making any progress.

Everyone was huffing for air. "Okay," Scenty took charge, squinting her eyes in determination. "We need to be more coordinated, everyone." She took a quick breath, then got ready to push. "When I say go, we all push as hard as we can!"

Everyone silently agreed, getting ready.

"Three, two, one, push!"

Everyone groaned, pushing and pulling in one direction. After a few moments, everyone gave in.

Scenty growled. "Come on! Three, two, one, push!"

They all heaved again. No budge.

"Three, two, one, push!"

Everyone put in max effort. It took a few moments, but the stake suddenly tilted. It wasn't much, but it was noticeable. It caught everyone off guard, so everyone stopped pushing and backed off.

Everyone was breathing heavily, looking up at the stake for movement.

"Huh. We actually got it to move." Circle stated.

Scenty nodded. "Heh." A small smile came on her face. "Yeah. We did." She looked at him.

"Man." Whippy Creamy sighed, leaning on Subway Seat. "That. Was exhausting."

"Agreed." Tray said, hands on her knees.

"Can we take a break for now?" Airline Food asked.

Scenty nodded, her breathing slowing. "Yeah."

"When should we try again?" Atom asked.

"Um.. I don't know. An hour?" She shrugged.

"But.. how will we even know when an hour has passed? We can't tell the time here." Whippy Creamy pointed out.

"Ooh. What if we kept our own time?" Subway Seat suggested.

"That's an interesting idea." Scenty put a hand to her lip.

"Like, every time we try to get the stake out, we record the time?" Tray asked.

"How would that work?" Contact Lens wondered.

"Do you have any ideas, Scenty?"

Scenty hummed. "Well.. back at home, every time we went to work, we would clock in to signify we had been at work. We called them shifts."

"Could we do the same thing here?" Airline Food asked.

"I don't see why not."

"Where would we mark down every shift, though?" Circle asked.

"How about on the side of the pool?" Atom suggested.

"That could work." Scenty nodded. "We can use one of the rocks to carve out tallies."

"Oh, that's those line things that some humans use to count in fives, right?" Tray asked, brows wide.

"Yeah."

"Well, that sounds good, then." Whippy Creamy nodded.

"Okay. Everyone, let's take a break. I'll mark down the first shift." Scenty directed. "I'll round everyone up for the next shift."

"Cool!"

"Alright!"

The group began dispersing. Charlotte was quick to take the invitation to split. Things were lively. But it didn't matter. She was just waiting for Airy to come back.