Petals on The Moon || Reyna Ramirez-Arellano x Fem!OC

LXXVIII

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Hello again.

Reyna and Sebastian took naps. Sebastian laid across mine and Jason's laps, and Reyna slept on her own off to the side. We decided to hole-up in some random McDonald's that had low business. The manager was really sweet. She didn't kick us out and brought us a few coffees once everyone woke up around dusk. We just lied that we were filming a class project about travel and survival methods for teenagers. People will believe anything.

"It's go time," Sebastian whispered once it was dark out. "This is simple; I do the stealing, you guys be on lookout."

"Shouldn't I go with you?" I offered. "I can put the mortals to sleep."

"Good thinking!"

We journeyed towards the river, which wasn't too far away. There were a few small canoes and whatnot littered around, one major place where you could pay to get a river tour on a boat, and then some private property further down the line with their own docks. So, we had a choice; hand-row a canoe or something, or... well, steal something that would be rather loud.

"Luckily," Sebastian whispered as the four of us crouched in the treeline, "nobody's out here, since only idiots go boating in the middle of January." Jason spread his hands like, I told you so. "Alright, guys. We get our pick of the litter."

"The small rowboat," Reyna said. "Less of a nuisance to mortals, less noisy."

Jason hesitated. "More likely to capsize."

I pointed at one of the riverboat tour things. "How about that? It's spacious, simple, has a canopy above it to protect us from the wind."

Reyna paused. "Well, they're also weak against defense, and that thing looks like it's straight out of the eighties..."

Sebastian pointed at a motorized white boat. "That's not too big, and it's probably pretty zippy."

I frowned. "But we don't know how to steer one of those. What if we go too fast and cra-"

"HEY!" The four of us turned around and saw a flashlight right in our faces. I winced and pulled my hand up to my eyes, and saw the dark silhouette of a large man. "What are you kids doing here? It's nearly nine p.m and it's a school night!"

"Sir!" Sebastian squinted. "Sir, can you lower the flashlight?" The man did slightly. "We're gathering information for our class project about nightlife on the river and biodiversity. Are you a cop?"

"Yessir," the cop grumbled, "and this sounds like a sham. You're older than these kids!"

"I'm their chaperone," Sebastian scoffed. "They need an older person to drive them around and... well, deal with cops." The cop lowered his flashlight more and frowned. "Seriously! Suki, show off your camera."

I awkwardly pulled out my camera- the one Felix gave us. "Biodiversity."

"We're looking for turtles," Reyna said calmly, "which have probably all been scared away."

"Oh." The cop lowered his voice and winced. "Sorry, kids."

"It's fine," Jason said. "But, sir, we were thinking of renting a boat at some point to check things out from a different angle. Any advice?"