Sheraton Academy: All Grown Up

The Ocean Goblin

Rated: G. Warnings: none

It was a beautiful, sunny summer morning, and Roxie had forgotten to brush her teeth.

She was on the way to the beach with her Mum and Dad in the front seat and Max and Tommy in the back play wrestling. Josselin and Meara were in their car, meeting them at the beach. That left her in the middle of the van, alone, wringing her hands and gnawing on her lip and dreading what would usually be a fun, stress-free day.

But she'd forgotten to brush her teeth.

It was a rocky beach, the perfect kind of ground for bashing little girls on, even though she wasn't that little anymore, really, today she felt very, very small.

Danny parked and Akasha opened the front door. Max jumped past Roxie and slid open the back door, and Tommy piled out on top of him. But Roxie stayed put, still buckled, eyes watery as she stared out at the ocean.

Akasha poked her head in the back and said, "Roxie? Love? What's the hold up? Are you all right?"

Roxie sniffled and covered her face. Akasha and Danny shared a look, and Danny slipped out of the van to follow Max and Tommy and make sure they didn't get up to too much trouble while Akasha and Roxie talked. Roxie jumped when the door closed.

Akasha slid into the middle seat beside her daughter and closed the door.

"What's wrong? Did Tommy do something?"

Roxie shook her head.

"Did Max –"

Roxie shook her head again. She grabbed a pigtail in each hand and pulled down with a whine. Akasha gently wrestled her hands out of her hair with gentle whispers and coos.

"Come on now, none of that. Don't pull your hair, love, you'll hurt yourself." She wrapped her hands around Roxie's and whispered, "What's going on? Why are you so upset? I know it's hard, but I need you to try to talk to me."

Roxie sobbed once and cried, "I forgot to brush my teeth!"

Akasha's shoulders relaxed, but only a little, because there had to be more to this than that, surely? But she said, "That's okay. You can brush them when you get home."

Roxie shook her head and scrubbed at her face. "No, you don't understand –"

"Understand what? Roxie, you're not making sense. Back up. One thing at a time, okay?"

"The ocean goblin will steal my bones!" Roxie finally cried.

Akasha's eyes went wide. "I... what?"

"The ocean goblin. It steals your bones if you don't brush your teeth!"

"What?"

"Max told me!"

Akasha's brow furrowed and her mouth turned down. "Did he."

Her son had a long, long talk coming up in his future.

"I didn't believe him at first, but he said Dad told him, and Dad doesn't lie!"

Akasha closed her eyes and let a very controlled sigh out through her nose. Apparently her husband had a long, long talk ahead of him, too. Of course Max wouldn't believe it, but Roxie was into all that weird witch stuff with Josselin, and she believed in things like fairies and demons and goblins. Danny had to have known if he said something like that to Max, eventually it would get to Roxie. And if he didn't, he should have.

"There's no such thing as an ocean goblin, love," Akasha said, stroking Roxie's hair. She pressed a kiss to her daughter's forehead.

"But Dad said –"

"Dad was making a joke. He didn't know you would take it seriously. You know he likes to joke. There's no such thing as an ocean goblin."

Roxie looked up at Akasha doubtfully.

"And if there was, I'd beat it up before I let it steal any of my children's bones. Even that little brat of a brother of yours."

Roxie finally smiled. She giggled a little and nodded.

"Okay," she said.

"Now, come on," Akasha said. "Let's get out there in that water, yeah?"