Endless Waiting (Closed)

Her grandma had said to her yesterday that her parents could possibly come today at the beach, but if they didn't they wouldn't be back until next year. So Riss had waited at the beach for today, by now she was asleep, lost in her dreams and thoughts. The dream was actually a memory, when she was 4. "Riss!" her mother had called out, "Its time for dinner come here!". Riss had been running around in a field of flowers. Something woke her up.

Right after his shift at Hawthorne’s bazaar, Ray went his usual route to the inn for a quick bite to eat. It was only a few slices of pizza on the go, but he was planning on eating it on the ship to Waffle Island. It was such a delicious aroma, that flavorful mozzarella, that ripe tomato sauce, and those killer slices of pepperoni made his mouth water. He wasn’t in a hurry to get to work at the Stone Academy, so as he walked through the waves with a plastic bag wrapped around his arms, he was happily nibbling on the said pizza slice. There was no way he was willing to part with his sacred pizza! His lunch break was at 12:00 sharp earlier, and that was a while ago.

’Food, food, precious food~’ He hummed to himself, the band-aid on his cheek stretching up and down to hide a now permanent scar from the hurricane. There were other scratches on his face, and even though it looked odd, he was wearing long sleeved clothing for the time being. He was wearing sandals though, since his feet were uninjured.

’Hm…? Random kid.’ Ray paused as he turned to glance at a girl sleeping on the beach, though she looked ready to wake up. She looked a lot older than May and Stu, so maybe she wasn’t the pranking kind of kid. He didn’t want anything to do with manipulative children, but he didn’t want to hear on the news later that this same girl was abducted because she was sleeping on the beach without adult supervision.

”Hey miss, where are your parents?” He asked while walking up to her, hoping he didn’t look like some creep. Ray was short though, so he could’ve posed as a teenager to the eyes of a kid.

Like I never heard that before. "They were supposed to be here by now" she said, mostly to herself. She could tell he was an adult, mostly from the scars, but he could have posed as a teenager if he really wanted to. "Right now? My parents are probably in one of those cruises" she answered. She would know because that's what they usually do if they 'can't make it'. "Why are you asking anyway?" she asked, although she already knew the answer.

Ray just looked at her, completely confused. Her parents left her behind to go on some cruise? Was this sarcasm, by any chance? He shook his head as if to inwardly disagree with the thought, kicking it into the ocean so the waves could carry it far away. Eh, he didn’t particularly feel like babysitting some kid, but there was enough kindness in him to make him stick around to keep the real creeps at bay.

”I’m not used to seeing kids out at this time without their parents, I guess. It seems dangerous.” He frowned, questioning whether he should sit down in the sand or not. There were spots up ahead where the grass started to peek out from their sand dungeon, but he wasn’t a prissy boy. He snorted as he sat right down next to the girl, feeling a stubborn streak coming along.

”I won’t tell you what to do or nothin’, don’t worry.” Hey, he remembered what it was like to be a kid. But he always had some way to protect himself in case there was trouble. ”You can fend for yourself, right?” He asked, giving her a suspicious look. The question would’ve been out of the blue if one cared about staying on one topic at a time.

Riss was about to say yes, when it hit her that, in fact, she was totally helpless if a creep came along to abduct her. It also hit her that she had been incredibly stupid all those times when she wandered around town alone. Now that all the realization had past over, her face was in the shadows of her hair, and you could just see the angst lines above her head. Can't believe I actually thought I could for a while here . Why? Why did my parents have to leave before teaching me judo, I know my mother knew how to do it!. "No" Riss answered in the smallest tiniest almost inaudible voice she could manage.

The look on her face said everything Ray needed to know, and with a sigh he started digging through his wallet. He had some cash on him, right? He set the plastic bag down to rest right beside him and started fumbling through some of the gold he had, trying to get a good estimate of how much he needed. Once satisfied with the 150G in his hands, he snuck it back in his pocket and handed the gold to the girl.

”If I give this to you, you should use it to buy some mace or something to protect yourself. I mean, going into town and all would be safe. The villagers all know each other, but on the beach…well, there’s a lot of tourists.” He explained, although he still dearly cared for the beach. Heck, he almost drowned in the ocean once, but he still appreciated it for the dangerous beauty that it was.

”I’d like to think that one of the stores around here would have something to help you out.” He added thoughtfully, although he wished that he could be of more help to the young girl. He didn't mind too much if he was late for his next job, but he wasn't sure when the next ship would be. He imagined it would be a verrrry late night trip.

So many questions went through Riss's mind. What? Mace? Weapon? Couldn't I just get a strong pointy stick off the ground? Sucker. Riss didn't show any of these thoughts on her face, it was a nice gesture after all. "What?" she asked, not completely understanding. What kind of store sells a mace?. She took the gold, maybe she could find a store. "Thank you" she really was grateful, it was better than what her parents would have done after all.

Though the girl didn’t seem to fully understand the purpose of the gesture, which he got when she asked ‘What’ with a blank stare, he figured that now she would be a little more wary about her surroundings. See, since he was an adult, he was able to sleep peacefully without worrying about getting kidnapped or mugged. No coward of a thief would try and risk a tricky target like him, at least in his mind.

”I guess there aren’t that many kids your age around here, are there?” He asked, trying to recall the age groups at the Stone Academy on Waffle Island. They were all fairly young, at least so far. It was a little sad, actually, seeing this girl all by her lonesome.

”This place is pretty dull, they could at least build a playground or something.” Ray merely talked about things that would try and get the girls attention. He wasn’t too sure why he was talking about the things he was, but something told him that he should try and keep her company until someone else she knew came along.

"Playground? I guess that would be nice" she said.Riss had never actually seen a playground before, she had been living near a farm up until the age of five. [i]I guess my parents aren't coming this year either[i]. She unconsciously let out a sigh of disappointment. "You would think by now they would have forgotten about me" she said in a half annoyed half sad voice, mostly to herself. Her mind was somewhere else today.

The young girl next to him sighed, though he didn’t quite understand why she was so upset. It was strange, he wasn’t normally that good with kids, but she was older. He could see a bit of a thoughtful personality in her that separated her from the other brainless kids running around; the little scamps. She started saying something that didn’t seem relevant to the conversation in hand, but rather to her own thoughts. Maybe she just needed time alone?

”I-I don’t think that that’s likely.” Ray responded, though he had no idea who she was talking about. Most likely her parents though, since she mentioned that they were going on a cruise or something of that sort. This was the beach, and ships came here all of the time. Heck, he was here because needed a boat.

Elizabeth was walking through the beach when she noticed an adult male talking to a young girl. She rushed oevr there concerned. "Um excuse me sir...what exactly are you doing with this girl?" She asked stepping close to the girl. "You dont look relaited...um wait...ummm...I hired you didnt I?" She said changing from her protective ness to her more usaul side...quiet and shy. She couldnt look at the man but just kept tlaking. "Yah thats right.... You are working part time at my school...arnt you?
" She said looking at the ocean feeling the cool salty air hit her face.

Riss almost forgot that the man was there, she only realized after the woman had talked. "Hi" said Riss to the woman wave. "I'm Riss" she said, feeling a little odd about saying that to someone who you have barely spoken two words to. Then it occurred to her that she hadn't gotten the mans name. Hey, wait a second, did she say related?

Hearing a rather demanding voice interrupt his thoughts, Ray turned a lazy eye up at the blue haired woman above him. Hey, if it wasn’t ol’ boss lady. Well, technically he was the older person here, but why get specific about stuff like that? Though from the way she was walking over to him, she looked like she was ready to chase him out of here with a torch and pitchfork. ’Uh-oh…don’t tell me she thinks what I think she thinks.’ He thought, having an anime sweat drop slip down his head.

”Nice deduction. I was just keeping her company…” He started off with a yawn, covering his mouth as he looked over at the girl next to him. Ah, so that was her name? About time he knew it. It was starting to get a little awkward like this.

”I’m Ray, and I work at the Stone Academy. So boss, I guess you caught me.” He sighed after his introduction to the kid, dusting the sand off of his pants as he stood up. Sensing that he was going to have to explain himself, he continued.

”I’d say in about…5 minutes I’ll be late for work.” He shrugged though; he could always work later in the night. Those boat rides were about 15 minutes long in order to get to Waffle Island from here, perfect for eating the rest of his dinner. Actually, he really wanted to leave before the girl mentioned anything that would put him in a bad spot.

It just occurred to Riss that she had been here for hours and her grandma was probably looking for her. Now Riss was stuck in a very tight spot. She could go home, and have her grandma question her and then see her grandma beat that 'Ray' guy with a walking stick and glare at him every time e came in view, and then be forced to be inside every second of the day or have her curfew at lunchtime. Or she could stay here, have her grandma find her, scold her, yell at 'Ray' and then start hitting him with her walking stick and then get dragged back home by the ear the whole way. Or maybe grandma could be having a her attack. This thought made Riss a little scared. "I'm going to get into big trouble because of you" she said to Ray with her ultimate glare.

”Hm? You could’ve been in worse trouble if you were out here at this time all by yourself.” Ray commented with a sigh, grabbing his bag of food off of the ground. He figured that it had to have been a little cold by now, but that was fine. Pizza was the miracle food that tasted good cold or hot, which is part of the reason why he liked it so much. He noticed that she was glaring at him, even with the indifferent attitude and he couldn’t help but laugh.

He gave her a pat on the head and look down at her, smirking. If she thought that she could pin the blame on him, she had another thing coming. ”Getting in trouble isn’t that big of a deal anyways. There’s always a way to have fun; no matter what they dish out at you.” Though he didn’t know what kind of parents she had, he was certain that they weren’t the kind to beat their own children. This place might’ve been old fashioned, but it couldn’t have been that bad.

”Ah, seriously though. I should get going. I need some purpose in life, or so people tell me.” He stretched his arms up lazily, feeling a good crack in the back, and then he let them rest at his sides. He nodded a quick good-bye towards his boss, whose name he temporarily forgot, and headed for the boat.

If Riss could no longer glare at him properly, she would squint eye him as he walked away. "Bye" she said with a wave. She should probably get going too, hopefully her grandma wasn't too worried. Surprise, surprise, my parents wont be back for another year. She got up and walked home, it wasn't a long distance.