The Long Game━ (l. sinclair)

max gaslighting sam and el for 5,708 words

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The rain had picked up greatly when they left Max's house. The girls were forced to put on the rain jackets they'd brought with them, Sam giving them the reminder that it was going to rain, although neither girl had heard anything about that. Nevertheless, Max and El were grateful Sam had told them.

Now, Sam was wearing an electric blue rain jacket, the color of it scarily similar to the color of that spark of electricity she'd created in El's room. El's rain jacket was red, while Max's was yellow. Sam had joked that they were the primary color trio.

Because of their young age, the girls had to bike in the rain so that they could reach the local pool. Well, Sam and Max biked, while El rode on the back of Sam's. It wasn't a two-seater bike like Mike's or Lucas's, so El really just had to hover over Sam in the single seat, but they made it work.

The reason they were at the local pool was not just because Billy worked there, it was also due to the fact El found a lifeguard fanny pack and bloody whistle with the ice tub in Billy's bathroom. After parking their bikes, they jogged under the overhead to both get away from the rain and contact the front desk.

Luckily, the pool manager wasn't hard to stop. He was reclined behind the brick half-wall lazily, reading a newspaper and accompanied by another female lifeguard who had the same nonchalant attitude. They didn't even look up when Sam, Max, and El approached them.

"Excuse me?" Max announced their presence impatiently, hair drenched and curling like the other two.

Not even sparing Max a glance, the pool manager drawled, "No one in the water until thirty minutes after the last strike. And don't try and argue with me. You wanna get electrocuted, go climb a tree."

Sam scoffed, offended with the rudeness that was totally unnecessary. "Excuse me, Polo Shirt. We're not here to swim," her look morphed unsure for a beat, "or get electrocuted."

"We found this," El said, holding up the fanny pack they'd found.

Finally, the pool manager looked up from his newspaper, though his demeanor was still frustrating. He eyed the accessory silently.

"Does that belong to anybody here?" asked Max.

"Oh yeah," he finally spoke. "That's Heather's. I'll get it back to her."

"We could give it back to her," El blurted, sounding much too eager for the statement to go overlooked.

The pool manager tilted his head in offensive amusement. "You could... 'cept she's not here. Bailed on me today."

Sam, Max, and El looked to each other, sharing expressions of rising suspicion. Sam met El's eyes, and El's eyebrows raised gravely. Sam gulped.

"What is this?" asked the dude, watching the looks on their faces. "You girls want a reward or something?"

Sam turned away from Max and El to put on a fake smile of innocence for him. "Nope!" she cheered falsely, shoulders rising with a virtuous gaze. "We're just good Samaritans."

The girl lifeguard next to the pool manager smiled at Sam, pleased, which Sam didn't really understand, so she eyed the girl in wary confusion.

Sam felt movement from right next to her, and glanced to the side to see Max was turning around. Not only that, but El was walking away. Clearly Sam didn't get the memo.