Toru nodded at the question on good diving apits by a girl they didn't recognize. "Y-Yeah there are several nearby i-if you want to come with u-us...?" They had seen several spots for less strong swimmers where the currents weren't too strong and for more advanced divers there were other places to try. "L-Let me refresh my B-Bubble and we can go..." The Hufflepuff gave a small smile and used their wand to recast the Bubble-head Charm.

((Zoe picked a girl lol feel free to correct her.)) (and all)

“I do?” Zoe asked looking confused. “I only had the one modelling gig.” She looked down shyly. “Hmm, there’s a thought. Rule out what I do nee wanna do. No to History of Magic teacher. Do ye know what ye wanna do?”

“Ey Jona,” Zoe said when he headed back. “Wanna go diving? Toru said she’d help us explore. I wanna see lots of fish and maybe some reefs.”

Blade and Nimah were already diving.

Outfit Not Found

(& everyone else)

"Thanks, Sauvage. I should let it down more often, I suppose. I put it up for lessons because it gets in the way in classes like Herbology and Potions." Callista felt a little relieved that she had been seen, after all. "Your swimsuit is nice. You really can't go wrong with a classic style!"

Then she turned to Zoe.

"Right now, I want to dive!" she replied with a grin, "but yes, I do know what I want to do. I want to be a fashion designer." As she said it, she knew that all her earlier doubts were long gone. "But I wasn't always sure. I have a lot of interests, and there are a lot of people in my life encouraging me to do different things, too. One of my sisters loves technology, and another one loves animals even more than I do. And my best friend is an arithmancy whiz and a daredevil on a broom. I hope you get to meet her someday!"

"Come on!" She replaced her bubblehead charm and glanced at Toru. "Out here in the water, you're the leader, even if I'm still the senpai."

Kiara pulled the now soggy feathers out of her hair, then also cast a bubble head charm, and offered her hand to Toru. "I'm Kiara," she said, "I'm in Ravenclaw. I think I've seen you around but I don't think we've met." Then she offered her hand to Callista as well. "You have a nice cat," she said with a grin.

She also waved to Magus, and wrinkled her nose at the makeup comment. "I don't go to all that trouble, I just curl my eyelashes and charm away blemishes and call it good," she said with a laugh.

Outfit Not Found

Callista shook Kiara's hand. "Nice to meet you, Kiara. I'm Callista Zabini. My cat's name is Sabrina. I don't usually let her go far away from me, except when I take her out in the forest, but it seemed safe enough out here. For her, anyway. Not so much for that crab she's got now, but it's good for her to catch her own food now and again. She's got to have special food as it is--she needs things you can't get at Tesco, or even in that pet shop in Diagon Alley."

"Hmph." Jona kicked at the water as everyone talked about future plans. He was happy when Zoe broke away to see if he wanted to go diving, if not still a bit jealous. "You don't wanna go with your new friends?" As soon as the words were said, he regretted them. After all, he was the one that left her to go meet them. Now he was just envious, because they were more interested in Zoe. He sighed, hating this part of himself that was overly critical. "Yeah," he said with a sad smiled. "I'd love to go, if you guys will have me." He looked at both Zoe and Toru now, so grateful that these two were willing to be his friends. He shouldn't take advantage of them and he definitely shouldn't be trying to fill the void of one before she even left! "By the way," he whispered to Zoe. "I think it's 'they.' I think Toru's pronouns are 'they.'"

Sauvage blushed, happy someone had complimented her suit. "Sank you, Callista." To everyone and to no one at all, Sauvage said aloud, "I sink I weell go for a walk along ze shore while ze diving eez done."

They winced the slightest as Zoe used feminine pronouns, but was happy when Jona corrected her for them. "I-I prefer gender neutral p-pronouns, but I-I know it's confusing...especially s-since I've been wearing more s-skirts lately." Toru blushed softly as their sentence trailed off into barely a whisper. They did give Zoe a smile to show that there weren't any hard feelings or anything like that for the slip.

"S-Shall we start d-diving?" Toru gave a warm smile to everyone who showed interest and pointed toward the horizon. They began wading back into the water, glad their wetsuit kept them mostly dry.

Outfit Not Found

"Yes, let's go right now!" Callista called out, her tone just short of an actual yell.

"If we leave now, Toru, they'll follow us, because they have to if they want to see the sights. You can't just wait on them, you'll wait all day," she said more softly in Japanese, side-hugging Toru's shoulders.

She beckoned for everyone else to follow, lightly holding Toru and hoping they'd move in the right direction soon, because otherwise the others were just going to stand there and gossip. Toru wasn't a leader type, but then Toru was also much younger than most of them. And a Hufflepuff. Now would be a good time to get a Gryffindor to lead the charge but true to form the Gryffs had already headed out into the deeper waters.

So a Slytherin had to step in. Very typical. But Callista was up to the challenge. Lately she'd been feeling more and more of a leader than she'd been before. Liane would be proud of her.

"Come on everyone!" She was using her best Go Slytherin voice, the one she used in the stands when cheering the team. "If we stand around here all day we won't get to see anything, and I'm sure we'd all like to have time for a second go at that food before leaving as well!"

Plus, she didn't want to give Sabrina too much time to get into mischief after she finished her crab.

She filed the information about pronouns away. She was curious, but didn't want to poke at the kid about something they were sensitive about. Fortunately, someone else had already made the blunder, so she had been able to avoid at least one faux pas today. Wasn't much but she'd take it.

((OOC: Let's get this cat herding going and dive if we can! , Callie's not going to force Toru to move, I don't godmod--but she's going to be very encouraging, because she's itching to see the sights to be seen.))

Toru chuckled at Callista's eagerness, and nodded when they heard her speak Japanese. Perhaps it was for the best to get the proverbial ball rolling. The smaller Hufflepuff began wading back in the water, giving one last look for everyone to join them before sliding onto their belly in the cool, clean to swim out a way further. The Bubble-Head charm shouldn't impair talking to each other under the waves, so they gave the Slytherin a small smile and responded. "Thanks, Callista-Senpai."

((and everyone - anyone can help out lil Jona if they want)) Jona really wanted to go with everyone, but the Callista girl was suddenly herding everyone like cattle, making the whole thing feel forced and definitely not fun. She pushed Toru into moving, too, so that Jona didn't really get to say much more to them before they were all already way ahead. He wanted to go, but two things made him hesitate: 1) Callista seemed like a ring leader here and he wasn't very fond of her for multiple reasons and 2) he didn't know how to produce the bubbly charm everyone seemed to keep using on their heads. He only had one year of Hogwarts under his belt and still had a lot left to learn. So, Jona hung back as many in the group followed after Callista into the waters. He wasn't comfortable asking anyone to do it for him or to teach him.

((and all.))

“I hope ye enjoy it,” Zoe said about fashion designer. It wasn’t really her thing. “I bet seeing ye clothing on the runway will be exhilarating.” She was pleased that Callista didn’t always know either. “Oh wow those sound like interesting careers too.”

Magnus smirked. “I don’t curl me lashes.”

Jona’s comment stung Zoe. He was the one who went to talk with others. She was just waiting for him. “Now listen to me Jonathan Fletch,” Zoe said to get his attention but still soft and caring, “ye are my best friend. I would always want to hang out with ye. Ye were the one who wanted to talk to others, when I was fine with just going swimming with ye. We came here for fun and I plan on having it with ye, even if I have to force ye to be happy.”

She blushed when Jona told her it was “they” for Toru. “Oh er, sorry,” Zoe said.

Zoe was an off the beaten path type of girl and was naturally inclined to want to go in a different direction, especially with Jona looking so forlorn. “We’ll catch up with ye lot,” she said cordially. “Jona and I are gonna explore on our own for a bit.” It seemed the best compromise. Please everyone whilst still getting just them time. She was also taking charge, which wasn't like her but she wanted time with her best friend. So, She put the bubblehead charm on Jona without asking then on herself. “Let’s go explore Jona, there’s things to see in the deep blue sea.”

Outfit Not Found

(everyone)

Callista didn't notice what was going on with Jona and Zoe, but she was just a little relieved to be headed out, finally. "I've got a confession to make, Toru-chan," she said, in English this time. "I'm used to going to the beach either with a bunch of girls who sit around and look pretty or a couple of daredevils who are way past my level of ability in the water. I'm not that great of a swimmer. If I got into any difficulty at all, I wouldn't know how to get myself out of it without Liane or Camilla around. I don't want to have to play damsel in distress involuntarily, can you imagine how embarrassing? So I really didn't want to go without you. There is at least one boy I think I like, but I don't know if he can swim either--I'd rather go with an expert! That's why I wanted to get everyone going, that and the thing where they kept ignoring you. That wasn't right. You were being so gracious."

If Jona allowed himself to, he might've cried. He was seriously lucky to have a friend like Zoe. She somehow always knew exactly what to do and what to say without making him feel worse about himself. As she trailed him away from the pack, all he could do was nod, feeling that the sound of his constricted throat would betray the fragility he felt at the moment. Without saying a word since the initial shame, Jona dove into the water behind Zoe, just far enough so that they didn't feel like part of a group, but still close enough that they could see the others.

Jona waved happily at Toru, hoping they could still see him despite the distance. As he began to feel light-headed, Jona realized that upon reflex he was holding his breath. Lungs bursting from pain, Jona gasped for the air in his little diver's bubble and felt sweet relief for the incoming oxygen. And for his best friend. He kicked his feet harder so he could swim along side Zoe.

"FISHY!" He exclaimed and pointed to something glittering through the water.

Millie squeezed Sauvage's () shoulder back and smiled. "Sometimes, my parents fight like cats and dogs. I'm pretty sure my mum would hex my dad if she wasn't a muggle" she said with a giggle. "And she's German, so she gives him the cold shoulder when they are fighting. But they love each other."

"Okay, I'm ready to go diving." As she was starting to get ready, she heard Toru () mention they. She had heard "they" before but wasn't sure what they meant, then she over heard Toru mention to Zoe () they preferred gender neutral terms and it suddenly made sense and made a note for the future to respect their wishes.

She cast a bubblehead charm and caught up with the group. They were already starting to dive. She went under and caught up with Jona. She could feel something was off and when she made eye contact, she could tell he was upset. She reached out and gently touched his arm and gave him a reassuring smile. She had missed why he was upset but diving wasn't the time to be stressed. She gestured him to swim ahead of her so he could catch up with Zoe. She wanted to keep an eye on him till he caught up with the group

Startled, Jona jumped a little when he felt something brush up against his arm, but was relieved to find it was only Millie. He smiled warmly, feeling a lot better. He was able to put whatever had unnerved him off and out of his mind for now. He wanted to focus on having fun instead. And so, he bolted ahead past Zoe and swam underneath a sea turtle.

"I w-will be glad t-to keep you a-afloat and I'm used t-to reading currents s-so I can keep this a l-leisurely sight seeing t-tour, Senpai." They answered Callista honestly. They were glad that she was honest in her swimming abilities it would keep them both out of trouble. They gently steered the group toward some shallow reefs with beautiful fish, but close enough to shore if they needed to turn back.

Toru saw Jona give them a wave. They did a little flip to rest on their back to see him properly and gave him a bright smile and a little peace sign. They were glad that he could spend time with Zoe. They wondered if they would ever have a best friend as close as they were.

Millie had caught up to the group. She was relieved to see Jona () feeling more content, especially since he was with Zoe (). She gave everyone a smile and a wave and started taking everything in

(and all)

Zoe was glad to see Jona relax. She smiled when he pointed out the fish. “Aye, so pretty. We’ll have to see what they have in the gift shop. Maybe we can buy little tanks.” She smiled as Jona swam under a sea turtle. Zoe waved to Toru as well. Zoe nodded to Millie, wordlessly thanking her for also checking on Jona. Then as the group converged, she pointed with her head to Jona to head towards section of corals that the group wasn’t heading towards.

Meanwhile, Blade and Nimah were over near where the group was now converged. Blade was pointing at some sea anemones and tiny blue leg hermit crabs. “You can touch the sea anemones if you want. Pretty isn’t it? Oh look, there’s a stingray.” He hadn’t noticed the group was not too far away.

Jona swam towards the coral that Zoe nodded towards; it seemed away from the group and he briefly wondered if she had something to tell him. He accidentally spooked a school of fish as he came up over a rock and tumbled back a bit, giggling as they flippered friends created a tornado of color around him in the chaos and then disappeared. He looked around, mesmerized by everything. "I feel like the Little Mermaid. No wonder she sings so much; seems hard not to when surrounded by so much...life!" Jona then glanced at Zoey, wondering what she was thinking.

Mallowsweet blushed, smiling at Magnus' compliment, but grew excited at Drew's suggestion of shell hunting. "Wow! You can just find these on the beach?" she exclaimed "How wonderful! I'd love to try!"