D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

--- Sylvie ---

Once it became clear that the two were going to keep talking for a while, Hank encouraged them to go change. Sylvie shrugged at that and agreed thinking it was a bit weird. She was pretty sure everyone had their swimsuits on already after all… and a few moments later she was proved correct.

The girls had all moved to the changing rooms taken their top layer off and then headed back outside now in just their swimsuits.

Callisto glanced at them all walking back together and asked, "Have you all got sunscreen on?"

Sylvie frowned at the question and dug back through her morning for a few moments before shaking her head. "No, I forgot to put it on before we left. I don't think I have any in my bag either…" said Sylvie as she looked down at her backpack with slight annoyance. Read new chapters at empire

"I've got some!" announced Alice… only to immediately look up at Hank who chuckled at the attention.

Hank continued laughing for a bit longer before saying "I do believe you mean that I have some sunscreen,"

Alice shook her head and said, "No it's OUR sunscreen so that means WE have it,"

Hank rolled his eyes and pulled out a large pump bottle of sunscreen and put it on the ground. "Well I suppose I shouldn't argue with that. Can I trust you to put it on properly?" asked Hank.

"I already have mine on!" announced Alice.

Penny ignored the announcement and started to put on some sunscreen, with Sylvie following shortly after. *I'm glad none of my friends have problems with sunscreen. So many kids at the orphanage would gleefully avoid using any and then come back home burnt all over. I know way too much about skin cancer for that. It's why I have long sleeves on my swimsuit.*

Sylvie glanced at her friends' outfits and frowned a bit. Sylvie herself had a wetsuit similar to what Hank was wearing. Sylvie didn't love it, and it looked super boring… but when looking for stuff in her size with sleeves and leggings it turned out she had no choice. Penny had a long sleeved shirt that was much too big for her, the sleeves having been rolled up so she could put on sunscreen.

Sadly her pants were just shorts, barely coming down to her knees.

Alice was the least prepared for the sun. She had the sort of swimwear you see at the Olympics, even including a hair cap. Which was likely the best part of the ensemble and Sylvie made a note to consider getting one for herself.

This did mean she was left with a bunch of skin exposed to the sun… but unlike Sylvie and Penny, Alice had a bit of a tan so perhaps it wasn't too bad with sunscreen to help?

"Are you sure about that?" asked Hank. "I don't remember seeing you put it on… and I packed the bag here last night which means the sunscreen was packed away…"

*Or maybe not. Do I say something? It would be really bad for Alice not to wear any sunscreen but would she really lie about that? Hmm…*

Sylvie was debating mentally what to do when Alice retorted with, "Silly daddy I used the bottle in the swimming cupboard! It smells a lot nicer and it feels better to put on,"

Hank nodded, "Alright. I was mostly just testing you to see what you said. Guess I can believe that much… though if you come home sunburnt, I'll know what happened,"

"I won't!" grumbled Alice.

Not too long later Penny and Sylvie were done with applying sunscreen and Callisto bent down for a hug. "Well I am going to head off now, stay out of trouble while I am gone and just let me know if you need me,"

"I know, hopefully you'll be back for lunch," said Sylvie as she returned the hug.

"Hopefully," agreed Callisto as she turned around and walked back to the car.

As she was leaving Hank spoke up, "Right, so I'm sure you're all ready to get in the water but first we should rent out a locker. With just me here there's nobody to watch the bags so let's do that and then we can head into the water properly. I'll be nearby if you need me for anything keeping an eye on you, but I heard you have your own plans and I don't want to mess with that without permission.

The only rule I'm going to give you is to let me know if you're going on the big slide. It's not that I don't trust you with it, but I've heard they've had a few problems before with people shooting out, skipping across the water, and hitting the shore.

"I'm not super worried, I know it's not closed and I'm sure we'll see people using it now, but I do want to be told about it just in case I'm distracted with something. Probably let me know if we're moving over to the lap pool, just in case I lose track of you or something,"

"Ok!" said the three in agreement. Hank nodded back and lead the group over to the lockers. He picked the medium sized ones and swiped his credit card on the lock to open it. Hank proceeded to put all the bags inside, grabbing Penny's and Sylvie's from them when offered and locking it once everything was inside.

"Ok, you're all free to have fun then!" said Hank with a grin as he made shooing motions with his hands, "Go off and have fun. We're probably going to break for lunch in around two and a half hours but if you get hungry before that let me know. Alice can show you where the water fountain is, don't forget to stay hydrated and if you have any issues I'll be around,"

"We know Dad!" said Alice as she grabbed Penny and Sylvie's hands and pulled them towards the park entrance proper. Sylvie looked around as she let herself be dragged. There was a bunch of benches along the fence and a long patch of grass between the pools and the fence to mess around on besides.

There was a snack shop right next to the entrance, and a small drink shop that was floating in near the big slide exit. Perhaps for safety reasons.

The big pool looked pretty cool. It was a circular river thing that was wide enough for two boats to drive around it if really necessary. It wasn't perfectly circular, with an especially big bit of extra water near the exit of the water slide. The slide itself was set into the middle island thing.

There were all sorts of play equipment in the middle with a bunch of water spouts that shot off at random times, mushrooms that sprayed water from their tops and all sorts of other cool looking things.

The staircase for the big slide was at the far end and Sylvie could only really see the top of it and the platform people were lined up on… and there were quite a few people waiting in line that she could already see.

That wasn't where they were going though. Off to the right there was a somewhat circular pool with a sun shade over the top. The water was pretty shallow as well and it seemed pretty empty. Currently there was one older guy in board shorts and sunglasses sleeping on the edge, or at least looking that way, along with two groups of younger kids being watched over by a mother and father pair.

As they got to the water Alice turned and said, "Right so the first thing I'm going to teach you isn't how to swim but how to float. Our bodies are made up of a large percentage of water and that means even if you don't do anything you can float. Now, when I was taught this it was all 'don't move and just relax' but that didn't help much. So here's what you're going to do.

"First, take in a deep breath, then take a few more casual ones, in and out. Get used to holding a bit of air in your lungs while you're breathing it's not super comfortable but this is just to get you started. Once you got that down, you're going to breath in deeply and lay down in the water. Just relax and spread out as much as possible.

Breath slowly and keep at least some air in your lungs and you should be fine. Once you've got that down I can start teaching you how to actually swim. This pool is a bit shallow for it… but I can show you the basics before we move over to the larger one. Actually Sylvie could you just show off first?"

Sylvie nodded and did as instructed, exaggerating her breaths with arm movements before lowering herself down into the water and laying flat. Sylvie quickly started to float away from the edge. "See easy," said Sylvie… though she was careful not to use too much air when she said it.