“I am going to kill you!” The girl threatened again and Ashley smirked, finally catching sight of the face the voice belonged to. She was blonde and young, looking to be about her age. More interestingly, she was covered in mud. Her southern accent was strong, and with her hands on her hips and her brows furrowed into a deep V she was quite a sight.

Apparently she wasn’t alone in this observation, as the laughing voice of a boy was soon responding to her threats, “Oh yeah. You look real scary. ..Like some kinda swamp monster.”

Ashley watched as the blonde proceeded to chase the slightly older boy, her fists full of slick brown mud. He laughed tauntingly, always one step ahead of his persistent pursuer. Eventually their voices and yells faded, and the dark haired girl assumed they’d gone home. She stepped towards the pristine water, warily watching her step as she didn’t trust the footing. She then knelt down at the water’s edge and dipped her fingers into its deliciously cool, clear contents. 

“Hey there.” Ashley jumped sharply and fell backwards onto her butt in the mud at the sound of the boy’s voice directly behind her.

He laughed loudly, grinning as he offered a hand, “Sorry about that, didn’t mean to scare you. I’m Glen.”

She looked at his hand sourly before standing up on her own. Her entire backside was covered in the sticky dark mud, and she was none too pleased about it, “Ashley.”

“You’re new around here.” He spoke in a knowing manner instead of phrasing it as a question. Any idiot with two eyes could tell she wasn’t from around there. She had on tight fitting designer jeans and some sort of vintage T-shirt proclaiming the name of a band he’d never even heard of.

“Observant aren’t we.” The girl replied darkly, her face turned into somewhat of a scowl.

Glen seemed oblivious to her obvious dislike towards him, he instead was grinning from ear to ear. It wasn’t very often that pretty girls just suddenly popped up in this place, “So where ya from?”

The irritated girl opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by another voice, “Glen I swear to God I will-“

The blonde girl stopped when she realized they had company, her expression shifting from surprise to cheerful in split seconds. Ashley silently wondered if everyone around here was this obnoxiously hospitable, “Well hello there.”