"And finally, Capricorn and Scorpio," Coach Ophiuchus smiles sleepily as he hands the girls their room keys. They are the last pair to be checked in. Everyone else has already gone up the elevators, aching to finally go to sleep.

Scorpio and Cap take their suitcases and head up to their room. Once they get inside, Scorpio flops onto the nearest bed.

"I could pass out right now," she exclaims.

"In your travel polo?" Capricorn asks as she sets her suitcase down in a corner and starts pulling out the things she'll need before bed. The Zodiacs are only staying in the hotel for one night, then they are making the last of the distance to camp the next morning.

"You're right," Scorpio sighs and pulls her shirt over her head. Capricorn's breath hitches and she forces herself to focus on locating her tooth brush. Best friends don't look at each other that way. . .do they? "Hey, did you bring that bag of popcorn? I'm still a little hungry."

"Uh. . .yeah. It's in my swim bag," Cap points to where she'd left it on her bed.

"Thanks a million," sighs Scorpio as she recovers the large bag of organic popcorn. Capricorn watches out of the corner of her eyes as her best friend puts in earbuds and twirls. She doesn't care that she is in a bra, stuffing her face. Looking like an idiot, a graceful idiot.

Capricorn doesn't know if she wants to be Scorpio, or kiss Scorpio.

Libra can feel that annoying itch of energy rise up inside him. He tries to ignore it as he squeezes toothpaste onto his brush. It has been a long day of traveling and he needs to sleep.

"Hey did you bring a foam roller? I forgot mine," Pisces asks from the bedroom.

"Eah. In ma phuit base," Libra replies around the tooth bush in his mouth. Somehow, Pisces understands.

"Thanks man."

When Libra is finished in the bathroom, he walks in to find his roommate trying to roll out his lanky body in the tight space between their beds.

"Long car rides make my body ache in places I never knew I had," Pisces explains.

"Fair," Libra shrugs. "I brought a pack of cards so tomorrow we can all play Slap Jack."

"I brought cards too! Maybe we can play a giant game of Bullshit."

Before turning in for the night, Libra and Pisces talk about the team's previous extravaganzas playing cards. When Taurus was on a week long lucky streak, and Leo got so frustrated at him winning that she threw a shoe at his head. They found out he was concussed the next morning. Or the time Cancer tried to shuffle a deck on a windy day and the team spent the next ten minutes running after the cards.

Then Pisces goes to sleep and Libra lays awake in bed for another two hours. He looks out the window and is disappointed that he can't see Gem smiling at a book before turning out for the night.

"Three. Two. One. Go," Leo says, eyes wide and excited.

Gemini vaults into the air and tucks into a back flip. She lands on the bed that moans in protest and quickly fall forward onto her stomach, already laughing. Leo is laughing too. But eventually the tiredness from a day of traveling sets in the Gemini sinks further into the mattress.

"What I'd do for an ice coffee right now."

"Nothing," Leo says, narrowing her eyes at her caffeine addict of a friend. "Because then you wouldn't sleep."

"I wish we didn't have to sleep," Gemini sighs. "Do you know how much more you could experience if you didn't have to sleep? That's a whole half a lifetime more memories."

"We'd probably do three practices in a day," Leo said.

"Ugh. Never mind then." Gem rolls off the bed to get changed into her pajamas while Leo lathers her limbs in lotion. The girls crawl into bed, giggling at old videos of their teammates on Leo's phone.

Aquarius stands at the mirror, fingers gripping the edge of the counter. He is nervous. The meet two weeks from now is his last chance to qualify for Junior World Champs. He is only a second off the requirement time in the 100m breastroke. Sometimes it feels as if his stomach will invert itself.

He looks at his reflection, no shirt, muscles tense, yellow light falling over his dark skin, and wonders what the moment he qualifies might feel like.

"You've been in there for ten minutes and I'm starting to think you might have passed out on the floor," Cancer says from the bedroom, his voice lazy.

Aquarius startles.

"No need to worry," he replies, abandoning his reflection and pushing open the bathroom door. "I'm perfectly conscious."

"Good. For a moment there I thought I might have to resuscitate you." Aquarius walks in to find Cancer lounging on his bed in only boxers, one headphone in, flicking through channels on the TV. Aqua's gaze skims over Cancer's porcelain skin for a beat too long. The boy's muscles shift as he repositions himself.

Aquarius crawls into the other twin bed. Neither say anything, just mindlessly watch the TV screen and eventually Cancer settles on a documentary about sharks. There was a time when Aqua would fall asleep thinking about Leo, but tonight he falls asleep thinking about qualifying times, standing behind the blocks with the next biggest names in swimming, and sharks, with their white as porcelain bellies.

"And Hydra?" Virgo asks. They are on one of their gossip rampages again. It's fun and it never gets old.

"Such a bitch," Aries replies.

"With a capital B."

"Who gave her the right to start such an insulting rumor?" The pink haired girl rolls her eyes as she pulls on an oversized shirt.

"And totally untrue." Virgo slides into a silk matching set, because she may be an athlete but she lives like a princess.

"I can't believe she actually thought I slept with her boyfriend," Aries says, distaste in her mouth. "I only made out with him."

The girls laugh. People like to comment on their 'bad habit'.

No one likes a gossip.

Gossiping is toxic.

To which both the girls laugh at. Gossip wouldn't exist if people didn't do toxic things.

How would you feel if people gossiped about you?

"There's no such thing as bad publicity," Aries would reply. "Let them keep my name in their mouth."

Aries collapses onto her bed, making the mattress squeak. Virgo crawls up next to her, ignoring her own bed, and falls over her torso. Aries rakes her fingers through Virgo's long black curls.

"Have you ever really liked someone you shouldn't?" Virgo whispers.

"I have a PhD is it," Aries laughs.

"Any advise?"

"Good advise or honest advise?"

"Honest. I'd never take the good one anyways."

Aries looks up at the ceiling. She doesn't know exactly who Virgo is talking about, but she has an inclination. They tell each other everything, and once Virgo is ready, she'll come out with it.

"Go for it. Now is good a time as any to do something stupid."

Sagittarius is stupid. He was trying to clean the wound on his eyebrow with hotel soap and ended up reopening it. He should have let Virgo clean it at practice that morning, when it was still pretty fresh. Now blood trickles down the side of his face.

Sag slinks into the bedroom, where Taurus has managed to misplace half of the things in his suitcase. He is frustrated, looking for something.

"We have a problem," Sagittarius exclaims.

"Yes, we do. I think I forgot a toothbrush—shit, what happened to you?" Taurus finally looks up, noticing all the blood.

"It was an accident. I was just trying to disinfect, and then. . ." The rest is pretty self explanatory.

"Here," Taurus shakes his head as he grabs one of the small towels folded on the beds and chucks it at the white haired boy. Sagittarius wipes up the blood and holds the towel against his wound. He feels sorry for whoever is going to have to wash it after they've left. "Now, what happened to you?"

"I just told you. I tried to clea—"

"No, I mean how did you get it?"

Sagittarius sighs and slouches against his bed. "My friends and I got into a fight last night with some kids who were hanging out at the base of the food tower. One of them had a knife and he clipped me."

Taurus really shouldn't be surprised. He is lucky enough to have never walked though the base streets of Celestial's Capital, only using the suspended walkways. The ground level is mostly slums, but that is where Sagittarius is from.

"You need new friends," Taurus says.

"Maybe." Sag shrugs. He knows his friends are not what most people would consider great, but he never knew any others in all his life. Other than his swim team, of course.

"When we get back, my friends and I are going camping in the country," Taurus says. "You should come."

Sagittarius almost snorts are the thought of hanging out with Taurus's high-story friends. Then again, anything beats knife fights. "Sure, I guess."