With my coffee, laptop, photos, and a locked bathroom door, I could finally begin identifying the seven whales we had seen. It was a bit of an upgrade from the one I had to do the last time, and excitement tingled through each of my veins. The rain still pattered against the roof of the house, and it didn't seem likely to stop for a while.

The wifi in the middle of the ocean wasn't the best, and since I was locked in the bathroom, it was even slower than usual. I stared at the program loading screen and caught a glimpse of my reflection in the darkness of the whale-shaped logo, and I smiled at myself.

A month at sea could drain the life out of anyone, and judging from the dark circles under my eyes and my mess of hair that was forcefully tangled into braids, that time had an effect on me. But I refused to think of it as draining. Instead, I had the fortune of immersing myself completely in the thrill of life's mysteries.

The logo disappeared from the screen, and the smile fell from my face. As much as I loved whales, they were supposed to be serious business.

As the loading process finished up (which I predicted would be a process in itself), Jia laughed on the other side of the quarantine.

"Put your phone down for one second and help me with these recordings," Darrell said, but Jia kept on laughing.

"What's so funny?" Brett asked, but Jia's only reply was more laughter.

"I asked you nicely to put your phone down and to help me with my project like you said you would," Darrell said.

As Jia composed herself, she asked through little, squeaky giggles, "Reagan, are you listening?"

"Yep. I'm waiting for this thing to load, because everything takes forever out here," I replied.

"Okay. Shit, you all deserve to hear this. So I get this text from the guy I've been talking to—" Jia began, but Darrell interrupted.

"Talking to? What does that even mean?"

"It means exactly what it means. I talk to him. It's not hard to understand," Jia said.

"Do I have to remind you of Rule Number One of Paradise City? That all relationships must be kept professional?" Darrell asked.

Rule Number One. How did I forget about it?

It's not you, it's not me, it's Darrell and his stupid rules.

"It's not on Paradise City, so you can shut up about that. Just let me tell this story, okay? Damn," Jia said. "So he texts me, and all it says is, I think I'm going to die. I asked him to clarify, and he replied, and I quote, I just got stabbed with a knitting needle in the face. And then he sent me this picture." She didn't say anything for a moment, so I assumed she showed Brett and Darrell the picture.

"There is no way in hell that he suffered that much damage from a knitting needle. There's definitely more to the story," Brett said.

"How did it even happen?" I asked.

"He's about to explain the story to me—give that back!" Jia cried. "You're an asshole. I need to know how this happened!"

"You can have your phone back when we finish our work for today, and we'll be lucky if that moment ever comes at this rate," Darrell said. "Now, like I was saying earlier, we still need to collect the sounds the birds produce during their excretion process."

"Nope. You can handle that one," Jia replied, then laughed. "I'm not getting shit on again."

"You signed up to help me, and that's what you're going to do."

"I signed up to guide you, since you're a failure, apparently."

Darrell let out a sigh. "I've never failed by myself. No, instead, it's always when I'm forced to work with idiots like you."

"Would you two stop?" I said. "I'm trying to focus on my whales."

Of course, the program still hadn't loaded in yet, but I could only deal with so much bickering. I had already had my fill of annoyances for the day, thanks to someone else.

Neither one of them spoke in response, and I could only imagine what kind of words they were aggressively mouthing to each other. But as long as they were quiet, I didn't really mind how they settled their differences at that point.

I had other things I had to think about.

***

"Reagan," Jia said as she knocked on the door. "Are you just going to stay in there forever?"

I sat up and caught my reflection, once again, in the darkness of the dead laptop screen. This time, my sleepy eyes squinted back at me, and I shut the laptop, so I wouldn't have to look at my disastrous self any longer.

"I might. Could you bring me some bleach? It really needs to be cleaned in here," I said.

Jia laughed. "I don't think anyone's cleaned it this entire time."

"What? No one's cleaned the bathrooms? That's," I stared at my unsanitary surroundings, "absolutely disgusting. No wonder it smells awful in here."

"The quarantine is going to get you sick instead of preventing anything from spreading," Jia said. "If that's not the most Darrell thing that's happened in a while, I don't know what is."

I opened the door, and the breath of fresh air relieved some tension in my head that I hadn't noticed was there.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Four thirty. Everyone else should be getting up soon," Jia said. "You look like you're thriving."

I smiled. "I wish. I identified three whales last night, but I accidentally fell asleep before I could get to the other four."

"You're allowed to not kill yourself. You're allowed to do what's best for you. You know that, right?"

"I know," I said, but if everyone thought like that, nothing would ever get done. It wasn't me that mattered, but the effects that I could have on the rest of the world.

Logan and I had put our flytraps, Blue and Racecar, on the shelf in the hall by the bathroom, and I set my camera in the space between them to put myself together for another day in paradise. Perhaps the experience was stretching me more than I had expected it to, but there was no denying that it was everything I had dreamed about. Not everyone got to spend their days with pods of whales.

But first, those poor plants looked a little thirsty. We had plenty of fresh water stored in containers in the kitchen, and Blue and Racecar needed it just as much as the rest of us did. Unfortunately, they didn't get too much sunlight in the middle of the Atlantic, though, but that didn't seem to bother them quite yet.

I filled a glass up with some of the water, and when I went to give it to the flytraps, I tripped on the leg of the dining room table.

I shot it a glare, but none of the water spilled, so no harm was done besides a sore pinkie toe.

I peeked into Racecar and Blue's pots and poured enough water in to get the soil damp. The life of a plant could be a lonely one, but at least they had each other to spend time with.

"You skipping the seal watch again?" Logan asked as he came down the stairs.

"I didn't think I would be invited," I replied, but I didn't turn around to face him.

"Are you really going to be like this? It's not like I wanted to get sick, but that seems to happen a lot with me," Logan said.

I still didn't turn. "I'm not mad at you for that. I'm not mad at you at all."

"Look, Rea, if you'd tell me what you're thinking, we could figure this out. I made myself clear."

"What's there to say? It's not feasible, regardless of how I feel. I have my priorities, and you have yours."

I struggled in social situations enough, and I had made my decision when it came to what I wanted. I chose harmony with nature, not with humans.

"And right at the top of my priority list is being bored to tears for the next few months of my life. I'll just go count seals by myself then," Logan said.

The rain from the night before still hadn't stopped, and he would have to spend an hour out there by himself. He always said that he wasn't irritated by my presence, and while I was sure that wasn't always true, he was one of few who didn't mind listening to me talk about whatever I thought about.

"No, no. I'll come with you," I said.

Was he guilting me into it? Probably. But did it work? Absolutely.

"Then hurry up. I have a strict timeline I have to stick to," he said.

He never really did a good job sticking to his outlined procedure, but I didn't say it. He already knew that.

I grabbed a pair of boots and pulled them on, and since I had fallen asleep before I could brush my teeth the night before, I took my toothbrush and toothpaste and headed out the door.

The rain had dialed down to a heavy sprinkle, and even though the seal watchtower seemed sturdy enough, rain still snuck in through the openings to moisten Logan's notes or whatever other materials we took up there.

But despite the minor annoyance, a little water never killed anyone.

As I climbed up the ladder to the tower, Logan already sat on the bench with his pages and pages of notes. It seemed he had already filled half a notebook, but I wasn't really sure what else he wrote in it besides the twice-daily seal counts.

What could he have possibly been studying?

"So did you find out the names of our new friends from yesterday?" Logan asked.

I put the toothpaste on the toothbrush, so I could finally get rid of the coffee taste in my mouth and the plaque that came along with it.

"Three of them. Finn was one of the smaller ones, a male about twenty years old," I said with the toothbrush in my mouth.

"Creative name," Logan said.

I smiled. "I wish I could think of something like that. Then there were two females named Luna and Liner, named from the patterns on their flukes. Luna had a little crescent, and Liner had a really dramatic line right down the middle."

"And their health?"

"The blubbers seemed a little thin, but I don't know for sure. We have to wait for the test results for that. At least I didn't see any propeller scars on any of them."

I wasn't sure how he understood anything I said while I brushed my teeth, since I barely understood my words myself.

Logan looked up at me. "You really took the whole hurrying thing literally. You could have brushed your teeth earlier, smartass."

I didn't want to disappoint him any more than I already had, but instead of replying, I spit out the window.

"I bet you can get it farther than that," he said.

"My spit?"

He nodded. "If you get it far enough, high tide will wash it away."

I turned away and let myself smile.

When Logan bothered to be a pleasant person, there was a certain stupid happiness he brought with him, and I had to remind myself that Paradise City wasn't for that.

It was for maintaining professional relationships and getting work done, as Darrell put it.

I continued to brush my teeth, and when I conjured up enough saliva for a second shot at a better distance, I spit out the window once again.

"That was better, but there's no way that's far enough for high tide," Logan said, giving his unwanted (yet extremely wanted) assessment.

"It might be. You never know," I replied with a smile.

He laughed. "You're so fucking stupid, Rea."

I didn't think he meant that, but even so, he wasn't wrong.

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Happy holidays everyone! Thank you for reading! Don't forget to leave a comment or a vote!

So for today's question, Reagan is experiencing some technical difficulties with Paradise City and the people of it, so what do you think is going to happen with that? Is Logan even good for her?