"Look! I think we're here!" Ginny leant over the side of the boat.

"I can't look," Lou grimaced. She was more seasick than she remembered.

"You okay?" Mila put their arm around her. "You look a little..."

"Green?"

"I was going to say pale."

"No, she's full-on Shrek," Giani laughed.

Mila frowned. "Not helpful!"

Gi stuck her tongue out, but moved away from them to sit with Carlos anyway as she wasn't in the mood to start a real fight.

"Everybody off," somebody ordered from the front of the ferry. Mila hastened to follow the order, helping Lou off the boat too.

"Are we ready for the guided tour of Alcatraz Island?" Thy exclaimed. "Can I get a hell yeah?"

"Absolutely not," Giani shot him down. "Come on, we should try and find our tour."

"Hi everybody," Their tour guide, a slightly annoyed looking guy called Sam, waved them over. "Let's go."

The group followed him, exchanging looks.

"Welcome to Alcatraz Island. I'm guessing you're here to see the Prison, so I'll try and make this tour short so we can all get our lunch breaks on time." He paused, stopping at the entrance. "The Island held the most difficult and dangerous felons, and was nicknamed The Rock—"

"Haha," Giani laughed. "Like Dwayne the Rock. No? Nobody?"

The tour guide looked her up and down, displeased. "As I was saying, it was called The Rock because it was so hard to escape. In fact, no inmates successfully did, though there were many attempts to."

"Gosh," Mila shivered. "That's kind of scary."

"How many attempts were there?" Thy asked.

"There were fourteen attempts that were known of, and overall, thirty-six criminals were involved. Of that thirty-six, twenty-three were captured, six were shot and subsequently killed, two drowned and five went missing and were presumed to have drowned."

"So, realistically, those five could have escaped and survived?" Ginny thought aloud.

"Mmm, no."

"Okay," Carlos raised his eyebrows, exchanging a look with Aster. "I'm so glad we paid for this tour!"

<<*>>

After their slightly irritating tour ended, they took the ferry back and looked for a place to grab a bite to eat.

"We could go here," Aster suggested, pointing at a local café, marketed as a 'bar and grill'.

"Really?" Ginny wrinkled up her nose.

"Hey, this is the only place in the area that serves something vegetarian for Lou," she said defensively. "We're on a dock, everything is fish."

"Alright, I'm happy to try it."

"Nachos!" Carlos pointed to the menu, grinning.

"Hey," the server popped their head out of the door, grinning widely. "Can I help y'all?"

"Yes," Aster said in an attempt to be assertive. "Do you have anywhere a group of, uh, seven, could sit?"

"Uhhh," they seemed a little stunned by the request. "I could do you a table of four and... a table of two plus an extra chair?"

"Any chance those are next to each other?"

"If by next to each other you mean either side of a Canadian couple, then yeah," they laughed. "So, you gonna take 'em?"

Thy shrugged. "What the hell!"

Their face lit up. "Great! I'll get you your menus."

"I want to share nachos with Lou, so I'm going to go with them," Carlos guided himself towards the table for three.

"Okay?" Lou seemed slightly surprised, but happy to be included, so she followed him to the table.

"I'll go with them," Gi grabbed the spare menu from between the Canadian couple, ignoring them as they blinked up at her in horror.

"Cool," Thy beamed at Aster. "M'lady?"

She blushed, sitting down on the chair he'd pulled out for her.

Mila and Imogen exchanged barely disguised smiles.

The other side of the Canadian couple, Carlos and Giani were having a heated conversation about which fries they should get.

"We HAVE to get the Chili Cheese Fries," Gi was exclaiming.

"No!" Carlos shook his head. "We should get the Gnar—Gnar—Gnarly Garlic Fries?" He frowned. "That doesn't sound right."

"It is," Lou sighed. "It is."

"You know what? Why don't we compromise and get the Outrageous Onion Rings?" He offered.

"Anything's better than the Gnarly Garlic Fries."

"Uh, Ginny?" Mila whispered as Thy and Aster discussed what they were going to get. "I've just realised we still have all the food Giani and I made to eat today."

Imogen covered her mouth, trying not to laugh. "Uh, dinner, maybe?"

They grinned. "Sure."

<<*>>

The seven of them spent that evening sitting on the pier's wall, eating soggy pesto pasta and drinking flat coca cola out of the can.

"This is nice," Aster said, looking out to the sea.

"Really?" Imogen swirled the coca cola around in its can. "I'm not a huge fan myself, but—"

"No," she smiled. "I mean sitting here, together, having spent the day at old arcades and eating nachos after our supposedly 'day long' tour ended after an hour, about to go back to a B&B and sleep in bunk beds. It's like every American High School film I grew up watching."

Ginny laughed. "That's so soppy, but it's also really sweet. I get what you mean. It felt like this kind of experience was a lie, but so far, it's turned out pretty good."

Aster held up her can. "Cheers to that."

Imogen took a bit sip and then coughed. "Oh, God, I forgot what it tasted like."

She laughed, spilling her drink everywhere. She didn't care. It was worth it. That much, she knew. 

A/N

Hi! So I know it's been an absolute age since this was updated but I've been battling writing block with this story so it took a little while to get through it.

This chapter turned out shorter than usual but the next few should be longer.

NEXT CHAPTER THEY LEAVE SAN FRANCISCO! I swear I've already asked this but let's get some guesses on the next location again -->

Any thoughts or things you want to be included in the next chapter are welcome!

(also the bar and grill café was a real place on Pier 39, and the names are all taken from the menu)

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