Chapter Text
Palmy trudged down the beach coastline towards the cave on the side of a cliff. It was a fairly hidden place that he and his family called home. And the perfect place to recuperate after such an embarrassing loss. Palmy plucked out another seashell from his leaves, a handful of sand falling out with it. She turned into her cave and walked further in, hoping not to get caught by her mother. By some miraculous power, he managed to get to his part of the cave system, his room, without being noticed. Palmy looked into the mirror. She looked like a mess. A good handful of her leaves were bent and squashed. Sand coated any leaves that had lived anyway. Palmy pulled out the last seashell from her leaves and decided that was good enough. Palmy plopped down on their bed.
Palmy was unaware of how long she had slept, maybe the whole night by how she felt. Palmy got up reluctantly and walked to her mirror. As she was cleaning herself up from the day prior, her phone buzzed. The screen glowed, Palmy looked down and saw that it was Pearl. Palmy grabbed her phone and toyed with the idea of just letting it go to voicemail, for she was way too tired for this right now. Ultimately, Palmy picked up the phone and put it on speaker so he could finish fixing his palm fronds.
Rustling came from the phone before Pearl spoke, “Palmy? Hello? Are you there?” Pearl barely paused to give Palmy a chance to reply before speaking again, “HELLLLOOOO????”
“-Geez! Chill out, Pearl, I’m here, I’m here.”
“Palmy! You have to come to the beach!” Pearl suddenly lowered her voice as if speaking a secret, “ I heard that there might be a rejoin today!”
“A rej-!? Ow!”Palmy flinched as the rubber band Palmy had been trying to use to tie up her leaves snapped. Palmy rubbed his face, “A rejoin? Are you serious? You better not be fibbing as you did with the-”
“I told you not to bring that up againnnn!” Pearl whined, cutting off Palmy, “But I’m serious this time! I like 53% sure I heard Spongy talking about it!”
Palmy thought about the possibility of a rejoin. The season was already halfway through. And if Palmy could get back in, he could totally win; he could rub it in his mom's face. Then she would know that Palmy is responsible and “won’t get totally kidnapped by scientists the second she steps outside Mom!!!” Palmy smiled at the thought-maybe then he could go live outside the beach. “Alright,” Palmy finally replied, “I believe you, lemme finish getting ready and I’ll be there.”
“Yay! Okay, finish up and don’t look dogshit when you get here.” Pearl hung up before Palmy could reply.
“Hey- ugh, whatever,” Palmy dragged her hand down her face, dragging on her eyes.
Palmy washed her face and leaves and fluffed up the dead leaves that hung around her neck.
“Need to trim that soon..” Palmy muttered, taking one more glance in the mirror before leaving her room. She snuck out, through the hallways, out the mouth of the cave, mutely muttering prayers for her mom not to hear nor see her leave. Palmy slipped out of the cave and padded down the sand. She walked down the shore and noticed that the water seemed a little low… Palmy could have sworn his dad said something about it meaning something… but before Palmy could put his finger on it, someone called his name.
“Hey! Palmy right?” Palmy looked over to see Surfboard calling out to Palmy. Surfboard was standing over by a conglomeration of other objects who had been voted off.
“Uh, yeah!” Palmy hurried over to the spot on the beach where the eliminated contestants stood. “Are you guys here for the rejoin too?”
“Yeah, Pearl told Sandy over here about it. Where’d you hear about it?” Surfboard asked as Sandcastle slid over to the conversation.
Palmy shrugged, “Pearl too.”
“So no one actually heard from an official source?” Sandcastle worried, looking around to the hosts who were talking to Coconut water and Sunscreen. Palmy nudged Surfboard and looked to Sandcastle.
“Well, Pearl does know some people. She is a somewhat reliable source!” Palmy looked towards Coconut water and Sunscreen as the votes glowed above their heads. Soon, the cameras turned towards Palmy and the other eliminated contestants. Palmy turned to Sandcastle, “See! Told you!” Palmy turned back to the cameras and jumped, waving her hands in the air as rainbow letters above their head spelled out “REJOIN”. Little did Palmy know, a huge wave rose from the water and took the “rejoiners” as the words “DEBUT!” shone above a different new group of objects.
Palmy spit and flailed in the water. Palmy used her strong, powerful tail fin to smash against the water. She swam and reached the air, taking in a huge gasp of fresh air. “Oh my coconuts!” Palmy thrashed in the water as waves tried to take her under again. Palmy grabbed onto a plank and tried to steady himself. He kicked his legs and tail, slowly taking him to a small palm tree that was above the water.
Palmy sat on top of the crown of the tree for HOURSSS. Palmy passed the time by drying out his leaves, picking the seaweed out as well, and fixing her whiskers. As Palmy sat there contemplating what she was gonna do when she got her hands on Pearl, Palmy saw in the distance Pearl bobbing in the water. Palmy called out to Pearl, telling her to get her butt over here. About 5 minutes later, Pearl made her way to the trunk of the tree, “Palmy! I got voted off! Can you believe that!? Me? The kindest person here!”
Palmy frowned at Pearl, eyebrows creasing in frustration, “I can actually. Seems pretty believable when you’re a LIARRRRR,”
Pearl gasped, “A liar?!”
“Yeah, especially since I was supposed to rejoin according to you! I could be at home right now! Dry!” Palmy stuck his tongue out at Pearl.
“How was I supposed to know it was a debut and not a rejoin!” Pearl kicked the palm tree’s trunk. Palmy yelped and tried to get a grip on the tree, “Let me up there! The water is cold!”
“No! This is my palm tree, find your own!” Palmy watched Peal kick in the water like a dog and stuck her tongue out again. Palmy readjusted on the tree and put her paw to her chest and spoke dramatically, “I can speak to palm trees, and this palm tree is telling me,” Palmy turned back to Pearl and glared, “That you are a little liar and it hates you!!!”
Pearl scoffed and blew a raspberry at Palmy before swimming away.
There Palmy sat for another few hours as the water slowly drained. Palmy decided to take a nap in the tree as a quicker way to pass the time. This only worked halfway, as when Palmy woke up, the water was indeed gone, but Palmy was not in the tree. Palmy had fallen off the tree and landed on the ground with a grunt of pain. Palmy didn’t know how long it had been since the water drained, but probably a while, as the sand was warm and soft. Palmy sat up and shook his head of leaves causing all the sand in it to fly off in random directions. Palmy looked around the beach; the sun was setting. Farther down the beach, Palmy could see Beach ball, Sunscreen, and Birdie fighting with... pool noodles? Palmy shrugged, prolly a challenge.
Behind Palmy was the ruined remains of the beach bar. No one was around, so Palmy decided to go and rummage around to see what was left. As Palmy was neck deep in debris, something whacked Palmy on the head, “Owch! What was that? Who did that!?” Palmy looked around and saw a little metal gear, the thing that hit her, lying in the sand. She grabbed it and looked up to see a machine that had not been there previously standing in the sand, little more than ten feet away. It looked like a big grey block with tubes going in and out of the sand, the biggest tube reaching into the ocean. And there in the middle, less than five feet away, was a golfball object, staring right as Palmy, big goofy glasses resting on the top of her head.