Campus is so empty. Hardly any students. A candy wrapper blows gently in the breeze between buildings.

It's the end of the summer, so you wouldn't expect campus to be busy. But last year at this time there were a lot more kids.

And you know why t's because they've all gone down into the reflecting pool and HAVEN'T COME UP! They're STAYING down there!! And I can't help but feel partially responsible, handing out all those coins. Even @Chloe Evergreen. ESPECIALLY @Chloe Evergreen!

And the Aquatics have stopped coming up too. Usually there were a few splashing in the pool, ready to give swimming lessons, tossing their coins around. But now where did they go? Hibernating?

And how are the kids supposed to come back up? With the Aquatics holding their breath for them like that? It's a long way up.

Oh I wish I'd thrown all those coins right back into the reflecting pool as soon as I'd found them.

My hoard of gold coins has suddenly made me very popular, now that everybody knows you can use them for the games at the arcade at the bottom of the pool. I was just giving them away at first, but now that they're in such high demand I wonder if I should start asking for trades.

Kids ask about why don't just use the coins myself. I'm not sure why. Something about going down deep so far. Feels like a long way off. And wet. And stringy with weeds.

But the Aquatics still scatter them around the reflecting pool and under the bushes. And I am an amazing coin hunter. Also Easter Egg hunts.

It was terrible that some joker exploded the Reflecting Pool yesterday, and it got algae all over everything but thankfully no swimmers or Aquatics were hurt. But also hillarious when bunch of people cornered the exploder and threw him in the pool! Then the Aquatics grabbed him and helped him out. They gave him one of their coins.

I found three more of those old coins under a bush by the Reflecting Pool. There’s a big face of some old Aquatic on the front and a spiny sort of castle on the back.

I already have a bag full so I gave them to @Chloe Evergreen, who was hanging out watching the pool. What amazing telekinetic juggling skills! Those gold coins zipping around, flying up in the air, catching the afternoon light. Even the Aquatics in the pool noticed and clapped their webbed hands and made that smacking sound with their lips.

I never throw coins into the reflecting pool because I don’t want the Aquatics to eat them and get a belly full of nickels. But the Aquatics will throw their coins up out of the reflecting pool and onto the grass. Their coins are made of gold and worn smooth. I guess they know we won’t eat them.

The aquatics in the reflecting pool will eat most anything. I like to throw cheetos on the water to wake them up. Then they come close up to the surface and look at you through the murky water with their big black eyes, and if they like the the look of you they will accept your gift with their little lips.

I think their bodies are mostly human shape. We are making friends.