Some Things Just Can't Be Understood

"The, um... G... Gs thingy... When you find the zoo you want to go to" Pheobie struggled to remember what he called the thing she would soon have to learn to use.

"The GS? Oh, right, the GS training!" Maple replied, hitting his head with his hand lightly. "Yeah, we should do that before we go to the zoo. Let's see...cleaning, ice cream, maybe a nap, and then training. It's isn't too hard, it's just got a lot of features to memorize."

"Okay!" Pheobie smiled. "Sounds like a plan. Go mop and I'll clean. Then we can meet up when we're done!"

"Right!" he said, putting the mop over his shoulder like a rifle and giving her a salute. He marched off and out of the storage room.

He quickly remembered why he did not mop much. He hated doing it, and he sucked at it. Once again he had used way too much water and the kitchen floor was as slick as an ice rink. He had almost fallen a couple of times. Hoping it would be dry by the time he got back, he moved on to the food storage to mop there.

Pheobie started by sorting through the boxes. In the time it took Maple to mop, she had sorted the boxes and started to re-pack them according to item type. First was clothes, then tools, seasonal items, accessories, and several other things. There was even a few boxes of stuff that Maple needed to sort through and tell her what exactly to do with.

Figuring he must be done by now, Pheobie went back to her room to take a bath before she started looking for Maple.

Let's see, I've mopped things up, got some ice cream for me and Pheobie, now what else-

He slipped on the still-wet kitchen floor, the ice-cream splattered all over him. And the floor. Which meant he had to mop again.

Letting out a growl, he went to get the mop again, which was still nearby.

Pheobie dressed again, once she was clean, in a bright green tanktop and a violet mini skirt. She left her towel-dried hair as it was and left the room barefoot. She skipped to the kitchen where she found Maple mopping.

"You don't mop much do you?" She asked.

"Not really," Maple answered, letting out an exaggerated sigh. "I did have this done before, but then I slipped on the floor while carrying some ice cream though so here I am again. Maybe I should wear rainboots when I do this."

"You're supposed to do it barefoot. And you're using too much water." Pheobie stepped over to him carefully and took the mop. She wrung it out in the sink and starting mopping up all the spare water on the floor. "You want to use just enough to be able to tell the floor is wet. So its barely shiny. Like this. And you mop in circles, to help get everything up."

Maple watched in both admiration and embarrassment. This was supposed to be his job, only he couldn't do it right so Pheobie had to do it instead. He felt irritated at himself.

"Tell you what, I'm going to go look up zoos and set a destination, because I know how to do that much at least," Maple announced before walking off to the control room.

Pheobie finished up quickly and made some more ice cream, but only enough for Maple. She walked out of the kitchen and back to the control room. "Tell you what." She stated as she entered. "I'll teach you to mop since you're teaching me to use the GS thingy."

"I suppose that would be a good idea, before I flood the ship with mopwater," Maple remarked as he strolled through a list of zoo names and details. "Alright, it's a deal then. I'll be back in for mopping sessions once I've picked out our destination. Do you like pandas or giraffes better?"

"What's a giraffe?" Pheobie asked, blinking stupidly. "Oh, I brought you your ice cream."

"Oh, why thank you!" Maple said, coming over to get his ice cream. "Anyway, a giraffe is this herbivore creature that has a long neck. I mean a really long neck. It's neck alone is taller than a person, and that's not counting its body and long legs. Basically, a very tall creature."

"Oh. So then what's a panda?" Pheobie asked. "I don't know about either. We don't have them at home"

"Well, have you seen a bear?" Maple asked. "...It's like a teddy bear, if you haven't seen a real name. Anyway, it's basically like a big black-and-white bear that eats these stiff plants called bamboo. That's all it eats, bamboo. A lot of people like to watch them, because they're like giant black-and-white teddy bears."

"Oh okay. Like a teddy bear." Pheobie repeated softly

'Anyway, would you prefer pandas or giraffes?" Maple asked again, now eating his ice cream while scanning through the list. "Would help narrow things down a bit."

"Giraffes." Pheobie replied with a smile. "I'll go back to the kitchen now and wait for you there."

"Alright then, giraffes it will be," he answered, turning back to the list. He narrowed the list down, finished his ice cream, narrowed down the list some more, until he finally had the place picked out. He sincerely hoped that no corruption would be there. He didn't need another beach incident, or even an annoying anomaly bugging him while he was there.

But there was no point in worrying about that now. He plugged in the destination into the computer, and then headed to the kitchen with his empty bowl. It was time for him to learn to mop properly. He was only about twenty-some years behind on that practice.

Pheobie had half filled the sink with water and was sitting on the counter, lost in thought. The way the mini skirt had settled gave Maple a lovely view of her thighs.

Pheobie was thinking about what little she could remember about her trip to the zoo. He father had bought her some sweet treat and taken her to see the colorful birds and other creatures.

Maple walked in, noticed her dreamy look and dreamy thighs, and abruptly blushed. He turned his head to the side and cleared his throat theatrically.

"Um, lessons?"

Pheobie snapped out of her thoughts abruptly. "Huh? Oh right." She slid off the counter easily. "Come here. First I have to teach you how to hold the mop."

"How to hold it?" Maple asked, glancing at the mop waiting in the corner. There was a certain way you had to hold it? He had assumed a two-handed grip was all one needed to grasp such a cleaning utensil.

Pheobie picked up the mop and brought it over to him. She put it in his hands and carefully arranged his hands. "You need to hold it like this, both firmly and loosely at the same time. That way you won;t drop it, but you still get the full use of movements."