The water lapped at her feet as a female with spiky blue hair sat on a rock, concentrating on the ocean before her. Her green eyes betrayed a determination that ran deep through her veins. She gripped her weapon of choice tightly, causing her knuckles to turn white. She knew something was coming soon. And she would be ready. The enemy was close at hand, but she would not be defeated. Closer….closer….

        Her daydreaming was interrupted by the sudden tugging of her fishing line. Suddenly, the reel started whirring, and she grabbed the handle quickly while balancing herself on the rock. She began turning the handle in reverse when she felt her feet sliding on her slippery perch. She immediately readjusted, while bringing the fishing pole higher, causing the very tip of it to start bending.

        “Crap, this fish must be HUGE!” she panted, “But I’m not letting THIS sucker get away!”

         Needless to say, the strength of the fish overpowered her, and she flew into the water headfirst.

         KERSPLASH!!!!!!!

        At a loss of air, she panicked and swam back to the surface. Mocking brown eyes greeted her ascent.

       “Heh, looks like the FISHER became the FISHED, huh Yoki?” the owner of the brown eyes mocked, not bothering to extend a hand for help as the girl swam to the shore.

      “STOP MAKING FUN OF ME, RYOKO!” Yoki wailed as she grabbed at Ryoko’s long red hair.

       “HEY, LET GO YOU MORON! THAT HURTS!” Ryoko shoved her away, and the battle began.

       “Okay, I THINK that’s enough,” another girl said, wading through the water to them. Her ebony hair reflected the sunlight as if it was a light of its own, and her brown eyes shined with much mirth and mischief.

      “Humph, not MY fault she can’t catch a fish without falling into the water!” Ryoko retorted, shoving Yoki off of her yet again.

      “Well YOU didn’t have to make such a big deal outta it!” Yoki shot back, “Grrrrrrrrr, you drive me CRAZY!”

     “Well then, maybe you’ll then be dragged away to a mental institution and bother them instead of me.”

      “YOU SHUT UP, YOU LITTLE---“

      “Hey, no time for fighting you guys! It’s time for food! FOOOOOD,” the black-haired girl interrupted, intervening just in time.

      “Maiko, I’m surprised you’re actually bothering to eat on a BEACH. I’d imagine you’d….you know….be checking people out without a cause for suspicion,’ ” Yoki observed, finally calming down.

      “And I would imagine Yoki crying over her broken fishing rod while everyone convinces you to get a life.” Ryoko’s sarcastic comment was followed by her presentation of Yoki’s fishing pole, snapped in half.

       Yoki’s face contorted from confusion to horror before she burst into tears.  

      “Waaaaaaaaaaaaah, it’s RUINED………my fishing pole DIEEEEEEEEEEEED…………….”

      “Yoki, um, I hate to break it to you, but it was never alive…” Maiko said.

      “SOMEONE’S GOTTA RESURRECT IT! QUICK!” Yoki shoved her fishing pole over to Maiko, who stared at it like it fell through the atmosphere.

      “Hey, what’s going on over here? Aren’t we supposed to go eat?” A blonde-haired girl approached them, her sky blue eyes questioning their sudden huddle on the shore.

      “Oh, hey Tsuru, I just came over here to get them,” Maiko greeted her friend, “C’mon, guys, I’m starvin’!”

      “Whaaaaaatever.” Ryoko sloshed past everyone and bee-lined toward the picnic area, in a mood that indicated she would stop for nothing.

      “I wonder if Ryoko’s going to be okay….” Tsuru watched Ryoko as she stepped on a child’s sandcastle without giving it a second thought.

      “Eh, she’ll be fine. C’mon, let’s go have some chow!” Yoki grabbed Maiko and Tsuru by their arms, and dragged them out of the water and toward their table.

                                                ************************

      “WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!?!” a boy with spiky black hair stared at his food with disgust and disbelief.

      “I made it specially for you, my darling! It’s miso chicken!” Maiko seemed proud of her culinary creation. The boy’s blue eyes stated otherwise.

      “CHRIST WOMAN, I HATE MISO!”

      “But I made it just for you, Wataru-chan!”

      “They never stop, do they?” Tsuru gave an awkward smile to the others at the table.

      “Nope. It’s been like this since day one.” The boy sitting next to her, Takeshi, nibbled on his sandwich as his green eyes, rimmed with a pair of glasses, scanned the beach area like those of an eagle.

      “Who’re you looking for?” Tsuru raised the question after taking a sip of soda.

      “Kenichi. He said he’d be here soon. I don’t know where he is though.”

      “That innocent idiot probably got himself lost,” Ryoko muttered, but not softly enough that the rest of the table couldn’t hear her.

      “Well, I have to agree, onii-chan WAS never good with directions….” Yoki turned her head to see, since her back was to the beach area.

      Their table was located underneath the shade of the awning that was attached to their camper. Like most of the other people camping out here, they were staying four days and three nights, the third night being the annual beach festival and fireworks. In the mean time, they were going to swim and relax the first day (they were all exhausted from car lag), then they would hike and have a campfire in the woods on the second day, then after the festival, on the fourth day, they would head back up to the city to go home.

     The camper itself wasn’t very large, but it had enough bed space and had a small kitchen and dining area (not that they would need the dining area, but just in case it rained). Towards the front half was a room that contained two bunk beds, four beds total. In the center was the dining area (with a T.V.), and then the kitchen area next to the screen door. A small closet stood on the opposite side of the door, and a bathroom stood in the back among the storage cabinets. Behind the dining area was a couch, then behind that, the door that led to the master bedroom, which held a queen-sized bed, and a sleeping bag laid down on the floor. The three guys and the chaperone slept on the bunk beds, Tsuru and Maiko shared the queen-sized bed, Yoki slept on the floor of the master bedroom, and Ryoko slept on the couch (she didn’t want to share a room with anyone, since she wasn’t fond of sharing a closed space with so many people in the first place).

      A boy with dark purple-blue hair suddenly came running up to them, gasping for air when he reached their table.

    “Onii-chan! There you are! God, took you long enough,” Yoki had already finished her lunch, and reached her hand in the pocket of her khaki shorts, as if looking for something.

    “Where the hell’ve you been?” Ryoko grabbed a stick of pocky from a box and put it in her mouth.

    “S-s-sorry, the chaperone and I were making sure the arrangements for the hike were all set. He needed me there ‘cause he doesn’t know our names well enough.” Kenichi sat down at the table and gulped down the soda that was waiting for him there.

    “Toldja I didn’t like that chaperone.” The pocky in Ryoko’s mouth twitched up and down. It reminded Kenichi of a mother wagging her finger at her child for doing something bad. But that was far from the truth, and he knew it.

    “What makes you say that?” Tsuru asked, resting her head on her hands.

    “The guy doesn’t even know our names! That sounds a bit shady to me,” Ryoko observed.

     “I’m so happy!” Kenichi suddenly burst out. The group gave him a puzzled look.

     “That killed the drama,” Maiko said, blinking. She pat Wataru on the head, who was turning about twenty shades of green.

     “No, really! It’s ‘cause Ryoko’s actually caring for the group’s well-being!” Kenichi smiled at his deduction, hopeful that Ryoko was turning around for the better.

      WHACK!

     “Ryokoooooooo………..why’d you hit meeee…….?” Kenichi whined, tears streaming down his face.

     “Hoping to knock some sense back into that head of yours. Besides, I didn’t hit you THAT hard.”

     “Huh, waiddaminute! Ryoko! That’s MY pocky!” Yoki lunged at Ryoko from the other side of the table.

      Another squabble between the two ensued. Had the group not known that the awning was red, they would have thought that the tension between them rubbed together to emit the red glow.

     “Bathroom!” Wataru gagged, and he darted into the camper as fast as he could carry himself.

     “What’s wrong with him?” Tsuru asked, right as the screen door slammed shut.

     “Aww…..he really didn’t like it………” Maiko gave a defeated look as she looked at the place where he was just sitting.

     “Translation: Maiko’s miso chicken made him sick,” Takeshi said bluntly, adjusting his glasses.

      After an hour of playing board games under the awning, Tsuru suggested swimming in the ocean a little more before it got too dark. Everyone wandered off in their own directions: Tsuru, Maiko, and Wataru splashed at each other in the water and raced each other, Takeshi began building a sandcastle, and Ryoko sat on the rocks that jutted out into the ocean by herself. “Now’s my chance....” Kenichi thought to himself. Cautiously, he walked across the rocks and sat down next to her. She didn’t respond in any way to his arrival. The water glistening on her body directed his attention to her bikini, which had the appearance of leather and had a flame pattern running along the bottom hem of both the top and bottom pieces. He blushed slightly before noticing that she was watching him.

     “What are you staring at?” she grumbled, turning her head back towards the ocean.

     “Uh, sorry….I didn’t know they made swimsuits like that……”

     “Bikini style? Get over it.”

     “No, no, I mean, like, leathery looking with flames on them…..”

     She just shrugged. “Stop trying to force small talk. I don’t like small talk.”

    “Right, sorry…….”

     They both sat in silence, watching the waves come toward them, seemingly calm, then rebounding off of the rocks as if they had exploded.

    “Just like life….” Kenichi muttered.

    “Huh?”

    “Those waves…..it’s sorta like the bad stuff that happens in life…at first, everything looks fine…then BAM! Everything gets worse…..”

     She smirked at him. “Now you’re just getting philosophical, Sophocles,” she teased.

     He smiled. This was the first hint of happiness that he had seen out of her the entire trip. He was relieved. She was just fine.

    “I-I can’t wait for the fireworks,” Kenichi spoke up again, hoping to get on a topic that actually got him to what he wanted to ask.

    “Can’t say I’ve seen them much in person.”

    “Are you serious?! Really?!” Kenichi looked shocked. He and Yoki got to see them all the time, how could she have not seen them when they both lived so close to each other?

    “Yup. Had “better” things to do when I was younger for my parents, and I just didn’t care enough to go see them when I got older.”

    “Then-then we’ll show ‘em! We’ll see them together and have a great time at the festival!”

     An awkward silence followed his outburst. Kenichi covered his mouth, embarrassed that he spoke out like that. He couldn’t look at her, not after he said that! He must have sounded like a dork…..yet he looked up anyway when he heard her laughing.

   “Huh…?” Kenichi seemed confused.

   “Y-you’re so weird sometimes, Kenichi. Are you trying to ask if I’ll go with you?”

   “That was my initial plan…..” Kenichi said, blushing.

   “Sure, what the hell. Got nothing better to do that night, and I DON’T wanna be stuck babysitting your sis again….”

   “Eheh…I’ll make sure she doesn’t tag along too much….there isn’t much guarantee though….”

    Ryoko shrugged. “I’ll just beat her up if she comes too close.”

    Kenichi gave her an awkward smile. “That works too……” Although his expression at that moment didn’t show it, he was truly…..very grateful that she said yes.

                                            ************************


   “YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!”

    The sudden screech woke up the entire camper. Kenichi sat up in bed so fast that he banged his head on the ceiling. Takeshi fumbled around for his glasses, and Wataru fell from his bunk at the top, nearly avoiding the chaperone below. Lights snapped on, and all of the guys and Ryoko raced into the master bedroom, which was the source of the scream. They found Tsuru standing next to the bed with a horrified expression. Maiko was rubbing at her eyes, and Yoki was still fast asleep in her sleeping bag. Ryoko stomped on Yoki, which caused a horrible howling sound from Yoki.

   “Tsuru-chan, what happened?!” Takeshi was the first one to rush over to Tsuru’s side.

   “Maiko-she-and then-and she-before she-then when she-I screamed….” Tsuru stuttered her response, barely making any sense.

    Ryoko ignored the wailing Yoki and filled in the blanks: “Maiko started saying that she was gonna do dirty stuff to you, then she started stroking your head and flopped on top of you before she started saying more perverted stuff, then when she started groping you, that’s when you screamed. Am I right?”

    Tsuru nodded shakily.

   Wataru grumbled. “Man, I fell outta the top bunk just to hear about Maiko doing her usual pervy stuff. She must’ve thought you were one of her stuffed animals.”

   An unusual silence filled the air and rang in everyone’s ears.

  “Stuffed….animals….?” Tsuru gave a look that stated she DIDN’T want to know.

  “Eheh, nailed it right on the hammer. Sorry, Tsuru,” Maiko finally said, yawning afterwards. “Night!” She then plopped down and fell right back asleep.

   The chaperone’s mercury-colored eyes looked at all of them tiredly. His jet black hair was strewn everywhere on his head from sleeping, and he gave them all an unamused look before saying: “Just don’t do it again. Go back to sleep everyone.”

  They all wandered back to their beds straight away, except for Tsuru, who made a barrier of extra pillows between herself and Maiko before she fell back asleep as well.