"What about him?"

Trucy sat up slightly and stared across the beach towards a boy Pearl was subtly pointing out. She shrugged. "Meh, he's okay. I'd give him a solid 4 out of 10."

Pearl huffed, crossing her arms. "Alright, how about him?" she said, pointing in the opposite direction towards a volleyball net where a few boys were playing. "He has really nice muscles! I wonder how old he is…"

Trucy squinted, putting her hand up to block the sun as she looked. "Hmm… maybe a 6 out of 10."

"Wow," Pearl said. "You must have really high standards. I know I'd go out with him."

"You should go talk to him then," Trucy said, grinning at her companion as she leaned back on her beach blanket.

"No way!"

"You'll never get a boyfriend if you're too shy to talk to boys, you know."

Pearl huffed again. "Isn't the boy supposed to ask the girl out?"

Trucy raised her eyebrows. "Maybe back in the old days. This is 2027, Pearl. Girls can definitely ask boys out. How do you think my daddy ended up with Miss Maya? He didn't have the guts to ask her out himself even though he liked her, so she just let him know she was interested, and now look at them! I bet that guy over there would like it if a girl came onto him first. He might be shy too, after all."

"But what if he doesn't like me?"

"That's a chance you'd have to take."

Pearl fidgeted with the ribbon on the front of her bathing suit. "I don't know, Trucy…"

"I'll go start off the conversation, if you want me to. I can introduce you!"

Still, Pearl was not convinced. Trucy sat up, more determined. "Come on, Pearly," she said, using Maya's nickname for her. "There's nothing wrong with you! You're cute. If he says no, then he's the stupid one."

Pearl bit her lip. "Well… okay. Only if you talk to him first."

Trucy got up and brushed some of the sand off of her legs. "Let's do this."

Pearl watched her stride forward, heading out of the shade of their beach umbrella. She slid her sunglasses off of her head and down to cover her eyes, and Pearl had to admire how confident she looked. Trucy was much prettier, after all. She was more… developed, too, and wasn't too shy to wear a bikini, unlike Pearl in her one piece bathing suit. Any guy would prefer Trucy over her, she thought.

Trucy walked across the beach towards the area where the boys had been playing volleyball. They'd stopped for the time being and were busy getting drinks or mingling. She walked right up to the one Pearl had pointed out. He was blonde and a bit taller than her, and Pearl was right, he did have pretty nice muscles.

"Hey!" Trucy said, smiling at him.

"Hello to you," he said, looking her up and down.

"I'm Trucy," she said, ignoring that he was obviously checking her out. "What's your name?"

"Alex."

Trucy pointed her finger back towards her beach umbrella where Pearl was still sitting. "Me and my friend wanted to know if you wanted to join us for a drink at the snack bar or something, Alex." She leaned forward slightly to lower her voice. "She told me she thought you were pretty cute, actually, but don't tell her I told you."

He looked up and over her head to glance at Pearl, and Trucy watched him make an unimpressed face.

"Well, okay I guess," he shrugged. "We were done here anyway."

"Great!" Trucy said, turning to head back over towards where Pearl was sitting. Alex followed behind her. She could practically feel his eyes on her, but she tried to ignore it. Once he started talking to Pearl she was sure he'd want to get to know her more.

Maya was sipping at her lemonade in her beach chair when Phoenix sat up beside her, suddenly alert. She looked over at him. His shoulders were already turning red from the sun, but he never listened to her when she told him to reapply sunscreen after swimming, so she resigned herself to listening to him whine about his sunburn for the rest of the week.

"What's wrong, Nick?" she asked calmly, setting her drink back in the sand and lifting the book in her lap again.

He looked out across the beach. "Where are Trucy and Pearls?"

Maya shrugged. "I dunno. They're 16 and 17 years old, Nick, we don't have to supervise them."

Phoenix frowned as he squinted out at the beach. "I know, I just want to make sure they're not getting into any trouble."

Maya sighed and began to help him search. Finally she spotted them and pointed them out to Phoenix. "Right there."

She could've sworn she heard Phoenix honest to goodness gasp. "They have a boy with them, Maya."

"Nick," she said, reaching across to grab his wrist, as he was already starting to stand up. "Don't embarrass them. They're teenagers, they can talk to boys if they want to."

He took a deep breath and relaxed back into his chair. "Fine. But I'm keeping an eye on them."

Back across the beach, Pearl sat up as Trucy approached with their new friend. He was even better looking up close, and she could already feel her nerves acting up. There weren't very many boys her age in Kurain Village, so she didn't have much experience interacting with them. She liked the idea of them and she liked the idea of being in a relationship, but when it came right down to it, the thought also made her nervous.

Trucy smiled at her before turning to look back at Alex. "Hey Pearl! This is Alex," she said, gesturing to him. "And Alex, this is my friend Pearl."

Pearl smiled up at him, then scrambled to stand up, trying not to trip over her towel or get caught in the sand. She bowed politely at him. "It's nice to meet you, Alex."

He nodded at her. "Mhm. You too. Anyway, Trucy said you two wanted to get a drink at the snack bar or something?"

"Oh!" Pearl said, her hand coming up to cover her mouth. Trucy hadn't told her her plan for getting him to hang out with them. "Um, yes, that sounds great! It's getting pretty hot over here, so I could use something cold."

"Then let's go!" Trucy said, grabbing both of their arms and pulling them towards the snack bar.

It was a busy day, but the line wasn't too long, and they were quiet as they stood there, none of them really knowing what to say. Trucy heaved a sigh. "It's hot out, huh?"

"Yep," Alex said. Pearl simply nodded.

"Well… I'll be right back!" Trucy said, pretending to look across the beach to see someone she knew. "You guys stay here and get to know each other."

Before Pearl could react, Trucy had practically sprinted away, flinging sand as she went. Pearl stuck her foot into the sand. "So… you like volleyball?"

Alex shrugged. "It's okay."

"Ah…"

"So hey, is your friend like, into me?"

Pearl blinked. "Trucy? Umm… I don't really know."

"Oh. I figured telling me you wanted to hang out was just an excuse."

"Oh."

"I mean, no offense, but there's no way I'd be into you," he said, laughing to himself. "She's pretty hot, though."

Pearl looked down at her feet, her face turning red. She should have known. "I guess you could ask her when she comes back," she said.

The line moved up some, but the more she thought about it the more she was having a hard time holding back tears. She cleared her throat. "I have to go, I'm sorry. I'll tell Trucy you wanted to talk to her."

Alex shrugged again as he watched her walk away. Pearl rounded the corner of the snack bar and leaned against the wall in the shade. There were some people walking by, but no one was paying her any attention. A few tears began to fall, but she wiped them away quickly. She didn't want to be caught crying in public.

She took a deep breath and started to head back to her beach towel. Hopefully Trucy would find her there.

It did take a few minutes, but eventually Trucy came back to their beach towels. She had a soda in her hand. "Hey Pearl. What happened? Where's Alex? I thought you guys had made your way through the line already and went off somewhere to get to know each other," she teased.

"He didn't want to hang out with me," Pearl said. "But he liked you, so if you want to go see him, I don't mind sitting here by myself."

Trucy sat back down beside her. "What did he say?"

Pearl bit her lip. "He said there's no way he could be into me, but he liked you. You should go talk to him."

"What? How rude! Even if he wasn't into you, he doesn't have to be so mean about it."

"Yeah…"

Trucy moved over to sit closer and wrapped her arm around Pearl. "Don't let it bother you, Pearl. He doesn't even know you, and I'm sure it has nothing to do with your looks. You're pretty!"

"Thanks Trucy. I'll be fine. He was good looking but I guess he was sort of a jerk, huh?"

"Yeah. Hey… you know what would be fun?"

Pearl raised her eyebrows. "What?"

"Do you see the girls, Maya?"

Maya rolled her eyes and sat up again. "I thought you were watching them."

"I lost them," Phoenix said, looking around.

"I'm sure they're fine, Nick."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Sorry, I just worry, especially since I saw them with that boy earlier…"

He sat back in his chair and Maya closed her eyes to relax again when they heard a scared yell. Phoenix sat up and pointed towards the snack bar. "Maya, look!"

Maya followed his finger to spot Trucy and Pearl across the beach. The boy from before was on his back in the sand, and Trucy was standing over him, laughing, and Pearl was behind her. Her hand was over her mouth but she was clearly delighted by something. When she squinted, Maya could see Trucy had her magic panties in her hand.

"Did Trucy scare him with some sort of trick?"

"I think so," Phoenix said, sighing and sitting back.

"You're not going to run over there to see what's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Nah. Trucy can obviously take care of herself. I'm sure they'll tell us what he did to deserve it later."

Maya smiled and closed her eyes again. "True enough."