Another Day In Beach City Chapter 1
The Summer Games (Part 1)
"Summer. Summer. Summer..." The kids of Beach City Middle School quietly chanted while their eyes were held onto the clock. Only two more minutes till freedom. No more homework, quizzes, projects, or boring lectures; not even the disgusting school lunches served in the cafeteria.
"And here we have photosynthesis which converts light energy into chemical energy. Very useful-" One of the teachers blabbed on about while rolling her eyes at her disruptive students. She adjusted her black pointy glasses and smacked her red lipsticked lips together in a bratty way.
"Um, miss. These notes will be accessible online right?" One of the kindest students raised her hands in order for the teachers to notice her.
"Yes, Connie. These notes are available online." The teacher nodded at her favorite student who was the only obedient child in the class, "In fact, I might give you all a summer assignment that-"
"Don't you ever think if anybody would even do this or that we will just copy off each other last minute? Also, what kind of teacher assigns work for summer?" The most obnoxious student, Gerald, challenged their teacher with arms crossed. He smirked and threw his feet on his desk with relaxation.
In Beach City, summer was the time when the small dull city was brought to life. Children and teenagers were scattered throughout the city enjoying themselves and having the time of their life. Funland would even be crowded with people as long lines made up most of it and entertainment acts would take place at night. On Fridays, the amusement park would throw fireworks in the sky, celebrating the warm air and bright days ahead of them for the summer. Other kids would go work for a small salary that was enough to satisfy their needs and happiness. Many opportunities were open for the young people of the city, but a summer assignment would put their fun at risk. Over the time, their knowledge of the subject would rot possibly putting their grade at risk besides their fun.
"Well, I-" The female teacher tried to argue until her thought was interrupted by the final bell.
"Summer!" The children exclaimed, throwing their notes in the air and ran out of the classroom, completely ignoring their teacher who held a finger up in objection.
"Well, I'll check the notes out online though. Thank you and have a good summer break." Connie gathered up her notes and shoved them into her bookbag. She then waved toward the tall woman then left.
Outside the door of the classroom were two boys, waiting for their friend. The preteen's face was brightened as she saw the two kids and waved to them. One of them struggled with their overweight bookbag while the other had their hands filled with notes and drawn notebooks. They returned the greeting and showed the green dollars that were in their hands. It was enough for them to enjoy a small treat together as friends.
"Peedee! Onion! You guys ready for summer?" Connie squealed with excitement. It was her first official year that she was spending her summer in Beach City along her friends who would introduce her to the joy of the last day of school.
"You bet. Steven is outside waiting for us." Peedee stated, pointing to the crowded exit of the school. Beside him, Onion nodded with a smile, not saying a word.
"You guys got your stuff from your locker?" The young girl asked.
"Yeah. Come on! Summer is outside and we're finally free!" Peedee took her hand and led her to the doors where their freedom was waiting for them. Onion was close behind as he had a hard time with catching up with them. However, it didn't stop his smile from becoming bigger.
Kids screamed and yelled as they ran out the main doors, pumping the air and meeting up with their friends. Beside the middle school was the high school, which was heavily crowded with teenagers and older middle schoolers. Seniors, or the older high schoolers, got into their cars and laughed at the younger children as they boosted the music from their cars. They were completely carefree.
However, one of the high schoolers was already outside with a younger curly headed boy. It was Steven with Peedee's older brother, Ronaldo who had an unpleased look on his face while scrolling down through his blog on his phone.
"Come on, Peedee. I'm supposed to meet Sadie and Kiki at the smoothie shop then go to the beach for something important. And dad wants you to work at the afternoon shift." Ronaldo called out to his brother while not taking his eyes off his cellular device.
"What? That's going to take forever. It's the first day of summer and I already have plans for this day. I understand that dad needs help, but-" Peedee argued while a finger was held to his mouth to make him stop.
"Oh come on! I didn't even go on an exciting mission to be with my three best friends." Steven continued to argue which didn't help at all.
The older teenager just shook his head as he stared at the four younger children who were already forming frowns on their faces. He sighed in defeat and nodded, "Fine. Dad can probably handle the full crowd by himself. If you get trouble then it's your problem."
"Well, well, well. You guys are going to the summer games? Everyone is going." Another voice joined the group making everyone confused. The older teenager smiled as she swept dust off her orange short dress. It was none other than Jenny who works at Fish Stew Pizza with her family.
"What's the summer games?" Connie asked in wonder, making Ronaldo and Jenny gasp. She wasn't even alone in her confusion as Steven and Peedee looked at each other and shrug. Onion even took part as he blankly stared at them with a neutral look.
"Since the four are you are becoming teenagers and are the eight graders for the coming year, I'm inviting you all to come. These games are tradition as they unite everyone in the high school and some middle schoolers are able to see what they expect from us. And they're fun!" Jenny exclaimed with her hands in the air as she did it with admiration. "This year it's going to be held at the beach and in Funland."
"Really? Sounds exciting..." Steven commented with a grin.
"Steven, did you knew that your purple friend participated too last year?" Ronaldo tapped Steven's shoulder.
"You mean, Amethyst?"
"Yeah. She was a boss there and killed each round of the game." The seventeen year old girl stated with arms crossed.
"Are you guys in it?" Peedee quietly asked as he saw more familiar teenagers walk toward them.
"We're all in this. Either you come or you go to work." Ronaldo added.
"Well, thanks, but no thanks. We all really want to play that new game that's at the arcade. It's called Robo Smasher and I heard that it has great graphics and stuff. And we don't want to wait in line so we can play it. Right guys?" The gem boy looked over to his human friends as they all were ready to agree with the teenagers.
Connie's eyes had a tint of fear in them, but she walked towards Jenny and nodded her head. The young bookworm realized that it was her chance to meet some other kids and for all her life, she wanted to break the thick layer of ice that was in front of her, blocking her from making more friends. After all, these teenagers already know Steven, Peedee, and Onion. To her dismay, Steven and Peedee gasped as she stepped forward due to her shy nature being broken.
Next, to stand next to Connie was Onion. The child smiled through his thick cheeks and eagerly nodded. Onion was a wild child at heart. He may not talk much and was always found near the docks, waiting for his father to return from his fishing trips. For once, this is something that he didn't held back on and was ready for what the older kids have in store for him. A wave of excitement entered the quiet boy as he swayed back and forth in happiness.
"You're bringing them? Really?" One of just arrived high schoolers bickered with rolling eyes. Lars even ticked his tongue in annoyance. "They'll get easily hurt as the games are too dangerous for them." He mocked with a childish tone.
"Don't get your hopes up, Lars. We still have two indecisive kids here." Jenny lowered down to her bent knees as she looked at the two boys with sneaky gleaming eyes. She smiled from ear to ear and pushed back a strand of thick hair that revealed her golden hoop earrings as they blew back with the light wind. Steven and Peedee knew something was up, but they gulped and nodded their heads in their final agreement. Either the teenagers understood their compassion or they were completely against them, wanting to make them a laughing stock.
"Great. Let's go. I'm sure there are a lot of people there and we have to get Sadie and Kiki." Ronaldo announced as he walked away, being followed by Onion and Lars who growled in disappointment. The rest quickly followed them and the four preteens quickly forgot about their awaited arcade game, figuring that it could wait for another day or time. Curiosity was getting the best of them.
...
"Do you guys think that Amethyst will come back? She never told me that she went to these uh...games. Was she amazing like you said she was? Why didn't she told me and the gems?"
Steven's constant questions were flown out of his mouth throughout the whole long walk to the beach. The worst part was the extreme heat as it heated their sweaty skins, making them huff and swipe their sweaty foreheads with each step. Poor Connie, Onion, and Peedee had their backs stinging them with the weight being carried by their books, but they were used to carrying their supplies to school in the morning.
Their just bought smoothies weren't even cooling them down. At this point, Jenny was silently cursing through her heavy breath as she had no car to make the trip easier. Her father took the business car and during these times she and her sister, Kiki, would take the public bus. However, with the amount of people there was with them, it would cost a lot of spare cents and their pockets were empty.
"Well Steven, you're hot gem friend-" Lars began until he was cut off by Kiki.
"Amethyst was sure a big help in our team. She would out win everybody and she even won us some prizes. Those season passes for Funland and the water park next to Beach City were so worth it, but I'm not sure why she didn't told you guys. Probably because on how strict your other gem friends are with this type of stuff..." The teenager wondered after taking a sip from her banana smoothie.
All the older children were lined next to each other, leaving the younger kids following close behind them. Onion and Peedee looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders as they heard the teenagers gossip about useless stuff such as dating, summer parties, and wrecking things. Together, they were rebellious even for the two kind hearted teens, Sadie and Kiki.
"So, next Friday night you're holding a party right?" One of the teens, Sour Cream, nudged Buck Dewey, the son of Beach City's running mayor. The two boys laughed as well as the rest of the high schoolers. "Are we gonna need dates? There are these two hot babes in my physics class that I need to ask."
"Yeah, Sandra and Leeah, varsity head cheerleaders. Out of your league." Jenny spat her tongue out in a sassy way and a finger held up, laughing at her comment.
"Do you think they'll invite us?" The younger rose gem silently asked Peedee only to receive a confused stare.
The gem smiled as he scratched the back of his neck. Then he laughed nervously while moving his eyes to the side in embarrassment as his cheeks blushed red. Peedee knew what was occurring in Steven's mind as soon as he heard the word 'date'. His amber eyes moved to Connie who was lost in her world of reading a book while walking along with them. Peedee shook his head in disbelief. The boy knew about Steven's crush on the shy bookworm, but was very quiet about it to the point where he didn't realize that he knew the crush.
"Steven, we probably have no chance of getting in so don't think about this." He said in a stern voice making the magical boy lower his eyebrows and drop his look to the ground.
How far is it?! This feels like forever and I remembered it wasn't this far. Ugh... Steven exclaimed inside his mind and groaned, throwing his head back in exhaustion.
After walking for nearly twenty long minutes, they arrived to the boardwalk and were greeted with a huge crowd of unfamiliar faces of students that attended Beach City High. From the popular stylish clique, jocks, athletic stars, cheerleaders, earth friendly hippish teens, musicians and theater fanatics, goths and emos, and the nerds or geeks, everyone stood next to each other with competitive gleams in their eyes and faces. Everyone took this event seriously as it was tradition in the small city. It was originally intended for students to get along with each other for once, and it did, but sometimes backs would be turned against each other in order to win the luxurious prizes.
"Attention everyone!" A loud female voice rang through the boardwalk's announcers, making everyone perk their ears up. "We are beginning the games in just a few moments..."
Steven, Connie, Onion, and Peedee took slow steps back as they saw the amount of people there was. Not a single sixth or seventh grader stood in the crowd, making it filled with 'big kids'. Their eyes then adjusted to a stand that was on the sandy beach as there stood a young blonde teenager with short shorts, flip flops, and a ripped tank top. Beside her stood a muscular boy with brown hair as they were holding hands. It was obvious that they were dating.
"Yo, why not start now baby? Everyone just wants to play." The bulky boy sweetly talked to his girlfriend that went through the announcers. "Come on!"
Everyone agreed; even the only teenagers that the young preteens knew were pumping the air in excitement.
"Who's that?" Steven loudly asked out loud.
"That's Rachel Browns. She's our student body president." Sadie answered back while not turning around to look directly at Steven.
"Well then, we finally made it through this long school year!" Rachel shouted in glee, pumping her fists in the air. The teens cheered along with her and clapped their hands. Even Steven and Onion made signs of happiness.
"Now, the forty eighth annual summer games are here. Where we all unite and push our differences aside. We will have many more courses than our games last year in Delmarva Park and, we at the beach!" The student body president loudly spoke into the microphone. "However, we all will be split into teams and all of these games will test your ability in front of hundreds of people so, no pressure."
"What? They're going to watch us and judge us in front of all these big kids?" Connie asked in horror, walking away, already regretting her decision of meeting new people until she was grabbed by the wrist from Lars. "I uh, have second thoughts about this..."
"No way out of it." He smirked in pleasure from the pressuring detail.
"Let the games begin!"
A new story! Yay! This time we won't focus on the Crystal Gems, but onto the residents of the small city of Beach City. It's time to show the supporting cast of the show some love. Characters such as Greg, Connie, Peedee, Onion, Mr. Smiley, Jenny (I love her cause she's exactly like me!), and plenty of more!
So are the Summer Games as challenging as they seem? Should our four kids trust the teenagers? Find out next chapter! :D
And, time to get serious. On my Deviantart, I made a statement/rant dealing with a lot of issues that harm our self esteems. We are all beautiful in our own ways (and unique) and I love all my readers and fans. So, don't hesitate to check it out! :3
The coming week, I'm going to surprise you all with a fourth wall breaking fic! So please keep your eyes peeled! New chapter and continuation of "Raising Steven" and "Love Bites!" coming soon! :D
Don't forget to FOLLOW/REVIEW/FAV/SHARE this story to spread the love for the residents of Beach City! :)
-Gem Goddess (GG)