Author's Note: Based on the song of the same title.

Summer Idol

Miku splayed across her bed, turning her cell phone onto speakerphone as she placed herself in the fan's path. She could feel the sweat dripping off her skin and onto the fabric of her thin white tee and shifted in discomfort, closing her eyes from the glare of the sun. Even in short jean shorts and the thin fabric of her top, Miku was absolutely boiling. To her cellphone, she vented, "I better end up losing at least three pounds for the amount I'm sweating today."

"Ditto," came Rin from to other side, barely audible over both their fans. "I'm totally not up to working out today, Miku. Can we skip it?"

Miku sighed in relief, wanting absolutely nothing to do with exercise today. "Yeah, sounds good. But we're gonna have to avoid eating any dessert to make up for it."

"Too late for that," Rin replied. Miku jerked up in her bed and glared at the phone.

"Hey!" she exclaimed. "You jerk!"

"Sorry," Rin apologized. "It was just there, and I was boiling."

Miku sighed and splayed back across her bed. It was too hot to have any energy. "Hey, Rin, wanna go to the beach sometime next week? It's too hot today unless we wanna be all sweaty and gross."

"Yeah, I'll go," Rin replied. "I'll check with my parents."

Miku creaked one eye open to make sure that her mother wasn't nearby eavesdropping and then ordered Rin, "Don't tell them. We're going to go by ourselves this time."

Miku was sure Rin frowned. "I don't think that's going to happen, Miku. There's no way they'd let us go to the beach when we're so young."

"C'mon, Rin," Miku moaned, glaring at the phone as though Rin could actually acknowledge that. "If we go with our parents, there's no way we'll get any guys. Last summer was a total failure, remember?"

"I think it was more than our parents that screwed that up," Rin conceded with a sigh. "I mean, we went with Luka, after all. Didn't you see her two-piece? And her stomach barely bulges at all. There's no way we can compete when there are girls like that out there."

"Then we'll just have to become one of those girls!" declared Miku. "For the next week, we're gonna work our butts off so we can show them off!" She paused in wait of Rin's reaction to her clever wordplay.

Rin's only response was, "Lame, Miku. Go on."

Miku scowled at her unsupportive friend and continued, "Anyway, we'll double the exercise to get our stomachs like Luka's, and that means we also have to cut out all desserts."

"You can't be serious!" Rin exclaimed. "Have you seen my house? Papa's psychotic when it comes to ice cream!"

"Willpower, Rin!" Miku declared. "You have to withhold yourself from the temptation! You can do it!"

Rin sighed and said, "Fine. My swimsuit from last year sucks, though, so can we go shopping for some new ones tomorrow?"

Miku nodded. "Yep. Sound good." Then, her eyes sparkled with excitement as her mind began a whirlwind of thoughts. "Hey, Rin, how many guys do you think are going to hit on us?"

"I don't want to get hit on, though," Rin argued. "Not, like, in a crude way. I want a sweet guy to notice my hotness and come talk to me, then we can bond."

Miku giggled. "'Bond', huh?" She cocked an eyebrow suggestively despite Rin being unable to see her.

"I see you'd get along perfectly with those crude guys," Rin sighed.

Miku let out a wail of annoyance and sighed, "I really just want to have someone special! It's totally unfair! We got completely ignored last year!"

"Is it really so much to ask?" Rin sighed. Then, a tad annoyed, she added, "And it better not be like last year when we chased after those guys all day, only to have them completely vanish before we could talk to them."

Miku sighed, remembering the guys Rin was talking about. They'd been absolutely gorgeous. "I found my prince charming, and he slipped from my grips," Miku sighed once more.

Another voice came from Rin's side, and then Rin covered her phone to say something to that person before quickly telling Miku, "I gotta go. Papa needs me to do some work. See you tomorrow for shopping?"

"I'll swing by to pick you up at noon," Miku agreed, met seconds later by the dial tone. She clicked the red hang up button on her phone and stretched across her bed, letting out a tiny squeal of excitement. This year would be different for sure, and both she and Rin would end up dating someone!

. . .

Rin stepped out of the dressing room with a blue-grey bikini traced with yellow, meeting Miku just after the girl has come out with a pink one. They paused to inspect each other, both shaking their heads.

"I don't like the straps," Rin offered. The top's straps of Miku's choice tied into what looked like the ribbon Rin always wore in her hair.

"Same here," agreed Miku, nodding in consideration as she turned to look in the changing room's mirror. "Yours, too. Makes it look too much like a bra." Miku sighed at her reflection, pinching the skin on her stomach into a roll. "Ugh, maybe I'm better with a one-piece." She glanced ruefully to the black suit she'd taken into her room, just in case.

"No way!" Rin argued. "We spent hours reading boring magazines about the best swimsuits!" Well, that was true on Miku's part, but Rin had fallen asleep before they'd gotten through even half of the magazine's Miku had borrowed from Luka. Repeating word for word from a magazine, Rin stated, "Two-pieces enhance the degree of exposure. It's the number one strategy to make the boys go dizzy. Got it? Don't chicken out on me."

Miku sighed and replied, "Fine." Then, she suggested, "Why don't we pick them out for each other? I'm sure you'd be better at choosing something for me than I am."

"I'm game," Rin replied, slipping back into the change room. Miku followed suit and listened to her friend on the other side. "I think we need something more bright and colourful. Everything we've chosen has been way too plain. There's no way we'll attract boys that way."

"Alright, let's do this!" Miku cheered, tugging on her clothes once more.

It didn't take long for Miku to find on she liked for Rin. It was bikini that had rainbow stripes over white. The top was two triangles, tied back around the neck by a thin string to make a bow. The bottom was tied at the sides with bows of string, too, but not so much that it was too revealing. It was definitely more revealing than something Miku would wear, but she was rather sure Rin would like it, and she knew it would look good on her. Miku returned to the change room with her discovered and offered it to Rin with a smile. She then took the one given to her by Rin and slipped into the change room.

She was startled to see how good she looked in the two-piece. The pattern was rainbow polka dots on white, and the bottom was a nice frilly skirt rather than simply another bottom, and it even had an extra bow on the hip. Although the top, on which frills lined the top and a bow decorated the centre, tied the same way around her neck, the part that wound around her back was just a bit thicker than Rin's.

"We have a winner!" Rin cried, coming out of the change room a moment before Miku. "I can just never let Papa see this. He'd ground me for life."

"I'm happy with mine, too," chirped Miku. "I think we're good to go."

Disappearing back into the change room, Rin added, "I'd kind of like to get some hair scrunchies, too, so that we can try different hair styles. I'm down to, like, two at home. I don't know how I keep losing them."

"Exactly the same thing happens to me," Miku agreed, eyeing herself in the mirror and wishing she didn't have to change out of this gorgeous swimsuit. "Don't worry, we'll get some."

"How about we go to the beach next Saturday? It's supposed to be pretty cool out, so we won't be all gross and sweaty, and there'll be less hot girls for the guys to look at."

"Sounds good," Miku agreed as she changed.

"I was thinking, too, that maybe we should sing. We're both really good singers, right? We're sure to get some attention then."

Miku laughed and wondered, "Would that really get us the right kind of attention? We'd probably just look desperate."

Rin sighed and stated, "You're no fun."

Miku laughed, tugging her shirt back over her head. She smiled at her new swimsuit, more excited than ever to go to the beach.

. . .

"Don't tell Lily," Rin commanded the day of their beach-going excursion as Miku stared at her in disbelief, but then Miku broke into laughter. There was Rin, a fourteen-year-old, sitting in the driver's seat of a Western, red convertible. Rin flashed Lily's ID, and, Miku had to admit, she could probably get away with it. Not only did Rin and Lily have the same blonde hair and blue eyes, though the lengths of their hair were different, they even both had the same relatively flat chest. Miku smirked, glad Rin couldn't hear her thoughts, and Rin narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"I'll be out in a minute," Miku replied. "I gotta grab us some sunscreen."

"Good luck," Rin offered, knowing Miku would need it.

Upon entering the house and then her mother's room, slowly, carefully, Miku crept past her sleeping mother. It was just before sunrise, so her mother was still passed out on the floor with a bottle of sake nearby, but Miku knew this would all be over if her mother woke up. Gently, she bent at the knees beside her mother, reaching slowly for the bottle of sunscreen that rested next to the sleeping woman's head. She kept her eyes on her mother the entire time, slowly stretching back up and slinking away with the sunscreen.

Right when she reached the door, however, she felt a hand grip her shoulder, and a screech tore through the air as Miku leapt into the air, dashing out of the house as her mother came after her with some crazy weapon. "Where're you going, you little brat!" came her mother's battle cry.

Miku jumped into the passenger seat of the convertible and screamed, "Drive!" right as Rin peeled out of the driveway. And, before long, the psychotic mother was out of sight, and Rin and Miku let out cheers of victory. They'd passed the preliminaries; now it was time to see what awaited them at the beach.

Rin didn't question when Miku turned the radio onto an oldies retro station. The spirit of rock and roll definitely suited the mood of this midsummer's day, when the two girls would definitely find the loves of their lives. This wasn't going to be a repeat of last year. They promised themselves that as Rin stepped on the pedal to quicken their race to the beach.

. . .

Miku squealed in delighted horror as Rin splashed the lake's water onto her, giggling and shouting at the girl. She kept an eye out for any guys, but none were looking their way, annoyingly enough. Come on! They were the perfect example of cute teenage girls in the summer! They'd exercised like mad and forgone dessert all week, so couldn't at least one guy look at them?

That excluded Len, because he was being weird today.

"This is hopeless," Miku told Rin. She was getting exhausted from spending so much time out in the sun, but she was afraid to take a break in case she missed an opportunity to talk to a cute guy. Maybe it would be a good idea to pretend to bump into a boy in line for the smoothie bar. At least she'd get his attention, and she was sure he'd be interested once they started talking. Then she'd find someone for Rin, too, of course, like the guy's best friend. "Let's go back to shore."

"I still think we should sing," Rin suggested, following Miku's lead as the tealette began to wade back to the sandy shore.

"Let's rest for a bit first, and, if no guys come hit on us while we rest, we'll sing," Miku compromised.

"Deal," Rin replied before splashing Miku one last time and making a run for it. Miku's laughter join Rin's own as she yelled at her friend and followed her onto the beach. She glanced around, but still no one had taken an interest. Stupid boys. They had no taste. Rin stretched her arms above her head and headed over to where they'd set up their blanket and umbrella by a tree trunk. "I'm exhausted."

"Same," Miku agreed, taking a seat on the blanket and pulling her sweater over her shoulders. She closed her eyes against the sun's sharp rays and leaned against the tree trunk as Rin curled on top of the blanker, covering herself with a sweater, and used her bag as a pillow. Miku grabbed her cellphone and set and alarm. "We've got half an hour to rest, okay? Then we gotta get out there."

"'Kay," replied Rin, and, seconds later, she fell asleep. Miku, her eyes closed as she rested against the trunk, listened to the waves for a few minutes before sleep claimed her, too.

. . .

Even after they'd sung, no boys had come up to talk to either of the girls all day. So, when the sun began to set, they started packing their bags, sighing in disappointment. All that work, all for nothing. When they started walking to the car, the sunset creating the perfect couple's backdrop behind them in some sort of cruel mockery, a thought occurred to them both.

"Hey, Rin," Miku remarked, walking behind her friend. "I just realized something."

"Yeah, me too," agreed Rin. She paused in her walking to turn back and face Miku, who paused, as well. "If we're searching for lovers together . . ."

"One of us will be left behind when the other finds someone," Miku finished, understanding exactly where her friend was going with this. She also understood now why no one had approached them. Two pretty girls together was definitely a threat, huh?

"I'm sorry for being your rival!" Rin exclaimed, overcome by guilt. It was her fault Miku hadn't gotten a date!

Miku grabbed her friend's hands in her own and stared into her eyes, knowing exactly what the other girl was thinking. "I feel the same, so—"

"From now on, how about we just become a couple?" they said simultaneously, beaming at each other at their brilliant idea.

They continued to stare at each other with bright eyes as people passed by and mutually decided that they weren't yet ready to leave the beach.

As Miku and Rin sat in their bikinis and gazed at the sunset, Miku quietly added, keeping her eyes on the horizon, "There's no way that's happening, right?"

"Yeah," Rin agreed, smiling at the sunset. Then, after a moment of silence, the two broke into laughter, and Rin added, "But, I swear, if we don't get guys by next year, you and I are gonna go out."

"It's a deal," Miku promised, offering out her pinky. The two pinky swore against the sunset and offered each other hopeful smiles. Next year would come fast enough, and the outcome would be clear.

Author's Note: Please review and give me some feedback if you can! Thanks for reading! Also, this is dedicated to Siren, who wanted to see more cheerful MikuxRin fics. I wish you had an account so I could PM you, but, in any case, I'll let you know that I didn't have my first girlfriend or my first boyfriend until I was sixteen, so I'm sure there's someone out there waiting for you! I'll be cheering you on here on my side, and, in the meantime, I hope you actually see this story and enjoy it ^^