Jefferson's POV
"We are here!" Peggy screeched, Laurens laughed at her excitement. I looked out the window over to the beach, the sun was starting to set and the sky was contoured in orange, pink, and blue, and the scene was only getting more dramatic by the second. Hercules pulled into a parking spot on a platform overlooking the beach, everyone loaded out of the huge car, we all slipped into conversations, Laf, Eliza, and Hercules were talking together. John was standing at Peggy's side, she was talking in a low voice and he was blushing furiously. Angelica and Alexander were talking to each other, he said something and she burst out laughing, he just looked at her with awe with a soft smile on his face. I heard sniffling behind me,
"Hey, James." I sighed,
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing,"
"Why are you being so dramatic?"
"It's my personality,"
"That's exactly what I mean," We reached the beach, "I hate the beach," He said with another sniffle,
"How could you hate the beach?" I said setting all my stuff out all my stuff on the beach
"It's too sandy, sand is everywhere, it gets everywhere, it's like the plague"
"Now you are the one who is being dramatic," I responded with a chuckle, I turned my head to see Angelica and Alexander sitting down together their knees touching, they seemed to be deep in conversation. "Let's get in the water," I said tearing my eyes away,
"I can't, I had an ear infection last week," I groaned dramatically,
"Everyone!? Gather round!" Eliza yelled, we all stood up and began moving into a circle around the fire pit, "Did everyone wear sunscreen?" We all groaned,
"The sun is going down, we don't need sunscreen dear," Angelica said,
"Yes, even if the sun is going down you need sunscreen, good thing I brought some," She turned around and picked up a backpack full to the brim with first aid, sunscreen, a flare? She pulled out the sunscreen and set it on the ground "If you don't want to get skin cancer, there is the sunscreen… OH! We have to take the group picture!" She guided us over to the wall and set her phone down, she turned around, "Everyone strike a pose!" We all walked around to find the right place, I ended up in the back because I was one of the tallest, I was standing next to Laf and Mulligan, in front of me was Angelica standing next to Laurens, he complimented her and she gave him a bright smile and thanked him, James was standing next to Laurens, he was staring at his shoes, I was about to say something to him when I heard Alexander's voice, I couldn't make out what he said but he slid in between John and Angelica and was smirking at Angelica, she rolled her eyes in response, but wore a smile. Peggy was laying on her side down in front of them with her head propped up on her arm.
"Everyone get in closer! Look like you are actual friends!" Eliza said over-enthusiastically,
John elbowed James playfully, he looked up at John and he gave him a huge smile and put his arm on his shoulder. Laf said that we in the back wall should stand back-to-back in a triangle. We got into our position,
"Ange, Alexander! Do something," Eliza said inspecting the group, Alexander smirked at her and then grabbed her waist with his right arm and pulled her closer, a light blush crossed her face, "Hmm," Eliza said looking us all over, "Looks great!" She exclaimed she sat down by Peggy and put her hands on her knees pretending to meditate. "Smile…." She said through gritted teeth. I heard the camera click a few times, she jumped up and ran to the phone and scrolled through the photos, "These look amazing! You can all go back to doing whatever now," She said not tearing her eyes away from her phone, Peggy got up and ran over to her, checking out the pictures. I walked over to John and James starting up a conversation about mac and cheese trying to not think about Angelica and Alexander.
Alexanders POV
I dropped my hands and stepped back from Angelica, she smirked at me.
"Oh my god, what are you going to do," I said sarcastically
"We are going to make the best sandcastle there has ever been," I responded with a laugh, she grabbed my wrist and dragged me over by the shore, "Take off your shirt, we need it to carry the sand,"
"But then it's going to get all sandy," I wined, she stuck her hands in the sand and pulled out a clump and played around with it for a few seconds. "What are you doing?"
"You will see," I could hear the smirk on her lips, suddenly she flipped around and put sand down my shirt,
"Argh!' I felt something moving around in my shirt, it was thrashing, I gasped and tore off my shirt, Angelica was laughing. "WHAT WAS THAT!?" She laughed and picked up my shirt, finding the creature she put down my shit, she cupped her hands and stepped closer to me, she opened her hands,
"It's just a little sand crab," the crab crawled around her hands, she set it on my shoulder,
"DON'T PUT THAT THING ON ME!" I smacked it off my shoulder, Angelica started to laugh really hard, I just looked at her with a stupid smile plastered on my face,
"It's not going to do anything" She said her rage of laughed subtly calming down, she kneeled on the ground grabbing my shirt shoveling wet sand on it. When she had coved the entire shirt, she picked up the edges of the shirt and fit them together, she slid the shirt to a place further away from the water, I followed her kneeling down by her side.
"So, what is our plan for the 'best sandcastle there has ever been'?" I asked my voice dripping with sarcasm.
"I think we should build a wall around our kingdom, to keep all the Trumps out… Then build a town inside where everyone is accepted. Then build a huge lookout tower in the center." I laughed,
"Sounds like a great plan,"
"I know it is," She gave me a soft smile, "Let's start on the tower,"
We slipped into a casual conversation, accompanied by snide remarks, and playful banter. Before long we had finished our giant sand castle village. She stood up and placed her hands on her hips admiring the work we had created.
"I think we successfully created the greatest sandcastle known to man." She said,
"I agree," I said, I stood up and carefully moved behind her, I waited until the next wave came, it licked my heels. I scooped up some water and threw it onto Angelica. She gasped and slowly turned around,
"Oh, you asked for it."
She threw off her dress so she was in her swimsuit and began to chase me into the water. I ran into the water trying to get away, but she caught up with me as soon as we were about shoulder deep. She jumped on my back and pushed me underwater, she tried to get up before she got pulled underwater but I grabbed her arms and pulled her down with me. We swam back up to the surface together, when we got up she splashed me, she had a bright smile on her face. I splashed her back, and she tried to push me down again but I flipped her around and she went underwater. I started to laugh, but she came up and pushed me into a wave, it felt like I was in a human washing machine. I got out of the wave and came up gasping for breath, I looked over at Angelica, she was laughing so hard she was snorting, I smiled. I made my back over to her as another wave came, I simply just swam under it this time, we came back up just in time to hear a loud boom. I looked up at the sky, brilliant flashes of light.
"I almost forgot it was the Fourth of July," Angelica said her eyes glued to the sky. I looked back towards the beach.
"Um, I think everyone left.." I scanned the beach looking for our friends
"Even better," She said grabbing my hand and leading me back to the beach, I followed close behind her sometimes looking back at the fireworks. We reached the beach and she sat on the sand, I followed her down on the sand. She scooted closer so our shoulders were touching, and then set her head on my arm. I put my arm behind her back, and we watched the brilliant colors dance across the sky.