Chapter 2

Ahh. First day of the summer. A nice, hot Saturday.

Hold up! I take back what I've said. Ugh, I hate the sun. Seriously.

I had already promised Amy and Roxanne yesterday that I would hang out with them on the beach today. I pulled on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Then slipped on my sneakers. Amy was going to be pissed I wasn't wearing a bikini, or flip flops. Oh well.

I brushed my bushy hair, slapped on some sunscreen, and put on a cap. Then I was ready.

"Oka-san," I called. "I'm going to be at the beach, okay?"

"Sure," she called back. Her voice came from the kitchen. "What time will you be home?"

"I should be home way before seven. I'm just hanging out with Roxanne and Amy." It was decided last night that today was going to be a girl's day out. So Brandon and Chris weren't going to be coming.

"Okay, have fun."

The beach wasn't very far from my house. Heck, the waters were just behind my house! I walked to the tree that we had agreed to meet under. I recognized the palm tree because it was the only one at the beach with our names carved into it. We wrote;

Tatsuki+Rox+Orihime+Amy = frenz 4evah

I sat under the tree, and waited. Trust Roxanne and Amy to be fashionably late. I was staring at the beach waters, letting my eyes glaze over in boredom when I suddenly felt someone sit beside me. My guts told me it wasn't anybody I knew. I turned to see a tall, blond guy holding out his fist in front of me. "Hey, I'm AJ," he said.

I stared at his fist. What did he want me to do?

"You're supposed to knock your knuckles against mine," he said. "Like this." He picked up my hand, curled it into a fist, then gently knocked his fist against mine. "Beats shaking hands, right?"

I didn't say anything because my brain was having a hard time understanding what was going on. AJ looked like a jock, and it wasn't everyday that a jock would just sit himself beside me and introduce himself. I simply gave him an odd look and leaned a fraction of an inch away from him. Somehow, I didn't trust him.

He didn't seem bothered by my reaction, but simply smiled. "This is the part where you tell me your name," he grinned.

I blinked. "It's Orihime..."

"There, wasn't so hard, was it?"

I gave a small smile. "I'm just waiting for my friends," I told him.

"Not a reason to be anti-social," he said simply.

We both looked up when we heard my name being shouted out loud. "Orihimeeeee!" Came Amy's loud and excited voice. I saw Amy and Roxanne running toward us before collapsing onto the sand nearby. Roxanne, who had her surfboard with her, almost beheaded me with it when she arrived.

"We're so sorry we came late," Roxanne said, hugging me.

"Yeah," Amy agreed. "Did you wait for us long?"

I shrugged. "It's okay."

It was only then that they noticed AJ.

"Who's he?" Amy asked, lowering her voice.

"Um, guys. This is AJ," I said, gesturing at AJ. "And AJ, these are my friends, Amy and Roxanne." My friends gave a little wave when their name was called.

"Do you surf?" Roxanne asked AJ.

"Hell yeah!" He replied, patting the surf board beside him. I had noticed that only now. Gosh, I must have really been day dreaming.

"Wanna go catch some waves?" she asked.

"Let's go!"

And they both took off, leaving Amy and me on the sand.

"He's kinda cute," Amy commented. "Why didn't you tell me that you knew a hottie like that?"

"We just met..."

"Oooh, so he was trying to hook you up?" Amy's voice had risen dramatically. A sure sign that she was excited.

"Definitely not," I said with a small laugh.

"Aw, why are you being so negative?" she whined. "You don't have to be all pessimistic all the time."

"I'm not being pessimistic," I explained calmly. "AJ's not interested in me in that way. Period."

"Why do you say that?"

I sighed. My friends usually needed stuff spelled out for them. "We don't share any common interests. He likes surfing. I don't. He seems to like the sun. I don't. And apart from that, I don't know anything else about him."

Amy chewed her bottom lip as she watched Roxanne and AJ going down to the waters together. "I wonder if she remembers that she has a boyfriend now," she said wonderingly.

I simply shrugged. "I don't know," I said. "I just know that Brandon won't like this."

Amy suddenly handed me a twig. I took it, wondering what she wanted me to do with it, before watching her set up a game of tic-tac-toe in the sand. "You first," she said, once she was done.

We played tic-tac-toe for about half an hour before Roxanne and AJ came back. "Hey Orihime! Wanna learn how to surf?" Roxanne asked.

I smiled but shook my head. "Nah, maybe tomorrow."

Roxanne frowned at me before turning to Amy. "Amy?"

"Yeah, okay," she replied, and I was left sitting under the tree as they headed back to the waters. Hmm, now that I had some alone time. I was really starting to regret not bringing any spare paper along with me. Then I could write or draw something to busy myself. Oh, well. I would only have to suffer this for one more day, and that would be tomorrow. Monday onwards, it would just be me and the nice and quiet library.

I wasn't going to work there, don't get the wrong idea. But since I had already told me friends that I had a summer job there, I may as well hang out there. Besides, it would be a great way to keep out of the hot sun. I would definitely appreciate the air-conditioning system there.

So, for the rest of the day until lunch, I played tic-tac-toe with myself, and doodled on the sand. I drew lots of random stuff. Namely, stick people, skulls, hearts, broken hearts, a skinny tree, and an iPod. I definitely had to laugh when I drew the iPod. Then I decided to write a list of singers and bands that I liked, just to kill the boredom. I wrote Ashlee Simpson, The Faders, Fall Out Boy, Kumi Koda and Buck-tick. Writing down Kumi Koda and Buck-tick made me frown a bit. I really missed Japan.

Boy, that was a short list! I didn't really know a lot of bands or singers (and Amy could easily list more than 20 dance music singers). I only knew the really mainstream ones, and even though I liked quite a few songs that were played on the radio, I didn't know the singer or band. Ugh, so much for killing the boredom.

When my friends were finally ready to eat, we went to the nearby beach-side cafe. It seemed that AJ had grown to really like Roxanne, and was sitting very closely to her, barely giving any sign that he remembered my existence. I wondered how he was going to react when he finds out that Roxanne was already with Brandon. Or maybe she wasn't planning to tell AJ anything. I did a mental shrug and gave the ice in my glass of orange juice a poke. This was just about all the entertainment I had. My friends did shoot me a question or two, but it wasn't often. They mainly chatted about surfing, and I could tell that Amy was just pretending to understand what Roxanne and AJ were talking about. She and I were on the same boat. Nodding and smiling at regular intervals, and laughing whenever it seemed like it was necessary.

It didn't seem to take very long for me to finish my drink, and because my friends were so busy chatting, I ordered a second glass of juice and gave up trying to follow the conversation all together. I simply allowed myself to be hypnotized by the rolling waves of the ocean, careful not to finish my drink too quickly. I took my own sweet time. Only when that second glass was finished did Amy notice the time.

"Hey, guys," she said, glancing up at the clock that hung from the wall. "It's already 2 o'clock. My dad wants me home by four."

"How come?" I asked.

"My mom's working, and my dad has to go to some sort of corporate meeting at 4 o'clock," she replied. "So, I have to babysit my little brother, Max, until my mom gets home."

"That shouldn't be a problem," Roxanne said. "I'm just so tired out. I think I've done enough surfing for today."

"Okay," AJ said. "Why don't we just hang out together until four?"

"Sounds great!" Roxanne replied.

And it was back to more doodling in the sand. When Amy finally decided to abandon her attempt to follow Roxanne and AJ's 'surfer talk', we played tic-tac-toe together. Again.

I sighed inwardly. Maybe my summer wasn't going to be much fun after all.

I was never really that close to Amy or Roxanne. Tatsuki was the only that could more or less understand me, and vice-versa. But since for the first week of summer she was going hiking, I was only going to have a choice of either spending time alone, or hanging out with Roxanne and Amy which was still going to feel like spending time alone.

So on Sunday, I experienced much of the same thing as Saturday. Though Chris and Brandon were considerably nicer to me than AJ (seeing as they have known me for longer), it was still boring.

On the topic of AJ though, Roxanne, who seems keen on making sure that Brandon and AJ never meet, didn't invite AJ to hang out with us today. It's hard to tell whether she's going to try and date two guys at the same time, or ditch one. Roxanne was never a playgirl, but who knows if she may have changed.

Anyways, I came to the beach today, prepared. I brought with me some spare papers and a pencil. So instead or drawing random things on sand with a twig, I drew random things on paper using a pencil, which looked much better. Roxanne still wanted me to teach me how to surf, but I turned down her offer.

Ever since I was a kid, I liked to draw. I drew whatever random object that caught my eye. As a kid, I was known to draw pencils, plants, blades of grass, and even the neighborhood cats (though those ended up looking very retarded). But it soon turned into a real hobby, and after a while, I started to draw quite well.

Then at the age of ten, I started copying anime and manga characters. I love their eyes and their clothes. I would sometimes create my own characters and wished that they existed. I started writing poems at the age of thirteen. Most of them were short, but there were some long ones too. At first, my poems were either extremely simple, or too complicated to understand. But after a while, I started making good poems as well as sketches, and now I keep all of my work in a file.

But to be honest, I have no idea what kind of person I am. I am not a Punk, Lolita, Decora or Goth, and I'm definitely not a preppy sort of person. What with my liking for writing poems and sketching random manga characters. I am truly someone you may label as 'eccentric'. For one thing, I, unlike many other people, don't like the sun. I do not enjoy sunbathing, nor do I enjoy being outdoors when it's hot. I generally prefer a nice and cool environment. Like a cloudy day where I won't get hit by direct sunlight.

I also hate high heels. I can never walk in them and usually trip whenever I'm forced to wear them. But apart from writing poems and sketching, I have no clue as to what I like. I was never much good at sports, and I can't play any musical instrument. Plus, I can't sing. Gosh, I have such a limited range of abilities.

Truly, I was really looking forward to tomorrow. At least then, I wouldn't be spending my time trying to draw while sitting under a coconut tree and sweating like crazy. Yes, I was definitely going to have much more fun sitting in the library. And I don't care that I am probably the only person in the whole of America aged between 13 and 30 to say that, since it's summer and all.