Thank you for all your feedback! Most of you guys seemed to want a combination of first and third person, so I'll give that a try. Tell me if you think it seems a little too jumpy; sometimes switching POV's can mess up the pacing, and I'm still trying to get accustomed to everyone's personalities, but I'll give it a go.

The girls are going to come at different times so no one gets overwhelmed, so I'm sorry if your girly isn't in here.

By the way, if you guys want to friend me on MCL, I have six accounts (don't judge me, I couldn't pick just one guy! ;) Anyways, my usernames are Rendell, Adelphie, Laurylin, Liasyma, Erizelda, and Aurelea. I don't like having numbers in my names, especially since they call you by your username…so I came up with some interesting names, don't you think?

Hope you like!

Melanie Reed

This is so exciting! I haven't been to the beach in forever. And according to Carly, her aunt has lots of amazing clothes. From what I hear, I'll be in fashion heaven.

Dahlia and Luzma are carpooling with me up here. It's only about a five hour drive from our hometown to Miss Jemma's house, but I was not going to drive all by myself, I honestly don't trust Dahlia to drive herself, and Luzma's actually pretty good, seeing as her dad's a professional truck driver. She learned young. Needless to say, she's driving us.

Over the past few hours, we've exhausted just about every topic we can think of. I didn't really do anything this summer; mostly I stayed at home and finished up sketching my latest clothing line. It's a hobby of mine, designing clothes. I've got five finished collections now, and I'm hoping to be inspired by the beach to make a sixth. It would be really cool if I could actually sew and make my stuff, but I suck at sewing, and no one in my foster family can either. Hopefully when I'm eighteen, I can finally collect my inheritance and then I'll be able to pay someone to make my clothes. Maybe they'll give me a spot on Project Runway or something.

"Mel, where'd you say it is?" Luzma asks, scanning the landscape anxiously. "I don't want to miss the exit."

"It's Exit 56," I tell her, glancing down at the directions on my phone. Luzma lets out an irritated sigh.

"I passed that exit ten minutes ago, Mel!"

"Well, turn around then!" Dahlia grumbles from the backseat. We were all reaching that point where anything anyone says immediately ticks you off. Luzma's car doesn't have a TV; otherwise, Dahlia and I would be having a Harry Potter marathon right now.

"What do you think I'm doing?" Luzma snaps, pulling into a random fast food restaurant and maneuvering the car around.

"You're turning around," Dahlia replies matter-of-factly. "And I'm thanking you for it."

"You're very welcome, princess," Luzma mutters. Man, the beach is going to be like Heaven once this drive is over.

For the next half an hour, my GPS leads us in circles. There's an insane amount of construction work going on, and thanks to it, basically all the roads we need are closed. Finally, Luzma just pulls off on the side of the road before we end up in a giant traffic circle. Dahlia, who had been asleep for the past few minutes, jolts awake at the sudden lack of movement, and stares at us with wide blue eyes.

"Are we there yet?" she asks hopefully.

"No," Luzma sighs. "Melanie's calling Carly for directions." Oh, okay then. I find Carly's number on my speed dial and hold the phone to my ear, plugging the other to block out the construction noise.

"Hello?" Carly picks up the phone.

"Hey, Car, it's Melanie."

"Where the heck are you guys? We were expecting you like, an hour ago!"

"We, uh, might have gotten lost."

"Mel…" Carly groans. "Everyone's getting really impatient, and Aunt Jemma has a friend she's meeting on the beach."

"All the roads are closed!" I say defensively. "How do we get there?"

"Gosh, Mel, I don't know…"

"You don't know how to get to your own house?"

"Okay, let me handle this," Luzma steps in, taking the phone from me. "Carly," she says pointedly, "we are tired and hungry, and I really need to pee. Please advise." Luzma listens to Carly's reply and then nods her head, despite the fact that Car can't see her.

"Okay," she says finally. "Okay, thanks, we'll give that a try. Don't wait up." Luzma hangs up the phone and gives it back to me.

"She forgot where she lives, didn't she?" Dahlia giggles.

"Yes, she did," Luzma replies, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips, "but she said if we go straight for about ten minutes, we'll get to the town, and there's a big mall where we can find a map or something, along with a restroom and somewhere to eat."

"Did she remember where the mall is?" Dahlia asks.

"Nope, of course not," Luzma shakes her head. "But she said it's super big; we can't miss it."

"She'd better be right," I mumble, slumping down in my seat. "I've gotta pee too."

Thank goodness Carly was telling the truth when she said the mall was hard to miss. By the looks of it, shopping is everyone's favorite hobby here. Which is entirely fine by me. This mall sprawls out for what seems like forever, and it looks like it's touching the sky. It's packed, and the only parking spot we find is on the far side of the parking lot, but by now both me and Luzma really have to use the bathroom, so we're gonna take it.

Inside, the mall is even more luxurious. The lights are golden and warm, and the shops are modern and chic and expensive looking. People crowd every single storefront, and I wonder how many of these people actually live in town. Amoris is a pretty small town; Carly always complained about there hardly being any teenagers.

After a quick trip to the bathroom, we head off in search of food, and, because we deserve amazing food after that stressful journey, decide on Dunkin' Donuts. Yay sugar! Once we're done eating, we hunt for a map of the area.

Suddenly, something catches my eye.

It's a dress. A dress standing in the window of a small store called Oracle. But this is not just any dress, no; this is the most gorgeous dress I've ever seen. Well, the most gorgeous sundress.

I must have it.

"I'm going in there," I announce, and march directly into the store called Oracle, approaching the satiny blue work of art that's so desperately calling my name. I reach inside the back of the dress and pull out the price tag for examination. My heart sinks all the way to my feet.

DISPLAY ONLY. NOT FOR SALE.

"No!" I groan, stomping my foot angrily on the tiled floor. Just when I thought this day couldn't get any worse.

"May I help you?" a quiet voice asks me from behind. Startled, I whip around to find myself face to face with a tall guy with black hair that perfectly frames his expressionless face. He's wearing a long-sleeved black waistcoat with a ruffled purple collar that looks like it came right out of the Middle Ages. I say the first thing that comes to mind.

"You look like William Shakespeare." He furrows his brow slightly, confused.

"I'm sorry?"

"William Shakespeare, the English playwright. You look just like him," I repeat. It doesn't even occur to me that he might find my statement offensive. The boy looks down at his clothes, finally understanding, but he doesn't seem to have any additional opinions on the subject.

"I think it's fabulous," I tell him quickly, turning my probably-insult into a compliment. "William Shakespeare is like…my fashion idol." Yeah, that's what I meant to say.

"May I help you with something?" he asks again, unwilling to go farther into the topic of his strange attire. I glance longingly at the dress and then back at him.

"It was made for me…" I say, practically begging him to sell it. The corners of his lips turn up in a tiny smile.

"It's one of a kind," he says.

"Well, can the designer make it two of a kind?" I suggest. I am not letting this dress go without a fight. The boy shakes his head sadly.

"I'm afraid not," he tells me. "The designer really doesn't want to make another one."

"Well, who's the designer? I would like to speak with them." But I won't get the chance to, because Dahlia and Luzma have finally found me. Apparently, they didn't hear my announcement.

"C'mon, Mel, we got a map," Dahlia says. "If we're lucky we can still catch Carly at the beach." She drags me away, not even bothering to say hello to Shakespeare or to ask if I'm ready to leave yet. She wants to go to the beach. And I guess I can't blame her.

I leave the beautiful dress begrudgingly, along with the strange man standing next to it.

It doesn't hit me until we're fifteen minutes down the road that I really should have asked his name, because I'm pretty sure it wasn't William.

Luzma Alejandri-Cruz

Oh. My. Gosh. We made it. We went straight to the beach, hoping we'd be able to catch Carly there, and the bad luck fairy must have decided to give us a break, because she's still here. She's easy to spot, with her neon green bikini and all. She and a lady who I assume is Aunt Jemma are sitting on the dry sand, examining seashells.

Gosh, I can't even describe how much I've missed the beach. I used to spend most of my time there when I lived in southern California. I miss it so much it drives me crazy.

"Hey, guys, why don't we surprise her?" I suggest, suddenly in an exceptional mood now that we're finally here. "Grab your bathing suits and we'll go change."

"Oh, okay!" Dahlia agrees happily. She digs through her backpack of "things that might be needed at a moment's notice" until she finds her pink floral monokini. Melanie finds her bathing suit, and I fish mine out of my giant duffel bag. I don't really like to think ahead.

There's a little bathroom complex behind the surf shop, so we change there and throw our street clothes into Dahlia's Sailor Moon messenger bag.

"Let's sneak up on her, 'kay?" Dahlia says. "I wanna freak her out." Melanie grins in approval, and I have to smile as well. Carly's easy to scare.

Slowly, we approach our friend from behind, our footsteps silent in the white sand. Jemma sees us approach, and gives us a questioning look. Dahlia holds her fingers to her lips, signaling that it's supposed to be a surprise, and Jemma seems to understand, because her magenta eyes (no doubt color contacts) light up and she glances back down. Meanwhile, Carly is closely examining an almost perfect shell.

"BOO!" Melanie screams suddenly, sending Carly into a panic. She freaks out and scrambles to hide behind Jemma without even looking back. Jemma cracks up, and when Carly peeks out from around her shoulder and sees us, her face turns bright red. She stands up and brushes the sand off of her knees.

"I wasn't scared," she says defensively.

"Yes you were," I reply simply. "You were terrified."

"Ugh, I hate you guys!" Carly grumbles. But despite her "overwhelming" feelings of hate, she gives us each a big hug.

"I didn't think you'd make it, Luz," she jokes.

"You have so little faith in us!" says Dahlia.

"You didn't do anything, Dahli-chan," I tell her in a condescending voice, "except sleep."

"Not true! I got Melanie out of that store!" I think back for a minute, recalling the event.

"Oh, yeah, I guess you did," I agree. "Good job." Dahlia curtseys and Melanie rolls her eyes.

"That dress was calling me!" she says.

"The dress, maybe, but not the dude standing next to it," I tease her. Melanie actually laughs. Everyone knows she couldn't flirt if her life depended on it. And her life hadn't depended on it, but that dress had, and she had totally blown it from what I could tell. Oh, well. It's not like she actually liked him, and besides, we probably won't ever see the dude again.

"Alright, fairies, this conversation is going nowhere," Aunt Jemma says, standing up and ridding her glittery bathing suit of sand. She flips a strand of long, wet reddish brown hair behind her shoulder and extends her hand to me. "I'm Jemma," she says.

"Luzma," I say cordially, taking her hand and shaking it.

"I'm Dahlia."

"Melanie."

"I'm uber excited to meet you all," Jemma says with a smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me, watching salt water makes me quite thirsty." Jemma pranced over to a vendor patrolling the beach with a spring in her step, her ridiculously long hair flying out behind her.

"So, do you know when everyone else is getting here?" Carly asks us.

"Rachel and Sammy are driving up together sometime today, but they didn't want to wake up early. Rachel estimated five or six o'clock, but if they have the same navigating problems as us, I'd guess eight," Dahlia says.

"And Carrie said she'd come up tomorrow. Her little brother had some camp graduation thing she has to go to today," Melanie adds. "That's all I know for sure."

"Okay," Carly nods. "So, what do you want to do?"

"I'm exhausted," I admit. "I'm just going to relax for a while, listen to the ocean. You guys can do whatever, though."

"Okay, well, I kinda wanted to go swimming," Dahlia says. Melanie agrees, and the three of them run towards the ocean. I watch Carly dunk Dahlia under and giggle to myself, reminded once again of the beaches in California.

I don't bother to unpack my stuff; instead I take advantage of Carly's nice little set up, complete with a pretty Vera Bradley umbrella and comfy lawn chairs. I grab Carly's sunglasses from her bag because I forgot mine in the car, and slide them over my eyes. Plopping down in the chair, I watch my friends frolicking in the waves until sleep finds me.

When I wake up, Carly, Dahlia, and Melanie are still playing in the water, and after sitting there doing nothing for several minutes, I get bored. It'd be nice to get up and walk around.

I don't know what Carly was talking about when she said there wasn't anyone to hang around with on the beach. It isn't very busy at the moment, but most everyone here is a teenager. There's a boy and a girl not far from here playing with tennis rackets, a boy with red hair walking his dog, a big group of girls sitting in a circle building a massive sandcastle, and a solitary girl with purple hair drawing in a large green notebook. Maybe if Carly had actually used her eyes, she would have seen that. But I'm not complaining; I love the ocean and the beach, and I'm glad Jemma was kind enough to extend an invitation to all of us. I really hate back home.

"Hey, gorgeous! You alone?" a thickly accented voice asks. I roll my eyes. Not one of these guys…

"No, I'm not alone, I happen to be here with my friends," I reply without looking back.

"Ah, I see. Well, they can survive your absence for five minutes, can't they?" The person speaking steps around me, entering my line of sight. I'm only slightly surprised to see that the voice with the Australian accent belongs to a boy about my age, with dark golden blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, hypnotizing blue eyes, and a toned, tan body. What surprises me more is the plethora of tattoos covering his left arm and part of his chest.

"I'm really not interested," I tell him. When he doesn't move, I turn around and start heading the other way.

"Hey, c'mon, wait up!" the boy calls, running to catch up with me. "C'mon, at least tell me your name." Fine. Fine, I can play along. I stop in my tracks and turn to face him.

"My name is Luzma," I tell him. "What's yours?"

"Dakota," he answers. "But most people call me Dake."

"Okay." Well, now I don't know what to call him. He's a little odd, but his accent is adorable, I'll give him that. "Where are you from?"

"Australia," he says with a grin. "I just come up here for the summer. The waves are great."

"Oh, so you like to surf?" I probably should have picked that up from the blue surfboard he's holding, but oh, well.

"Yeah. You ever tried?" I'm ashamed to say that I haven't. He sees right through me and laughs. "I can give you a quick lesson," he offers. Well, just walking was starting to get boring, I guess.

"Yeah, okay," I agree. He grabs my hand without my approval and leads me to the water. He tries out several pick-up lines on me as he teaches me the basics, and I have to admit that it's kind of cute. I don't shun his advances, because he says he's just up here for the summer, and I've dated guys like him before. These things never last, but they can be kind of fun.

"Hey, you wanna try to stand up on the board, now?" he asks. The surfboard floats on the water between us.

"You do realize I'm going to fall, right?"

"Eh, everyone falls their first time, besides, it's just water," Dake shrugs, grinning. I figure that this is probably true, so I agree to give it a try. "You'll love it," he assures me with a coy smile. Okay, then. He helps me up on to the board and, right on cue, I topple off into the water. Dake laughs and leans over to help me up.

He kisses me instead.

It takes me completely by surprise, and I don't know how to react as he pulls me closer and winds his hands in my hair. It's not that I have a problem with him kissing me; he's a darn good kisser, I just…wait. I do have a problem with him kissing me. I met him fifteen minutes ago! But at the same time…I kind of like it.

"LUZMA!? Is that you?" No, way. He's here too? Well, I guess it gives me an excuse to get out of this. I pull away from Dake and turn towards the voice.

"Ken? What are you doing here?" Ken, another guy from school, is standing at the water's edge. Dake shoots him a dirty look, and the little boy blushes profusely.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you…" he begins, looking at the ground and wringing his hands, "I was just wondering if Dahlia was here, too?" I grin at him. He's absolutely in love with Dahlia. It's really adorable.

"Yeah, she's farther down that way," I tell him, pointing in the direction to where I left Mel, Carly and Dahlia. "But what are you doing here?"

"Well, you know my parents are divorced and my dad lives in town. But thanks, Luzma! Sorry to bother you!" Ken bounces off towards the love of his life, and I watch him go. Dahlia will be happy to see him. They've been friends forever.

"Who was that?" Dake laughs.

"That's Ken. He and my friend Dahlia are really good friends."

"Ah, so he's not my competition, then?"

"Absolutely not," I reply, rolling my eyes. "But you know, you really shouldn't kiss a girl on a first date."

"Then I can't wait for our second date," he winks.

Dahlia Hope

"Dahlia! DAHLIA!"

"Oh my gosh, Dahlia, it's Ken!" Carly shouts at me. I look up from the water and see my old best friend Ken rushing towards us, and my face breaks into a smile. How the heck did he end up here?

"Ken!" I holler. I can't believe it! He splashes clumsily into the water, and I hug him without hesitation.

"This is so awesome, we're at the same vacation spot!" he squeals enthusiastically.

"Yeah, that's awesome! Why are you here?"

"I'm visiting my dad," he responds. "What about you? I saw Luzma already."

"We're staying with Carly's Aunt Jemma for the next week," I say, gesturing towards Carly and Melanie. They wave hello and continue splashing in the water.

"Ooh, maybe we could hang out sometime?" Ken suggests.

"Sure," I agree. Suddenly, my stomach makes a loud grumbling noise. "Hey, Ken?"

"Huh?"

"You wouldn't happen to have any cookies on you, would you?" Ken grins widely, his eyes alight with excitement.

"I sure do. You want some?"

"Yes."

"Okay!" Ken climbs out of the water and leads me to his cookie stash. Cookies are kind of our thing.

"So how long are you gonna be staying, do you think?" I ask him in between bites. Ken's smile melts away, and he stares at the ground.

"I'm actually staying here," he says sadly. My cookie falls into the sand.

"What!?"

"Yeah…my dad made a case for custody because my mom's having a hard time keeping a steady job and well…" Ken sniffles, "he won."

"No, you can't stay here!" I protest. "You've got to come back so we can suffer Pre-Calculus together!" He's just joking. He's not serious. He can't be serious; he's my best friend!

"I'm really gonna miss you, Dahlia," Ken says softly, unwilling to meet my eyes. "But, we can still have fun for the next week, right?"

"Right," I say. I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to cry because then he's going to cry and neither of us is going to be able to stop. "Right," I say again. "We still have this week. And Skype, and texting, and email, and Facebook, and…" I proceed to list all of the social networks known to mankind, and Ken's smile slowly returns. We share another hug and eat the rest of our cookies in silence.

When we're finished, Carly and Melanie come up.

"Hey, we're gonna find Luz, and then we've gotta go," Carly says. "Auntie's friend didn't show, so apparently her family is coming over for dinner and we've all got to shower and stuff. Plus, we need to be back at the house before everyone else starts showing up." I nod and climb to my feet.

"See you later, Ken," I say, not wanting to disclose the heart-wrenching news to my friends right now. Apparently he doesn't either, because he just looks up at me and smiles again.

"Bye, Dahlia!" he says in his usual cheery voice. I give him a sad smile and head off with Melanie and Carly to find Luzma.

Hope you guys liked it! Tell me what you thought and if you have any suggestions. Thanks!

Oh, and if you haven't put the story on alert, I highly suggest you do that, because I'm not PM-ing everyone ever single time I update :p

Luv yah,

Ava