Chapter two – Cavemen
I don't know how I achieved it, but I had done it. I had gone five hours in a car with the four marauders. Bonus points for sitting next to James, I reckon. Brittney and me had shaken off the marauders at the door to our apartment, once they lugged up our stuff for us.
Keira and Rach had run up to our room, unable to hold their curiosity for much longer. Brittney and me pushed open the door to our room, deciding to leave the bags in the corridor for a minute.
As I walked through the door with Brittney, I saw one giant room. Right in front of me was a small round table, much like the one at home with six chairs around it. I gazed to my right. There was a medium sized kitchen and a hallway, probably leading to the bedrooms. I looked to my left, and saw the most beautiful sight. Behind the three blue leather sofas and television, was two great open doors that folded up, leading out to a huge balcony with more tables and chairs. The view was amazing. My feet wouldn't move further out to the balcony, I was too stunned.
I could see the beach very clearly. All Rach's arguing on the phone had paid off. I was right; the gap in the middle of the resort was occupied by a giant swimming pool with two water slides that looked almost terrifying. There were no fences blocking the beach from the pool either, it was a simple matter of walking from the pool a couple of feet, then you hit sand!
I felt like I was on a whole new planet. Nothing like this could be found back in London! It felt so free and open.
"This is so great!" Keira said reappearing from the hallway with Rach.
"Where are the suitcases?" Rach asked.
"Out in the corridor. We better get them," I replied pushing a strand of my red hair behind my ear. It was sticking to my forehead. Yuck.
Keira, Rach and me went to grab our suitcases and begin unpacking. Brittney said to grab hers for her. She wanted to look at the view.
Brittney strolled out onto the balcony. It was about 4:30 and the sun was still up, unlike back home when the sun would set at 5:00. Brittney walked right out onto the balcony and casually leaned on the railings. Gazing out over the sparkling beach and golden sand, she felt like she was in paradise.
To the right was another balcony. It was empty. Brittney glanced to the left at another balcony. It wasn't empty. Standing there, looking right back at her was Remus. Brittney didn't know if she was just startled to see someone there or if it was the fact that it was actually Remus who was looking at her that made her jump.
Brittney quickly looked at Remus who smiled kindly at her. She was too startled to smile back. She turned away again, feeling herself go red. And as fast as her legs would carry her, she scooted back into the room, all of a sudden feeling very hot.
"What's the matter?" Keira asked, lugging in her suitcases.
"Uh nothing," Brittney said stuttering. "Uh the marauders are in the room on the right."
"How do you know that?" Keira asked, winking at Brittney.
"Remus is out on the balcony," Brittney said as if she had just recovered from a heart attack.
Keira let out a high-pitched laugh. "Are you startled because Lupin is out on the balcony? Lupin wouldn't hurt a fly!"
Brittney scowled. "I'm not startled!"
Keira didn't have time to reply. Rach interrupted.
"OW! Come on slackers!" Rach yelled as she lugged in two of her suitcases.
Brittney shrugged at Keira and went to help with the suitcases.
(James's province)
"Moony!" I yelled urgently.
"What?" Remus asked quickly, turning up with a pile of clothes in his hands. Ever since turning up, Remus had been running around after us, warning us not to go near the oven or stove. I didn't even know what they were! I wasn't going to try and work one, although I bet Moony thought Sirius would have a little experiment session.
"Hay, Prongs, we should get one of those bells that you ring and the servant comes running!" Sirius said from next to me.
Remus frowned as he saw Padfoot, Wormtail and me sitting outstretched on the sofas looking like a pack of slackers.
"Moony how does this thing work?" I asked pointing to a box shape thing with a type of screen. I knew Remus would know what it is and probably how to work it.
"It's called a television," Remus said bitterly. "Press the big red button and it will turn on." He said as if we were all five year olds been given instructions, which I suppose in Padfoot's case is a fair observation.
Sirius, who was closest to the remote thingy, grabbed it and pressed a red button looking sheepish when it wouldn't turn on.
"Point it at the screen you dufus!" Remus said impatiently.
Sirius gave another sheepish grin. He aimed the remote at the television, sticking out his tongue in concentration as if it took great skill to turn on a television. It was like magic. All of a sudden, sound could be heard from the television and something was appearing on the screen. To my great amusement, and I'm sure Padfoot's and Wormtail's too, a half naked woman appeared advertising some sort of car.
"Uhh!" Sirius said happily leaning further down in his seat. "I could do with one of these at home!"
"Don't tell me you are going to watch that all day?" Remus asked disgusted at Sirius's instant interest in what was on television.
Sirius looked up at Moony, beaming. "Actually no. There was something I needed you to help me with!"
"I am not helping you steal the television!" Remus said at once.
I laughed. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what Sirius wanted help with. After seeing the car/girl add, I couldn't blame him!
Sirius shook his head. "No, something else. But thanks for giving me the idea about the television. I'll get someone else to help me!"
"What is it then?" Remus asked putting his weight on one foot, looking frustrated.
Sirius jumped up from the couch and moved into the kitchen. He began rummaging though the drawers. He yanked something out.
"I found this little beauty and I had a bit of trouble working it!" Sirius said throwing Remus a utensil.
Remus laughed heartily. "It's called a can opener, Padfoot. You open cans with it."
"Oh!" Sirius said pretending to sound interested. "It looked like something I could use to cut people with!"
"Padfoot!" Remus said warningly.
"Kidding!" Sirius said putting out his hands, pretending to defend himself. "Well maybe I could test it on Rach first!"
"I'm not even going to try and explain how to use it!" Remus said stalking out of the kitchen again and back into his room.
"Sorry, mum!" Sirius yelled after him as he plunked himself back down on the couch next to me. "Now how do I get that girl back?" he asked, fiddling with the remote.
(Lily's province)
The girls and me didn't get up to much on our first night. We were all stuffed. Although I got the impression that our ruddy, loud neighbors were anything but tired. Sirius and James were laughing for most of the night. Unfortunately, Rach has the room with the wall closest to the marauders so she got the worst of it. According to her, Remus was yelling and Sirius was saying something about ostriches.
We all awoke this morning at the hand of the sun. It came shinning in through our pale blue curtains, making our rooms very light. We had planned last night to go check out the pool and work on getting a tan. I knew I needed one, desperately.
"Morning," I said, feeling full of energy. Maybe the sunshine had done something to me. "What we eating?" I asked looking over to Brit who was busy chopping fruit into a huge bowl.
"Fruit salad!" Brit beamed, throwing a bunch of watermelon into the bowl.
"We don't care what we eat as long as we don't have to make it!" came a voice from out on the balcony.
"Looks great." I said to Brit, leaving her to finish making breakfast for us. I walked out to the balcony; Rach and Keira were sitting facing the beach. Just by looking at their clothes, I could tell they wanted to get a tan, and fast.
Keira had on a short denim skirt with a white halter and Rach was wearing a black tank with some baggy short shorts, and here was me in a knee length pink skirt and light brown polo top.
"Still heading to the pool today, Lils?" Rach asked me.
I sat down next to Keira. "I don't care as long as we aren't with them!"
Neither Keira nor Rach had to ask whom I was referring to when I said 'them'
"Yeah, after all, we spent five hours with them yesterday!" Keira said fairly. "Oh and Brit's scared of Remus!"
Rach let out a snort. "Remus? As in Remus?"
Keira smirked. "She came in all startled and shocked when she saw him on his balcony!"
I smiled lightly. If she really was scared of him, I knew how she felt. James could scare me sometimes with his stalker-like ways.
"Surely not!" I said.
"You should have seen her!" Keira said nodding behind Lily. I turned around to see Brittney coming with four bowls of fruit salad.
"Remember we have to wait 20 minutes for our food to digest before we can swim!" I said looking at the fruit salad Brit made. If it tasted as great as it looked, she would be cooking for us all the time!
"Screw that!" Rach said, munching on watermelon.
"People have drowned!" Brit said fairly.
"We're on holiday though!" Keira said as if that was a fair excuse.
"Maybe we could make the marauders eat a tone of food then take them swimming right after!" I said kidding around.
"You know, I bet Sirius would fall for that!" Keira muttered.
"Yeah," Rach admitted. "He will do anything for food."
"Imagine living with them!" Brittney said.
Rachel laughed. "Living with them would be like living with four cavemen!"
We finished our fruit salad and instantly Keira wanted to get to the pool. Deciding it was her fault if we drowned, we headed down to the pool, our togs under our clothes.
The pool area, to me, looked more like a little private bay. The pool was almost a ridiculous size. Although I suppose it could only be expected because the resort was so busy! The main pool wasn't in any particular shape. It kind of went in every which direction with curves everywhere. There were little bays coming off it. Palm trees hung so low around the pool that bits of them almost touched the water.
There was a spa in a cove a bit further down with a waterfall coming from above it. The water flowed into another slightly smaller pool. By the looks of it, it was deeper and was where the waterslides ended. I liked the bigger pool better. It looked more peaceful.
Keira dumped her bag on the tiled floor and sat herself down on one of the white sun chairs that surrounded the pools.
"What's in the bag, Keira?" Rach asked sitting in another chair.
Keira smiled taking this as her chance to begin ranting. "Well I've got sunscreen, sunglasses, towel, skirt, food, drink, lip balm, insect repellant, tops, chocolate and a magazine."
"Tops as in plural?" I asked taking a seat next to Brit.
"One can never have too many tops!" Keira said happily. "Right Rach?"
"She's right!" Rach said.
"Let's see if we can spend the entire day without the marauders disturbing us!" I said hoping we could. I still didn't like the fact they were with us at the resort all holidays.
"I don't think that is possible." Brit muttered.
"What? Why?" I asked confused.
"That's why not." Brittney said pointing to a path leading to the pool.
To my complete annoyance, the marauders were walking, no strutting like they owned the place.
"Hide!" I hissed.
"They've already seen us," Keira muttered. "Sirius is waving."
Crap. It was impossible. I couldn't get rid of them! Although I had to admit, James wasn't being as bad as he is at school. But still, the four of them combined can only cause trouble.
"Hey girls!" Sirius said cheerfully basically jumping into a seat next to Rach. I bet it was close to breaking as Sirius sat on it like an oaf. "Lovely morning. Just had to come out for a swim!"
"I bet you did." I muttered furiously as James sat down next to me in his swimming trunks. I looked at James's trunks. There were lots of faces of a girl on there. I looked at one of the faces closer, finding to my horror that it wasn't just any face on James's trunks. It was mine!
"JAMES POTTER, WHY IS MY FACE ON YOUR SHORTS?" I yelled making everyone jump and steer at either James or me.
James smirked sheepishly. "Like them Lily? Sirius did it for me!"
"My faces are on your trunks! James get them off now!" I said beginning to fume. I tried to ignore Keira's giant smirk.
Sirius whistled. "Your in luck, Prongsie. She wants to get you out of them!"
"Watch it, Black!" I said furious. "James, get them off!" I said a hint of desperation in my voice.
James smirked. "Oh come on Lils, it was a joke!"
"I'll think of it as a joke if you GET RID OF THEM!" I roared.
"Ok, ok." James muttered. "Sirius, have you got your thing?"
Sirius looked around. Making sure no one was looking, he grabbed his wand from in his pants and muttered something at James's Trunks. Instantly my faces were gone, leaving James's green Trunks bare.
"You keep your wand in your pants?" Rach asked horrified.
Sirius smirked. "I know you love it!"
"That's disgusting!" Rach muttered.
"Why is it that you have to come to the pool at the exact same time as us in the exact same spot?" I asked, looking mad but curious. "Look around, there's lots of other places you could go!"
"James was spying on you!" Peter said, taking off his polo top, ready to get into the pool.
"Wormtail, your not supposed to tell them that!" Sirius muttered furiously.
"You spied on us?" Brit asked in disbelief.
"It wasn't my idea!" Remus said defending himself.
"So we're here now!" James said throwing off his red top to reveal a firm chest. I wasn't about to tell him I thought it was nice, though. "Let's swim!"
"Agreed!" Sirius said, basically ripping off his top to reveal, if possible, an even nicer chest.
"Coming Remus, girls?" Sirius asked, flashing a mischievous grin.
"Yeah," Remus muttered, slowly taking off his top. I noticed he had lots of scratches and scars. Off course I knew why that was, thanks to Sirius who accidentally told Rach and me when he was drunk in 5th year. "Coming?" Remus asked, looking at my friends and me.
"Suppose so." Brit muttered, getting up and stripping down to her plain black bikini.
I got up; I needed to get in the water. The sun was too strong for my liking. Before I had the chance to get out of my clothes, I was saturated with water. Sirius had decided to do some kind of belly flop into the pool, making water spray everywhere.
"BLACK!" I screamed as water dripped from my hair.
"Oh sorry, Lils." Sirius said flashing a goofy grin. "Are you getting in or not, Rach?" he asked, looking over at Rach who was still sitting on one of the chairs.
Keira and Brit had jumped into the pool, both managing to get in without making some kind of explosion like Sirius had done.
"No." Rachel said shortly as I bent down to get in. It was the warmest pool I had ever been in. When I went swimming at school before Hogwarts, it had always been freezing cold; I used to dread getting in. I swam out to where Brit and Keira were in a little cave thing. James, Remus, and Peter were swimming out into the middle of the pool. I was thankful they weren't following me. I turned around to look at the edge of the pool. It looked like Sirius was trying to get Rach to get in the water.
"Why not?" Sirius asked flicking some of his wet hair out of his eyes and resting his arms on the tiled floor.
"Because you're in there!" Rach retorted.
Sirius pretended to look hurt, but failed miserably. "Don't make me come and get you!"
"You wouldn't dare!" Rach said. But she knew he probably would. Quickly, she got out of her white halter and unzipped the zipper of her skirt.
Sirius didn't say anything. Instead, he used his hands to get out of the pool and walked to sit next to Rach, dripping wet.
"Get in the pool!" Sirius said, making it sound more like an order than a request.
"No!" Rach said laughing at Sirius's pathetic attempt to get her in.
"Right then." Sirius said. Quickly, he jolted up from his seat and grabbed Rach around the middle and held her in a cradle embrace. Rach had no choice but to grab Sirius around the neck for support.
"Sirius! Let me go!" Rach screamed. She couldn't hit Sirius anywhere, unless she used her head. Sirius held her around her legs and middle.
"Gosh girl, how much do you weigh?" Sirius asked laughing.
"Shut up!" Rach screamed, trying to wriggle free. She was wearing her favorite light pink, crinkled, knee length flirty skirt. She didn't want it damaged.
Sirius just laughed as he walked over to the pool edge. "You ready?"
"LET ME GO!" Rach screamed even louder, drawing attention to herself from most of the people in the pool and on the seats. I saw some elderly couple laughing uncontrollably. I was almost scared they would have a heart attack. I looked at another elderly couple. They weren't laughing. Instead they were shaking their heads in a disapproving way as Sirius swayed unbalanced right on the pool edge.
Before Rach could scream anymore, she felt herself sway on the direction of the pool. Before she knew it, she was underwater, trying to get back up again.
"Sirius!" she screamed as soon as her head popped up. I noticed she was smiling. "Look at my skirt!"
Sirius's head popped up from the water. His hair was over his eyes, but he swept it away with one flick to see Rach looking at him with a half satisfied smile on her face. She was holding up her pink skirt that she managed to take off. It was indeed ruined.
"Well at least you're in!" Sirius said seeing the bright side of things.
"That was not the way I would have chosen to get in!" Rach said as Keira, Brit and I made our way over.
"Well beggars can't be choosers!" Sirius said.
"I wasn't begging!" Rach moaned, knowing Sirius would believe what he wanted anyway.
"I know you loved being so close to me!" Sirius said avoiding Rach's arm that was coming in his direction.
"What did you do to make him do that to you?" Brit asked as she came over.
"Nothing!" Rach said sighing.
"Black, stop flirting. Yes you were flirting. Go play with your friends." I said, hoping to get some time away from all four marauders.
Sirius smiled and waved sarcastically to us before diving underwater to find the marauders.
"I think he likes you!" Keira said once Sirius had gone.
"Ha," Rach said laughing. "He's got a funny way of showing it!"
"You should ask him out!" Keira said, bobbing up and down in the water.
"Whatever," Rach muttered, feeling uneasy. "Anyways, James's shorts – crack up!"
"I thought you would find that funny." I said, knowing Rach was eager to get off the subject of her and Sirius.
"Sirius thought it was funny too!" Brit said, winking at Rach.
Rach glared at her. "Why did you turn away when Remus began to talk huh?" She asked, obviously determined to completely forget about Sirius.
"I thought it was rude to steer because he had all those scars." Brittney muttered.
I saw Rach steer at me from out of the corner of her eye. "Yeah, you know James and Sirius have probably beaten him up while playing Quidditch." Rach said trying not to stutter.
"Oh," Brit said considering this for a moment. "Yeah that will be it."
"But we all know why you were really steering at him in the first place!" Keira said grinning from ear to ear.
"Oh please, not everyone is like you!" Brit snapped.
Keira waved her hand impatiently. "Brit you need a man! As for you Rach, you are in desperate need of a man!"
"I don't need a man!" Rach said bitterly.
"Lils you need one too!" Keira said, ignoring Rach's sour face.
"I am quite happy single!" I lied. Truthfully, I am not happy single. I would love a nice, charming guy to spend this holiday with. To take me on walks along the beach or surprise me with flowers in the morning. I knew Rach, if possible, wanted a guy more than me, although she wasn't desperate. She wanted to find, the one. Mr. Right. At the moment, I highly doubted if Mr. Right even existed. Or maybe that was because I was stuck with the marauders all holiday instead of my prince. Rach was right. They were like four cavemen. Well maybe not Remus.
(James's province)
"Was that necessary, Padfoot?" Remus asked as Sirius came to join them. We were in the middle of the pool. It was the deepest bit of the pool and Peter couldn't reach the ground.
"Well I got her in the water!" Sirius said turning to look at Rach who was talking in a circle with her friends. "Besides, that wasn't nearly as bad as James's shorts!"
"I don't think Lily appreciated them," I muttered.
"You can't put pictures of her on your shorts and expect her to like you!" Remus said fairly.
I knew he was right. "Then what do I do?" I asked desperately.
"Be a gentleman!" Sirius said in a fake posh accent. "Like me!"
Peter nearly drowned. "You a gentleman?" he said, struggling to keep his head above water. "You chucked a girl into a pool!"
"But Rach doesn't count!" Sirius said stupidly.
"Off course she counts!" Remus said, almost feeling sorry for Sirius. "Prongs, you have to stop pranking her, spying on her, and stalking her!"
"But, but," I said stuttering. "I can't do that!"
"Who are you going to charm this holiday, Moony?" Sirius asked winking at Remus.
"No one." Remus said simply. "Which poor girl are you going to hypnotize?"
"I don't hypnotize girls!" Sirius yelled.
"Sure you don't," I muttered sarcastically. "Rach and Lils told me that your eyes are like some kind of spell. That every girl is drawn to you and they go all dreamy when they look into your eyes!"
"Does Rach like my eyes?" Sirius asked interested.
"I doubt it," Peter muttered. "She probably sees right through you."
"What does she see then?" Sirius asked.
Remus sniggered. "Probably a rude, stupid, troublemaking, cocky boy who finds it amusing throwing girls into pools and laughing at their beat up cars!"
Sirius frowned. "Do I give that impression?"
Remus was still sniggering. "Yip!"
"Then what impression do I give Lily?" I asked confused.
"A bad one." Peter said at once.
"I guess we're stuck with them!" I said bitterly looking over from the cove we were in at the marauders. They were trying to drown each other! Seriously, I thought cynically.
"Well they're not that bad!" Brit said fairly.
"And they're so cute!" Keira said vaguely.
"That wasn't where I was going!" Rach said clearly. "Do me a favour and wake up because Sirius Black is far from cute!"
"And his little pranks!" Keira said dreamily.
"Oh please!" Rach said in a disapproving way. "Don't tell me you like one of them!"
"No!" Keira said quickly. "But you do!"
"I do not!" Rach snapped.
"Sirius!" Keira yelled loud enough for everyone to hear.
Rach quickly looked at the marauders to make sure they hadn't heard. Thankfully they hadn't.
"Would you mind shutting your mouth for just one sec?" Rach said calmly. "Friends is as far as me and him are going! Besides, you see what he does to me!"
"Prove it!"
"What are you on about?" Rach asked confused.
"Prove you don't like Sirius!"
"Come on Keira, she proved that in third year when she hit him over the head with the beaters club!" I said, backing Rach up.
"Fine then! Lils, you have to prove that you don't like James!" Keira said, clapping her hands together as if she had thought of a master plan.
"That will be easy!" I said, happy with the arrangement.
"Oh here they come," Brit said suddenly. "Talk about something else."
"So why are you scared of Remus?" Keira asked Brit loudly.
"I was wondering that myself." Remus said. To Brit's horror, he had heard what Keira had said.
"I…uh," Brit said stuttering. "I'm not scared of you!" she said quickly.
"Scared?" Sirius said laughing.
"Shut it, Sirius!" Rach barked. Sirius firmly put his hand on top of her head and pushed her down underwater. He seemed to think it was the only way to shut Rach up.
Rach came up coughing. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?"
"Felt like it." Sirius said, pretending to be cool.
All of us sensed another Philipsen/Black fight coming back on and turned around, ignoring them completely. I noticed Remus and Brit walking off to another little cove. Brit looked very shaken. I don't know why! Surely she can't be scared of Remus! I'm more scared of Sirius!
Thanks so much for the reviews! 3 I'll probably have the next chapter up in a few days.
Love, Rach
