My note….I think I've got a schedule, Tuesday/Wednesday updates for Father Knows Best and Friday/Saturday updates for A Day at the Beach. Now that that's settled, here's chapter four…
A DAY AT THE BEACH
CHAPTER 4: HAPPY SUMMER DAYS
Jimmy pulled into the local bulk superstore chain, a few miles off the highway. The group had to first stop for lunch after ten minutes of Spinner's insistence that there was absolutely no way he could shop for food on an empty stomach.
Ashley had taken inventory before they left the beach house and while the place was thoroughly stocked with the basic necessities, there was still the need for a great deal of supplies to get them through the next few days.
The girls slowly walked up and down each aisle, carefully studying and debating each potential purchase. "Who needs that much ketchup?", Ellie asked, starring oddly at the pallet of two, one gallon bottles shrink wrapped together.
"We do", Paige grunted, lifting the massive condiment into their cart. "Spinner puts ketchup on everything", she groaned disgustedly.
"Jimmy does too", Ashley chuckled knowingly.
"Speaking of which….where are the boys?", Ellie asked, looking around the wear house. "Apparently, we've been deserted".
"There probably still by the electronics", Paige stated, reaching out for the mega sized salad dressing. "Did you see their radar go up when we passed the plasmas on our way in?".
Ashley chuckled. "No, they're shopping", she stated surely. "I can guarantee that when we do find them, Jimmy's lap will be full of stuff….half of which, we won't even need". Ellie and Paige giggled along.
The girls weaved in an out of the aisles, picking up a few things here and there, talking and laughing. They reached the end of the juice aisle to find the boys making their way toward them, from the direction in which they had just come. As Ashley had predicted, their arms and Jimmy's lap were full. "Told ya", she teased, winking at the girls.
The boys stopped mid stride, Spinner in the middle, flanked by Jimmy and Marco on either side...all wearing adorably goofy grins on their faces.
"Look what we found", Spinner yelped excitedly as he dumped the contents of his arms into the cart and pointed to Jimmy.
"Industrial sized spray cheese?", Ashley stopped her unloading Jimmy's lap to ask. He caught her gaze and smirked as he motioned upwards toward Spinner. Ashley bit back a laugh and kissed Jimmy lightly on the cheek.
"Yeah, in three different flavors", Spinner replied, his voice almost choked with emotion as he carefully took the four packages from Ashley and placed them into the cart. "I got extra incase we run out".
"Some how I actually think we might", Ellie mumbled quizzically as she watched Spinner.
"Spinner, most of this stuff is crap", Paige complained, noting overflowing packages of candy and cookies. "We came here to enjoy the beach and bond...not gain twenty pounds each".
"Well then, why don't we go to the produce section and try to balance it out with some...um, real food", Ashley offered in a kind, yet slightly sarcastic way. The majority agreed with nods, but Spinner's attention was somewhere else.
"Whatever", he dismissed her quickly, his eyes getting wide. He brought up both hand and playfully smacked the two men on either side of him. "Dude...they got samples", he gasped, heading off in the direction of his bottomless pit of a stomach.
Jimmy grinned up at Ashley and shrugged innocently. "Go", she smirked, pushing on his shoulder and nodding toward the sample booth.
The girls looked at one another and rolled their eyes. "Guys", Ellie sighed exasperatedly.
Paige raised her brow and shot Ashley a sharp look. "Yeah...", Ashley conceeded. "...we'd better get more spray cheese".
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"I guess feeding Spinner before shopping didn't exactly help with the grocery bill", Ellie quipped, as she made her tenth trip to the van to clear out the over two-hundred dollar tab they racked up at the store.
"Hun, the tank never gets to full with Spinner", Paige joked.
Marco came up from behind, looping his arms around their shoulders and chuckled. "Yeah, Spin's usually running on half-empty anyway", he quipped, implying about more than just Spinner's stomach capacity.
Paige gave him a look of mock offense that Marco regarded her ex like that and playfully smacked him on the chest, but laughed along. The three walked up the ramp together.
"That's it", Marco announced when he entered the house with the last of the packages.
"Yessssss, now we can have some fun", Spinner cheered, running up the stairs and slamming the bedroom door behind him. The remaining five gave puzzled looks to one another and finished putting away the perishables.
Within a minute, Spinner came bounding back down the stairs, dressed in swin trunks and tank top, goggles hanging around his neck, towel flung over one shoulder, snorkel in hand and flippers on his feet. "Woah, Jaws...", Marco chuckled. "...where's your fin?".
"Funny Marco", Spinner spat. "Who's up for a swim?"
"I am...it's hotter than hell in here", Paige complained, grabbing her beach bag. Marco and Ellie nodded through their giggles.
"Sure", Ashley agreed, looking over at Jimmy expectantly.
"No thanks", he mumbled, wheeling away from the group. "I don't swim".
"What?", Spinner asked incredulously.
"I said, I don't swim", Jimmy replied insistantly.
"Since when?", Ashley cut in sarcastically. "You swim in the therapy pool every week after your long physio sessions", she reminded him.
Jimmy glanced away avoidingly. "Yeah well, I forgot to pack my trunks", he muttered dismissively.
"Dude, I packed extra", Spinner stated running back up the stairs to fetch his spare, tossing them at Jimmy on the way back down. Jimmy sighed heavily and fingered the material in his lap. "Last one in the water in a rotten egg", Spinner teased, taking a running start for the door.
Marco, Paige and Ellie chuckled as they followed Spinner out. Ellie turned slightly to acknowledge Jimmy and Ashley. "We'll meet you there", Ashley replied with a small smile, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. Ellie nodded slowly and left.
"What the hell was that all about?", Ashley scolded, turning back to face Jimmy.
Jimmy spun around and pushed toward the kitchen, throwing the trunks onto the table as he passed it. "I don't wanna go swimming", he answered firmly.
"Why not?", Ashley asked, her irritation now drifting into concern.
"Sand plus wheels equals stuck, Ash", he replied pointedly.
"That's right, you didn't get the whole tour", Ashley recalled, pausing to grab the shorts and headed down the hall to the master bedroom, Jimmy followed her with peaked curiousity. Ashley stopped at the french doors to the deck."See", she said, waiving out to the winding ramp that lead to a boardwalk and down to the dock.
Jimmy looked sheepishly up at Ashley...she could tell he was forming his objection. "If you need some help, just ask", she continued before he had a chance to. "...we all be down there...".
"That's just it Ash", Jimmy sighed, running his hands down his thighs...his gaze falling on the shorts in her hand. Ashley looked down at her hand then back at Jimmy.
"Is that what you're worried about?", she asked incredulously, holding up the pair of trunks. Ashley kneeled beside him and smiled. "I hate to break it to you Jimmy, but you've always had long, skinny legs", she teased playfully, trying to lighten the mood and ease his anxiety.
"It's just different now", he whispered, starring out at the beach. Ashley was silent, she knew what Jimmy was referring to. While still relatively the same in length and size, Jimmy's legs had lost the tone and definition they once had, his muscles now soft and flaccid...and he hated it.
Ashley patted his hands, which were resting on the part of his body he so unaffctionately dubbed the 'matchsticks'. "Well, that's too bad", she stated apologetically, pulling her t-shirt over her head as she stood, revealing her little black and purple bikini top.
She untangled the trunks from her shirt and promptly tossed them both onto the bed. Jimmy's chair slowly followed his eyes as Ashley reached for the button to her jean shorts."I guess I could get the girls or Marco to help me with the sunscreen...or maybe even Spinner...", she contemplated as she shimmied out of the denim, to expose the even tinier bottoms.
Jimmy sat for a moment before realizing just what Ashley was trying to do...and her unconventional methods worked beautifully. "Gimme ten minutes", he smirked and eagerly headed for the bathroom.
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Mission accomplished, Ashley and Jimmy strode down the boardwalk to the slightly sloped dock. Still feeling a tad selfconscious, Jimmy insisted on carrying the towels and Ashley's beach bag on his lap, eventhough there was plenty of room in the net under his chair.
To Jimmy's slight relief, their friends were nowhere in sight. The couple took their time massaging each other with lotion...which they were both thoroughly enjoying.
"Hey, you guys comin' in?", Marco asked as he passed them on his way to the water. "We, set up camp over there", he pointed to a spot just right of the dock.
Ashley smiled and nodded, then watched with amusement as Spinner chased Ellie and Paige into the water.
"Ready?", she asked Jimmy, extending her hand out to him. Jimmy shrugged and waited until he was sure his friends were totally engrossed in their water play before reluctantly transferring to the edge of the dock.
Spinner bobbed out of the water and spit some out of his mouth. "You comin' in, or what?", he asked impatiently. Jimmy grinned and pulled off his black t-shirt before accepting Ashley's help and easing himself into the water.
Horseplay aside, the time in water was a welcome relaxation. The group swam and lounged, talking about everything from fishing to their biggest beach-borne fears...Jimmy's was undoubtedly gettting stuck in the sand, Paige's was sun burn, Marco's was drowning and Spinner's was shark attack.
And because of on tiny little joke...Jimmy spent the better part of an hour assuring Spinner that there were absolutely no sharks in Lake Ontario and it was safe to get back into the water.
"Hey guys, you think we should head back to the house for a late dinner?", she asked, noticing the sun's tilt to the west, surprised that no one...especially Spinner, with his alarm clock appetite, said anything about the time.
Marco, Spinner and Paige climbed onto the beach to collect their belongings, while Ellie took the reverse trip up the dock with Ashley and Jimmy. They all met up just as Jimmy finished quickly resituating in his chair and to his satisfaction, with only the slightest help from Ashley.
The group fell into step, in an almost single file fashion due to the narrowness of the boardwalk and their loaded arms. But somehow, they were able to keep the continuous flow of conversation. "Hey Spin, it was a good thing you left that fin at home...wouldn't've wanted to attract any of those deadly lake sharks", Paige teased mercilessly from the head of the line.
Spinner grumbled some colorful words under his breath and the trail of laughter traveled down the line. Jimmy twisted to his left to catch the scowl he knew would be on Spinner's face. Once satisfied he turned back ahead causing the towel that was drapped across his shoulders to slip down.
Bracing for the incline, Jimmy leaned forward and the towel slipped even further down into his seat. He was so focused on the task at hand that her never noticed the fallen towel or the garbled gasp that escaped Spinner's mouth at seeing the huge, ugly scars on his back...but Ashley did.
She looked over her shoulder to see all color drain from Spinner's face. His eyes met hers in a struggle to grasp some kind of control over his emotions...when he couldn't find it, Spinner hopped off the boardwalk and ran toward the beach house. "What's wrong with him?", Ellie asked incredulously as they stopped mometarily to watch Spinner sprint home.
"Maybe he saw a shark?", Paige giggled, not able to help herself that time.
Jimmy looked up at Ashley, grinning at Paige's joke. She forced a small smile onto her face and laid her hand on Jimmy's shoulder, hoping that this little 'incident' wouldn't ruin their vacation...or Jimmy and Spinner's friendship.
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Well there it is...yes it's long, but not nearly as long as I had originally intended. Good thing I was planning on continuing this storyline in the next chapter. I hope you all liked it...a little humor mixed with a little angst. It works for me.
I can't believe I'm doing this, but I have another chapter story in the works that I might post at the end of the month. I know I don't have much time to write the two I'm working on now, but I want to get it up before the season 7 episode descriptions are released and screw up my plot. So, be on the lookout for that.
I want to thanks my reviewers for last chapter...lilfiftyfour, shirilyle and luvluv.
Degrassi is not mine, nor are the song titles I'm using as chapter titles(thought I'd put that in).