I cannot convey how deeply sorry I am for not updating yesterday. The internet went out last night and I couldn't update! I am so sorry! :( But here you go, you get it early. Class was cancelled today ( I swear in college, the professors get lazy the last too weeks, and class is cancelled a lot.) so here you go! It's not a very emotional chapter, but fun all the same.


Linda flew towards a rack displaying the newest shipment of twirl skirts and ruffled front jackets. Morgan was left meandering behind her, zipping on a strawberry slushy. She pressed pause on her mp3 playing, putting a halt to the narration of the Children's Crusade, realizing Linda was trying to speak to her.

"Look at how this spins!" Linda giggled as she swung the skirt around. She held it against Morgan's waist, moving the fabric against her friend's waist. "You should wear skirts."

"No point," Morgan mumbled. "You only see me in skirts around Jack."

"What if I found you a skirt with a bustle?" Linda patronized.

"I would love that," Morgan stated. "But it would be hot in this weather. So no." Linda rolled her eyes.

"You're not normal," she groaned, slipping the skirt back on the bar.

"Did you figure that out before or after the boyfriend no one else can see?"

"Morgan, please..." Linda whined with impatience. She dramatically stretched her lips wide so her whine would lengthen. "Jack wanted you to have fun while he was gone."

"It's hard to..." Morgan jerked the buds out of her ears. She coiled the wires around the small digital box, knowing how tightly tied they would be later when she pulled them out of her pocket. "I just keep wondering if he's thinking of me or what he's doing and it's so long before I see him again..."

"Of course he's thinking of you," Linda stated with an exasperated sigh. "Jack is perfect, all right? He loves you very much, he's never not thinking of you, he's amazingly hot." Linda rolled her eyes. Sometimes, she swore, if Linda was not such a dedicated friend, she would be clawing away at Jack every time she saw him. Her friend pursed her lips into a sympathetic frown and squeezed Morgan tight. "Hey. I know it sucks. Okay, I don't. I've never had a boyfriend, despite my belief that Benedict Cumberbatch is mad for me." Morgan snorted under her joke. "But I am trying, okay? I know you don't like modern clothes, and if I could take you to a Victorian, Edwardian, or Medieval clothes outlet I would. The only thing nearby really is that fifties clothing shop, and the bus does not go that far." Morgan and Linda had bought day passes for the bus system so they could go wherever they pleased without their parents waiting around.

"We could go antiquing," Morgan suggested, leaning against her friends arms. "Or to a thrift shop."

"You never like anything new," Linda laughed and she lightly slapped her shoulder.

"Used things have a history."

"Yes, let's just buy that couch that someone might have made a child on," Linda mocked. Morgan pouted sadly at her response. "I am teasing! I'm sure everything's okay when you wash it. And you might be right. Maybe we'll find a candlestick that once belonged to president Roosevelt and we'll never know because it got lost. Or maybe it will belong to someone who will be the next world genius."

"Exactly," Morgan laughed, looping her arm through Linda's.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

She hated these family trips. That morning, her mother had up and decided they would be headed to a family recreation center and lake some thirty minutes away from where they were. Morgan protested, but eventually gave in only on the promise that Linda could come with. Of course, as Morgan suspected she would, she jumped at the chance to go to a beach and she was waiting on the step, a white beach bag packed and a sheer red coverup.

"I am so excited!" Linda shouted, stepping into the family van that Peter was embarrassed about. "Hey Peter."

"Mmm," Peter responded, flipping through a magazine filled with motorcycles and half naked women.

"Are you looking at the motorcycles or the women?"

"Motorcycles!" he scoffed, but the pink to his face told her he was lying. She snickered and then rolled around to the back, where Morgan was sitting was sitting beside Todd.

"Hi Linda!" Aubrey said enthusiastically, from where she was sitting by Brad and Peter.

"Hey!" Linda buckled her seat belt and squeezed her best friend around the shoulders. "Hi!"

"Hey," Morgan mumbled.

"I've never been to Mt. Gretna before," Linda said.

"It's so cool!" Bradley yelled as the van moved away from the Tan house. "There's a beach and a diving board and a swing and a snack bard and a big chair and water tubes and volleyball!"

"And lots of people," Morgan moaned and then pulled her jacket tighter around her exposed swimsuit.

"That means lots of guys," Linda giggled.

"That's what I'm afraid of..." Morgan sighed, and slumped down in her seat. Linda talked mostly, enthusing over getting to attend the family summer center for the first time in her life. Morgan offered up brief responses. The whole way there, Brad's handheld game beeped, Peter would bark at his little brother to shut it off because he couldn't concentrate on "reading the articles about the bikes." Aubrey talked with her other over wedding details, which was to occur December of next year. Bradley whined when Peter took his game from him, and Linda would talk over Morgan to Todd, whom she had always said was attractive (then again, so did every other woman who encountered him, and Linda was attracted to every other guy she saw.) Morgan leaned her head back, overjoyed when they finally pulled into the overcrowded family recreational center. She was the first one to jump out of the car, but Linda dragged her towards the beach after the Kenters paid the large sum for their whole family plus Linda.

"Look at him... look at that guy! Oh my God, there's so many hotties here!" Linda squealed. Morgan rolled her eyes ad then spread out her towel on the sand. Linda frowned at Morgan's actions, and then spread out hers beside her. Morgan popped one ear bud of her mp3 player into her head and pressed play. "So which one is it this time?"

"It's actually music this time," Morgan responded.

"Oh?" Linda responded in surprise. "Which composer?"

"It's not orchestral."

"I wasn't aware you listened to anything else."

"I've discovered some new bands that play music that sounds like traditional folk music, with of course a few things thrown it. It's like... modernized traditional music."

"Oh yeah, my mom loves that kind of music," Linda said, popping a pair of brown sunglasses over her make-up contoured eyes.

"What are you doing?"

"Sitting next to you."

"But there's so many boys."

"Oh come on, Morgan," she scoffed. "You're my best friend, you know me better than that. I love looking at guys. With Jack, he's a good friend and knows me well enough, so I like to flirt with him. But do you really think I could sum up the courage to walk up to them? I can't even get the courage to take off my coverup outside of the water. I may be wearing a bikini, but that doesn't mean I'm that comfortable about my body. I'm slender, but that doesn't mean I'm that attractive. I have a flat butt and flat breast. The bikini is to give the illusion that I have curves, but it does nothing. I'm not like you, where I would look hot in a one-piece."

"I'm not... hot," Morgan said. "And you shouldn't say that about yourself. I think you're very pretty."

"Do you know how many times I've heard at school that being Asian makes me ugly?" Linda said, leaning back against the towel.

"And you believe them, why?" Morgan sighed. "They don't know you. They are judging by prejudice and stereotypes. I know you. And you know what else? Jack doesn't think you're ugly either. Maybe my opinion doesn't mean anything, but I hope Jack's, who is a male that you think is sexy, I hope his matters."

"I've never heard him say anything."

"Of course he wouldn't," Morgan sighed. "For some reason, he loves me, and he's a little concerned about saying stuff about other girls, especially my best friend, because he's concerned about making me jealous. Even though I wouldn't care. But I will say something. I think you are gorgeous, no matter how your body is, and you have no reason to be ashamed of the way you look." Morgan tapped against the black strands on her friend's head, succeeding in annoying her. She smiled. "I think you're unique and that makes you gorgeous."

"It's funny," Linda said. "You say all that and yet you yourself are self conscious, no matter what what Jack or I say."

"It's not something you can get rid of overnight," Morgan shrugged.

"Exactly, and that's why I am still wearing my cover-up," Linda laughed. "But I don't want you to forget that I think you're a sexy historian and I will yell at anyone who says otherwise. And Jack definitely thinks you're a hottie." Morgan cast her a disturbed look but then burst out laughing. Linda swung her arm over her friend's neck. "I knew you were special the moment you were willing to have conversation while I was in a public bathroom stall." Morgan chortled at her sweet, but hilarious comment. She looked out and saw Aubrey flawlessly spinning through the water, splashing at her brothers. "We should attack them."

"We should." Morgan stepped off her towel and dropped her jack and her shorts that hid her suit. Linda threw off her cover-up and took her friends hand. They yelled vicious war cries while they charged in, together barreling into the Kenter siblings.


My assignment for my creative writing class is Worst Story Ever Written. My task is to ignore everything I have learned about writing, everything about plot and structure, all the rules and just write. No plot. No correct punctuation. Just completely eff it up. This is going to painful for me. I don't know how I will live.