It was a glorious morning and the sun was shining brightly. There was an excitement in the air, as it was the first Monday of the summer holidays. The first Monday always made the holidays feel official. Teenagers, both recently graduated and those about to go into their following year of school, were enjoying the lie-in that they knew they could finally have. Even summer school pupils had a week before it started, so they too got to enjoy a little time off.

Over in a small "starter castle", two out of four of the teenage inhabitants were enjoying the idea of being able to sleep as long as they liked. The other two were making the most of having as much time to themselves as they'd like. One white-haired boy, the only one of the four who hadn't graduated, was sat with a piece of cake and his laptop in front of him. He looked up as the blue-haired girl he had come to see as his older sister walked in.

"Cake for breakfast?" she commented with a grin, "Really, Carlos?"

Carlos rolled his eyes, "Shut up and let me enjoy my cake." He took another bite, "Are the other two up?"

"Did you seriously just ask me if Mal and Jay are up before noon on a day that they don't have to be up before noon?" Evie replied, raising her eyebrows.

Carlos laughed as he dug his fork into the cake again, "Right, stupid question."

"What time are we meeting the others again?" She asked as she began pulling out some food to make her own breakfast.

"Two o'clock at the south beach," Carlos replied, typing something up in his laptop, "So, we probably want to be going by one-thirty."

Evie nodded, "Well, you're on wake-up duty," she said, decisively, quickly grabbing her muesli and scurrying out.

"Wha-EVIE!" Carlos exclaimed in annoyance. Wake-up duty was never fun. He used to share a dorm room with Jay and knew exactly what it was like waking him up. Pillows and curses were often thrown in his direction before the grumbling jock would finally get up. And from what Evie had told him about Mal, it wasn't much better.

Carlos checked the clock and figured he had a few hours before wake-up duty was necessary. He saved his work on his laptop and finished his cake before heading into Evie's sewing room, where she was already at work.

"That was immature," he told her, as he walked in.

Evie grinned, not looking up from her work. "Well, I have important work to do," she reminded him. "Speaking of which, I finished your swimming costume last night."

She pointed at a rack of clothes. Carlos went over and grabbed the one labelled 'Carlos – swimwear'. He'd managed to tear the hem of the shorts somehow last time he wore them, which was a while ago, and had only just realised when he located them as he'd need them today. Evie had snatched them off him before he'd even had the time chance to ask her and had whisked them away into her studio to work her magic.

"Thanks, Evie," he said, turning back to her, "What are you doing anyway?" he added, looking curiously at the thin purple fabric that she was working with.

"I'm making Mal and myself summer-dresses to go over the top of our swimming costumes." She replied, still focusing on what appeared to be the skirt of the dress.

Carlos nodded slowly before beginning to walk out, "I'll leave you to it, then."

A couple hours went by and suddenly it was time for Carlos to wake up the other two. He stared at the clock, wondering if he could leave them be for any longer but knew that if he did that, they'd probably be late, as Evie will want them all to finish eating half an hour before they leave and it still takes them some time to get ready for the day.

Carlos took a deep breath as he opened Jay's door, "Jay, time to get up, man."

Jay groaned, and turned over, pulling his duvet around himself tighter.

"Jay," Carlos repeated louder, "Come on."

"Piss off, De Vil," he heard Jay mutter.

Carlos looked to the ceiling wishing there was literally any other way to do this but knew there was just one thing left to do. He headed over to Jay and shoved him, hard, once. This was enough to cause Jay to roll off the bed and hit the floor with a string of curses.

"What the hell, Carlos?" he exclaimed, getting up.

"Time to get up," Carlos said with a cheeky grin before legging it out of the room, hearing Jay growl slightly as he did.

Once he was in the safety of the hall, Carlos made his way to Mal's room, where she was sprawled across her bed, fast asleep.

"Mal, time to get up."

She woke with a start, before shaking her head and turning over so that her face was in the pillow, "No," she moaned.

Carlos sighed, wishing his siblings weren't so difficult. He remembered Evie saying something about light being a big helper in getting Mal out of bed. He crossed the room and opened the heavy curtains, shutting his eyes as the bright sunlight poured into the semi-dark room. He opened them again and turned to Mal who had just pulled her blanket up to block the sun.

"You do realise that we're going to see Ben in a couple hours, right?" Carlos reminded her, hoping that the excitement of seeing Ben had the same reaction from her as the excitement of seeing Jane had from him - unadulterated eagerness that coursed through his veins to the point that he had to get up because he simply couldn't stay still for the anticipation.

Mal raised her head a bit before huffing, "Fine. I'll be up in like, fifteen minutes."

Carlos gave her a look and crossed his arms, going to the last resort, "If you're not down in five minutes, I'll eat all the strawberries myself."

That got Mal's attention. "You wouldn't dare," she threatened.

Carlos leaned forward slightly, "Watch me." And with that, he left the room, with the air that implied he was going to make sure his threat was not an empty one.

"Oh, no you don't!" Carlos turned around and saw Mal getting out of bed, looking very scary. Carlos's eyes widened and he began running at the same time that Mal leapt at him. He ran as fast as he could, practically flying down the stairs, as Mal pelted after him, knocking aside a barely awake Jay who'd just emerged from the bathroom.

"EVIE, HELP ME!" He cried as he ran into the kitchen, ducking behind the island.

"What did you do?" She asked, calmly as she walked in from her studio, looking at the cowering boy.

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH THEM!" Mal roared as she came in.

Jay arrived in the kitchen on Mal's heels. "What the hell is all the yelling about?"

"He threatened to eat my strawberries," Mal said, crossing her arms and pouting.

"I was kidding!" Carlos said, throwing his arms into the air as he got back up and backed away from Mal.

Evie rolled her eyes whilst Jay just sighed and went to get a mug from the cabinet, "Children, not before I've had my coffee, please," he said.

"Oh, don't 'children' me," Mal replied, narrowing her eyes at Jay, "I'm only four months younger than you."

Jay ignored her and set the coffee maker going.

Evie sighed loudly, "Guys, we have to go soon. Mal, go get dressed. Jay, you too. Carlos, when I say wake them up, I don't mean have them chasing you through the house. Help me get lunch ready."

Mal gave Carlos an "I'm watching you" gesture before obeying; Jay mumbled a sarcastic: "Yes, ma'am." as he walked out, still lacking caffeine; Carlos apologised to Evie, sheepishly before going about helping her.

A little while later, once everyone was dressed and fed, and all the dishes were washed, Evie began ushering everyone into the car, Jay at the driver's seat, Mal in the passenger seat, and Evie and Carlos sat behind.

Once everyone was in, Jay started the car and they began driving to the south beach where the others had said to meet them. There had been no indication of what they'd be doing there but the VKs presumed it was just a beach day. The only must was that they all had to bring swimming costumes, which had made Jay a little nervous because, unlike the others, he still hadn't really learnt to swim.

It wasn't a long drive and they soon arrived at the beach. They were laughing about something as they pulled up but Jay, who had briefly glanced back to share his laughter with the others, suddenly stopped and basically slammed the breaks.

"Woah!" Mal yelled, trying to still her racing heart from the shock, "What the heck, Jay?"

"What in Auradon are they doing?" Jay replied, pointing towards the beach. The others looked out of the window and saw what he had yelled about. A figure, one they couldn't quite make out, was plummeting through the air and landing in the water with a gigantic splash.

"Is that Jane?!" Carlos exclaimed as another figure stood at the edge of the cliff where the other figure had jumped from.

"Jay, park the car," Evie said, as she jumped out. Carlos and Mal followed her as Jay pulled into a parking spot behind what they recognised as Jordan's flying carpet. He was quickly stood with them, as they stood and watched as another person jumped from that massive height. Suddenly, they heard someone calling their names. They whipped their heads round to see Ally, wearing a light blue swimming costume that had a skirt and was covered in white frills, waving them over.

"You guys made it!" she said, running over to them, "The others were getting worried so I came to check to see if I could see you. Isn't this exciting? It's your first first Monday! Well, I know technically last year was but you didn't join us for whatever reason. But it's your first time joining us on this tradition! Come on!" She then took off, leaving the other four a little confused. They followed her to wear there were a bunch of towels and bags lying around. Evie, who had taken the stuff with her, laid their things down and looked up as a whoop of joy she recognised sounded through the air.

Flying down from the cliff, dressed in his green swimming trunks, was Doug.

"DOUG?" She shrieked, covering her mouth as he landed with a massive splash. His head popped out of the water just seconds later, with a massive grin on his face. He looked over to the shore and grinned when he saw the other four there. He quickly swam over to them as the next person, who happened to be Ben, jumped from the cliff with a roar.

"Hey!" Doug called out, as he got on the shore. "You coming up?"

"What is happening?" Carlos asked, finally getting over his shock, "Isn't this dangerous?"

"Nah," Doug replied, "It's fun. We do it every year."

Ben appeared, suddenly, and was greeted with a slap to the chest from Mal, "Woah, hi to you too," he replied catching her hand, "What did I do?"

"What the heck are you thinking? You could hurt yourself!" she exclaimed.

Ben gave her a look, "Mal, come on. Would I do something like this if it was too risky?"

Mal narrowed her eyes but shook her head, "Okay, fine. Still, what is happening?"

Ben grinned, "Every first Monday of the summer we go cliff-diving. It's a tradition. Everyone at AP does it. A lot of people do it in the morning, or later this evening, but quite a few of us do it around this time."

"Come on, you guys!" They all looked over to see Chad emerging from the water, "Enough chatting, more jumping!" Chad began heading up the cliff again.

Ben just waved and turned back to the others. "Come on, it's perfectly safe." He held out his hand to Mal, who rolled her eyes.

"Hold on," she replied. She quickly removed the light purple summer dress that she'd been wearing and turned back to Ben as she tied her hair behind her back. Ben found himself feeling breathless, though it wasn't the first time he'd seen her in a swimming costume. It was simple deep purple one-piece with the sides cut out from the bottom of her ribs to the top of her hips. She looked beautiful in it. They grinned at each other as Mal finally took his outstretched hand and allowed him to lead her towards the cliff.

Evie also took off her dress and stood in her blue bikini that was dotted with red apples and tied around the back of her neck. Doug just stared for a while before being snapped out of it by Jay's sudden yell. Doug turned to just see Lonnie hit the water. He couldn't help but laugh at little at Jay and took Evie's hand, leading her away from the rest of the group.

Lonnie saw Jay and Carlos and excitedly went over to them. "Hey!" She looked amazing in her orange bikini, the top tied around her neck and the bottoms just long enough to class as shorts. "You guys coming?"

"Are you okay?" Jay asked, looking concerned as Carlos rolled his eyes, removing his shoes and following the others up the cliff, choosing to believe Ben when he said it was safe.

"I'm fine," she reassured him, taking his hands, "Come on. It's such a rush. You'll love it." When Jay looked hesitant, she squeezed his hands gently, "Tell you what, I'll jump first and wait for you. When you get down, I'll be right there to guide you to where you can stand."

Jay looked over at the water, where Audrey (apparently even pretty, pink princesses did this) had just landed. He looked back to Lonnie and nodded. Lonnie grinned and let go of one of his hands, using the other to guide him to where the others were all waiting. When they got there, they saw a group of people all waiting to jump, Jane at the front as she made a running start and leapt over the edge of the cliff. Carlos looked like he might faint but everyone else encouraged him to follow her so he did. He ran and leapt, a yell of fright leaving him as he did.

Ben looked over at Mal once they heard the splash of Carlos landing, "You or me first?"

Mal raised an eyebrow at him, "You've had your turn already. How about I show you how this done?"

"Oh, please do," Ben said, gesturing the edge of the cliff.

Mal grinned at him and ran, leaping off the cliff with a grace that she didn't know she possessed. The adrenaline filled her body as she shrieked with joy and hit the water. She wasn't the strongest swimmer but she could swim enough to get to the shallow part with little trouble. She heard a splash behind her and looked over her shoulder to see Ben pop up with a whoop. He swam towards her with a massive grin on his face.

"You really enjoy this, huh?" Mal said, wrapping her arms around his neck once he was close enough.

Ben laughed, "Yeah. This is one tradition I will miss."

"Well then, we should make the most of it, then," she replied. Ben leaned down and caught her lips in a gentle kiss which was interrupted by another splash.

"Come on, you love birds!" Jordan yelled as she came up, "Evie is about to jump! I gotta get a good view of this."

Mal and Ben both laughed and went to the shore to get a good view. They watched as Evie leapt off the cliff, her blue braid flying behind her as she flew through the air. They cheered when she hit the water and then headed up the cliff to join the others.

Jay waved at the two as they came up. He was the only one who wasn't soaked yet, so as he watched Doug leap after Evie, he knew his turn was coming next. He had already removed his shirt and shoes, so he was now sat in his red and blue panelled trunks. Lonnie smiled at him and squeezed his shoulder. "Hey, I'll be right there when you get to the bottom," she told him, "Don't panic when you hit the water. I got you."

Jay nodded. He was still nervous, wishing he'd taken the time to learn how to swim but with school and tourney and R.O.A.R, it just hadn't seemed like much of a priority. He knew there was no shame in backing out now, as everyone would understand, but he figured that was as good a time as any to try. Besides, knowing Lonnie had his back was all he needed.

Lonnie pecked him on the lips, "You got this, babe." And with that, she turned and took a running leap off of the cliff as everyone cheered her on. The moment she hit the water, everyone began encouraging Jay to follow.

Jay took a deep breath, grinned and sprinted towards the end of the cliff, closing his eyes tight as he leapt off the cliff. He felt the air rush around him and the adrenaline made him feel so alive. He then felt the cold water surround him as he plunged into its depths. Before he had a chance to panic though, he heard Lonnie's words play in his head "I got you". He broke the surface just seconds after and immediately he felt the reassuring pressure of Lonnie's arms surrounding him.

"You good, babe?" she said, holding him. When he nodded, she helped him swim until they could stand. He managed quite well and barely needed Lonnie's support, though he did still need a bit. "You wanna go again?"

Jay shook his head, "That was fun, but I think I'd rather wait a bit. You go ahead."

Lonnie laughed, "I've already been three times. Come on, why don't we go over there," she said, gesturing to an area away from the splash zone, "I can help you with your swimming. Or we can go back to shore if you'd rather. I don't mind."

Jay smiled at her, "I think I wouldn't mind getting a bit better at swimming." Lonnie smiled back and the two of them went to the area she had gestured to earlier.

Upon the cliff, everyone was cheering as Freddie jumped off the edge. Carlos and Jane stood together, hand-in-hand, watching their friends jump off the cliff together. Carlos looked over at Jane and took in her pale blue one-piece with a few frills across her torso and a cut-out back.

"You look really pretty," he told her with a slight blush.

Jane looked over at him and smiled gently, as her own cheeks turned slightly pink, "Thank you. You look really good too," she added.

Carlos grinned a little, looking down self-consciously at the white and black shorts and swim-shirt he was wearing. "I feel a little silly," he admitted, "The only guy wearing a shirt aside from me is Chad."

Jane shook her head, "Don't worry, you don't look silly. Besides, I think the idea of wearing a swimming shirt is smart. Reduces risk of sunburn," she informed him, "Chad says that's why he wears one." She then leaned in and whispered, "Though we all think it's because he doesn't actually have the six-pack he claims to have."

Carlos laughed, "It's probably both," he said, turning his attention to briefly to Ally, who had just jumped.

Jane nodded in agreement. "Seriously though, you look cute."

Carlos grinned at her and pecked her cheek. He realised that it was his and Jane's turn to jump, "I'll meet you down there," he said with a grin as he let go of her and leapt.

He'd just had enough time to swim out of the way when Jane landed. Carlos came up behind her and grabbed her around her middle, causing her to shriek. She turned around and hit his shoulder, "You're so mean!" Carlos laughed and pecked her lips. She parted from him with a little smile and then wrapped herself around him, laying her head on his shoulder, "I'm tired. Is it okay if we don't go up again?"

Carlos nodded and swam them over towards Jay and Lonnie. He spotted a large rock just past them and put Jane on it once he got there, staying in the water below her. Jane smiled at him before laying down on her stomach and leaning her head on her arms as she got lost in Carlos's big, beautiful, brown eyes. Eventually, they broke eye contact and the two of them watched their friends jump from a comfortable distance.

Evie landed in the water once before swimming to the shore, where Doug was just beginning to lay out towels for the two of them. "You're an angel," she said, as she stretched out over her towel, soaking in the sun. Doug just smiled and lay down next to her. She reached into her bag and pulled out her sunglasses, placing them gently on her face. Then she reached over and took Doug's hand in her own, enjoying the silence.

Doug looked over at Evie, who was facing the sky, and just admired her for a bit. He loved her so much, though he hadn't said it. But then again, nor had she. She didn't need to though. He knew from the little things she did. She had a rather special smile on her face whenever she saw him. She always went to him first when she had something to celebrate or when she needed someone to talk to. She was always willing to listen whenever he had something to say. She encouraged him and supported him. Her touches tended to linger like she didn't want to stop.

There had been times when she had almost said it but he always noted a bit of fear lingering in her eyes when she backtracked, so he didn't push her. He knew she needed time and it was something he was more than willing to give her. As he said, he didn't need words. He just knew.

Evie looked over to him with a soft smile and squeezed his hand, as though she knew what he was thinking. She sat up and watched her friends. Jordan, Freddie and Chad were among those still jumping; Ben and Mal were in a splash fight with Aziz, Ally, Jane and Carlos, as well as a few others; Audrey and a few of her girls had joined them on the shore and were also lying on a towel; Jay and Lonnie were swimming a little ways away from the group. Evie smiled as she looked around. If this was a tradition for the Auradon Prep, then Evie couldn't wait till other VKs had a chance to experience it. VK day was nearing and she couldn't wait.

Here you go, Owllover34! I hope it lived up to your expectations :)

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Response to Reviews:

kbear100: Thank you! And suppose so, if you really want to. If you end up doing it, make sure to send me a link ;)

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wildflowerchildGrace: I'm so glad that you liked it :) And hey, don't apologise. I don't care when you review. Just the fact that you do is more than enough.

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