Thank you to gpotter, HankErin, dolphinchick2568, beautyqueen321, atruwriter, VolcanoGirl, LenaGirl, Peaches87 and Banana Belle for reviewing! You are all too nice.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Summerland. If I did, I would have way more money and wouldn't be writing on this crappy computer.

Enjoy! And I'm sorry it's so short.

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Erika Spalding crashed through the bushes into her backyard, then straight up the back stairs and into her house. She was in a towering temper, her dark eyes ablaze with fury.

"Where is she?" she screeched, throwing open doors, "Where is she?"

Her parents were sitting in the living room drinking coffee when she poked her head in and shouted.

"Erika, for the love of God, stop shouting," her mother said faintly, putting a hand over her heart, "Everyone within five miles can hear you."

"Good!" Erika cried, "You know what she did? She ran away from me today. I looked for her all day long and I couldn't find her! I could have been spending my time doing something better than babysitting that little brat!"

"Cal?" her father asked, looking confused, "But she's in her room. She said that you told her she could go home since you wanted to spend some time with someone at the surf shop."

"Bullshit."

"Stop it, Erika." Mrs. Spalding's face was red now. "Stop it right now. I don't care how you do it, but you and Callie need to find some way to get along. If she doesn't want to spend time with you, it's your fault, you know."

"Fine, whatever." Erika walked out of the room. She knew she was acting a bit out of line, but there was something about her cousin that made her feel like punching something. She had spent all day looking for her, and hadn't even made it to Bradin's lesson, not to mention all the time she had missed out on with Jay.

"Ohh, when I get my hands on her…"

She made her way down the hallway that led to the bedrooms in the back of the house. Callie had her very own bedroom for when she visited. She brought all of her things with her since she was going to be staying for a while, so it looked to Erika as though she was never going to leave, not exactly a happy thought.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she whispered as she threw open the door to Callie's room. She made sure to keep her voice low to ward off any parents that might want to do more yelling.

"Um, reading?" Cal looked up from her bed, eyes innocently widened.

"You know what I mean. Why did you do that today?" Erica fumed. Cal was still wearing that stupid lab coat. For some reason, it, along with the huge goggles, just served to tick the older girl off even more.

"You mean go actually have fun? Well, you were ignoring me, so I figured you wouldn't even notice I was gone," Cal said, flipping a page.

"You made me go through a lot of crap today."

"Oh yeah? You miss out on some of your make-out time with some guy? Maybe that Jay guy from the surfing place? Or is it someone else today? I've only been here for today and already I know my older cousin is the biggest tramp in-"

"Shut up," Erika hissed furiously, "If you're going to be here for the rest of the summer, just do it away from me!"

"Fine," Cal said conversationally, "But I would appreciate it if you stop spitting all over my floor. That's sort of disgusting."

"Do something like this again and you'll wish you never came here, okay?" Erika breathed.

"All right."

"I mean it."

"I'm sure you do."

With that, Erika slammed the door on her younger cousin and slumped against the wall, still breathing hard, throat burning with the sudden rush of tears that fell onto her cheeks. Part of her wanted to go back into Cal's room and wring her neck, and another part of her, a smaller part, fiercely wished they could be friends.

"Never going to happen," Erika sighed, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand, "I am never going to forgive that little brat."

She got briskly to her feet, feeling refreshed. She needed to go surf. If that didn't make her feel better, nothing would.

She went to her own room and grabbed her board. As she stood in front of her full-length mirror, tying her long hair into a ponytail she made a face. Everyone was always telling her she was beautiful. She supposed she was, since she had managed to ensnare the heart of more than one guy over the years, not to mention the recently arrived Bradin, though she would not let him know that she realized it. It was just getting more and more complicated now that she and Jay had a thing going again.

She frowned and threw on some flip-flops.

"Mom, Dad, I'm going surfing," she called as she reached out a hand to open the front door.

"All right, honey." Her mom seemed to have changed her tactic. Instead of yelling, her voice was now gentle. "And, sweetie, if all this feuding between you and Callie is about what happened four years ago, just let it go."

Erika, froze, not looking towards the living room. For a moment she trembled with rage. Then, without answering, she left her house, slamming the door behind her.

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"Hey, Bradin, will you help me with my batting for a little while? Cam is out with Nikki and no one else is around, I don't think. Well, Aunt Ava is, but she's cooking. Will you help?"

Bradin lifted his face from his pillow to look up at the slightly chubby, smiling face of his little brother, Derrick.

Bradin sighed. Why did Derrick always have to be so enthusiastic about everything? His little kid charm always made Bradin feel slightly guilty if he said no to whatever Derrick was asking.

"Actually," Bradin began slowly, "I'm not really in the mood to do anything but lie here for a while. Sorry."

"Oh." A slight frown flickered over the younger boy's face. "That's all right. I can go watch TV."

He began to shuffle out the door, but as he reached the threshold, he looked back, an uncommonly concerned look on his face that few children his age ever achieved.

"Are you okay, Bradin?" he asked, his voice small, "You don't really seem like yourself."

Bradin looked back at him, surprised. "Um, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

"Okay."

Bradin watched his retreating back. He felt bad about denying his little brother playing time, but he just needed to relax for a little while. Unless he was careful, he could sense that he was going to have a hard time on his hands. He didn't know what made him think it, he guessed it was just that ever since his parents died and he, Nikki and Derrick had come to Playa Linda he hadn't experienced anything but hard times, first with Erika, then Sarah…

He punched his pillow. It wasn't fair. Wasn't it time for him to have some real fun and not be caught up in all this drama?

"Starting right now," he said out loud, going to stand by his window, looking out at the glittering ocean, "I'm going to try to stay out of anything like that."

With that personal goal finally realized and said out loud, he suddenly felt better and took a deep breath, feeling refreshed and relieved. He began to bound downstairs, filled with new energy when a sharp twang pieced his leg.

He looked down at his bound foot and shrugged. "Well, first things first." He kept going, slowly this time. "Aunt Ava, I need to go to the doctor!"