The light from the bonfire washed over Laura. She looked around nervously. She had lived in Playa Linda her whole life, and yet she didn't know any of the people that walked past her. Sure a couple of them looked familiar, but none that she could approach and start a conversation with.

"Here you go." Laura jumped. Sara stood next to her, two cups in her hands, one of which was outstretched to her. Almost immediately after they arrived, Sara had disappeared, and Laura didn't really expect her to return.

"Uh, thanks." Laura took a small sip. It burned her throat as she swallowed. Sara looked at her. "Um, this is really good," Laura paused to take a look at the liquid in the cup. "Punch and vodka." Sara smiled triumphantly. While Sara was preoccupied with checking out some guy, Laura tossed the liquid into the fire, which grew a bit with the new fuel.

"I can't believe how well you clean up!" Sara commented, returning her attention back to the fellow blonde. Laura had traded in her signature jeans and vintage tee for a tiny jean skirt and a tank top. On top of that, her hair was falling down her back in soft waves and her big brown eyes danced in the firelight, rimmed in kohl eyeliner. The last time she was even remotely this girly, she was the flower girl in her father's second marriage. After the horrifying memories of ruffles and pink, Laura refused to wear anything that showed that she had a figure. Sara literally had to force her in the clothes that she wore now. All in all, Laura felt like a poser, and she was sure that everyone there could tell.

"But,"

"No buts! You look divine!" Sara gushed, her big green eyes scanning the crowd. "Look over there. That's Lucas and Bradin." Sara launched into a big tale about how Lucas was Tanner's younger brother, how Bradin and Tanner were like, rivals, and that Lucas and Bradin were now very close friends.

"So they're best friends?" Laura asked, confused.

"Oh no. Guys, especially surfers, refuse to use the words 'best' and 'friends' in the same sentence," Sara stated matter-of-factly. Laura gave her a perplexed look, but Sara was too busy flirting with some guy that had just come up to her.

"Uh, Sara…" Laura tapped Sara on the shoulder. Laura bit her lip, unable to decide if she should laugh or throw up. In a matter of minutes, Sara and the boy that had been dumb enough to approach her, were in the third quarter of their very intense game of tonsil hockey. Either her companion could no longer hear and lost all feeling in her left shoulder or she was ignoring her. A laugh sounded behind her, and the blonde jumped. Her eyes landed on a tall guy, with blue eyes and sandy brown hair.

"I'm Lucas," he said with another chuckle. He stuck out his hand for her to shake. She looked down at it and folded her arms across her chest.

"Laura." She gave him one of those 'I-know-what-you're-up-to-but-I'm-not-going-to-put-out' looks. He raised his hands, as if to say he wasn't guilty.

"You looked a little…lonely." Lucas's voice lifted at the end, making it sound more like a question than a statement. He stared at her intently. "Are you new here?" he asked after a minute or so of just staring at one another.

"Nope." She had no desire to engage in friendly conversation. She didn't even want to be there in the first place.

"Then how come I…"

"Haven't seen me before?" she finished. She gave him a thin smile but her eyes sparkled with annoyance. He nodded, intimidated by her aggressiveness. Instead of giving him a verbal response, she just shrugged her shoulders. He tilted his head and cocked a solitary eyebrow. When she didn't say anything, he grabbed her hand. Her head shot up, he brown eyes seeming to bulge out of their sockets.

"Come join me. We have some beers over there." Though he wasn't audibly laughing, you could see it in his eyes and catch it in his tone.

"But I don't drink," Laura protested, though she allowed him to pull her away from Sara, the strange boy, and the fire.

"We can change that," Lucas stated confidently.

"I don't think you understand what I'm saying," Laura stopped in her tracks, her eyes regaining their steeliness. "I. Don't. Drink," she reiterated, pausing between each word so that Lucas's surfer brain could comprehend what she was saying.

"Alright, alright!" Lucas gave in, pulling her again. She gave a frustrated sigh but complied with his tugging.

"Guy, this is Laura. Laura, these are the guys," Lucas introduced brightly. She looked at the handful of guys before her, all of which appeared to be surfers.

"Um, hello," she said uncertainly. "Do these 'guys' have names?" Laura asked, directing the question to Lucas.

"Of course we do!" a semi-short, dark haired boy exclaimed. She squinted her eyes at him and he drew back under her stare.

"Well yeah, but there's no point in trying to," Lucas began.

"Look," Laura interrupted. "While you guys may not be able to remember anything much beyond the number for 911, I myself can amazingly remember the names of six boys." Laura glared at the guy in front of her.

"She's a feisty one!" Lucas laughed. "Dude, can you get her a drink?" Lucas asked a very tall redhead, with a quick wink.

"Ah, I see. You can't tell me their names because you don't know them yourself! It all makes sense now." Laura really wasn't in the mood to be there. Maybe if she got to be in her own clothes and had been allowed to bring someone she could hold a decent conversation with, things might have been different. But throw a tomboy in a miniskirt into a pit with mindless surfers and you have the recipe for teenage angst à la mode.

"I'm Bradin," offered the boy that Sara had pointed out before. Laura sent an icy glare Lucas's way, and then turned to Bradin, a genuine smile playing across her face. She shook his hand.

"I'm Laura," she re-introduced kindly. Bradin smirked and brought her hand up to his lips, laying a sweet kiss on the back of her hand. Laura's eyebrow shot up as she tried to conceal the smile that was trying to spread its way across her face. Her eyes met with Bradin's emerald ones, both of theirs sparkling for some unknown reason.

"Here's your drink." Their eye contact broke and Laura pulled her hand away from Bradin as she looked at Lucas. He offered her a cup and she took it thankfully. She was kind of thirsty, since her first drink had been a bust. She brought the cup up to her lips and gazed over the brim at Lucas. His eyes focused on intently. She took a quick sniff and was almost knocked off her feet.

"How stupid do you think I am?" Laura shrieked, pouring the contents over Lucas's head. The group that had clustered there gasped and then burst into laughter.

"Wha…what? You didn't even drink any!" Lucas protested.

"Oh come on! You'd have to be an idiot to not recognize that as beer!"

"But it wasn't…"

"Oh God! Don't even try to say apple juice! I learned when I was five that mommy's 'apple juice' in the fridge wasn't the same as mine!" Laura growled.

"Like mother, like daughter," Sara laughed, coming up to the group. The guy who she had been in a major lip lock with had vanished.

"Huh?" some random surfer listening in questioned.

"Never mind." Sara waved her hand and turned her attention to Laura. "I'm beat, what do you say we head back home?"

"Meaning there aren't any appeasable guys left for her to swap spit with," Lucas whispered in Laura's ear. She giggled.

"Wait, so Laura's staying with you?" Bradin questioned.

"Nah, I'm staying with her. The parentals and I aren't really seeing eye-to-eye right now," Sara explained.

"Oh," was all that Bradin could think to say.

"So I guess I'll be seeing you around, then?" Lucas questioned, leaning in close so that no one else could hear. Laura turned to follow Sara down the beach. Lucas looked after her. Suddenly, she turned around, a good distance between them.

"We'll see!"

Special thanks to dramagrlkandykane33 Summerland ChickShellyTorialovelynsweetsam1Bsoxbabejessebradinsummerlandobsession, and renrie for your reviews! They mean the world to me! The more I get, the more excited I am to write, therefore I write more, and FASTER! I have this whole story planned out, and well...rumor has it, there will be a sequel. But that's all pending on the reviews that I get! So keep 'em coming! Questions, comments, suggestions, I'm open to them all! Keep on with reading! xoxox a24hoursmile