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"Your brother's hot," Valerie informed her newest friend, as they scoped out the fairground, "but his friend is even hotter."
"I guess," Abi tried not to show her embarrassment, "but they'd never show any interest in people our age. They're nearly nineteen and go to the Naval Academy at Annapolis. His friend is nice, but my brother's been really horrible since he came home. I wish he'd stayed there. They didn't even want to come today, but my Mom made them."
The girls watched as Jack and Harm started off at the shooting gallery, quickly drawing an audience of young and old alike.
"Who wants to go on the twister?" Sarah suggested, distracting her friend from the man-candy for a while.
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I can't believe we can't have any fun!" Jack huffed, hotly as he and his fellow plebe made a circuit of the fairground.
"Well," Harm pointed out, "we did kind of promise the Commander that we'd keep an eye on the other kids."
"We could still do that with a rifle in our hands," Jack maintained.
"Uh, I don't think that he'd really like us watching the kids," Harm joked, "and shooting off rifles at the same time!"
Jack just laughed along with him as they walked on, to find Abi in the line for candy-floss.
"Hey kiddo," Jack teased her, "looking for something to eat already? It's not even mid-day, yet."
"Shut up, Jack," the girl told him, threatening, "or I'll tell Mom when we get home!"
Jack just grinned, but Harm tried to distract the girl from her brother's teasing.
"Abi, would you get me some candy-floss, too?" he requested, handed her a ten-dollar bill. Hell, he hadn't had this stuff since he was about five years old and it was just plain sugar, but you only live once, don't you?
He gave Abi a toned-down version of the Rabb smile and she dutifully did as he requested, following them when they set off again. Jack didn't say anything about her tagging around after them, but Abi figured she'd be better off keeping quiet and not attracting his attention.
I just love your candy-floss, man," Jack teased his friend, "Pink is just your color."
"Shut it, Keeter," Harm bantered back, "or I'll tell everyone back at the academy about that naked baby picture your Mom keeps on your mantelpiece…"
This shut Keeter up, no problem.
"Hey, is that a trampoline?" Harm spoke up, after a second of pause and Jack and Abi turned to look in the direction that Harm was to see that, indeed, there was an arena of trampolines set up, along with bungee harnesses. This way, the people riding bounced much higher and were safer when they were doing flips and sommersaults, as it slowed their ascent back down to the mattress. It was virtually impossible to land on your head on one of these things.
"Hey look!" Abi forgot her silence, "There's Valerie and Sarah!"
Harm and Jack looked to where she pointed and saw two girls around the same age as Abi, whom they had briefly noticed when they boarded the bus. One had a massive frizz of red hair and pale, freckled skin and the other had tanned skin and long, dark hair that had a slight wave to it. The brunette looked like she knew what she was doing, because she was turning backwards and forwards sommersaults, but the other girl was trying, albeit unsuccessfully.
The group couldn't help but laugh when the red-haired girl tried to lean forward and do a forward sommersault, but only got her butt into the air then tipped back again before descending down to the mattress.
"That's Valerie," Abi told them, "she's pretty nice, but she never stops talking…"
"Unlike somebody we know," Jack teased, grabbing his sister in a mock headlock, but Abi was unconcerned and continued;
"The other girl is Sarah. She's really nice and she doesn't talk nearly as much as her friend. She's from Arizona, but she's here visiting Valerie, because they used to go to the same school before Valerie moved."
"We'd better keep moving on," Jack mentioned, as Harm and Abi stood watching Sarah turn sommersaults, "C'mon, Harm."
Abigail stayed there, waiting for her new friends to finish on the trampoline, while Harm and Jack carried on around the fairground.
In all, Jack and Harm didn't have nearly as bad a day as they had feared. They had even helped out some of the younger kids on the penny machines, showing them how to time it just right so that you got your penny on the ledge behind the other pennies, instead of right on top of them.
After a while, Jack looked over to where he spotted that his sister was just walking away from the hotdog stand with her new friends, Valerie and Sarah. It was then that his head cocked to the side, appraisingly, studying the slim little brunette.
"You know what?" he asked Harm, "She's got the makings of quite a little hottie."
Harm looked to where Jack was staring and looked aghast.
"What, the trampoline girl?" he asked, skeptically, "What is she, like twelve?"
"She's at least thirteen if she's here on this trip," Keeter pointed out, but explained, "But I wasn't saying that I thought she was hot…I merely said that she's got some of the makings to grow up into a hottie."
"I'm not usually in the habit of looking at thirteen-year-olds like that," Harm conceded, looking again to settle his own curiosity at what had attracted Jack's attention, "But I guess so..."
"However," he was quick to add, "just remember, Keeter; that girl's the same age as your little sister."
That was enough to trigger Keeter's embarrassment.
"I didn't mean it like that…Oh, never mind. Just forgot I said anything…"
He took off and Harm gave one last look in the direction of Abigail and her friends. The girl Abi had pointed out was quite tall and skinny, with long, dark hair, just the type Harm usually went for, but far too young, although she had more developed curves than most her age.
Harm let his thoughts on the matter end, here and took off after Jack.
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After they had finished their hotdogs, the young trio went in search of other rides and Abigail Keeter soon learned that Sarah had a daredevil streak in her. She loved all the sorts of rides that had her friend going green and it was not long before Valerie begged off, saying that she didn't want to find out what her hotdog tasted like on the way up.
When they reached a ride that was like a centrifuge machine that had riders stuck against the wall when it picked up enough speed, Valerie stayed at the side to watch, as Abi and Sarah went on. There was a catwalk around the top of the ride, so that people could get a good look at their family and friends on the ride and after a few minutes, Valerie got bored and went up there to watch the fun.
Jack caught sight of her when he and Harm walked past and, knowing that she was probably watching her friend and his sister on the ride, made his way up there, Harm following him.
"Hey squirt," he called down, when he caught sight of his sister, "careful you don't lose your lunch!"
She only stuck out her tongue at him and her friend next to her just laughed as Jack mimed being sick with his eyes crossed and funny expressions on his face.
Once the ride picked up speed, however, it was harder to recognize the riders individually, so he just leaned back with Harm and watched. As people stuck to the wall with the G-forces, some people were able to move about by scooting. Watching his sister and her friend begin to move up the wall, Jack straightened up again and took a ten-dollar-bill out of his pocket.
"Hey squirt!" he shouted down, "Ten dollars for you if you manage to climb up high enough to grab it."
He was not sure at first whether his sister had heard him, but she and her friend were climbing higher and higher, so he assumed that she had and kept holding out the bill in his hand. Abi, however, only managed to get so far before she couldn't move any more, but Sarah continued to make her way higher.
Jack let out a cry of surprise as the bill was suddenly snatched from his hand.
"Looks like you're ten dollars poorer, Keeter!" Harm laughed, slapping his friend on the back and Jack soon joined in, good-naturedly.
After that, the ride began to slow and Valerie tried in her own girlish way to engage them both in conversation, but Harm and Jack politely brushed her off and went to go and meet Abigail coming off the ride.
"Didn't think you'd manage to grab that bill," Jack smiled as Abi and Sarah walked out.
"Here's your money back…" Sarah shyly went to hand it back to it's owner, but Abigail quickly pulled her hand back, telling her, "No, way. That's ours, fair and square. Besides, he's got more money than he knows what to do with. He gets far more pocket-money than I get."
"That's 'cause I live away from home now, squirt," Jack told his sister, but made no move to take his money back.
"Why don't the three of you go and enjoy an ice-cream?" Harm suggested.
"Thanks," Sarah politely thanked the two of them, before taking off after her friends, who were already heading to the ice-cream stand.
"See," Harm told his friend, "They're not really bad at all."
"The little brunette isn't," Keeter replied, "But I suppose the other two aren't that bad either. Even the squirt."
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