July 1st, 1998

"All day pass." Winter said, one arm out the window and one up on the top of the wheel. The lady at the kiosk window clicked her register a few times, before turning back.

"Twelve dollars."

Such a pointed exchange, I know. I yawned, watching my sister hand over three blue bills from her wallet. It was eight in the morning, and I was exhausted. This was Sand Banks Provincial Park, which is a three hour drive from Ottawa, so you can extrapolate how early we got up this morning.

"Thanks," came the bored reply of my sister, as she took her change and tossed the little reciept up onto the Pontiac's expansive dash. We rolled forward into the park with a cloud of blue-ish smoke in our wake. My eyes hurt from being awake for so long and since such a god-awful time in the morning. But it was was worth it today. It was Canada Day. There would be fireworks. So hell yeah I was excited.

"You two awake?" she asked, staring at us from the car's rearview mirror. "We're here now."

I looked over at Jaune. He was asleep against the door panel, his head rested on a rolled-up towel. My Cinderella towel, actually. I poked him in the ribs. "Wake up!"

"Ack!" he awoke with a jolt, almost falling out of his seat. Funny thing about old cars and my father's in particular was a distinct lack of seatbelts. They were an option back in seventy-three, an option that had not been selected by the car's previous owner. So watching Jaune slip off the slick vinyl and onto the floor was both hilarious and a guarantee. "Why would you do that? I was having a nice dream!"

"I don't care," I said, sliding over and poking him again. "We're here, and you need to be awake. You can sleep after lunch. Before we go swimming."

"But I wanna sleep now." He emphasized his point by rolling up the towel again and trying to rest his head on the door.

"Nope." I reached over and grabbed the towel out from under him, making his head hit the glass with a thunk.

"Ow! What the hell?!" he hit me with a pool noodle that had been on the floor, right in my face.

I retaliated with the rolled up towel, thumping him in the chest. Twice.

"Children, behave." came the stern voice from the front seat. "You can horse around when we get onto the sand."

"Yes, Winter." we said in unison, sitting down on our respective sides of the bench.

"Alright, good. Now, you two gotta help me look for a good parking spot."

I sat up on my knees and looked out the window. The line of trees broke into the long, skinny parking stalls that were along each side of the road. Most of the spots were filled with grey minivans that had likely been here overnight. Passed the first bunkhouse we went, and into the second parking lot.

"How about right there," Jaune said, gesturing out his window. "Next to the walkway and...whatever that is."

"That's not so bad, I'll see if we fit." she said, loping the big wagon around.

Now, this 'whatever that is' that Jaune was referring to was one of two things, number one; parked far too close to the line in the gravel, meaning the seven-foot-wide Pontiac that basically belonged to Winter now wouldn't fit with room enough to open the driver's side doors, and two; probably the coolest car I had ever seen in my life, and that's saying something.

This old, Japanese-imported Land Cruiser stood tall and proud on massive knobby tires, both the front and back were outfitted with huge, black steel brush guards, and a snorkel snaked up the side of the windshield. The army-sand body was suitably dirty and scuffed, displaying what looked like a solid life of adventure. The truck's roof rack was a mess of boxes, coolers, ropes, and a shovel. This old machine had a story to tell, for sure. Also, as an interesting note, it was wearing Argentinian license plates, so the story was a long one.

"Am I clear on your side, Weiss?" I checked out the window to make sure she had enough room to spare. Barely. The whole of my side of the car was on the line.

"Yeah, you're good." I said, shuffling back around.

"Alrighty, then! Let's get unpacked!" she said, shutting off the car and trying to step out of her door. "Right. Can't get out. Stupid wide-ass car."

"What happened to no bad language?" I interjected. Winter looked back at me with her best 'shut-up' glare as she slid across the front seat to the passenger door. Thank goodness for bench seats, or she'd have been trapped by the adventure truck in the next spot. We all got out on my side and circled around to the back of the car. Up went the glass and down came the tailgate with a metallic thump of vintage iron.

"Okay!" Winter slid some of the bags backwards and handing me two of them. "Take these, and grab the umbrella. Jaune, you get the noodles... and lunch, and I will take the cooler and the swim stuff."

I grabbed what I was told to, and Jaune jumped back in to grab the long foam floaties from the floor. With the umbrella in my hands and two bags of clothes over my shoulders, I was in no position to defend myself as he went ahead and smacked me on the top of my head with the purple one.

"Hoy! Why?!" I yelled it him. "I'm gonna get you for that!"

"Gonna have to catch me first!" he said, spinning around and taking off up the path that led to the sand. Oh, I was gonna catch him. I bolted after, my sandals having little traction on the soft dunes. As I came over the hill, I gave a quick scan for where the fool could have gone.

No fool should be left un-smacked, you see.

"C'mere! I'm gonna use you as the umbrella support!" I yelled, chasing the noodle boy across the sand.

My legs were gonna give out if I kept running with all this stuff in my arms, and as it turned out, Jaune was just plain faster in a straight line than me. Which didn't make sense, as I had beaten him in the fifty-meter dash during the track and field day like, three weeks ago. Here, we were both laden down with stuff, but somehow he was still winning. Curse that boy. Curse him!

"Jaune, wait, slow… slow down..." I panted, running low on steam. "We gotta...gotta wait… Winter..."

I collapsed into the sand, face first as my left leg gave out. Early morning sprints were not my thing, apparently. I could hear Jaune laugh. Like, really laugh. He started snorting, even.

"So, we gonna square up here?" he said, sauntering back over and squatting down in the sand next to my head. "You alright?"

My lungs ached. "Kill me." I rolled over in the sand, off of the umbrella that had broken my fall. My back now was covered in the course, irritating stuff. And we'd been here seriously for like two minutes. Good start to the day.

"Guess we're staying here. Good choice. There's no one else around." Jaune said, taking my bags from me and standing the umbrella upright. I lay my arm across my face.

"I hate you for making me run. And I hate you for hitting me with a noodle." I coughed up at him.

"Here, I'll give you a noode so you can get back at me." he said. I opened one eye to see if he was being genuine.

He was not. He hit me again.

/…/

I crunched my Froot Loops.

"This is odd for me." Winter said, taking a spoonful of her own.

"Why's that?" Jaune asked, eating his toasted bagel.

She swallowed with a quiet grunt. "Never before have I eaten breakfast, in a swimsuit, on a beach before. It doesn't feel right. I mean, I've never been in a swimsuit this early in the morning before!"

"No, eh?" I said, digging my feet into the sand idly as I ate. "What's the latest you've been?"

She tilted her head back. "Well, maybe this counts as early, actually. Or late. It was one-thirty in the morning."

"When the heck was this?!" I said, amused. "When were you swimming at one a.m.?!"

"Back in January," she paused to swallow and put her empty bowl down. "I went to a frat party with two of my friends, and there was a hot tub up on the roof of this guy's apartment. Probably not a safe place for one, but whatever. Not my house, not my problem."

I remembered the time she meant. "Hey, but you said you were going over to your friend's to study!"

A spoon was pointed in my direction. "Yes, that's what I said."

"Why would you lie?"

"Do you really think mom n' dad would have let me go to a Carleton frat party? Number one, I don't even go to that school, and number two, it was a frat party. I think there was a whole liquor store worth of booze there."

I blinked. "Okay, fair point. By why'd you lie to me?"

"Couldn't risk you telling. Even by accident."

"And telling me now is okay?"

Winter reached back into the cooler and pulled out an orange juice box. "It's been seven months. I think there's just about nothing they can do about it now. Besides, I know Jaune won't tell. He's afraid of our parents."

"What? Nah, he's not." I turned back to Jaune, who had finished his bagel and was watching the waves. "Right, Jaune?"

"Nope, Winter's right. Your dad scares me." He looked back over at me, making a funny face. "I don't trust sentient mustaches."

Winter snorted her juice out her nose.

/…/

The little monster truck bounced aggressively along the sand. I spun the steering wheel to the right, watching the little front tires turn and dig in. The truck pivoted, wheelying forward as I grabbed the trigger as hard as I could. The tall springs soaked up each impact with the rough sand as it sped past my feet, tossing sand from the rear tires with gusto.

"Hey, watch where you're driving" Jaune yelled as I drove the little black truck past him, sitting in the sand. "I'm building, here!"

"Sorry!" I called, completely not sorry. I would have promised that it wouldn't happen again, but let's be honest. It would absolutely happen again.

I kicked the truck around in a circle on the wet ridge of sand near the water, throwing two long rooster tails from behind my new favourite toy. Along with a fantastic, brand new Casio synthesizer complete with forty-five different instrument voices, Winter had bought me this fabulous little Japanese radio-controlled montser truck for my birthday this year. It had come in a box full of pieces with assembly instructions, all in Japanese mind you, with a new radio and servos included with it. Taken me something like three days to build the thing. It was the greatest thing to cause havoc with.

So I did just that, driving straight into the side of Jaune's sand castle. The little castle came to pieces, exploding in a mist of sand and sea shells. Jaune just looked down at the little black pickup as it sat where his prestigious fortress once stood. He looked over, a glare coming to his face.

"What did I just say?" he asked, holding his shovel out in front of himself like he was brandishing a sword.

"Watch where I was driving."

"Yeah. What do you call this?" He pointed down at the truck with emphasis.

"I was watching, though. I knew exactly where it was going." I grabbed the trigger again, and the little electric motor spun the rear tires with full force, trying to get the heavy vehicle un-stuck from the castle remnants.

"Oy!" he yelled as sand went everywhere. Again, not even sorry.

The truck broke free as he hit it with his shovel, taking off down the sand again. It only made it about thirty feet or so before coming to a slow stop. I squeezed the trigger again. The truck moved no more. It was out of battery.

"Aw, man. It's dead." I said, my shoulders drooping. "Eh, well. Guess that's done."

I strolled slowly over to it and picked it up by the front bumper and brought it back over to where Jaune was sitting. I sat beside him.

"You out of juice?"

"Yeah," I said, pulling the body pins off and lifting the not-quite-a-Ford body off the chassis and unplugging the battery pack. Jaune stopped rebuilding his castle for a minute to look at what I was doing.

"Did you bring a second one?" He asked, poking one of the big rubber tires.

"That was the second one." I slid the body back on and replaced the clips.

"That's a shame." He said, going back to his castle. "Here, you're gonna help fix this."

I was forced a shovel. I guess it was only fair. I had destroyed his castle, and now I was responsible for building it back up.

"Arright." I slurred, setting the truck and radio aside. The little castle had been only a few buckets wide, so it took us only about five minutes to get it back to a form we could work with. One bucket of sand at each corner, and two small ones in the middle for the main gates. "Hey, you know what this castle needs?"

"Mmwhassat?"

I grabbed his other bucket, a worn out blue one. "A moat!" I said, excitedly. A moat would be the only logical addition to such a fine institution. I dug the bucket into the sand, carving a deep trench across the front area of the castle. With the bucket full of sand, I re-distributed it to make walls between the castle towers in each corner.

"You gonna fill it with water, too?" Jaune asked, carefully sculpting each tower so it would be rounder and sturdier.

"Of course," I said, digging the second side of the moat. "A moat without water is just a trench, and trenches can be overcome with rappelling equipment. So yeah, it's gonna have water. And sharks."

"I thought sharks couldn't survive in fresh water." he said, gesturing to the water. "And I'm pretty sure the Great Lakes are fresh water lakes."

I made some more walls, placing a few broken seashells along the top edge of them. "Bull sharks can swim in fresh water, and they're really big so they should scare away anyone who wants to invade our castle." I dug the back side trench with gusto.

"Since when is this our castle?" he asked, building some sticks up as wall reinforcements.

"Since always, Jaune. I'm the queen, and you are a loyal knight of the approximately square castle."

"Hey! It's clearly my castle! You tore it down!"

"Yeah, I conquered it. Then I took its population, i.e. you, and had them rebuild the castle for my new reign." I carefully explained. It was rightfully my land now. "You've never played Risk or Catan?"

He looked dumbfounded. "No! My castle!"

"Nuh uh. Martial law under my monarchy." I dug the final trench. "And now I'm gonna fill the moat of Schnee Castle. Excuse me."

I stood up, walking calmly away from his irritated grumblings. He should know how the rule of my kingdom works, he'd agreed to become a knight of my table two years ago. Besides, now that I was older, my kingdom's land had expanded to all of Ontario. Any castles built on that land were now mine, no questions and no arguments. Unless he wanted to go to war over it. He would loose any war with me, though. I was still taller and stronger than him, so he would have to yield. Ha.

I got to the wet sand at the edge of the water, careful to step over the bar of broken shells that sat at the waves' edge. I dipped my toes into the absolutely frigid waters of Lake Ontario. Like seriously my god was it freezing. Even though it was July. I stepped in deep enough that the waves lapped at the cuffs of my cargo shorts, dampening them to a dark brown colour. My feet cramped as I got a whole bucketful of the icy water, before getting out of the painful situation as quickly as possible.

Once I got back up the long beach to where Jaune was building, I knelt back down in the sand, the soft material clinging to my wet shins. I noticed as I got back that he had carved a large 'J' into the outside of the walls. That would be remedied soon. Without saying anything, I carefully poured the large bucket of water into the trench, watching it fill in the four sides to about an inch deep. Not nearly enough. I stood up again.

"Hey, can you get me some more shells and sticks while you're down there? I need more for the floor," he asked, carefully laying out some small pieces of driftwood in the castle courtyard.

"Yeah, no problem," Traitor. "Of any size or just anything?"

He shrugged. "Eh, anything will do."

I nodded, taking off across the sand again.

By the time we had finished making the castle whole, it had grown by about a foot in each direction, with a full moat that only needed minor refilling every so often. The Front Gate had a proper archway that Jaune had made using some bucket tricks, and each of the corner towers was twice as high and were complete with little ramparts around the top. It had come together quite well, actually. If I do say so myself.

"Hey, you two!" Winter called as she sauntered over, three glass bottle in her hands. "You guys want some drinks?"

She sat down on her knees in the sand next to our castle. Her flowery bikini was a certainly stark contrast to her usual high-necked blouses and t-shirts she wore to work. But swimsuits were not a thing either of us wore very often anyways. There was not really any opportunity to. We didn't own a pool or hot tub, we never went to the community centre next to my school, and we never made family day trips to the beach or water park.

Maybe it's a German thing, the desire to avoid water. Or maybe it's the aversion to group activities. I dunno. Back in Hamburg, there wasn't any community centre, and the nearest beach was in the North Sea. So swimming was never a thing for us, and hence neither were swimsuits.

"Yes, thank you!" I sad excitedly, taking the clear bottle of orange soda.

"Thank you, Winter," Jaune said, cautiously taking his own lime green soda. "I didn't know you brought these. Mom says I can't have sugary drinks."

"Pshaw, you can have whatever you like, you're ten. Besides, where is your mother?" she asked, using all of her rather brutish rugby-strength to pop off the metal top without a bottle opener.

"Back in Ottawa..."

"Exactly," she said, tipping her root beer up and taking a drink. "She gave you to me for the day, so my rules. Drink up."

"Okay." he opened his using a corner of his shirt. Our bottle were mercifully twist-offs. "Do you like our castle?"

Winter stopped halfway through carving her name into one of the walls with her finger. "Uhh..."

She'd been caught red handed trying to take over. Not on our watch.

"You guys wanna go swimming?"

A classic distraction tactic. Unfortunately, it worked.

/…/

"Again, again!" I cheered, paddling up to where Winter was standing. She laughed, obliging me and turning around. Her hands gripped up under my armpits and she lifted with all her might, tossing me a good six feet away.

"Whee!" I yelled as my body hit the water again, near where Jaune was floating in his inner tube. My sister's morning rugby practice certainly gave her adequate me-throwing abilities. I had seen a few of her games, and with the way she could toss around girls twice her size, I knew I had to get myself tossed into the water here at the beach.

We were way far out in the water, where the shoal was only waist deep again. Well, waist deep for my tall-ass sibling of course. It had been a bit of a swim for myself and Jaune to get out to this point, as the water was too deep to walk through. We had shared the inner tube, crammed up against one another like sunburned sardines. This part of the beach was nice, though, as the tides had made a ridge of sand about half a kilometre out from the land. Not many other people were out this far, choosing the shallows as a safer place for their own children.

But we were not Winter's children. I mean, obviously. So she had had no problem getting us through the deep water to the ridge of sand out here. The water was nice and cool this far out, unlike the warm, stagnant pools that collected up at the water's edge, so my sunburn felt better.

"Again!" I cheered, swimming up to Winter. She chuckled down at me.

"Does Jaune want a go?" she asked, grabbing his tube and floating him closer.

"Nah, m'okay." He said, using her hip to kick off from and float slightly away from us. "I don't really like swimming very much."

Party pooper. After Winter have me another toss into the water, I swam back over to Jaune. He seemed far to complacent. And far too dry. I frowned. He looked up at me through his sunglasses. "What?"

"Mm, nothing," I said. An awful, wonderful idea filled my head.

"Arright." He closed his eyes again. I cleared my throat to get my sister's attention. She glanced over. I wiggled my eyebrows at her. Her wiggled back. I looked down, then emphasized my gaze at the waves. This wicked, evil grin came to Winter's face.

Clearly, she had the same idea as me. Excellent. She pushed her way through the waves, over to the right side of Jaune's tube, and I took up residence at his left. My hands found the underside of the blue rubber ring he was lounging in.

"Hey, buddy..." I said, making him open one eye at me.

Winter gave me the signal.

"GO!"

We both lifted with all of our strength, sending Jaune flying out of his tube and into the cold, refreshing lake. He shrieked like a siren the instant his butt left the tube, all the way until the last of his toes was submerged in the blue depths. After a few moments of splashing, he resurfaced, his once sun-bleached hair now soaked and clinging to his forehead. I laughed.

"What the hell was that for?!" he demanded, sending a wave of splash in our direction. I splashed back.

"That's for shooting me with that Nerf gun," I said, managing to avoid the next splash. "You deserve it."

He swam back over. "Wha- that was last year!"

I shrugged. "Eh, too bad."

"No!" I received a face full of water. He got two back. "Not even a little bit the same!"

I splashed over, giving my best attempt at tossing Jaune. He was, of course, both too heavy and too elbowy for me to throw any further than a few inches, so I ended up basically just aggressively hugging him around the stomach. Awkward.

I gave up on throwing him after receiving a particularly torrential splashing, retreating behind my sister. He tried to splash me again anyways, even though the six-foot-three wall of abs and dyed hair stood menacingly in his way. Always was brave around her, I found. Like she was one of his own sisters. Good thing, too.

I caught the laughter in his yell as he was easily lifted and tossed backwards into the lake again.

/…/

The air was chilly as it cut through my hoodie. My breath came out in little puffs of condensation. Which was totally bogus, as it was JULY. I huddled closer to Winter on the towel we were all sitting on. She hand one arm around each of us, trying to keep us close in the dark of the evening.

"You kids got your plugs in?" she asked, although I barely heard it as, yes, I had my earplugs in. Jaune shivered from his side of Winter, justifiably. The temperature had dropped well below a comfortable level after the sun had gone down. Jaune had been graciously given her thick navy blue uOttawa hoodie to keep warm in, and I had my giant, oversize black hoodie that had been gifted to me on Christmas. It was designer. Thanks, Winter.

"When's it gonna start?" I asked, snuggling closer and trying to mooch as much warmth off my sister. I yawned, watching the water.

"Soon, sweetheart." she said, pulling both of us closer. I could feel her shivering as well. "Hey, look."

I looked out to where she was gesturing to. A barge had been pulled out to the shoal we'd been playing on earlier, before dinner. We'd gone out to the little town of Picton, just a few minutes down the street from the beach. The little diner had some of the best wood-oven pizza I had ever had in my life, even to this day. And it was was do it's best to keep me warm with the lingering hints of the delicious sauce, but the cold air was winning. After a few more moments of watching the barge move along the shoal, it came to a stop, almost right in our line of sight.

"Alright, it's starting, shhhh"

Now, a visual light show would not require a shushing, but it felt like the right thing to say in the moment. And given the volume of the show, even loud shouting would be drowned out. However, they hushed up anyways.

One lonely flare fired up from the barge. The bright red ball went up to about fifteen hundred feet or so, not accompanied by anything or anyone else. If this was the fireworks show, I was sorely disappoin-

BANG BANG

Two huge balls of fire exploded right next to the flare, right up above where we were sitting. The sky filled with beautiful reds and whites as the mortar shell blew its contents in two huge spherical displays. See, normally when you watch fireworks displays you see them from afar, so the light happens in the display, then after four or five seconds the bang hits you. Not so in this case. Being on the beach meant literal front row seats. So the light and the sound happened at the same time.

"Wahhhh!"

I jumped out of my skin, shrieking and clenching down on the nearest piece of other person to me. A small, boyish hand. It didn't resist, so that was a good thing. I kept the hand gripped in mine as the next two explosions went off right above us again. The shapes this time were clearly lopsided, but identifiable as maple leaves. I smiled, still shaken by the shockwaves as they hit the ground and reverberated through us. I felt Winter press her nose into the top of my head to try and comfort me, which did work, actually.

The show continued very vibrantly, with every colour of the rainbow accounted for, interspersed with Canada Flag mortars every so often to drive home the point that this was the day in which my foster country celebrated its independence. Eventually I stopped gripping down on Jaune's hand after every explosion, but I certainly never let it go. It was warm.

It was nice to feel like I was where I was supposed to be. A place where my family was, more importantly my friends were. Germany never felt like home to me for some reason. Maybe it was the claustrophobic house, and the impartial school and the fact we never did stuff like this. No beach trips, no dinners out. Nothing exciting.

But here, on the shores of Lake Ontario, with my sister and my best friend Jaune, I felt right.

All was well.