'You know,' Marlene said, coming down the stairs from her bedroom, glass of firewhiskey in hand. 'I could get used to this life, just relaxing all day. No parents around, in a hot country.'

'I know right,' James laughed. 'Have you finished unpacking?'

'Yes, have you?'

He raised his eyebrows.

'Okay okay, I know, yes of course you haven't, but that's not the point. So,' she flopped down on the sofa next to him. 'Wanna go to the beach?'

She pointed out of the window at the view of the cove which was only for residents in the luxury hotel they were staying in. James' parents really had gone all out for this trip, getting two apartments which were away from everything else, not to mention they'd got ones with sea views for the owls easy access.

'Well duhhhh.' He jumped up. 'You wearing your swimming stuff?'

'Yep!'

'Let's go,' they ran towards the door.

'James! Marlene!' He stopped and rolled his eyes, twisted towards the apartment next door. ' Have you unpacked yet?'

'Yes Mum! We're both finished!' Marlene stifled a laugh as James lied through his teeth.

'Okay, well I take it you're going to the beach so have fun, we might join you down there later, and don't forget to lock up!'

'Oh yeah,' Marlene spun around to James. 'Do you have the key, cos' mines next door with your mum?'

'Yep!' James produced a silver key from his short pockets. 'Ready to go swimming?'

'Hell yeah!'

They ran out of the apartment, locking the door firmly behind them before sprinting off down the jitties seperating apartments. Past the table tennis table and the jacuzzi, and the pool, until running down the wooden decking which sloped onto the beach.

'Come on!' James took off his shirts and shorts, flinging his flip flops ontop of Marlene's bag.

'I'm going, I'm going!' She yelled, struggling with her vest top, while she just shrugged off her shirt. She somehow got the strap of her bright orange bikini caught in the top but she shook it free and raced towards the water after James.

'Come in Marly, it's amazing!' James laughed, dunking his head under the crystal clear water. 'It's not cold at all.'

'Lies!' Marlene yelled, but ran in anyway, screaming as she tripped and splashed down right next to James. Opening her eyes, the water was clear and she could see plenty of orange fish zooming about.

'It's not that bad is it, honestly?' James chuckled, flicking his wet hair from his eyes.

'No but-' Marlene stopped after catching sight of James' reaction to something. It was ever so slight, but his pupils flickered to the shore, watching something. 'What, what is it?'

'It's nothing,' he bit his lip nervously. But Marlene had already turned around and caught sight of her.

Her, was Hannah. A stunning spanish girl, of probably seventeen years old, had just walked out of the cafe, clutching an iced tea. She wore a black bikini which showed every curve of her body, which was fine, because she was tall, model like and slim. Her hair was a dark brown, and fell in loose waves around her shoulders and down her back. She had wide blue eyes, which contrasted beautifully with her skin tone and hair, making her look all the more gorgeous. She turned towards James, and instantly smiled, with very white teeth. He flushed slightly as she began walking towards the water. Weirdly enough, she resembled Marlene more than Lily.

'James?'

'Mmmm huh?' He turned towards her, biting his lip.

'You never told me you scored a nine!' She pushed his shoulder. 'Good for you!'

'A nine?' He looked slightly relieved although puzzled.

'It's a girls way of rating things. She's pretty hot, as girls go, good for you!'

'Hello?' Hannah reached them, smiling, and speaking with perfect english with a spanish accent.

'Hey Hannah,' James just had time to say that before Hannah liplocked him tightly, as Marlene looked away. Although she wasn't sure if it was more for the sake of James or her.

'Hi,' Hannah turned to Marlene. 'I'm Hannah Visioli. I'm James' girlfriend.'

Marlene felt like she ought to hate her because she wanted to ship Lily and although James and Marlene weren't shipped too much, she was way too nice and friendly.

'Hi,' Marlene grinned back and shook her hand. 'I'm Marlene.'

'So, how do you know James?' It was a harmless comment but she could see Hannah was nervous slightly.

'Oh I'm his cousin,' the words quickly rushed out and Hannah's eyes relaxed slightly. 'We go to school together.'

'I'm going to go and get some drinks from the cafe, I'll bring you a coke Marly.' James left rather quickly, looking slightly unsettled.

'Thanks!' She yelled. 'So Hannah, you and James?'

'Yeah,' Hannah grinned. 'He's a great guy, but well, he's not the exact one. Very close, almost the thing I want, but not quite. In Lebanese we would say-never mind actually. You don't happen to speak it do you?'

'No I don't,' Marlene laughed. 'You know Lebanese?'

'Oh yeah,' Hannah smiled. 'I'm part Lebanese, English and Spanish. Hannah's my middle name which is English.'

'SO what's your real name?' Marlene inquired.

'It's Jamila.' Hannah looked at her raised eyebrows. 'It means beautiful. But please, call my Hannah, it's easier to remember.' She smiled confidently, brushing a wave of brown from her face. 'So, what do you do?'

'Erm,' Marlene racked her brains. 'I have part time jobs in the holidays as a ministry-errr,' she kept a straight face, trying to save the conversation. 'Politician's intern. My parents work for the government you see and they're all into politics and stuff like that.' It seemed to do the trick. 'What about you?'

'I'm a full time model,' Hannah smiled. 'Although I don't know if I'm old enough really. I've got some experience but I've only done about eleven photoshoots so far.'

'Wow! That's amazing!' Marlene wasn't really shocked though. Hannah was obviously good enough to be a model. 'I'm kind of jealous actaully, I wanted to be a model when I was a little girl but then I went and screwed my hair up,' Marlene took a strand of her dry hair sadly. 'I was a bit of a,' she paused for second. Slut? Brat? 'You know what? Let's go with rebel. I was a bit of a rebel, so I dyed my hair black and then I went red, and then pink, blue, green. You name it, I'd dye it. And then when it finally all came out, my old blonde hair was horrible, dry, split ends, so thin, I hated it. So I just keep dying it black, although it's nearly come out now, it's growing blonde at the roots.'

Hannah nodded.

'You know what, my stylists coming over tonight, come over at, let's say, eight? And we'll have pizza and he'll give you back your old blonde hair.'

Marlene's eyes lit up. 'Really? I'll bring James by the way.'

'Obviously, and yeah of course.'

They began to wonder in to the shore slowly, towards James who was clutching two cans of diet coke. Walking slowly towards the deckchairs, Hannah's phone bleeped.

'Hey bab. Yeah, I'm at the beach right now. Yeah. No no, I'm with James and his cousin. Of course. Yeah. Will do. Okay, bye bab, see you!'

She turned to Marlene.

'Hey Marlene? I've got a call from my bestie Adriane. She's shopping and wants my opinion on something so I've got to rush. Is it okay if I leave you to tell James where I've gone?'

'Sure.'

'Thanks babe, see you tonight!' Hannah winked at me, then walked briskly away, making another call on her cell.

'Hey Marly.' James grinned at her, passing her the diet coke. 'You wanna go back to the apartment?'

'Sure!' They left slowly, excited for the evening.

Hey guys! So, I'd wrote a few more chapters after this one but they were just a little bit pointless. I feel like what I was writing was going quite a lot off topic so I deleted them all and I'm going to rewrite them. The point I'm trying to get at is Marlene is changing, and the James X Hannah is a bit more borderline sort of thing. Also, I'm sorry about Hannah's name, I know it doesn't sound very Spanish or Lebonese(y?). I'm also sorry about the fact I haven't updated for like, a million years. And as well, I'm going to be starting a new Percy Jackson fanfic because you know, I'm obsessed! :)