Sora and Riku followed Kairi towards the spring near the center of the islands and they
all took a drink from the fresh water before crawling under the tree
roots and through the tunnel. The cave itself seemed much smaller than
any of them had remembered, but all the same sketchings remained. Each
picture triggered a memory and a story to go with it. There were
doodles of them battling make-believe monsters, sailing to new worlds,
and of course, the portraits Sora and Kairi drew of each other sharing a
paopu fruit.
Embarassed of what Riku might say, both Sora and Kairi hurried to leave
the Secret Place. Riku had seen their drawing before and although the
slight jealousy and self pitty would always remain, he had already
overcome the issue of Sora and Kairi being together without him. Riku
followed the two out through the tunnel with a satisfied smirk on his
face.
The three re-explored the rest of the islands for the next two hours
and stopped to share their specific memories of everything they saw.
Around three-thirty they were all in need of some refreshments when Sora
remembered their plan to get icecream.
They sailed back to the shore and re-hid their boats. Afterwards, they
headed back over to the boardwalk and found the familiar old ice cream
parlor called Ralph's. Sora ordered Kairi a white-Reese's italian ice,
a mint-chocolate chip brownie sundae for Riku, and a dual stick sea-salt
ice pop for himself.
They sat with their feet dangling off the boardwalk as they ate their
ice cream, and then decided to go for a quick swim before thier big
dinner.
Riku went off to change into his bathing-suit which he had brought in
his backpack while Sora and Kairi began to dig a hole using their
hands. When Riku came back in his black and red shorts, Kairi took his
bag and put it in the hole. She then covered the hole with a towel from
the bag so that it appeared to just be a towel layed out on the sand.
"Wow, pretty clever, Kairi." Sora snikered as he slid his shirts,
shoes, and pocket contents under the blanket.
"Ah, I was wondering where I'd leave all that stuff." Riku said,
already having put his shoes, pants, and tank-top into his bag.
Kairi removed her hoodie and shirt to reveal a dark pink bikini with
black trim that she had had on under her cloths. As she put her shirts,
shoes, skirt, and small bag into the hole, she noticed Sora staring
again.
She met his eyes and both blushed immediatley. Sora quickley tried to
act preoccupied but failed misserably. "Oh umm uhh Riku, how 'bout uhh,
race to the water? Ready-"
Riku's loud laughter stoped Sora's act as he began jogging down to the
water with Sora close behind and Kairi trying to catch up to the two of
them.
The water was cold but refreshing. After about half an hour of
wrestling, body surfing, and being yelled at by the life guard, they
decided to swim back to shore.
All of their gear was right where they left it when they got back, but
they decided to just roll out two more towels and lay there for a bit to
dry off. They had an interesting discussion about why guys seemed to be
naturally more capable with a hacky-sack, and then got changed back into
their regular cloths; Riku and Kairi just putting them over their
bathing suits.
Riku lead them to what he claimed to have heard was the best clam bar
on Long Island while Sora searched through his backpack for the suddenly
interesting hacky-sack. They put their names in at Pete's Clam Bar and
then decided to hack the black jolly-roger hacky-sack after all during
the forty-five minute wait.
Once finally seated and served, Kairi stuck to the safe pop-corn
shrimp, but Sora and Riku continually ordered plate after plate of all
kinds of shell-fish and mollusks. After the meal, they split the bill
total and completely cheated Kairi, but she knew this was the usual
setup to make up for all of the treats they covered throughout the day.
They left Pete's Clam Bar close to seven and decided to head back to
Destiny Islands to just talk and wait around until the sunset marked the
end of their day.