And this my friends is chapter four. Summer begins now.
...
Chapter Four: Summer Solving
"Ah! I always did love the beach!" K.C. stretched languorously as she lay down on her beach towel. Her skin, already tan, looked like sweet chocolate. Next to her Ashley lathered on the sun screen, freaked of the sun to the point of being terrified to come out of her house. She burned easily.
"I do too, it's the sun I have issues with." She glared at it through her designer sunglasses. "Why do you have to be full of poisonous UV rays? Do you live just to give us humans skin cancer?" The blonde flopped down on her towel and pulled a book out of her bag.
K.C. had decided that the group spend the first day of summer at the beach. Ashley had to be persuaded. Much of the coaxing came from Tasuki, who had sweet talked and kissed her out of spending another day indoors reading a book. Chelsea and Tama agreed at once. It would be a good way to spend time together, as the three girls were now busy spending time with their respective boyfriends.
Chelsea took her friends out shopping for new swimsuits. All three had bought one pieces; Ashley a white one with a navy blue skull and cross-bones on the right hip, K.C. a red and white Speedo, and Chelsea a turquoise with a large, white Hawaiian flower in the middle.
"Come on love!" Tasuki called from the water. "The waters great!" Like K.C. he looked edible. Ashley looked down from her book, back up to Tasuki, back to her book, and with an exasperated sigh put it back in the bag. She stood up and ran to the water, going in without stopping.
"I don't know how she can do that," a voice commented. K.C. looked up to see Chelsea and Tamahome standing behind her. "Isn't cold?"
"Nope. I've been in already, just taking a break," K.C. responded as Chelsea and Tamahome put down their towels next to her.
"Where's Chichiri?" Tama asked.
"At the snack shack, getting us some drinks."
"Alright. Watch my stuff for me Chels?" He kissed her forehead before heading off in the direction of the shack. Chelsea sighed dreamily as she watched him trot off.
"He looks so good without his shirt on," she breathed.
"No comment. But I have to admit I think the same with Chi. And Ashley, I think she lives off of Suki's abs," K.C. responded, putting some sun screen into her hands. "Glad you could make it. I thought I was going to be stuck with those two boys all by myself. They're like children and Ashley's no help at all." Chelsea pulled her hair away from her back while K.C. rubbed the sun screen in. The two friends caught up on news while they watched Ashley and Suki. It wasn't long before Chi and Tama joined them, handing the group drinks to Chelsea and K.C. before sprinting for the water.
The three boys flirted with Ashley, picking her up onto their backs and spinning her around, or showing off their swimming speed. She laughed, turning to look over her shoulder at K.C. and Chelsea. She rolled her eyes briefly before Tama and Chi demanded her attention.
"You know she just rolls in the attention," Chelsea said as she stood up. "Come on, I say we go rescue her."
"I'm all for it." The two girls ran full out for the ocean. Chelsea pounced onto Tama's back and the two fell beneath the waves. Seconds later they popped back up. K.C. started a splashing war with Chi, and before long everyone was involved. After long hours of goofing off and swimming, with Ashley going to shore periodically to put on more sun screen, Chelsea called it quits and made for the beach. K.C. followed her and then Tama, leaving Chi, Ashley, and Tasuki in the water. It wasn't until the sun was going down that they came in. Ashley yawned as she sat down on her towel.
"I'm beat. Anybody else ready to go home?"
"I am," Chelsea said. While waiting for the others she had packed up, so the only thing left for them to pick up was their towels. She handed Ashley, Chi, and Tasuki bottles of waters so they could rinse off their feet before putting on their shoes.
"So Ashley, was that so bad?" K.C. asked, picking up the towels and handing them to their owners.
"No. I didn't get burned." K.C. rolled her eyes. "And yes, I had fun."
"Good. That's all I wanted to know." The friends started for their respective cars. Tasuki hoisted Ashley up onto his back.
"You guys going to come over tonight?" he asked. "Ashley said that that was part of the plan."
"Yep. We'll meet you there," K.C. said, tugging Chi towards his red Mustang. "But first I gotta go home and get some pajamas. Of all things it's those I forgot."
"Chelsea and I will stop at the video store to pick up some DVDs. Any one's in particular?"
"Horror," Ashley muttered, closing her eyes. "Some nice horror films." She rested her head against Tasuki's shoulder. Parting ways Tasuki trudged over to Ashley's white Lexus. Being careful not to jostle her too much he opened the passenger door and gently set her down. As she yawned and rubbed at her heavy eyelids he buckled her in.
"You think you'll be able to stay up?" he asked as he knelt down beside her.
"Sure, just give some sugar and I'm good to go." Tasuki smiled at her, and she returned it with a tired one. "All I want to do right now though is get home."
"You've definitely been out longer than you must be used to," he teased. He kissed her lips gently. "Have we got enough sugar and snacks?" he asked once he was in the driver's seat.
"I made sure to pick some up while I was with Chelsea and K.C. the other day," Ashley answered. She snuggled down into her seat. "The first thing I'm gonna do when I get in is take a nice hot shower. Then I'll take a nap, and when you wake me up I'm going to eat a Twinki."
"I'm not sure that'll be enough," Tasuki commented as he pulled out of the parking lot.
"Trust me, it'll be enough. Especially if it's after eight."
...
And enough sugar it was. Ashley was up and energized from that one Twinki, and kept adding fuel to the fire with soda and more sweets. The horror films also added their bit. The room was filled with screams. At one point in The Pulse, as one of the computer creatures was wriggling out of a washing machine, Chelsea was screaming hysterically. K.C. and Ashley joined in for the fun of it, but midway Ashley starting cracking up.
When the others looked at her as if she was crazy she said through her giggles, "What? He looks like an octopus."
It continued on into the night and into the early morning to four. All six of them passed out cold, even Ashley once the others made her stop eating sugar around one, with the TV still going.
Ashley was the first to get up, around two in the afternoon. She stepped around the others on her tip-toes and made her way into the kitchen. She quietly poured herself a glass of cold milk to wake herself up. She poured herself at least three more cups in the course of fifteen minutes. At the padding of soft footsteps she turned to find Tasuki in the doorway, rubbing sleep from his amber eyes. He smiled at her tiredly.
"Still sleepy?" she asked in a whisper, making her way towards him and kissing him.
"Just a little. How about you?"
"Darling I was born tired." She took another swallow of her milk. "But I'm slowly starting to wake up. Are the others still asleep?"
"Chelsea might as well be for all the activeness in her. K.C. woke up only to move onto the couch and fall back asleep. Tama and Chi are putting away the sleeping bags and pillows. I just finished cleaning up the candy wrappers," Tasuki answered.
"Think I should make everyone 'breakfast'?"
"Nope. Chi said as soon as he's done he going take K.C. home, and Tama is giving Chelsea a ride to her place." Tasuki yawned. "I'm going to go upstairs and going to take a proper nap." He kissed her 'good-night' and left. Not too much later Tama came in with a sleep-walking Chelsea to give her good-bye hug. Chelsea just barely managed a 'see ya later' before Tama had to carry her out to his blue Corovet so she didn't pass out on Ashley's kitchen floor.
Chi came next and gave her two kisses good-bye. One from K.C. and one from him. He ruffled her hair playfully and left, picking K.C. up off the couch on his way out. Ashley slowly made her way into the living room and looked at it. It was clean and empty save for the furniture. The TV was off. The sudden stillness made her feel strangely lonely. Frightened she ran up the stairs to her bedroom, where she found Tasuki curled up on her bed. Relief coursed through her as she quietly closed to door behind her, stepped up to the bed, set her glass of milk on the nightstand, and crawled onto the bed next to him. He woke himself up enough to wrap an arm around her waist, draw her in close, kiss her hair, and fall back asleep.
...
"Teanna emailed me to say she's coming back for a visit," Chelsea announced. She and her girlfriends were spending another day together. The boys were also spending some quality time together. While the girls were out at an old hangout the boys were at the arcade. At the moment the girls were eating a picnic that Ashley had packed.
"Tea? It's about time. I missed her. When's she coming?" Ashley asked. K.C. listened quietly, eating her sandwich.
"This weekend. And she says she's got some news."
"Good or bad?"
"She didn't say. All she told me was that it would set us off, and I think she meant in a bad way."
Ashley picked up her bottle of strawberry lemonade and thought deeply before taking a swallow. "I'm excited to find out."
...
"Nuriko?"
"Hey boys, did you miss me?" Chi, Tama, and Suki gaped as their old friend Nuriko stepped up and gave each of them a hug.
"How long have you been here?" Suki asked, returning the gesture.
"About a week." A dark frown suddenly corssed his pretty face. "Hotohori is here too."
"What's with the evil look?" Chi asked, returning to his video game.
"Yeah, I thought you loved the guy," Tama asserted quietly. Nuriko shook his head.
"I'm done with the gay stuff. Met a girl who knocked it right out of me. Unfortunately Hotohori is after the same one, or was. He made a mess of it. Nearly killed the guy. Tea said to leave it though, that she had bigger plans for him. I guess hell really hath no fury like a woman scorned." He sat down at one of the game consoles but didn't play.
"So tell us about this...Tea you said her name was?" Tasuki asked, turning away from the game he was playing. The race car he was driving crashed and burned but he didn't care.
"Her real name is Teanna. She looks like a pixie, with dark red hair cut in said style. She's about 5' 6'', has freckled skin, and green eyes. She's coming over to visit her friends this weekend, which is why I'm here."
"Wait, what's the reason? Us, or are we the reason that's not really the reason?" Tasuki asked.
"The second one," Nuriko answered. "How have you guys been anyways?"
"Extremely good," Chi responded. Nuriko looked from boy to boy.
"Do tell," he urged. "Details please, details." Silence fell upon their group.
"We met some girls on our first day here," Tama put in. "Over time we got to know them and ended up dating them."
"That's cool. How did you guys meet?"
"Stopped my girlfriends ex-boyfriend from beating her to death." Nuriko sat stunned. "Her name is Chelsea, and she'd been dating the bastard for a while. He was the abusive type. He'd hit her anytime he was mad. She told no one, save her friends. They did everything they could to make him stop, from threats to him to telling the authorities. No one believed them because Chelsea wouldn't fess up. K.C. had to do jail time because she followed through on one of her threats."
Tama sighed and scrubbed a hand through his hair. "I would have taken her home with me, but K.C. took care of her afterwards. Met her at school the next day. You'd never know if anything was wrong with her. She was a little tense at first, not sure if she wanted to know us or not. Luckily she decided that she did. The time I realized I was in love with her was when we were at the fountain at school about a month later, eating lunch. Dropped down on one knee right there and asked her out." He laughed. "She blushed so red I thought she would turn into a strawberry. She responded that she would have to think about it. I don't if she asked her friends for advice, as girls usually do, but she came to me the next day and agreed to go out with me. I let her pick the first date, as her ex never let her pick at all."
Nuriko blinked. "Wow. Wish I could've been there to help. And who is K.C.?"
"My girldfriend," Chi said, pretending to focus on the game he was playing. Nuriko stared at him a while then turned to Suki and Tama and mouthed 'He has a girlfriend?' "Yes I do Nuriko. Next time ask outright." Chi finished his level before continuing. "I met her the same night Tasuki and Tamahome met Chelsea and Ashley. After the incident with Jacob, Chelsea's ex, Ashley called K.C. She arrived moments before the police did. If I hadn't restrained her she would have probably killed the boy. I've never seen anyone so pissed off. Well, Ashley has. She's a little fiendette when it comes to anger."
He tapped the screen of the game console lightly. "Like Tama I met her again at school. I asked her how Chelsea was doing. Conversation just picked up from there. She's real easy to talk to. Got to know us faster than the other two. I realized I loved her during PE, less romantic than Tama's. Asked her then and there if she would go out with me." He turned to look at Nuriko and smiled. "She said yes after contemplating if with herself for a few seconds. The next day Ashley came up to me and told me to treat her right or else. They're real protective of each other. She let me pick the date, said it's the man's job to have it all set up."
"Impressive Chi. I'm proud of you. And let me guess Tasuki, Ashley is your girlfriend?" Tasuki nodded, leaning back against the steeringwheel of the game he had been playing. "So, spit it out."
"You already know I met her at the same time as we met the other two, at Chelsea's house during the fight. Ashley was there before us. Truth is she blasted past us on the sidewalk and lead us there. Curiosity rarely kills the cat. It leads it to things that would otherwise go ignored. Anyway, when we got there, Ashley was attacking Jacob like an attack dog. Worse actually. More like a hell cat. Had to peel her off of him. Stuck like a barnacle."
He ran his hand over his face, a small smile coming forming on his lips. "Our getting to know each other was tougher than Tama's and Chi's. It got pretty rough about two months in. I was waiting for Ashley after school so we could practice our dance for Dance class, and some girl asked me to help her. Should have known what she was up to. The dance was a pretty kinky one after all. Ashley walked in on us and thought it was something else. It kind of fell out of us that we liked each other. Spent weeks aftwards trying to apologize. She finally accepted it and gave me a kiss to say she was sorry."
His smile fell. "About two week after we started dating I found out that she lived alone. Her parents had been murdered in front of her very eyes and the killer had very nearly had his way with her. But eight year old K.C. and Chelsea ran in when they heard the screaming, K.C. the 'Karate Kid' and Chelsea 'Jaws'. Those three are some of the toughest girls I've ever met." He shook his head and forced a smile. "Your turn. How did you meet Teanna?"
Nuriko sighed. "Not as exciting as yours. But I still think it was a stupendous happening. I was out walking in the downtown park at home and I heard her barking some boy up a tree. Turns out he got a little to excited. First date too. I came up and asked what the problem was. The boy, of course, was all, 'She wanted to get in my pants man. But I turned her down and she started yelling at me to make me look like I'm the bad guy'." Nuriko shook his head in disgust. The others had to agree. The way some guys did that was sick. What was even sicker about it was that everyone believed the guys because they're never in the wrong, apprantly, when it came to sex. A guy could be a player, and he was cool. If a girl was a player, she was a whore. All four felt that sexism had to take a flying leap off a cliff and get hit by a car.
"I sided with Teanna. When he said that she glared at me and said, 'I dare you to be a total scumbag and believe that pile of dog crap'. I told her you could tell he was lying because his voice was whiney, not angry, and even if he had been acting angry his attitude would be off. People who really want to understand the situation always know who is lying and who isn't."
"You da man Nuriko, you da man," Tasuki said, smiling. Nurkio smiled, Tama smiled, and Chi smiled. And together they thought of the girls who had brought their hearts together at this moment to understand a little more pain of the world, and that yes, there is a light in the darkest of corners.
...
Saturday, two days after quality time
"Tea!" Ashley squealed as her friend walked in the front door. Chelsea and K.C followed up on the hugs. Tasuki was out grocery shopping with they guys. "I've missed you so much. Chelsea said you had something to tell us."
"I do. Some guy named Hotohori tried to rape me."
...
Hate Hotohori. Everytime I saw him moving in on Miaka I felt like he was violating her. What a total corn on the cob. So of course I make him the bad guy;)
I change my mind. There will be no 'scenes' between the couples. I am young and my mom would kill me anyway. And the love confusion I mentioned in chapter three is no longer up for sale either. It would just mess with the whole thing I've got going for the characters.
Hate Hotohori!