Hayner couldn't help but feel excited upon feeling warm sand flood his sandals when he finally made it down to the beach below the train platform. He would've shouted with joy and run across the sand towards the shore, but that would've jeopardized his first impression with the ladies (although seeing as how that was probably natural behavior at the beach, he should've just done it anyways). The other thing keeping him back was the fact that he had to wait for Pence to lug his half of the equipment down the staircase. Hayner felt slightly bad watching his friend struggle with a large umbrella, three towels and a bag of miscellaneous supplies down the stairs, while he himself was only carrying his own towel and a pair of shades. But Hayner had other things on his mind. Like women!

"I'd help ya, Pence," began Hayner, slipping on his shades coolly, "But the call of the ocean shore awaits!" With that, Hayner started walking briskly down the beach to find a prime spot by the shore.

Pence finally made it down the staircase and started to jog half-heartedly across the sand, "Aw, c'mon, Hayner! *pant* I…need…some help!" Roxas and Olette finally caught up with Pence and were able to relieve him of most of his cargo.

"Where'd Hayner go?" asked Roxas, taking the large rainbow umbrella from Pence with relative ease.

Hayner placed his large hands on his knees as he leaned forward, taking in deep breaths and pointing towards the shore, "*pant* Ah that-away."

"God, Hayner can be impatient sometimes," muttered Olette as she looked on towards the blonde shaded boy in the distance, "But you know what they say: Karma's a bitch."

Fuu walked with her three comrades across the shore in search for a place to set up camp. Training camp, that is. Today was going to be Seifer's special montage day if he was going to take on Hayner tomorrow. Fuu remembered the defeat that Seifer had suffered against Hayner last time. She took a glimpse at Seifer's profile to see if his nose had properly healed yet.

"This should be a good spot!" Rai practically yelled, "It's got a nice view of the water, and the sand's nice and soft fer runnin', y'know?"

Seifer stopped and took a minute to examine the surroundings. He looked around and saw plenty of people running around, playing Frisbee and whatnot. After a brief moment, he scoffed, replying, "Not good enough. Too many people around for me to train properly! Psh, why do there haveta be so many people at the beach today…?"

Vivi merely shrugged, and Rai stammered, "W-well, it's a nice day, y'know, and people tend to like nice days, and the beach is where people go on nice da-"

"Aww, just shut it!" yelled Seifer, frustrated. He marched past Rai farther down the shore, yelling behind him, "Rai, Vivi, let's go look for another spot! Fuu, you go get those snacks! I'll text ya when we find a spot!"

Fuu flicked her head up and down in agreement, separating from her friends as she made her way towards the concession stand. Finally, she'd have her time away from these knuckleheads and have space to think. Just to herself. Although it wouldn't be the nice, peaceful thinking, seeing that she'd be surrounded by hundreds of screaming teenagers. But still, better a hundred normal screaming kids than one screaming Rai.

Speaking of Rai, she could hear familiar voices ring out in the distance.

"'Dis a good spot, boss? Nice view of the girls, ya know?"

"Can it, Rai!"

Hayner lay out his beach blanket on a soft area of sand and lay down immediately. He was still waiting on Pence to hurry up with the beach umbrella so that he could be shaded from the sun, but at least his sunglasses were enough to keep him from being absolutely blinded by the sun's rays. As he lay back, his whole body stretched out, his hands resting behind his head, and his toes buried in the cool sand where his blanket barely ended, he felt completely at peace. No worrying about being the #1 Girl Beater at school, no worries about finding a high school romance at the beach. Hell, for even a brief moment, he didn't even think about Fuu.

If only for a brief moment. Then he felt a hard metal object bonk him across the side of the head. He groaned in pain and grabbed for the bruised area, standing up suddenly. Whenever Hayner was in pain, he always thought of Seifer and his blows during their Struggles. But when he looked up, he only saw the agitated faces of his three friends, who he had left in an excited blaze. Roxas, Pence, and Olette all had dark expressions, and Olette was gripping the rainbow umbrella in tense hands.

"What the hell was that for!?" he muttered through clenched teeth.

"Just be lucky I don't do it again," retorted Olette, setting the umbrella down in the sand, "That was a real jerk move just leaving Pence with thirty pounds worth of stuff at the base of the platform!"

"Thirty pounds?" scoffed Hayner, "I'm supposed to feel bad for making him carry that little?"

With that statement, Pence sunk low into his newly set up folding chair.

Trying to defend Pence, Olette retorted, "Hey, it's not his fault he never bothered to build up as much muscle as you or Roxas!"

And so Pence sunk even deeper in his chair, his self-esteem hitting rock bottom. Roxas sat next to the defeated Pence in his own folding chair, plugging in his earbuds and cranking up a song on his MP3 player. A moment later, Olette walked over to Roxas and yanked the right earbud out, loud rock music blasting out of the open bud.

"Don't tell me you came all the way to the beach just to listen to music," said Olette.

"Well, I don't know what else to do," replied Roxas with a genuinely confused look on his face.

"We can do something beach-related," suggested Olette with a smile," Like-"

Pence leapt out of his folding chair, reinvigorated, and blindly interrupted the girl "I got an idea! We can find some Kilika girls! I'm sure they're bound to be fiery!"

Hayner got up from his towel, his interest piqued by the conversation, "Why don't we find some girls from Besaid instead? Yuna from school came from Besaid, and she's a real hottie!"

Roxas and Pence both nodded in agreement, Olette just looking on in disbelief.

"You men and your obsession with girls," sighed Olette, "I meant, why don't we do something beach-related! Like…" she gestured towards her pink surfboard, "Surfing!"

Hayner scoffed at the idea, stating, "First of all, you're the only one among us who bothered to learn how to surf. Second of all, you're also the only one who brought a surfboard!"

Roxas chimed in, "How about we bury someone in the sand? That's always fun."

Olette shivered at the idea, "No thanks: there's sand crabs here, especially near the shore, and I don't feel like being pinched by anything except maybe my bikini straps.

Hayner and Pence's minds both floated into a perverted daydream for a brief moment, before Olette slepped them both upside the head, "What about any of you perverts? Will you volunteer?"

Hayner lazily raised a hand, "Hell, I'll do it. Haven't been buried since I was a kid, and I'd enjoy the nostalgia."

Olette smiled slightly at Hayner's offer, stating, "Well, glad to see you can think about something instead of girls."

Pence sneered out a comment, "And Fuu."

Hayner's face grew red at the name, and the blonde stomped towards Pence, "One more goddamn time you tease me, and I'm burying you in the sand!"

Pence backed away, laughing yet still cautious, while Roxas and Pence proceeded to make a Hayner-sized hole in the sand.

About ten minutes later, Hayner was a head peaking out of the sand-laden ground. He quite enjoyed the sensation of cool, damp sand surrounding him. It was like being wrapped in a cool blanket on a hot day. The only problem was that he couldn't scratch his nose, but it was minor. He looked up to see Pence wearing red trunks, Roxas wearing black trunks, and Olette wearing a flattering orange bikini (if she turned around, he could probably see her ass in full view). No, that was bad, getting a boner in the sand would probably cause a cave-in and crush little Hayner. Go down, little Hayner, go down!

"So, comfy, pal?" asked Roxas, arms linked behind his head and with a suspicious smile on his face.

"Yep, comfy?" asked Pence with mutual suspicion. Hayner thought that he knew what was going on.

"Er…sure," answered Hayner skeptically, "Now, if you guys would just dig me out now-"

Before he knew it, Roxas, Pence, and Olette were packing up camp in a blaze, and they made a beeline away from Hayner's alarmed head.

"Hey, guys!" Hayner yelled at the top of his lungs, "What about me!"

"We'd help ya, Hayner!" called Pence, "But the call of the ocean awaits!"

Now left stranded in the middle of the beach, Hayner had but one thought to himself.

…Karma's a bitch.

Next time, we catch up with Fuu! :D and maybe a chance encounter…