Chapter 4: The Truth is Blurry but The Picture's Getting Clearer

The sun shone gently from behind the thick cloud coverage and K.C. muttered to herself how she wished that the clouds would just scatter away.

"I'd rather be a bit tanner than show up at school this year looking like a pasty marshmallow," she mumbled to no one in particular. Zack fiddled with the video camera and zoomed in on K.C. settling into her beach chair.

"And we have K.C., the bathing beauty," he joked in a false announcer voice, "Folks, she belongs to the 50s with her carefree attitude and typical American values." K.C. quirked an eyebrow at him and picked up a handful of sand.

"If you don't get that camera out of my face," K.C. warned, "This will end up on your lens!" Zack grimaced and backed off. Instead, he focused in on Riley carrying over the canopy and grocery bags full of food and Sam walking alongside Edie. She had her arms folded and was listening intently to Sam's words. A little ways behind them came Jackie with her own beach stuff and a bit more pep in her step than the day before.

"I'm just glad you could make it," Sam cheerfully told Edie. She smiled lightly at his words and he reddened. He could feel his heart rate speed up at the sight of her cute smile. Geez, he felt like such a dork in front of her-why couldn't he stop blushing so much? His thoughts were interrupted by Riley waving his hand in front of his face.

"Hey Sam-I-Am," Riley interrupted his thoughts, "Can you help a friend out and set up the canopy with me? Zack's not in a position to put the video camera down so..."

"Sure! Sorry Riley," panted Sam as he broke out the trance and scrambled to his feet to help him. While the two struggled with setting up the posts, Zack zoomed in on Jackie who had made her way over to the group.

"Good morning Miss Zhao," Zack joked as he focused on her face, "Any reason for looking so upbeat today?" Jackie quickly hid her over excited face so as not to make Zack suspicious. She didn't feel like getting in a credibility debate with the second biggest skeptic on the team today.

"I'm at the beach and its a beautiful day," Jackie began lightly as she crossed her fingers behind her back, "Why wouldn't I be happy?" Zack shrugged and started filming Sam and Riley struggling with the canopy.

"Need any help?" Edie offered as she joined the two boys, "Seems like three's company might work in this situation." Jackie tried not to look obvious as she plunged her hand into her tote bag for her camera. She waited until Edie had taken the corner adjacent to Riley and snapped a picture quickly.

K.C. looked up at her from her chair and lowered her shades. "Hey you," she greeted, "Taking pictures already?"

"Why not?" Jackie defended, "It's a great time to start. Remembering the incompetent actions of our two head guys in the act of setting up a cover at the beach." K.C. tried to smother her giggle but it came out as a snort. Riley pretended to have not heard them as he loudly announced that the canopy was almost set up.

"Can't we just forget about it Riley?" Zack asked him as he watched Riley grow frustrated, "It's not that important, is it?"

"I'm incredibly pale here and I burn easily," Riley reminded him, "Even if I try to reapply sunscreen in a mannerly fashion, I still manage to get slightly burned. So that's why." Zack bit his tongue and didn't say anymore. Riley didn't need to get even more upset than what he already was. Sam shrugged at Zack and mouthed that it was pretty hopeless at this point.

Jackie came close to Edie and put on a friendly smile. "Hey, can I take a picture of you?" Edie nodded faintly as she plastered a wide smile on her face and let Jackie snap a shot. "Thank you," Jackie pleasantly told her as she walked off to the side. Zack quirked an eyebrow at Jackie's kindness. Just yesterday, she was acting slightly cold-shouldered toward her and today, she was treating Edie like they had been long-time friends. Sam, on the other hand, beamed. He knew that Jackie just needed a little bit of time to warm up to Edie and eventually see what was so great about her.

After 30 minutes of frustration, Edie had figured out that Riley had did the steps out of order and the canopy was assembled promptly following that. K.C. dodged Riley's arms as he tried to grab her to drop her into the ocean. Edie was chatting with Sam on the beach and Zack ran to catch up with K.C. and Riley's little episode. Jackie sat in her beach chair off to the side and pretended to look happy. Her hands shook a little as she snapped a candid of K.C. being tossed into the rolling waves by Riley. K.C. came up sputtering and she pushed Riley back into another set of incoming waves as revenge.

Those shots looked great, she thought. I'll definitely have to e-mail these to K.C. when I get home. She only had two images of Edie so far so she decided to grab a third one for safety. She turned toward where Edie and Sam were sitting and lifted her camera to her eye. Sam was busy looking out at the ocean while Edie had drifted her eyes away from Sam and landed them on Jackie's camera. Jackie shivered a little but forced herself to smile big and waved to Edie behind the camera. Edie smiled a little and began to turn back towards Sam. Jackie took a deep breath and counted to three before pressing the button and hearing the clicking sound.

"Someone's been on Candid Camera duty today," commented Zack from behind Jackie. She nearly jumped out of her skin and whipped her head around to see Zack standing over her space. He took a seat next to her and pointed to her camera. "Get a lot of good pictures today?"

"I definitely did Zack," Jackie replied somewhat cheerfully, "I just hope that they come out clear."