The inspiration for this came from Little Beach Party and how they were supposed to do it every semester and we never heard about it again. Clearly, someone had to take another sneak peek at their day at the beach.
And because I'm, well, me, I couldn't help but make it Quogan-y and awesome!
Everyone's favorite tradition is still to head exactly fifty-four miles north of PCA and spend the day after exams every semester just the ten of them (they started including James, Vince, and Lisa after they joined the group). They come more prepared after the first unexpected trip. They bring snacks and extra batteries for their boom box (they also have started bring their own cars once someone was licensed to drive). They don't bring anything else but a fishing pole, rope, and inflatable tube (all new after the former ones had fallen apart) though. Their main meal is still freshly caught fish that is cooked over a fire they've built themselves (it's a lot of work, but it makes it even more fun).
This is Logan's favorite day of the year. (he gets to work on his tan, enjoy the sight of Quinn in a bikini, and spend the day with best friends). This year is no different. Chase, Zoey, Vince, Lola, and Dustin pile into Chases' car and Logan takes Quinn, James, Michael, and Lisa in his. They're ten minutes into the hour-long trip when Quinn makes another face at the songs on the radio. Logan catches it and chuckles.
"Here babe," he hands her his phone, which also serves as his mp3 player, "there's nothing but good music on this."
Quinn accepts it happily, but before she can even begin to scroll through the music Michael leans up and snatches it from her. "Oh! Logan's got some drippin' music on here! Let me see it."
Quinn laughs and they don't notice Logan shoot a look back at Michael in the rear view mirror. Michael scrolls through the playlists for a few seconds before he pauses and starts to laugh. Lisa leans over and goes "aw" and when James gets a glimpse of what Michael has found he shoots Logan a smirk.
"Aw," Michael manages to choke out through his laughter. "You have a playlist called 'Quinn'! Aren't you just the little romantic!" He dissolves into laughter again, Lisa hitting him lightly and half-heartedly telling him to stop teasing Logan.
Quinn turns to Logan, her one eyebrow raised and a smile gracing her lips. "Aw, baby." Her smile stretches. "You are the sweetest!"
Logan wants to be mad (he also wants desperately to stop blushing) but he knows that Michael is just messing with him (he's also almost positive that Michael has a playlist called 'Lil Lisa,' so he has no real room to talk). He tries to shrug nonchalantly. "Yeah well, you know, I was bored one day so I made it."
He can tell by the smirks that everyone is giving him that they all know he's a liar. "Oh just pick a song, would you?" He finally growls (they all know he's not really mad, especially when Quinn leans over and kisses his cheek and a goofy smile slides across his face.)
"Michael," Quinn turns to their friend, "pick something from that playlist."
Logan shoots his friend another look through the rear view mirror, and this time he catches it. "I'd better not." He says while laughing, "I think Logan might kill me."
Instead he turns on Dynamite and they all begin singing and laughing all the way to the beach.
"This fish is awesome!" James tells them, pulling another piece of his stick and popping it in his mouth. "You guys really do this every year?" He asks after he's finished swallowing.
Everyone else, minus Vince (who has never done this before either), nods. "Yep." Zoey smiles. "Ever since our first semester here at PCA."
"So…" James looks down at the third piece of fish that he has cooking over the fire. "What do you guys do if you don't catch a fish?"
All the friends turn to look at one another; clearly it had never occurred to any of them that they might not catch a fish. Finally Logan shrugs. "I guess I would have bought us all dinner once we got back to PCA."
Everyone nods in agreement and James accepts this. He knows that Logan has changed quite a bit since he started dating Quinn, but he's also heard stories of Logan being nice to his friends before that, so it does seem to be a likely scenario.
After everyone has finished Lola looks up at her friends. "Now what?"
It's relatively early. They don't usually leave the beach until sunset, which, according to Quinn's watch, isn't for another hour or so. Zoey shrugs and then grins. "Let's turn the music back on! We're wasting daylight!"
Chase grabs the rope and another round of tug-of-war quickly starts up. It's boys against girls this time except, since there are only four girls, Vince (being the strongest guy in the group) joins the girls' side to even things out. Logan and Quinn go to the front of their respective groups and grab the rope, both smirking at each other.
"Ready to eat sand, Pensky?"
Quinn raises an eyebrow and shrugs casually, making sure that her zap watch (it's water proof so she hadn't needed to take it off) is visible. "I wouldn't be so sure of that."
Logan's eyes narrow, "You wouldn't."
Quinn shrugs again and Logan just shakes his head, smiling. (it's all a big joke, of course. Logan knows that she would never do that and she knows that he knows.)
The game lasts for about twenty minutes before the boys finally give one final tug and send the girls tumbling over one another (Vince, however, manages to stay up right just fine). There are cheers and high fives from the boys and all four girls mock glare at them from the ground (the effect is some what diminished since they're all soaking wet and have hair in their faces).
"No fair!" Lola cries as they stand back up. "You guys cheated!"
"Did not!" All five boys shout back in unison.
"Zoey!" Lola rounds on her friend, "they cheated didn't they?"
(it's all fun and games, everyone knows this. Lola's just a sore loser, especially when Logan is on the team she loses too).
"Well," Zoey pretends to think about it for a minute. "I think they might have had an unfair advantage."
Quinn and Lisa both grin. "Yeah, definitely." They agree.
Chase walks up to his girlfriend. "What are you going to do about it?" He asks, his tone light and teasing.
"Oh nothing much." Zoey replies, sounding friendly enough. "Just this!" She bends down and splashes water on Chase, managing to soak him from head to toe.
He stands there and splutters for a minute, almost as if he's not sure what just happened. He wipes the water out of his eyes and pretends to glare at her. "Oh, you are in for it now, Miss Brooks."
He lunges at her, she shrieks, and the chase is on. It quickly morphs into a free for all, Chase and Michael are trying to tackle Logan and Quinn and Zoey have teamed up on Vince, trying to knock him down (Michael and Chase are much more successful in their endeavor than Quinn and Zoey).
It isn't until several minutes later that Quinn realizes that Logan has started chasing her, and only her. She squeals and takes off in the opposite direction, determined not to let him catch her.
When Logan finally does manage to catch her a few minutes later they both go tumbling to the sand. Logan keeps his arms around her and just before they hit the ground he twists around so that he hits the sand and Quinn lands on him. Quinn quickly scrambles off of him and he sits up, feeling a little dazed (Quinn is by no means heavy, but between her and the ground he does get the wind knocked out of him).
"Oh my gosh, baby, are you okay?"
He grins and nods. "Yeah." He stands up and offers her his hand. "I'm just great." When she takes it he pulls her up and begins to lead her to a small group of rocks just to their left.
"Where are we going?" She asks, adjusting her glasses so they don't slip off.
"Just over here for sec," He brings them to the rocks and she notices that there is absolutely nothing there. "I want to show you something."
"O-kay…" She looks around again, but see nothing but his phone, sitting on one of the rocks. "What am I looking at?"
Logan picks up his phone and smiles shyly (he only ever smiles shyly if he's about to do something romantic or has just gotten out of trouble, so Quinn becomes excited). "Well since you wanted to hear what songs were on my 'Quinn' playlist, I thought I'd let you hear one."
"Really?"
Logan nods. "Yeah. I just, uh, didn't want to give Michael even more of a reason to laugh at me."
Quinn laughs lightly and smiles at him. "You are so sweet."
He grins and hits play on his phone, the music surrounding them. "I know."
She tilts her head, "I don't think I've ever heard this song before."
"It's called Taking Chances." He tells her. "It's by Celine Dion." At her raised eyebrow he quickly adds, "My mom loves her, that's how I know about it. And it just reminded me of you, of us and I used to listen to it when we first started dating." He blushes as he admits this and Quinn is pretty sure he's never looked more adorable than he does right then.
But what do you say to takin' chances?
What do you say to jumpin' off the edge?
Never knowin' if there's solid ground below
Or a hand to hold or hell to pay.
What do you say?
Quinn wraps her arms around his neck and his slide securely around their waist. "I love this song." She whispers. (her eyes are sparkling with unshed tears, but Logan knows they're happy tears and that makes him smile softly.) "And I love you."
He leans closer to her, their noses brushing. "I love you too."
And he kisses her, slowly, sweetly, and with all the love he has. He gets this image of them doing this again, this song playing in the background. Only he's in a tux and she's in a beautiful dress that's pure white and they're surrounded by tiger lilies, tulips, and their best friends. (that should probably freak him out, but honestly, it just feels right.)
"Hey!" Michael's voice breaks them from their kiss and they both turn to look at him from where he's standing several feet away from them and waving. "Break it up you two, we need to start heading back!" There is laughter in his voice and both Quinn and Logan blush at having been caught.
They both turn to look at the water and realize that their friend is right. The sun is starting to set. Logan lets go of her waist and holds his hand out for. "Let's go, Pensky." He smiles and kisses her quickly once more.
She slips her hand in his and grins. "Sure thing, Reese."
When they get back to PCA and the girls are finally alone in their dorm, Quinn looks up Taking Chances on YouTube and lets Zoey and Lola listen to it. When it's over the squeal in happiness (ohmygoshathatissosweet) for their friend.
"Wow," Lola grins but can't help but let some of her surprise seep into her voice, "Logan really does love you, doesn't you."
"Yeah," Quinn smiles and slips into one of Logan's sweaters, enjoying as his scent surrounds her. "He really does."
000
And there you have it! Let me know what you guys think!