"The condos were lovely" Kurt said. "Decor was a bit drab, but it was nice and spacious."
"I agree" Blaine nodded.
They were on the beach. It was huge. The sand was a wonderful gold colour and the water was such a bright blue, it was gorgeous. The sun was hot and beating down, but the water kept them cool. That and the array of umbrellas that they had set up. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, which was a cliché baby blue colour. The beach looked like one off a postcard.
The group was eating sandwiches. It was just past 2 and they were all starving. The adults had made a bunch of sandwiches, which the hungry teens had devoured.
"So who wants to swim?" Finn asked when they finished eating.
Several people answered yes. And their juice boxes were tossed aside.
"Wait!" Will said. His face got serious.
"What?" Puck asked, standing up.
"What about Artie?" Will asked. The group looked at the boy in the wheelchair. "Can you go in the water?"
Artie looked at the concerned group. "Uh, yes" he answered. "You see, I have this big floating raft thing that I can sit on. As long as I don't tip over, I can go in" Artie said. "The raft is here" Artie reached under his chair to the small pocket and pulled out a folded up raft. "It just needs air."
"I'll do it!" Puck volunteered and took the raft from Artie.
"Are you sure you can go in?" Will asked.
Artie nodded. "Yup. Totally okay!"
"Okay. Well, Sam, you are a good swimmer, right?" Will asked and Sam nodded. "I want you to be Artie's water buddy. Okay? Help him if he needs it."
"Sure, no prob. You can count on me, man" Sam said to Artie. Artie smiled and gave Sam a high five.
"Thanks, bro. Thanks all of you!" Artie said and the whole group squealed and gave Artie a hug.
Everyone jumped up, pulled off their shirts and ran into the water.
"Aw, shoot, that's cold!" Mercedes gasped as she got waist deep in water.
"I-I k-know" Tina shivered.
"Wuss!" Mike said, completly soaked as he splashed Tina playfully.
"Woah, Kurt!" Rachel said as she clung on to Finn as she slowly made he was in deeper.
"What?" Kurt asked, not too keen on going in, but Blaine pulled him in.
"I've never seen you shirtless" Rachel smiled.
"Hey, me neither!" Mercedes said.
"I don't think anyone has" Finn said diving in. Everyone nodded. Except Blaine, who pretended to lightly splash water, and blush.
"Okay so I'm not wearing a shirt. Why are you all so shocked?" Kurt demanded, crossing his arms as if to cover himself.
"No reason. I'm just saying" Rachel shrugged and tried to run father out.
"Ew, it's salt water!" Quinn said, the first girl to go completely under water.
"Yea, because it's the ocean!" Santana said as she splashed Brittany.
"Actually, we are in the Gulf of Mexico" Blaine said.
"I like golf!" Brittany piped up. "I'm really good!" No one commented.
"So who's up for a game?" Puck called out.
"What game?" Sugar asked.
"Monkey in the middle?" Sam asked as he picked up the orange floating ball they had brought along.
"What are you, five?" Santana asked with an eye roll.
"Sorry, I have little siblings!" Sam retorted.
"I'll play that!" Rachel said cheerfully.
"Really?" Sam looked a bit too excited.
"Yea. Why not? Sounds fun" Rachel smiled.
"I'll play too" Blaine said.
"Same!" Brittany and Tina grinned.
"Fine" Santana grumbled.
Soon they were playing monkey in the middle. And they were having fun too.
"Oh, Finn you're in the middle!" Quinn called.
"Okay, everybody throw really high so he can't catch it" Mercedes said and the group snickered.
"Hey!" Finn smiled and pretended to pout. "No height jokes!"
Rachel threw the ball over Finn and to Kurt, who caught it and tossed it to Brittany. Sh caught it and threw it to Mike, who dove and caught it. Finn also went for the ball, but wasn't fast enough.
"Aw, so close!" Finn sighed and tried to tackle Mike for the ball.
It sooned turned to a huge game of tackling eachother and splashing around. It was so fun.
"Ahh!" Rachel screamed as Finn tackled her in the water with an evil laugh.
Will put on his sunglasses and leaned back into his recliner.
"So nice" he breathed. Emma nodded and pulled out a book from her woven bag.
"Hey, Will?" Shelby asked from next to him.
"Yes?"
"Are the kids okay?" Shelby was sitting up and watching the kids. A lot of screams were heard and water was being splashed up everywhere.
Will glanced up. Artie was still on his raft, so he was okay. "I think they are just playing."
"Are you sure?"
"Yea. But just in case..." he stood up and walked to the edge of the water, so his feet were just catching the small tide rolling in. "HEY!" he called really loud so the teens, several meters away could hear him. They stopped moving and stared at Will.
"STOP DROWNING EACHOTHER!" he called with a smile.
"OKAY!" they all called back at the same time, the burst into laughter. Will chuckled and walked back to his chair.
The teens were all sitting on the sand, wrapped in their towels.
"That was fun!" Sugar smiled.
"Yeah!" several of them agreed.
"And we get to come back for 4 more days!" Rachel quipped.
"Woot!" Mercedes said.
"Who want's to build a sand castle?" Blaine asked with a childish grin.
"We don't have buckets" Quinn pointed out.
"Well, the little shack over their is the beach's front desk. They must have some sand toys for us to use!" Artie pointed to the wood hut near the beach's parking lot.
"It's worth a shot" Finn shrugged. "Who wants to go see?"
"Who looks the youngest?" Rachel asked. "I mean, they won't give it to some old teen. Who looks like a little kid?"
"Rory!" Mike said.
"Yeah! Rory, go ask!" Quinn said with a smile.
"What? Okay, fine!" Rory rolled his eyes, put on his t-shirt stood up. "I'll be back in a second..." he walked to the hut.
Rory came back with a bag full of shovels and buckets and other toys. They cheered at his arrival ans successful results.
"Woah, how'd you get all this?" Sam asked.
"He had a whole bunch of stuff and he liked my accent" Rory shrugged and blushed.
"Awesome!" Puck smiled and clapped him on the shoulder.
"Okay, so who wants to build a sand castle?" Blaine asked again.
"Contest!" Mercedes declared. "Sand castle making contest!"
"Yes!" Tina shouted.
"Who will judge?" Kurt asked.
"The adults?" Sugar suggested.
"Mr Shue? Ms Pilsbury? Ms Corcran? Coach?" Finn asked and the adults looked up at where they were sitting.
"Yes, Finn?" Emma smiled. "Will you judge our sand castle making contest?" Finn laughed as he asked.
The adults laughed too. "Sure thing" said Will.
"Wow us" Beiste smiled.
The teams were set:
Quinn, Sam, Mercedes, Artie and Rory were one team.
Rachel, Brittany, Blaine, Kurt and Tina were the next team.
Finn, Mike, Puck, Santana and Sugar were the last team.
They separated on the beach and right away began to work.
"Okay, so right here we are going to pile up sand and make the castle really high up" Rachel said smoothing down the sand.
"And we'll dig a moat here" Kurt drew a line in the sand.
"And I'll go find little shells and stuff to decorate it with" Tina said and she ran off.
"I like castles!" Brittany giggled.
"Where does this go?" Blaine held up a firmly packed bucket of dark sand.
"Over here" Kurt pointed and Rachel nodded.
"Make the tower here" Quinn pointed and Mercedes nodded and carefully made a perfect tower.
"Good job!" Sam said as he dug a hole stratigically.
"Rory, fill this up with the dark sand please." Artie tossed Rory a bucket. Rory did.
"Should this be higher?" Quinn asked pointing to a wall.
"Yes" Mercedes nodded. "And wider."
"No, not wider." Artie shook his head. "Longer."
"Okay" Mercedes agreed.
"So make this part tall" Finn pointed and Puck piled sand on.
"Guys, take wet sand and squeeze it like this..." Santana demenstrated "and you make a drip pile!"
"Hey, that real cool!" Mike said and Santana smirked proudly.
"Ooh, we should put those on top of each tower!" Sugar said excitedly.
"I agree!" Finn nodded. "It'll look gothic."
An hour and a half later, the castles were done. Quinn's team's castle was more cliché and the ideal castle, but it was so neatly done and decorated creativly, it looked good.
Rachel's team's castle was perfectly sculpted in top of a big pile of sand so it was on a mountain. There was a moat around it and a little path winding up the mountain. It was unique.
Finn's team's castle was tall with Santana's creative drip piles on the tower tops. Their castle had shells around it. It was gorgeous.
"Woah, guys!" Will said. "These are really good!"
"Yeah, I'm impressed!" Emma nodded and walked around the castles, admireing them.
"Good job!" Beiste commented.
"So who won?" Mercedes asked.
"It's hard to decide!" Shelby tilted her head and sighed dramatically.
"Pick one!" Puck demanded anxiously.
"I'd just like to say, that as much as our castle is clearly supirior to all, it was fun competeing" Rachel said going into full diva mode, with a smirk. Kurt and Blaine both elbowed her.
"Ow..." Rachel pouted and rubbed her side.
"Okay I have my vote" Will said. "I like Puck's team's castle."
"Yes!" Santana, Sugar, Puck, Finn and Mike stood up and cheered loudly.
"I disagree" Emma shook her head. "I like Quinn's team's castle."
Quinn's team mates cheered.
"Snack on that!" Artie taunted with a grin.
"Well, I like Kurt's team's castle" Shelby smiled at them.
"See? Told you are's was best!" Rachel said while her team clapped.
"That proves nothing. We all got one vote" Sam pointed out. They grew quiet. And looked at Beiste.
"Coach? Who do you think has the best castle?" Quinn asked sweetly.
"Oh no! It's all up to me!" Beiste frowned. "Ah, I hate to crush your hearts! You all worked so hard!"
"Pick one!" Mike urged and they all nodded.
"I've never been so conflicted in my life!" Beiste stated.
"Come on!"
"It's a tie?" Beiste suggested slowly.
"Noooo!"
"Not fair!"
"Ours is clearly best!"
"Awww!"
"Shannon, I think you need to pick one!" Will said with an amused smirk.
"Okay. Okay fine!" Beiste put her hands up. "Hate to do this, but the one I like best is… that one." She pointed to a castle.
"YES!" Sam cheered and hugged Mercedes and Quinn.
"Ha!" Artie said and high-fived Rory.
"Sorry guys!" Beiste said to the two other teams who frowned.
"Well, I guess there's only one thing left to do..." Kurt said slowly.
"And that is...?" Puck raised an eyebrow.
Kurt grinned mischiviously. "Knock 'em down!"
"Woooo!" Mercedes cheered and kicked the wall of Finn's castle down.
Suddenly it was a riot to destroy in castles. Artie completely drove over one castle, leaving deep wheel tracks. When they cleared, the castles had been trampled down and they were all covered in sand.
"Ugh, I have sand all over me!" Tina complained with a smile.
"Back to the water!" Mike called and they all raced off in the water.
It was later in the day so the temperature of the water was colder.
"Brrrr" Kurt shivered.
"Aw, Kurt, you look cold!" Blaine smiled.
"I am" Kurt retorted.
"You look like you need a hug!" Blaine said slowly wadding toward his boyfriend.
"No!" Kurt said trying to move away from Blaine. "You're all wet!" Blaine grinned. He had already dove into the water and was dripping wet.
"C'mon Kurt!" Blaine taunted with a smile.
"Go away!" Kurt ordered as he turned. But he tripped and fell face first into the water. Rachel, Finn and Mercedes laughed. Blaine laughed the hardest.
"Not funny!" Kurt growled as he stood up.
"S-sorry!" Blaine said, swimming over to him. "You should have accepted my hug!" Blaine gave him a hug anyways.
"You look like a wet poodle" Kurt said eyeing Blaine's sopping dark hair.
"Why, thank you!"
"It wasn't a complement."
"I know."
They got out of the water and gathered their belongings and left the beach. As they walked down the side of the road, Will spoke.
"Okay, it's almost 6 now. So who we're gonna order some pizzas and we can just chill. After a long flight, I think we are all tired. Any objections?"
"Nope, sounds good" Rachel said as she walked by, holding hands with Finn.
"Okay. Great" Will smiled.
"Come to our condo!" Sam told the girls and the adults.
"We'll stop by later" Shelby said. "I'm so tired" she whispered to Emma, who nodded in agreement.
"See you soon!" Quinn called to the boys as they approached their condo. She waved dramatically.
"Kay! Bye!" Rory waved back with a smile.
A/N
First off, whaddya think? Secondly, I have no idea about the whole Artie swimming raft thing, I just made that up. So sorry if it's wrong, I just didn't want to leave him out. Any ideas for Florida plans for the gang? I got a few but I need more, so if you got some….. :)