A/N So Super Sorry, it was impossible to get on the computer this week. Things might get a little confusing in this chapter, so bear with me, I'll try to clear up what has happened and hasn't happened towards the end of the chapter
Chapter 6
At precisely 7:30 the next morning, we woke up and began preparing for the day. We kept our eyes out for anything out of place as we got dressed, we searched for anything unusual as we did our hair and looked for anything strange as we ate breakfast. We maintained constant vigilance. All the while I was running different scenarios of what Joe Solomon was doing coming to visit us. Almost none of them were very good, and the few that were good, were less than unlikely. I know, I had Liz check my math.
At precisely 9:15, an approaching car could be heard. Not a moment later, it pulled into the driveway and we went to greet our guest. The second he got out of the car, he called out to us.
"Surprise summer homework." he carried his bags to the door, threw them inside and then lead us back out into the car. My mom sat in the front next to him as Macey, Bex, Liz, and I climbed in the back seat. Bex volunteered to go all the way in the back to the set of three seats behind me Macey and Liz.
"Your objective is simply ladies" My mom surprised us all by breaking the silence. "Keep your eyes open for anything and anyone. We'll be around if you need anything." She handed us each a 50 dollar bill. "I presume you have com units?" She asked. We pulled them out of our pockets and turned them on. It wasn't likely we would leave each others sides but if we did, we had a way to keep in touch.
"We don't plan to leave until 11:00 tonight, you have the whole day for this ladies. Good luck" Mr Solomon said as he pulled the car to a stop a few yards from the beach. Scratch that, from the beach carnival. He smiled "and have some fun."
We climbed out of the car and stood for a minute just taking in our surroundings. We had placed our coms in our ears while we were still in the car. We had the volume down and would turn it up if we needed them.
"If you guys don't mind, I'd rather not stand here all day." Macey said as she fell flawlessly into her cover, a harsher version of herself. She walked off towards the carnival with the rest of us falling in behind her.
Our official cover for the summer was pretty much the same as when we went into town back at Gallagher. We were a bunch of prissy rich girls. Macey had been doing this flawlessly since day one and Bex took to it pretty quickly too. Liz and I had a more subtle approach. We were obviously rich, yet we had quieter personalities. Mostly we took some of our traits and put them to the extremes.
"Ooooo, can we get churros?" Bex asked excitedly.
"Yeah!" I agreed, churros sounded insanely good. I whipped around to look at liz but in doing so I made a 180 and got a good look at our surroundings. Nothing suspicious yet.
"Sounds good to me." Liz said as she shrugged her shoulders. We all turned to look at macey. She rolled her eyes.
"Fine." We herded ourselves to the nearest churro line.
"What can I get for you girls?" The vendor asked us kindly. He was an older man, a little on the chubby side.
"Four churros" Macey said as she handed him her $50 bill.
"I'm going to have to get change for you young ladies, just one moment." He walked out of earshot, pulled out a phone, and held it to his ear.
"This guy seems a little too familiar if you catch my drift" Bex whispered without moving her lips.
"He's too suspicious, we need to keep an eye out for him" I said back in the same tone.
"What makes you say that?" Liz asked as she pretended to play with her hair.
"When he pulled out his phone, he didn't dial a number" I said as I bent down to fix my shoelaces.
He walked back towards us with a huge smile on his face. It seemed almost...youthful. "Well ladies, I will have the rest of your change in a moment, for now, enjoy your churros." He said as he handed each of us one.
There wasn't really an opportunity for him to poison it, so we all started eating. I kept an eye out for my mom and Mr Solomon. I wanted to figure out what was going on. A few minutes later, a short man a few years older than the churro man appeared.
"You needed change?" He said as he walked up to churro man. He seemed to say it a little louder than necessary, as if he wanted the people around him to hear.
"Yessir, for a 50." Churro man replied.
"Well heck, you didn't mention it was a 50, I only got fifteen bucks on me, I'll call Ryan." Short guy said.
"Just get him over here quick, they've waited long enough." Churro man said impatiently. "Have him bring Beck too, I need him to make a supply run."
Short guy pulled out his phone, and again, put it right to his ear. He spoke into his 'phone' for a few seconds then came back and stood next to us. He hitched his pants up and tried to act nonchalant. He would've been fine, if he hadn't so obviously forced his mannerisms. A few minutes later, yet another guy showed up. This guy was the worst one yet. He looked too aged, like he was trying to act a whole lot older than he was. It was so obviously a disguise. This whole situation rubbed me the wrong way.
"You need change? How much?" New guy asked.
"Forty bucks." Churro guy replied. New guy whistled.
"That's a lot of cash." Regardless of how much he thought it was, he pulled out his wallet and pulled two twenty's out. "Here's your forty." Just then their last friend appeared. When I saw the disguise, everything clicked into place.
"What's up guys?" a rough old man voiced.
"Really Zach?" I asked "That disguise again? It seems to be a favorite of yours lately." A teasing tone took over my voice. He smiled
"You figured that out a lot quicker this time." He was wearing essentially the same thing he wore all during the campaign, there were some minor coloring differences, but I could spot that particular disguise from a mile away. "Hi Macey, Liz, Bex" he nodded to each of them in turn.
"Hi Zach, Jonas, Grant, and…?" Macey trailed off. I took it upon myself to pull pieces off of the poorly disguised man.
"Preston." I answered for her. Macey gave him a wild look.
"Preston Winters?" Bex asked her british accent leaking in. Preston Winters was the son of the man running with Macey's dad for president. They had met a few months ago, luckily I was there to keep her from hurting the kid, she found him seriously annoying.
He looked sheepish "Hi Mace…"
"Well fine, don't acknowledge the rest of us" Bex muttered under her breath and I couldn't help but giggle.
"You're getting better Gallagher Girl." Zach said switching back to his regular voice. "Come on guys, we're obviously caught, let's go change." Grant or 'churro man' placed a closed sign on the churro cart, grabbed the last churro's on the cart and began to eat them as the boys walked off towards the bathrooms. We trailed behind them so when could question them when they were done changing. A few minutes later, the 4 boys we knew came out of the bathroom.
"Let's head to the boardwalk," Liz suggested.
"Good idea," Jonas readily agreed
I turned to walk in the direction of the boardwalk and Zach fell into step with me.
"So Gallagher Girl, how've you been?" He smirked at me, I resisted the urge to snort.
"You know, same old same old." I said nonchalantly. I knew I couldn't keep him guessing for long, he probably already knew more about what I had been up to then I did. I shrugged my shoulders. "What about you?" I tried to turn the conversation back to him, but he took it in stride.
"Nothing you should worry about." That stupid smirk was infuriating, yet Zach didn't really seem like Zach without it. I would never admit this out loud, but I kind of missed it.
"When did Preston start going to Blackthorne?" I turned the conversation around completely.
"He started up around the time we left for the exchange. He had to hang back and work on catching up to us." He seemed a little smug and not for the first time, I wanted to smack him. We approached the tons of games and contests they had out for tourists.
"Why don't we play some games?" Bes suggested with a confident tone. I knew we were about to witness a competition between Bex and Grant. This should be interesting.
"Really?" Macey asked "We're gonna be that cliche?" she looked a little annoyed at the idea. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't psyched about the idea but…
"Blending in Mace," I said a little solemnly "It's one of our main goals today." She didn't look happy about the idea but nodded.
Bex grinned "Excellent." I felt sorry for Grant, until I saw he had the same look on his face. They turned to the nearest game and slapped bills down on the counter. The rest of us held back, I didn't want to get in the middle of that.
"How about we head over there?" Zach suggested as he pointed to a game across the street. It was a darts game, I could handle darts.
"Sure." I agreed we strolled over the game, with Liz and Jonas heading to the game next to us. Macey and Preston had decided to try their luck against each other at the booth next to Bex and Grant. I placed my 50 on the counter, but Zach pressed it back into my hands.
"I got this." He winked at me and I held back both my blush and my annoyance. The guy running the game handed us each 5 darts. I hesitantly took aim. I didn't want to over achieve so I acted like I didn't know what I was doing.
I took aim for the wall. I knew I would miss, but if I hit all of them someone might get suspicious. Zach smiled at my 'attempt' as I made a wild throw at the wall. He also knew I could hit it, but apparently couldn't resist.
"Here," He said as he placed his arms around me and 'helped me' take aim. I will never admit how safe I felt with his arms around me, with his scent overcoming me he smelled like something that I could only describe as Zach. Together we threw a perfect shot and hit the balloon right in the middle. We threw the rest of them in rapid succession hitting the rest of them. Apparently discretion wasn't his specialty. Or maybe he just didn't care.
The guy running the booth was impressed. "You get two prizes." He said with eyebrows raised. I chose a blue stuffed monkey and Zach chose the pink stuffed monkey. I raised my eyebrows a little on his choice but didn't comment.
"Let's see who's winning the competition." I said, he nodded in agreement as we walked to our group of friends. We joined Macey and Preston and watched as Bex and Grant played skee ball to send a horse from one end of the booth to the other. Bex was in the lead and made every ball into the top slot.
"Who won the last round?" Zach asked
"Bex." Macey said with pride in her voice and we smiled at our over competitive friend.
Bex won by a landslide. Grant didn't seem to take it too hard. I wondered if he was throwing the game but as we progressed through the rest of the games on the boardwalk it was obvious he wasn't. Bex totally killed him in every game. She soon had a ton of prizes to cart around with her. She and Grant each chose one and gave the rest to some kids who hadn't won anything yet. Their parents didn't seem too happy but we ignored their looks.
"Let's get corndogs!" Liz suggested as we finished the last game.
"Yeah," Jonas agreed "There's a cart right over there." He pointed across the beach.
We headed towards the cart making idle chatter, we ate quickly. In the midday sun, it was burning hot. I let out a breath.
"Anyone else dying of heat?" I asked sarcastically.
"Yes!" Macey agreed
"Oh sorry," Zach said "I'll leave" his smirk seemed to be directed right at me. Macey, Bex, Liz and I rolled our eyes in synchronization. I thought I saw Jonas roll his eyes as well.
"There's a boutique right over there." Macey pointed out. "We could go buy something to get wet in and go swimming."
"We're almost of money" I reminded her.
"I have my card." She said pulling her credit card out of her back pocket. "Besides, you definitely need a bathing suit." I couldn't argue with that.
"We'll back in a few minutes." Liz said as we started towards the small shop.
"Whoa there," Preston said as they ran to catch up to us "we want to come too!"
"Hmm, can't imagine why." Macey said sarcastically but didn't comment on their accompanying us. As we reached the little shop, Macey immediately pulled us over to the bikini's.
She handed me a bikini with high waisted black bottoms, and a neon pink bandeau top and told me to try it on. I waited for her to hand one to Liz as well and we walked back to the changing rooms together. Liz had a neon blue bandeau top to go with bottoms like mine.
The swimsuit fit well. "Hey Liz, do you have yours on yet?" I called to her in the room next to mine.
"Yeah." She replied
"Good, come out here, I want to see them." Macey called. I stepped out of the dressing room to see Macey holding a neon green top and shorts like mine and Liz's. Of course, in true Bex fashion she had a blood red top with the same shorts as the rest of us. She looked us over.
"Wow." I just barely heard a small voice say from my right. I looked over to see Zach staring at me and I forced down a blush. I resisted the urge to cross my arms over my chest. I looked to his left to see Jonas blushing a bright red, Liz looked a little pink too but looked confident.
Macey nodded at the both of us. "Good, go grab your stuff, we'll wear them out." She instructed us. We nodded and bundled our clothes.
"We'll take it over to the car" I told liz as she held her clothes uncertainly.
"Great idea," Bex said as she exited her dressing room. I swear Grant's jaw dropped. I held back a giggle, but no one's reaction topped Prestons. He saw Macey and started to pass out, Grant and Zach caught him and slapped him to bring him to his senses. We burst into laughter.
"Come on guys." Macey led us to the counter. We payed then walked over to the car and shoved our stuff into the back seat.
"Can we put our stuff in here too?" Grant asked us.
"Sure" I said and the boys pulled off their shirts. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. With spies you come to expect everyone to have fit bodies, but wow. You gotta hand it to blackthorne, they know how to train their boys. I have never seen such perfectly sculpted bodies, even Jonas and Preston. Zach caught me looking at him.
"Like what you see?" He teased me but I refused to let him make me embarrassed.
"Not as much as you did, unfortunately" I said cheekily. That got a laugh out of Bex.
The boy's apparently knew we were coming to the beach because they all wore swim trunks under their shorts. Grant even had a necklace under his shirt, like a surfer you would see on a really cheesy movie. We shut the car and headed for the sand. We found a place that had less people than the rest of the beach. I pulled my hair tie off my wrist and began to put my hair in a ponytail. As I finished wrapping my hair tie around my hair, I felt strong arms wrap around my waist.
I could tell immediately from the smell that it was Zach, so I stuck to my cover and let out a girly scream and clung to him. I tried not to notice how strong his shoulders were, but it's impossible not too when you're in that position. Man, his shoulders were strong.
We hit the water and Zach turned around and fell on his back into the water. When we came up, I looked at the shore to see our friends laughing at us, I couldn't help but laugh along with them. I heard Zach's low chuckle in my ear and I turned to face him.
The waves crashed against us as I tightened my ponytail. Zach reached around and wound my hair through his fingers. "You look great Gallagher Girl." I couldn't help it, I blushed.
"You don't look to bad yourself." I said back and his smirk turned to a grin.
"I realized something when we left after the exchange," he said "I never officially asked you to be my girlfriend, so I'll do it now. Will you be my girlfriend Cammie?" I acted thoughtful for a minute.
"Of course!" I smiled and kissed him, he didn't hesitate to kiss me back.
I heard Grant's whistles and Bex's calls all the way down in the water, but I didn't stop kissing him until Macey stepped in.
"Alright Cam that's enough! People are starting to stare!" She yelled. That got me to pull away quick. Zach smirked at me then wrapped his arms around my waist.
"Come on in guys, the water's fine!" He called to our friends on the beach. Bex and Grant raced towards us and tackled us back under the water. We came up laughing when Bex declared a chicken fight.
"I don't know Bex, there are a lot of people around." I said uncertainly.
"Come on Cam," Zach said as he pulled me towards him "I won't let you fall, trust me." I nodded and went to climb on his shoulders. "Wrap your feet around my back." He whispered in my ear. I smiled to show I understood and climbed up onto his shoulders. I wrapped my feet around his back and he placed his hands on my knees to keep me balanced, as if I needed help. Grant and Zach stood in front of each other, I made the first move.
I reached forward and tried to push Bex to the side, she recovered quickly, and tried to counter. With my feet around Zach's back to keep me balanced, it didn't effect me at all. She frowned and I took the opportunity to shove her backwards. She tried to grab onto Grant but was too late and she fell backwards, taking Grant down with her. Zach and I cheered.
"Cammie, be careful up there!" Liz called to me as she and Jonas waded over to us. Preston appeared to be trying to persuade Macey to come get into the water but soon gave up.
I laughed a little "It'll be okay Lizzie."
"Don't be so sure!" Zach called as he turned and once again fell backwards into the water, taking me down with him. I came up laughing as I swatted him playfully.
"Will you guys help me get Macey down here?" Preston asked as he walked into the cool ocean water.
"Sure, stay down here." Bex said
"We'll be back in a minute." I said as the girls and I headed back towards shore. At the last second, someone's hand enclosed by wrist and Zach whirled me back around and kissed me softly. I opened my eyes to see him smiling, yes actually smiling, at me.
"Don't take too long." He said
I smiled at him "We won't don't worry" I turned around again to see a mischievous look in Bex's eyes. Oh this was so planned out. I took a deep breath and walked up the beach in the Florida heat. Time for interrogation.
As we got closer to Macey she sat up and Liz and Bex sandwiched me between them.
"Cameron Ann Morgan, what on earth was that?" Macey asked with the biggest grin on her face. From her tone you could tell she wasn't angry but she was serious. Answers would be heard one way or another, so I decided to go the easy way. I plopped myself down in front of Macey and began to relay the tale starting from when Zach picked me up.
Throughout my story the girls laughed or awed but one thing remained constant, they smiled the entire time.
"Remind me to interrogate the boy." Bex said thoughtfully.
"I'll help." Liz said
"Me too." Macey said
"So will I," My mom said as she and Mr Solomon walked over. "Who are we interrogating?" she asked
"Zach" Macey answered.
"Oh good, I want to help too." Mr Solomon added in "Why are we interrogating him?" He asked.
Macey gave them a shortened version of the events. Mr Solomon got an evil grin on his face.
"I really want to help." I raised my eyebrows at him
"Any specific reason?" I asked him, eyeing my mother.
"Other than the obvious?" he seemed confused
"There's an obvious reason?" Now it was my turn to be confused.
"Well, with your father MIA, it falls to his best friend to play the part of over protective role model." My mom explained.
"And here I was thinking it fell to me." Bex said sourly. She didn't like the idea of someone trying to take over for my dad, I didn't either as a matter of fact luckily for me Bex knew that and expressed it for me.
"Trust me, I'm not here to take any one's place, I'm just here to lend a helping hand." He explained, almost as if he could read our minds.
"So you admit that's why you're here this summer?" I asked eyeing him. The interrogation seemed to have changed from me to Joe Solomon, which was a pleasant surprise.
"I never admitted to anything," he said calmly "look, here come your boyfriends."
"I don't have a boyfriend!" Liz exclaimed
My friends immediately broke into defensive arguments
"You think I would date that?" Macey asked incredulously
"Puh-lease, I have standards!" Bex said acting out a bratty american perfectly, which led me to believe she was lying.
"Hi guys!" I called to Zach, Jonas, Grant, and Preston as soon as they got close enough to hear the girls. I figured it would get my friends to stop talking.
Zach came up and sat behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, Preston shook his hair, getting Macey wet, Jonas stood shyly by Liz, and Grant went up to Bex and threw his arm around her shoulder just to get elbowed in the gut. He then retreated to a more respectable distance. Smart boy.
"So guys, what've you been up to today?" Mr S asked with a pointed look at Zach.
"Oh, you know, games, swimming, walking, talking, that sort of thing." Zach answered nonchalantly. "Actually, we came up here to see if the girls wanted to rent some surfboards, maybe we could get them to stand up on them before the day is over." I resisted the urge to slap him, this could work to our advantage.
Slowly, carefully, I made eye contact with each of my friends "I don't know, it sounds kinda hard…" I said shyly. My friends caught on immediately.
"Yeah," Liz agreed "I'm clumsy enough on land, imagine what would happen if I got on the water" she acted scared, so Jonas jumped to reassure her.
"It's not that hard Lizzie, besides if I can do it, you can too" He smiled at her.
"I really don't want to get my hair wet, but if the girls try it, I will too" Macey said confidently.
"I'm always up for a challenge." Bex said punching her hand. "You ready for this Cam?" she asked me.
I bit my lip uncertainly. "I suppose…" I trailed off.
"Don't worry Gallagher Girl, I won't let you get hurt." Zach whispered in my ear. I tried so hard not to roll my eyes.
"Lizzie?" I asked her.
"Well...I guess…" she said clenching her fists. The boys gave each other looks, we were in, they totally fell for it.
My mom gave us each 20 bucks to go rent surfboards for the rest of the day, after we all had our boards, we went for the water. We went out a few yards from shore, and the boys asked us to get on our boards.
"Okay, it's really pretty simple, when you see a wave paddle out in front of it and then when the water catches the board, stand up." Grant explained. This time I rolled my eyes.
"Sounds easy enough." Bex caught my eyes and I have to admit, she did a really good job of acting like she was uncertain. She gave me a 'reassuring' smile.
"Here comes a wave, try to catch it." Zach called "Wow, here come a bunch of waves, the surf looks good, go for it girls, we'll watch you and give you advice when you need it." I didn't fail to notice how he said when instead of if.
The girls and I paddled out of earshot, towards the approaching waves. "Bex, you go first, they'll be expecting you to be able to at least catch a wave, Mace you head out after, show 'em what you got, I'll go after you, and Lizzie make them pay for ever doubting us." I instructed.
"Wow Cam, you devious little thinker, you" Macey winked at me "I'm so proud, we've taught you well." She and Bex slapped each others hands.
"I'm heading out!" Bex called and we cheered her on. She caught the wave perfectly, she started heading towards the boys and Macey Liz and I ducked under her wave.
"Wish me luck!" Macey called as she went for her wave. She looked perfect as she started to glide over the water.
"Show them what you got Lizzie!" I called as I headed for my wave.
"You got this Cam!" She called back to me.
I paddled like crazy to catch the wave, I wasn't too nervous, we'd been surfing the whole day before. I finally felt my board get stuck in the edge of the wave, I stood up just in time to see Liz duck under the wave. I smiled as I felt the wind roll over me as I approached my friends. The boys all had slack jaws and Bex and Macey were clapping and calling. I made a hang loose sign as I neared them and jumped off my board and swam towards them.
I fell into line next to Macey just in time to see Liz catch her wave. The thing was a monster she took it in stride. She held her own on the water with ease and even got in the tube. She jumped off right before she hit us. She surfaced next to us with a grin on her face. We cheered and clapped as she bent at the waist in a little bow. We looked over at the boys, who all had big eyes. I haven't laughed that hard in forever.
"How!" Was all Jonas was able to get out. His words seemed to knock the boys out of their stupor and Zach and Grant composed themselves.
"I take it you girls have surfed before?" Zach asked
"Once, yesterday." Macey answered.
"You can't fool us McHenry, that kind of skill doesn't come from one day of surfing that comes from years of experience." Grant argued.
"Hate to break it to you, but yesterday really was the first time any of us have surfed." Bex told them.
Preston snorted "Yeah, sure whatever you say Baxter" He said rudely as he turned away from us. I saw Bex's temper flare. I paddled myself backwards as she launched herself at Preston. We let her pummel him for a few seconds than Macey and I swam forwards and pulled her off of him.
"That was a bad move on your part Winters" I said coldly.
"At least you guys learned a valuable lesson today." Macey said in the same tone.
"And what would that be?" Jonas asked nervously
"Never underestimate a Gallagher Girl." Liz said.
"We thought after spending a semester with us you would've known better" Bex said as she rearranged her hair.
"You can't blame the guy, he was hoping for an easy way to spend the day," Zach said "we all were." Macey obviously heard something that I didn't.
"You mean an easy way to get some action." Macey retorted. "I would bet that it was Prestons idea. He probably told you the benefits and you all thought it would be good fun."
The look on Jonas' face gave them away. At least one of them had a conscience.
I looked at Zach accusingly. "What a pigheaded thing to do."
"I couldn't agree more." Bex said "But these Blackthorne Boys forgot one crucial thing."
"And what would that be?" Grant asked sarcastically.
"These aren't just girls," Zach added in "they're Gallagher Girls."
"Precisely." I stared at him.
"Well, now that we're all on the same page," Bex said "let's see if you guys can surf as well as you claim." She broke into a grin "Wouldn't want you to be shown up by a bunch of girls now would we?" And just like that, all was forgiven. Gallagher Girls were just as moody as other girls, but this was our summer, and we weren't about to let some guys ruin it a few days in.
"Well ladies," Grant started "Sit back, relax and enjoy the show." The boys paddled out to try and catch some waves. We faced our boards towards the horizon and linked our ankles underwater to keep together.
Jonas went first, he was actually pretty good. He managed to catch his wave as quickly as any of us had. Next was Preston, you could tell he wasn't the best in the group, he wobbled to his feet but didn't fall which was impressive for someone who hadn't been training to have perfect balance his whole life. Grant decided to show off a little bit, when he climbed to his feet he almost immediately went into a hand-stand. He lifted one hand off his board and started doing a weird push-up thing one handed on his board, it was actually impressive until he got tossed off his board. We laughed a little but he came up smiling. You gotta love it when someone can laugh at their mistakes or failures.
Zach went last. He too decided to show off. He stood, then sat, then lounged, then spun, then jumped off his board in a perfect front flip. He landed in a dive a few feet in front of us. Apparently he took his ankle band off because his board started to float away. Liz made a wild grab for it when he popped up in front of me. He braced his hands on my board and kissed me. He kept himself up on the board as one hand moved to cradle my face. I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around his neck but still kept us upright.
Cat calls and whistles soon followed. I couldn't help but wonder if they would ever get sick of that.
"I'm going to drown you two if you don't knock it off!" Macey's cynical response came. I pulled away but laughed.
"Wow McHenry," Zach said "you're so nice, said no one ever." He said in a teasing voice. Macey smiled then reached over and shoved him backwards, rocking my board. I moved back a little farther on my board, I couldn't help but smile a bit, after all it was a little funny.
"Cam, you're boyfriend's a jerk." She said as she dusted off her hands
All the sudden, Zach jumped out of the water and landed on the front of my board, almost sending us into the water. I shrieked a little and moved back to balance it.
"What about me?" He asked. I could hear the smirk on his face.
"Get that smirk of your face Goode!" Macey responded. I so called it.
"Geez, you two fight like an old married couple!" I teased.
"Do not!" The responded in unison.
The rest of us burst into laughter. Zach moved closer to the middle of the board, and I did too.
"Hey Zach," Liz asked in between giggles "do you want your board back?"
He shrugged "Eventually, for now, I'm perfect right where I am." We had reached the middle of the board, so he reached around and grabbed my arms, wrapping them around his waist. I leaned up against his admittedly very muscular back. Out on the ocean there was a cool breeze, and even though we were in Florida, he was very warm. It was pretty comfortable.
"Anybody know what time it is?" Preston asked.
"5:33" The rest of us responded in unison.
"Man, where has the day gone?" He asked rhetorically. The boys paddled in front of us to make a oval/circle shaped thing so we could talk better.
Jonas began to answer his question. "Well, the day started when-"
"Rhetorical question J-Man" Grant cut him off.
"Man I hate those." He said Liz reached over and patted his hand.
"Me too." She smiled at him. They sat there looking at each other for a while until Grant began to narrate.
"She looked lovingly into his eyes, and in his mind, it seemed that no one would ever be more perfect-OW!" Bex slapped him, hard.
"Oooo." I said in sympathy, you could already see the red mark forming. With any luck it wouldn't bruise. "Does anybody else want food?" I asked changing the subject.
I was met with a chorus of yeah's. "Let's go see if Rachel and Mr. Solomon want to go out to eat." Macey suggested
"Last one back's a rotten egg!" I exclaimed as I shoved Zach sideways off my board. The girls laughed as we paddled to catch the closest wave.
We made our way to shore with relative ease. We grabbed our boards and sprinted up the beach towards my mom and a laughing Solomon. We landed in a heap in front of them, none of us breathing heavily. The boys came a few seconds after piling on top of us. We groaned when their weight hit us.
"So," I began "why don't we go out to dinner?" I asked my mom.
"Not now, we're staying until 11:00 remember?" she said
"But we're hungry now." I retorted
"Then go get food, there are plenty of things open." She suggested
"We're out of money." I replied
"Already?" She asked.
"Bex and Grant played every game." I said. She looked up at the sky like 'what am I going to do with you?' Then replied
"Alrighty then." She reached down into her purse, she then handed me $150 "We can make something back at the house a little later, but for now this is all you get. Go get something to hold you over and ride the ferris wheel or something. If you use too much energy we'll have to buy more food."
"Thanks mom!" I replied inching forward to grab the money. Everyone else jumped up making it easier to move.
"Thanks Mrs. Morgan!" They replied except for Grant who yelled. "Thanks mom!" I laughed at him and slapped him lightly on the head. "Does that mean I can join the family? Cause your mom is so much cooler than mine!" Everybody else ran off, I don't know why, I had the money.
I rolled my eyes at him "Sure Grant, you can be my adopted son." My mom replied with a smile on her face, she would never admit it but she always wanted a son before she had a daughter.
"Really?" My mom nodded, and weirdly enough he seemed sincere. "Sweet!"
"I've always wanted a brother!" I yelled truthfully, maybe my mom wasn't the only one who wished that she had a boy first.
"You're probably gonna regret getting stuck with me!" he yelled back.
"I seriously doubt it!" I said crossing my arms.
"Go!" My mom said as she laughed and shooed us with her hands.
Grant ran forward and threw me over his shoulder.
"Whoa!" I said as the world was tipped upside down.
"Told you!" he said as he took off running to catch up with our friends.
I started laughing at his giddiness and he chuckled along with me. I could picture his grin and it just made me laugh harder, which made Grant laugh harder. When we reached our friends I could barely breathe.
He set me down on the ground and I clutched my sides and continued to laugh, when I saw Grant doubled over in laughter I could barely stand up straight I clutched his shoulder to keep myself up right.
"I feel like we missed some big joke." Macey said. There was actually nothing that was funny, and when I came to this realization I only laughed harder, taking wheezing breaths when I could.
"Yup, we missed something." Bex said, by this time Liz and Jonas were starting to laugh too. When Preston started laughing, I fell to the ground, his laugh was hilarious. I've never tested the theory that laughter was contagious but right then I knew it was true because before you knew it we were all rolling on the ground laughing. It came to the point where Grant wasn't even making noise.
By the time we all calmed down, we were wiping tears from our eyes. I leaned back against Zach and took deep breaths. We all sat there in the middle of the dock for a few minutes.
"Do we get to know what's so funny now?" Macey asked. I started to giggle again. Liz held out a hand to stop me.
"Please, no more," She said with a smile on her face "I can't handle anymore."
Zach wrapped his arms around my waist as I tried to explain. "There isn't really anything that's funny." I said as I made eye contact with Grant.
"Then why were you laughing so hard?" Zach asked confused.
"Well, it started out with me imagining Grant's grin as we were running over here, then we just started laughing and couldn't stop" I explained.
"Yeah, about that, why were you carrying Cammie?" Zach asked Grant. The possessive undertone in his voice made me smile.
"Oh yeah, I've been adopted as Cammie's big brother, so you're gonna have to go through me to get to her, and if you hurt her, I'll pummel you." Grant puffed out his chest and I tried not to laugh.
"Okay then." Zach said as he chuckled in my ear.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, so Grant is an official sibling and I'm not?" Bex asked offended. I couldn't help but laugh a little.
"Come on Bex, we've been sisters since the day we met! Same with Liz and Macey. I figured it just kind of went without saying, but if it makes you feel better, you're now officially my sister." I smiled at her and she nodded in contentment.
"Let's get food now," I said as I grabbed Zachs' hand and pulled us both to our feet. "I'm still starving."
"Corn dogs sound good to everyone else?" Jonas asked.
With all replies positive, we bought as many corn dogs as we could carry, sat down and pigged out. After our extremely unhealthy snack, we had just enough to ride the ferris wheel.
We bought our tickets and got in line, unfortunately it seemed that everyone else at the beach got in line before us, it look like a good hour and a half wait. We figured we might as well wait in line, go for one last swim then chill on the beach until 11.
"Okay, seeing as we'll be here for a while, let's play a game." Macey suggested.
"Can it be 'let's see who can run to the car the fastest and get jackets'?" Liz asked and I agreed with her. It was getting colder and the girls and I were still only in our bikini's.
Bex rolled her eyes. "It's not that cold." She folded her arms and popped a hip. She kind of reminded me of Abby for a second, but then that image was gone and all I could see was pure Bex.
"Come on Bex, me and you can grab stuff from the car and be right back. It'll be faster than anything else." Grant suggested. Bex thought about it then nodded. "Race you there!" He yelled as he took off towards the car. I saw Bex get a competitive look in her eyes as she sprinted after him.
"Seriously though, let's play a game." Macey said getting back to her main point.
"Can't it wait 'til they get back?" I pleaded, I knew whatever game it was it would involved some major embarrassment on my part. She rolled her eyes.
"Fine." We stood in silence listening to the chatter of those around us. In the distance you could hear the music from the ferris wheel.
A few minutes later, we saw a rumpled looking Bex and Grant walking towards us holding hands. I made careful eye contact with Liz and Macey, they saw it too.
"Hey guys!" Grant greeted us cheerfully. We all eyed their hands but they seemed to ignore the hint. They handed us t-shirts to put on to help keep us warm.
"I need to go to the bathroom," Liz suddenly announced and Macey caught on fast.
"Me too, I want to check my hair. Wanna come with us Cam?" She looked at me meaningfully yet still casually.
"Sure, come on Bex." I grabbed her arm and I knew she wouldn't dare fight me in the middle of public. She kissed Grant on the check and I pulled harder.
"Bye, be back soon." She whispered and we walked towards the bathroom. As soon as we were out of earshot, we attacked her with questions.
"What was that about?" We asked her quickly.
She got a loopy grin on her face and forgot to be mysterious for a minute. "Grant asked me to be his girlfriend!" She exclaimed.
I squealed "Yay!" Liz clapped her hands and Macey smiled.
"How'd he do it?" She asked.
"He pushed me up on the car and kissed me, he asked me after that." She got a dreamy look on her face. I waved my hand in front of her face a little bit to get her attention. We reached the bathroom laughing.
"Now all we gotta do is get Jonas and Preston to ask out Liz and Macey." I said as I elbowed Bex in the side.
"Yeah," she agreed "The hardest will be Jonas though, he's pretty shy." Macey stopped primping for a minuted and turned to look at us.
"Excuse me," she said deadly serious "what makes you think I like Preston Winters?" Her voice raised a pitch on the last 2 words. I eyed Bex and Liz.
"YOU SO LIKE HIM!" We exclaimed at the same time. She looked down at the ground ever so slightly, and we laughed at her confirmation.
"Forget it guys, Preston will never ask me out…" She seemed really down.
"Are you kidding me?" I asked incredulously
"She has got to be kidding." Bex said.
"There's no way she's serious." Liz said as we sat and looked at her.
"What?" She asked us
"Come on, you're Macey McHenry!" I said "What guy wouldn't want you!"
"You're gorgeous," Liz added
"You're nice," Bex said
"And you kick some serious butt." I finished "Of course he's going to ask you out, it's just a question of when."
"Do you guys really think so?" she asked hopefully.
"Yeah!" We responded
"Then we just need to worry about Liz." She said and we turned to look at Liz. She turned bright red.
"W-we should p-probably get b-b-back." She said as she turned and left the bathroom. We laughed and followed her out.
When we made it back to the guys, we found they had made a little progress in the line.
"Okay, no more excuses, let's play a game." Macey said as soon as we hit our spot in line.
"What do you wanna play?" Bex asked.
"Never have I ever." She said "Rules, gender with the most people gets the point. Gender with the most points at the end wins. Let's say losing gender has to do whatever the opposite gender does."
"For how long?" Grant asked.
"One favor, so they really have to think of something good." She said with an evil grin.
"Okay, guys start." Zach said, I left his side to go stand by my friends.
"Hmm…Never have I ever…Passed out." Jonas said.
Liz and I both raised our hands, it wasn't something I was proud of but it was something that happened. After a moment's hesitation Macey raised her hand as well.
The only person to raise their hand from the boys was Preston. Point girls.
"Never have I ever...played spin the bottle." Grant and Zach raised their hands. Bex and I eyed each other, then raised our hands too. That got a surprised look out of Zach, and Macey.
"Tie," Macey pronounced "whoever has the most interesting story gets the point."
"Now you're making rules up!" I protested.
She shrugged "I don't hear anyone protesting."
"I'm protesting!" I exclaimed
"I'm over ruling!" she said "Come on Cam, do it for the point!" I groaned but nodded.
"They go first." Bex said and the boys shrugged.
"It was for a party someone threw over winter break a couple years ago." Zach said. "But here's the kicker, it was in Germany." He looked proud of himself. I eyed Bex and gestured for her to tell the story.
We moved up a few feet before she started. "Okay, so Cam and I were in Nebraska a summer or 2 ago with her grandparents while my parents were on a mission." She took a deep breath. "We were down by this lake a while away from Cam's grandparent's place, we were there with a bunch of kids from the neighboring Ranch's and they had a weird set of rules. We were on the dock that led to the lake so the rules were, if you didn't kiss then you had to take a swig of lake water from the bottle or you could jump naked in the lake. One kid was a total germaphobe, I'm still not entirely sure why he was there."
"Because he's a jerk," I cut in "No one likes the kid but if he finds out you didn't invite him to something, you get heat about it for ages." I rolled my eyes "His name is Samson, by the way." I added in unnecessarily. I hated the kid. We moved up again. We were getting close now.
"Yeah, so he spun the bottle and it landed on Cammie, we all knew there was no way he was going to do it, so we just listed his options. He said there was no way he was gonna drink out of that nasty bottle so he decided to strip and jump. After he jumped in, we grabbed his stuff and split." She looked at me and we laughed at the memory.
"He was in the lake all night, he was too scared to get out after we left." I finished and we all laughed for a while.
"Okay, that's hilarious, girls win." Macey declared.
"I don't know, I thought Grant and Zach's story was pretty entertaining." Jonas tried.
"Maybe," Preston cut in "But it wasn't that entertaining."
"I hate this game, we've barely gone 2 rounds and it's very clear that the girls are going to win" Grant whined.
"We can play a different game." I suggested. I hated this game.
"Yeah like truth or dare." Macey suggested.
"Or we can keep playing this game." I said as I hurriedly changed my mind.
"Nah, we're almost there anyways," Zach said as we moved closer, one more round and we would make it on. I made a mental note to thank him later. "We can play it when we're back at the house when there's more stuff to do and less people." I made a mental note to hit him later. So much for a knight in shining armor.
"Where are you guys staying?" Liz asked.
"At the house with you guys." Jonas answered. The girls and I exchanged looks. Looks like we were sharing rooms again.
We finally reached the gate to go on the ferris wheel. "Four to a cart!" The man running the machine yelled as we headed for a gate. Zach grabbed my hand and I reached for Bex's arm to find that she had the same thought I did. Macey and Liz would have boyfriends at the end of the night if Bex and I had anything to do with it.
With linked arms Bex and I lead our boyfriends to a cart ignoring the looks that Macey shot at our backs. When we reached out cart, Zach and I sat across from Grant and Bex. I leaned my head on his shoulder and took a contented sigh. I could practically hear his smirk as we started to move upwards.
"Oh man," Grant said "Macey looks ticked off." Bex Zach and I all looked towards them and saw Macey's mad face. Bex and I exchanged glances and I knew she saw the happy undertone in her face. She never stopped using a cover.
Liz and Jonas were both bright red as the stood side by side. I laughed a little. "Look at Jonas and Liz." I said calling attention to them. I felt Zach press closer against me to get a closer look. He chuckled softly in my ear.
"Come on Jo-Bro." He whispered quietly. "You can do it!" He cheered him on. Cautiously, Jonas reached over and grabbed Liz's hand. She jumped a little but then took a step closer to him. She look up and caught my gaze and grinned as she stepped into the cart with Jonas by her side, lending a hand to help her in.
"Yes!" Grant exclaimed as he and Zach slapped hands. They leaned back in the carts and I leaned into Zach who placed an arm around my shoulders.
"They will officially be a couple by the end of this ride." Bex proclaimed and I smiled for Liz.
"Hopefully Macey will have warmed up to Preston by then too." Grant said putting his arm around Bex. Bex and I made eye contact and she smiled.
"I think she'll warm up to him quicker than you think." I said mysteriously.
"Do you know something we don't know?" Zach asked at my cryptic statement.
"We know a lot of things you don't know." Bex said winking at me and I giggled.
"Look where we are." Zach whispered in my ear and I looked out the side. We were at the top of the ferris wheel.
I turned back to look at him just in time to catch a kiss. He cradled my face with one hand, the other still around my shoulder. He kissed me sweetly and softly. I took a deep breath as he pulled away, breathing him in as we settled in again.
I looked across the cart to see Bex and Grant starting a full on make-out session. I couldn't resist. I cat called at the precise moment Zach whistled. The broke apart startled as the glared at us. I laughed a little. Revenge was sweet.
When we got off the ferris wheel, we stood over by the exit to wait for our friends. We weren't surprised to see Liz and Jonas holding hands, but we were surprised to see Macey laughing with Preston.
I caught Macey's eye and raised an eyebrow at her. She shook her head once, she would explain later.
"Okay, what do you say to one last wave before dark?" Bex asked.
"Let's do it!" I exclaimed and recieved cheers in response. We ran to the beach, took off our t-shirts and ran to the water. The water was cool over my damp swim suit and I took off out towards the setting sun.
We surfed for an hour more, until it was too dark to see anymore. As I caught wave after wave, racing Zach for the best spot on a wave and shoving Bex off her board, I realized that no matter what the other Gallagher Girls were doing, there was no way they would top this summer.
As last light on the horizon disappeared, we made our way to shore. We found my mom and Solomon waiting for us by our t-shirts with a stack of towels.
"We thought you might want these." My mom admitted as she handed them out to us. "We'll leave soon," she continued "but you have to see this, it's the best part."
I settled in the cool sand and Zach came over and cuddled up behind me. Macey came and sat on my right and Bex came on my right with Liz on her other side. Grant settled behind Bex in the same position as Zach.
A loud bang sounded on the horizon. A crack followed as the sky lit up with colors. For the next half hour, we watched the fireworks. As the night progressed, the air got cooler, and Zach moved his arms around my middle to keep me warm.
When the last burst of color lit up the sky, I was starting to feel the days activities catch up with. I was feeling a little drowsy as we walked back to the car laughing at Grant's impressions of the fireworks. We piled in the car, My mom and Solomon were in the front, Liz, Jonas and Preston were behind them. Macey, Bex, and Grant settled in behind them, and Zach and I opted to sit in the trunk of the SUV.
"Keep a good hold on her Mr. Goode." Mr Solomon said as we pulled out of the parking lot.
"Wouldn't dream of letting her go, Mr S." He replied as he wrapped his arms around me and I settled into his chest. As we pulled closer to the house, I dozed into a short sleep, feeling more secure in Zach's arms then I ever could in any seat belt.
A/N: Tried to make it longer to make up for my lack of updating, sorry about that. As for the random facts that popped up, let's say if I mention it, it happened. This story doesn't really take place at a specific time.
