A/N: Daaaaang son! I got 13 emails this week so far! Keep it up guys!

Chapter 13

"ATAAAAACK!" Grant screamed the next morning as the boys screamed and ran into our rooms.

I jumped out of bed and ran towards the bathroom, narrowly avoiding Zach's wild grab for me. "Liz!" I yelled as Jonas tackled her to the ground.

I slammed the bathroom door shut and locked it. Bex came in through her side of the bathroom and shut and locked that door too.

"They got Liz!" I yelled over the noise of the boys and Liz and Macey's screams.

"Macey too!" She exclaimed. We pressed our backs against the door.

I looked around wildly for a way out of the bathroom. "Do you think we can fit out of the window?" I asked her.

She examined the size of the window. "Yeah," She replied "I think so." We both ran for the window and shoved it open.

"You first!" I said. She jumped through the window. I climbed up on the sill and looked to make sure that Bex was out of the way.

The boys started ramming their shoulders against the door, I didn't wait a second longer and jumped. I crouched into a roll as I landed, trying to avoid spraining my ankle. I avoided landing on my ankle, but I slammed my shoulder into the ground pretty hard.

We landed in the backyard, on the sand. I looked through the kitchen window to see Mom and Solomon laughing at the kitchen table. I stood up and looked around for Bex, I found her a few feet from the edge of the house, rotating her shoulder. It looks like she hit her shoulder too.

"Come on Bex, they were right behind me!" I yelled and we took off down the beach.

As we ran, I looked over a Bex smiling. "Do you think the boys tried to use the bathroom this morning?" I asked.

Bex laughed. "You think?" She looked behind us. "I don't see them yet, but we should get off the beach, try to cover our tracks." She suggested.

"Good idea." I said as we turned to the left and went through someone's backyard towards the road. "Which way should we go?" I asked her.

"I think there's a boardwalk somewhere up here," She said gesturing to the right "We should try to stay out of the way until they calm down."

I nodded my agreement and we started a brisk walk towards the pier.

"So guess what color Grant was when he ran into my room this morning?" Bex said with a smile.

I laughed. "Green?" I asked.

Bex shook her head. "Purple." She confided in me, and we burst out laughing.

"What was Preston's condition like?" I asked.

"Wet." She said as we burst into laughs once more.

"That was a brilliant idea." I said as soon as I caught my breath.

She nodded her agreement. "What do you think they're going to do to Liz and Macey?" She asked.

"I'm not sure." I replied. "How mad do you think they're going to be that we left them behind?" I asked Bex.

She smiled. "Macey will be furious, I can imagine Liz will be the same." We laughed at the mental picture of little Lizzie furious.

"Wait, wait!" I said to Bex. "Do you hear that?" We stopped walking and listened.

"YOU GUYS!"

"Macey?!" We turned to each other surprised.

We spun around, and sure enough, there she was, running after us. We ran back towards her, making sure to keep an eye out for the boys.

"Macey, how did you get out, I thought for sure you were a goner!" Bex exclaimed.

Macey held up a finger, gesturing for us to wait while she caught her breath.

"I slipped out of Grant's grasp when Zach called for help to get the bathroom door open. I jumped out the window and ran out to the front of the house, I saw you guys a few meters back." She said gulping air.

"Nice," I said appreciatively "We're headed towards the pier now, do you know how Liz is doing?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "Last I saw of her, she was being chased by Jonas down the hall, She might've run to see if your mom would help." She said as we resumed walking towards the pier. "So what exactly is your brilliant plan?" Macey asked. "Get to the pier and then what?"

"Dunno. We figured we'd be lucky if we made it to the pier." Bex answered.

Macey rolled her eyes and reached into her tank-top and pulled out a credit card. "You two are so lucky I never sleep without this thing." She said.

"You sleep with a credit card in your shirt?" I asked

"My dad always said you should never be without money."

I looked at her, a little surprised. "Alrighty." I said.

"Look, there's the pier." Bex said.

"Wow, we made good time." Macey said surprised.

I slung my arm around her shoulder. "You're faster than you were before McHenry. Before you know it, you'll be winning the gold in the olympics." I said with a smile.

She grinned back at me. "Luckily for you, there's one thing that'll never change, Morgan," She said "I will always love to shop, and what do you know. There's a cute little boutique right here on the pier."

I groaned as she pulled me faster towards the small shop.

We walked into the store and were hit with a rush of cool air. We were just starting to look around when someone popped up out of nowhere.

"Hi, welcome to seaside boutique, how may I help you?" a peppy store girl asked us with a cheesy grin.

I jerked back, surprised. "I think we have it all under control, thank you." Macey said with a smile.

"Alrighty, if you need me, I'll be up at the front desk, my name is Shelly." She said pointing to her name tag, before walking away.

"Well that was creepy." Bex muttered.

"My sentiments exactly." I watched her walk away, then burst out into quiet laughter.

"What is so funny?" Macey asked.

"Oh come on, I'm the only one who noticed? She works at the seaside boutique and her name is Shelly?" I asked quietly, holding back giggles.

Bex thought about it for a minute then joined me in laughing at the irony. Macey rolled her eyes but smiled.

"Come on you two." She said. "I'm not walking around in pyjamas all day."

As we wandered around the store, trailing behind Macey, Bex and I chatted.

"What do you think of these sunglasses?" Bex asked holding up a pair of giraffe print sunglasses. I laughed a little.

"Oh they're wonderful," I said sarcastically "But I think I like these ones better." I said holding up a pair that had a sun coming off the side of it.

Macey whirled around, and looked horrified at me as if I was insane. Bex and I burst out laughing at her expression.

"We were kidding Mace!" Bex said. Macey scowled at us then thrust a dress into Bex's hands.

"This is a sundress." Bex said to Macey.

"I know, put it on." Macey said.

"Macey, I don't wear sundresses." Bex said as she tried to hand it back to her.

"Today you do, come on Bex, we're trying to blend in." Macey argued. Bex groaned and stalked off to the dressing rooms.

Macey took off towards another rack of summer dresses and handed me one as well only seconds after reaching the rack.

"Don't bother arguing, go put it on." She said without so much as a glance in my direction.

I reluctantly went in the same direction of Bex. I found an empty room and locked the door then groaned.

"Cammie?" Came from the room next to mine.

"Bex?" I asked.

"Yeah it's me, I don't want to wear this." She replied

"Let me see," I said "Come into my room" I opened the door and Bex ran over. She slammed the door behind her and locked it quickly.

She stood before me in a white sundress covered with pink flowers, the dress only reached her knees but it got longer in the back.

"Cam, it's floral print." she said using the same tone she would to discuss terrorists.

"It looks good on you!" I argued.

Suddenly her whole demeanor changed. She straightened up and examined herself in the mirror.

"You think so?" She asked.

"Yeah, I do, it's a lot better than mine." I replied honestly.

She picked up my dress, a strapless pink dress.

"Cam, this would look amazing on you!" She protested. "Put it on, right now!" She exclaimed shoving the dress into my hands and turning towards the wall.

I reluctantly changed into the dress then stared at myself in the mirror. I made a noise of disgust and Bex whirled around to see.

"Cammie, you look gorgeous in that, don't even bother trying to deny it!" Bex exclaimed.

"Oh good, you two are dressed, let me see." Macey's voice came from the hall in front of the changing room.

We opened the door and walked out for inspection. Macey eyed the dresses quickly before handing Bex a skinny brown belt to put around her waist and me a ring and an anklet.

We quickly added these to our ensembles.

Macey nodded her approval. "Gather your things and wait for me to change, I already paid."

"Wait, Mace" Bex said. "What about shoes?"

"We're going without them, we're going to be on the beach, we'll be fine."

Bex shrugged. "Okay, come on Cam." Bex nudged me toward the dressing room again.

I went into the room I changed in and grabbed my pyjamas off the floor and bundled them up. I met Bex back in the hall. We stood there for maybe 5 seconds when Macey burst out of her changing room, pyjamas in her hand.

"Alright, now hair." Macey instructed. Bex and I stared at her in disbelief. She look absolutely perfect in a gorgeous white sundress and anchor bracelet, but it couldn't have been more than 45 seconds.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"Years of practice, take your hair out of the braid." She ordered as she crossed to Bex and started running her fingers through it.

She expertly made Bex's hair look flawlessly messy in the amount of time it took me to take out my braid. As soon as my hair was down she left Bex's side and immediately started working on my hair. Seconds later, my hair was framing my face and the crazy waves were soothed and managed.

"Alright, lets go find something to eat." Macey said leading us confidently out of the little shop. Dumbfounded, we followed her.

"I need an ATM" Macey said.

I pointed off to the side where I knew an ATM lay. "Awesome, thanks Cam." Macey said as she walked toward it. Bex and I glanced at each other before following her.

Macey got 50 dollars out of the ATM, then turned to me and Bex. "Where do we want to eat?" She asked us.

"Pretzels sound great." Bex suggested

"Great!" Macey replied.

I smiled at her. "What would we do without you Mace?" I asked her.

She grinned back at me. "Well, you certainly wouldn't noticed these amazingly hot guys surrounding us." She said. "Check out the one in the blue shorts." She said gesturing discreetly with her eyes.

Bex and I followed her gaze and I nodded appreciatively. Bex waggled her eyebrows suggestively and Macey and I laughed.

Bex cut off her laugh suddenly. "Uh-oh." She said glancing over my shoulder.

"What?" I asked seriously.

"False alarm, just kidding." Bex said with a smile.

I let out a sigh of relief. "You scared the crap out of me." I said hitting her playfully on the shoulder.

She smiled back at me "I do enjoy scaring you, now come on, I'm hungry." She said pulling us in the direction of the pretzel cart.

Macey and I giggled and followed our eager friend. Macey paid for three pretzels then put the rest of the money in her pocket and zipped it up.

We walked around aimlessly eating our pretzels and making small talk. We ended up about half way to the water before we stopped and sat down in the sand. We finished the pretzels and I brought up the question that was on everyone's minds.

"When do you think we can go back?" I asked them.

"Another hour at least." Macey said.

"How long has it been do you think?" Bex asked.

I looked up at the sun's position. "I would guess almost an hour." I said.

"Only an hour? Ugh!" Bex exclaimed and layed down on the sand frustrated.

"Don't do that, you'll get sand in your hair." Macey commented while taking the last bite of her pretzel.

Bex sat up quickly looking very rigid.

"Wow, I wasn't expecting you to listen to her." I said as I looked out at the waves.

"Boy alert." She said softly.

"What?" I asked her.

"Boys, three, hot, coming this way." She said fluffing her hair.

"What about Grant?" I asked her.

"It's just a little flirting, I don't think he'll mind" She said with a small smile. "Besides, there's no way I'd do anything to endanger my relationship him, it's just a bit of fun."

"Well, not for me it isn't." Macey said as she straightened. "There's no way I'm going to sit around and wait for Preston Winters of all people." She smiled a little before turning on me.

"Cammie, so help me, if you don't flirt back with these guys and ruin it for me, I will kill you." Macey threatened.

"But Zach-" I tried to protest.

"I'm not kidding Cam, dead. I"ll personally explain to Zach that I forced you too, but for the moment I want no mention of your boyfriend, am I clear?" She hissed quietly at me.

I nodded quickly and I tried to force down the guilt. 'It's just a cover' I told myself. 'I'm doing it for Macey.'

"May we take a seat?" a masculine voice said from behind us.

Almost simultaneously we glanced over our right shoulders and smiled. "Please, do." Macey answered for us. Bex and Macey moved apart creating a space between them as each of the boys took a seat by us.

A tall blonde took a seat next to Bex, a shorter black haired guy sat in between Bex and Macey, while the third and final boy sat down next to me. He had dark brown hair, slightly shaggy and a total 'don't talk to me' kind of vibe.

"I'm Xavier," said the boy next to Bex "that's Sam," pointing to the boy in between Macey and Bex, he raised his hand slightly to indicate that he was indeed, Sam. "And that's Sawyer." He said pointing to the guy next to me. "He doesn't talk much." Well, that was fine with me.

"Hi, I'm Macey," Macey began "That's Bex, and over there is Cammie, she's pretty quiet too." Macey introduced us with a smile.

"Well, that works out nice and convenient doesn't it?" Xavier said with a smile as he leaned closer to Bex.

"Yes, it does." Bex said as she reveled in the attention.

'It's a little strange,' I thought to myself 'how many guys we had seen so far this summer, do all the girls just vacation someone else? I wonder what the guys are doing. Is liz okay? Did I just see a shark?' ' As I zoned out of the world around me, and stared out into the world around me, I jumped at the sound of a voice coming from my right.

"So, your name is Cammie?" Sawyer said.

"Yeah. Well, Cameron actually." I said with a smile.

He smiled back at me. "Parents wanted a boy?" He asked.

"I guess." I laughed a little at the question.

"So what are you guys doing here, local? Tourists?" He asked.

"Tourists, what about you?" I replied.

He grinned widely. "Local, so much better than being a tourist."

I laughed "I can imagine."

"What are your plans for the summer?" He looked genuinely curious, but I was immediately set on guard.

"Hanging around, unwinding after school." I said with a shrug. "Nothing too exciting."

"Sounds nice." He said

"What are you doing this summer?" I asked him

"Enjoying the sun while I can. Avoiding the idea of summer ending. Trying to get these two idiots to do something exciting with me." He said nodding his head to his two friends.

I laughed a little. "Sounds like you've got a full summer ahead of you."

"Yeah, I guess I do. How long are you guys here?"

"Until the end of the month." I said. He nodded like he was expecting this answer.

"There's this insane party tonight, gonna be a bonfire, night surfing, we might even have fireworks." He explained. "You three should come, it'll be tons of fun."

"That does sound like fun," I said with a smile. "What time?" I asked.

"Tonight, anytime after dark until sunrise." He said wickedly.

I couldn't keep the grin from my face. "Sounds like our kind of party. We have one more friend who isn't here with us right now, back at the house, can she come too?" I asked thinking of Liz.

"Sure, the more the merrier." He said excitedly.

"Awesome" I grinned at him.

"Uh, guys, maybe we should go." Bex said trying to sound casual, her tone put me on high alert. I glanced around covertly.

As I surveyed the beach around us, I spotted Zach and Grant coming towards us. "Good idea," I quickly agreed with Bex "I'm starved, it's time for food." I said as I stood up, keeping my back to the boys and my head semi down.

Macey suddenly noticed the guys and stood up quickly as Bex jumped to her feet. "Well, this has been a blast, but we probably should jet." She said trying to keep her voice calm.

"We'll see you guys tonight." I offered as we started down the beach.

"Yeah, see you." Sam said confused. Bex blew him a kiss and Macey winked trying to calm them as we walked away.

As soon as we were out of earshot, we got to work. "Split up." I said "They'll be expect us to be together."

I slowly walked away from Macey and Bex did the same so we were all going a different way. I had no doubt that they had seen us, but they wouldn't be able to catch all of us, hopefully one of us would get away.

I faded into the background of the beach flawlessly. I saw Zach tailing me for a while but I managed to avoid him, I passed Macey once or twice and I saw Bex as she was caught by Grant. I must have wandered around for an hour before Zach finally caught me. I was standing by one of the food carts when I felt his arms wrap around my waist. I jumped a little at the sudden contact.

"Got you Gallagher Girl." He whispered in my ear. "You are an extremely hard girl to catch."

I sighed as I relaxed into his grasp. I took in his familiar scent. "I don't try to be." I said innocently.

He snorted. "I'm sure." He said as he turned me around and kissed me. "That was a dirty trick you played on us Gallagher Girl." He said as he tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear.

"I'm sorry." I whispered like a small child, hoping to extract some mercy.

"Are you?" He asked "Prove it." He smirked a little, he knew exactly what he was doing."

I smiled up at him as I stood on my tip-toes, pressed my lips to his and wrapped my fingers in his hair. He recoiled a little, obviously not expecting my excitement.

After I felt like I made my point clear, I pulled away. He had a wild look in his eyes but he quickly recovered.

"Well, if you're that sorry I guess I can forgive you." He said with a small smirk.

I laughed a little and rolled my eyes. "Let's go." I said as he led me towards the parking lot. I guess they were smart enough to take the van instead of running.

We climbed into the backseat of the van to see a sulking Macey in the back and a grinning Bex in the front.

"So, how was your day at the beach?" Grant asked with a grin as I climbed in behind Zach.

"Great, how was your shower?" I asked the still-purple Grant cheekily.

He gave me a small sarcastic laugh and threw his shoe at me before turning the car on. I laughed at his reaction as we pulled out of the parking lot.

"I'm keeping this" I said and held up the sandal so Grant could see it.

Grant floundered for a retort. "Well, I hope it fits." He said finally. Bex and I laughed and even Macey and Zach smiled.

"So, how's Liz?" I asked the boys.

"I assume she's doing great," Zach explained. "We left her at home to be guarded by Jonas." I caught his hidden undertone and smiled.

"Where's Preston?" Bex asked.

"Back at home, he was too embarrassed to come after you girls with us." Grant said with a subtle glance at Macey.

"And mom and Solomon?" I asked finally.

"Hopefully they aren't laughing." They still hadn't stopped when we left." Zach said as he rubbed his hair, I could tell he was a little embarrassed.

I laughed and leaned over to kiss his cheek. At the last second he turned his head so my kiss landed on his lips. I rolled my eyes but pulled him a little closer.

"Oye, I will make you regret even seeing each other if you don't watch your hands, Goode." Grant threatened. We just laughed and settled into the seat, trying to ignore Bex's knowing glance.